and creeping things. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." (Rom. i. 22, 25.)

Shocking and monstrous as were the common practices of the heathen, here described, they were universally inculcated by their greatest teachers. And human wisdom, by the light of nature, however improved by learning and study, never was able to show in what consisted the chief good of man. That light was too feeble to enable the wisest philosopher to determine what was the sacred rule of human duty, or the motives by which the practice of moral virtues might be enforced; it could not show the origin of human depravity, nor the means or possibility, of the pardon of sin, nor the way of eradicating the evil propensities of our nature, nor yet of subduing their power; neither could it assure the most anxious mind of man of the certainty, or even the probability, of a future life. Doubt, depravity, crime and misery, necessarily arose from such a state of ignorance, in mortal beings; their terrified imaginations prompted them to seek relief, by cruel rites and solemn deprecations directed to imaginary divinities; and their superstitions, generated by their fears, led them to contrive-or to receive what designing rulers had contrived-representations of supposed deities existing only in their bewildered fancies, and thus to practice every form of the most abominable and debasing idolatry!

To remove these enormous evils, delivering us from ignorance so deplorable, we see the necessity

for a Divine Revelation. And from the various expressions of the Creator's kindness, in the innumerable blessings of his bountiful providence, such a favour might seem highly probable. This most

needed and precious benefit, as a gift to miserable man, appears altogether worthy of the infinite benevolence and grace of Almighty God.

CHAPTER II.

THE ORIGIN OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

Divine Revelation made to Man at his Creation-Given to Fallen Man promising a Redeemer-Given to the Patriarchs-Moses establishes a New Dispensation, writing the Will of GodOrigin of Alphabetical Writing-Opinions regarding the Origin of Letters-Judgment of Dr. Winder and Dr. Wall.

DIVINE revelation originated in the sovereign goodness of God, and it commenced with the creation of man. In the history of this creation, we find the fact plainly declared by Moses, in the book of Genesis. He informs us, that God, having "formed man of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life: and man became a living soul." (Gen. ii. 7.) Adam and Eve were thus made rational and intelligent beings; and God inspired their capacious, holy minds with all the knowledge that was suited to their condition; and especially to understand their own nature, and the character of their glorious and bountiful Creator.

Every believer in the omnipotence of God admits the possibility of such revelation to our first parents. The infinite Spirit, by whom the human mind was created, and by whose increasing agency it is preserved in existence and in action, must be intimately present with it; and, possessing a complete know

ledge of all its faculties, powers and affections, at the same time exercising a perfect control over all its operations, for the purpose of securing the great ends of his moral government, could not fail to be able to communicate to it all necessary ideas, and to impress upon it the knowledge of the divine will.

Such impressions and communications are needful for the benefit of the creature; and to deny this would be consistent only with the grossest absurdities of materialism, excluding from the universe the notion of an intelligent Almighty Creator.

Divine revelation must have been thus given. to all intelligent creatures, from the essential relations subsisting between the infinite Spirit and the spirits of angels and men. God must have revealed to them a knowledge of his mind and will, as they were creatures, rational and dependent; and, therefore, accountable to their blessed Author. He must, at the creation, have instructed Adam and Eve in the necessary knowledge of himself, their Creator, giving them a law, on their obedience to which, the continuance of his favour and of the life which they then enjoyed, was made to depend. So it is declared by Moses. "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Gen. ii. 15, 17.)

There can be no doubt but this revealed law was explained more fully, and accompanied with other communications, besides what are recorded by the sacred historian; and while our first parents were receiving these instructions, in dutiful obedience, they experienced the delightful friendship of their Almighty Benefactor.

Divine revelation, thus necessary and graciously given to man in his innocence, became equally needful, or even more so, after the fall by disobedience. Transgression made man an enemy of God; it brought darkness over the understanding, guilt upon the conscience, and sorrow into the soul. Then the recollection of the law of God, requiring perfect and continual obedience, could lead the mind only to despair. A further revelation from God, was required, possessing a new character, suited to the condition of a guilty creature, giving certain information, not only concerning the rule and extent of human duty, but also the assurance of the divine mercy. It was necessary for it to declare that sin could be pardoned; and to state the terms on which the criminal could be forgiven, and how a sinful, depraved creature could be re-established in the favour, and made to possess the image of God.

This needed revelation was graciously afforded to our trembling first parents. For God, in his rich mercy, while pronouncing the curse which they had brought upon themselves, with their misery and mortality, the fruit of their sin, gave them the consoling intimation of his compassion and favour, in the seasonable promise of a mighty Redeemer, in