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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

"the seed of the woman" that "should bruise the serpent's head." (Gen. iii. 17-19.) This promise was, at the same time, illustrated by the institution of animal sacrifices, the design of which was to teach mankind their liability to suffer the divine wrath, because of sin,-that the penalty must be inflicted if not on themselves, yet on a substitute; and that God had graciously provided such a surety in the person of the Messiah,-"the seed of the woman," who should in due time appear among men, to make reconciliation for iniquity by the sacrifice of himself, thus destroying the tempter, the devil. This merciful revelation, explained by the appointment of sacrifices, was the foundation of hope in God to sinners in the early ages of the world. The promise was repeated, and still further illustrated by successive revelations from heaven, and became the means of salvation to all who believed it as the precious word of God. Thus, as it is recorded in the Scripture, "by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain," when "the LORD had respect unto Abel, and to his offering." (Heb. xi. 4; Gen. iv. 4.)

Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job and others of the pious patriarchs, believed the promises of God, evincing their faith in the expected Redeemer, by their various sacrifices, and proving, by their holy lives, that they had been favoured with a divine revelation. "These primitive Christians" handed down the doctrines which they had received, delivering them from age to age, in tradition, which formed the subject of the faith of all the

pious servants of God, for a period of about two thousand five hundred years, until the deliverance of Israel from Egypt by Moses, who committed to writing the laws of God!

Every nation that has admitted the existence of God, has believed that he really did afford special revelations of his will to certain distinguished persons. Hence, the Pagan priests in all ages have pretended that they had received divine instruction, when they imposed their various rites upon the people; and hence, also, most the celebrated legislators of antiquity, besides Moses-who was in an extraordinary manner inspired of God,—have professed to hold intercourse with their gods, in establishing their laws and institutions. Such was the claim of Minos, of Lycurgus, of Solon, of Pythagoras, of Zoroaster and of others. Several of the wisest of the Pagan philosophers, also, expressed their hope that the Deity would grant such a favour, as a divine revelation, to direct them in the ways of truth and religion.

Moses, the deliverer of Israel from Egypt, was constituted the founder of a new dispensation of the Divine mercy to man. That deliverance was made its commencement; and to preserve the memory of that miraculous interposition, God gave a wonderful proof of his merciful kindness to man, in an extended revelation of his holy will, not depending on oral tradition for its preservation, but made permanent by being committed to writing. This revelation comprehended a system of moral, political and ceremonial laws, for the observance of Israel as a nation,

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