VI. POSSIBLE MEANS of affording a Revelation. There appear to be only two ways of doing this, viz. 1. An immediate Revelation to each individual; or, 2. A Commission given by God to certain persons to make known his will, accompanied with indisputable credentials of their being delegated by him. The former method would be ineffectual: for either the freedom of the will must be destroyed, or else it would fill the world with continual impostures and pretences to revelation. The latter method, therefore, is the most eligible and satisfactory; and writing was the best means of transmitting such a revelation, on account of

1. The uncertainty and insecurity of oral tradition. 2. The greater security and permanence of writing. 3. The fairness and openness, which is the result of writing.

4. The importance of the matter, the variety of the subjects, and the design of the institutions contained in the books, which Jews and Christians receive as containing a divine revelation.

CHAPTER II.

ON THE GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOKS OF THE

OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT.

SECTION I.-Genuineness and Authenticity of the Old Testament.

I. GENUINENESS and AUTHENTICITY defined.

A Genuine Book is one, that is written by the person whose name it bears. An Authentic Book is one, in which matters of fact are related, as they really happened.

There are two classes of proof; 1. Historical Testimony or External Evidence; and 2. Internal Evidence arising from an examination of the Books themselves.

II. HISTORICAL TESTIMONY, or External Evidence. 1. The persons, contemporary with any Hebrew writer whose books they transcribed, knew by whom they were written; and, having a certain knowledge of the author and of the age in which he lived, delivered them to their descendants, and these again to their posterity.

2. The small number of books, extant at the time when the books of the Old Testament were written, would render fraud impossible.

3. The Hebrews or Jews, by testifying that these books are genuine, become witnesses against themselves, and their testimony consequently is unexceptionable.

4. A particular tribe was consecrated for the express purpose of watching over the preservation of these books.

5. The testimony of the antient Jews, of which we have an unbroken chain; and the fact that the Greek version of the Old Testament, usually called the Septuagint, was executed at Alexandria two hundred and eighty-two years before the Christian æra.

III. INTERNAL EVIDENCE, arising from an examination of the Books themselves.

ARG. 1. The difference in language, style, and manner of writing, proves that the Books of the Old Testament must have been written at various times and by different persons. As Hebrew ceased to be spoken as a living language soon after the Babylonish captivity, all those books must be nearly as antient as that captivity and as they could not all be written in the same age, some must be considerably more antient.

ARG. 2. The multitude of minutely particular circumstances of time, place, persons, &c. mentioned in the books of the Old Testament is a further argument

both of their genuineness and authenticity; because no forger of false accounts superabounds in such peculiarities, or could furnish them; and because such forgeries or falsehoods could be easily detected and exposed.

IV. Proofs of the Genuineness and Authenticity of the PENTATEUCH in particular.

This is manifest,

1. From the Language in which it is written, the simplicity and archaisms of which prove it to be the earliest of all the Hebrew sacred books.

2. From the Nature of the Mosaic Law, as contained in the four last books of Moses.

These books contain a system of ceremonial and moral laws; which, unless we reject the authority of all history, were observed by the Israelites, from their departure out of Egypt until their dispersion at the taking of Jerusalem. Their civil and religious polity are so inseparably connected, and many of their institutions are so connected with historical facts, as to render forgery impossible.

3. From the United Historical Testimony of Jews and Gentiles.

[i] Jewish Testimony:-Jesus Christ, Ezra, Daniel, Solomon, David, Moses, and others; to which is to be added the fact, that the law of Moses was received by both Jews and Samaritans before they became divided into two kingdoms.

[ii.] Gentile Testimony: - Manetho, Eupolemus, Artapanus, Tacitus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Justin the abbreviator of Trogus, Juvenal, and many other writers, testify that Moses was the leader of the Jews, and the founder of their laws. The great critic Longinus, and Numenius, a Pythagorean philosopher of Apamea, in Syria, both speak highly of Moses: and Porphyry admitted the genuineness of the Pentateuch. The Egyptian, Greek, and Roman authors concur in relating the tradition respecting the creation, the fall of man, the deluge, and the dispersion of mankind,

4. From the contents of the Pentateuch.

The frequent genealogies prove that it was composed by a writer of very early date, and from original materials.

The geographical details of places bespeak a writer personally present at the transactions recorded.

The frequent repetitions, which occur in the Pentateuch, and the neglect of order in delivering the precepts, are strong proofs, that it has come down to us precisely as it was written by Moses; to which may be added coincidences, so minute, latent, indirect, and undesigned, that they could only have been produced by reality and truth influencing the mind and the pen of the legislator.

SECTION II.-Genuineness and Authenticity of the New
Testament.

I. General TITLE of the New Testament.

Every thing we know concerning the belief, worship, manners, and discipline of the first Christians, corresponds with the contents of the books of the New Testament now extant, and which therefore are most certainly the primitive instructions which they received. The collection of these books is known by the appellation of the New Testament or New Covenant, (because it contains the terms of the new covenant, upon which God is pleased to offer salvation through the mediation of Jesus Christ;) in opposition to the doctrines, precepts, and promises of the Mosaic dispensation, which Saint Paul terms the Old Covenant.

II. CANON of the New Testament.

The records, thus collectively termed the New Testament, consist of twenty-seven books, composed on various occasions, and at different times and places, by

eight different authors contemporary with Jesus Christ, whose history they either relate, together with the first propagation of his religion, or unfold the doctrines, principles, and precepts of Christianity.

III. The GENUINENESS and AUTHENTICITY of the New Testament are proved, not only from arguments which demonstrate that it is not spurious, but also from positive evidence arising from the impossibility of forgery, and from direct external or historical evidence.

Of all the grounds, that either have been or may be assigned for denying a work to be genuine, not one can justly be applied to the New Testament: for

1. No one doubted of its genuineness and authenticity when it first appeared.

2. No antient accounts are on record, whence we may conclude it to be spurious.

3. No considerable period of time elapsed after the death of the Apostles, in which the New Testament was unknown. On the contrary, it is mentioned not only by their contemporaries, but also by succeeding writers.

4. No arguments can be brought in its disfavour from the nature of its style, which is exactly such as might be expected from the writers of its several books.

5. No facts are recorded, which happened after the death of the apostles.

6. No doctrines or precepts are maintained, which contradict their known tenets..

IV. Positive Evidence:

1. The absolute impossibility of forgery arising from the nature of the thing itself; because it is impossible to establish forged writings as authentic where there are persons strongly inclined and qualified to detect fraud, as was the case both with Jews and Gentiles. 2. External or Historical Evidence.