THE

CHRISTIAN'S DEFENCE.

CHAPTER I.

CREDIBILITY AND ANTIQUITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES.

To the Jews, the nations of the earth are indebted for a number of tracts, which, collectively, they call the Bible; that is, by way of eminence, THE BOOK. This book claims to be a Divine Revelation: that is, a discovery, by God, to man, of himself, or his will, over and above what he has made known by the light of nature, or reason.

Who are the Jews, who claim to be the repositories of that book, which, if its claims be well founded, is, to mankind, above all price? In answering such an enquiry concerning any nation, or people, the practice is, to trace their pedigree; when this is done, the question, who are these people? is supposed to be answered. Tacitus did this concerning the ancient Germans, and Gibbon did the same concerning the Suevi, and other barbarous tribes, who contributed to the downfall of imperial Rome.

Taylor, one of the most celebrated Infidels of the present day, maintains that there never was a Jewish nation; but, that the Jews are merely an order of Free Masons. In one of his impious works he holds the following language :-"The Hebrews, the Jewish nation, you have been taught to believe the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,-a national and political people, such as the French, Dutch, Poles, Russians-a people that had once a political constitution. It will do for a lecture on the evidences of the Christian religion; but it would not do to abide the question, where? what monument of past existence? in what document, line, word, or vestige of history, by which alone we can know any thing of what has been going on in the world before we came into it, have, we a vestige of the existence of a Hebrew nation? That question can

be answered only in the most decisive, the most unequivocal negation that ever truth threw up, in solution of any enquiry whatever." Again, "it is a matter worthy of your attention, to carry home the correction of the general error, which supposes that there ever was a Hebrew nation, or a temporal kingdom of Jews, Israelites, or Christians. These being, not political, or national, but entirely mystical and masonic terms.' 91*

To attempt a labored argument to prove the absurdity of the Infidel assertion quoted above is unnecessary. Suffice it, therefore, to say, that if any reliance can be placed in the past history of the na tions of the earth, nothing is more easy than to trace the Jews back to a province of the Roman empire, which provoked the hostility of the emperors Vespasian and Titus, and the capital city of which was destroyed with a terrible slaughter of the inhabitants. The survivors were scattered abroad, among the various nations of the earth; and the Jews, who are to be found in all countries, making any pretensions to civilization, are the descendants of these refugees. For a series of years previous to their dispersion from Judea, these people were tributary to the Romans. The history of the Macedonian conqueror enables us to trace the origin of the Jews still farther back; and we find that in the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, they were brought from Babylon unto Judea, where they settled and built the city of Jerusalem. Thus far there is no room for denial, or doubt, by any enquirer, who possesses even a superficial knowledge of the history of the world; but beyond this the scriptural account is denied by most Infidels. This subject will be noticed in its proper place.

The Jews of the present day possess and revere a remarkable collection of tracts, which they say were given to their forefathers by the immediate inspiration of Almighty God. These books relate to a variety of stupendous miracles, and the Jews, as a nation, believe at this moment, that a generation of their ancestors beheld the performance of the miracles, and therefore handed down these books, as genuine and authentic. That this is the present opinion of the nation may be learned from any intelligent Jew, wherever you may find him, under the whole heaven. We know, say they, that God spake to Moses and the prophets. The important question is, is this statement true? The Jew and the Christian maintain the affirmative, while the Infidel holds that the statement is false. How is the truth to be

reached? By sitting in examination upon the credibility of the writers of the tracts in question? or, by sitting in examination upon the substance of the professed divine communications contained in them?

The last method forms a great part of that argument for the truth of divine revelation which comes under the head of its internal evidences; and the point of enquiry is, whether the communications be consistent with the character of God, and his attributes. Here an insuperable difficulty presents itself, for of the invisible God we have no experience whatever, never having had any direct and personal observation of him, or of his counsels. He stands at such a distance from us, and we are so ignorant of his character, that it is impossible for us to decide concerning the kind of communication that should proceed from him.* This objection does not apply to the first topic of examination; for the writers of the tracts in question, whoever they were, were beings like ourselves, and we can apply our safe and certain experience of man to their conduct and testimony, and we know enough of man to pronounce upon the credibility of their statements. Had they the manner and physiog nomy of honest men? Did they exhibit any special marks of their office as teachers from God? Were these marks such as none but God could give; and none but his approved servants could obtain? And were these marks of such a character as to leave no suspicion of deceit behind them? We feel our competency to take up and decide upon such questions; and upon their solution, the question of the truth of Revelation is rested.

Men are in danger of making this a question of sentiment, instead of a question of pure truth. One class of men, anxious to give every support and stability to a system which they conceive to be most intimately connected with the dearest hopes and wishes of humanity, may feel disposed to overrate its evidences. Another class of men view the claims of Revelation as superstitious folly, and they feel that they are descending, when they bring their attention to a subject which engrosses so much respect and admiration from the vulgar; thereby they are disqualified, properly, to investigate its evidences. There

Let it not be supposed from the above remarks, that the author would disparage the internal evidences of the truth of Revelation. They form a most important branch of the argument, but which can be properly appreciated, only by the regenerated Christian, who, by the teachings of the Spirit, has been brought to a knowledge of God, and his attributes, and without which teachings man can have no better knowledge of the moral character of the invisible God, than the man who is born blind can have of the colors of the rainbow.

fore, to reach the truth in this investigation, if possible, all reference to religion must be laid aside; and the question must be viewed purely as one of erudition. The exercises of the understanding must be separated from the tendencies of the fancy, or of the heart; the light of evidence must be followed, though it lead to conclusions the most painful and melancholy; the mind must be trained to the hardihood of abstract and unfeeling intelligence. Every thing must be given up to the supremacy of argument, and the tenderest prepossessions must be renounced, the moment that truth demands the sacrifice. If the investigation be entered upon with a prejudice against Revelation, the effect must be, that that prejudice must dispose to annex suspicion to the testimony of the writers of the tracts in question. When the investigation is entered upon with prejudice on the side of Revelation, the effect must be unfavorable upon that mind which is all scrupulous about the rectitude of its opinions. The very anxiety felt for the truth disposes to an overrating of the circumstances which gives a bias to the understanding; and through the whole process of the enquiry a suspicion, and embarrassment are felt, which would not have been felt had it been a question of ordinary erudition. Therefore, to form a just and impartial estimate of the books in question, every bias of the understanding should be carefully guarded against. A disposition to overrate, or to underrate the argument, is an unfair tendency of the mind, and the conse quence of all such tendencies is to prevent those under their influ ence from viewing the truth in a true light. All that is desired is, that the arguments which are held decisive in other historical questions, should not be held as nugatory, when applied to the investigation of those facts which are connected with the truth of Revelation; that every prepossession for, or against, should be swept away, that so, the understanding may expatiate without fear, and without incumbrance.*

These remarks open the way for the examination of the credibility of the tracts which constitute the Old Testament. When the first of the tracts in question is opened, the first sentence in it, contains a statement of the most important character, viz: that there exists a most powerful and wise BEING, by whom the heavens and the earth were created. The Infidel upon this passage founds an objection against the credibility of the writers of the books of the Old Testament, on the ground that they represent that Being as

an infinite self-existent Spirit. And man, being merely material, can form no conception of a spirit, which in reality can have no existence; for "that which is immaterial is NOTHING." Mr. Olmsted says, "The ministers of the Gospel can give no better definition of the term spirit, than the wildest savage of our forests." Again, he says, "Our great anxiety should be to ascertain what duties man owes to himself; that is, what mode of life he should pursue, and what regimen practice for the preservation of his bodily and cerebral organs in their full vigor." Again, he says, "I do not like the half Christian phrenologists, who whip the devil round the stump, by making the brain a piano, and the mind a little sprite of a hoppingjay, hopping from key to key!" It is evident that the author of these quotations views man as a mere animal, that he is merely organized matter; and although Infidels seldom publicly avow such a sentiment, nevertheless, their system is founded in atheism, and implies the non-existence of SPIRIT.

The author quoted from, above, says: "That a great majority of Christians are under the impression, that to admit the existence of a God, is to admit the truth of their allegations respecting him, found in the volume called the Bible." To this it is replied, that it may be proved, or allowed, that there is a God: and yet it may be denied that he ever sent any message to man, through men, or other intermediate agencies. But if man be merely a piece of organized matter, and if it be impossible for him to conceive of the existence of SPIRIT, it follows, that by no means can he attain to the knowledge of God, who is an infinite Spirit; therefore, that book which treats of such a Being, and his ways, cannot be true. If man be a mere animal, destitute of an intelligent spirit, he cannot be the subject of a revelation from the infinite Spirit, even if such spirit exist, which the atheistical writer above quoted evidently denies; therefore, the Bible must be a fiction, and destitute of any solid basis on which to rest its claims. Therefore, it is important at this stage of the discussion, to settle these questions. 1st. What is man? 2nd. Does there exist an infinite and self-existent Spirit, called, by us, God?

Mr. Olmsted says, "Most, if not all, the advocates of christianity, in their attempts to establish its truth, commence by proving there is a God-then they infer his attributes, and then they assert, and endeavor to show, from what they are pleased to call a chain of logical reasoning, founded on these attributes of a God who, they also tell you, is inscrutable, and whose ways are past finding out, that he ought to have communicated his will to mankind in words." "Hav