B T B 



B I B 



■ dav 



,l,„fe tl,nt h.vc been loll in the preceding time. ; and a. tKi. Icd^e. holu.ef., confolalion and hope, and their confeq.Knt 

 .pro cmc -t of the hillorieal evidences is lik.ly to conlinne, ut, hty and T.portance n. a moral and pracl.cal v,ew, fu.lr 

 linpio\LiiiciiL ui V _ ^ ^ , __ and dn-ecUy dtmonflratc theivdivnie ongiral. 1 lie wonder- 



fid natnre, and fuperior excellence, of the attempt made by 

 Chrill and his apoftles, for reforming mankind, and makii>g 

 tlit-ni happy in a future Hate, are evidences of their divine 

 authority ; which is farther illnilrated and conlirmed by the 

 manner in wliich tiie love of God and of our neighbour is 

 tausilit andinculcatt-d in the Scriptures. This may alio be 

 inferred from the doclrine of the neceffary fubiervicucy of 

 pain to pleal'.ire, and from the mutual inllrunitntality of be- 

 ing's to the happiuefs and milery of each other, uniolded in 

 tlie Scriptures. The divine autiiority of the Scriptures may 

 be farther deduced fi .im the fuperior wifdom of the Jewllli 

 nnnvof'thefe'tminentpcrfons,'aud the heinous occalional law;, confidered in a political light, and from the exqmiitc 

 offences chargeable upon fome of them, yet tiic impartial workmanfliip manifefted in the tabernacle and the temple, 

 reader ihould coididtr, wliether the prophets, apoftles, &c. The ti.ne and manner m which the bcnptnrcs were written 

 were not fo much fuperior, not only to mankind at an avL-ra.^e, and dchvered to the world, lurmni arguments for their 

 ■cii to the heft men amono- the Greeks and Humans, as divine authority ; nor is the want of umverfahty in the piib- 



t ere is Ln'^^t- '■<^'''"" '" '"'?'■'' '^'"^ ^'^-^ ^''''' ""'"'''' "^^ "^'^^ ' 

 more anrl more irrefiftible to all c.uulid, ferious inquirers. 



Tlie moral cliara'^ers of Clirift, the prophets, and the 

 apoftles, prove the truth and divine authority of the Scrip- 

 tures. The charaftcrs of the perfons who are faid in the 

 Scriptures to have had divine communications, and a divine 

 InilTion, are fo much fuptri;>r to the charaf:\ers that occur in 

 tomnion life, that we can fcarcely account for the more emi- 

 nent fin-rle ones, and much lefs fo for fo large a fuccLilion of 

 ihcTn, continued throuj,rh fo many a;res, without allowing the 

 divine communications and affiilance, wrtich they allege. 

 N Jtwithibodnig confuUrable imperfec\ions that pertained to 



impious trauil ana imp^ 

 if they had not divine authority. Befides, it fhould be r 

 coUeCled, that the undifguifed and impartial manner in which 

 tlic imperfections and faults of the eminent perfons inentioned 

 in Scripture arc iclatcd, furnidies a remarkable additional evi- 

 dence for the truth of fuch parts of the Scripture hillory in 

 uhich fuch relations occur, befides fuch evidences as extend 



to the whole. 



The excellence of the dodlrlne contained in the Scriptures 



from the reception which Chrift, his forerunners and fol- 

 lowers, with their dcdlrines, have met within all ages. 

 See thcfe argnnieiits dated, ilkil'rated, and applied at large 

 in Hartley's Obfcrvations on man, p. 350 — 421. See alio 

 on the fubjecl: of this article, Prideanx's Conn. vol. ii. 475 — 

 497, 8vo. Dupin's Hift. of the Canon, ch. i. and ii. Ktn- 

 nicott's State of the printed Hebrew text of the Old Telia, 

 ment, difl". ii. p. ^95, &c. and DilTertatio Gcneralis, annexed 



additional evidence of their authority. This ariiumtnt to the fecond volume of his Hebrew Bible. Taylor's Scheme 



has great force independently of all other conlideratious. 

 Suppofc, for inftance, that the author of the gufpel, which 

 goes under the name of St. Matthew, was not known, and 

 that it was unfuppm ted by the writers of the primitive times ; 

 ytt fuch are the unaffeAed limplieity of the narrations, the 



of Scripture Divinity, ch. 39, ch. 40. 



The Jews, at lirll^, were very refervtd in communicating 

 their Scriptures to llrangers ; defpifing and fhnnniiig the Gen- 

 tiles, they would not difclole to them any of the treafurrs 

 concealed in the Bible. We may add, that the people bor- 



purity of the dodrine, and the linccre piety and goodnefs of dering on the Jews, as the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Arabs, 



the fentiments, that it carries its own authority with it. &c. were not very curious to know the laws or hiilory of 



The fame obfervation is applicable in general to all the books a people, whom in their turn they hated and defpifcd. 



of the Old and New Tellaments : fo that if there was no Their lirft acquaintance with thcfe books was not till after 



other book in the world befides the Bible, a man could not the feveral captivities of the Jews, when the lingularity of 



reafonablv doubt of the truth of revealed religion. If all the Hebrew laws and ceremonies induced fcveral to defire 3, 



other arguments were fct afide, we may conclude from this more particular knowledge of them. Jofephns (Contr. 



finT-le confideration, that the authors of the books of the Apion. p. 1033.) feems furprifedto find fuch flight footfteps 



Old and New Teftament, whoever they were, cannot have of the Scripture hiftoi7 interfperfed in the Egyptian, Chal- 



madeafalfe claim to divine authority. The Scriptures con- daean, Pha:nician, and Grecian hillories ; and accounts for it 



tain doftrines concerning God, Providence, a future ftate, the from this circumftance, that the facred books were not as ytt 



duty of man, &c. far more pure and fublimc than can in any tranflated into Greek, or other languages, and confcquently 



wav be accounted for from the natural powers of men, fo not known to the writers of thofe nations. The firft verfion 



circumilariccd as the facred writers were. Let the reader of the Bible was that of the LXX into Greek, in the time of 



confider whether it can be reafonably fuppofed, that Jewifh Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 280 years before Chrill ; 



(hepherds, filhermen, &c. (hould, both before and after the though fome maintain that the whole was not then tranf- 



rife of the heatlicn philofophy, fo far exceed men of the lated, but only the Pentateucli ; between which and the 



greattll abilities an(l accomplilhments in other nations, by other books in the vcrlion of the LXX, critics find a great 



any other means than divine communications. Indeed, no diverlity in point of ftyle and cxprefTion, as well aii of accu- 



writers, from the invention of letters to the prefent times, racy. See Sfptuagint. 



are equal to the penmen of the books of the Old and New Various kinds of books have been compofed on the Bible, 



Teftaments in true excellence, utility, and dignity ; and this either to explain the fenfe, or make its dodrine niurc obvious, 



is furely fuch an internal criterion of their divine authority, to facilitate the remembrance of it, or to eltablilh particular 



as ought not to be refilled. opinions from it ; fuch as Introductions, Apparatufes, Sum- 



The many and great advantages which have accrued to inaries. Manuals, Hiitories, Expolitions, Commentaries, 



the world from the Patriarchal, Judaical, and Chriftian re- Harmonies, &c. 



velations, prove the divine authority of the Scriptures. Tiicfe Bibles ar; dillinguiftied, according to their language, into 



advantages relate partly to the knowledge, and partly to the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Chaldee, Syiiac, Arabic, Coptic, 



pradlice of religion. The internal worth and excellence of &c : fome account of each, and their fcveral editions, &c. wc 



.the Scriptures, as containing the beft principles of know- fhall here fubjoin. 



Bibles^ 



