The sceptic refuted, and the Bible vindicated

Front matter

J hy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path

THE

SCEPTIC REFUTED,

Preface

In this volume are contained the condensed arguments and illustrations, on the subjects treated, which the author, through many years of professional reading, has been treasuring up. They are put in this compact form for the benefit, principally, of the young.

At the present day, Infidelity is doing much to weaken confidence in the full inspiration of the Bible. By books and public lectures the young mind is continually assailed with a plausible scepticism ; and the object of this small volume is to furnish an antidote to this insinuated poison, and to afford a sort of armory from which the young may draw forth weapons to meet the artful and incessant attacks of the enemies of divine truth. May God bless it to this end !

J. B. W.

Chapter I. Scepticism In Relation To The Being Of God

Can there be an Atheist 1 — Indirect attacks against religion — Causes of infidelity in the heart — The sceptic introduced — His statements and the reply — Objections of the Atheist to the being of God : namely. Self-existence ; The all-sufficiency of Nature ; No proof that the world had a beginning — These objections answered — Argument of Locke — Argument of Berkley — Dr. Paley's argument, . 9

Chapter II. Scepticism In Regard To The Immortality Of The Soul

What is the soul 1 — Materialism — The doctrine of immortality possible and probable — General belief of it among all nations — Plato's writings — Testimony of Socrates — Bishop Butler's remarks — How far reason proves immortality — Proof from analogy — Comparison of man and the brute animals — Argument from the soul's tendencies and capacities — The soul's capacity for improvement — Susceptibility to enjoyment and suffering proof of immortality, 37

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VI

CONTENTS.

Chapter III. Inspiration Of The Scriptures

Further conversation with the Sceptic — Probability of a divine revelation — Morality of the Greek and Roman sages — Heathen notions of the Deity — Is God merciful 1 and how known 1 59

Chapter IV. External Evidences

What included in external evidences — Testimony of Philo and Josephus to the authenticity of the Old Testament — Authenticity of the New Testament — Ancient manuscripts

— Testimony of the fathers — Ireneus, Origen, Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage — Tertullian — Justin Martyr, Papias

— Apostolic fathers — Clement, Hernias, Polycarp — Testimony from enemies — Cerinthus, Celsus, Porphyry, Emperor Julian — Collateral testimony — Tacitus — Coincidences of profane authors with the New Testament writers

— Josephus' testimony as to our Lord — The acts of Pilate

— The Latin historians — Pliny's testimony — His letter to Trajan — Trajan's reply — Overwhelming evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament, 73

Chapter V. Miracles Proof Of Inspiration

Conversation with the Sceptic renewed — Miracles among the strongest proofs of inspiration — A miracle ; what is if?-

CONTENTS.

VII

Moral character of the witnesses and workers of miracles — Human testimony ; how much force should it have 1 — Hume's objections to miracles considered — Dr. Campbell's reply — Dr. Dwight on Hume's reasoning — Recapitulation — "Were miracles asserted and believed to have been wrought % — Quadratus vindicates the New Testament miracles — Admissions by the enemies of Christianity : Celsus, Porphyry, Herocles and Julian — Examples : the man born blind, and the cripple at the gate of the Temple — Proofs that the apostles were neither impostors nor imposed upon, . Ill

Chapter VI. Proof From The Fulfilment Of Prophecy

Prophecy defined — The highest evidence that can be given of supernatural visitation — False prophets — Delphic oracles — Aristotle's and Cicero's opinion of these oracles — ■ Prophecies in the Old Testament — Prophecy concerning the posterity of Abraham — Prophecy respecting Ishmael

— The Bedouins — Prophecy respecting the land of Canaan — Prophecies relating to Tyre, Nineveh and Babylon

— Prophecies concerning Christ — Daniel's and Isaiah's prophecy — Prophecy respecting the success of the gospel, 144

Chapter VII. Internal Evidences

Testimony of the Scriptures concerning God — Appropriate representations of his attributes — His providence and moral government — The doctrines — Man's fallen state — Man's original uprightness — Faith in the merits of an=

VIII

CONTENTS.

other — Victory over the world — A future retribution — j A resurrection of the body — The morality of the Scriptures proof of their divinity — Testimony of infidels to the morality of the Bible — Voltaire's testimony — Earl of Rochester's — .Rousseau's — Bolingbroke's — The morality of the Bible examined — The law of the ten commandments — Precepts of the law — Contrast of the morals of Christianity and heathenism — Testimony of a French traveller — Testimony of Governor Howal and Sir J. Shano

— Unity of the Scriptures — Supposed contradictions of Scripture — Moral tendency of the Bible — Its influence on states and governments ; on literature and the arts — Progress of the gospel, 168

Chapter VIII. The Canonical Scriptures

The Canon — Its meaning — The true books ascertained by internal marks — Clearly distinguishable from apocryphal

— Historical proof abundant so far back as the second century — Ancient manuscripts — Scripture versus science — A late form of scepticism — Objections considered — Unity of the race — God's omnipotence in connection with miracles a sufficient answer to scientific objections — Plenary inspiration — Conclusion, . 213

Chapter I. Scepticism In Relation To The Being Of God

Can there be an Atheist % — Indirect attacks against religion — Causes of infidelity in the heart — The sceptic introduced — His statements and the reply — -Objections of the Atheist to the being of God : namely, Self-existence ; The all*sufficiency of Nature ; No proof that the world had a beginning — These objections answered — Argument of Locke — Argument of Berkley — Dr. Paley's argument.

Do any deny the existence of God? Yes, my young reader, you will not have lived long before you will meet with this dark creed, — if creed it may be called, — either in books, or by an open and oral declaration.

An Atheist ! can there be an Atheist ? mcthinks I hear you say, as if such a moral monster existed only in the imagination.

I do not wonder that you are horrified at the idea; for a universe without God is but a gloomy prison, opening its doors at last to a still

THE SCEPTIC REFUTED.

gloomier destiny — annihilation. Yet there are some who profess this belief ; and there are sentiments constantly put forth, in books and pamphlets, which, if believed and imbibed, inevitably lead to it.

Now-a-days, religion is assailed by its enemies indirectly. Doubts are suggested in regard to its fundamental principles ; and scepticism does more, at the present time, to weaken our faith by its insinuations, than by its open declarations.

Be on your guard, then, when any novel sentiments are thrown out, which tend to impair your confidence in the great truths which lie at the foundation of morality, virtue and piety.

Remember that Infidelity and Atheism have a spontaneous growth in the wickedness of man. They come out of the heart. " The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Hence, though often met and refuted, they as often recur, and. varying the method of attack, they seek again and again to overthrow our faith.

Accordingly, it is necessary to array the arguments and to vary the arguments to suit the exigency of the times. The large and valuable treatises which have been w T ritten for this purpose have been generally above the

THE BEING OF GOD.

capacities of youth, or inacessible to the mass of readers. It is proposed, therefore, in this little volume, to talk to you in a very plain and simple style ; and to meet the cavils, and contradictions, and absurdities of Infidelity in a way that shall not only keep your own faith firm, but shall furnish you with good weapons to defend it against the attacks to which, at the present day, it is exposed.

Let us introduce the sceptic, and hear w T hat he has to say. Don't be frightened at the apparition. It is only an imaginary sceptic. I wish we had no other kind to be afraid of. Alas ! there are many living, breathing men, and I fear even some women, whose sentiments partake of the dark and dreadful features of Atheism.

Let us have the sceptic before us, then, and let us hear what he has to say, — not in dark corners, where nobody can see him; nor in whispers addressed to the ear and mind of youth who have not the means of refuting them ; but let us call him, — as they say of the witness on the stand, — hear his statements, and then reply to them.

Supposing him before us, we will put the inquiry to him : " Sir, on what grounds do you deny that there is a God ? But first, what led

THE SCEPTIC REFUTED.

you to embrace so dismal a theory? Let us have something of your history."

Sceptic. "I was educated, as other youth are, to believe in God and the Bible ; and did so until I arrived at manhood. Then I read certain publications which injected doubts, and r pursuing my investigations, the more I read the more I doubted, until I was led to reject first the Bible, and finally to disbelieve the existence of God."

Querist. "May we inquire if, in the mean time, you read any books on the side of Christianity, or was all your reading of an infidel tendency? "

Sceptic. "The latter, entirely. I never read a full and complete treatise in favor of the Christian religion."

Querist. "Was this giving Christianity a fair chance, — was it pursuing a course that an honest seeker after truth would adopt ? But another question. Did you wish to reach the . conclusion that religion had no foundation ? Did you hope to find the infidel side of the question true? For you know our wishes go to give apparent strength even to weak and inconclusive arguments. What was the state of your mind on this point?"

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Sceptic. u I confess I rather inclined to hope that religion, as I had been taught it, was untrue, because it gave such dreadful prominence to future retribution. I didn't like the idea of future punishment; it was a feature in the Christian religion that I could not agree to. At first, I tried to think it could not be proved from the Bible ; but, finding I failed in this, I had no resort but to reject the Bible, and become a Deist. After trying Deism a while, I began to dislike any thought that implied the being of a God, and my mind took a course of reasoning which led to a final denial of that generally admitted opinion. I now call myself a universal sceptic."

Querist. u Can you trace your opinions to any course of moral conduct — or rather I should say immoral conduct — which you were pursuing or wished to pursue 2 for sometimes this has an influence in shaping one's religious opinions. Were you gradually falling into loose and immoral habits when your doubts and reasonings led you into infidelity 1 "

Sceptic. u Why, yes. I was inclined to indulge in some things which people generally think wrong, and which, according to Bible 2

THE SCEPTIC REPUTED.

morality, would be wrong, but which I now conceive to be not only natural, but harmless/'

Querist. "Do you not think that this disposition to indulgence in what the Scriptures forbid, and for which they threaten future punishment, had considerable effect in biasing your mind in favor of Infidelity, inasmuch as Infidelity offers no such impediments to vice?"

Sceptic. " Possibly it might have had some little influence : but. after all. the arguments on the side of Infidelity are to my mind sufficient; apart from all such influence, and I am ready to maintain them against all opposition."

Well, having now got out of the sceptic some of his preliminary history. — which the reader will see to have had a natural bearing on his present state of mind, if it has not actually produced it. — we are prepared to attend, with some degree of candor, we hope, to what he may have to say in the way of statements and arguments which to him seem so strong in favor of Infidelity.

Querist. "Now, sir, what are the reasons which have blotted out of your soul a belief in the divine existence ? ' 7

Sceptic. " I cannot be expected to state the whole of them, but I will say that they are prin-

THE BEING OF GOD.

cipally as follows : First, the difficulty, nay, impossibility, as I think, of conceiving of such an idea as an eternal self-existent Creator ; secondly, the all-sufficiency of nature to produce all the results which we see produced in the world : thirdly, the state of things which we see going on now is that which we have reason to think has gone on forever ; and fourthly, the fact that man is but a higher grade of the brute animal, ending, like them, his whole existence at death. These are positions which I think no reasoning can overturn, and which satisfy my mind that the idea of God and responsibility are mere delusions, got up to subserve priestly authority, and to bring mankind under a system of spiritual slavery/*'

This is frank, and we will meet it in a spirit of candor, and give it all the weight it deserves ; and if, after putting it into the balances of reason, and subjecting it to that highest style of moral verdict, human consciousness, it appears to be but a building based upon the sand, we hope that the sceptic will not any longer inhabit an edifice destined to crush him by its fall, when the floods come and the winds blow and beat upon it.

Let us take up these statements or arguments

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one by one, and see what can be said upon each of them.

First, the difficulty of conceiving of such an idea as an eternal, self-existent Creator. This is urged against the. fact of his existence.

But certainly it must occur to the least reflective mind that, if there be a God who has made us and all things, he w T ould be too vast a being to be comprehended by his creatures. A God that we could comprehend would be no God. And hence the inquiry is put in the sublimest language: " Who, by searching, can find out God, — who can find out the Almighty unto perfection?" Are we to believe nothing that we cannot comprehend ? Let us then deny our own existence, which is about as great a mystery as any one visible thing. Let us deny the existence of mind, and the law of gravitation, and a thousand other influences of nature too deep for our comprehension.

The great point is not whether we can comprehend the idea of an infinite creator, but whether there are proofs sufficient to establish beyond all question his existence. This is the great point, and the matter of comprehension is one which may afterwards be considered and decided.

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The second argument or consideration stated is the all-sufficiency of nature to produce all the results which we see produced in the world.

Nature is here put in place of an intelligent mind and sovereign will, Nature is the Atheist's god. It is a brute, unconscious force, by which all things are said to be effected, and all uniform results brought about. But then this difficulty meets us : Here is something doing the very work which we ascribe to an intelligent, infinite mind, which is nothing but a brute force,— a greater absurdity, and a thing much more difficult to comprehend, than to attribute these stupendous results to a great and all-controlling mind. How are we relieved by saying that a human body is the work of nature ; that all the curious machinery that enters into the frame- work of the body — as the eye, the ear, the lungs, the stomach, the nerves, the muscles, the limbs, and even the conscious soul itself — are all the work of nature ? Can the inquisitive mind be satisfied w ith that ?

We look for some adequate cause. To say that it is nature, is not satisfactory. Nature is a very vague term. It means nothing, it can do nothing. How absurd to say that nature framed a law by which the planets move ; a law 2*

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adjusting the relations of one orb to another so nicely that an eclipse can be calculated beforehand even to a second of time ! It is very easy to get rid of the idea of God by referring this all to nature ; but is it reasonable. — is it satisfactory ?

The most common argument against the belief of the divine existence, and that which has had most weight with the Atheist, is the third consideration adduced, namely, -''that there is no proof that the world ever had a beginning ; and that the state of things which we see going on now is that which has been going on forever."

This sounds plausible. But there are one or two points which need to be carefully looked at and considered. The sceptic says, we have no proof tkat the world ever had a beginning. What proof, we might ask, has he that it has always been as it is now, that it is eternal ? How does he know, wkose life covers so small a space, that the world is eternal ? But we shall show some proofs that this gratuitous declaration has no foundations. There are arguments which satisfy the best minds that the world, with man who inhabits it, must have had a beginning, — that such a beginning could not have been chance-

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work, and that hence it must have been produced by an intelligent and infinite mind.

ARGUMENT OF JOHN LOCKE.

t

The celebrated Locke uses the argument just alluded to to prove the being of a Gocl. I dare say my young reader has heard of John Locke, one of the greatest mental philosophers the world has produced. He was a profound thinker, and his work on the human understanding is probably not excelled by any treatise on the same subject. When infidels speak derisively of religion, ask them if they ever heard of such a name as Locke. When they talk of religion as influencing only weak minds, — as in their ignorance they sometimes do, — inquire of them if they ever read Locke's argument for the being of a God.

In the estimation of the most candid and intelligent minds, his reasoning is conclusive and unanswerable. He begins by asserting that "every man knows with absolute certainty that he exists. He knows, also, that he did not always exist. It is clearly certain to him that his existence was caused, not casual ; and that, if caused, the cause must have been adequate to the production. An adequate cause is that which has sufficient efficacy to bring a certain effect to pass. In the present case, an adequate cause is one possessing and exerting all the understanding necessary to contrive, and the power necessary to create, such a being as the man in question. This cause is what we are accustomed to call God. The understanding necessary to contrive, and the power necessary to create, a being compounded of the human soul and body, can create and contrive anything. He who actually contrived and created man certainly contrived and created all things."

This argument, you perceive, goes on the supposition that wherever there is an effect, there also must be an antecedent cause adequate tc produce it. This is a first principle in all reasoning. Without admitting the idea of cause and effect, we are brought to a dead stand in reasoning on both physical and moral subjects. Seeing this, and wishing to get rid of the idea of responsibility, David Hume, the celebrated historian and sceptic, actually denied the connection of cause and effect in relation to this subject.

Every reflecting mind must see that such a denial undermines the foundations of truth, and

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leaves us without one principle that we can know r to be true, or one fact for which we can give a rational explanation.

The very constitution of the human mind requires that we should believe in this connection. The child no sooner begins to compare ideas and to draw conclusions, than he is obliged to found his reasonings on the connection of cause and effect. What is more common than to hear an intelligent child inquiring for the cause of every effect which falls under his eye ? u Who made me?" is one of his first inquiries. u Who made the sky, and the trees, and the rivers? 77 The little reasoner is searching for the cause of nature's exhibitions and changes.

Now, if to his inquiry who made him, and who made the world, you should answer, It wasn't made, it was always so, would he be satisfied? Suppose you should tell him that his father, or some other man, made it, — would that satisfy him ? And why ? The cause, even to his weak comprehension, would not be adequate to the effect. You must refer him to a cause sufficient, in his view r , to produce so great effects. His father may be able to construct a watch or a wagon, but he cannot believe him to be adequate to the building of a world. There

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is n't skill and power enough in men to do this, and yet everywhere he sees skill and power most wonderfully exhibited in all that meets his eye. Tell him that God, an infinite being, with wisdom infinite and power omnipotent, made man, and made the world, and you give him an adequate cause. His mind can rest upon this.

There is a necessity, as appears to me, of admitting the idea of cause and effect, arising from the very constitution of the human mind. Hume denied it only in theory. In his own practice he admitted it every clay and every hour. No change in body or mind but is indicative of it. No revolution in the mental or moral world but is referred to it. Things do exist, and changes take place in them. Things that were not begin to exist. Therefore all things may have begun to exist. A thing cannot be the cause of its own existence. Something from without, and that existed before, must have produced it. Is that antecedent thing matter ? Can mere lifeless matter out of nothing produce matter ? But, more absurd still, can it produce mind ? We know, and our own consciousness tells us, that nothing short of infinite intelligence and almighty power is ade-

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quate to produce it, and hence there must be a God.

Is not this argument for the divine existence satisfactory, unanswerable ? We do not pretend that it is what, mathematically speaking, would be called demonstration. But there may be truths built upon moral evidence which we can as little doubt as the clearest mathematical deductions. The being of a God is one of them ; and the above mode of arriving at it must,- to any mind but that of a blinded and confirmed sceptic, be perfectly satisfactory.

Atheists have endeavored to weaken this argument by asserting that there is in nature what they call "an eternal series," and that this production and reproduction has been going on forever. Of course this is but a gratuitous assertion, but a moment's reflection will convince any one of its fallacy.

In whatever period you take man, however far back in history, — even if it were a million of years, — you are still required to account for his peculiar organization, evincing as well at one period as at another the skill of an infinite contriver, that must have possessed unlimited wisdom and power.

Besides, is it not ^ little remarkable that no

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traces of this infinite longevity of the world can anywhere be found ? We cannot find, by records or by recovered monuments, that the world is older than the Bible makes it ; that is, about six thousand years.

The evidence must be adduced of what nations existed a million years ago. Has any such evidence been produced, or can it be ? If, then, the world began to exist at any given period of time, there must have been an adequate cause, a great first cause, to have produced it. That cause is God.

BISHOP BERKLEY'S ARGUMENT.

Bishop Berkley's argument for the divine existence is beautiful, ingenious and satisfactory.

" We acknowledge," says he, "the existence of each other to be unquestionable ; and when called upon for the evidence on which this acknowledgment is founded, allege that of our senses : yet it can by no means be affirmed with truth that our senses discern immediately any man. We see, indeed, a form, and the motions and actions of that form, and we hear a voice communicating to us the thoughts, emotions and volitions, of an intelligent being ; yet it is intui-

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tively certain that neither the form, the motions, the actions, the voice, the thoughts, nor the volitions, are that intelligent being,, or the living, acting, thinking thing, which we call man. On the contrary, they are merely effects, of which that living, acting thing, denoted by the word man, is the cause. The existence of the cause, or, in other language, of the man, we infer from the effects which he thus produces.

"In the same manner, and w r ith like certainty, w r e discover the existence of God. In the universe without us, and in the little world ivithin us, we perceive a great variety of effects, produced by some cause adequate to the production. Thus the motions of the heart, arteries, veins and other vessels ; of the blood and other juices ; of the tongue, the hands and other members; the perception of the senses and the action of the mind; the storm, the volcano, and the earthquake ; the reviviscence and growth of the vegetable world ; the diffusion of light and the motions of the planets, are all effects, and effects of a cause adequate to the production. This cause is God, or a living being possessed of intelligence and power sufficient to contrive and bring them to pass.

"He, with evidence from reason equally clear

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with the testimony of the Scriptures, £ thundereth marvellously with his voice; holdeth the winds in his fist ; sendeth forth his lightnings with rain ; looketh on the earth, and it trembleth ; toucheth the hills, and they smoke. The mountains melt like wax at his presence. He causeth the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice ; and he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good.' Him also we are bound to praise, because c we are fearfully and wonderfully made by him. Our substance was not hid from him when we were made in secret. His eyes saw our substance yet being imperfect ; and in his book all our members were written, which in contrivance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them/ He also £ breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, and the inspiration of the Almighty hath given us understanding. 5 "

This beautiful argument for the existence of God is addressed to us in a manner that cannot be resisted. It calls us to view our Almighty Creator in every floating atom and quivering leaf, as well as in the restless ocean and the revolving pknets. In this splendid panorama of nature we discern, behind the curtain, an intelligent cause and a skilful hand, to which

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the existence of all is to be referred, and by which every change is directed and controlled. Even the rude intellect of the savage, who " sees God in clouds and hears him in the winds," submits to this reasoning, and acknowledges the force of this argument.

Within us, and everywhere without us, there are the unmistakable indications of the presence of an all-pervading and infinite Spirit. When we feel in our heated veins the rush and reflux of blood, we cannot but feel that the involuntary and regular march of the fluids is guided and controlled by this invisible and almighty Agent. When we behold the clouds rising and spreading their grateful shade over the withered and dusty vegetation ; distilling in genial and refreshing showers, to cleanse and revive it ; then passing deep into the soil to feed the springs and swell the rivers : and then exhaled by the sun to be again collected into beautiful clouds ; and, after adorning the sky with golden vapors, returning to perform the same regular

; and benevolent task ; we cannot but feel that there is, in this revolution of mercy, an invisible

! but efficient Being, whose hand originally produced and is now constantly employed in sustaining the process.

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In short, we cannot, by day or by night, turn our eyes upon the great outlines of nature, or her minuter portions, — we cannot survey the vegetable, animal or mineral kingdoms, — without being impressed with the thought that all this beauty, grandeur and regularity, are the product of an infinite mind. His footsteps are seen in the whirlwind and in the storm. His voice is heard in the sky and in the ocean. His mercy smiles in the summer clouds. The whispers of his love come to us from the fragrant flowers, and from the gentle zephyrs. The dark mountain seems to be his throne, and the still, deep forest his sanctuary ; and, when climbing the one, or wandering in the other, every light and careless emotion is gone, and we feel as if the presence of the presiding Deity were surrounding us. He must be blind who sees not God in his works. " The heavens declare his glory, and the earth is full of his praise." All nature seems, by her silent eloquence, to proclaim his power. There are times when the impression of the divine existence comes upon us with a momentary but overwhelming force. It is an awful glimpse, — a gleam, as it were, of the eternal majesty, that appals and astonishes us. An instantaneous dread falls upon us. But, in a