CHAPTER III. 1. A REVELATION REASONABLE AND Probable. CIENCY OF THE LIGHT OF NATURE AS A GUIDE. 2. INSUFFI SECTION I. A REVELATION REASONABLE AND PROBABLE. 1. THE existence of a God or Supreme Intelligence, we shall now consider as established, and through the remainder of the discussion, the argument will proceed accordingly. The question which next presents itself, in the natural arrangement of the subject, is the following: Have we any just reasons for supposing that God would make a Revelation to mankind? Perhaps it will be said, we ought first to prove that it is possible for God to make a revelation; but our answer is, that this is already proved in the existence of God, for it is the height of absurdity to believe that he could create the world, could create man, and yet could not communicate his will unto him if he saw fit. This is so palpable, that it is somewhat singular that Christian writers should make this particular a subject for examination, since it would seem to both parties, one would think, but a waste of words. If the existence of God be proved, the possibility of a revelation is necessarily proved with it; because with the very idea of God we associate, as part and portion of that idea, all pos sible perfection; and in this is of course included the power to reveal his will to his creatures, when, where, and in whatsoever way he may choose. We shall therefore spend no time or labor on this point, but proceed to the consideration of the proposed question-Have we just reasons for supposing that God would make a revelation to man? 2. An argument for the probability of some kind of a revelation, partaking of the character of instructions suited to the wants and ignorance of man, may be drawn from the fact, that this is practically the universal admission of mankind. We know it may be said that this is very like assuming the point in debate, but we do not mean it so. All we design to say is, that the practices of all nations directly countenance the proposition in review; not that there are no individual exceptions, for that is implied in this discussion; but simply that, as communities, as nations, mankind have everywhere admitted the necessity and probability of revelations or instructions from a higher power. The belief of this formed the basis of all their religious rites and ceremonies, and of much of their jurisprudence and civil government.* Hence the oracles, omens, auguries, and divinations of ancient times, and the great importance attached to them. 3. Conscious of their own ignorance, and feeling the need of supernatural illumination, they adopted these methods of communication with their deities, and sought thus to draw from them the desired information. No war, * There is, aside from its political objects, a very valuable and interesting article on this subject, in the Westminister Review for January, 1836, Art. viii. Republication of the English Reviews, No. xxvii. There is also a passage in Cicero's De Divinatione, lib. i. c. 40, in which he expressly declares that the republic was governed by the influence of augury-" rempublicam religionam auctoritate rexerunt." no expedition, no undertaking of any consequence, was attempted without consulting the oracles: these were the guides of all public, and in many cases of all private af fairs; so that nothing was done without their approbation and direction. In accordance with this, we hear Cicero asking-" "What colony has Greece sent into Etolia, or Iona, Asia, Sicily, or Italy, without a reference to the Pythian, the Dodonean, or Ammon oracle? What war did she ever undertake without first consulting her gods?" And again he says, "All the kings of Rome used augury, and when they were expelled, nothing in public affairs, or in private households, or in war, was done without it."* This fully confirms the statement above made. 4. It is a well known fact, also, that all the celebrated lawgivers of antiquity, as Zoroaster, Minos, Solon, Lycurgus, Numa, &c., pretended that they had intercourse with the gods, and acted under their direction. Zoroaster was enlightened in a mount of fire, through which his god revealed himself; Solon appealed to an oracle; Lycurgus did the same; Numa had his Egeria, from whom he declared his laws were received; while Zaleucas affirmed that his were given him of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. All this was done in accordance with that feeling which was ever present with the people, that they were not competent to direct their own steps, and therefore needed the guidance of a superior Wisdom.t 5. This particular is confirmed in a remarkable manner *Div. l. i., cited by Turner, Sac. Hist. ii. pp. 23, 24. In the same work Cicero affirms-"I know of no nation, however civilized and learned, or fierce and barbarous, which does not think that future things may be signified and predicted to us." Ibid. + Volney gives the following witness on this point:-It is the unanimous testimony of history, and even of legends, that the first human beings were savages, and that it was to civilize them, and teach them to make bread, that the gods manifested themselves. by the celebrated heathen geographer Strabo, whose observation on the intercourse between mankind and the Deity, or, as he believed, deities, is worthy of attention. "Whatever," says he, "becomes of the real truth of these relations, this however is certain, that men did believe them, and think them true: and, for this reason, prophets were held in such honor as to be thought worthy sometimes of royal dignity, as being persons who delivered precepts and admonitions from the gods, both while they lived, and also after death. Such were Tiresias, Amphiaraus, &c. Such were Moses and his successors. Plutarch, after naming Zoroaster, Numa, &c., asks, " Is it not probable that the divinities conversed familiary with these great men, to inspire them with the glorious enterprises which they executed ?" And Xenophen informs us that Socrates believed that the gods knew all things; that they were " present everywhere, and made suggestions to men concerning human affairs."‡ 6. These facts are a practical confession, on the part of the nations, that they stood in need of a divine revelation; that they were not able, without the assistance of heaven, to attain to a correct knowledge of truth and duty. For, if they had felt themselves competent to this, if they had regarded the sources or means of this knowledge as lying within themselves, they would not have resorted to omens, divinations, and oracles. There would have been no place or occasion for these. Their existence, therefore, seems to indicate, in the plainest manner, the consciousness of mankind that there was a necessity for the interposition of *Strab. Geog. lib. xvi., cited by Horace. +Plutarch, Numa. See also notes to Les Vies de Plutarque, traduites en Francais, par D. Ricard Paris 1830. Tome ii, 144, 147. + Xen. Mem. lib. i. cap. i. heaven in their behalf, that the way of truth and duty, of life and blessedness, might be opened to them. 7. It may also very properly be urged, that the existence and pretensions of these false revelations, imply the previous existence of a true one. The just and necessary inference is, that God did speak to man some time or other, else we cannot satisfactorily explain these pretensions on the part of lawgivers and religious teachers. It is a well known rule of reason and of logic, that falsehood implies truth as its opposite. You cannot have the first without the last. So counterfeit coin involves of necessity the existence of genuine coin, for the plain reason, that you cannot counterfeit what has no existence. If you have a copy or a likeness, you must have an original. If you have a false religion or revelation, you must first have a true one as the standard of comparison; the difference from which, or opposition to which, makes the last false. These pretences, therefore, that certain laws and instructions had been received directly from heaven, clearly point to the fact of an original revelation. They are unconscious witnesses of the truth that God in the beginning did declare himself to his children, and specially communicate to them a knowledge of his truth and of their duty. In the passage and the revolutions of ages, scattered abroad over the earth, surrounded by new circumstances, subject to new influences, these divine instructions were gradually forgotten and corrupted, in some cases partially, in others almost wholly; and these pretended revelations from heaven substituted in their place. This seems not only an argument for the reality of a revelation in early times, but also a natural explanation of the past, and to a great extent, present condition of mankind. The principle involved we see in action every day. It is what is going on around us continually. 8. But there are considerations of another nature which |