SERMON I*.

ON THE EVIDENCES, THAT THE LAW OF MOSES WAS NOT BORROWED FROM THE EGYPTIANS, AND THAT IT WAS A DIVINE REVELATION.

1 THESS. V. 21.

Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.

ALTHOUGH We may imagine from man's propensity to retrace effects to their cause, that some idea of a God might have been deduced, without the aid of revelation, from those witnesses of his power and existence which nature exhibits to the rational inquirer, we can, by no means, conceive that any distinct idea of his attributes and moral government of the world, much less of himself detached from those emblems of his omnipotence, which the untutored

Preached on Commencement-Sunday, 1825.

B

mind would necessarily identify with him, could have existed in the infancy of society, and become the foundation of religious worship, had it not been immediately derived from revelation. When, therefore, in an age of comparative barbarism, we discover a religion intrinsically adapted to the varied exigencies of mankind, bearing from its first to its last stage proofs of one general plan, contemplating from its beginning the progressive improvement and future circumstances of those, for whom it was designed, can we refer it to a minor cause, than to Him, who had arranged from the period of the creation every link in the vast chain of events? The analogy, indeed, which we discern between the religion of the Patriarchs, and that of the Christian Church, certifies us, that both sprang from a common origin; and even this being the case, the former could not have been maintained in a state of purity amidst the apostacy which enclosed it on every side, or have continued, amidst the changing fortunes and nomadic habits of its professors, to have borne a reference to any future dispensation, had not succes

sive indications* of the divine will been given, confirming from time to time preceding promises, and inducing additional hopes.

These early expectations of a Messiah, and indistinct notions of lapsed man's restoration to the divine favor by his agency, whilst they demonstrate the existence of such an original plan, prove likewise from the more definite character which they gradually assumed, that the progress of religion was intended to keep pace with the progress of intellect; and that these revelations were continually recalled to mind by particular enactments, we may, without violence, imagine from those statutes and laws which Abraham is recorded to have observed. And the historical record, that the worshippers of the true God, at this period, were bound by sacred institutes, is sufficient to refute the dangerous theory of those who have ventured from the similarity observable between

* "Als dieses Unwesen sich verbreitete, so gab Gott dem Abraham grosse Verheissungen, und bestimmte seine Nachkommen durch Isaak und Jacob, dazu religion und Sittlichkeit auf Erden zu erhalten." Jahn-Archeol. v. 5, ||. 1.

mind would necessarily identify with him, could have existed in the infancy of society, and become the foundation of religious worship, had it not been immediately derived from revelation. When, therefore, in an age of comparative barbarism, we discover a religion intrinsically adapted to the varied exigencies of mankind, bearing from its first to its last stage proofs of one general plan, contemplating from its beginning the progressive improvement and future circumstances of those, for whom it was designed, can we refer it to a minor cause, than to Him, who had arranged from the period of the creation every link in the vast chain of events? The analogy, indeed, which we discern between the religion of the Patriarchs, and that of the Christian Church, certifies us, that both sprang from a common origin; and even this being the case, the former could not have been maintained in a state of purity amidst the apostacy which enclosed it on every side, or have continued, amidst the changing fortunes and nomadic habits of its professors, to have borne a reference to any future dispensation, had not succes

sive indications* of the divine will been given, confirming from time to time preceding promises, and inducing additional hopes.

These early expectations of a Messiah, and indistinct notions of lapsed man's restoration to the divine favor by his agency, whilst they demonstrate the existence of such an original plan, prove likewise from the more definite character which they gradually assumed, that the progress of religion was intended to keep pace with the progress of intellect; and that these revelations were continually recalled to mind by particular enactments, we may, without violence, imagine from those statutes and laws which Abraham is recorded to have observed. And the historical record, that the worshippers of the true God, at this period, were bound by sacred institutes, is sufficient to refute the dangerous theory of those who have ventured from the similarity observable between

"Als dieses Unwesen sich verbreitete, so gab Gott dem Abraham grosse Verheissungen, und bestimmte seine Nachkommen durch Isaak und Jacob, dazu religion und Sittlichkeit auf Erden zu erhalten." Jahn-Archeol. v. 5, ||. I.