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C. Revelation aggravates their sin, and exposes them to a greater punishment: but this arises from their rejection of it, their aversion to the purity of its constitution, and the gracious proposal of a spiritual salvation; a salvation, not only from the punishment of sin, but from sin itself. But this does not render the mercy and "faithfulness of God of no effect," towards those who receive divine revelation, by an unfeigned faith. Thus Abel became "righteous Abel," in Adam's family. By faith, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, walked with God. And to Christ" gave all the prophets," and Apostles "witness, that through his name," or mediation, "WHOSOEVER believeth, should receive remission of sins." D. Do not you find the Bible to be an obscure book?

C. The Bible assures me, that "God is light," in himself, and in his works and word. The darkness is in me: in hearing and reading the word of God," he opens our eyes, and turns us from darkness to light." Such persons will not complain of the darkness of the Scriptures; but gratefully exclaim," thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths." D. You once felt some doubts if the Bible were true; are you now free from doubt?

C. I am thankful that on that question I am free from doubts, and fears, and suspicions. I feel "the witness in myself," to the truths of revelation, respecting the evil of sin -the depravity of the human heart-the suitableness of Christ as a Saviour, and his ability and willingness to save all that come to him. I have felt the guilt and misery of an unbeliever: I now enjoy the peace of a believer, in the promise of salvation through Jesus Christ. My past experience teaches me your present feelings; for," as face answereth to face in the water, so the heart of man to man.”

D. Is it not presumption to pretend to a knowledge of my heart?

C. You asked me a question respecting my doubts: permit me to answer your question by asking you another.

Are you sure the Bible is not a revelation from God? Do not you sometimes doubt whether Deism is not a system of error? Have you no suspicions that you are wrong? Are you not sometimes afraid the Bible is the word of God? Are you not often afraid, that there is a Heaven from which your unprepared soul may be excluded; and a Hell, prepared for such as you, as Bedlam is prepared for madmen?

D. What harm have I done?

C. Poisoned your fellow man: error is poison.
D. But if I think what I have taught to be truth?

C. That does not make it so. by error.

You have poisoned yourself

D. Have you no suspicions, no fears, that the Bible is not true?

C. No: When I was a youth, I doubted if the Bible were a revelation from God; but as it was esteemed so by men of the largest understanding, the most extensive reading, the greatest learning, the profoundest knowledge, and the most eminent characters, who had examined the claims of the Bible to divine inspiration, and were confirmed in their faith. in proportion to their diligence in studying the subject-I began to suspect MYSELF.

D. What effects did your suspicions of yourself produce? C. I was induced to examine the Bible, by reading it night and day; to compare one part with another, to observe how far its declaration agreed with the characters and conditions of good and bad men; and to learn what truths the Bible contained, which might induce good men to love it, and bad men to condemn it.

D. What were your conclusions?

C. I found that the Old and New Testament agreed in stating the fall of man from God-the salvation of Christ, and the justice and grace of God, in saving penitent and believing sinners, through an all-sufficient atonement for sin.

D. Did you read the writings of the Deists, who deny that the Bible is a revelation from God?

C. I have; and it appeared to me, that, although they' derived much from the Bible, respecting the character of God and the obligations of man, they gave the honour of this discovery to their corrupt reason; and asserted that reason, which is only a capacity--an eye, without the light—is the revelation itself.

D. Why say corrupt reason; when it is the only hand-post to direct the traveller in the right road?

C. Riding home with a friend, in a very dark night, we came to a place where four roads met. In vain we employed our eyes to read the direction-post. It was dark. Ah! said my friend, here our eyes resemble reason without the Bible. We want the hand-post and light to direct us. All now is uncertain conjecture.

D. Then you allow that a hand-post and good eyes are sufficient to direct us.

C. No: the Deist possesses reason and revelation, and yet misses the right road by inattention to revelation; like a tra

veller, with the directing-post before him, following his senses without reading the directions, with attention and simplicity.

D. But suppose I read the direction and prefer a different road?

C. Then you act like a Deist, who prefers the broad, smooth road, not believing that it leadeth to destruction. His reason is perverted by worldly interest, by prejudice, by passion, by the love of sin. The Bible directs him into " the narrow way, which leadeth unto life;" but he loves his own way, the course of this world, in which he can gratify his pride and his sinful inclinations.

D. Your self-sufficiency to understand the Bible may appear to others a species of pride-the pride of superior understanding, which you charge on us.

C. Perhaps it may appear otherwise, when I assure you that I feel my own insufficiency to understand the Bible, without the grace which it reveals, and directs me to seek. The Bible claims to be a revelation of the mind of God-it warns me of my spiritual blindness and sinful self-love-it teaches me to pray, "Lord, open thou mine EYES, that I MAY understand the wondrous things of thy word." It assures me that Jesus Christ not only "expounded the Scriptures to his disciples," but that he "opened their UNDERSTANDINGS." The Bible requires a humble and teachable spirit, and promises "the meek God will guide in judgment, the meek he will teach his way." Unless we seek to have "the eyes of our understanding enlightened," we shall resemble a traveller with the directing-post before him, in broad day-light, yet unable to read the directions, his eyes being darkened by disease. D. Allow that Deists possess some understanding, if not an equal share, with believers of the Bible.

C. We make no pretensions to superior intellect; but I love to appeal to CONSCIENCE, from which many Deists have sought refuge in infidelity; and the confessions of many Deists, when "converted from the error of their ways," or overwhelmed by guilt, in approaching death, justify our attempts to speak to your conscience, and make conscience speak to you. D. I make no objection to such an address.

C. This is candid. I should be sorry to abuse the liberty you grant, or to be offended by your using the same freedom. As a Deist, you can have no certain prospect of future happiness. I appeal to your CONSCIENCE.

As a Deist, you cannot receive any support or consolation

from any one PROMISE of God, under the guilt of sin-the pressure of poverty and sickness-the treachery of friends, or the cruelty of enemies.

As a Deist, your reason cannot shield you from the fears of death and of future woe.

As a Deist, you possess no equivalent for the Bible, to relieve you under the tyranny of your passions, the shortness and uncertainty of life, the diseases of your body, the vast desires of your soul, the weakness of reason, and the frequent fears of the truth of revelation and a future judgment. The Bible reveals mercy to every believing and penitent sinner, through a Mediator. A Deist rejects this revealed mercy, the Mediator of it, and the book that reveals it, without any equivalent. Let conscience speak!

D. Your appeals are uttered with great confidence; whether with equal modesty I am not so certain.

C. My confidence in these appeals is produced by a full persuasion of the truth of the Bible, after frequent and solemn examination of its divinity, for forty years. This confidence is strengthened by reading the writings of the principal writers in defence of Deism, and by observing how they lived and died. My confidence receives additional strength from my success in endeavouring to convince and impress the consciences of Deists; and from their confessions, when " tried so as by fire."

D. You have not heard any confession from me.

C. True; but this does not discourage my attempts, so long as you will hear.

Some have secretly moaned assent to the truth of my appeals, as they have afterwards acknowledged, even under the most studied concealment of their convictions. And I am not without hope, that, under your languid smile, your conscience is on my side, though your tongue is not so.

D. I suppose, after all, your principles also will be tried as by fire; death is, to quote from your Bible," the way all the earth."

of

C. True; but with the certainty of future happiness, and the way to attain it, plainly revealed to the meanest capacity, real religion brings a full compensation for all,the Christian's losses by death. He is taught by "the word of grace," that "to die is GAIN!"

D. I have no inclination to learn that children suffer for their parents, or that one human being is to suffer for the sin of another person.

C. And yet you witness the fact every day, that children

suffer from the intemperance and folly of their parents; that those who forfeit their lives for their crimes, by the laws of the land, entail great sufferings on their families.

D. In this world, I grant it.

C. If they so suffer in this world from the righteous appointment of God, and are hardened by their pains, why not in the next world?

D. Their sufferings may atone for their sins, and purify them. C. This is absurd conjecture, resembling the notions of Pagans, that philosophy, or music, may purify the soul; or that human sacrifices can atone for sin and purify the soul. The Normans and Danes offered ninety men, as many cocks, dogs, and horses every year, in the month of January. D. This is sufficiently absurd.

C. Truly; but it exposes the inconsistency of those who expect to atone for their sins by suffering less, or without any atonement.

D. And what if the Almighty should pardon without any atonement ?

C. Still conjecture. And what if he should not? Prove that he ever did. Shew us the many or few who have been so forgiven, and on what terms. Examine creation, Providence, conscience, and the majesty, purity, and justness of God, and produce one instance of a pardoned sinner.

D. He will pardon the penitent.

C. How can you prove this without the Bible? And what will be the condition of the impenitent? Without revelation all is darkness, uncertainty, and despair. Those communications which God made to Adam, Noah, and the patriarchs, were, by traditional conveyance from one generation to another, the only source of divine knowledge to the heathen world; and the precepts thereof, styled by them right reason-natural law-common law-universal law. These notices of God and duty, in process of time, became so altered and obscured, that mankind lost the true apprehensions of divine truth. Hence, their imperfect accounts of God and his providence, the soul's immortality, and a future state. If later philosophers, and modern Deists, write and speak more consistently on divine truths, it is not because they possessed more intellect and learning-exercised more diligence and impartial inquiry;-but because they have borrowed of revelation, what they proudly ascribe to the discoveries of

nature or reason.

These traditional notices were their measure of good and evil," a law unto themselves." Thus, Plato defines the un

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