5.4 KiB
WEhave now before us the holy Bible, orbook,for sobiblesignifies. We call itthe book,by way
of eminency; for it is incomparably the best book that ever was written, the book of books,
shining like the sun in the firmament of learning, other valuable and useful books, like the moon
and stars, borrowing their light from it. We call it the holy book, because it was written by
holy men, and indited by the Holy Ghost; it is perfectly pure from all falsehood and corrupt
intention; and the manifest tendency of it is to promote holiness among men. The great
things of God's law and gospel are herewrittento us, that they might be reduced to a greater
certainty, might spread further, remain longer, and be transmitted to distant places and ages
more pure and entire than possibly they could be by report and tradition: and we shall have a
great deal to answer for if these things which belong to our peace, being thus committed to us
in black and white, be neglected by us as a strange and foreign thing,Hos. viii. 12. The
scriptures, or writings of the several inspired penmen, from Moses down to St. John, in which
divine light, like that of the morning, shone gradually (the sacred canon being now completed),
are all put together in this blessed Bible, which, thanks be to God, we have in our hands, and
they make as perfect a day as we are to expect on this side of heaven. Every part was good, but
all together very good. This is thelight that shines in a dark place(2 Pet. i. 19),
and a dark
place indeed the world would be without the Bible.
We have before us that part of the Bible which we call theOld Testament,containing the
acts and monuments of the church from the creation almost to the coming of Christ in the flesh,
which was about four thousand years--the truths then revealed, the laws then enacted, the
devotions then paid, the prophecies then given, and the events which concerned that distinguished
body, so far as God saw fit to preserve to us the knowledge of them. This is called
atestament,orcovenant(Diatheke), because it was a settled declaration of thewillof God concerning
man in a federal way, and had its force from the designed death of the great testator,the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,(Rev. xiii. 8.)
It is called the*Old Testament,with relation to theNew,*which does not cancel and supersede it, but crown and perfect it, by
the bringing in of that better hope which was typified and foretold in it; the Old Testament
still remains glorious, though the New far exceeds in glory,
(2 Cor. iii. 9.)
We have before us that part of the Old Testament which we call thePentateuch,or five books of
Moses, that servant of the Lord who excelled all the other prophets, and typified the great
prophet. In our Saviour's distribution of the books of the Old Testament into thelaw,theprophets,and thepsalms,orHagiographa,these are thelaw;for they contain not only the
laws given to Israel, in the last four, but the laws given to Adam, to Noah, and to Abraham, in
the first. These five books were, for aught we know, the first that ever were written; for we
have not the least mention of anywritingin all the book of Genesis, nor till God bade Moses
write
(Exod. xvii. 14);
and some think Moses himself never learned to write till God set him
his copy in the writing of the Ten Commandments upon the tables of stone. However, we are
sure these books are the most ancient writings now extant, and therefore best able to give us a
satisfactory account of the most ancient things.