tters since, as that these revelations and narratives have been
faithfully preserved in the books of the Old Testament; that we are
bound to believe these revelations to be true, not because we can
otherwise demonstrate their truth, but because God, who can not lie,
has declared it; and that we are bound to do the things they command,
not merely because we see them to be right, but because God commands us.

It is needful to consider the divine authority of the Old Testament
distinctly from that of the New, not only because it is a distinct
subject in itself, and because our plan of investigation leads us
backward from the known and established fact of the divine authority of
the New Testament to the discovery or disproof of the like character in
the Old; but because a great many persons admit, in words at least, that
Christ was a teacher sent from God, who, either in so many words, or in
effect, deny the divine authority of the Old Testament. Some of the
modern Rationalists have revived the creed of the Gnostics of the first
century--that the Hebrew Jehovah was a being of very different character
from the Deity revealed by Jesus Christ. They will extol to the skies
the world-wide benevolence, compassion and kindness of the gospel of
Christ, in contrast with the alleged national pride, bigotry, and
exclusiveness of the Hebrew prophets. Others are desirous of appearing
remarkably candid in bestowing on the Old Testament a liberal
commendation as a collection of religious tracts of merely human origin,
and of various degrees of merit; some of them of extraordinary literary
excellence, well suited to the infancy of the human intellect, and
highly useful in their time in raising men from fetichism and idolatry
to the worship of one God; but which, containing many errors along with
this grand truth, have been set aside by the more perfect teachings of
Christ and his apostles, much in the same way as the old Ptolemaic
astronomy was displaced by the discoveries of Newton. Others still are
willing to acknowledge the Old Testament as inspired, provided we will
allow Shakespeare and the Koran to be inspired also. Besides all these,
there are several scores of scholars anxious to conceal its nakedness
under theories of inspiration made and trimmed in a great many styles,
but all cut from the same doctrine, to wit, that God revealed his truth
aright to Moses and the prophets, but they went wrong in the telling of
it. Now, all these n