Gospel, which it was the custom to read from the pulpit in the vernacular tongue of every nation." We believe, then, that we have in this brief lecture exposed and answered the pretensions of the Protestant Reformers. If the pretext for their revolutionary movement be absolutely false, little can be expected from their erratic and inconsistent course. No solid foundation can rest upon an untruth. The shifting sands of unbelief are firmer than falsehood. But we would look for the logical result which history presents to us, and expect to see the sacred word of God hurled down from its high place, its inspired text mutilated by human caprice, and its divine authority denied among men. Fearful is the unhallowed touch of man, sad the exercise of his liberty, when the things of God are exposed to the fury of unbelief. One lie propagates another, and falsehood of every kind arrays itself against the divine majesty whose essence is Truth. LECTURE SECOND. THE PROTESTANT DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE BIBLE. "No prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation. For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost."-2 St. PETER i. 20, 21. I THINK it will be confessed that all Protestants who call themselves Christians profess in some way to draw their doctrine from the Scriptures, which they believe to come from God. There have been many changes in their doctrines; and some, who vindicate to themselves the Christian name, deny the inspiration of the Bible either in whole or in part. Still, with more or less unanimity, they contend that their religion is a Scriptural one, that to them in a peculiar sense belong the inspired writings, because for them they have thrown everything else away, even the church, priesthood, and altar. Rigidly, they have nothing left them but the Bible, and so their faith and hope are purely Biblical. |