necessary in showing the weakness of the opposition as represented by what is
called the "Age of Reason." For "though a doctrine should be maintained or
admitted on the strength or correctness of its principles, yet in the mind of the
inquirer its strength is more readily appreciated by a discovery of the weakness
or defects of an opposite view." And as the "Age of Reason" is held and
flourished by many of the opponents of the Bible as one of their most effective
weapons, we wish, in this brief notice, to maintain our position by an exposure of
some of the many weaknesses and defects of that book, and at the same time to
inquire whether the "age of reason" did not begin before the time when Mr. Paine
wrote his book, I shall not have a word to say against Thomas Paine as an
individual. Whatever his private character may have been, it shall have no
bearing in this instance against the strength of his arguments. We shall present
every argument fairly, and examine it fairly, proving all things holding fast that
which is good; for even in this work we shall find some things which are
comparatively good. As long as he reasons upon evidence, he reasons justly, as
far as he will go; but when he rejects evidence, we see the natural result,–he is at
sea and his reasonings are sadly at fault.
Paine was a Deist, and therefore he did not, as some do, who profess to have
learned from him, deny all possibility of there being a God, and attribute
everything to chance. He says on page 1, "I believe in one God, and no more;
and I hope for happiness beyond this life." My faith and hope are precisely the
same.
Again, on the same page he says, "I believe in the equality of man; and I
believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and
endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy." I also believe all this, and
more; I believe in the remainder of the verse. Micah 6:8: "He hath showed thee,
O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." He, of course, does not believe
all this; and here the singular anomaly is presented of a man writing a work
against the Bible and against all revelation, and using, in one of his first
sentences a plagiarism from that very book.
On Page 27 we read: "It is only by the exercise of reason that man can
discover God. Take away that reason, and he would be incapable of
understanding anything; and, in this case, it would be just as consistent to read
even the book called the Bible to a horse as to a man." That is true; but he
makes a sad mistake in supposing that we reject reason (see same paragraph)
when we accept the Scriptures. So far from this, it is entirely to the reason that
the Scriptures appeal. Isa. 1:18: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the
Lord." Rom. 12:1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, saith the Lord." Rom. 12:1:
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service." Acts 17:2: "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three
Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Again, chap. 18:4: "And
he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the
Greeks." 2 Tim. 2:16: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable. . . . that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works." Now compare with this Job 32:8: "But there is a spirit in man; and
the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." These two instances
are the only ones where the word "inspiration" is used in all the Bible. One says
that the Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, and are profitable for man; the
other, that the "inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." Then is it
not self-evident that the Scriptures are submitted, and appeal, to the
understanding, the reason? And by this it is clearly evident that they mistake
utterly who say that the Scriptures reject reason.
Again he says, on page 27, "Almost the only parts of the book called the Bible
that convey to us any idea of God, are some chapters in Job and the 19th psalm.
I recollect no other." He did well to take the precaution to say that he recollected
not other; for there are many others. See Ps. 8:3; 33:6, 7; 65:1-13; 89:11, 12;
102:25; 104:1-35; 146:5, 6; Isa. 40:12-17, 22-26; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; 51:13; Jer.
10:10-13; and multitudes more. Of course there is not space to quote all these
texts here; and I would ask to quote all these texts here; and I would ask every
one who reads the article to read it Bible in hand, and turn to every passage to
which reference is made. He says of these passages in Job and the 19th psalm,
"Those parts are true deistical compositions; for they treat of the Deity through
his works. They take the book of creation as the word of God; they refer to no
other book, and all the inferences they make are drawn from that volume."
Then he gives Addison's paraphrase of the first six verse of the 19th psalm;
for he says on page 28, "I keep no Bible." (! ! !) If he had kept, or even borrow, a
Bible and read the rest of that psalm, he would have found that David did refer to
another than the book of creation. In verses 7 and 8 the psalmist says, "The law
of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." Now verse 11:
"Moreover by them is thy servant warned; and in keeping of them is great
reward."
It is clear that by "the law," "the commandment," "the judgments," of the Lord,
David means the ten commandments, which are abundantly proven to be the law
of God (Ex. 34:12; 31:18; 32:15, 16; Deut. 10:4, 5), by which the servants of God
are "warned," and in keeping of which is "great reward." The "warning," the
second commandment: "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." Now the reward: "Showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." The
promise of reward is confirmed by Jesus, and Mr. Paine admits that he "preached
most excellent morality," page 10; for he said to him who asked how he might
obtain eternal life, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Matt.
19:16, 17; Rev. 22:14. Now search your "book of creation," hunt through all the
forms of nature, and not the least hint of any reward can be found. Then what is
the ground of his "hope for happiness beyond this life." He has none. But the
servant of the Lord looks at his holy law, by keeping of which he receives great
reward, through faith in the adorable Redeemer, and his "hope for happiness
beyond this life" is "an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." Heb. 6:19.
David, in the last verse of the psalm already referred to, says: "Let the words of
my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my
strength and my Redeemer." Thus it is evident that David did refer to some other
solume than the book of creation, and that other volume revealed to him the law
of God, the Redeemer, and the reward.
Nor is Mr. Paine any more fortunate in his statement concerning Job. Job
argues the case as follows: "How should man be just with God? if he will contend
with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand." Job: 2, 3. [sic.] "If I speak of
strength, lo, he is strong; and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead? If I
justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall
also prove me perverse." Verses 19, 20. "For he is not a man, as I am, that I
should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there
any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both." Verse 32. In
chap. 16:21, 22, he says: "Oh that one might plead for a man with God, as a man
pleadeth for his neighbor! When a few years are come, then I shall go the way
whence I shall not return." He is brought "to death, and to the house appointed
for all living" (chap. 30:23), but before he enters, he asks, "If a man die, shall he
live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come."
Chap. 14:14. His mind reaches forward to the time when his "change" shall
come, and he exclaims with rapture, "Oh that my words were now written! Oh
that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead
in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this
196
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes
shall behold, and not a stranger [margin]." Chap. 19:23-27.
Ay, Job, your words have been "written," yea, they have been "printed in a
book;" and there they stand, an everlasting refutation of the statement of Thomas
Paine, that the book of Job is a true deistical composition. Far be it from either
Job or the psalmist ever to have written a deistical composition.
On page 65, Mr. Paine would convey the impression that he understood the
Bible; but I have to doubt it. On pages 28, 29, he purses a line of reasoning
which is sound and good, and which will compel him to admit all that it claimed
for the Bible. His own reasoning drives him to it. He says:–
"I recollect not enough of the passages in Job to insert them
correctly; but there is one occurs to me that is applicable to the
subject I am speaking on. necessary in showing the weakness of the opposition as represented by what is
called the "Age of Reason." For "though a doctrine should be maintained or
admitted on the strength or correctness of its principles, yet in the mind of the
inquirer its strength is more readily appreciated by a discovery of the weakness
or defects of an opposite view." And as the "Age of Reason" is held and
flourished by many of the opponents of the Bible as one of their most effective
weapons, we wish, in this brief notice, to maintain our position by an exposure of
some of the many weaknesses and defects of that book, and at the same time to
inquire whether the "age of reason" did not begin before the time when Mr. Paine
wrote his book, I shall not have a word to say against Thomas Paine as an
individual. Whatever his private character may have been, it shall have no
bearing in this instance against the strength of his arguments. We shall present
every argument fairly, and examine it fairly, proving all things holding fast that
which is good; for even in this work we shall find some things which are
comparatively good. As long as he reasons upon evidence, he reasons justly, as
far as he will go; but when he rejects evidence, we see the natural result,–he is at
sea and his reasonings are sadly at fault.
Paine was a Deist, and therefore he did not, as some do, who profess to have
learned from him, deny all possibility of there being a God, and attribute
everything to chance. He says on page 1, "I believe in one God, and no more;
and I hope for happiness beyond this life." My faith and hope are precisely the
same.
Again, on the same page he says, "I believe in the equality of man; and I
believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and
endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy." I also believe all this, and
more; I believe in the remainder of the verse. Micah 6:8: "He hath showed thee,
O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." He, of course, does not believe
all this; and here the singular anomaly is presented of a man writing a work
against the Bible and against all revelation, and using, in one of his first
sentences a plagiarism from that very book.
On Page 27 we read: "It is only by the exercise of reason that man can
discover God. Take away that reason, and he would be incapable of
understanding anything; and, in this case, it would be just as consistent to read
even the book called the Bible to a horse as to a man." That is true; but he
makes a sad mistake in supposing that we reject reason (see same paragraph)
when we accept the Scriptures. So far from this, it is entirely to the reason that
the Scriptures appeal. Isa. 1:18: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the
Lord." Rom. 12:1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, saith the Lord." Rom. 12:1:
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service." Acts 17:2: "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three
Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Again, chap. 18:4: "And
he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the
Greeks." 2 Tim. 2:16: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable. . . . that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works." Now compare with this Job 32:8: "But there is a spirit in man; and
the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." These two instances
are the only ones where the word "inspiration" is used in all the Bible. One says
that the Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, and are profitable for man; the
other, that the "inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." Then is it
not self-evident that the Scriptures are submitted, and appeal, to the
understanding, the reason? And by this it is clearly evident that they mistake
utterly who say that the Scriptures reject reason.
Again he says, on page 27, "Almost the only parts of the book called the Bible
that convey to us any idea of God, are some chapters in Job and the 19th psalm.
I recollect no other." He did well to take the precaution to say that he recollected
not other; for there are many others. See Ps. 8:3; 33:6, 7; 65:1-13; 89:11, 12;
102:25; 104:1-35; 146:5, 6; Isa. 40:12-17, 22-26; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; 51:13; Jer.
10:10-13; and multitudes more. Of course there is not space to quote all these
texts here; and I would ask to quote all these texts here; and I would ask every
one who reads the article to read it Bible in hand, and turn to every passage to
which reference is made. He says of these passages in Job and the 19th psalm,
"Those parts are true deistical compositions; for they treat of the Deity through
his works. They take the book of creation as the word of God; they refer to no
other book, and all the inferences they make are drawn from that volume."
Then he gives Addison's paraphrase of the first six verse of the 19th psalm;
for he says on page 28, "I keep no Bible." (! ! !) If he had kept, or even borrow, a
Bible and read the rest of that psalm, he would have found that David did refer to
another than the book of creation. In verses 7 and 8 the psalmist says, "The law
of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." Now verse 11:
"Moreover by them is thy servant warned; and in keeping of them is great
reward."
It is clear that by "the law," "the commandment," "the judgments," of the Lord,
David means the ten commandments, which are abundantly proven to be the law
of God (Ex. 34:12; 31:18; 32:15, 16; Deut. 10:4, 5), by which the servants of God
are "warned," and in keeping of which is "great reward." The "warning," the
second commandment: "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." Now the reward: "Showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." The
promise of reward is confirmed by Jesus, and Mr. Paine admits that he "preached
most excellent morality," page 10; for he said to him who asked how he might
obtain eternal life, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Matt.
19:16, 17; Rev. 22:14. Now search your "book of creation," hunt through all the
forms of nature, and not the least hint of any reward can be found. Then what is
the ground of his "hope for happiness beyond this life." He has none. But the
servant of the Lord looks at his holy law, by keeping of which he receives great
reward, through faith in the adorable Redeemer, and his "hope for happiness
beyond this life" is "an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." Heb. 6:19.
David, in the last verse of the psalm already referred to, says: "Let the words of
my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my
strength and my Redeemer." Thus it is evident that David did refer to some other
solume than the book of creation, and that other volume revealed to him the law
of God, the Redeemer, and the reward.
Nor is Mr. Paine any more fortunate in his statement concerning Job. Job
argues the case as follows: "How should man be just with God? if he will contend
with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand." Job: 2, 3. [sic.] "If I speak of
strength, lo, he is strong; and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead? If I
justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall
also prove me perverse." Verses 19, 20. "For he is not a man, as I am, that I
should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there
any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both." Verse 32. In
chap. 16:21, 22, he says: "Oh that one might plead for a man with God, as a man
pleadeth for his neighbor! When a few years are come, then I shall go the way
whence I shall not return." He is brought "to death, and to the house appointed
for all living" (chap. 30:23), but before he enters, he asks, "If a man die, shall he
live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come."
Chap. 14:14. His mind reaches forward to the time when his "change" shall
come, and he exclaims with rapture, "Oh that my words were now written! Oh
that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead
in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this
196
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes
shall behold, and not a stranger [margin]." Chap. 19:23-27.
Ay, Job, your words have been "written," yea, they have been "printed in a
book;" and there they stand, an everlasting refutation of the statement of Thomas
Paine, that the book of Job is a true deistical composition. Far be it from either
Job or the psalmist ever to have written a deistical composition.
On page 65, Mr. Paine would convey the impression that he understood the
Bible; but I have to doubt it. On pages 28, 29, he purses a line of reasoning
which is sound and good, and which will compel him to admit all that it claimed
for the Bible. His own reasoning drives him to it. He says:–
"I recollect not enough of the passages in Job to insert them
correctly; but there is one occurs to me that is applicable to the
subject I am speaking on. 'Canst thou by searching find out God?
Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection?' I know not how the
have printers have pointed this passage, for I keep no Bible; but it
contains two distinct questions, that admit of distinct answers:–
"1. Canst thou by searching find out God? Yes; because in the
first place, I know I did not make myself, and yet I have existence;
and by searching into the nature of other things, I find that no other
thing could make itself; and yet millions of other things exist:
therefore it is that I know, by positive conclusion resulting from this
search, that there is a power superior to all these things, and that
Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection?' I know not how the
have printers have pointed this passage, for I keep no Bible; but it
contains two distinct questions, that admit of distinct answers:–
"1. Canst thou by searching find out God? Yes; because in the
first place, I know I did not make myself, and yet I have existence;
and by searching into the nature of other things, I find that no other
thing could make itself; and yet millions of other things exist:
therefore it is that I know, by positive conclusion resulting from this
search, that there is a power superior to all these things, and that
