VINDICATED FROM THE ASPERSIONS OF BISHOP COLENSO, BY WILLIAM HENRY GREEN, PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PRINCETON, N. J. "If they hear not MOSES and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though NEW YORK: JOHN WILEY, 56 WALKER STREET. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by WILLIAM H. GREEN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. THE aim of this Treatise is precisely what its title imports. It does not pretend to be an exhibition of the grounds on which the faith of Christendom reposes in adhering to the historical truth, the Mosaic Authorship and the inspiration of the Pentateuch; nor is it designed to afford a complete refutation of the objections of all opposers. It occupies itself exclusively with the recent extraordinary publication of Bishop Colenso, containing an examination of his arguments seriatim with proofs of their inconclusiveness and of the indubitable verity of the statements which he impugns. If the book reviewed in these pages had come from the hands of a professed infidel, it would probably have attracted no attention whatever. The notoriety, which it has gained, is due not to any novelty in its arguments, or speciousness in its objections, nor to any special merit in the mode of their presentation, but solely to the fact that a Bishop belonging to one of the leading churches of evangelical Christendom has undertaken to destroy the faith which once he preached. This joined with his loud professions of candour and disinterested love for the truth, his repeated insinuations of the insincerity of those with whom he was once associated, and the triumphant air which he assumes, as if confident of an easy victory, has given to it for the moment a factitious importance. For scholars no refutation is needed; what is here written, has been prepared with the view of guarding the unwary from being imposed upon by bold assertions and baseless assumptions, and of affording those who have not the leisure for a more extended examination of the subject, the evidence that though the faith of some may be overthrown, nevertheless the FOUNDATION OF GOD STANDETH SURE. If the author's life is spared, he hopes to be able at some future day to prepare a more extended work upon the criticism of the Pentateuch, and perhaps upon that of the Old Testament generally. The titles of the chapters are adopted from Bishop Colenso and contain his objections in the order in which they are stated by himself. The references to his book are throughout to the American Edition, issued by the Apple tons. PRINCETON. February, 1863. |