of the books of the Old and New Testaments may not be out of place. In proof of the preservation of the former, the following arguments have been presented by distinguished writers:

1. The Jews were divided into a number of sects, each one being exceedingly jealous of the others, as much or more so than Christian sects are in relation to each other, consequently neither sect could adulterate or mutilate the Old Testament Scriptures without detection and exposure.

2. The Jews, with all their faults, had a great veneration for the Scriptures. Every word and letter in the different books. was counted and recorded, so that even the alteration of a single letter could not well escape detection.

3. Our Saviour when upon earth was not slow in reproving the different sects among the Jews for their various faults in relation to faith and practice, but he nowhere accuses them of altering or mutilating the Word of God-an evidence that they had not done so.

4. Since the Christian era, both Jews and Christians have had copies of the Old Testament Scriptures; these, on being now compared together, are found to agree with such exactness as is truly wonderful, and which proves their uncorrupted preservation until the present time.

In relation to the preservation of the New Testament Scriptures in an uncorrupted state we have the following proofs:

1. The number of Christian sects existing since the days of the apostles, each having copies of the New Testament and watching each other with unwearied vigilance, so that had an attempt been made by any one or more sects, to change or alter the commonly received version, the other sects would have immediately sounded an alarm; as may be illustrated by the case of the Baptists in modern times, some of whom, in their zeal for immersion, have translated the Bible, so as to correspond with their opinions in that respect; still it is evident that such translation can never be adopted to any very great extent, and that the alteration of the commonly received ver

THE OLD TESTAMENT.

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sion of the Bible cannot be made without the fact becoming a matter of public notoriety and exposing the agents in the matter to the reproof of other Christian sects.

2. The earliest copies of the several books of the New Testament were written in the Greek language. Several translations were made at an early period of these several books into other languages. The latter have been compared with the former, and are found to agree.

3. The manuscript copies of the New Testament are very numerous; three hundred of them were compared together by the celebrated Griesbach, and although there were found various readings, as might be expected, yet not a single doctrine or fact is affected by such variety, the difference consisting mostly in the use of different words or phrases to convey the same meaning. From these, and other considerations, the Methodist Episcopal Church, with Protestant denominations generally, believing in the authenticity of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and of their sufficiency as a rule of faith and practice, practically adopt the motto, "The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible."

ARTICLE VI.

OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

"The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testaments everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only mediator between God and man, being both God and man. Wherefore they are not to be heard who feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises. Although the law given from God by Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil precepts thereof of necessity be received in any commonwealth; yet, notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments, commonly called moral.”

This Article teaches: 1st. The agreement of the Old and New Testaments in relation to the great plan of human re

demption by Jesus Christ. 2d. The possibility of salvation for the inhabitants of the Old or Jewish dispensation. 3d. The abrogation of the ceremonial and ritual law of the Jews. 4th. The perpetuity of obligation to the requirements of the moral law. The last clause of the Article is designed to bear a constant testimony against that system of faith called “Antinomianism," which prevailed largely about the middle of the sixteenth, and during the seventeenth centuries in different parts of Europe, and which has been partially revived within the present century by a sect called "Perfectionists." This system of faith teaches in substance, that as Christians are not under law, but under grace, it is not required of them to keep the moral law; hence, the law given by God to Moses, as contained in the two tables, is not, in their opinion, a rule of practice, for those living under the gospel dispensation. The legitimate consequences of such a loose code of morals as this, may be easily imagined, and it is perhaps owing to the latent existence of this kind of belief, that there exists among Christians so called, so little regard for the precepts of the Bible and the pure and wholesome requirements of the moral law.

That the latter has not been abrogated, is evident from the teachings of our Saviour, especially where he says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily, I For verily, I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." From this quotation it appears evident that any system of religious faith, whether among Catholics or Protestants, which nullifies or abrogates any one of the commandments of the moral law, is not of God, and is to be abhorred and discountenanced by every true Christian.

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ARTICLE VII.

ORIGINAL OR BIRTH SIN.

Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk) but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually."

The "Pelagians," referred to in this Article, were a sect who arose about the fifth century, who took their name from Pelagius, a British monk, who lived in Rome, and who taught that mankind are born into the world as pure and unspotted as was Adam, when he first came out of the forming hand of his Creator, and that they have, in themselves, the natural ability independent of the internal workings of the Holy Spirit, to repent of their sins and attain to the highest degrees of piety and virtue. As the latter doctrine is, however, referred to more particularly in the following Article, we will allude here only to the sentiments taught in the one before us.

The doctrine of the Article is, that the nature of every man is corrupt; that he is born unholy and unclean; that he is totally and continually inclined to evil; that as like begets like, and as Adam begat a son in his own image, so all the descendants of Adam partake of the same unholy nature, as naturally and necessarily as a stream partakes of the nature of the fountain from which it flows. Such are the teachings of this Article of the church, and the doctrines herein set forth are abundantly supported by Scripture. In the Epistle to the Romans, Paul asserts that by "one man's disobedience many were made sinners." Reference is here made to Adam's sin, and to the fact that such sin involves all his descendants in guilt and condemnation. A few other passages will be given in support of this doctrine. "The heart is deceitful above all

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things and desperately wicked." And God saw the wickedness of man that it was great in the earth; and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." "Out of it," the heart, "proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.' that dwelleth in me." “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." These Scriptures abundantly sustain the doctrine of the Article, and we may here remark that the whole gospel economy proceeds on the ground of man's natural depravity, and not merely on the fact that man is a voluntary transgressor.

"Sin

ARTICLE VIII.

OF FREE WILL.

"The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good-will, and working with us, when we have that good-will.”

This Article of religion stands opposed to the doctrine advocated by the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians, who teach that man has power in, and of himself, independently of the workings of the Spirit of God, to repent, believe, and obey the gospel; and that as a free moral agent, he has power to comply with all the requirements of the law and gospel, without the aid of the Holy Spirit. While, therefore, the doctrine of free moral agency is by no means repudiated or denied by this Article, neither is denied by the commentators and ministers of the