Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

government, and with many millions of the deluded and superstitious
populace, who, instigated by furious zeal, endeavoured by the most
barbarous acts of persecution to support their false gods, idols, temples,
and false worship. Yet before the preaching of these poor, comparatively
unlearned, and totally defenceless men, idolatry fell prostrate; the heathen
oracles were struck dumb; the philosophers were confounded; and the
people were converted by thousands; till at last all Asia Minor and
Greece, with Italy, and the various parts of the Roman empire, received
the gospel, and abolished idolatry! Had not this doctrine been from God,
and had not he by his almighty power aided these holy men, such effects
could never have been produced. The success, therefore, of the unarmed
and defenceless apostles and primitive preachers of Christianity is an
incontrovertible proof that the gospel is a revelation from God; that it is
the means of conveying light and life to the souls of men; and that no
power, whether earthly or diabolic, shall ever be able to overthrow it. It
has prevailed, and must prevail till the whole earth shall be subdued, and
the universe filled with the glory of God. Amen.
This revelation is now complete. God will add nothing more to it,
because it contains every thing necessary for men, both in reference to
this world and that which is to come; and he has denounced the heaviest
judgments against those who shall add to it, or diminish any thing from
it.
The oldest records among both Jews and Christians mention the books,
both by number and name, which constitute the Old Testament
Scriptures, and these are the identical books, both in number and name,
that remain in the Hebrew canon to the present day. Not one has been
added; not one has been taken away. Nor have we the slightest evidence
that even one chapter or paragraph, in any one of the books come down
to us, has been either added or omitted. And it is the same with the New
Testament: we have not lost or received a single book or chapter which
the genuine church of God has ever accounted divinely inspired and
canonical. I have diligently examined this question in all the accounts we
have from antiquity; and in all the collections of Hebrew and Greek