h they have
in their own persons a factory where countless operations of God are
carried on, instead of praising Him, they are the more inflated with
pride. How few are there among us who, in lifting our eyes to the
heavens, or looking abroad on the earth, ever think of the Creator! In
vain, because of our dulness, does creation exhibit so many bright lamps
lit up to show forth the glory of its Author. Therefore, another and
better help must be given to guide us properly to God as our Creator,
and He has added the light of His Word in order to make known His
salvation.

Here it seems proper to make some observations on the authority of
Scripture. Nothing can be more absurd than the fiction that the power of
judging Scripture is in the Church. When the Church gives it the stamp
of her authority, she does not thus make it authentic, but shows her
reverence for it as the truth of God by her unhesitating assent.
Scripture bears, on the face of it, as clear evidence of its truth as
black and white do of their colour, sweet and bitter of their taste. It
is preposterous to attempt, by discussion, to rear up a full faith in
Scripture. Those who are inwardly taught by the Holy Spirit acquiesce in
it implicitly, for it carries with it its own testimony.

It is foolish to attempt to prove to infidels that the Scripture is the
Word of God. For it cannot be known to be, except by faith. Justly does
Augustine remind us that every man who would have any understanding in
such high matters must previously possess piety and mental peace. In
order to direct us to the true God, the Scripture excludes all the gods
of the heathen. This exclusiveness annihilates every deity which men
frame for themselves, of their own accord. Whence had idols their
origin, but from the will of man?

There was thus ground for the sarcasm of the heathen poet (Horace,
Satires, I.8). "I was once the trunk of a fig-tree, a useless log, when
the tradesman, uncertain whether he should make me a stool, etc., chose
rather that I should be a god." In regard to the origin of idols, the
statement of the Book of Wisdom has been received with almost universal
consent, that they originated with those who bestowed this honour on the
dead, from a superstitious regard to their memory.

_II.--THE GRACE OF CHRIST THE REDEEMER_

Through the fall of Adam arose the need of a Redeemer, the whole human
race having by that event been made accursed and degenerate. Man thereby