as ee. 
 
 a) I 
 
 | endeavoured to impress on the mind of others the 
 
 Mis Fa AIRE bi Mac 7 i a Nahe ae i Rye as bic PY 
 Proressor Smyru.—At the period of the Cambridge — 
 nstallation, the declining state of the Professor’s health — 
 was noticed with much regret. On returning to his family 
 ‘at Norwich, he appeared feeble, and unable to take his 
 accustomed walking exercise, and about the end of Oc- | 
 tober, he became so infirm as to be entirely confined to 
 the sofa. His mental powers did not forsake him, and 
 his time was actively employed in his usual literary pur- 
 suits. Deprived, however, ot his accustomed exercise, his 
 bodily health sank, and on Tuesday, the 28th ult., he had 
 
 Mi Sah, Sey, 
 
 an attank of paralysis of the left side, which has left him 
 
 in a sadly hopeless state, from which, at the advanced | 
 time of his life, there is but little probability of his re- 
 covery. 
 
 THE Mermorraut to Prorrssor Smytu.—In 
 the north aisle of the nave of Norwich Cathedral is 
 a stained glass window, executed by Mr. Warrington | 
 of London, with the following inscription on a marble 
 slab beneath : — 
 
 “THIS MONUMENTAL WINDOW 
 IS DEDICATED BY HIS FRIENDS 
 TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 WILLIAM SMYTH, ESQ. 
 WHO DIED IN*THIS CITY ON THE 24TH DAY 
 OF JUNE, 1849. AGED 83 YEARS. 
 
 “This good and distinguished man filled for forty 
 years the chair of Modern History in the University 
 of Cambridge. Gifted with eloquence and a poet’s 
 
 | mind, his affectionate and indulging temper, his 
 | knowledge and judgment, the mingled earnestness 
 and playfulness of his disposition, and the modera- | 
 tion of his character and opinions, gave a peculiar 
 charm and value to his instruction; and the states- 
 man, no less than the student, listened with delight 
 to his historical lectures. He lived and died a 
 Christian, and, by his work on the Evidences of 
 Christianity coamnased in his declinino vears. he 
 
 | momentous truths which were deeply engraven 
 | his own. 
 
 ees 
 
 LIBRARY 
 CSheological Seminary, | 
 | PRINCETON, N. J | 
 SiO soe. 5 
 
 smyth, Williams, 1765-1849. 
 
 Evidence of Christianity 
 
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2022 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/evidenceofchristOOsmyt 
 
EVIDENCES 
 
 OF 
 
 C2Hn Re Sil B AGNI: LNs 
 
 BY WILLIAM “SMYTH, 
 
 Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 WILLIAM PICKERING, PICCADILLY: 
 CAMBRIDGE: J. AND J. L. DEIGHTON; 
 NORWICH: J. FLETCHER. 
 
 1845. 
 
ike 1 e. aa P 
 00 ae 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 TO J. L. MALLET, ESQ. 
 
 My Dear FRIEND, 
 
 I inscribe to you the following 
 statement of the Evidences of Christianity, 
 in acknowledgment of the judicious sug- 
 gestions I received from you, while draw- 
 ing it up, and in testimony of the very. 
 ereat regard and respect, with which I 
 have long been most sincerely, 
 
 Yours, 
 
 W. SMYTH. 
 
 QurEEN STREET, 
 Norwich. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Se 
 
 The Works from which I have made large 
 Extracts, with or without acknowledgment, are 
 the following :— 
 
 Buckland’s Bridgewater Treatise. 
 
 Conybeare’s Lectures on Theology. 
 
 Davison on Prophecy. 
 
 Archdeacon Lyall’s Propedia Prophetica. 
 
 Paley’s Evidences. 
 
 J. B. Sumner’s Evidence of Christianity. 
 
 Pascal’s Pensées sur la Religion. 
 
 Soame Jenyns’ Internal Evidence. 
 
 Dr. Arnold’s Appendix on the Right Interpretation of 
 the Scriptures, in the Second Volume of his Sermons. 
 
 Bishop Maltby’s Two Sermons preached at Durham. 
 
 Bishop Marsh’s Third Appendix to his Lectures on 
 the Authenticity and Credibility of the New Testa- 
 ment, and on the Authority of the Old. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 caterers 
 
 THE prevalence of scepticism and infidelity has 
 been long the lamentation of pious and good 
 men; not only of those, who are the ministers of 
 religion, but of those, who are their hearers; 
 those who receive its doctrines with reverence, and 
 who would wish others to be influenced by reli- 
 gious feelings, like their own—such believers in 
 the truth of revelation are disquieted, and even 
 alarmed, when they look around them and observe 
 the indifference of others to those principles and 
 opinions which are to themselves so dear: which, 
 because they believe them to be founded in truth, 
 administer comfort and support to them under the 
 afflictions of the present state, and afford them 
 their hopes of happiness in the world that is to 
 
 come. 
 
li PREFACE. 
 
 The feelings of pious and good men, such as 
 have been now described, must necessarily be con- 
 sidered with great respect and anxiety by every 
 man who is sufficiently at leisure to reflect upon 
 the situation of his fellow-creatures. 
 
 I am now at the close of life, and have been 
 much engaged in the education of young men; 
 and I have had great opportunities of observing 
 the notions of men of matured age also, from 
 having lived in the times of the breaking out of 
 the French Revolution, when every established 
 opinion was questioned, and in too many instances 
 shaken and destroyed—and, on the whole, I think 
 I may consider myself as well acquainted with the 
 views, when they are of a sceptical nature, both of 
 the young and the old; and I know not how I can 
 employ any time that may yet be allowed me, 
 better, than by drawing up a few observations on 
 the general subject of the Evidences of Christianity. 
 
 What I shall hope to show in the ensuing 
 pages is this—that such scepticism and infidelity, 
 wherever it exists, is not justified by the rea- 
 
 sonableness of the case; that good and pious men 
 
PREFACE, il 
 
 need not have their own faith shaken by the in- 
 difference, which they may think they observe in 
 others; and, that those who show this indiffer- 
 ence, are not aware of the evidence that may 
 fairly be produced in favour of Christianity, nor at 
 all suspect, amidst the difficulties and objections 
 that may have occurred to them, how unreason- 
 able, after all, is their disbelief, and how little 
 they comprehend the real position in which they 
 stand with regard to their Almighty Creator. 
 This I shall endeavour to do, by laying before 
 them such remarks of learned and intelligent men, 
 as I think ought to influence their minds. 
 
 I have looked over various books and treatises, 
 and from such as I thought the most important, [ 
 have produced extracts, and have made such state- 
 ments and drawn such conclusions, as appeared to 
 me to be reasonable. Irom the authors I have 
 referred to, I have generally taken such passages 
 as I thought to my purpose, and have given them 
 as much as possible, in their own words; often 
 abbreviating these passages, but always retaining 
 
 what I thought their meaning and their value. 
 
1V PREFACE. 
 
 At the same time, I have sometimes accompanied 
 them with such remarks as occurred to me, so that 
 most of the observations which the reader will find, 
 are not to be considered so much the result of any 
 learning of mine, or any labour of my own 
 thoughts, as the statements and reasonings of 
 others. I have confined myself entirely to the 
 great question of the truth of the Christian Reli- 
 gion; of the evidence which may be brought in 
 support of it; the external evidence and the 
 internal. ‘The doctrines contained in the New 
 Testament I have scarcely alluded to; they are a 
 different question, and are to be considered when 
 the authority of the New ‘Testament has been 
 first established: and I must request that it may 
 be always understood, that I am not writing as a 
 divine, but addressing myself as a layman, not to 
 those who are already believers, but to those who 
 are unbelievers, and endeavouring to meet them 
 on their own grouuds. 
 
 And before I go into the detail of this impor- 
 tant subject, I shall make a few remarks on the 
 
 nature and character of those, to whom I more 
 
PREFACE, V 
 
 particularly mean to submit, what I think may be 
 offered to their reflection. _ While doing so, I 
 shall probably anticipate much of what I may 
 hereafter lay before them, and I may thus, and 
 in my subsequent Dissertation, often repeat the 
 same arguments, and again and again produce the 
 same views, such as I conceive fitted to influence 
 their minds; being little concerned about the 
 symetry or beauties of composition, and thinking 
 only of the impression to be made on my reader; 
 which impression may be materially assisted by such 
 repetitions, and may dwell with effect upon the 
 memory, when my work is no longer thought of. 
 
 But before I proceed to describe the nature and 
 character of those, whom I am desirous to address, 
 I must require all such persons to consider what 
 is the exact sort of evidence on which the truth 
 of Christianity has been left to rest, by the 
 Almighty Being, whose creatures we are. 
 
 We have the prophecies of the Old and New 
 Testament—we have the miracles performed by 
 the Saviour and by his apostles—we have the 
 
 manner in which the religion was propagated 
 
 a2 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 among mankind—the impossibility, except on the 
 supposition of its truth, that this propagation 
 should either have been attempted or accomplished 
 —the impossibility that such a being as the 
 Saviour should have arisen out of such a commu- 
 nity as the Jewish nation then was; and on the 
 whole, the constant necessity we are under, of 
 supposing the truth of the religion, while we are 
 considering the events connected with it: how and 
 where it arose, the astonishing effects it produced 
 upon its first converts, and more early disciples, 
 its subsequent effect upon the world, and lastly, 
 the nature of its doctrines, so removed from all 
 philosophic anticipation, and so unlikely to have 
 been conceived by any human imagination. 
 
 But if such be the nature of the evidence, one 
 observation must now be made, and it must never 
 be forgotten, not only by those who are at present 
 sceptics, but by those, who, believers themselves, 
 are uneasy when they meet with a want of that 
 belief in others, which they feel would be a sanc- 
 tion to their own. I must suggest to them then, 
 
 that such evidence, as we have been describing, 
 
PREFACE. Vii 
 
 cannot compel the assent; it may be quite sufficient 
 to procure the assent of any mind, that is ina 
 natural and sound state, but it cannot compel the 
 assent of any mind, which, on whatever account of 
 perverseness or unreasonableness, is resolved uot 
 to assent. 
 
 Let no pious ear be alarmed, if I say, that the 
 evidence for Christianity is not of a nature that 
 can compel the assent. Evidence of this kind can 
 only exist in particular cases; these particular cases 
 are, where the truths of science are concerned, in 
 the propositions for instance of geometry, or the 
 facts of experimental philosophy—here the evi- 
 dence is addressed to the senses or the understand- 
 ing; but this evidence is of a different nature from 
 what is called moral evidence—it is this latter 
 evidence that belongs to the conduct of life; we 
 proceed upon it every moment; we depend upon 
 it, and justly depend, on every occasion. It is the 
 only evidence from the nature of our situation 
 here, which was ever intended for our government 
 or can be placed within our reach—it is that sort 
 
 of evidence, which it is unreasonable to resist, 
 
Vill PREFACE. 
 
 which in common language we say, a man is wrong: 
 headed to resist, but which, if a man chooses to 
 resist, he cannot be compelled to admit. We can 
 only turn away from him and leave him to his 
 paradoxes and his folly. 
 
 Now it is this kind of evidence, on which not 
 only the conduct of life, but the truth of Christi- 
 anity is left to rest. It must be carefully noted, 
 that there are two descriptions of assent, or belief, 
 or knowledge, call it which you will, widely different, 
 and originating in sources clearly to be distinguished 
 from each other—that in the sciences, for instance, 
 ‘t is the reason or the senses, that are alone con- 
 cerned—it is in these cases that the reception of 
 truth can be extorted, however unwillingly, but in 
 all ordinary cases, in all other cases, even on the 
 subject of the truth of Christianity, no such re- 
 ception of truth can be extorted, for it is not the 
 senses and the understanding that are here alone 
 concerned. 
 
 It must be remembered that what is called 
 belief is a compound result of the reason and the 
 
 feelings acting together; it is not the result of 
 
PREFACR. 1X 
 
 the understanding alone, the feelings interfere with 
 the reason. Under the word feelings I include 
 everything that can affect the mind, or rather 
 perhaps the heart, views of self-interest, sugges- 
 tions of pride, resentment, and a thousand other 
 considerations, such as constitute what are called 
 motives to action—these always result from the 
 feelings. It is the province of reason to exhibit 
 the case, and then for the feelings to decide, but 
 even in exhibiting the case, the feelings interfere, 
 and influence the statement. 
 
 Look around and observe the opinions of man- — 
 kind—the violence of their party heats and ani- 
 mosities—the absurdities which they produce and 
 patronize—in all these cases the materials subjected 
 to the minds of different men are the same, and 
 their faculties the same, but how different their 
 conclusions; that is, how differently do their feel- 
 ings influence their reason—and it is thus, and 
 thus only, that we can account for all that we see 
 around us—it is thus that the decisions of mankind, 
 when they leave their scientific inquiries, become 
 
 various and contradictory, perplexed by dispute 
 
x PREFACE. 
 
 and involved in confusion, and finally, it is thus 
 that different sects arise; and again, which is the 
 point we are at present more especially considering, 
 it is thus that arises the occasional disbelief of 
 religion itself. 
 
 It should seem as if the Almighty Master had 
 placed us here in a state of constant probation— 
 whatever may be the reason of this dispensation, 
 all the phenomena, we can observe, point to this 
 great truth, and so indeed do all the discourses 
 and parables of the Saviour himself—and this 
 state of probation is extended far beyond what 
 may have been supposed by the generality of 
 mankind. It is not too much to say, that we are 
 responsible, not only for our practical conduct, but 
 for our opinions. Our opinions are the result of 
 our feelings, as well as of our reason: they are 
 moral, at least they are not properly and merely 
 logical—they fall on the whole within the pro- 
 vince of morality and therefore of duty—an awful 
 consideration this to those who can duly estimate 
 its extent and importance. It is common to see a 
 
 sceptic or a man of the world start up in a sort of 
 
PREFACE. Xl 
 
 heat and triumph, and say, «¢ My understanding 
 tells me so and so, and this is sufficient; ” this is 
 however not sufficient, it remains to be examined, 
 how and why his understanding has told him so. 
 
 No doubt our faculties are very limited, and 
 grave men must consider that with a clear over- 
 balance of evidence in behalf of the authority of 
 the Bible, and of its most important revelations, 
 (and this at least may be affirmed,) with such a 
 clear moral overbalance, it may not be desirable 
 that this evidence should be of such a nature as 
 to necessitate conviction, for there would then be 
 no room for the exercise of docility, candour, and 
 faith, nor even for any anxious diligence in the 
 study of the Scriptures; and what, it may be 
 asked, is to become of those who would still be 
 hurried away by their passions and for whom 
 there would then be no excuse ? 
 
 Difficulties and obscurities in the Scriptures, 
 and in the doctrines of religion, exercise patience, 
 stimulate inquiry, teach humility, rebuke presump- 
 tion, exercise faith, call forth many virtues of the 
 
 human character, discipline the mind and the 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 heart, and they are therefore not without their 
 use, and may be intended for these purposes. 
 
 And now to proceed to our general subject of 
 the scepticism and infidelity that exists in the 
 world—I say exists; I am not going to intimate 
 that this prevails in the world—I am not going 
 to say that the people of England, for instance, 
 are not a religious people; but I am going to 
 comment upon the situation of particular descrip- 
 tions of men in the community. I mean to exhibit, 
 as well as I can, the particular temptations of par- 
 ticular classes, and to show when individuals 
 amongst them become sceptics and unbelievers, 
 how this happens to be the case, and I hope to 
 show hereafter, as I have already intimated, that 
 there exists such evidence of the truth of Chris- 
 tianity, as I conceive ought to influence their 
 minds as reasonable men. 
 
 In the first place, then, we will cast a glance 
 on the young; but of these there are two different 
 classes—those of ordinary talents, and those of 
 
 talents of a higher order; and it is of the latter 
 
 that I mean now to speak. 
 
PREFACE. X1il 
 
 All young men are naturally impatient of au- 
 thority——“monitoribus asper;” but those, of whom 
 I now speak, are more especially averse to ail 
 opinions and institutions that they find established 
 in the world——they are animated by the conscious- 
 ness of their own superior faculties, ambitious to 
 display them, and only studying to be the objects 
 of admiration, particularly among their companions 
 and those of their own age, who in the meantime 
 can most easily be won, and often are won, by 
 daring views and unexpected paradoxes, always 
 mistaken for the reasonings of a more profound 
 and subtle sagacity. 
 
 Such are their inteilectual temptations, to say 
 nothing of their physical; and surely it is to know 
 little of human nature to expect them to be rea- 
 sonable on such a subject as the evidences of 
 religion. ‘The opinions of a man, when young, 
 if he is of superior genius, are often as tumul- 
 tuous as are the waves of the ocean in a storm, and 
 as wild in their aspect, and they may never properly 
 subside, or may perhaps run into the opposite ex- 
 
 treme of fanaticism. 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 But in the generality of young men, the cha- 
 racter improves, as life proceeds; the taste for 
 sparkling novelties gradually declines; the mind 
 softens ; becomes more calm, considerate and sober, 
 and the man of twenty-five may be very different 
 from the youth of eighteen—much will depend, 
 both in the earlier stage of their opinions and in 
 this latter, on the example of the parents—not so 
 much on their direct precepts, as on their visible 
 example; their habits, the conversation at their 
 table, their passing allusions to religious subjects, 
 the feelings with which they are evidently them- 
 selves inspired, the opinions which they obviously 
 themselves entertain.—In the case of youth every 
 allowance must be made and hope never abandoned 
 
 We will next advert to men of a maturer age, 
 the men of pleasure, the men of the world, as they 
 are called—these are men, who may well be un- 
 believers, for they have no resource, but to resist 
 the evidences of a religion, that denounces their 
 vices— these are men, that make it the system of 
 their lives to prefer the present to the future, to 
 
 escape from everything that can awaken thoughts 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 of aserious, and what must be to them, of a gloomy 
 nature—everything that requires grave reflection 
 or any seclusion from the amusing scenes of life, 
 or the agreeable topics of the day—self-indulgence, 
 the impulses of the moment, the gratifications of 
 sensual pleasure, these become the very habit of 
 their lives, the very business of their existence. — 
 How are such men to turn to consider, or be dis- 
 posed to receive, the evidences of a religion, the 
 very object of which is, to warn men of the sinful- 
 ness of their nature, and of its awful consequences ; 
 to require from them purity of conduct and holi- 
 ness of thought, self-denial and self-control, and 
 to tell them, that they are intended for another 
 state of existence, for which they are to prepare 
 themselves, and that they are not to be engrossed 
 by the enjoyments of this their present state. 
 Proceeding through the different descriptions of 
 men that constitute society, we may observe a 
 large portion of them, that are denominated men 
 of business; of these men, the fault is not so 
 much a disinclination to receive the truths of reli- 
 
 gion, as a thoughtlessness, a carelessness, and an 
 
XVl1 PREFACE. 
 
 unworthy and dangerous forgetfulness of religion. 
 They are solely intent on their daily occupations— 
 it is not that God is not always in their thoughts, 
 it is, that he is seldom or never in their thoughts 
 
 = thiein kingdom is of this world. 
 
 “ Seldom at church, ‘twas such a busy life, 
 
 But duly sent his family and wife.” 
 
 Such is Pope’s description of them—no ordinary 
 observer——and though of these men the charac- 
 teristic fault is a serious one, it is not one which 
 we are at present called upon to consider, it is not 
 exactly connected with scepticism or infidelity. 
 Much the same is the fault of another descrip- 
 tion of men, who may now be mentioned, those 
 who cultivate the fine arts, and are too exclusively 
 absorbed by those labours of the mind and of the 
 imagination, which give rise to the productions of 
 genius, but which are too often indulged to the 
 exclusion of graver subjects, and of those more 
 important meditations, which ought also to take 
 their turn; meditations which religion enjoins, 
 
 and which would in truth only elevate them to a 
 
 ——— 
 
PREFACE. XVii 
 
 higher perception, even in their own worldly pur- 
 suits, of the beautiful and the sublime. These 
 men are like the former, intent only on the pre- 
 sent. ‘ Art,” says Iuseli, in his Aphorisms, 
 «¢ Art absorbs the man.” 
 
 Of another description of men, the men of sci- 
 ence, it has been often observed, that their habit 
 of referring every thing to reasonings of an abstract 
 and demonstrative kind, indisposes, and indeed in- 
 capacitates them from feeling the force of reason- 
 ings of a moral nature—LEverything with them 
 is fact and experiment ; they go not beyond the 
 evidence of their senses and their understandings— 
 and as such men have constantly before them the 
 most important earthly interests of mankind, as the 
 ardour of study or the necessities of their occupa- 
 tion engross their thoughts, it can be no wonder 
 that they either do not think at all, or think lightly 
 of subjects of a less palpable nature, and of conclu- 
 sions that can be made out only by the patient 
 examination, not of physical, but of moral evidence. 
 
 ‘I can have nothing to say to your religion” 
 
 said the celebrated Halley, ‘it is so full of mys- 
 bye 
 
SV PREFACE. 
 
 teries.” ‘ Mysteries,” observed Bishop Berkeley, 
 ‘I will show him that there are mysteries in his 
 mathematics, as well as in my religion,” and he 
 immediately attacked what Voltaire properly called 
 the sublime geometry of Newton, in a treatise, to 
 which I have heard mathematicians say, that no 
 adequate answer has ever yet been given; and 
 certainly mathematicians with their curves and right 
 lines that continually approach and never coincide, 
 and other positions of the like nature, may as well 
 be silent on the subject of mysteries. 
 
 Bishop Watson, a distinguished man of science 
 himself, has exhibited an ample collection of the 
 mysteries of philosophy in his answer to Paine’s 
 Age of Reason. But it has thus always hap- 
 pened, that it is amongst these men of science that 
 sceptics and unbelievers have been most generally 
 found. 
 
 Philosophy and vain deceit was from the first 
 the complaint of the Apostle, and with some very 
 illustrious exceptions the same complaint might 
 have been made through all the history of Christi- 
 
 anity, down to the present moment. 
 
PREFACE. X1X 
 
 A large portion of the rest of mankind, of the 
 more intelligent part, may be classed under the 
 general description of those, who, by the exercise 
 of their talents, are seeking for the distinctions of 
 the world, the advantages of opulence, the advance- 
 ment of their families. Statesmen, distinguished 
 men of literature, barristers, and lawyers. Various 
 are the temptations to which all these men are 
 exposed; very various are the causes which create 
 in such men a disinclination to receive the evidences 
 of Christianity; and yet they are the lights of the 
 world, and those, on whom the eyes of more humble 
 believers are naturally fixed ; they shine in so- 
 clety—young lawyers think this necessary to their 
 professional success—they give the tone to the 
 opinions of others; and the very qualities that con- 
 stitute the temptations of their own minds, the 
 brilliancy of their talents and their powers of enter- 
 tainment, are the very reasons why, while they are 
 led astray themselves, they have an unhappy in- 
 fluence on the minds of those around them, more 
 particularly the young, who, as well as the old, are 
 
 continually on the watch, and never fail to discover, 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 even when they are decorously concealed, their 
 real sentiments. In all such instances, however, 
 the pious Christian must consider how little the 
 reasonableness of the case has to do with the 
 opinions of such men, whatever they may observe 
 of their superior talents, or may be told of the 
 spriteliness of their sarcasms. Let them note the 
 inconsiderate rashness of their conclusions; aboye 
 all, that they are in general extremely ignorant of 
 the subject. 
 
 The pride of reason has always been remarked, 
 as an element in the composition of the human 
 mind, and in such men at least, it is always found ; 
 their very first impulse is invariably to separate 
 themselves from those they call the vulgar; to 
 soar above what they vote to be their prejudices 
 and mistakes, their blindness and their ignorance ; 
 above all, their credulity. Now, in every civilized 
 community, the common sense and common feel- 
 ings of mankind have offered worship, more or 
 less enlightened, to the Supreme Being; have 
 erected temples, and instituted religious orders; 
 
 and in the instance of Christianity, have made our 
 
 _——— .~-_ <<" 
 
PREFACE. XX1 
 
 holy religion one of the great concerns of life ; 
 an object continually presented to our view, on 
 every occasion brought forward to influence our 
 minds, to control our evil affections, to fit us for our 
 present state, and to purify and prepare us for a better. 
 
 Now it is this natural and enlightened anxiety 
 of a community, which, while it has the most de- 
 sirable effect on the minds of the mass of mankind, 
 has, from its very nature, an efiect directly the 
 reverse on the particular description of men, we 
 are now considering—they turn away from what 
 influences others, on that very account; because it 
 does influence others—they must not be like the 
 common herd—they, forsooth, are not to be so 
 easily practised upon—they are not to be duped— 
 they object not indeed to the usefulness of religion, 
 as a means of keeping mankind in order, but as to 
 themselves, they are not much disposed to be kept 
 in order, and certainly not by the discourses of 
 priests, as they are called, and the superstitious 
 ceremonies, as they are deemed, of religion. 
 
 We conceive that we are thus describing a case 
 
 of no very uncommon occurrence; often to be ob- 
 
XXll PREFACE. 
 
 served, and still more often in secret existing, 
 among those, who are conscious of their superior 
 talents, and who are succeeding in the world by 
 the exercise of them. We conceive, that we have 
 not advanced more than they would themselves be 
 conscious of, if they undertook a duty with which 
 they are little acquainted, the duty of self-exami- 
 nation. “Their talents may be equal to the con- 
 sideration of the evidences of religion, but they 
 have no leisure so to employ them; they would 
 not thus advance themselves in the career of what 
 may be in itself, and properly limited, their useful 
 and honourable ambition; and they are not in 
 that frame of mind, which can be fitted for the 
 reception of the religion of humility; nor can they 
 be brought into it, but by some visitation of sick- 
 ness, or the disappointment of their worldly 
 hopes. 
 
 But among such men, the men of talents, dis- 
 tinctions exist, and they must be noted.—lI speak 
 not indiscriminately of all—such men are not 
 always either licentious or thoughtless in their 
 
 opinions. Many are often found to acknowledge 
 
PREFACE, XX111 
 
 the existence and attributes of the Deity, though 
 they may not have successfully considered the evi- 
 dences of the truth of Christianity—they are 
 impatient of difficulties and objections; they con- 
 tent themselves with the great general impression, 
 that results from’ the observation of everything, 
 within, above, and around them; they can see and 
 feel the force of the evidences of natural religion— 
 any serious or pious thoughts, by which they may be 
 affected, find here their immediate province, and they 
 soar away into a higher region, as they suppose, of 
 religious worship ; higher than those can attain, who 
 are submitted to all the ordinary ceremonies and 
 doctrines of any particular system of faith like 
 Christianity. It is to be lamented, that such men, 
 often in themselves very respectable, should have 
 their minds so chained down by notions like these, 
 that they cannot carry out their reflections to their 
 legitimate conclusions, and that they do not per- 
 ceive, that in consistency, they ought from Deists 
 to become Christians: that though natural religion 
 is the foundation, Christianity is the consequent 
 
 superstructu re. 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 A distinguished prelate of our church, Bishop 
 Butler, as profound a reasoner as any of them- 
 selves can be, has well considered the situation of 
 men like these and has treated them with a ten- 
 derness and a respect, which they cannot but feel 
 and acknowledge, and which they have not always 
 met with from others; but which the bishop, both 
 as a man of sense, and as a Christian, was disposed 
 to exercise, and could at the same time see, would 
 be the best preparation for the reception of his 
 reasonings. What he has shown, is the analogy 
 of every thing we can observe around us, to the 
 doctrines of natural and revealed religion ; that we 
 exist here, for instance, is a fact—that there is an 
 Almighty being above, this too will be admitted 
 ——that we have affections and passions, and that 
 we are pursued by the consequences that follow 
 from our behaviour—that there is prudence and 
 folly in the world—success and miscarriage—health 
 and sickness—patience and fortitude—hopes and 
 fears; that all these are facts, which cannot be 
 denied, for we have daily and hourly experience of 
 
 them—that these facts are entirely agreeable to 
 
e 
 
 PREFACE. XXV 
 
 the suppositions of natural and revealed religion; 
 that the views and doctrines of each are such, as 
 might be expected: from these facts—that these 
 facts on the one side, and these views and doctrines 
 on the other, correspond and harmonize, and there- 
 fore are evidently derived from the same source— 
 that there is an analogy and consistency in the two, 
 that is, in the facts of our existence, with the doc- 
 trines in the first place of natural religion, and 
 afterwards the doctrines of revealed religion—that 
 natural and revealed religion are of the same na- 
 ture with each other—that they are exposed to 
 the same objections, and recommended by the same 
 considerations, and that on the whole the Deist 
 will find no difficulties in Christianity, which may 
 not equally be found in the system of belief and 
 in the Deism which he has already adopted, and 
 very wisely and justly adopted. 
 
 But unfortunately, as I have already observed, 
 with such men Deism is thought sufficient—it 
 sufficiently employs and elevates the piety, which 
 their nature affords, and they are not conscious 
 
 that they have already laid the foundation of 
 
 Cc 
 
XXV1 PREFACE. 
 
 Christianity in their minds, and that they stop, 
 when they should proceed; that such feelings as 
 affect their hearts, and suchsreasonings as in- 
 fluence their understandings, might. justly lead - 
 them to higher perceptions of the dispensations of 
 the Almighty ; higher aspirations for the piety of 
 their minds; a better rest for their inquiries and 
 a yet surer and stronger foundation for the hopes, 
 which they already entertain of an hereafter. 
 
 It is to men like these that the work of Butler 
 may be properly addressed; it may be described 
 in afew words. It is an unanswerable preparative 
 for the reception of revealed truth. He who is 
 already a Deist cannot well fail, after meditating 
 this work, of becoming a Christian—the objec- 
 tions to natural religion and Christianity are shown 
 to be the same, and if he has survived objections 
 to the one, he will find immortal life in the other. 
 
 Dr. Beattie, the author of the « Minstrel,” 
 was employed, in a retirement during the sum- 
 mer, in writing his Essay on Truth, in which he 
 undertook to confute the sceptical writings of 
 
 Hume—vwritings, which had then got possession 
 
PREFACE. XXVIII 
 
 of the world to a degree that not a little dis- 
 quieted and alarmed him. In some moments of 
 melancholy thought, such as poets are exposed 
 
 . to, he wrote the beautiful poem that begins 
 
 “¢ At the close of the day, when the hamlet is still, 
 And mortals, &c. 
 
 ’Twas then by the cave of a mountain reclined, 
 An hermit his nightly complaint thus began : 
 
 Tho’ mournful his numbers, his soul was resigned, 
 He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man.” 
 
 and the poem ends with the two following lines, 
 
 “‘ But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn ! 
 Oh when shall it dawn on the night of the grave !” 
 
 His literary friends remonstrated against his 
 leaving his Hermit in this disconsolate situation, 
 without any hopes of a life to come; and against 
 his delivering to the world (though an opponent of 
 Hume) stanzas which Hume himself might rather 
 have written. The poet felt the objection—and 
 in the first place he altered the opening stanzas of 
 the poem, destroying, in fact, all the meaning of 
 the poem, which lay in the “ mournful numbers” 
 
 and complaint” of the hermit; and he then 
 
XXVIll PREFACE. 
 
 made some amends to the reader by writing the 
 
 oem that begins 
 I gins, 
 «Twas thus by the glare of false science betrayed ; ” 
 
 —and what he had now to say, was, that Chris- 
 tianity would restore the mind of the hermit to 
 peace, and afford him the sure hopes of that im- 
 mortality of which he had despaired; but it was 
 not easy to say this in poetry—words were to be 
 found to express Christianity and to describe 
 immortality: the three concluding stanzas of the 
 
 poem were these: 
 
 “Qh! pity, great Father of light, then I cry’d, 
 
 Thy creature, who fain would not wander from thee ; 
 Lo! humbled in dust, I relinquish my pride : 
 
 From doubt and from darkness thou only canst free ! 
 And darkness and doubt are now flying away ; 
 
 No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn, 
 
 So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray, 
 
 The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.” 
 
 And now Christianity was to be described, and 
 the immortality that Christianity promises, and 
 they were described in the stanza that followed ; 
 
 in the last—which was thus expressed, 
 
PREFACE. XXI1X 
 
 «¢ See truth, love, and mercy, in triumph descending, 
 And nature all glowing in Eden’s first bloom ! 
 
 On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending 
 And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.” 
 
 I must confess, that I have always considered 
 this as the most successful retreat from a former 
 poem, the most successful palinode, as it is called, 
 that ever was written. It is very agreeable to see 
 so charming a poet extricate himself from his diffi- 
 culties in so beautiful a manner. 
 
 But if men distinguished in the world for their 
 talents turn away from Christianity, even when 
 exhibited to them in a manner agreeable to the 
 import and precepts of the gospel, how inevitable 
 is their recoil, when it is presented to them, under 
 the forms and ceremonies of what they consider as 
 superstition and priestcraft—still more, when they 
 see the professors of Christianity assailing with 
 harsh expressions and accusations those who differ 
 from them; see them, enemies to the freedom of 
 the human mind, and disturbing the empire of 
 peace and goodwill among mankind. 
 
 Voltaire was thus exasperated by the members 
 of the Roman Catholic Church, till the abolition 
 
 Cas 
 
XXX PREFACE. 
 
 of Christianity became the passion of his life; and 
 an unworthy spirit of intolerance can assume vari- 
 ous forms according to the various situations of the 
 community with regard to their religious belief. 
 And while I am engaged in considerations of 
 this kind, I am compelled to observe, that the ex- 
 travagances of enthusiastic preachers have often a 
 most unfavourable effect on the belief of those who 
 read their works or hear their discourses; an un- 
 favourable effect too serious and too common, not 
 to be alluded to, when I am enumerating the causes 
 of scepticism and infidelity. ‘The mysteries of 
 our religion, that should be approached with awe, 
 that are received only as the proper objects of faith, 
 and on the authority of the gospel, these mysteries 
 are studiously brought forward and are pushed into 
 all their supposed logical consequences; as if it 
 was only meant to repel and drive into a state of 
 doubt and distress every mind that is in a sober 
 state of Christian belief: and these, the effusions 
 of a religious imagination, rather than the edifying ) 
 instructions of those, who better know what spirit 
 
 they are of, are no longer confined to the un- 
 
PREFACE, XxX 
 
 learned and irregular teachers of the gospel, but 
 have found their way into the churches of the 
 establishment—and what is the unhappy conse- 
 quence? ‘Is this then Christianity ?” says a man 
 of any reflection, “is this what I am to believe ? ” 
 ‘Cis this the religion of the gospel?” I may not 
 be duly informed on the subject—I am no divine, 
 but this at least, I cannot believe; this cannot be 
 religion—it may not occur to him, how different 
 is what he has thus heard or read, from what he 
 will find in the Holy Scriptures, 
 
 “‘ It must needs be, that offences will come”—— 
 when a religion is generally established and received, 
 it cannot but be, that fanaticism in particular cases 
 will occur. Men of ardent temperament will con- 
 sider it as a part of piety to urge the doctrines 
 they believe, to extremes which are distressing to 
 men of more sober minds ; they inflame themselves, 
 and the sympathy of their evident piety inflames 
 their followers ; they exaggerate, they become in- 
 tolerant and exclusive, they wage war with the 
 innocent amusements of life. But in the mean 
 
 time the general habits of contempt and derision 
 
XXXIl PREFACE. 
 
 that are thus introduced into the minds of superior 
 men are to be on every account lamented. «* Con- 
 tempt,” says Paley, “ before inquiry is fatal,” and 
 thesober and humble believer must not be too 
 much affected or himself led astray, by the disbe- 
 lief and irreverence, which he may see thus occa- 
 sioned on the one part, or in the unlicensed and 
 heated effusions of the ministers of his religion, 
 his fellow Christians, on the other. 
 
 But the allusion that I have thus made, to the 
 contempt and derision, thus unhappily occasioned, 
 may introduce to our notice, a description of men, 
 very important in society and everywhere to be 
 met with; these are men, who from the liveliness 
 of their faculties are accustomed to see everything 
 in a ludicrous point of view ; everything with them 
 is converted into a subject of banter and ridicule ; 
 they have a sarcasm ever ready—the imperfec- 
 tions of everything, whether in art, or nature, 
 or human character, are the very food they live 
 upon; and they turn away with indifference and 
 dislike from every subject, that can require any 
 
 patience of thought, or seriousness of reflection. 
 
PREFACE. XXXIl1 
 
 Men of this kind are very amusing to their friends 
 and acquaintance; appear to display great subtlety 
 and sagacity, and are very well fitted, like Voltaire, 
 to have their admirers and disciples: but no more 
 fatal quality can belong to the human mind, than 
 this disposition to see every object in a ludicrous 
 point of view. With such men no grave subject 
 can have any chance of proper appreciation ; some 
 ludicrous image interferes, before an approach to it 
 can be made. Such men will always be found to 
 laugh at the virtues of others; to ridicule their 
 piety, to mock their credulousness, to deride the 
 purity of their sentiments, to rejoice over their 
 faults and failings; and incapable themselves of 
 forming or long maintaining any reflection, that is 
 of an elevated nature, to consider all mankind as 
 made up of dupes and knaves: and thus it happens, 
 that they often give pain and disturbance to the 
 more rational minds of moral and religious men, 
 who are obliged to acknowledge their natural ta- 
 lents, and cannot always, from the nature of the 
 human mind, escape from the impression of the 
 
 ludicrous images, which such men have set before 
 
XXX1V PREFACE. 
 
 them, or the imposing effect of the reckless hardi- 
 hood of their sarcasms. 
 
 When men like these turn to such a subject as 
 the credibility of Christianity, they are quite inca- 
 pable of considering it—-what can be objected to, 
 what can be ridiculed, can alone arrest their notice ; 
 what lies on the surface, what requires no labour 
 of thought, what can be dispatched with a witti- 
 cism—it is here, that they find the enjoyment and 
 natural occupation of their thoughts; they turn 
 from all investigation and reflection—above all, 
 from what has any appearance of gloom—from 
 everything that can interrupt the gaiety of their 
 minds and the sort of constant revelry of thought, 
 which has at length become a part of their 
 existence. 
 
 I have now sufficiently adverted to the different 
 descriptions of men, whom I mean more especially 
 to address in the ensuing statement of the evidences 
 of Christianity. Far be it from me, I must re- 
 peat, to consider men as without religion; the 
 generality of men are certainly not so—the lead- 
 
 ing arguments in favour of the truth of Christi- 
 
PREFACE, XXXV 
 
 anity are sufficiently striking and obvious, and 
 they have never ceased to influence the general 
 mass of the civilized portion of mankind; such 
 exceptions, as I have noted, have existed, and 
 must always exist, from the varying nature of the 
 human mind, but in this country at least, men of 
 ordinary good sense, and exercising that good sense 
 in the way they are accustomed to do, on every 
 other occasion, have uniformly rested satisfied with 
 the substantial credibility of Christianity ; have 
 conformed their conduct to the precepts of it, as 
 far as their imperfections admitted, and have rested 
 upon its doctrines for their support here, and on 
 its promises for their hopes of bliss hereafter. 
 
 In his parable of the sower and his seed, the 
 Saviour has given a representation of the different 
 descriptions of mankind, which will be a warning 
 and edification to them as long as the world 
 remains. 
 
 In this preface, that I have now written, what 
 have I done more, than to colour and embody the 
 
 -master sketch of the Divine Instructor ? 
 
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EVIDENCES 
 
 OF 
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ——_—@—___— 
 
 Natura Religion has, of late years, re- 
 ceived abundant confirmations from the 
 science of Geology. 
 
 In the petrified organic remains of the 
 former conditions of our planet, the geolo- 
 gist discovers proofs of the wisdom in 
 which the world was created, and shows 
 that it is the same Divine Intelligence, 
 which appears, in the world as we now 
 see it, that may also be traced in the 
 fossil remains of these former conditions 
 of our planet. 
 
 Cuvier is the great discoverer of these 
 truths, by means of comparative anatomy. 
 Paley, and former reasoners, proved the 
 existence and intelligence of the Deity, by 
 reference to the anatomy of every living 
 thing in the present world; but Cuvier 
 
 B 
 
x EVIDENCES 
 
 extended the same admirable reasonings 
 into worlds that have existed in past ages. 
 Buckland’s Bridgewater ‘Treatise, will be 
 found an invaluable treasure to those 
 who would wish to know, as surely all 
 must wish to know, what is the confirma- 
 tion that geology has rendered to natural 
 religion. The Bridgewater Treatises will 
 show the further confirmation derived 
 from other departments of science. Now 
 the great confirmation that geology, more 
 especially, has rendered to natural religion 
 is this, that modern geologists in the pro- 
 egress of their merely philosophic inquiries, 
 have by their discoveries established the 
 first great principle of all religion, the 
 creation of man. ‘There must have been 
 a time, as appears from their facts and 
 their reasonings, when he could not have 
 existed on this globe, and therefore a time 
 when he first began to exist on it. An 
 inspection of his frame shows that some 
 wonderful intelligence must have been 
 employed in his formation; so of every 
 other creature that exists, above, around, 
 or below us; and thus all the first main 
 
 | 
 ; 
 . 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 34 
 
 doctrines of natural religion are at once 
 proved, the assertions of the ancient scep- 
 tics are at an end—that the world, for 
 instance, never had a beginning, that 
 every thing always was, as it now is. It 
 is shown that this is not the case; that 
 on the contrary, there must have been 
 a time when man was created—man, and 
 every thing else that we know and that 
 we see in existence on earth, in the air, 
 and in the sea. Now let any one consider 
 what creation is—what a stupendous 
 miracle is here substantiated! Look at 
 these fossil remains, the visible images of 
 those creatures, that could only have ex- 
 isted in a world totally different from ours. 
 Great revolutions take place, and _ this 
 our globe at last becomes what we now 
 see it. What overwhelming thoughts are 
 these! but they may subside into this one 
 ereat and most cheering thought, that we 
 are the creatures of some Almighty Being, 
 who has made us and placed us here. 
 That this is a positive fact, visibly ex- 
 hibited to us in every museum; and upon 
 this fact, so established, the human mind 
 
4 EVIDENCES 
 
 may proceed to build up the edifice, first 
 of natural and afterwards of revealed re- 
 higion. The reasonings of mankind to 
 establish natural religion were always 
 sufficiently cogent and convincing; the 
 argument from design was always suffi- 
 ciently striking to the peasant as well as 
 the philosopher; but atheism is now 
 impossible. Let us refer for a moment 
 to a few of the main positions of these 
 philosophers. “In these most ancient con- 
 ditions, both of land and water,” says 
 Buckland, “geology refers us to a state 
 of things incompatible with the existence 
 of animal and vegetable life; and thus 
 on the evidence of natural phenomena, 
 establishes the important fact, that we 
 find a starting point—on this side of which 
 all forms both of animal and vegetable 
 beings, must have had a _ beginning.” 
 Again—“ As in the consideration of other 
 strata, we find abundant evidence in the 
 presence of organic remains, in proof of the 
 exercise of creative power, and wisdom, 
 and goodness, attending the progress of 
 life, through all its stages of advancement 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 5 
 
 upon the surface of the globe, so from the 
 absence of organic remains in the primary 
 strata, we may derive an important argu- 
 ment, showing that there was a point of 
 time, in the history of our planet, antece- 
 dent to the beginning of either animal or 
 vegetable life.” Again—* Having this evi- 
 dence (p. 55) both of the beginning and 
 end of several systems of organized life, 
 each affording internal proof of the repeated 
 exercise of creative design, and wisdom, 
 and power, we are at length conducted 
 back to a period in which we find a series of 
 primary strata, wholly destitute of organic 
 remains, and from this circumstance we 
 infer their deposition to have preceded the 
 commencement of organic life.” “It is 
 demonstrable (p. 59) from geology, that 
 there was a period when no organic beings 
 had existence—they must therefore have 
 had a begining subsequently to this period, 
 and where is that beginning to be found, 
 but in the will and fiat of an intelligent 
 and all-wise Creator.” 
 
 “ Mais ce qui etonne d’ avantage encore, ” 
 says Cuvier, “et ce qui n’ est pas moins 
 
 B 2 
 
6 EVIDENCES 
 
 certain, c est que la vie n’a pas toujours 
 existé sur le globe, et qu’ il est facile a 
 V observateur de reconnaitre le point ou 
 elle a commencé a déposer ses produits.” 
 
 “ Our eaxisting species (p. 54) had a 
 beginning at a period comparatively recent 
 in the physical history of the globe, and 
 this system was preceded by several other 
 systems of animal and vegetable life, re- 
 specting each of which, it may be proved 
 that there was a time when their existence 
 had not commenced.” Professor Sedgwick, 
 another great name in the science of 
 geology, expresses himself thus— With 
 regard to the succession of animal life, the 
 evidence is so conclusive that no naturalist 
 or competent observer will now deny that 
 new species have continually appeared, 
 not by the transmutation of those before 
 existing, but by the repeated operation of 
 creative power. In his ordinary dealings 
 with the natural world, God works by 
 second causes; so that one natural pheno- 
 menon may be said to flow directly from 
 another. But when we see’ successive 
 orders of animal existence and successive 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 7 
 
 organic types, which once ministered to 
 the functions of animal life, we can only 
 say, a living spirit had been breathed into 
 dead matter, far differing from the mere 
 causative of material laws, and that the 
 beings of whatever order were the effect 
 of mere creative will.” 
 
 The fossils that are found have been 
 restored to apparent life by the genius and 
 industry of Cuvier. “The result of his 
 researches” says Buckland, “ as recorded in 
 the ‘Ossemens Fossiles, has been to 
 show, that all quadrupeds, however differ- 
 ing in generic or specific details, are 
 uniformly constructed on the same general 
 plan and systematic basis of organization, 
 as living species; and that through the 
 various adaptations of a common type to 
 peculiar functions, under different con- 
 ditions of the earth, there prevails such 
 universal conformity of design, that we 
 cannot rise from the perusal of these in- 
 estimable volumes without a strong con- 
 viction of the agency of one vast and 
 mighty Intelligence, ever directing the 
 entire fabric both of past and present 
 
8 EVIDENCES 
 
 systems of creation.” “ Nothing can 
 exceed,” says Professor Buckland, “ the 
 accuracy of the severe and logical demon- 
 strations that fill these volumes (of Cuvier) 
 with proofs of wise design in the constant 
 relation of the parts of animals to one 
 another, and to the general functions of 
 the whole body—nothing can surpass the 
 perfection of his reasonings in pointing 
 out the beautiful contrivances which are 
 provided in almost endless variety, to fit 
 every living creature to its own peculiar 
 state and mode of life—his illustrations of 
 the curious conditions and concurrent com- 
 pensations that are found in the living ele- 
 phants, apply equally to the extinct fossil 
 species of the same genus, and similar 
 exemplifications may be extended from the 
 living to the extinct species of other 
 genera, e. g. rhinoceros, hippopotamus, 
 horse, ox, deer, tyger, hyena, wolf, &c. 
 that are usually associated with the 
 elephant in a hostile state.” (p. 165.) “ In 
 those distant ages that elapsed during the 
 formation of strata of the secondary series, 
 a large field was occupied by reptiles.” 
 
 sae Se ee eee 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 9 
 
 “Geology, as now pursued with the aid 
 of Comparative Anatomy, supplies abun- 
 dant evidence of the structure and 
 functions of these extinct families of 
 reptiles, and not only enables us to infer 
 from the restoration of their skeletons, 
 what may have been the external form of 
 their bodies, but instructs us also as to 
 their economy and habits, the nature of 
 their food, and even their organs of diges- 
 tion; it further shows their relations to 
 the then existing condition of the world 
 and to the other forms of organic life with 
 which they were associated.” 
 
 “ During these ages of reptiles, the most 
 formidable occupants, both of land and 
 water, were crocodiles and lizardsof various 
 forms and often of gigantic stature, fitted 
 to endure the turbulence and continual 
 convulsions of the unquiet surface of our 
 infant world.” 
 
 “The history of reptiles may be traced 
 back through thousands of years, ante- 
 cedent to that latest pomt in the pro- 
 gressive stages of animal creation, when 
 the first parents of the human race were 
 
10 EVIDENCES 
 
 called into existence.” “It isprobable(201) 
 that to many persons, inexperienced in 
 anatomy, any kind of information on a 
 subject so remote and apparently so in- 
 accessible, as the intestinal structure of an 
 extinct reptile or a fossil fish, may at first 
 appear devoid of the smallest possible im- 
 portance—but the lost races, that formerly 
 inhabited our planet, are thus connected 
 with species, that are actually living and 
 moving around ourselves. ‘The systematic 
 recurrence, in animals of such distant eras 
 of the same contrivances, similarly dis- 
 posed to effect similar purposes, with 
 analogous adaptations to peculiar con- 
 ditions of existence, shows that they all 
 originated in the same intelligence.” 
 “When we see the body of an Ichthy- 
 osaurus still containing the food it had 
 just eaten before its death, and its ribs 
 still surrounding the remains of fishes, 
 that were swallowed ten thousand or more 
 than ten thousand times ten thousand 
 years ago, all these vast intervals seem 
 annihilated. ‘Time altogether disappears, 
 and we are almost brought into as imme- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. wil 
 
 diate contact with events of immeasurably 
 distant periods, as with the affairs of yes- 
 terday.” “The design of the Creator 
 (301) seems at all times to have been to 
 fill the waters of the seas and cover the 
 surface of the earth with the greatest pos- 
 sible amount of organised beings, enjoying 
 life—and the same expedient of adapting 
 the vegetable kingdom to become the ba- 
 sis of the life of animals and of multiply- 
 ing largely the amount of animal existence, 
 by the addition of Carnivora to the Her- 
 bivora, appears to have prevailed from the 
 first commencement of organic life to the 
 present hour.” 
 
 Perpetual destruction followed by con- 
 tinual renovation seems to be the general 
 system of nature. The inhabitants of the 
 earth and seas are divided into two great 
 classes, the one herbivorous and the other 
 carnivorous. ‘The appointment of death 
 by the agency of the carnivora almost 
 annihilates through the brute creation, 
 the misery of disease and accidental inju- 
 ries and lingering decay, and imposes such 
 salutary restraint upon excess in increase 
 
1 EVIDENCES 
 
 of numbers, that the supply of food main- 
 tains perpetually a due ratio to the demand. 
 The surface of the land and depths of the 
 
 waters are ever crowded with myriads of . 
 
 animated beings, the pleasures of whose 
 life are co-extensive with its duration, and 
 they fulfil with joy the functions for which 
 they were created. Life to each individ- 
 ual is a scene of continued feasting in a re- 
 gion of plenty. The face of the earth and 
 the bosom of the deep are renewed with 
 endless successions of life and happiness. 
 
 Such, then, is the system, (I have here 
 described it for the immediate convenience 
 of my reader,) such is the benevolent sys- 
 tem of the great Creator; He, in the 
 words of the poet, 
 
 “ Who life on death, on change, duration founds, 
 And gives th’ eternal wheels to know their rounds.” 
 
 Paley takes the same ground and ar- 
 gues with his usual force and beauty. It 
 
 may be added, that in many cases, animal — 
 
 life is thus extremely multiplied—how in- 
 definitely increased are the numbers of 
 various animals, sheep, &c., &c., because 
 
 EE ——— 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 15 
 
 man feeds upon them, and therefore pro- 
 . pagates and nourishes them. What ani- 
 mals do we ever see miserable ?—horses 
 only and dogs—and why them? We do 
 not suffer them to be eaten. We domes- 
 ticate them, and turn them to our own 
 purposes, for which indeed, like cows and 
 sheep, &c., &c., they were evidently in- 
 tended. And while we are looking round 
 for facts, to establish our connection with 
 the great Governor of the universe, it is 
 at this point, that we may turn to the 
 Natural Theology of Paley, a most invalu- 
 able work, the merits of which have been 
 acknowledged by all the writers and phi- 
 losophers that have followed him. 
 
 Paley considers no subject so extensive 
 as that of Natural History applied to the 
 proof of an intelligent Creator. He takes 
 his stand, however, on human anatomy— 
 the striking examples of mechanism, which 
 he would draw, he says, from the copious 
 catalogue which it supplies, are the 
 pivot upon which the head turns, the li- 
 gament within the socket of the hip bone, 
 
 @ 
 
14 EVIDENCES 
 
 the pulley or trochlear muscle of the eye, 
 
 the epiglottis, the bandages which tie . 
 
 down the tendons of the wrist and instep, 
 the slit or perforated muscles at the hands 
 and fect, the knitting of the intestmes to 
 the mesentery, the course of the chyle into 
 the blood, and the constitution of the 
 sexes, as extended throughout the whole 
 of the animal creation. Every organised 
 natural body, in the provisions which it 
 contains for its sustentation and propaga- 
 tion, testifies a care on the part of the 
 Creator expressly directed to these pur- 
 poses. We are on all sides surrounded 
 by such bodies, examined in their parts 
 wonderfully curious, compared with one 
 another no less wonderfully diversified. 
 The works of nature want only to be con- 
 templated, they have every thing in them 
 which can astonish by their greatness. 
 We see an Intelligent Power, arranging 
 planetary systems, constructing a ring to 
 
 surround the body of Saturn of two hun- — 
 
 dred thousand miles diameter, and then 
 bending a hooked tooth, providing an ap- 
 propriate mechanism for the clasping and 
 
 ; 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 15 
 
 re-clasping of the filaments of the feathers 
 of a humming bird. 
 
 We can trace an identity of plan, a 
 connection of system, from Saturn to our 
 own globe, and we can then pursue the 
 connection through all the organised, es- 
 pecially the animated bodies, which it 
 supports. One mind has planned all these 
 productions, one Being has been concerned 
 in all. Under this stupendous Being we 
 live; our happiness, our existence, 1s In 
 his hands, nor ought we to feel our situa- 
 tion insecure, every where we find atten- 
 tion bestowed on even the minutest parts. 
 
 It appears, too, that every portion of 
 space connected with the earth swarms 
 with life, while every living thing is fur- 
 nished with the means necessary to its 
 well-being; the marks of an intelligent 
 
 and providing Creator every where visi- 
 
 ble; and it is here that the naturalist has 
 such an endless field for his entertainment 
 and instruction: the recitals that he makes, 
 while describing the lives and habits of 
 birds and insects more particularly, are 
 perfectly wonderful. He indeed may “look 
 
16 EVIDENCES 
 
 through Nature, up to Nature’s God,” the 
 world may be to him a temple, and his 
 life one continual act of adoration. So 
 far, then, we are permitted by the Al- 
 mighty to observe and know, but more is 
 allowed—we can observe the principle of 
 attraction around us, and Newton has 
 shown, that this principle the Almighty 
 has made use of, all through the heavens 
 above—that it is by this principle that 
 every thing is sustained and moved—and 
 this sublime discovery has been carried 
 forward by the great philosphers of France, 
 La Place, for instance, to an extent that 
 may well fill us with awe as well as ad- 
 miration. Though Newton may be un- 
 derstood, few are competent to understand 
 La Place: we may, however, take the 
 report of those who do—Mrs. Somerville 
 and others. There is a very interesting 
 article on the subject, by Playfair, in the 
 Edinburgh Review, and the admirable 
 Bridgewater Treatise of Whewell is within 
 the reach of every one. The reference 
 that astronomy and general physics bear 
 to natural theology, is shown in a manner 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 17 
 
 that makes his treatise quite invaluable; 
 indeed, all the Bridgewater Treatises are 
 more or less valuable, and united they 
 show us, that nowhere can we cast our 
 eyes, without or within us, that the intel- 
 ligence of the Creator and his adaptation 
 of means to ends, are not visible. I re- 
 member, too, that Smithson Tennant, the 
 late professor of chemistry at Cambridge, 
 told me, that the manner in which the 
 elements of nature were mixed up and 
 adjusted, so as to produce chemical re- 
 sults, that were applicable to the purposes 
 of the world, exhibited proofs of the power 
 and wisdom of the Creator, more aston- 
 ishing even than those, which were known 
 and visible to every one. ‘The chemist, for 
 instance, may show the elements which 
 go to the composition of water, but what 
 must have been the Being who so com- 
 posed them, and formed so universal a 
 fluid—and the observation may be ex- 
 tended through all the universe, as far as 
 we can see it. 
 
 Thus far we are by the great Almighty 
 Master permitted to go, and it is an ex- 
 
 4 
 
18 EVIDENCES 
 
 tent perfectly wonderful, considering what 
 we are, and where we are: it is an extent, 
 perfectly wonderful—and we have kept 
 within the region of facts—nothing has 
 been supposed or built upon any theory— 
 nothing taken for granted—the facts, pro- 
 duced by philosophers, alone referred to. 
 
 Can we proceed any further? can any 
 more facts be found, that relate to our 
 connection with our Creator, and what use 
 can be made of them? 
 
 Looking around us, we may observe a 
 very curious description of people, who 
 go by the name of Jews; and they are a 
 people, that we find in all portions of the 
 earth, look where we will; and there is 
 also a book in existence called the Bible, 
 and this people, though now dispersed, 
 were once a nation, and a nation of great 
 antiquity, and this Bible contains their 
 history and is considered by them as a 
 sacred book, and is so considered by the 
 nations of Europe—these too are facts, 
 and surely very striking facts. 
 
 What can be made of them? in the 
 first place this people were once a nation, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 19 
 
 were conquered and rooted out by the 
 Romans, were dispersed. all over the world, 
 have been so for 1700 years, and yet are 
 still in existence, nowhere collected as a 
 nation, yet every where to be found, every- 
 where dispersed. Nothing of this kind 
 has ever happened to any other nation: 
 a nation when once conquered and rooted 
 out, has always either been heard of no 
 more, or has merged into the general 
 mass of its conquerors. 
 
 The Britons were conquered by the 
 Saxons, the Saxons by the Danes, both 
 by the Normans, but in the course of a 
 few centuries all were consolidated into 
 one undistinguishable mass. ‘The Gothic 
 nations overpowered the Romans; but 
 these civilized and uncivilized portions of 
 mankind were all, in no very long process 
 of time, melted together; so the Moors, 
 that were left in Spain; but, with regard 
 to the Jews, dispersed and scattered as 
 they have been over the face of the globe, 
 they have never lost their religious or 
 national distinctions, though they do not 
 bear any proportion to the natural inha- 
 
20 EVIDENCES 
 
 bitants of the countries where they are 
 settled, though they have been univer- 
 sally reduced to a state of the lowest 
 subjection; hated, despised, and perse- 
 cuted, yet still they exist in numbers 
 undiminished, and separate and distinct 
 from the rest of the world. The bar- 
 barity and injustice, the savage cruelty 
 with which for many centuries they have 
 been treated, are dreadful to think of; it 
 is impossible to read without shuddering. 
 
 Now turn to this sacred book, this 
 Bible in which their history is contained, 
 and what do we find? Denunciations 
 delivered by their great leader and pro- 
 phet, in case they disobeyed the com- 
 mandments of God, which, it is allowed 
 by their own historians, Josephus and all 
 their witers, and by their history contain- 
 ed in this Bible, they did. Look at the 
 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, and again 
 at the 26th chapter of Leviticus. The 
 denunciations there to be found, are al- 
 most a literal description of their state 
 and sufferings since they were rooted up 
 by the Romans: Deut. xxvii, 47—“ Be- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 21 
 
 cause thou servedst not the Lord thy God 
 with joyfulness, and with gladness of 
 heart, for the abundance of all things,” 
 “The Lord (ver. 49) shall bring a 
 nation against thee from far, from the 
 end of the earth, as swift as the eagle 
 flieth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt 
 not understand; (ver. 50) a nation of 
 fierce countenance, which shall not re- 
 gard the person of the old, nor show 
 favour to the young: (ver. 52) and he 
 shall besiege thee in all thy gates, &c. ;” 
 and then follows an enumeration of calam- 
 ities which according to the history were 
 realised at the siege of Jerusalem. “And 
 the Lord (ver. 64) shall scatter thee 
 among all people, from the one end of 
 the earth even unto the other;” “and 
 among these nations (ver. 65) shalt thou 
 find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy 
 foot have rest: but the Lord shall give 
 thee there a trembling heart, and failing 
 of eyes, and sorrow of mind: (ver. 66) 
 and thy life shall hang in doubt before 
 thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, 
 and shalt have none assurance of thy 
 life:” “and J will (Lev. xxvi, 30) de; 
 
22 EVIDENCES 
 
 stroy your high places, &c. (ver. 31) and 
 I will make your cities waste, and bring 
 your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I 
 will not smell the savour of your sweet 
 odours.” “And I will scatter you (ver. 
 33) among the heathen, and will draw 
 out a sword after you: and your land 
 shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 
 And upon them (ver. 36) that are left 
 alive of you I will send a faintness into 
 their hearts in the lands of their enemies ; 
 and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase 
 them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from 
 a sword; and they shall fall when none 
 pursueth.” “And they that are left of 
 you (ver. 39) shall pine away in their 
 iniquity in your enemies’ lands; ” &c., &c., 
 and then follow both in this chapter in 
 Leviticus and in the chapter in Deuter- 
 onomy, an assurance that after all, the 
 nation shall not be ultimately entirely ex- 
 tinguished, but shall be restored to their 
 native land. So that the first part of this — 
 general prophecy seems already fulfilled, 
 and the nation is apparently reserved in 
 its present unexampled state, to be ready 
 to fulfil the conclusion of the prophecy. 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. Qe 
 
 These denunciations and this sort of 
 general assurance of an ultimate restora- 
 tion on repentance, appear very fully in 
 all the subsequent prophetical books— 
 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Ezekiel. ‘“ For 
 the children of Israel shall abide many 
 days without a king, and without a prince, 
 and without a sacrifice:” (Hos. iii, 4;) 
 (ver. 5)— Afterwards shall they return, 
 and seek the Lord their God, and David 
 their king; and shall fear the Lord and 
 his goodness in the latter days,” &c. 
 Through all the changes of the world, 
 nothing has happened to prevent the ac- 
 complishment of these prophecies, they 
 are capable not only of a figurative, but 
 of a literal completion in every particular, 
 if such be the will of God. 
 
 These prophecies are recorded in books 
 which have been read in public assemblies 
 these 2000 years, have been dispersed into 
 several countries, translated into several 
 languages, and quoted and commented 
 upon by different authors of different 
 ages and nations, so that there is no pos- 
 sibility of forgery or illusion. 
 
24 EVIDENCES 
 
 And. these prophecies, though written 
 by different men in different ages, have 
 yet a visible connection and an entire har- 
 mony and agreement with each other. 
 
 Prophetic writing is of a peculiar na- 
 ture—necessarily obscure ; designed more 
 for the instruction of future ages, than of 
 the times in which they were written ; 
 obscure, for otherwise some men would 
 have been endeavouring to hasten their 
 accomplishment; others, to defeat it. Pro- 
 phecy is history anticipated and contracted 
 —history is prophecy accomplished and 
 dilated. 
 
 The nature of it is most admirably ex- 
 hibited by the poet Gray, in his matchless 
 ode of “The Bard:” 
 
 “ Mighty victor, mighty lord,” 
 says the bard addressing Edward 1; 
 
 ‘“‘ Low on his funeral couch he lies! 
 
 No pitying heart, no eye, afford 
 
 A tear to grace his obsequies ! 
 
 Is the sable warrior fled ? 
 
 Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead. 
 
 The swarm that in thy noon- aalets beam were born, 
 Gone to salute the rising morn.’ 
 
 q 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. Bee Aa 
 
 How unintelligible would all this have 
 been to Edward I., supposing he had 
 really heard it, pronounced by an ancient 
 man from a rock at Conway. What 
 could he have made of the “ funeral 
 couch,” and the ‘sable warrior,” and the 
 “yising morn?” and yet how descriptive 
 of the subsequent events of the history, 
 how beautiful, how affecting! The tri- 
 umphs of Edward III.’s reign—followed 
 by his desolate condition at the close of 
 his life—the desertion of Alice Pierce— 
 the premature death of the Black Prince | 
 —and the accession of the young king, 
 Richard I. 
 
 Prophecies verified assume the nature 
 of facts—the Bible is the only book, that 
 exhibits to us the communications that 
 the Almighty has vouchsafed to make to 
 his creatures. After the great facts of 
 natural religion to which we have alluded, 
 and which exist around us, the only fur- 
 ther intimations that we have of his exist- 
 ence and his will and his dispensations, 
 are contained in the Bible—to the Bible, 
 therefore, we must refer, and the’ Bible 
 
 D 
 
26 _ EVIDENCES 
 
 contains two great leading dispensations 
 —the dealings of the Almighty with the 
 Jewish nation; and afterwards, his deal- 
 ings with the whole of his creatures, 
 through the ministry of Jesus Christ. 
 These are astonishing and awful subjects 
 —they form the subject of the Old Testa- 
 ment and the New; and as we have been 
 speaking of facts, we must observe once 
 more, that prophecies, when verified, as- 
 sume the nature of facts; and facts, that 
 show the divine origin of the books con- 
 taining them. 
 
 This, no sound mind can deny; and, 
 therefore, when we look at the Old Testa- 
 ment and find books that are called pro- 
 phetic books, and that contain prophecies, 
 that were afterwards verified im the his- 
 tory of the world, it is impossible to 
 escape from the conclusion, that the Book, 
 containing them, is an inspired Book. 
 
 We may be repelled by other portions 
 of the Book—we may be at a loss to 
 know what to think of the different narra- 
 tives and representations that it exhibits ; 
 still, if there are these prophecies in the 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. aay 
 
 Book, it is impossible to cast it aside; it 
 must be considered as an inspired Book, 
 and as one essentially different from every 
 other. 
 
 It must be observed, too, that there are 
 prophecies both in the Old Testament 
 and in the New, but the books are very 
 different in their character. The Old 
 Testament contains a history of the Jew- 
 ish, people, of a people in a most bar- 
 barous state, and it is filled with a recital 
 of their crimes and atrocities; it thus 
 becomes very repulsive—it gives an ac- — 
 count of the earliest communications of 
 the Almighty with his creatures, and the 
 prophecies which it contains, connect it 
 with the New Testament; for many of 
 them refer to some subsequent state, not 
 only of the Jewish people, but of all 
 mankind; for they refer to the future 
 appearance of some Being, who under the 
 name of the Messiah, was to redeem Israel 
 and to produce important effects on the 
 rest of the world. 
 
 And this future appearance of the Mes- 
 siah becomes the subject of the New 
 
 & 
 
28 EVIDENCES 
 
 Testament; here are recorded the life, 
 and the actions, and the doctrines, in the 
 first place, of the Messiah that did appear, 
 and afterwards of his apostles and disci- 
 ples, with the early progress of Chris- 
 tianity; and in this manner are connected 
 the Old Testament and the New. But, 
 before we turn to these sacred volumes, 
 two preliminary observations must be 
 made, the better to prepare the mind for 
 the proper consideration of them. The 
 first is this; that they who resort to these 
 books for the purpose of thereby under- 
 standing the secrets of the universe, will 
 be disappointed—no insight is here afford- 
 ed into these mysterious subjects: it has 
 pleased the Almighty to give us great 
 powers of reasoning and of discovery, but 
 they are strictly limited—are sufficient to 
 our well-being and to the knowledge of 
 our duty, but not to the gratification of 
 our curiosity ; and we must be content to 
 receive the gift of our existence, on such 
 conditions as it has pleased the Almighty 
 Master, in his supreme wisdom and ac- 
 cording to the purposes of his providence, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. veo 
 
 to impose upon it. The second is this; 
 that men of powerful and inquiring minds 
 deduce from the universe around them, 
 conclusions of their own, with respect to 
 the attributes of the Deity—they then 
 turn to the Old Testament, (more par- 
 ticularly,) and do not find their expecta- 
 tions realised; they pronounce that the 
 Book is unworthy of the great Creator of 
 the world, inconsistent with these, his 
 attributes, and that it cannot be received 
 as a Book of Divine authority. 
 
 It is in these prior expectations and in 
 the comparison of these expectations with 
 the recitals of the Old Testament, that 
 may be found the source of almost all the 
 scepticism and unbelief that may be ob- 
 served to exist, more particularly in the 
 higher and more intelligent orders. ‘Some 
 general remarks may be therefore made. 
 
 The great secret of the universe is, the 
 existence of evil-—it is a happy world after 
 all, says Paley—fairly considered it 1s so ; 
 still there is more evil, both physical and 
 
 moral, that can possibly by explained or « 
 
 understood; and to its existence may be 
 
 Dee 
 
 © 
 
30 EVIDENCES 
 
 traced every difficulty that occurs to perplex 
 and distress men of inquiring minds or 
 feeling hearts. What we may be allowed 
 to learn or know in a future state, may be 
 a subject of humble hope and reasonable 
 expectation—but in this, our present state, 
 the veil is not withdrawn. 
 
 And it is not withdrawn by the Bible, 
 neither by the Old Testament, nor the 
 New—and it must therefore be observed, 
 that when men of science and superior 
 faculties turn from these books, as incon- 
 sistent with the attributes of the Creator, 
 they do not consider at the time, how 
 much they presume upon their own know- 
 ledge of those attributes, or rather of what 
 direction these attributes may take in the 
 present economy of our planet and of the 
 creatures which he has placed upon it— 
 what his designs may be in future, what 
 this great secret of the universe, this exist- 
 ence of evil, really is; how it operates, 
 what consequences it produces, they do 
 not sufficiently consider ; as we are in total 
 ignorance of the subject, how modest ought 
 to be our reasonings, how humble our 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. Beet 
 
 minds ; with what timidity, hesitation, and 
 awe we ought to approach the counsels of 
 the Supreme Governor of the world. 
 
 The adversaries of Christianity have al- 
 ways drawn their arguments chiefly from 
 the books of the Old 'Testament—it was 
 the narratives and representations here 
 contained, that Voltaire made the great 
 subjects of his ridicule, and with the assist- 
 ance of the superstitions and intolerant 
 practices and tenets of the Roman Catholic 
 church he destroyed the faith of the con- 
 tinent; when Priestly visited Trance, a 
 little before the Revolution, an Abbé left 
 his seat and embraced him, because he 
 found him, though a philosopher, yet a 
 believer. And indeed, it must be admitted, 
 if we take particular passages in the strict 
 literal sense, many of them are such, as 
 persons accustomed only to philosophic 
 trains of thought, will no doubt naturally 
 recoil from; but in the mean time there 
 is a difficulty, which the same men will 
 find it impossible to overcome. 
 
 The difficulty is this ; that while the rest 
 of the world was involved in total igno- 
 
Pye EVIDENCES 
 
 rance and. debased by all the unworthy and 
 obscene rites and ceremonies of idolatry, 
 very different were the situation and no- 
 tions of the Jews, and that adequate and 
 sublime views were entertained of the 
 nature and existence of the Deity, which 
 cannot be accounted for by any istruc- 
 tion that Moses could have received from 
 the Egyptians, or any other source but 
 the inspiration of the Almighty. 
 
 It may be true, that the particulars to’ 
 
 be found in the book of Genesis, imply 
 very rude conceptions in the Jews of the 
 nature of the Deity, and show the people 
 to have been in a state of the greatest 
 barbarism; and yet in the midst of all 
 that is repulsive to intelligent men, the 
 same intelligent men must surely perceive 
 striking marks of a revelation to Moses, 
 and of some early communications of God 
 to mankind—compare the sublimity of the 
 account of the Creation with all the other 
 ancient cosmogonies, which the world has 
 exhibited. Longinus produces a passage 
 from it, as an instance of the true sub- 
 lime—* Let there be ight, and there was 
 
 a a ee ee 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. - 33 
 
 light;” and throughout the Pentateuch 
 and the other books of the Old ‘Testament, 
 are enforced in the strongest manner, the 
 fundamental truths of one Supreme Being, 
 who is God alone, and who “ regards the 
 children of men.” Compare these con- 
 ceptions of God with those of the heathen 
 deities in Homer. On entering the Penta- 
 teuch, we find ourselves in the precincts, 
 at least, of true religion—though the 
 Heavens sometimes appear obscured by 
 clouds and darkness. 
 
 The idea of God was not a matter of 
 speculation among a few philosophers, but 
 was actually the fundamental doctrine of 
 the popular faith. The mere fact also of 
 their most extraordinary belief, that they 
 had been separated from all other idola- 
 trous nations and called to worship him, 
 admits of no solution so reasonable, as that 
 their belief was true. The high and just 
 representations of the Deity, the exalted 
 language of piety, the enlightened views 
 of duty, which we find in so many of the 
 Scriptures of the Old Testament, compared 
 with the prevailing character of the Jews 
 
34 EVIDENCES 
 
 themselves, and with that of other ancient 
 nations, can be referred only to some deep 
 influence of a Divine Revelation upon their 
 minds. We perceive these influences in 
 their poetical writings, compositions of the 
 most marked religious character, entirely 
 unlike the poetry of other ancient nations. 
 We sce the minds of the writers wrought 
 upon by such religious convictions, as we 
 cannot ascribe to the unaided progress of 
 the human intellect among the Jews. 
 Looking to the time when the Jews were 
 ‘already in possession of these wonderful 
 books, we have to cast our view back to 
 a period, lighted only by a few gleams of 
 authentic history—all around is the dark- 
 ness and error of polytheism and unholy 
 rites, except where a small people rises 
 distinctly to view, separated from the rest 
 of mankind, whose prophets could thus 
 address them—‘ Jehovah is the eternal 
 God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, 
 he faints not, neither is weary—there 1s 
 no searching of his understanding.” 
 “Thus says Jehovah, the King of 
 Israel, I am the first and I am the last, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. - 80 
 
 and beside me there is no God. Let the 
 wicked man forsake his way, and the 
 unrighteous man his thoughts, and let 
 him return to Jehovah, and he will 
 have mercy upon him, and to our God, 
 for he will abundantly pardon.” From 
 the Jews we have received a large collec- 
 tion of writings, most of them in existence 
 for centuries before Christ, throughout 
 which there was a constant recognition 
 of the being, providence, and moral 
 government of God; and the Old Test- 
 ament is so insulated from all other 
 productions of the human mind in ancient 
 times, as to be a perfect phenomenon in 
 the intellectual history of our race. We 
 may explain it, if we admit the divine 
 origin of the Jewish religion, but not 
 otherwise. 
 
 From an antiquity, which would be 
 shrouded in darkness, were not a dim light 
 cast upon it by their own history, this 
 small people has flowed down, an un- 
 mingled stream amid the stormy waves 
 of the world—tfor a phenomenon so mar- 
 vellous it is idle to assign any ordinary 
 
3o6 EVIDENCES 
 
 cause. . We must believe that this people 
 were, as they profess, separated from the 
 rest of mankind; and that, in a manner 
 so evident, solemn, and effectual, that the 
 ineffaceable belief of the fact has been 
 transmitted from generation to generation, 
 as an essential characteristic of the race. 
 
 In considering the history of this 
 extraordinary people, and the Scriptures 
 of the Old Testament, there are two 
 considerations that should be always 
 present to the mind; and they are these: 
 that the purpose of the Almighty appears 
 to have been to warn mankind against 
 idolatry, by means of the J ewish nation, 
 and by the same means, to prepare a 
 reception for his future dispensation of 
 Christianity. 
 
 And first of idolatry— 
 
 We do not at this day understand or 
 occupy our thoughts about the sin of 
 idolatry ; it has, in a manner, ceased from 
 among us; but in the age of the world, 
 and among those people to whom the 
 Mosaic commandments were delivered, 
 the worship of false gods was the sin 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. O71 
 
 which lay at the root of almost every other, 
 the worship of idols was always attended 
 by the most licentious practices, the rites 
 observed were of the most immoral nature, 
 the Jews were notwithstanding continually 
 disposed to fall into this sin; they made 
 Aaron set up a calf, and the usual abomi- 
 nations followed; it was on account of 
 such licentiousness that idolatry was an 
 offence so prevailing among mankind, and 
 so popular among the Jews, and it is so in 
 the East to this hour. The symbols of the 
 worship are of the most impure nature and 
 the Faquiers or saints indulge themselves 
 in the most licentious practices: the calf 
 was the symbol of love or rather of lust, 
 the cow being (probably from its nutri- 
 tious nature) the strange representation 
 of Venus. ‘Thereis a great French work, 
 on the Religious Ceremonies of Mankind, 
 by Picart, where curious information may 
 be found. 
 
 It has been much the custom of Vol- 
 taire and his disciples to divert themselves 
 and their readers with the history of the 
 Jews, the peculiarities of their religion, their 
 
 E 
 
38 EVIDENCES 
 
 stupidity, obstinacy, and ignorance, but 
 how then, as I shall continue to ask, how 
 then were they so superior to other nations 
 in their doctrines, concerning the nature 
 and the proper worship of the Deity? This 
 superiority, as they were, 1t seems, so stu- 
 pid and ignorant, was not natural, and 
 must therefore have been of a supernatu- 
 ral kind. Other nations worshipped the 
 sun, the moon, and other visible objects ; 
 their ceremonies were, some of them, hor- 
 ribly barbarous, others of a most impure 
 nature; their priests cut and mangled 
 themselves; human sacrifices were autho- 
 rized. Of whom could the Jews have 
 learnt their own rational worship, how 
 could the Israelites have relinquished the 
 rites of the Egyptians, and adopted a reli- 
 gion and ceremonies of so very different a 
 nature—and have done so, even involun- 
 tarily? for it was involuntary, as is evident, 
 from their frequent relapses into their 
 former licentious rites and into idolatry. 
 Every effect must have a cause. What 
 adequate cause for so great an effect, but 
 the divine communications recorded in 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 39 
 
 the books of Moses? The Jews had long 
 been enslaved to the Egyptians, the authors 
 and supporters of the grossest idolatry, and 
 they had been weighed down by the most 
 incessant manual labours, yet at this time 
 and in this nation, was the Mosaic law 
 promulgated, teaching the great principles 
 of true religion—the self-existence, the 
 unity, the perfections, and the providence 
 of the one great Jehovah, reprobating all 
 false gods, all image worship, all the ab- 
 surdities and profanations of idolatry ; and 
 a system of government was framed, which 
 had for its basis the reception of, and steady 
 adherence to, the system of true religion. 
 The promulgation of such a system of the- 
 ology at such a period and to such a people, 
 and to be so connected with the frame of 
 government, and adopting such extraordi- 
 nary regulations and observances—such, 
 indeed, as could not have been received, 
 if relying on nothing but human aid and 
 contrivances—how can all this be ac- 
 counted for, without allowing the truth of 
 the Mosaic dispensation—the delivery of 
 Israel by supernatural aid, and the estab- 
 
AO EVIDENCES 
 
 lishment of the religion and government 
 by divine authority ? 
 
 The worse that is thought of what is 
 read in these extraordinary writings, im 
 particular passages on particular occasions, 
 the greater becomes the difficulty. How 
 comes it that when Solomon had to dedi- 
 cate his temple to the Supreme Being, he 
 made use of expressions so appropriate 
 and so sublime, that our modern preachers 
 in the opening of their new churches, can 
 only paraphrase the sentiments, and follow 
 at a humble distance this sovereign of the 
 Jews, praying among his people three 
 thousand years ago. 
 
 « And he said, Lord God of Israel, there 
 is no God like thee in heaven above, or 
 on the earth beneath.”—‘ But will God 
 indeed dwell on the earth? behold the 
 heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot 
 contain thee; how much less this house 
 which Ihave builded. Yet have thou res- — 
 pect unto the prayer of thy servant—and 
 hearken thou to the supplication of thy 
 servant, and of thy people Israel, when 
 they shall pray towards this place; and 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 41 
 
 hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place ; 
 and when thou hearest, forgive.” And 
 after enumerating different public calami- 
 ties that might occur, “ What prayer and 
 supplication soever be made by any man, 
 or by all thy people Israel, which shall 
 know every man the plague of his own 
 heart, and spread forth his hands towards 
 this house ; then hear thou in heaven thy 
 dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and 
 give to every man according to his ways, 
 whose heart thou knowest ; (for thou, even 
 thou only, knowest the hearts of all the 
 children of men;) that they may fear thee 
 all the days that they live in the land which 
 thou gavest unto our fathers.” —And 
 he continues his prayer in this manner 
 through several verses. 
 
 The preservation of the Jews from idol- 
 atry and the establishment of a purer 
 worship, were thus, we may presume to 
 think, the first great purpose of the Deity ; 
 and this is the first great leading consider- 
 ation that we are to attend to; and the 
 second is, that the Mosaic dispensation was 
 a preparation for the christian religion— 
 
 E 2 
 
7) EVIDENCES 
 
 that is, a particular people were selected 
 not only to maintain in the world just 
 views of the existence and attributes of the 
 Deity, but to preserve in their records cer- 
 tain prophetic compositions, which should 
 announce the future appearance of the 
 Messiah, and should always remain evi- 
 dence, by the descriptions there given, that 
 in the person of Jesus Christ the Messiah 
 had appeared. 
 
 These two grand considerations should 
 never be absent from the mind of an in- 
 quirer, and they will enable him to turn 
 away, little affected by various objections, 
 that may otherwise disquiet him; and | 
 must repeat, that on any enlarged view of 
 the subject, the conclusion is, that the Jew- 
 ish dispensation was of divine origin, that 
 the Jewish people were chosen by God for 
 certain great purposes, connected with the 
 spiritual improvement of mankind, that he 
 gave them the knowledge of himself and — 
 of his will, and declared through the pro- 
 phets, the promise of a future Redeemer, 
 and, finally, that the Mosaic dispensation 
 may rest on these main considerations, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. RAD 
 
 crowned as they are by the subsequent 
 dispensation of Christianity—and having | 
 made these general remarks, and urged 
 the difficulty that men of philosophic 
 minds must be under, to account for all 
 that they cannot but admire in the writ- 
 ings of the Old Testament, in the midst of 
 all that they may object to, the difficulty, 
 the impossibility of accounting for it, but 
 on some general admission of a communi- 
 cation from the Almighty, I must proceed 
 to make further statements, and suggest 
 such considerations as, I think, may fairly 
 be addressed to their serious attention. 
 The crimes and even the faults of the 
 Jews, render more striking the manner in 
 which the Divine Power effected the gra- 
 cious purpose of preserving in the world 
 the principle of true religion, when all the 
 other nations of the earth were sunk in 
 idolatry and corruption of manners. Had 
 a nation, as celebrated for wisdom and 
 mystery as the Egyptians, for literature 
 and genius as the Greeks, for policy and 
 success as the Romans, been made the 
 channel of conveying to us the revelations 
 
44 EVIDENCES 
 
 of God, it would have been immediately 
 said, that the scheme had originated in 
 the wisdom and policy of the first rulers of 
 the state, and been afterwards acquiesced 
 in, from the admiration with which the en- 
 lightened part of the people regarded the 
 system and its authors. But among the 
 Jews, (particularly under their judges,) 
 the Mosaic law received no support from 
 any permanent authority, or the influence 
 of any set of men, possessing a decided 
 mental superiority ; while it was evidently 
 contrary to the sensual appetites and ido- 
 latrous propensities of the great bulk of the 
 people. All mental superiority died with 
 Moses ; his nation was from the first, rude, 
 barbarous, and sensual; and his original 
 rise and influence and authority, so great 
 as they were, over such a people, are 
 totally inexplicable, on any common suppo- 
 sition of natural and ordinary events. 
 
 All the Articles of the Jewish religion 
 were formed at once, and committed to 
 writing by Moses himself, and the books 
 were not kept secret. In defiance of 
 them and of his authority, the body of 
 
OF CHRISTIANTIY. — 45 
 
 the people, to whom the law was then 
 given, frequently rebelled against him, and 
 would have even returned to their slavery 
 in Egypt. ‘The institutions were so bur- 
 densome, the rites so contrary to those they 
 had been accustomed to, that they would 
 have been always ready to detect any im- 
 position that had been practised upon them; 
 so would the idolatrous kings and priests 
 of Baal, and so would even Aaron, Moses’ 
 
 own brother, and Miriam, his sister, who / 
 
 had taken umbrage at his pre-eminence, 
 and who could not have been out of the 
 secret, if he had employed any unlawful 
 means to deceive the multitude. 
 
 The miracles of which we have an account 
 in these books were fitted to produce their 
 proper effect, for they were of such a nature 
 that no nation could have been deceived 
 in the belief of them, and the Jews were 
 ill disposed to the object of them—the 
 establishment of the unity of God and the 
 purity of his worship. 
 
 How could all the nation, at any period 
 of time, be made to believe that their an- 
 cestors had come from Egypt, through the 
 
46 EVIDENCES 
 
 Red Sea and the river Jordan, and that 
 such a law as theirs had been delivered 
 in an audible voice from mount Sinai, if 
 none of these things had ever happened ? 
 A fact that cannot be denied, is, the 
 belief of all the Israelitish nation, from 
 that time to this, that such events did 
 take place, that the history of them was 
 written by Moses himself, that he re- 
 mained the historian till near the time 
 of his death, and that the history was 
 continued by other persons who recorded 
 the events of their own times. 
 
 No nation, except the Jewish, ever sutf- 
 fered such calamities, or suffered them 
 without being wholly lost and confounded 
 with the common mass of mankind, and 
 their religious customs dissappearing with 
 them. 
 
 Mr. Gibbon says, that the contempora- 
 ries of Moses and Joshua beheld with the 
 most careless indifference the most amazing 
 miracles; but not so—‘ And Israel served 
 the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the 
 days of the elders, that outlived Joshua, 
 and who had known all the works of the 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. ee hr 
 
 Lord,” (Joshua xxiv. 31.) The belief, which 
 Mr. Gibbon means to question, was always 
 steady, though the practice did not always 
 correspond with the belief—no uncommon 
 case. 
 
 Some of the miracles which Mr. Gibbon 
 calls amazing, are (however amazing) 
 verified by the institutions, ordained by 
 Moses—the Passover, for instance.—(See 
 Exodus, xii. 24.) “Then Moses called for 
 all the elders of Israel and said unto them, 
 Draw out and take you a lamb according 
 to your families, and kill the passover, and 
 ye shall take a branch of hyssop, and dip 
 it in the blood that is in the bason, and 
 none of you shall go out of the door of his 
 house till the morning; for the Lord will 
 pass through to smite the Egyptians, and 
 when he seeth the blood on the lintel and 
 on the two side posts, the Lord will pass 
 over the door, and will not suffer the de- 
 stroyer to come in unto your houses to 
 smite you, and you shall observe this thing 
 for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for 
 ever ; and it shall come to pass, when your 
 children shall say unto you, what mean ye 
 
48 EVIDENCES 
 
 by this service, that you shall say, it 1s 
 the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who 
 passed over the houses of the children of 
 Israelin Egypt, when he smote the Egypt- 
 ians and delivered our houses. And the 
 people bowed the head and worshipped.” 
 And to the same effect is the 12th verse of 
 the same chapter—*“ And this day shall be 
 unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep 
 it a feast to the Lord throughout your 
 generations, ye shall keep it a feast by an 
 ordinance for ever.” And so it was kept, 
 and will be kept while the Jews exist. 
 Now the question is, how could this 
 ordinance have been at first instituted, if 
 no such event, as that on which it was 
 founded, had occurred. We have services 
 in our Prayer Book for the Martyrdom of 
 King Charles I., the Restoration, the Gun- 
 powder Plot, &c. &c.; how could these 
 services have been at first inserted there, 
 if such events, as they commemorate, had 
 never taken place? And the same reason- 
 ing may be extended to other Jewish 
 ordinances, and to other references to mi- 
 raculous events, which continually appear 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. : 49 
 
 in the prophetic writings, and through 
 every part of the Old Testament. 
 
 This will only show, it may be said, that 
 they were believed by the nation; but the 
 question is, how could they have been at 
 first believed, being in their nature, matters 
 of fact, unless they had really happened. 
 
 It must be observed, that in the direct 
 narrative, the miracles are related minutely 
 and circumstantially ; the time, the place, 
 the occasion of each being wrought are ex- 
 actly specified: and such circumstances are’ 
 introduced, as, when considered, prove the 
 miraculous nature of the fact, though no 
 argument to this effect is brought forward; 
 the miracles also are related in the exact 
 order of time when they happened, and 
 the common and supernatural events, both 
 the one and the other, are exhibited in one 
 continued and, indeed, inseparable series. 
 
 Now, had the narrative of historic events 
 been formed for the purpose of gaining 
 credit to a doubtful narrative also of super- 
 natural facts, we should perceive a constant 
 effort to dwell upon and magnify the mira- 
 cles and to obviate any objections to their 
 
 F 
 
30 EVIDENCES 
 
 reality. We should find the writer accusing 
 his countrymen of obstinate incredulity, 
 asserting his own veracity, and appeal- 
 ing in proof of the facts to that veracity ; 
 but nothing of this kind appears in the 
 book of Deuteronomy; the people are 
 never once reproached with having doubted 
 or disbelieved the miracles, but constantly 
 appealed to, as having seen and acknow- 
 ledged them. Moses never produces ar- 
 geuments to prove the miracles, but always 
 considers them as notoriously true and un- 
 questioned, and adduces them as decisive 
 motives, to enforce obedience to the divine 
 laws. ‘This is the only purpose for which 
 they are introduced. 
 
 When the miracles are referred to in 
 Deuteronomy, the illusion is naturally sug- 
 gested by the nature of the topic which 
 the legislator wishes to enforce; it is ad- 
 dressed to the people in that manner which 
 would be clear and forcible, if they had 
 been spectators of the miracle alluded 
 to, and on no other supposition. 
 
 “Your eyes,” says Moses, “have seen 
 what the Lord did, because of Baal Peor, 
 
-_ 
 
 OF CHRISTIANITY. 51 
 
 for all the men that followed Baal Peor 
 the Lord thy God hath destroyed them 
 from among you, but ye that did cleave 
 unto the Lord your God, are alive every 
 one of you this day.” How could Moses 
 have spoken thus, if nobody who had been 
 witness of this fact remained alive 2 
 Again, Deut. xi‘ Love the Lord and 
 keep his charge, for I speak not with your 
 children which have not known, and which 
 have not seen the chastisement of the Lord, 
 his greatness, his mighty hand and his 
 stretched out arm and his miracles and. 
 his acts, which he did in the midst of 
 Egypt, unto Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, 
 and all his land, and what he did to the 
 army of Egypt, unto their horses, and 
 their chariots, how he made the water of 
 the Red sea to overflow them as they pur- 
 sued after you, and how the Lord hath 
 destroyed them unto this day; and what 
 he did unto you in the wilderness, until 
 you came unto this place, and what he did 
 unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, 
 the son of Reuben, how the earth opened 
 her mouth, and swallowed them up, and 
 
a2 EVIDENCES 
 
 their households, and their tents, and all the 
 substances that were in their possession im 
 the midst of all Israel; but your eyes have 
 seen all the great acts of the Lord, which 
 he did, therefore shall ye keep all the com- 
 mandmentswhich I command youthis day.” 
 
 The credit of the facts is here rested on 
 the persons addressed being themselves 
 spectators of the facts, and not merely the 
 children of those who had been spectators; . 
 this was natural in Moses, if addressing 
 his cotemporaries, and if the miracles had 
 been really performed; everything is con- 
 sistent with this last supposition, and in- 
 consistent with every other. 
 
 Again—‘“I have led you forty years in 
 the wilderness, your clothes are not waxen 
 old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen 
 old upon thy foot. Ye have not eaten 
 bread, neither have ye drank wine or strong 
 drink, that you might know that I am the 
 Lord your God.” How could these things 
 have been addressed to the people if they — 
 had not been true? how could the people 
 have been persuaded of their existence, if 
 they had not been real? 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 53 
 
 Furthermore, the Jewish ritual appoint- 
 ed three great feasts, all of which were 
 commemorative of the miraculous deliver- 
 ances from Egypt—the passover expressly 
 commemorated, and every ceremony of it 
 contributed indelibly to record some cir- 
 cumstance of that memorable night, when 
 the destroying angel slew the first-born of 
 Kgypt, and passed over the houses of the 
 Israelites. Another great feast was that 
 of the tabernacles, accompanied with this 
 singular ceremony. ‘“ Ye shall take, saith 
 the Lord God, on the first day, the boughs | 
 of goodly trees, to make booths; for all 
 that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths 
 seven days, that all your generations may 
 know that I made the children of Israel to 
 dwell in booths, when I brought them out 
 of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your 
 God.” A third great feast was the feast of 
 Pentecost, fifty days after the Passover, to 
 commemorate the miraculous deliverance 
 of the Law from Mount Sinai, which took 
 place fifty days after the destruction of the 
 first-born of Egypt, and the consequent 
 march of the Israelites from Egypt, and 
 
 Tee 
 
54 EVIDENCES 
 
 the argument perpetually presents itself, 
 how could these feasts have been at first 
 instituted, unless the events to which they 
 referred, had occurred. 
 
 The necessity of accommodating the 
 religious institutions communicated to the 
 Jews to their capacity and feelings, should 
 never be forgotten when we consider the 
 meaning and objects of these institutions. 
 We are not to wonder, that doctrines of 
 immediate necessity and powerful influence 
 should be insisted upon. We are not 
 to wonder, that the attributes and con- 
 duct of the Deity should be described in 
 ordinary language, and illustrated by me- 
 taphors, drawn from the human character, 
 and even from human passions. We are 
 not to wonder, that immediate and tempo- 
 ral sanctions should be preferred to spirit- 
 ual and remote; and in general we may 
 expect that the language and manner in 
 which religious truths are inculcated, 
 should be adapted to the gross imaginations 
 and short-sighted views of the people for — 
 whom they were designed. 
 
 Considerations of this kind are quite 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. HY) 
 
 reasonable, when we read the Pentateuch, 
 and they must be carried to the utmost 
 possible extent; some passages there are, 
 where some messenger from the Deity, 
 some superior being, some angel of the 
 Lord must be supposed, and this is indeed 
 sometimes positively expressed, and some 
 interference of this nature must be also 
 supposed through the whole of the Old 
 Testament—it must always be some mes- 
 senger or some influence of the Deity, 
 sincerely believed or felt by the leading 
 actors in the narrative, which is by them | 
 expressed in a rude and barbarous age, by 
 words, that indicate the personal presence 
 or interference of the Almighty, in a man- 
 ner totally inconceivable by us, who live in 
 ages of science and improved intelligence. 
 Every thing, it should be remembered, 
 must be always adapted to the state of the 
 recipient. It pleased the Almighty to 
 defer the discoveries of astronomical science 
 to a later age. Moses was therefore left 
 to describe the formation of the world and 
 of our planetary system, in a manner that 
 could alone have been intelligible to those 
 
56 EVIDENCES 
 
 whom he addressed ; it was sufficient that 
 the doctrine of the one great Almighty 
 Being, the creator of the world, was then 
 proclaimed. All through the Jewish his- 
 tory, it must never be forgotten, that the 
 Jews, accustomed to the habitual contem- 
 plation of God, as the author of all things, 
 deeply penetrated by a sense of the marvel- 
 lous circumstances under which their nation 
 existed, and regarding their nation as the 
 object of his special providence, naturally 
 referred to him directly whatever affected 
 its condition, and considered it as a mani- 
 festation of his pleasure or displeasure. 
 
 I will now refer to some observations 
 that have been made by Dr. Arnold in his 
 Dissertations on the Right Interpretation 
 of Scripture. 
 
 In any communication, he remarks, 
 between a Being of infinite knowledge and 
 one of finite, the former must speak accord- 
 ing to the views of the latter, unless it be 
 his pleasure at the time to raise him above 
 the existing level; and when he chooses a 
 being of finite knowledge to be the medium 
 of his revelations, it is at once understood, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. HT 
 
 that the faculties of this being are left in 
 their natural state, except so far as regards 
 the success of the especial message with 
 which he is entrusted; and in the very 
 message itself, there must bea mixture of 
 accommodation to our ignorance. The na- 
 ture, too, of language must be considered, 
 when we describe the dealings of God with 
 man—the wrath, jealousy, repentance of 
 the Divine Being, his sitting on high in 
 heaven, his right hand, and all expres- 
 sions of this nature must be considered as 
 only such expressions as we are enabled 
 to make use of, as our only approach to 
 ideas that are in themselves inaccessible. 
 It must also be remarked that God’s way 
 of dealing with the childhood and youth of 
 the human race, was necessarily different 
 from what was afterwards adopted, and that 
 his revelations to man, including in this 
 term both communications of knowledge 
 and directions for conduct, were adapted 
 to his state, at the several periods, when 
 they were successively made, so that actions 
 might be even commanded at one period, 
 which would not have been at another. 
 
58 EVIDENCES 
 
 ‘Thus God commanded Abraham to sacri- 
 fice his-son Isaac; but human sacrifices, 
 and particularly the sacrifice of children 
 by their parents, were in that age of the 
 world, notoriously practised, and were con- 
 sidered, by the Moabites, for instance, as 
 the greatest possible mark of devotion ; 
 and there is no reason to suppose that the 
 command to sacrifice his son Isaac, was 
 received by Abraham in any other light 
 than asa duty severely trying to his feel- 
 ings, but in no way startling to his sense 
 of right and wrong. It may be supposed 
 by some, that Abraham could not be less 
 aware, than we are, of the wickedness of 
 human sacrifices, because they believe, — 
 that on all points of duty, he was not less 
 enlightened, than the most enlightened 
 christian ; but not so—do they think that 
 polygamy is a matter of indifference, or 
 that Abraham, judging as christians do, 
 would have lived habitually in known sin, 
 as he is represented to have done. 
 
 Other examples of the same principles 
 may be mentioned—the command given 
 to Saul to destroy the Amalekites utterly, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 59 
 
 and his punishment for not obeying it—a 
 similar command given to Joshua to ex- 
 tirpate the Canaanites. Commands like 
 these given to men in the christian stage of 
 their moral progress, would only sanction 
 barbarity ; but at an earlier stage the case 
 is different ; half-civilized men may be the 
 executioners of God’s judgments. In Saul’s 
 time, and before, and long afterwards, the 
 laws of war were so thoroughly barbarous, 
 that no amount of slaughter, committed 
 against enemies, was likely to shock the 
 feelings of any one ; observe the conclusion 
 of the beautiful Psalm, “By the waters of 
 Babylon,” written many ages afterwards: 
 ‘Remember the children of Edom, O Lord, 
 on the day of Jerusalem, how they said, 
 down with it, down with it, even to the 
 ground; O daughter of Babylon, wasted 
 with misery, yea, happy shall he be, that 
 rewardeth thee as thou hast served us, 
 blessed shall he be, that taketh thy child- 
 ren and throweth them against the stones.” 
 
 Instances to this effect are to be found 
 in the classical authors—in the poems of 
 Homer, for instance, Agamemnon, in the 
 
60 EVIDENCES 
 
 6th Iliad, advises Menelaus not to spare a 
 single Trojan, young or old, even to the 
 babe in the mother’s womb, and the poet 
 approves the advice; and Ulysses and Tele- 
 machus put all the female slaves of their 
 household to death, and the poet is indif- 
 ferent to their sufferings. : 
 
 Commands of this nature did no violence 
 to the moral notions of Saul or of the Jews, 
 but only called upon them to renounce the 
 ordinary fruits of victory—the slaves, the 
 female captives, the cattle, the silver and 
 the gold—and to act merely as men who 
 fought according to the divine will, and 
 not as men who were to indulge in the 
 customary excesses of lust and plunder. 
 
 The human species has gone through a 
 state far different from the present, one of 
 less fulness of moral knowledge, of less en- 
 lightened conscience, of far more bounded 
 and inferior science, and this less perfect 
 state being a part of the will of the great 
 Creator, the training applied to it must 
 have been suited to it; why, mdeed, he 
 has so willed it, it is vain to ask, and when 
 perceived to be vain, becomes afterwards 
 presumptuous. 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 61 
 
 The progress of mankind has been pro- 
 vided for, though not immediately made 
 attainable, and the higher state of the 
 civilization of the world, and the more 
 enlarged state of the knowledge and 
 science of mankind, are now very distinctly 
 marked. These observations of Dr. Arnold 
 are very deserving of consideration.—It is 
 said to be incredible, and Voltaire has 
 made dramas to destroy all belief in the 
 Bible on this principle, that persons raised 
 up, directed, and assisted by God, should 
 have been guilty of such crimes as David, 
 for instance; but it should be considered 
 that men may be raised up for particular 
 purposes, may be aided in effecting a 
 particular object, mspired with a certain 
 degree of knowledge, assisted at particular 
 periods, and in an especial manner, and 
 yet that beyond this, their natural cha- 
 racter, their external temptations, their 
 acquired habits may have produced all the 
 irregularities and crimes which have given 
 so much offence: to ask why God did not 
 prevent this, is to ask why he did not 
 exercise a greater degree of supernatural 
 
 G 
 
62 EVIDENCES 
 
 control, than the particular purposes of 
 his providence required—it would be to 
 affirm that God could not interfere at all 
 in human affairs, without interposing to 
 such a degree, as would totally subvert 
 the laws of man’s moral nature, by forcibly 
 controlling human agency, and subverting 
 all free will. As far as we can judge, the 
 Almighty, in the government of the world, 
 pre-ordains the more material events, so 
 as to effect his particular purpose, yet 
 suffers his creatures freely to exert their 
 faculties, on all convenient and ordinary 
 occasions, in this manner, not divesting 
 himself of the government of the world, 
 yet not exercising a government that shall 
 set aside all human sin and punishment— ~ 
 all virtue and reward. 
 
 Onall great subjects of human inquiry, 
 no just conclusions can be arrived at, un- 
 less distinctions are carefully made, and 
 all the relative circumstances patiently con- 
 sidered ; on no subject is this so necessary 
 asin that of the Mosaic dispensation—the 
 account that is given of it by Mosesin the 
 Pentateuch, and, again, his account of the 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 63 
 
 creation of the world and the events that 
 took. place during the first ages of it. He 
 related what he naturally believed, and it 
 must be remembered, that at that particu- 
 lar period, he was rather the leader and 
 instructor of the Jews, than of mankind. 
 A greater Prophet than he, a greater Cap- 
 tain of our Salvation, was afterwards to 
 arise, who was to exhibit to mankind a 
 more spiritual system of worship, a higher 
 code of morality, and a more distinct pro- 
 mise of an hereafter. 
 
 No doubt the religion inculcated in the — 
 Pentateuch, in the midst of the most sub- 
 lime references to the nature of the Deity, 
 consisted very much in rites and ceremo- 
 nies, and especially in offerings and sacri- 
 fices: but the observation of the Saviour 
 is very remarkable, when the Pharisees 
 had, as they supposed, refuted his doctrines 
 on the subject of divorce—‘ Moses” he 
 said, “because of the hardness of your 
 hearts, suffered you to put away your 
 wives, but from the beginning it was not 
 so;” and it must never be forgotten, that 
 the ceremonial law, however minute and 
 
64 EVIDENCES 
 
 however overdone, as it has appeared to 
 later writers, and may to ourselves, might 
 be, and it may indeed be concluded, cer- 
 tainly was, quite necessary and adapted to 
 the character and circumstances of this 
 perverse and insulated people, who re- 
 quired to be continually reminded of the 
 dispensation under which they were placed 
 and kept, engaged in acts of obedience 
 and in observances connected with their 
 deliverance, and with the marked separa- 
 tion which was to be enforced between 
 them and the surrounding nations—this 
 could not have been done but by minute 
 and daily ceremonial observances. At a 
 subsequent period, when the nation seems 
 to have merged their religion in those 
 observances, and to have substituted out- 
 ward worship for the pure and spiritual 
 devotion by which it ought to be accom- 
 panied, the remonstrances and accusations 
 of the prophets are very remarkable, and 
 the fervour with which they insist on moral 
 goodness, as the indispensable recom- 
 mendation to the favour of the Almighty. 
 
 Similar sentiments are to be found in the 
 Psalms. 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 65 
 
 The observations which I have now 
 offered, may, I think, be left to the con- 
 sideration of those who believe in natural 
 and revealed religion, as well as those 
 who do not; but I have drawn up this 
 work for the purpose of addressing it to 
 men of sceptical minds, and unsettled 
 religious opinions; and such men it is 
 impossible to influence, unless they are 
 met upon their own ground. I must 
 therefore make a few additional remarks, 
 which must be considered as submitted to 
 their attention exclusively. 
 
 In the first place, I must observe, that 
 the whole doctrine of inspiration has been 
 very unreasonably dealt with by pious and 
 good men. The human agents employed 
 by the Deity to carry on the purposes of 
 his providence, have been supposed to be 
 under his immediate influence on every 
 occasion—this is in itself unnecessary and 
 contrary to the evident facts of the case, and 
 very sceptical objections have arisen in 
 consequence of this mistaken apprehension. 
 In no instance has this effect been more 
 
 unfortunately produced, than in the treat- 
 G 2 
 
66 EVIDENCES 
 
 ment of the scriptures of the Old Testament 
 —it was the very basis of all the sarcasms 
 and reasonings of Voltaire, and has ever 
 since been, of all the infidelity of his fol- 
 lowers—and the Pentateuch has more 
 especially fallen under animadyersions of 
 thisnature. The situation, therefore, and 
 conduct of the great legislator of the Jews 
 should be very carefully considered—that 
 Moses was under the general inspiration 
 and direction of the Almighty may be 
 surely conceived, for it is impossible other- 
 wise to account for the great leading facts 
 of the Jewish history, such as are embodied 
 in their rites and institutions, and cannot 
 now be reasonably questioned. Men, how- 
 ever, recoil from the representations which 
 he has given of that inspiration and direc- 
 tion, but a distinction must always be 
 made, between the dispensations of the 
 ~ Almighty, and the representations after- 
 wards given of them, by the human agents 
 whom it has pleased him to make use of. 
 ‘The great leading miracles which belong to 
 the Jewish history were such, that Moses 
 could not but have supposed, that he 
 
 a, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 67 
 
 worked them by the immediate influence 
 of the Supreme Being ; neither he nor the 
 Jews could have supposed otherwise; but 
 he might then very naturally have after- 
 wards imagined, that he was under the 
 same influence when making provisions of 
 an ordinary nature, for the welfare and 
 management of the nation. He might be 
 generally commissioned to institute reli- 
 gious ordinances and ceremonies of a very 
 exclusive nature, such as would render 
 the Jews a peculiar people, and he might 
 then be left to the workings of his own 
 mind, and justly believe himself under the 
 general influence of the Deity, while pre- 
 paring these ordinances and ceremonies ; 
 and yet it does not follow that we are to 
 take in a literal sense what he says of the 
 minute directions given him by the Al- 
 mighty, constituting so largea portion of the 
 Pentateuch. The chapters in Leviticus, 
 it may be objected, begin with the words, 
 “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,” 
 and then follow such directions and par- 
 ticulars, as it is impossible to suppose 
 could have been orally delivered by the 
 
68 EVIDENCES 
 
 Deity. Admitting this not to be literally 
 true, yet it will be substantially so, if we 
 suppose that this was the form of words 
 made use of by the Jewish legislator, when 
 he was drawing up a code of laws, and 
 announcing them to a rude people, whose 
 obedience he might consider himself as 
 commissioned to secure. In this manner 
 may the representations he has given, of 
 his communications with the Almighty, 
 be accounted for; it is impossible now to 
 know what he would have considered as 
 a direct interference of the Almighty, at 
 that period of the world in which he lived. 
 Tt is sufficient for us to know, that he must 
 have been so far under the immediate 
 influence of divine inspiration, as was 
 necessary for the great purposes which he 
 had to accomplish. Those purposes may be 
 themselves a mystery, but we are not, 
 therefore to turn away from them. We 
 may use our faculties as far as they are 
 permitted to go—the mystery may be in- 
 accessible, but not therefore the ‘evidence 
 
 that the mystery exists. 
 Nor do I see, why reasonings of this 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 69 
 
 general nature, such as may fairly be pro- 
 posed to the consideration and perhaps 
 the candour of men of sceptical minds, 
 such men as I mean more especially to 
 address, may not be extended to far greater 
 lengths—to the ordinaryintellectual nature 
 of Moses, as well as his more gifted and 
 spiritual nature. He might surely be 
 competent to discharge all the great offices 
 of the providence of God, with respect to 
 the chosen people, though he might not 
 in a premature manner rise superior in his 
 natural understanding to the various tra- 
 ditions which seem so universally to have 
 prevailed among mankind, in the first ages 
 of the world—these may appear in his 
 Pentateuch, but this is no reason why we 
 should suppose, that he was not an inspir- 
 ed legislator and an appointed leader of 
 a chosen people. On the whole of this 
 ereat subject it is not contended that a 
 man of sceptical mind may not have diffi- 
 culties to produce, but it is contended, 
 that they must be considered with refer- 
 ence to our nature and existence, and that 
 they are overpowered and lost amidst the 
 
10 EVIDENCES 
 
 evidences, so numerous and so various, 
 
 that belong both to the New ‘Testament 4 
 
 and to the Old. 
 
 We may now turn to the second portion 
 of the Bible—to the New Testament—the 
 part in which is contained an account of 
 the second dispensation of the Almighty 
 to his creatures, not to the Jews alone, 
 but to all mankind. In considering these 
 two awtul dispensations, it 1s impossible 
 to keep the subjects entirely separate from 
 each other, and many observations which 
 have been made in considering the Old 
 Testament, are equally applicable to the 
 New; similar objections to be often obviated, 
 similar evidences to be often insisted upon. 
 
 But at the same time it must be once 
 for all remarked, that though we have 
 dwelt at some length on the credibility of 
 the Jewish scriptures, the truth or the 
 falsehood of the history of the New Tes- 
 tament depends upon proofs quite inde- 
 pendent of the miracles performed by 
 Moses—the connection of the Christian 
 with the Jewish covenant must be sought, 
 not in the miracles, nor in the historical 
 
 See LS ee ee 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. val 
 
 parts generally of the ancient scriptures, 
 but in the types and prophecies which 
 they contain ; these have been incorpora- 
 ted with the history of the Jews, and they 
 are thus kept alive in the memory and 
 belief of mankind ; but it is these types and 
 prophecies that are of consequence to us, 
 not the history to which they are annexed ; 
 our Saviour often alludes to points of 
 Jewish history, but it is only to the law 
 and the prophets, that he referred “as they 
 that testify of him,” and Christianity is 
 thus connected only with those parts of 
 the Old Testament that rest upon facts 
 predicted by the prophets, and which are 
 facts, as easy to be ascertained, as any 
 other points of history. 
 
 In a word, we may leave the historical 
 parts of the Old Testament, and turn our 
 attention to the prophecies. This point 
 has been strongly insisted upon in a 
 very important work, to which we shall 
 refer hereafter, by Archdeacon Lyall. 
 We know that these prophecies are writ- 
 ten in a language which at the time when 
 the fulfilment of many of them took place 
 
ie, EVIDENCES 
 
 had been a dead language more than 500 
 years ; a translation of them is now 
 extant, the Septuagint, which was exe- 
 cuted nearly 300 years before the coming 
 of Christ. The only questions, then, 
 respecting them, which concern the truth 
 of Christianity are, were these prophecies 
 distinctly announced, as prophecies, at the 
 time when they were delivered? were they 
 believed to be prophecies by those among 
 whom they were preserved? were they in 
 process of time substantially fulfilled, 
 according to the fair interpretation of 
 them? If these questions, can be answered 
 in the affirmative, all other questions sink 
 into insignificance—if the events predicted 
 were such asno human knowledge could 
 have foreseen, nor any human art or power 
 have produced, in this case, these prophe- 
 cies are written by divine inspiration, and 
 all the events which form the subject 
 matter of them, and, more especially, that 
 erand event to which so many of them 
 pointed, were brought about by a direct 
 interposition of a divine authority. The 
 Old Testament announces in various parts 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 73 
 
 the coming of the Messiah, the New Tes- 
 tament exhibits this very coming, and 
 makes frequent references to those annun- 
 ciations. It is thus that in these prophe- 
 cies, when verified, the divine authority 
 of the book is shown, and it is in these 
 prophecies also, when they have any refer- 
 ence to the Messiah, and are verified in 
 the person_and character of Christ, that 
 the divinity of his mission also is shown. 
 
 Now the prophecies of the Old Testa- 
 ment are of both sorts; some refer to the 
 future Messiah, some to the events of the - 
 world—to the calamities, for instance, 
 which the Jews were to suffer, and to those 
 that the then great cities and kingdoms 
 of the earth were to suffer. 
 
 These last prophecies, when verified, 
 are an unanswerable proof of the divine 
 nature of these writings—they thus give 
 an authority to those passages that refer 
 to the future Messiah; they become evi- 
 dence in favour of Christianity—both the 
 one and the other are evidence; and we 
 will therefore consider for some time these 
 predictions, both of the one kind and the 
 
 H 
 
V4 EVIDENCES 
 
 other, as both conspiring to form a proof 
 of the truth of the religion of Christ. No 
 doubt the evidence of the gospel does not 
 depend on prophecy alone, but prophecy 
 is an important portion of the evidence— 
 it is that part which more especially affects 
 the minds of men, who are indisposed to 
 believe, for no answer can be made, if the 
 prophecy appears to be subsequently veri- 
 fied. 
 
 The argument from prophecy has been 
 drawn out by Bishop Newton, and pur- 
 sued by subsequent writers, stating the 
 particular confirmations of the argument 
 that are afforded by the accounts of modern 
 travellers, and this portion of the evidence 
 has been fully discussed and exhibited by 
 our regular divines; but I donot refer my 
 reader to their works, as I cannot depend 
 upon his consulting them, and as it is my 
 object, in this short treatise to offer him 
 sufficient grounds for belief, here and im- 
 mediately. 
 
 The prophecies to which we will first 
 allude—those that respect the great king- 
 doms of Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, and 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. Td 
 
 Egypt—are very remarkable, and these 
 kingdoms are the subjectsof history. There 
 are prophecies also, respecting inferior 
 kingdoms, Moab, Edom, and Ammon; but 
 they were soon crushed into oblivion, and 
 the confirmations of prophecy have in some 
 points perished with them; not so the 
 greater kingdoms. ‘To the Jews, indeed, 
 prophecies respecting these inferior king- 
 doms, as they were neighbouring king- 
 doms, might be of the greatest importance, 
 though not to us. It may be said, that 
 empires rise and fall, and that human fore- 
 sight may prophesy—but surely with 
 little confidence; and two thousand five 
 hundred years ago, experience had not 
 produced principles upon which to calcu- 
 late political changes, such as we may 
 have now. 
 
 But in the instances before us, there 
 were particulars described, which cannot 
 be mistaken for the anticipations of human 
 foresight. Thus the prophet Nahum, 
 speaking of the_destruction of Nineveh, 
 says, ‘For while they be folded together 
 as thorns, and while they are drunken as 
 
16 EVIDENCES 
 
 drunkards, they shall be devoured as stub- 
 ble fully dry.” Again—‘the gates of the 
 rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall 
 be dissolved,” or molten. Now from Dio- 
 dorus Siculus we learn, that the Assyrian 
 camp in a state of drunkenness, during a 
 general festival, was surprised and over- 
 whelmed—they were embarrassed and un- 
 able to defend themselves—they were 
 “folded together” and entangled “as 
 thorns”—they were suddenly and com- 
 pletely mastered—‘ devoured as stubble, 
 fully dry.” The same heathen writer 
 says, that during the siege of Nineveh, 
 an inundation of the river (the Tigris) 
 burst the walls, and the king in despair 
 raised a vast pile, and consumed himself 
 in the flames of his wealth and his palace. 
 Thus the gates of the rivers were opened, 
 and the palace was not simply taken, but 
 “dissolved,” or molten. 
 
 Speaking of Babylon, Jeremiah says, 
 “In their heat I will make their feasts, 
 and I will make them drunken, that they 
 may rejoice and sleep a perpetual sleep, 
 saith the Lord.” And again—‘“TI have laid 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. yt 
 
 a snare for thee and thou art also taken, 
 O Babylon, and thou wast not aware, thou 
 art found and also caught.” And again— 
 ‘‘a drought is upon her waters, and they 
 shall be dried up.” It is a matter of his- 
 tory that Babylon was taken in a manner 
 corresponding with this prediction, when 
 Cyrus drained off the waters of the Eu- 
 phrates, and opened a passage on foot 
 within its banks for the entrance of his 
 army. ‘Thus we have the very accidents 
 of nature and the devices and actions of 
 men anticipated. And, finally, what says 
 Isaiah ? (chap. xiii,) “And Babylon, the | 
 glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chal- 
 dees’ excellency, shall be as when God 
 overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah ; it shall 
 never be inhabited, neither shall it be 
 dwelt in from generation to generation, 
 neither shall the Arabian pitch tent 
 there, neither shall the shepherds make 
 their fold there.” And Jeremiah in like 
 manner—*Therefore the wild beasts of 
 the desert with the wild beasts of the 
 islands shall dwell there, and the owls 
 shall dwell there, and it shall no more be 
 H 2 
 
18 EVIDENCES 
 
 inhabited for ever, neither shall it be 
 dwelt in from generation to generation.” 
 
 The date of these prophecies is quite 
 clear as to the age of Isaiah and Jeremiah, 
 from the Jewish canon of scripture— 
 Isaiah 200, and Jeremiah not less than 
 50 years before the capture of Babylon. 
 Tsaiah was publicly consulted by Hezekiah, 
 Jeremiah publicly questioned for some of 
 his prophecies. ‘The age of Nahum is not 
 so clear; the testimony of the Jewish 
 church, seconded by that of Josephus, 
 (who places the prophecy of Nahum 115 
 years before the capture of Nineveh,) is a 
 fair and reasonable warrant toethe anti- 
 quity of Nahum’s prediction ; but there are 
 not the auxiliary notices of his personal 
 history, or of a chronological date prefixed 
 to his book, that we have in the instances 
 of Isaiah and Jeremiah. 
 
 But observe Zephaniah—“He will 
 stretch out his hand against the north, and 
 destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a 
 desolation, and dry like a wilderness ; and 
 flocks shall he down in the midst of her, 
 all the beasts of the nations, both the 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 19 
 
 pelican and the bittern shall lodge in the 
 upper lintels of it, their voice shall sing 
 in the windows, desolation shall be in its 
 thresholds ;” “‘she is empty,” says Nahum, 
 “and void and waste.” Zephaniah is 
 stated to have prophesied in the days of 
 Josiah. But the time when Nineveh was 
 taken is an unsettled point of chronology. 
 Herodotus assigns the capture to Cyaxares, 
 which will be some years after the latest 
 period of Zephaniah’s prophecy. 
 
 Finally, it is to be observed, that the 
 Jewish canon of scripture was collected 
 and promulgated after the return of the 
 Jews from their captivity, when Babylon 
 was in existence ; it was the work of some 
 centuries to break down this gigantic city 
 into total ruins; so that there is no date 
 which can be assigned to the predictions of 
 Isaiah and Jeremiah, which will not leave 
 them in possession of a clear prophetic 
 character. 
 
 There are many discriminating particu- 
 lars to be traced in the prophecy concern- 
 ing Tyre; these particulars include the 
 subjugation of the city; her restoration to 
 
80 EVIDENCES 
 
 power, after a servitude of seventy years; 
 her later calamaties of capture, burning, 
 and demolition ; her last desolate state, like 
 that of Nineveh and Babylon. For so it 
 is foretold—‘*“I will scrape the dust from 
 her and make her like the top of a rock; 
 it shall be a place for the spreading of 
 nets. Thou shalt be built no more ; though 
 thou be sought for, thou shalt never be 
 found again.” Time has wrought this 
 extremity of ruin, and intermediate things 
 foretold have had their due fulfilment. 
 
 It is to be observed that the age of Ezra, 
 and the formation of the sacred canon 
 after the captivity, preceded by a century 
 the destruction of Tyre, effected by Alex- 
 ander ; still more do they: precede the last 
 stage of the ruin and solitude foretold. 
 
 With regard to Egypt—after Ezekiel 
 had foretold a captivity of her inha- 
 bitants for forty years, he subjoims this 
 second prediction—“ Yet thus saith the 
 Lord God, at the end of forty years, I 
 will bring again the captivity of Egypt, 
 and will cause them to return into the 
 land of Pathros, into the land of their 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 81 
 
 habitation ; and they shall be a base king- 
 dom, it shall be the basest of kingdoms; 
 neither shall it exalt itself any more above 
 the nations, for I will diminish them, that 
 they shall no more rule over the nations, 
 and there shall be no more a prince of 
 the land of Egypt.” What is here foretold, 
 Egypt has suffered. Babylonians, Persians, 
 Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Mamelukes, 
 Turks, have been masters of it in turn— 
 even the Ptolemies were a foreign race; a 
 national degeneracy has defeated all the 
 eifts of nature—it has long been a base 
 kingdom, though originally the most pros- 
 perous, opulent and powerful of kingdoms. 
 
 Thus Nineveh and Babylon have been 
 destroyed, and Tyre; Egypt has been 
 degraded; the Jewish nation dispersed ; 
 and all predicted. The prophecies and 
 their subjects could not be interchanged— 
 and their truth is now visible. 
 
 One of the oldest scripture prophecies 
 relates to the people of Arabia, the progeny 
 of Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, 
 it was addressed to Hagar—“TI will mul- 
 tiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall 
 
82 EVIDENCES 
 
 not be numbered for multitude; and thou 
 shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name 
 Ishmael, and he will be a wild man, his 
 hand will be against every man, and every 
 man’s hand will beagainst him,and he shall 
 dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” 
 If we call for the report of the historians 
 and travellers of every age, they will inform 
 us, that we have here the very character 
 of the Arabians—we have in that charac- 
 ter a long continued fulfilment of a pro- 
 phecy. 
 
 Thus the Ishmaelites in their own coun- 
 try, and the Jews in every country, except 
 their own, have each, through ages, exhi- 
 bited in the peculiar nature of their con- 
 dition, an object that has confirmed the 
 truth and foreknowledge of prophecy. 
 
 One of the greatest of the prophets, 
 however, has been always among the Jews 
 considered to be, Daniel. The great sub- 
 ject of his prophecy is delineated in two 
 separate vislons—visions in dreams. 
 
 The first runs thus—* This is the dream, 
 and we will tell the interpretation thereof 
 before the king, the king of Babylon. 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 838 
 
 Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the 
 God of heaven hath given thee a king- 
 dom, power, and strengh, and glory; and 
 wheresoever the children of men dwell, 
 the beast of the field, and the fowls of 
 heaven, hath he given unto thine hand, 
 and hath made thee ruler over them all. 
 Thou art this head of gold. And after 
 thee shall arise another kingdom, inferior 
 to thee, and another third kingdom of 
 brass, which shall bear rule over all the 
 earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be 
 strong as iron, for as much as iron break- 
 eth in pieces and subdueth all things; and 
 as iron that breaketh all these shall it 
 break in pieces and bruise.” Here we 
 have a clear statement of the rise of four 
 kingdoms. And such did arise—the 
 Babylonian, which was followed by the 
 Persian, then came the Macedonian, and 
 last, the Roman. 
 
 Porphyry could only contend that the 
 prophecies of Daniel were not written and 
 published till about the age of Antiochus 
 Epiphanes. But the Jews had their canon 
 completed long before the time of Antio- 
 
84 EVIDENCES 
 
 chus Epiphanes. We have it on the 
 authority of Josephus that Daniel’s pro- 
 phecies were read publicly among the 
 Jews in their worship, as well as their 
 other received scriptures; and he has 
 given a more copious and explicit testi- 
 mony to the authority of this one prophet, 
 than to any other whatever. It may be 
 added that the reign of Antiochus Epi- 
 phanes will fall on the period of the third 
 of these empires, the Macedonian; and the 
 prophecy respecting the Roman empire is 
 not thus accounted for; and how could it 
 be foreseen that this fourth empire was to 
 be the last, and how could the prophecy 
 so accurately describe the Roman power, 
 which was to be “the iron power that was 
 to break down and bruise all things.” 
 But the argument admits of a material 
 enlargement. In the visions of Daniel 
 there is introduced a fifth conspicuous 
 object—“a stone cut out of a moun- 
 tain without hands” is the new object, 
 concluding the first vision of the great 
 image; and at the conclusion of the other 
 or second vision, concerning the four 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 85 
 
 beasts, the conspicuous object is this— 
 “One like the Son of Man coming in the 
 clouds of Heaven and receiving a domin- 
 ion, a glory, a kingdom, that all people, 
 nations, and languages, should serve him ; 
 his dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
 which shall not pass away, and his king- 
 dom that, which shall not be destroyed.” 
 ‘These two new prophetic emblems, occu- 
 pying a similar place in the two visions, 
 denote some agreement, or rather an iden- 
 tity in their subject: the first expresses 
 the establishment of the Christian reli- 
 gion; the second, the extent, eternal du- 
 ration, and victory of the Christian king- 
 dom; the mode of that establishment ° 
 justifies the emblem, of “a stone cut out 
 of a mountain without hands;” the first 
 is a past fact; the second is in a state of 
 credibility. It is to be observed that the 
 introduction of Christianity is here stated 
 to be incident upon the time of the fourth 
 empire. This alone is a prophecy. 
 
 Again, the termination of the fourth 
 empire, by its sub-division into a multi- 
 tude of separate kingdoms, is a further 
 
 I 
 
86 EVIDENCES 
 
 ingredient in the prophecy. And a mul- 
 tifarious division took place in the cluster 
 of petty cotemporary kingdoms, which 
 replaced the Roman empire upon its dis- 
 solution—the definite number of ten may 
 or may not be a strict postulate of the pro- 
 phecy—a multifarious division is no doubt 
 denoted—and such a division took place. 
 
 I must dwell a little longer on the pro- 
 phecies concerning the great empires of 
 the East—they are very striking. 
 
 The main facts are, that the Assyrians 
 carried away the ten tribes of Israel, and 
 that the two remaining tribes of Judah 
 and Benjamin were afterwards carried cap- 
 tive by the Babylonians. The facts are 
 related by Herodotus and Xenophon. 
 Isaiah lived 250 years before Herodotus, 
 350 before Xenophon. Jeremiah 150 
 before the one, 250 before the other. 
 Isaiah prophesied 160 years before the 
 taking of Babylon, Jeremiah 56. 
 
 The prophesies are very animated, and 
 are distinct, though clothed in Eastern 
 imagery, The Assyrian princes placed 
 colonists of their own in Samaria, instead 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 87 
 
 of the children of Israel; and Cyrus, after 
 the conquest of Babylon, restored the two 
 captive tribes of Judah and Benjamin to 
 Judea, after a captivity of seventy years. 
 Humanly speaking, it was impossible for 
 these prophets to have foreseen the fall 
 of these mighty empires, and the destruc- 
 tion of such immense cities—Nineveh by 
 the Babylonians, and Babylon by the 
 Medes and Persians; yet the denuncia- 
 tions of these Jewish writers are every- 
 where to be found in their writings, and 
 show them to have been inspired, and their 
 books fully entitled to the character of 
 prophetic writings. It were endless to 
 produce passages of this nature—‘ O 
 Assyria,” says Isaiah, “the rod of mine 
 anger; (or, Woe to the Assyrian, the rod 
 of mine anger.)......Wherefore it shall 
 come to pass, that when the Lord hath 
 performed his whole work upon Mount 
 Sion and Jerusalem, I will punish the 
 fruit of the stout heart of the king of 
 Assyria, and the glory of his high looks:” 
 chap. x. There was no prospect at this 
 time of such an event, while the Assyrians 
 
88 EVIDENCES 
 
 were in the midst of their successes and 
 triumphs—yet such was the event. 
 
 The fall of Nineveh was prophesied in 
 like manner, by Jonah, chap. 1—*'The 
 Lord will stretch out his hand against the 
 north, and destroy Assyria, and will make 
 Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wil- 
 derness,’ &c. What probability was 
 there that such a city (60 miles in circum- 
 ference) should be destroyed, and so de- 
 stroyed; but the place is hardly known, 
 where it was situated, and the same may 
 be said afterwards of Babylon. 
 
 Babylon became the queen of the East, 
 after the destruction of Nineveh; and the 
 prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah are 
 very distinct and continually repeated. 
 “Israel 1s a scattered sheep,” says Jere- 
 miah, (chap. 1,) “The lions have driven 
 him away; first the king of Assyria hath 
 devoured him, and last this Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, king of Babylon, hath broken his 
 
 bones; therefore thus saith the Lord of — } 
 
 Hosts, the God of Israel, behold I will 
 punish the king of Babylon, and his land, 
 as I have punished the king of Assyria. 
 
* OF CHRISTIANITY. 89 
 
 Jeremiah lived before and during the Baby- 
 lonian captivity ; even the time of the fall of 
 Babylon was predicted—‘“'These nations,’ 
 (theJews and others, ) said Jeremiah, (chap. 
 xxv,) “shall serve the king of Babylon 
 seventy years, and it shall come to pass, 
 that when seventy years are accomplished, 
 that I will punish the king of Babylon 
 and that nation, saith the Lord.” ‘This 
 was predicted in the first year of Ne- 
 buchadnezzar. Particulars that occurred 
 are even alluded to: the city was taken, 
 for instance, by surprise, during the time © 
 of a feast—‘‘ I have laid asnare for thee, 
 (Jer. 1,) and thou art also taken, O Baby- 
 lon, and thou was not aware; thou art 
 found andalso caught.” (chap. li)—* In 
 their heat I will make their feasts, and I 
 will make them drunken, that they may 
 rejoice and sleep a perpetual sleep and not 
 awake, saith the Lord; and.I will make 
 drunk her princes and his wise men, her 
 captains and her rulers, &c., and they 
 shall sleep, &c.” 
 
 But observe the then condition of 
 Babylon ; how could this have been fore- 
 
 12 
 
90 EVIDENCES 
 
 seen and foretold? “Babylon,” says 
 Isaiah, (chapter xiii,)—I must again 
 allude to his prophecy—*“ Babylon, the 
 glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of 
 the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as 
 when God overthrew Sodom and Go- 
 morrah; it shall never be inhabited, 
 neither shall it be dwelt in from genera- 
 tion to generation, neither shall the 
 Arabian pitch tent there, &c. &c., and 
 her time is near to come and her days 
 shall not be prolonged.” In lke manner, 
 Jeremiah (chap. 1)—‘ Because of the 
 wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inha- 
 bited, but it shall be wholly desolate.... 
 every one that goeth by Babylon, shall be 
 astonished and hiss at all her plagues ;” 
 “therefore the wild beasts of the desert 
 shall dwell there,’ “and the land shall 
 tremble and sorrow, for every purpose of 
 the Lord shall be performed against Baby- 
 lon, &c. &c.” <All these denunciations 
 
 have been fulfilled and exist at this 
 
 moment. 
 Cyrus, says Xenophon, imposed a tri- 
 bute upon the Babylonians, appointed a 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 9] 
 
 strong garrison, &c. &c.; but they re- 
 belled under Darius and were cruelly 
 treated, as prophesied in Isaiah xii, 11 ,18 ; 
 and Jeremiah 1, 42. Xerxes plundered 
 and destroyed the temples and idols of 
 Babylon: so Isaiah (xxi, 9)—‘ Babylon 
 is fallen, is fallen, and all the images of 
 her gods he hath broken to the ground.” 
 So Jeremiah (li)—*I will do judgment 
 upon the graven images of Babylon, &c.” 
 Alexander purposed to have made Baby- 
 lon the seat of his empire, and set men at 
 work to rebuild the temple of Belus, &c. 
 &c.; but he met with some difficulties, 
 and shortly died; and Sélucia being built 
 a few years afterwards, Babylon, though 
 long subsisting in a state of decline, was 
 at length swept away from the place that 
 it had occupied, and seen no more. 
 Another city, which I have already 
 mentioned, and which was an enemy to 
 the Jews, and another instance of the truth 
 of prophecy, was ‘Tyre. There was an 
 insular Tyre as well as the Tyre upon the 
 continent, and both are included in the 
 prophecies. Tyre must have been the 
 
92 EVIDENCES 
 
 place of communication between the west 
 and the east; and it was in this wealthy 
 and flourishing condition when Isaiah 
 foretold its destruction, 125 years before 
 it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar— 
 “Who hath taken this counsel,” says 
 Isaiah, (chap. xxiii,) “against Tyre, the 
 crowning city, whose merchants are 
 princes, whose traffickers are the honour- 
 able of the earth? The Lord of hosts 
 hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all 
 glory, and to bring into contempt all the 
 honourable of the earth.” But Ezekiel, 
 who lived later than Isaiah, is the prophet 
 
 in whose writings denunciations against | 
 Tyre most abound—* By thy great wis- 
 dom (chap. xxviii) and by thy traffic hast 
 thou increased thy riches, and thy heart 
 is lifted up because of thy riches........ 
 and thou hast sinned, and therefore will 
 I cast thee as profane out of the moun- 
 tain of God.... Thou hast defiled thy 
 sanctuaries by the multitude of thine imi- 
 quities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; 
 therefore will I bring forth a fire from the 
 midst of thee; it shall devour thee, and I 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 93 
 
 will bring thee to ashes upon the earth, 
 in the sight of all them that behold thee, 
 all they that know thee among the 
 people, shall be astonished at thee, thou 
 shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be 
 any more.” “And (chap. xxvi) I will 
 make thee like the top of a rock, thou 
 shall be a place to spread nets upon, thou 
 shalt be built no more, for I the Lord 
 have spoken it, saith the Lord God.” 
 
 Maundrell, who published a journal of 
 his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, 
 when he came to the place where Tyre | 
 had stood, and saw only “a few poor 
 wretches who subsisted chiefly upon fish- 
 ing,” was much struck by the fulfilment 
 of the prophecy—*‘'Thus saith the Lord 
 God, (Ezekiel xxvi,) Behold I will bring 
 upon Tyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, king of 
 Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, 
 with horses and with chariots, &c....... 
 He shall slay thy people by the sword and 
 thy strong garrisons shall go down to the 
 sround.” Joel and Amos also uttered 
 denunciations against ‘Tyre. 
 
 If the prophecies concerning Tyre are 
 
94 EVIDENCES 
 
 gathered up and considered; it will ap- 
 pear, that the city was to be taken by 
 Nebuchadnezzar, after a long siege; that 
 its inhabitants were to fly over the Medi- 
 terranean, and find no rest; should return 
 after seventy years; that it should be 
 again taken and destroyed; that the 
 people should in time forsake their idol- 
 atry, and become converts to the true 
 religion; and that the city should be 
 finally destroyed, and be a place for the 
 fishermen to spread their nets upon. 
 We will now allude to the second divi- 
 sion of the subject—to the prophecies that 
 relate to the Jewish nation. 
 
 The history, old and recent, of the Jews 
 verifies the denunciations of the prophets, 
 such as are contained in Leviticus and 
 Deuteronomy; in Amos, Jeremiah, Hze- 
 kiel, and other books of the Old Testa- 
 ment. ‘This was always a point insisted 
 upon by the Fathers—Justin, Tertullian, 
 Chrysostom, and others. ; 
 
 The 28th chapter of Deuteronomy I 
 have already referred to, and this and the 
 corresponding chapter in Leviticus have 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 95 
 
 always been considered as containing pro- 
 phecies of the most remarkable descrip- 
 tion. Moses here proposes to the Jews 
 the blessings for obedience and the curses 
 for disobedience, that awaited them; and 
 the predictions of the chapter are verified 
 by the whole series of their history, from 
 their first settlement in Canaan to this 
 very day; the events of this history are 
 well known and may be seen, not only in 
 the Old Testament itself, but.in their own 
 historian, Josephus. 
 
 Jerusalem was taken by Sishak, king. ; 
 
 of Egypt; by Nebuchadnezzar ; by Antio- 
 chus Epiphanes; by Pompey; by Sosius 
 and Herod; and finally destroyed by 
 Titus ; and their sufferings on these occa- 
 sions were tremendous. 
 
 Supposing them disobedient, Moses 
 says, ver. 49—“ The Lord shall bring a 
 nation against thee from far, from the end 
 of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth ; 
 a nation whose tongue thou shalt not un- 
 derstand.” ‘The Chaldeans might be said 
 to come from far, in comparison with the 
 Philistines and their other neighbouring 
 
96 EVIDENCES 
 
 enemies. Much the same description is 
 given by Jeremiah—* I will bring a nation 
 upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith 
 the Lord; it is a mighty nation, it is an 
 ancient nation, a nation whose tongue thou 
 knowest not, neither understandest what 
 they say.” These descriptions may be 
 applied to the Chaldees, but still more so 
 to the Romans—Vespasian (father to 
 Titus) and Adrian, both great destroyers 
 of the Jews, came from commanding in 
 Britain. In the next verse, the enemies 
 of the Jews are characterized as a nation 
 of a fierce countenance, which shall not 
 regard the persons of the old, nor show 
 favour to the young. Such seem to have 
 been both the Chaldeans and the Romans. | 
 According to the Chronicles—* 'The king 
 of the Chaldees, who slew their young men 
 with the sword, and had no compassion 
 upon young man or maiden, old man or 
 him that stooped for age;” and Josephus 
 says, ‘The Romans showing mercy to no 
 amen cc. 3 
 
 Their enemies were also to besiege and 
 take their cities—“‘ And he shall besiege 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 97 
 
 thee in all thy gates, until thy high and 
 fenced walls come down, wherein thou 
 trustedst, throughout all thy land.” And 
 what were the events? In the 2nd of 
 Kings, we read—‘ Shalmanezer, king of 
 Assyria, came up against Samaria and be- 
 sieged it, and at the end of three years, 
 they took it.” And again—*“ So did Sen- 
 nacherib, king of Assyria, come up against 
 all the fenced cities of Judah and took 
 them.” “And Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 
 xxv) took and spoiled Jerusalem, burnt 
 the city and the temple, and brake down 
 the walls of Jerusalem round about.” 
 So likewise the Romans, as may be seen 
 in Josephus. 
 
 In these sieges they were to suffer much, 
 especially by famine—‘* The man’s eye 
 shall be evil towards his brother, and 
 towards the wife of his bosom, and towards 
 his children, because he hath nothing left 
 him, in the siege and in the straitness, 
 wherewith thine enemies shall distress 
 thee, in all thy gates, &c.:” Deut. xxvii, 
 D4. In Levit. xxvi, it is said by Moses, 
 “Ye shall eat the flesh of your sons and 
 
 K 
 
98 EVIDENCES 
 
 the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat ;” 
 and in Deut. xxvili, 56—* The tender and 
 delicate woman among you, who would 
 not adventure to set the sole of her foot 
 upon the ground, for delicateness and ten- 
 derness, she shall eat her children for want 
 of all things secretly in the siege and 
 straitness, wherewith thy enemies shall 
 distress thee in thy gates.” And this ap- 
 palling prophecy seems to have been ful- 
 filled at the siege of Jerusalem, 600 years 
 after, according to 2 Kings vi, and 900 
 years after, according to the prophet 
 Baruch (chap. ii, 1)—* The Lord hath 
 made good his word, according to the 
 things that were written in the law of 
 Moses, that a man should eat the flesh of 
 his own son and the flesh of his own 
 daughter.” And so Jeremiah (Lam. iy, 
 10)—*«'The hands of the pitiful women 
 have sodden their own children, they were 
 their meat in the destruction of the daugh- 
 ter of my people.” And the same pro- 
 
 phecy was fulfilled 1500 years after, in the 
 
 last siege of Jerusalem, according to 
 Josephus. 
 
 te ee Oe ee a ee ee ee 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 99 
 
 Great numbers of the Jews were to be 
 destroyed—(ver. 62) “And ye shall be 
 left few in number, whereas ye were as 
 the stars of heaven for multitude.” Now, 
 not to mention any other of the calamities 
 and slaughters which the Jews have un- 
 dergone, there was in the last siege of 
 Jerusalem, and the war with the Romans, 
 according to Josephus, 1,100,000 people 
 destroyed; the Jews having been assem- 
 bled. from all parts to celebrate the pass- 
 over. “ And the Lord (Deut. xxviii, 68) 
 shall bring thee into Egypt again, and 
 there shall ye be sold unto your enemies 
 for bondmen and bondwomen, &c.” Jo- 
 sephus says, in the 12th book of his 
 Antiquities, that in the reign of the two 
 Ptolemies, many of the Jews were slaves 
 in Egypt—many sent there by Titus after 
 the siege. 
 
 They were to “be rooted out of their 
 own land.” Ver. 63—* And ye shall be 
 plucked out from off the land whither 
 thou goest, to possess it.” They were 
 indeed several times plucked from off 
 their own land—when the ten tribes were 
 
100 EVIDENCES 
 
 carried into captivity by the king of 
 Assyria, and other nations were planted 
 in their stead, and when the two other 
 tribes were carried away captive to Baby- 
 lon, and when the Romans took away 
 their place and nation ; besides other cap- 
 tivities and transportations of the people. 
 But still more: they were to be dis- 
 persed into all nations. Ver. 25—‘ And 
 thou shalt be removed into all the king- 
 doms of the earth.” Ver. 60—“ And the 
 Lord shall scatter thee among all people, 
 from one end of the earth even unto the 
 other.” And what people indeed have 
 been scattered so far and wide as they? 
 But though they should be so dispersed, 
 yet they should not be totally destroyed. 
 Levit. xxvi, 44-—“ And yet for all that, 
 when they be in the land of their enemies, 
 I will not cast them away, neither will I 
 abhor them, to destroy them utterly and 
 to break my covenant with them.” And 
 how marvellous is it, that after so many 
 wars, battles, and sieges, so many years of 
 captivity, slavery, and misery, after the 
 destruction of their state and apparent 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 101 
 
 extirpation, they are not destroyed utterly, 
 and though scattered among all people, 
 they still subsist as a distinct people, 
 among various nations by whom they are 
 surrounded. And yet, ver. 63—‘‘ And 
 among these nations, thou shalt find no 
 ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot 
 have rest.” And again, ver. 29, &c.—They 
 were to be “ oppressed and spoiled ever- 
 more ;” “their houses and vineyards,” 
 “their oxen and asses,” should be taken 
 from them; they were to be “only op- 
 pressed and crushed alway.” The intol- 
 erable sufferings and atrocious cruelties 
 exercised upon the Jews are matters of 
 history. Ver. 34—They were to “ be mad 
 for the sight of their eyes, which they 
 should see ;” and instances of their despair 
 and their destroying themselves occurred. 
 Ver. 36—They should “serve other gods;” 
 and they did so in popish countries to save 
 their property.—The Spanish and Portu- 
 guese Inquisitions reduced them to the 
 dilemma of being either hypocrites or 
 burnt—the dissemblers were numerous. 
 
 Ver. 37—They were to “ become an asto- 
 Ke 
 
102 EVIDENCES 
 
 nishment,a proverb, and a bye-word among 
 all nations.” And do we not hear and see 
 this prophecy fulfilled almost every day? 
 Mahometans, Heathens, Christians, agree- 
 ing in no other respect, have at least 
 agreed in vilifying, abusing, and perse- 
 cuting them—they have been treated as if 
 they were of another species. See the 
 character of Shylock, as given by Shakes- 
 peare. Ver. 59—Their plagues were to 
 be “ wonderful, even great plagues, and of 
 long continuance,” and have they not been 
 so, now these 1800 years. 
 
 We have here prophecies delivered — 
 
 above 3000 years ago. ‘The Jews are truly 
 as Moses foretold they should be—‘a 
 sign and a wonder for ever” —(ver. 40, 46) 
 —‘* Moreover all these curses shall come 
 upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and 
 overtake thee, till thou be destroyed, be- 
 cause thou hearkenedst not unto the voice 
 of the Lord thy God, to keep his com- 
 mandments and his statutes, which he 
 commanded thee, and they shall be upon 
 thee for a sign, and for a wonder, and 
 upon thy seed for ever.” 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 103 
 
 The prophecies addressed to David are 
 striking—those that announced the future 
 greatness and possible iniquities of Solo- 
 mon—* I will establish his kingdom; he 
 shall build a house for my name, and I 
 will establish the throne of his kingdom 
 for ever. I will be his father, and he 
 shall be my son; if he commit iniquity I 
 will chasten him with the rod of men and 
 with the stripes of the children of men. 
 But mymercy shall notdepartfrom him,as I 
 took it away from Saul, whom I put away 
 before thee; and thy house and thy king- 
 dom shall be established for ever before 
 thee—thy throne shall be established for 
 ever. According to all these words and 
 this vision, so did Nathan speak. unto 
 David:” 2 Sam. vu. Again, | Chron. xxii 
 —‘ Behold a son shall be born unto thee, 
 who shall be a man of rest, and I will 
 give him rest from all his enemies round 
 about ; for his name shall be called Solo- 
 mon, and [ will give peace and quietness 
 unto Israel in his day.” 
 
 The prophecies, too, respecting the 
 temple are very remarkable, it was reared 
 
104 EVIDENCES 
 
 with the sanctity of a blessing upon it— 
 “mine eyes shall be opened and mine 
 eyes attent unto the prayer that is made 
 in this place.” Yet was the mind of the 
 Master of this magnificent work occupied 
 with an anticipation of the judicial doom 
 that awaited this first temple—‘ Then 
 will I cut off Israel out of the land, which 
 I have given them, and this house which I 
 have hallowed for my name, will I cast 
 out of my sight, and Israel shall be a 
 proverb and a bye-word among all people ; 
 and at this house, which is high, every 
 one that passeth by shall be astonished 
 and shall hiss, and they shall say, why 
 hath the Lord done thus unto this land 
 and to this house?” “and they shall an- 
 swer, because they forsook the Lord their 
 God, and have taken hold upon other 
 gods and have worshipped them and 
 served them.” Jeremiah was sent to 
 stand in the gate of this temple and to 
 proclaim to the worshippers that entered, 
 its approaching desolation ; its subsequent 
 rebuilding had been foreshown by Isaiah, 
 (chap. xliv,) “'That saith of Cyrus, heismy 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 105 
 
 shepherd, and shall perform all my plea- 
 sure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt 
 be built, and to the temple, thy founda- 
 tion shall be laid.” Of this second temple 
 Christ spoke openly in sight of the place, 
 and announced its coming desolation. 
 Every part of the history of the temple 
 was made a subject of prophecy. 
 
 History has been called the interpreter 
 of prophecy, but during the period which 
 includes the most remarkable events in 
 the Jewish annals, from the commence- 
 ment of their monarchy to their resettle- 
 ment after the Babylonian bondage, and 
 the restoration of the temple, there is 
 scarce an event of any magnitude, that 
 had not its place in the antecedent warn- 
 ings of prophecy. This will be seen by a 
 reference to the prophets, more particu- 
 larly Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. 
 
 We may take our station in the age of 
 Isaiah, and look through his prophecies 
 alone, respecting the fortunes of the two 
 kingdoms of Israel and Judah and reach- 
 ing through a space of more than 200 
 years. ‘The prophetic scheme will present 
 
106 EVIDENCES 
 
 to us, Samaria to be overthrown, but 
 Judah to be preserved; then Judah and 
 Jerusalem, though rescued from the As- 
 syrians, to fall into the hands of the 
 Babylonians—a smaller and a friendly 
 power at the date of the prediction; the 
 catastrophe to be hopeless to Samaria, so 
 that “ Ephraim should be broken from 
 being a people,” the captivity not to be 
 hopeless to Judah, but a restoration to 
 ensue; the restorer to be Cyrus, to arise 
 in a country which was then not thought 
 of among the greater subsisting kingdoms 
 of the east; the medium of their restora- 
 tion was to be his capture of Babylon, 
 which capture was to be effected by dry- 
 ing the river and obtaining access through 
 the gates; the Medes and Persians to be 
 the powers engaged in the siege; lastly, 
 the city of Jerusalem and the temple to 
 be rebuilt. 
 
 Now let any one acquainted with the 
 histories of those times and countries, as 
 preserved even in independent and 
 heathen writers, (and enough is preserved 
 for the purpose of the inquiry,) let him 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 107 
 
 consider whether there existed in the 
 age of the prophet Isaiah, the most. re- 
 mote preparations, discernible by human 
 foresight, for the events there enumerated, - 
 and for this order of things. In particu- 
 lar, whether the Medo-Persian victories 
 by Cyrus, or by any person either of 
 Median or Persian race, as the means of 
 releasing Judah from Babylon, could have 
 been foreseen, when the Median power, 
 as we know, much more the Persian, had 
 no existence ; when there was neither cap- 
 tivity in Babylon nor victories of Babylon 
 to produce it; when the elder Assyrian 
 power was yet in vigour, the subversion of 
 which was the only opening to the possi- 
 bility of the several distant changes and 
 events foretold. To evade the conclusion 
 arising from the prolonged succession of 
 such predictions, nothing is left but to 
 deny that Isaiah or any person of his age 
 wrote the book ascribed to him—an asser- 
 tion without any evidence, and against all 
 evidence; it is to affirm that the Jewish 
 people knew nothing of the book which 
 they placed at the head of their prophetic 
 
108 EVIDENCES 
 
 canon, and nothing of Isaiah or the time 
 in which he lived; that they received 
 books which were forgeries, the authors 
 unknown—forgeries that referred to 
 events that took place through a long 
 succession of years, the forgeries never 
 suspected and the existence of the pro- 
 phets never questioned. 
 
 The various forms and different degrees 
 of light, under which prophecy was suc- 
 cessively dispensed, has been intimated 
 by St. Paul— God in sundry partitions 
 of his truth and in divers manners, spake 
 in time past unto the fathers by the 
 prophets.” 
 
 Finally it must be observed that the 
 Jewish prophets, like the apostles, were 
 confessors and martyrs. Had there not 
 been an irresistible evidence of their in- 
 spiration, they could not have withstood 
 the odium they provoked, while uttering 
 their denunciations; and yet their writ- 
 ings, so exhibiting the sins and crimes of 
 the Jewish nation, were not only pre- 
 served, but adopted into the public monu- 
 ments of their church and nation, and the 
 
 t 
 5 
 . 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 109 
 
 only reason must have been an established 
 conviction of the impossibility of denying 
 the inspiration. 
 
 On the whole then, the divine authority 
 of the prophecies of the Old Testament 
 must be allowed. And this being allowed, 
 the next observation is, that we must re- 
 cur to our former statement, that these 
 prophecies are of two sorts, those that re- 
 late to the great events of the world, such 
 as we have already noticed, and those that 
 refer to some future Messias that was to 
 appear, and that filled the Jewish nation 
 with a constant expectation of some 
 ereat event of the kind. Moreover, this 
 Messias was, according to their belief, to 
 be a great temporal prince, and to be a 
 Deliverer of their nation, We will now 
 refer to them. 
 
 The coming of the Messias was. always 
 a fundamental article of the Jewish faith 
 —this appears from their Talmud, and 
 from other writers, and from expressions 
 in their public prayers—devout persons 
 “waited for the consolation of Israel :” 
 Luke ii; it was “ thought that the king- 
 
 L 
 
110 EVIDENCES 
 
 dom of God would immediately appear :” 
 Luke xix; the chief priests and scribes 
 sent to inquire of John the Baptist, 
 whether he were the Christ or not: John 
 i; the woman of Samaria said, “ 1 know 
 that Messiah cometh.” 
 
 These notions received by the Jews 
 were by them dispersed among the Gen- 
 tiles—the wise men of the East concluded 
 “that the king of the Jews was lately 
 born:” Matt.u. The tradition seems to 
 
 ‘\ have reached the Greeks; their Sybilline 
 
 oracles or Greek verses were probably a 
 Jewish composition taken out of the pro- 
 phets, and thence transferred to the 
 Romans, as in Virgil’s Eclogue, and as 
 in ‘Tacitus, while alluding to Vespasian, 
 that a great king should be born in the 
 East, &c.; so Suetonius and Josephus. 
 (Malachi chap. iii)—‘‘ Behold I send my 
 messenger, and he shall prepare the way 
 before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, 
 
 shall suddenly come to his temple, even . 
 
 the messenger of the covenant, whom ye 
 delight in: behold he shall come, saith 
 the Lord of hosts.” Again, (Malachi chap, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. EEL 
 
 iv,) “ Behold, I will send you Elijah the 
 prophet before the coming of the great and 
 dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall 
 turn the heart of the fathers to the child- 
 ren, and the hearts of the children to 
 the fathers, lest I come and smite the 
 earth with a curse.” In these two pas- 
 sages we see prophesied the coming of 
 John the Baptist, as a prophet, and of 
 Jesus, as the Messias, and the final de 
 struction of Judea following their coming. 
 There are many other passages in the 
 prophetic writings that indicate the com- 
 ing of the Messias. But the expectation of 
 the Jews was, that he was to be a temporal 
 prince and a great conqueror, after the 
 manner of the other great conquerors 
 of the world; and this their expectation 
 was always resisted by the disciples of 
 Christ, who have contended, that though 
 there may be hereafter a temporal Mes- 
 sias, and a final restoration of the Jewish 
 nation, still, that there has a Messias 
 already appeared, that his character is of 
 a totally different nature, that he came, 
 not merely to redeem Israel, but to redeem 
 
112 EVIDENCES 
 
 mankind, and that his office, his qualities, 
 and the effects of his appearance on earth 
 are exhibited, in what are now the gene- 
 rally received articles of the Christian 
 faith; and the great prophecy on which 
 Christians depend, is found in Isaiah, be- 
 ginning, where the Jews begin the pro- 
 phecy, at the end of the 52nd chapter— 
 Isaiah lii, 13— Behold my servant shall 
 deal prudently, he shall be exalted and ex- 
 tolled, and be very high. As many were 
 astonished at thee; his visage wasi so 
 marred, more than any man, and his forni 
 more than the sons of men: so shall he 
 sprinkle many nations; the kings shall 
 shut their mouths at him: for that which 
 had not been told them, shall they see ; 
 and that which they had not heard, shall 
 they consider.” Chap. lin, 1, 12—“* Who 
 hath believed our report? and to whom 
 is the arm of the Lord revealed? for he 
 
 shall grow up before him as a tender plant; 
 and as a root out of a dry ground; he - 
 
 hath no form nor comeliness ; and when 
 we shall see him, there is no beauty that 
 we should desire him. He is despised 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. jd 
 
 and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, 
 and acquainted with grief: and we hid, 
 as 1t were, our faces from him; he was 
 despised, and we esteemed him not. 
 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and 
 carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem 
 him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. | 
 But he was wounded for our transgres- 
 sions; he was bruised for our iniquities ; 
 the chastisement of our peace was upon 
 him; and with his stripes we are healed. 
 All we like sheep have gone astray; we 
 have turned every one to his own way; 
 and the Lord hath laid on him the ini- 
 quity of us all. He was oppressed, and 
 he was afflicted, yet he opened not his 
 mouth—he is brought as a lamb to the 
 slaughter, and as a sheep before her shear- 
 ers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 
 He was taken from prison and from judg- 
 ment, and who shall declare his genera- 
 tion? for he was cut off out of the land 
 of the living, for the transgression of my 
 people was he stricken. And he made 
 his grave with the wicked, and with the 
 rich in his death; because he had done 
 2 
 
nie EVIDENCES 
 
 done no violence, neither was any deceit 
 in his mouth. Yetit pleased the Lord to 
 bruise him; he hath put him to grief; 
 when thou shalt make his soul an offering 
 for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall pro- 
 
 long his days, and the pleasure of the - 
 
 Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall 
 see of the travail of his soul, and shall be 
 satisfied—by his knowledge shall my 
 righteous servant justify many; for he 
 shall bear their iniquities. Therefore 
 will [ divide him a portion with the great, 
 and he shall divide the spoil with the 
 strong; because he hath poured out his 
 soul unto death: and he was numbered 
 with the transgressors; and he bare the 
 sin of many, and made intercession for the 
 transgressors. ” 
 
 Now here, it must be allowed, there is 
 no indication of a temporal prince, and of 
 an earthly conqueror—every thing the 
 contrary. 
 
 The person here announced, is described, 
 as bearing the sins of others—healing by 
 his stripes—procuring peace to man by 
 his chastisement—giving his soul an offer- 
 
 ae 
 ae Lan —. - nee a 
 
t 
 l 
 
 OF CHRISTIANITY. 115 
 
 ing for sin; making intercession for the 
 transgressors—and in brief it may be 
 said, that this prophecy is quite an his- 
 tory of the Saviour’s life, and a descrip- 
 tion of his character and doctrines. 
 
 All that the Jews can do is to affirm, 
 that the prophecy refers to the fate and — 
 fortunes of the Jewish people; but it is 
 evident, that an individual, not a nation is 
 here described. This is all that can be 
 said by the Jews who reject Christ; and 
 with regard to those, who can only say 
 that the prophecy must have been written 
 atter the coming of Christ, and probably is 
 an interpolation of the Christians, it may 
 be replied, not only that the Jews them- 
 selves do not dispute the authenticity of the 
 chapter, but that it happens, that the Old 
 Testament was translated into Greek at 
 Alexandria in the time of the Ptolemies, 
 and the translation is now called the Sep- 
 tuagint, and this was done long before the 
 coming of Christ, and the work has come 
 down to us, and the prophecy may be read 
 there, as well as in the Jewish canon of 
 Scripture. 
 
116 EVIDENCES 
 
 And now it must be remarked, that not 
 only is the character of the coming Mes- 
 sias here determined, but that there are 
 several indications given in the prophecies 
 of the period when the Messias was to 
 appear, and among these must be noted, 
 more especially, the celebrated prophecy 
 of the seventy weeks of Daniel. Within 
 seventy weeks (weeks of years) the Mes- 
 sias was to appear. The prophecy has 
 been thoroughly considered; and without 
 entering into the reasonings and calcula- 
 tions of the commentators, an ordinary 
 inquirer may be satisfied with this general 
 observation, that no one has appeared, 
 since the promulgation of the prophecy, 
 to whom the character of the Messias can 
 be attributed, but the Saviour; and more 
 than this, that the appearance of Christ 
 sufficiently corresponds in point of time, 
 
 with the period marked by the expression — 
 
 of the seventy weeks ; and when Priestley, 
 who had it very much at heart to convert 
 the Jews to Christianity, urged this pro- 
 phecy to Levi, who entered into a contro- 
 versy with him, and was a man of consi- 
 
 (a 
 H 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. ley 
 
 deration among his nation, the Jewish 
 Rabbi could make no satisfactory reply, 
 and had only to produce Antiochus Epi- / 
 phanes as the person intended, and the 
 Jews have never been able to do more; 
 and the Christian interpretation of the 
 prophecy, and the application of it to 
 Christ, is quite undisturbed. 
 
 It may just be mentioned, that Moses, in 
 Leviticus xxv, 8, writes thus—‘ Thou 
 shalt remember seven sabbaths or weeks 
 of years, and the space of the seven sab- 
 baths of years shall be unto thee forty and 
 nine years.” See also Numbers xiv, 34, 
 and Ezekiel iv, 6. Daniel adopts in the 
 prophecy of the seventy weeks, making 490 
 years, this mode of speaking, and when he 
 speaks of the ordinary weeks, in chapter x, 
 2, he calls them weeks of days, according 
 to the Hebrew. 
 
 But a considerable part of the evidence 
 for the truth of Christianity arises not only 
 from the different passages to be found in 
 the Old Testament, but from different 
 passages of a prophetic character in the 
 New, and we may, therefore, once more 
 
118 EVIDENCES 
 
 make some preliminary observations on 
 the general nature of the prophecy, be- 
 fore we quit the subject and before we 
 approach more especially those passages 
 in the New. For instance, many things 
 may seem deviations from the course of 
 nature, which are in strict accordance 
 with its laws; many things spoken at 
 random may come true by chance; many 
 things may come true which human fore- 
 sight was able to divine; some predictions 
 have a tendency to fulfil themselves. But 
 » when a case occurs, in which an event, 
 which no. human sagacity could have 
 anticipated, nor any human means have 
 brought to pass, comes true in accordance 
 with a previous expectation, this case 
 is one of a perfect prophecy. History 
 indeed may be full of fabulous miracles 
 and sometimes exhibit pretended prophe- 
 cies; but it is only in the Bible, that 
 any such prophecies, as we have just 
 described, can be: found. 
 
 In a system of prophecy, therefore, such 
 as we find exhibited in the Scriptures, in 
 many cases, it would be necessary, that 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 119 
 
 even a knowledge of the prophecy should 
 have been kept back; for there is a large 
 class of facts, which depend upon the 
 voluntary actions of human agents, and 
 which men might agree either to bring 
 about or to hinder—it would not there- 
 fore impeach the pretensions of a scheme 
 of prophecy, that many of the predictions 
 which it contained, had not been under- 
 stood, until after the event: for example— 
 had those prophecies, in which the violent 
 death of the Messiah is foreshown, been 
 understood literally by the Jews, they 
 would not have put Jesus Christ to death, 
 in disproof of his pretensions, and as a 
 means of undeceiving the people. In like 
 manner, had they known beforehand, that 
 those passages in the Psalms, where it is 
 said, “ they gave me gall and vinegar to 
 drink,” “they pierced my hands and my 
 feet,” “they parted my garments among 
 them,” were prophecies referring to the 
 manner in which the Messiah would be 
 put to death, it is clear, that they would 
 not have caused their fulfilment in the 
 person of our Lord, at the very moment 
 
120 EVIDENCES 
 
 when they were punishing him, as an im- 
 postor. In Zechariah there is this passage 
 __« And the Lord said unto me, cast it 
 unto the potter, a goodly price, that I 
 was prized at by them; and I took the 
 thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the 
 potter in the house of the Lord.” It would 
 have been easy for the Jews, humanly 
 speaking, to have defeated this prediction, 
 if they had understood it as a prophecy 
 relating to their Messiah. It is therefore 
 no ground of objection to the apostles, if 
 they sometimes quoted passages from the 
 Old Testament, and applied them to Christ, 
 which had not been so quoted or applied 
 before. | 
 The tests of prophecy, it has been said, 
 are time, and place, and person. Pro- 
 phecies may be constructed, which shall 
 seem to be fulfilled, if no restriction of 
 circumstances isrequired. But this 1s not 
 the case with the prophecies of the Serip- 
 tures; no necessary definition, whether of © 
 time, or place, or person, or thing, is with- 
 held. We find there no cunning reserva- — 
 tions, no dark hiding places, no artful 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 121 
 
 accommodation of the language to what- 
 ever sense might prove convenient—they 
 are at once true or false. 
 
 And now it is to be observed, that not 
 only were prophecies uttered to announce 
 the coming of the Messiah, the time and the 
 character in which he was to appear, and 
 not only did he work miracles, to prove 
 his divine authority, but he himself was 
 a prophet, and uttered denunciations of a 
 most extraordinary character, that were 
 afterwards amply fulfilled by the event; 
 and he must be considered, by prophecy as 
 well as by miracles, to have established the 
 divinity of his mission. “The works that 
 I do,” he said, “they bear witness of me.” 
 Here we have the miracles. “Now I tell 
 you, before it come to pass, that when it is 
 come to pass, ye may believe that I am 
 he.” Here we have the prophecies. He 
 predicted his own sufferings, his death, 
 his resurrection, the manner and circum- 
 stances attending them, the treachery of 
 Judas, the denial of Peter, his ignominious 
 treatment in the council of the Jews, and 
 under the hands of Pilate, and his soldiers, 
 
 M 
 
£22 EVIDENCES 
 
 the destruction of the temple, the destruc- 
 tion of. Jerusalem and of his nation, the 
 rapid spread of his gospel, the persecutions 
 of his disciples, the rejection of the Jews, 
 and the bringing of the Gentiles into the 
 church of God. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the several 
 books of the New ‘Testament were written 
 in the age to which they are referred, and 
 by the men whose names they bear—this 
 has been amply shown by Lardner and 
 others. ‘These prophecies were familiarly 
 quoted by the early Christian writers, but 
 no writer against Christianity, in the pri- 
 mitive centuries, attempted to resist the 
 argument, by maintaining that they were 
 not published till after the events had 
 happened—the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 for instance, did not take place till more 
 than thirty years after the time of our 
 Saviour. 
 
 After describing the calamities of the 
 nation and the city, Christ continued his 
 prophecy to those of his own followers— 
 “Before all these, they shall lay their 
 hands on you and persecute you, deliver- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. L235 
 
 ing you up to the synagogues and into 
 prisons, being brought before kings and 
 rulers, for my name’s sake.” (Luke.) 
 * They shall kill you and ye shall be hated 
 of all nations, for my name’s sake.” (Matt. ) 
 “T will give you a mouth and wisdom, 
 which all your adversaries shall not be able 
 to gainsay nor resist.” (Luke.) For the 
 proof of the accomplishment of all these 
 predictions, the Acts of the Apostles 
 afford abundant evidence. Immediately 
 after the announcement of the outward 
 persecutions and internal defections, by 
 which the servants of Christ were to be 
 troubled, there follows this remarkable 
 prophecy—'This gospel of the kingdom 
 shall be preached in all the world, for a 
 witness unto all nations, and then shall the 
 end come.” ‘The end referred to was that 
 of the Jewish polity, which entirely ceased 
 at the destruction of the Jewish metropolis 
 and temple. Jesus prophesied, that be- 
 fore this, that is, in forty years from the 
 time when he uttered these words, the 
 gospel would be preached in all the world. 
 Now of all that was then in futurity, what 
 
124 EVIDENCES 
 
 could have been more improbable, or to 
 human view more impossible, than this. 
 For the gospel was then received only by an 
 handful of unlettered Jews; in a few days 
 after, its author was crucified, as a male- 
 factor; his disciples were scattered, disap- 
 pointed, and despairing; his enemies 
 triumphant; and the gospel seemed at an 
 end,—And yet the gospel was preached, 
 as had been predicted. But none of our 
 Saviour’s prophecies are more impressive 
 than those concerning the destruction, not 
 only of the temple, but of Jerusalem, con- 
 tained in the gospels of Mark and Luke, 
 and most at large in the 24th chapter of 
 St. Matthew. And it happens that in the 
 history of Josephus there is a full deserip- 
 tion of the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
 it it had been composed for the express 
 purpose of attesting the complete accom- 
 plishment of our Lord’s predictions, it could 
 not have been more fitted to accomplish 
 itsend. Josephus was an eye-witness of — 
 what passed, his book was composed at 
 Rome, was presented to Vespasian and 
 Titus, who had commanded at the siege: 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 125 
 
 it was approved by them. No great event 
 in profane history is related with so much 
 attention to all the particulars connected 
 with it, as the destruction of Jerusalem is 
 by this Jewish writer, and it is quite aston- 
 ishing to compare his statements with the 
 prophecies of the Saviour. 
 
 And not only Josephus, but Tacitus may 
 be referred to—and well might the Saviour 
 dissolve in pity over the city and the na- 
 tion, when he thought of the calamities 
 that were pending over them—calamities 
 totally unparallelled even in the most — 
 dreadful portions of the history of the 
 world. 
 
 And now though nothing can be more 
 irresistible, than the evidence resulting 
 from a comparison of the statements of 
 the prophecy, with the statements of the 
 history, yet the subject is embarrassed by 
 a particular circumstance-—and it is this: 
 that the prophecy of the destruction of 
 Jerusalem is connected with expressions, 
 which seem to relate to the final judgment 
 of the world—and so connected, as to lead 
 the reader to expect, that the two events 
 
 mM 2 
 
126 EVIDENCES 
 
 would not be far distant from each other. 
 How the Evangelists came thus to com- 
 bine what the Saviour must have said upon 
 each of these subjects, it is impossible to 
 say—but it may reasonably be said, that 
 however this may have happened, still 
 that the prophecies respecting the destruc- 
 tion of the temple, of the siege and de- 
 struction of the city, of the destruction of 
 the Jewish nation, that the city should be 
 trodden under foot and the Jews dispersed 
 over the world, and finally, the prophecy 
 of what was to happen to the disciples 
 themselves, form altogether a mass of 
 evidence, which it is impossible to resist, 
 which makes it impossible not to acknow- 
 ledge, as a full proof of the divine author- 
 ity of the Saviour—and I must not omit 
 to mention, that there is even a dreadful 
 account in Josephus, of a woman eating 
 part of her own child, which 1s distinctly 
 announced by Moses—‘‘'The tender and 
 delicate woman, &c., &c., shall eat her 
 children for want of all things, secretly in 
 the siege and straitness, wherewith thine 
 enemy shall distress thee in the gates.” 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. wi 
 
 And the same is indicated in the prophecy 
 of our Saviour, ‘ Woe unto them that 
 are with child and give suck in those 
 days, &c.” 
 
 We have now alluded to the prophecies 
 of the Old Testament, and to the prophe- 
 cies of our Saviour in the New Testament; 
 and the general subject of prophecy 
 may be dismissed. The prophecies of 
 Isaiah announced the character of the 
 Messiah—the prophecies of Daniel the 
 time of his coming. In both particulars 
 the Sayiour answered to the descriptions 
 given. But more than this—the Chris- 
 tians contend, that the same Christ worked 
 miracles, and therefore thus finished the 
 proof, that his mission was from God. 
 The subject of miracles is however a 
 most important one, and before we refer 
 to the accounts of the New Testament, 
 some preliminary observations may be 
 made. 
 
 The great opponent of all belief in mi- 
 racles was Hume, who contended that no 
 testimony could prove them, it being 
 always more probable, that human testi- 
 
128 EVIDENCES 
 
 mony should mislead, than that the course 
 of nature should be suspended or altered. 
 
 That make the most of testimony—sup- 
 
 pose it a miracle that the testimony pro- 
 duced should be false—still it was only 
 one miracle opposed to another, and no 
 ground for rational belief remained. While 
 lately unpacking my books, I observed 
 the “Criterion” of Bishop Douglas, a 
 standard work, which was re-published at 
 my desire, in 1807, by Cadell. I looked 
 at it again after an interval of so many 
 years, (more than 30,) and with great 
 interest—and it should always be read by 
 those who read Hume’s “ Essay on Mira- 
 cles,” as dissipating the effect of that 
 celebrated dissertation, so remarkably 
 fitted for turning men of business and 
 men of the world into unbelievers. It is 
 the second part of Hume’s Essay that is 
 most important, and to this, the “Criterion” 
 more especially addresses itself. Other 
 writers have made reasonable answers to 
 the first part—to the logical argument ; 
 but the “Criterion” enters into the whole 
 subject of the various cases of false mira- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 129 
 
 cles produced by Hume—the miracles 
 worked at the tomb of the Abbé Paris, in 
 St. Medard’s churchyard, at Paris, and 
 other miracles of Pagans and Papists. 
 
 In the first place, the great miracle of 
 all is the existence of the human race on 
 the globe of the earth, as we now see it. 
 Time was, when the globe could not have 
 been the habitation of the animals now 
 existing upon it. I must refer, as I have 
 already done, to the discoveries of the 
 geologists, and to the conclusions that 
 may be drawn from the extraordinary 
 fossil remains that they have produced. 
 There must have been a time, therefore, 
 when man was created and every thing 
 else, that we see and know on earth, in 
 the air, and in the sea; and now let any 
 one consider, as I have already remarked, 
 what a stupendous miracle is here sub- 
 stantiated, some awful intelligence exert- 
 ing itself, and the living world, that we see 
 around us, produced. What is there that 
 can astonish us, or be an object of our 
 unbelief, after such a fact as this. 
 
 But to return to the subject before us— 
 
130 EVIDENCES 
 
 Mr. Hume seems to have delighted in 
 scepticism, and to have had the same 
 pleasure in creating a doubt, that others 
 have in establishing a truth. In the case, 
 however, of miracles, produced in support 
 of a religion, the argument assumes a 
 totally different appearance, according as 
 a reasoner supposes, or does not suppose, 
 the existence of a Deity. If we suppose 
 an Almighty Being above us, the inter- 
 ference of such a being in our concerns 
 cannot be thought impossible—but He 
 created us; it is not, therefore, under 
 particular circumstances, even improbable ; 
 and it is not at all impossible that such 
 interference may be shown, by such devi- 
 ations from the general course of his 
 agency, as must necessarily make ug be- 
 lieve, that He has in fact interfered. The 
 distinction made by Archdeacon Lyall is 
 quite just and very important :—there is 
 the fact, and the interpretation of the fact ; 
 
 the fact may surely be proved by testi- — 
 
 mony; whether the nature of the fact in- 
 dicates an interference of the Deity, is a 
 moral consideration, which a sound mind 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 131 
 
 is perfectly competent to judge of—that 
 is, In any case, whether a miracle has been 
 performed or not. 
 
 According to Mr. Hume’s argument, no 
 human testimony can prove a deviation 
 from the established course of nature. 
 
 The King of Siam proceeded upon 
 these principles, and was wrong ; it was in 
 vain, that the Dutch assured him that in 
 their country, water became solid in the 
 winter, and that the people walked and 
 travelled upon it. He would not believe 
 them, it was contrary to his experience of _ 
 the course of nature; it was more proba- 
 ble that the Dutch deceived him. But 
 Mr. Hume would reply that the king took 
 too contracted a view, and saw not that 
 the course of nature might be different in 
 a different country. 
 
 And we, in like manner, may say to Mr. 
 Hume, that he takes too contracted a view ; 
 that the case, we suppose, is that of a 
 revelation. 
 
 A distinction is to be made between 
 those events, which might have happened 
 without the interference of the Deity and 
 those which could not. 
 
ite EVIDENCES 
 
 The effects produced by the imagina- 
 tion, by enthusiasm, by the influence of 
 the nerves appear perfectly astonishing; 
 it is in this way that the “ Criterion” 
 accounts for the supposed miracles of the 
 Pagans and Papists, and more especially 
 those that took place at the tomb of the 
 Abbé Paris. The detail is entered into, 
 and the cases are resolved into the interest- 
 ed contrivances of imposture or the fan- 
 ciful misconception of credulity; but to 
 these the greatest minds have been sub- 
 ject, as in the case of Pascal and his niece. 
 
 Tt is to be observed, that there were at 
 the time in Paris two religious factions 
 raging with great animosity against each 
 other—the Jesuits and the Jansenists— 
 and that it was to support the cause of the 
 latter, that the miracles were worked ; the 
 government had no other expedient to 
 put a stop to those delusions, but that of 
 enclosing the tomb of the Abbé within a 
 wall, and thus effectually obstructing all 
 access to it. On this occasion, as is well 
 known, the following exquisite epigram 
 was fixed upon the inclosure, in the style 
 of the royal edicts. 
 
 “ EN Tn ee ee eee eg ee ee 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 133 
 
 “De par le Roy, defense a Dieu, 
 De faire miracles en ce lieu.” 
 
 I attempt a translation— 
 
 “‘ Oyez, oyez—the king hereby 
 Gives notice to the Lord on high, 
 That in this place He must no more 
 Work miracles, as heretofore.” 
 
 On the subject of miracles, the distinc- 
 tion that Bishop Douglas insists upon, is 
 very just and is this: that it is one thing 
 to work miracles, to found a religion, and 
 quite another to confirm a religion already 
 established. 
 
 When the Saviour appeared as a worker 
 of miracles, he had no party for him; he 
 was a Galilean and a carpenter’s son, and 
 every one had the strongest prejudices 
 against him. He was not the Messiah 
 they expected; he was not a temporal 
 prince. Some of his miracles were per- 
 formed on persons who had made no 
 application to him for relief: not ‘knowing, 
 or not believing, that he had the power of 
 affording it. The interposition of the Sa- 
 viour was never tried in vain, and the cure 
 was always instantaneous. The contrary of 
 all this was the case in the French miracles. 
 
 N 
 
134 EVIDENCES 
 
 There could have been no confederacy 
 to support the miracles of Christ; on the 
 contrary, there was a conspiracy of the 
 rulers to resist the pretensions of Christ 
 and therefore to detect them. The mira- 
 cles were such as could not be accounted 
 for by any natural causes—raising Laza- 
 rus—the widow’s son—the daughter of 
 the ruler of the synagogue—the man 
 blind from his mother’s womb—walking 
 upon the sea—his own resurrection ; im 
 these cases, and in similar cases, the inter- 
 ference of the Deity must be supposed. 
 
 The miracles of the Saviour were ap- 
 pealed to, when performed—they drew 
 attention to the pretensions of the Saviour, 
 they caused his religion to arise and exist 
 —they were appealed to by him along 
 with the prophecies—and afterwards along 
 with the prophecies, they were appealed 
 to in the gospels, and by the apostles in 
 their preaching. The miracles were never 
 
 denied by the subsequent opponents of — 
 
 the religion, Julian, Celsus, and others. 
 But the existence of magic was then 
 supposed, and supernatural events did not 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. t35 
 
 then, in the minds of men, necessarily 
 imply the interference of the Deity. This, 
 added to the non-appearance of Christ as 
 a temporal prince, will account for the 
 disbelief of the Jews. Yet many appear 
 to have believed in consequence of the 
 miracles wrought; the number stated is 
 not inconsiderable. 
 
 The resurrection of Christ was always 
 publicly asserted, wherever Christianity 
 was preached: a miracle is the very corner 
 stone of the religion—Christ was to die 
 for our sins and rise again for our justifi- 
 cation. 
 
 But the miracles had not the proper 
 effect of miracles; for notwithstanding all 
 that they had witnessed, the disciples fled 
 when they saw their Master arraigned 
 and condemned, and when they perceived 
 that he was not the temporal Messiah 
 that, in common with the rest of the Jews, 
 they had expected. 
 
 Strong therefore must have been their 
 convictions, and striking their conversion, 
 when after the resurrection they believed 
 him to be the Messiah, and proclaimed 
 
136 EVIDENCES 
 
 him as such, appealing to his works, and 
 to the law and the prophets; to both, 
 though naturally more to the last, when 
 addressing their countrymen, the Jews. 
 
 The apostles seem to have had them- 
 selves, the power of working miracles 
 occasionally, as appears from the Gospels 
 and the Acts, and passages in the Epistles. 
 The power is now, since Middleton’s “ In- 
 quiry,” considered as having died with 
 them, when it was no longer necessary. — 
 ‘Time however was given from the death 
 of Christ, to the death of the apostles, for 
 the detection of any imposture. The 
 apostles: did not keep together as if ina 
 conspiracy, but separated themselves; and. 
 if the Gospel had not been true, such a 
 separation would have been fatal. 
 
 The apostles were opposed by the 
 authorities of the world; every where those 
 authorities were intolerant and hostile, as 
 may be inferred from the letters of Pliny 
 to the Emperor Trajan; men in authority 
 must all have thought, as he did, that 
 though the Christians might worship 
 Christ if they pleased, they ought not to 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 137 
 
 refuse their homage to the gods of the 
 emperor ; that this was at all events wrong, 
 and a crime to be punished; and it must 
 be further observed, that the apostles 
 preached and worked miracles, in what 
 was then a civilized part of the world, and 
 it was through the same civilized part of 
 the world, that the gospel was at first, and 
 for some time, propagated. 
 
 The first preachers introduced a great 
 change into the state of religion among 
 mankind; how could this have been done 
 by them, unless they had been  super- 
 naturally assisted, 7 
 
 “Whence,” says Dryden in one of his 
 noble passages, 
 
 “‘Whence but from heaven, could men unskilled in 
 arts, 
 In different ages born, in different parts, 
 Weave such agreeing truths—or how, or why 
 Should all conspire, to cheat us with a lie; 
 Unasked their pains, ungrateful their advice, 
 Starving their gains, and martyrdom their price.” 
 
 The apostles at least, were without 
 riches to bribe, authority to awe, reputa- 
 tion to influence, learning to cajole, or, 
 
 Nee 
 
138 EVIDENCES 
 
 with the exception of St. Paul, eloquence 
 to persuade. 
 
 There is one portion of the general ar- 
 eument in favour of the truth of the 
 Christian religion, which has been urged 
 by Paley, with uncommon force; I know 
 no specimen of argumentative eloquence, 
 equal to it. The whole of his work on 
 the “ Evidences of Christianity,” is full of 
 the most beautiful and convincing obser- 
 vations on the general subject, and on 
 every part of it. But the portion I now 
 allude to, is that, which has more espe- 
 cially satisfied all ordinary inquirers; it 
 is contained in these two propositions :— 
 
 First—* That there is satisfactory evi- 
 dence, that many pretending to be origi- 
 nal witnesses of the Christian miracles, 
 passed their lives in labours, dangers, 
 and sufferings, voluntarily undertaken and 
 undergone, in attestation of the accounts 
 which they delivered, and solely in conse- 
 quence of their belief of the truth of 
 those accounts, and that they also submit- 
 ted from the same motives, to new rules 
 of conduct.” 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 139 
 
 Secondly—‘* That there is not satisfac- 
 tory evidence that persons pretending to 
 be original witnesses of any other similar 
 miracles, have acted in the same manner, in 
 attestation of the accounts which they de- 
 livered, and solely in consequence of their 
 belief of the truth of those accounts.” 
 
 This portion of the general argument, 
 I must repeat, has been urged with the 
 most striking argumentative eloquence, 
 and the whole work I must also repeat, is 
 full of the most beautiful and convincing 
 observations, such as are well worthy of 
 this incomparable writer. | 
 
 But it is sometimes said, that the priva- 
 tions and sufferings, which the apostles 
 endured, while first preaching the gospel, 
 show only, that they themselves believed 
 in its truth, not that it was true—that the 
 history of the world abounds with in- 
 stances of fanatics and enthusiasts, who 
 have suffered every extremity of persecu- 
 tion, and even death itself, still affirming 
 doctrines, which no one but themselves 
 could possibly believe; and that, conceding 
 to Paley all that he has laboured to prove, 
 
140 EVIDENCES 
 
 (but this is only in one portion of his 
 general argument,) still, that he has only 
 made out a case, that must be classed 
 under the general description of cases of 
 fanaticism. 
 
 Now, in the first place, it must be ob- 
 served that Paley not only shows how 
 great were the privations, and sufferings, 
 and sacrifices of the first apostles, but 
 that no such testimonies to the truth of 
 what they affirmed, were ever in the his- 
 tory of the world, made before, by any 
 leaders of sects, or founders of a new re- 
 ligion; and therefore the conclusion, though 
 onlyamoral conclusion, is sufficiently strong 
 and satisfactory; foritmustnotbe forgotten, 
 that moral evidence is all, as I have 
 already intimated, that can be procured, 
 when you once leave mathematics or ex- 
 perimental philosophy. In mathematics, 
 you define what you mean by a triangle or 
 a circle, and you can then reason and arrive 
 at certainty ; so in experimental philoso- 
 phy, you can ask what is the fact, and 
 you have the testimony of your senses ; 
 but leave these subjects, and if by cer- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 141 
 
 tainty be meant that which cannot be 
 otherwise, no certainty can be ever pro- 
 cured. It is not certain, for instance, that 
 the sun will rise to-morrow, but no one 
 can refuse to act upon the supposition. 
 And we will now, in the second place, 
 observe, that the case is not a case of fana- 
 ticism; there was nothing of enthusiasm 
 in the character of the apostles, there 
 are no marks of fanaticism; consider 
 their conduct, and all that they say and 
 do before the crucifixion of the Saviour, 
 and immediately after—where is the fanati- 
 cism? That they should be ardent in the 
 propagation of Christianity, after the re- 
 surrection and gift of tongues, was surely 
 nothing but natural—that they should be 
 not only ardent, but enthusiastic; such 
 ardent or enthusiastic feelings do not at all 
 impeach the original sobriety of their 
 character; consider what their situation 
 had become; it is the original sobriety of 
 their character, that is the point of con- 
 sequence: that they should be affected, 
 as they were, by all they had witnessed, 
 was so natural, that their testimony could 
 
143 EVIDENCES 
 
 not otherwise have been received. Ob- 
 serve how difficult it was for the Saviour 
 to satisfy the apostles that he had risen 
 from the dead. Thomas entirely refused 
 all belief. 
 
 It is quite clear that the apostles parti- 
 cipated in the universal notion of their 
 countrymen, that the Messiah was to be a 
 temporal Prince, and that they considered 
 the death of Jesus as the annihilation of 
 their hopes—‘ We trusted that it had 
 been He, that should have redeemed 
 Israel.” When Jesus said, ‘ Destroy this 
 temple, and in three days I will restore it 
 again,” the disciples did not understand 
 him. ‘Sir, if thou have borne him hence 
 tell me where thou hast laid him, and I 
 will take him away’—such was the lan- 
 guage of Mary Magdalen; far from ex- 
 pecting the resurrection, it had not 
 entered her thoughts. When the event 
 was first told the disciples, “Their words 
 seemed to them as idle tales, and they be- 
 lieved them not.” Every act and word 
 marks their complete consternation and 
 despair—Peter had denied him, they had 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 1438 
 
 all deserted him. When the wrath of his 
 enemies had been satiated, they then only 
 ventured to approach his grave. The de- 
 sire of embalming the body showed that 
 no change was contemplated, but the 
 usual process of human decay. 
 
 With the life of Jesus his religion ap- 
 peared to come to an end—it depended 
 on his personal authority, and at his de- 
 parture the whole scheme was dissolved. 
 He was not the Messiah that was expected. 
 In their trying circumstances, the conduct 
 of the apostles was precisely such as 
 might have been expected, upon the sup- 
 position that they were men of sober 
 minds, and therefore fit to be believed, in 
 what they afterwards asserted ; and indeed 
 nothing short of what they did assert, 
 nothing but what happened, and what 
 they asserted to have happened, can ex- 
 plain their rousing from their despair, and 
 their subsequent preaching of the gospel. 
 
 The resurrection produced a_ total 
 alteration in their views, and yet at first 
 very slowly, but how in their situation 
 were they to think of inventing such a 
 
144 EVIDENCES 
 
 story, and if it was not a real event, how 
 were they to be benefitted by proclaiming 
 it. The Jews were sufficiently exaspera- 
 ted already, and the disciples had no 
 measure of either prudence or safety, 
 but to sink into silence and obscurity— 
 and how were they to believe such an 
 event, if unreal. Thomas could not be 
 brought to believe it, how could they all 
 agree to adopt a fact, so extraordinary, as 
 the groundwork of a new religion; a re- 
 ligion which they were to announce to 
 the very people, and in the very place, 
 where their Master had been publicly put 
 to death. 
 
 But on the supposition of an illusion, 
 who was to fabricate it? Or why? And 
 how or why, were they all, not one, but 
 all of them, to give into the illusion ; how 
 were they all at once to be seized by the 
 same simultaneous transport of enthusi- 
 asm; make whatever unnatural supposi- 
 tion you please, respecting one man, how 
 are ten others to join him in his insanity, 
 how are they all to be deceived by any 
 unreal appearance, how are they all to 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 145 
 
 imagine precisely at the same point of 
 time, not once, but repeatedly, the pre- 
 sence of their well-known Master. 
 
 Dr. Ferriar always considered it a suffi- 
 cient argument against ghosts, that they 
 had never been seen by two persons at 
 the same time. Unless the apostles were 
 controlled by the consciousness of super- 
 intending, miraculous agency, how were 
 they to have been, as they are said to— 
 have been, and as they must have been, 
 “of one mind.” Unity of purpose, of 
 interest, of sentiment and opinion were 
 indispensable. Was a Board of twelve 
 likely to secure this unanimity? There 
 seems to have been no such harmony 
 among them before the resurrection ; like 
 ordinary men, they were continually dis- 
 puting about priority. ‘“ What was it,” 
 said Jesus, “that ye disputed among your- 
 selves by the way?” But they held their 
 peace; for by the way, they had disputed 
 among themselves, who should be great- 
 est; how have these men, collectively 
 and individually, been in an instant trans- 
 formed from timid, despairing, disap- 
 
 0 
 
146 EVIDENCES 
 
 pointed, jealous, ambitious, and expectant 
 followers, into intrepid, single-minded, 
 harmonious, self-denying, spiritual leaders, 
 in so extraordinary a cause as the propa- 
 gation of a new religion; and for such an 
 undertaking to have united such consum- 
 mate courage, and consummate prudence. 
 Almost the last words of Peter mn the 
 gospels are represented as a sort of blas- 
 phemous denial of his Lord, “he began 
 to curse and to swear, saying, I know not 
 the man.” We open the Acts of the 
 Apostles, and almost the first passage, that 
 occurs, is a speech of Peter, distinguished 
 alike for boldness and discretion, without 
 the slightest appearance of fanaticism ; 
 nor is Peter alone; he is supported by the 
 rest; and their first word, ‘“‘ the Lord has 
 risen,” placed them in a state of hostility 
 with the Jews, and probably with the 
 Roman government. When they had once 
 publicly announced, that their Master, 
 who had been crucified, was the expected 
 Messiah, and should have been received 
 as such, they could not but have supposed, 
 that unless miraculously assisted and pro- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 147 
 
 tected, they were themselves, like their 
 Master, to die martyrs. | Observe the 
 words of Peter, how bold and yet how 
 free from fanaticism; how distinct and 
 sober, when a miracle had been performed 
 —* Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at 
 this, or why look ye so earnestly on us, as 
 though by our own power or holiness we 
 had made this man to walk? The God 
 of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the 
 God of our fathers hath glorified his Son 
 Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied 
 him in the presence of Pilate, when he 
 was determined to let him go. But ye 
 denied the holy one and the just, and de- 
 sired a murderer to be granted unto you, 
 and killed the Prince of life, whom God 
 hath raised from the dead, whereof we 
 are witnesses, and his name, through faith 
 in his name, hath made this man strong ; 
 Oe and now brethren, I wot that 
 through ignorance ye did it, as did also 
 your rulers. But those things, which 
 God before had showed by the mouth of all 
 his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he 
 hath so fulfilled.” “ Repent ye therefore, 
 
148 EVIDENCES 
 
 &c.” “And as they spake unto the people, 
 the priests and the rulers of the temple, 
 and the Sadducees came upon them; being 
 grieved, that they taught the people, and 
 preached through Jesus, the resurrection 
 of the dead; and they laid hands on them 
 and put them in hold until the next day, 
 for it was now eventide. ‘The remainder 
 of the chapter illustrates, in every respect, 
 the observations that have been already 
 made on the character, situation, and con- 
 duct of the first apostles. 
 
 On the whole it is impossible to con- 
 ceive, that the plan of imposing upon 
 the Jews, a crucified malefactor as their 
 Messiah, could have entered into minds 
 sufficiently sane to argue consecutively, 
 or to harangue in public, without danger 
 of being restrained, as lunatics. In this 
 total failure then of adequate causes, for 
 these obvious and undeniable effects, we 
 are thrown back upon the extraordinary 
 facts of the appearance of Jesus after his 
 crucifixion, and the effusion of the Holy 
 Spirit on the primitive assembly of the 
 Christians. The miracles are demanded 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 149 
 
 to make the history not merely probable, 
 but even possible. Say, that the apostles 
 were deceivers, whence the moral courage, 
 the unanimity, the self-reliance, the eager- 
 ness for publicity, the defiance of danger ? 
 Say, that they were enthusiasts, whence 
 the sober and rational tone of their argu- 
 ments, their continued assertion of facts, 
 the systematic regularity of their proceed- 
 ings, the combined energy of their straight- 
 forward operations ? 
 
 They preached the resurrection of 
 Christ: whence the intelligence necessary 
 to invent this sublime part of our religion 2 
 are these the doctrines of fishermen drag- 
 ging their nets by the lake of Genezareth ? 
 whence the boldness to assert such a doc- 
 trine ? are these the men who deserted their 
 Master and fled? That they persevered, 
 that partially, at least, they triumphed, 
 that even in Jerusalem they persuaded 
 multitudes, by what they said and by 
 what they did, to believe the fact of the 
 resurrection, considering who and what 
 they were, is of itself decisive evidence of 
 preternatural power; it is impossible, that 
 
 0 2 
 
150 EVIDENCES 
 
 the apostles should have invented the 
 Christian religion, or believed it them- 
 selves, or induced others to believe it, 
 without miraculous evidence. ‘The cha- 
 racter and conduct of the apostles affords 
 incontestable proof of the truth of the 
 religion; they continued in Jerusalem ; 
 surely the most ill-chosen place possible 
 for the first assertion of the fact of the 
 resurrection, if the fact. were not true; 
 they continued to maintain their doctrines 
 through their spokesman, St. Peter, in 
 public; there is no attempt to escape, to 
 dissemble, or to conceal. 'The apostles it 
 must be remembered, had to combat the 
 general prejudice of the inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem against their country. ‘“ Thou 
 art a Galilean, and thy speech bewrayeth 
 thee,’ was said to St. Peter. ‘Search 
 and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no 
 prophet.” 
 
 Again—Some of the leading tenets of 
 the Christians were singularly ill-suited 
 for the meridian of Jerusalem; they pro- 
 claimed the temporal Messiah to be a fond 
 delusion, they appropriated to their own 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 151 
 
 crucified teacher, all the prophecies on 
 which the Jews relied; they spoke of the 
 dissolution of the temple; the Saviour 
 had openly declared to his disciples, that 
 it was to be destroyed, and with it, the 
 usual customs and rites of the Mosaic law 
 were necessarily to cease: in proportion as 
 the Jews were anxious for a temporal 
 Messiah, would their indignation be raised 
 against all pretenders to the character of 
 the Messiah, if they opposed their precon- 
 ceived notions. Hence, in a great degree, 
 among other causes, the hostility of the 
 priesthood against Jesus; and it was this, 
 which so inflamed the fury of the popu- 
 lace; in his crucifixion they beheld, as 
 they supposed, the confutation of his 
 impious pretensions. 
 
 Not only was the general state of 
 popular feeling ill-adapted for the pro- 
 gress of Christianity, but the spirit of the 
 predominant sects was, if possible, more 
 adverse—there were the austere and cere- 
 monious Pharisees, the more lax and 
 voluptuous Sadducees, the ascetic and en- 
 thusiastic Essenes, and the fanatical Zea- 
 
152 EVIDENCES 
 
 lots—how then were these Galileans to 
 contend with these sects? to contend 
 against them with a religion which con- 
 demned all alike? yet they still fought 
 their way with success, they still ‘ added 
 daily to the church, such as should be 
 saved.” 
 
 And now occurred the punishment of 
 Ananias and Sapphira—that this transac- 
 tion did not operate to their disadvantage, 
 implies a tacit acknowledgment on the 
 part of their adversaries, that with every 
 facility of detection, they could not dis- 
 prove the miracle. 
 
 The martyrdom of Stephen follows— 
 remarkable in every respect, and “a great 
 persecution of the church, which was in 
 Jerusalem.” Still the apostles succeed, 
 and this at first, could only have been in 
 consequence of the miracles, which they 
 wrought: Acts v. 12, &c. By the 
 hands of the apostles were many signs 
 and wonders wrought among the people, 
 Sceuthied): They brought forth the sick into 
 the streets, &c.” 
 
 The conversion of St. Paul is the next 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 153 
 
 striking event in the history of the pro- 
 pagation of Christianity. 
 
 The subject has been well discussed in 
 a distinct Treatise, by Lord Lyttleton. 
 ‘Infidelity,’ says Dr. Johnson, “ has 
 never produced a specious answer,” it 
 appears to me now, as it has always ap- 
 peared, very valuable ; it is clear, unaffect- 
 ed, and well reasoned. Lord L. makes 
 out satisfactorily, that Paul was not an 
 impostor, nor an enthusiast, nor deceived 
 by others, and therefore, that what he de- 
 clared to have been the cause of his con- 
 version, really was so, and therefore the 
 Christian religion true; by being an im- 
 postor he had nothing to gain and much 
 to lose, situated as he was, nor could he 
 have succeeded: he knew not enough of 
 Christianity to qualify him to be an 
 apostle. His success can only be ac- 
 counted for by supposing that the power 
 of God went along with him, nor was he 
 an enthusiast. He seems to have been a 
 man only of a very ardent mind; there are 
 none of the common marks of enthusiasm 
 in his life and writings, with perhaps one 
 
ya. EVIDENCES 
 
 passing exception, of his being translated 
 to heaven, in a sort of vision—enthusiasm, 
 I mean, in a bad sense of the word; and 
 in his case the enthusiasm had set in the 
 contrary direction. He was persecuting 
 the Christians, when checked in his ca- 
 reer—nor thirdly could he have been 
 deceived by others—the conversion could 
 not have been contrived—who was there 
 to contrive it? and how was it physically 
 possible ?—his blindness for instance. He 
 can on the whole neither be considered as 
 an hypocrite, nor as a fanatic. He must 
 have been what he announces himself, 
 “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of 
 God,” one “ that received the gospel not of 
 men, neither was taught it, but by the reve- 
 lation of Jesus Christ,” oneto whom,as Peter 
 declared, among the assembled apostles, 
 “God, which knoweth the hearts, bare 
 witness, giving him the Holy Ghost, as 
 he did unto us, by whom the signs of an 
 apostle were wrought in all patience, in 
 signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.” 
 Paul could not have been a mere fanatic. 
 He had the ability, the prudence, to 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. T55D 
 
 preach with success, the extraordinary 
 doctrine of Christ crucified, over half the 
 habitable world. He conciliated the 
 other apostles to an admission of his claim 
 to equality; in every public scene he 
 could conduct himself with the coolest 
 self-command; his writings are distin- 
 guished for the vigour of their arguments, 
 and the depth of their views; his advice 
 is reasonable on difficult questions and 
 trying occasions ; he enforces and explains — 
 in an unaffected and persuasive manner 
 those virtues of humility, meekness, holi- 
 ness, and charity, of which the life and 
 the teaching of his Master was so striking 
 an example. ‘There are no privations, no 
 perils, no labours that he is not ready to 
 undergo; he is prepared at all times to lay 
 down his life for the truth: still he 
 rushes into no dangers, or difficulties, or 
 sufferings, but what he at the time thinks 
 necessary for the support of the divine 
 mission in which he is engaged. Suppose 
 his account of his conversion to be true, 
 and no difficulty remains but the super- 
 natural interference; a miracle that was 
 
B56 ois EVIDENCES 
 
 sufficiently explained by the distinguished 
 part he took in the propagation of Chris- 
 tianity and the important phenomena that 
 his life and character exhibited after his 
 conversion. 
 
 The gift of tongues is a most important 
 event in the history of Christianity. ‘The 
 miracle was universally accepted by the 
 Christian church in its literal sense; it is 
 incredible that it should have been in- 
 vented—still more incredible, that it 
 should have been fabricated by the early 
 expositors of Scripture, out of any 
 proverbial expressions, bearing im reality 
 no such meaning. ‘The miracle was of 
 inestimable value to the apostles, as a 
 means of disseminating the religion of 
 Christ. Turning to the scene in Jerusa- 
 lem on the day of Pentecost, it was im- 
 possible that without this gift the apostles 
 could have made the impression they did 
 on the assembled multitude. Extraordi- 
 nary as this intervention of Providence 
 may appear, it was in strict harmony with 
 the exigencies of the case—the apostles 
 were to preach the astonishing miracles 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 157 
 
 of the resurrection to the Gentiles, and to 
 be confirmed in their own faith—the as- 
 sembly were all amazed—* Behold, are 
 not all these which speak Galileans? and 
 how hear we every man in our own tongue 
 wherein we were born, Parthians, Medes, 
 &c.; and they were in doubt, saying to 
 one another, What meaneth this?” Cer- 
 tainly no attention, without the miracle, 
 would or could have been paid to Gali- 
 leans, (the apostles,) speaking in what 
 was a provincial dialect, despised and 
 little known. The apostles did not repair 
 to barbarous countries, where the ignorant 
 might be imposed upon, but we find them 
 in Antioch, in Corinth, among the phi- 
 losophers of Athens, and in the metropolis 
 of the world. We see them enduring the 
 persecution of the inflamed populace, and 
 dragged before the public authorities. 
 But the world, it has been said, was in 
 a favourable state for the reception of a 
 new religion. This may be. Mr. Gibbon 
 makes these secondary causes a sufficient 
 solution of the success of the religion; 
 but the origin of the attempt on the part 
 P 
 
OS «5 EVIDENCES 
 
 of the apostles is still inexplicable; it was 
 partly by the influence of predisposed 
 human means, and partly by direct inter- 
 position of divine power, that the new 
 religion was disseminated. We may dis- 
 cern the hand of Providence in both. 
 Suppose secondary causes, however, favour- 
 able, and then suppose the apostles sent 
 forth into the world with no credentials 
 but those of dexterous impostors, or the 
 fanatic adoption of certain doctrines, of 
 which they have no other testimony to 
 produce, but theix own assertions; and 
 how are they to succeed ? 
 
 They came into the world, despised by 
 the heathen, as Jews; and disclaimed by 
 their brethren, the Jews, as apostates. 
 The apostles could not deny that Christ 
 had been rejected by the vast majority of 
 their nation, and condemned by the con- 
 stituted authorities. It must be consider- 
 ed, how novel, how appalling, how remote 
 from all human apprehension, were the 
 main doctrines, which they taught; all 
 the objections that men make to these 
 doctrine’s now, existed then, and must 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 159 
 
 have been made then, and appear to have 
 been made—the religion appeared to the 
 Greeks “foolishness,” and the apostles 
 were called “babblers.” Without mira- 
 cles the apostles could scarcely have made 
 any converts; even with miracles their 
 success could but have been partial; the 
 wonderful works, the reality of which 
 could not be denied, were attributed both 
 by the Jews and the heathen to magic; 
 though, occasionally, the miracle was so 
 clearly a miracle, that its evidence was 
 felt and acknowledged—this seems always 
 to have been the case in the instance of 
 those who were present. 
 
 The religion of the Greeks was com- 
 pletely incorporated with their pleasures, 
 that of the Romans with their national 
 pride; the abandonment of all these was the 
 first inexorable demand of the new religion 
 —a revolution in the business, amuse- 
 ments, and habits of life, was required, as 
 well as a total moral change and a new 
 faith. The contrast was very striking, 
 between the mean, indigent, unpretend- 
 ing, and self-denying religion of the cross, 
 
160 EVIDENCES 
 
 and the splendour, opulence, and festive 
 and indulgent ritual of paganism. 
 
 And what was the cross? To the 
 Jews and the heathens the symbol of the 
 basest and most degrading punishment of 
 the lowest criminal—the proverbial terror 
 of the wretched slave. Yet to the cross 
 of Christ men were to turn, from deities, 
 in which were embodied every attribute 
 of strength, power, and dignity. “If we 
 must,’ says Origen, “give a probable 
 reason for the first establishment of Chris- 
 tianity, we must say, it is incredible, that 
 the apostles, ignorant and unlearned men, 
 should have trusted to any means of 
 preaching Christianity, except the mira¢u- 
 lous powers conferred upon them, and the 
 grace of God, which avouched their doc- 
 trine; or that their hearers should have 
 abandoned the ancient rites of their fore- 
 fathers, and have been converted to tenets 
 so strange and opposite to those in which 
 they had been educated, unless moved by 
 some miraculous power, and by preter- 
 natural wonders.” This remark of this 
 distinguished Father seems very just. The 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 161 
 
 argument from prophecy was the argu 
 ment to be addressed more especially to 
 the Jews, but scarcely to the heathen-—to 
 those who had not been brought up in 
 the knowledge and veneration of the Old 
 Testament ; and the distinction seems to 
 have been always observed by the apos- 
 tles—look at the discourse of Peter. 
 
 Lhe Christians were ready to mingle 
 with the heathen in all the indifferent 
 transactions of life, but would admit. 
 nothing that tended to idolatry, and al- 
 lowed no quarter to the different sects of 
 philosophy. Fanaticism could not have 
 proceeded with such temper and just dis- 
 crimination; they were spiritually wise, 
 but humanly wise also; and how could a 
 body, so formed and constituted as that of 
 the apostles, have exhibited such wisdom, 
 unless it had been imparted “from on 
 high ;” the Christians, their followers, at 
 the same time, quiet, inoffensive, obedient 
 to the laws for conscience’ sake, seeking 
 no distinction, making no display, shun- 
 ning no duty compatible with their faith, 
 and everywhere gradually and _ silently 
 
 Bee 
 
EOL EVIDENCES 
 
 multiplying. Christianity did not spread 
 like the fiery lava of Mahometanism, but, 
 like leaven, it worked its way impercepti- 
 bly, till it had permeated the whole mass 
 of human kind, and with an healthful 
 and purifying influence. ‘The immortality 
 promised to the Christian was not a cer- 
 tain and secure Paradise, rich with all 
 the luxuries of the present world. It was 
 to be attained, though purchased by the 
 blood. of Christ, by faithful, diligent, and 
 incessant service on the part of man—by 
 purity, disinterestedness, humility, charity, 
 by self-discipline and control, and the 
 strict fulfilment of the moral duties. 
 
 The uncompromising manner in which 
 the apostles announced their doctrines 
 implied their disregard of human assist- 
 ance—divine assistance, divine authority 
 for what they said and did, these were 
 always taken for granted ; and they adopt- 
 ed no unworthy line of conduct for the 
 propagation of their faith—they courted 
 no popularity; to the lower orders. of 
 society a religion which proclaimed 
 equality in the sight of God must have 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 163 
 
 been peculiarly acceptable— but they 
 preached to the poor without inflaming 
 their passions, and without exciting the 
 jealousy of the rich; they confined their 
 views to the moral and religious improve- 
 ment of mankind; all this might be 
 piety, elevation of thought, uninspired 
 wisdom, but it was no blind enthusiasm, 
 no fanaticism. 
 
 It is not enough to prove that the 
 world was in some degree prepared for 
 their reception, unless we can provide 
 them with adequate means for subduing 
 the hostile array of vices, passions, opin- 
 ions, prejudices, interests, and supersti- 
 tions, with which they had to contend 
 in the world. How they attained to 
 that wisdom, how they pursued that 
 conduct, how they overcame such obsta- 
 cles, and vanquished such enemies, unless 
 by the constant assistance of the Holy 
 Spirit, it is impossible to understand—ex- 
 clude the Deity, nothing is explicable, 
 conceivable, or credible; acknowledge 
 “Christ, the power of God, and the wis- 
 
164 EVIDENCES 
 
 dom of God,” allis at once clear, rational, 
 satisfactory, and intelligible. 
 
 It is not one daring and eccentric ad- 
 venturer that sets out to establish a new 
 religion, but a number of men, at first 
 doubting and bewildered, and at last con- 
 verted, and all united in their belief—and 
 united in a revolution of this extraordi- 
 nary nature, all of them making every 
 human sacrifice, that can be mentioned in 
 pursuance of this design—literally taking 
 “no thoughtfor the morrow,” not acquaint- 
 ed, unless by divine inspiration, with the 
 languages of those, whom they are to ad- 
 dress: their difficulties confront them on 
 the very threshold of their undertaking ; 
 not one of them, as far as we can ascer- 
 tain, recedes—no weary, or dissatisfied, or 
 perverse brother is estranged or alienated. 
 Differences of opinion and old prejudices 
 are violently called into action, but there 
 arises no long irreconcileable schism in the 
 apostolic body; one of them—probably, 
 indeed, the most ardent and effective— 
 gives a well known description of what 
 
~ 
 
 OF CHRISTIANITY. 165 
 
 was the lite of an apostle—In journey- 
 ings often, in perils of waters, in perils of 
 robbers ..... in perils in the city..... in 
 hunger and thirst”—the enumeration is 
 very full, and most of these dangers and 
 sufferings must have been in like manner 
 experienced by the rest of the apostles, 
 as well as by the narrator, St. Paul; yet, 
 judging from the instance of this apostle, 
 in whom, if anywhere, fanaticism was to be 
 found, no extravagance appears, no self- 
 inflicted tortures, no contempt of pain— 
 “for our light affliction, which is but for 
 a moment, worketh for us a far more ex- 
 ceeding and eternal weight of glory”— 
 “if in this life only we have hope in Christ, 
 we are of all men most miserable”—“if 
 the dead rise not at all, why stand we in 
 jeopardy every hour?” The view, that is 
 taken of the situation of himself and his 
 fellow-labourers, is the most reasonable 
 that can be conceived, on the supposition 
 that they felt and knew themselves to be 
 commissioned by an heavenly Master, to 
 preach the glad tidings of the gospel to 
 the world. 
 
166 — EVIDENCES 
 
 .On the whole, therefore, it may be 
 very true, that fanatics have appeared at 
 different periods, and the founders of 
 new religions—that we hear of Zoroaster, 
 Confucius, Budh, Numa, Mungo Capac 
 —men, who, either by the superiority of 
 their natural talents, or by pretended in- 
 tercourse with the Divinity, have wrought 
 ereat and beneficial changes in the moral 
 and religious condition of their country- 
 men. But these are the works of indivi- 
 duals, either in obscure or barbarous pe- 
 riods, or among nations, but imperfectly 
 civilized ; the darkness of the period, and 
 the ignorance of the people among whom 
 they respectively lived, justify us in attri- 
 buting their success to causes purely 
 natural. 
 
 But Christianity appeared at a period 
 when civilization was far advanced, and 
 we have in this case, not the rulers of the 
 world, but the despised of the world, 
 bringing the world into spiritual subjec- 
 tion. Sufferings, bodily or mental, no 
 doubt prove only the sincerity of the suf- 
 ferer, not the truth of his doctrines. We 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 167 
 
 have had the Christian fanatics of the fifth 
 and sixth centuries; we have had the 
 monks and missionaries of the Roman 
 Catholic communion; and we have had 
 the martyrs and reformers of every other 
 Christian communion. But it is one 
 thing to renew or to attest the truth of an 
 established religion, and another, to estab- 
 lish a new one—one thing to improve or 
 alter the cultivation of a field, and another 
 to clear, and break up, and produce an 
 harvest in a jungle; the apostles, it must 
 be observed in a word, raised Christianity, 
 out of nothing and against everything. 
 There is no record in history of a number 
 of men, sober in their characters, as were 
 the apostles, unanimously exposing them- 
 selves to every suffering, in attestation of 
 facts—in attestation of “that which was 
 from the beginning, which they had heard, 
 which they had seen with their eyes, 
 which they had looked upon, which their 
 hands had handled of the word of life’”— 
 and, in defiance of every prevailing opin- 
 ion, passion, and prepossession of mankind, 
 
168s. EVIDENCES 
 
 establishing a new, permanent, and highly 
 pure and spiritual religion. 
 
 Finally, though it may be impossible 
 to anticipate or limit the eccentricity of 
 the human character, yet we must repeat, 
 that here we have no eccentricity of cha- 
 racter to produce. We have—not an in- 
 dividual, but a body of men, actuated by 
 common, natural principles; we have the 
 ordinary motives of human conduct to 
 refer to, when we propose an explanation 
 of what they attempted to perform, and of 
 what they said and did. It is impossible 
 in their case to speak of any species of in- 
 sanity, or mental delusion, or aberration 
 of intellect, such as an individual may be 
 conceived to exhibit; they had, like the 
 rest of their countrymen, expected a tem- 
 poral sovereign—this may be said to have 
 been natural; when, on the contrary, their 
 Master was apprehended and brought to 
 trial, they deserted him and fled—this 
 may have been natural also; when he was 
 publicly executed, every hope was extin- 
 guished in their minds—this too may have 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 169 
 
 been natural; after his resurrection their 
 hesitation, their doubt that he could be 
 still alive—this too may have been natural. 
 We have no eccentricity, no enthusiasm 
 of character or conduct here; and nothing 
 but what they had experienced, as we 
 have already observed, nothing but what 
 had happened, and what they had asserted 
 to have happened—nothing short of this 
 can make their conduct after the execution 
 of their Lord and Master, intelligible. 
 The question then comes to this—did 
 they believe or did they not believe? If 
 they did not believe, why did they live 
 and die, for no end but that of establish- 
 ing a new religion, of which, after all, the 
 honour was to redound, not to themselves, 
 but to another—to Jesus Christ—and how 
 could they all be so impious as to pro- 
 claim, unless they believed them, such 
 doctrines as his atonement, his redemp- 
 tion, his Messiahship, and his resurrection? 
 they believed, or were every day, with- 
 out any object or temptation, usurping the 
 name and authority of the Almighty—a 
 continued and unanimous impiety, quite 
 Q 
 
FaAO EVIDENCES 
 
 inconsistent with their demeanour, with 
 their words and actions—on the whole, 
 quite impossible. But suppose the con- 
 verse—that they believed, but were de- 
 luded in their belief. Does their conduct 
 or character justify any such supposition ; 
 and how could all be deluded, and on 
 matters of plain fact, which came directly 
 under the cognizance of their senses? 
 could they all suppose that they saw, and ~ 
 conversed, and sat at table with their well- 
 known Master, though in fact he had 
 never appeared amongst them? could they 
 believe that they could speak various lan- 
 guages of which they had not learnt a word? 
 could they believe that they commanded 
 cripples to walk, who did not walk—that 
 they worked miracles, which they did not 
 work? couldthey be infatuated anddeprived 
 of their senses—men who, at the same time, 
 could argue seriously and conduct them- 
 selves rationally? and if then they could 
 neither be deceivers nor deceived, they 
 must be recognized as the authorized and 
 inspired delegates of the Almighty. 
 
 ‘This reasoning on the whole of the case, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 171 
 
 this alternative, so obvious and so intelli- 
 gible, so simple and so direct, has always 
 been thought unanswerable by all who 
 have considered the question, from the 
 earliest period, through the different gene- 
 rations of mankind, down to the present 
 moment. Wespeak of regular, virtuous, 
 candid men, not of those who from the 
 nature of their minds are not disposed to 
 be taught, or who, from their habits of life, 
 recoil from a religion which condemns 
 their conduct. 
 
 But there is another view that may be 
 taken of the prophecies, and another 
 argument thence resulting, in confirma- 
 tion of the truth of Christianity, which 
 has been most ably drawn out by Arch- 
 deacon Lyall, in his “ Propzdia Prophet- 
 ica,” from which I shall make large 
 extracts, it is this—that in the prophecies 
 it is announced that light should be poured 
 in upon the Gentiles, and that the benefit of 
 the coming of the Messiah should not be 
 confined, as the Jews supposed, to their 
 particular nation, but should be extended 
 to mankind. In this view of the subject a 
 
ip EVIDENCES 
 
 new and insulated proof arises, independ- 
 ent of the general proofs of Christianity ; 
 and it is a distinct ground of belief, quite 
 incontrovertible, for the whole is thus 
 rested on facts, inasmuch as in the Bible 
 are the. prophecies announcing the future 
 progress of the religion, and in the world 
 before us, the religion established, through 
 all the civilized and intelligent portions 
 of it. 
 
 Now to feel the force of this argument, 
 the scriptures of the Old Testament must 
 be first observed, and afterwards different 
 passages in the New Testament, and the 
 inquirer should keep this point in view, 
 while he is reading both the Old and the 
 New; particularly the Old, where the 
 intimations of this great future dispensa- 
 tion are often very short, and mixed up 
 with other matter; and yet if thus read, 
 the establishment of Christianity will be 
 seen announced in different passages, 
 through the prophetic parts of the Old 
 Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, more 
 especially in Isaiah, Daniel, Zechariah, 
 and Malachi. ‘The last fourteen chapters 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 173 
 
 of this single prophet, Isaiah, would be 
 sufficient, and as a specimen, (chap. 1i,)— 
 “Tt shall come to pass in the last days, 
 that the mountain of the Lord’s house 
 shall be established in the top of the 
 mountains, and shall be exalted above the 
 hills, and all nations shall flow unto it, 
 and many people shall go and say, Come 
 ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the 
 Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, 
 and he will teach us of his ways and 
 we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion 
 shall go forth the law, and the word of the 
 Lord from Jerusalem ; and he shall judge 
 among the nations, and shall rebuke many 
 people.” Again, (chap. xlii,)—* Behold 
 my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, 
 in whom my soul delighteth. Ihave put 
 my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth 
 judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not 
 cry nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be 
 heard in the street; a bruised reed shall 
 he not break, and the smoking flax shall 
 he not quench. He shall bring forth 
 Judgment unto truth; he shall not fail 
 nor be discouraged, till he have set judg- 
 
 De 
 
i ky EVIDENCES 
 
 ment in the earth and the isles shall wait 
 for his law..... I the Lord have called 
 thee in righteousness, and will hold thy 
 hand, and will keep thee and give thee for 
 a covenant to the people, for a light of the 
 Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring 
 out the prisoners from the prison, and 
 them that sit in darkness out of the prison 
 house.” “ Arise, shine, (chap. lx,) for thy 
 light is come, and the glory of the Lord is 
 risen upon thee; for, behold, the darkness 
 shall cover the earth and gross darkness 
 the people, but the Lord shall arise upon 
 thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee, 
 and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, 
 and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” 
 So in the 2nd chapter of Haggai— For 
 thus saith the Lord of Hosts: yet once, it 
 is a little while, and I will shake the 
 heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and 
 the dry land; and I will shake all na- 
 tions, and the desire of all nations shall 
 come, and I will fill this house with glory, 
 saith the Lord..... The glory of this lat- 
 ter house [the second temple] shall be 
 ereater than of the former, and in this 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. hi 
 
 place will I give peace.” This glory was 
 the coming of the Messiah, but the promise 
 is at the same time of a general nature— 
 “the desire of all nations,’—and so in 
 many passages in Isaiah and in the pro- 
 phetic writings, the expressions are of a 
 general nature. 
 
 In the New Testament, the announce- 
 ment of the new dispensation is more dis- 
 tinct; in Matthew xxii, 43, the Saviour 
 says, “Therefore I say unto you, the king- 
 dom of God shall be taken from you, and 
 given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
 thereof ;” and in John x, 16, “ And other 
 sheep I have, which are not of this fold: 
 them also I must bring, and they shall 
 hear my voice, and there shall be one fold 
 and one shepherd.” ‘The same, too, is the 
 language of the Saviour, as recorded by 
 St. Luke, when he speaks to his disciples 
 after his resurrection—* Then opened he 
 their understandings, that they might 
 understand the scriptures, and said unto 
 them, thus it is written, and thus it be- 
 hoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the 
 dead the third day, and that repentance 
 
hd ae EVIDENCES 
 
 and remission of sins should be preached 
 in his name among all nations, beginning 
 at Jerusalem, and ye are witnesses of 
 these things, and behold I send the pro- 
 mise of my Father upon you, but tarry 
 ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be 
 endued with power from on high.” 
 
 If the different prophetic passages in 
 the Old Testament are observed, it will 
 be seen, that the leading subject of them 
 was not the person of the Messiah, so 
 much as the kingdom which he was to 
 establish—this was the burden, in one 
 shape or another, of almost all the predic- 
 tions relating to that new covenant, of 
 which Christ was to be the messenger, and 
 may be said to constitute the promise, on 
 which the hopes of the Jewish people had 
 so long been fixed; but here lay the differ- 
 ence between the views of the Jews and of | 
 the apostles—it was an earthly kingdom, 
 on the fancied glories and felicities of 
 which the thoughts of the former were 
 fixed—it was a spiritual kingdom which 
 occupied the minds of the latter. Not- 
 withstanding, therefore, the extraordinary 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. te 
 
 character of the great facts, on which the 
 apostles rested their proof of Jesus being 
 the predicted Messiah, a knowledge of 
 human nature will not warrant us in being 
 much surprised, that the proof was not 
 admitted by the majority of the nation ; 
 especially when we consider what their 
 opinions were on the subject of miracles. 
 And the particular case of the Jews should 
 be well considered ; for it has always been 
 said, as I have before observed, by unbe- 
 levers, Why should I receive Christianity, 
 when Christ was rejected by the great 
 body of the Jewish nation ? 
 
 The proper answer to this objection has 
 been always given, but the more the situ- 
 ation of the Jews at the time is considered, 
 the more conclusive and satisfactory will 
 the answer be found. <A great impression 
 had occasionally been made on those, who 
 had witnessed the miracles of the Saviour ; 
 an impression much the same as would be 
 made upon ourselves; still the evidence 
 of miracles was not at that period of the 
 world properly felt; and when the Sa- 
 viour neither was, nor proposed himself 
 
| fhe Mma EVIDENCES 
 
 as, a temporal prince, the disappointment 
 and indignation of the Jewish rulers knew 
 no bounds—they considered him as an 
 impostor, and a blasphemer, and they 
 called upon the Roman magistrate to in- 
 flict upon him the most condign punish- 
 ment, for the offences which he had 
 committed. ‘The notions of the common 
 people too were suddenly changed—they 
 no longer surrounded him with shouts of 
 triumph, as they had done on his entrance 
 into Jerusalem; and his disciples, when 
 they saw that he was not the temporal 
 prince, whom, in defiance of all the Saviour 
 had said to them, they expected, even 
 they “forsook him and fled.” Afterwards, 
 when the disciples had been convinced. of 
 their mistake, by the miraculous events 
 that followed the crucifixion, and when 
 they had to undertake the conversion 
 both of the Jews, and of mankind to the 
 Christian faith, still, one thing, was clear, 
 that if the apostles explained the meaning 
 of the prophecies. aright, the promise 
 made to the Jewish nation and to man- 
 kind of a temporal prince had not been 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 179 
 
 fulfilled, according to the sense on which 
 the Jews had built their expectations— 
 no temporal prince had appeared: but 
 neither had it been fulfilled, according to 
 the sense for which the Christians con- 
 tended—there was indeed no temporal 
 prince, but there was as yet no spiritual 
 prince. Here then lay the difficulty, with 
 which the first preachers of the gospel 
 (humanly speaking) had to contend: they 
 insisted on the prophecies, but their own 
 sense of the meaning of the prophecies 
 had not as yet been shown by the event, 
 to be the right one. 
 
 The nations of the earth still walked in 
 “the valley of the shadow of death’— 
 “their idols of silver and gold were still 
 seen on the hills and in every high place” 
 —‘‘kings and princes had not become 
 the nursing fathers of Christ’s church, 
 neither had the nations flowed into it”— 
 “the knowledge of the Lord, instead of 
 covering the earth, as the waters cover 
 the sea,” was still confined to his chosen 
 people—upon them only had the light 
 shined. 
 
180 | EVIDENCES 
 
 So long as the Jewish dispensation was 
 standing, and heathenism continued to be 
 the predominant religion of the world, 
 and all things else the same as before— 
 the preaching of the gospel, who Jesus 
 was, and what was the end of his 
 coming, would naturally be a matter 
 of discussion. So long as the Jewish 
 polity and institutions continued to sub- 
 sist, the question was necessarily sur- 
 rounded with much difficulty. Assuming 
 the divine authority of the gospel—if it 
 was to be established among mankind, as 
 the apostles contended, the divine obliga- 
 tion of the Jewish law was to be at an 
 end; but how was it possible to show 
 this to the Jews, so long as the temple of 
 Jerusalem was standing, and could num- 
 ber among its worshippers, not only a 
 majority of the inhabitants of Judea, but 
 thousands “out of every nation under 
 heaven.” 
 
 If we examine the Epistles of St. Paul, 
 or even the Acts of the Apostles, it will 
 at once appear, how important a place 
 this controversy occupied in the estimation 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 181 
 
 of all parties at this period. The obliga- 
 tion of the Jewish law was the question 
 debated in the first council that was held 
 in the church; that of the calling of the 
 Gentiles (which are in fact the same 
 questions) constitute the entire subject of 
 the three most elaborate epistles of St. 
 Paul, and are emphatically alluded to in 
 most of the others; it was a subject of 
 debate, and even of angry discussion, not 
 only among the brethren in general, but. 
 even among the apostles themselves. 
 Different modifications of the question 
 were proposed, but St. Paul maintained, 
 and at length united the suffrages of all 
 the apostles in his opinion, that an adhe- 
 rence to the Jewish law was absolutely 
 unlawful—it was keeping up that par- 
 tition wall, which it was the very object of 
 the gospel to break down—it threw a 
 doubt upon the revelation of that great 
 mystery of the calling of the Gentiles, 
 which St. Paul said, had been hidden from 
 the foundation of the world—practically, 
 it was a denial of the fulfilment in Jesus 
 Christ, of the promise made to mankind 
 R 
 
52) EVIDENCES 
 
 from the beginning, and a countenancing 
 of the Jews in their rejection of the 
 Saviour. 
 
 But arguments of this kind, however 
 consistent with the prophecies, were not 
 proofs to the Jews. If, as the apostles 
 contended, the Jewish law was done 
 away, it was a fact, as it appeared to 
 them, of which there was no visible sign. 
 But this visible sign at length appeared— 
 the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 The temple of Jerusalem was not 
 merely one of many temples in which 
 worshippers assembled; it was the only 
 temple belonging to the nation. ‘Though 
 the Jews had synagogues in almost every 
 city, yet they were not allowed to offer up 
 any sacrifice, nor to build any altar, ex- 
 cept at Jerusalem; there alone the priests 
 could officiate, or the Levites perform the 
 duties of their daily ministration; there 
 it was, that the three great feasts of the 
 Passover, and of the Pentecost, and of the 
 Tabernacles were to be solemnized, and 
 every male was commanded to attend 
 annually at each of these solemnities, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 188 
 
 however distant his abode might be, or 
 whatever the difficulties of his journey. 
 
 But after the destruction of the city 
 and temple by Titus, the observance of 
 all that part of the law, which regarded 
 the national worship, became, and has 
 ever since continued to be, impossible— 
 the naked fact of the destruction of the 
 city and temple of the Jews was a proof, 
 that the Mosaic dispensation was at an 
 end. | 
 
 No passage can perhaps be pointed out, 
 from which it can be shown, that this 
 event, at the time it happened, had been 
 expected, either by Jews or Christians ; 
 but since it came to pass, its miraculous 
 character has never been called in ques- 
 tion by either party—both Jews and 
 Christians have ever considered it, as the 
 fulfilment of prophecies which were well 
 known to both; the only difference of 
 opinion has been, as to the meaning and 
 design of God. 
 
 The temporary character of the Mosaic 
 dispensation was however declared from 
 the beginning. Viewed simply as a pro- 
 
184 EVIDENCES 
 
 phecy, there is perhaps not one in the 
 whole volume of the Old Testament so 
 remarkable in itself, and in the exactness 
 with which it has been fulfilled, as the 
 prediction by Moses of the final destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of 
 the Jews, in the 28th chapter of Deuter- 
 onomy. 
 
 And at a time, when we may suppose 
 men’s minds to have been agitated by 
 contending opinions, the controversy was 
 ended; suddenly Jerusalem was encom- 
 passed with armies—siege was laid to the 
 city—the temple was destroyed—and the 
 whole nation was scattered, as with a 
 whirlwind, through every region of the 
 earth. If all parties on both sides. of 
 the question had agreed to refer the 
 controversy to the Divine arbitrament, 
 it may justly be doubted, whether they 
 could have fixed upon a testimony more 
 exactly applicable to the particular point, 
 which was to be determined. 
 
 The Jews tell us, that, after the fall of 
 the city, R. Jose exclaimed, “ Alas! the 
 times of the Messiah are past.” By the 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 185 
 
 times of the Messiah was understood, the 
 calculated period after which all hope of 
 his coming, according to the promise, 
 would be at an end. The passages of 
 Scripture, from which the Jews deduced 
 their calculations, appear to have been not 
 more than four—Genesis xlix, 10; Hag- 
 gai u, T—9; Malachi ii, 1; and Daniel 
 ix, 24—27. We may observe, that the 
 three former fix no positive date, but only 
 define the period, beyond which he was 
 not to be expected—“he was to come 
 suddenly to his temple,’ and in conse- 
 quence the glory of this latter house was 
 to be greater than the glory of the former, 
 and the time of his coming was to be, 
 while the city and state of the Jews were 
 subsisting ; but though these prophecies 
 did not fix upon the time, there was one 
 that did—the remarkable prophecy of 
 Daniel, of the seventy weeks. It is cer- 
 tain that this prophecy was uttered many 
 years before Christ came into the world, 
 and that it was considered by the Jews as 
 containing a prediction of the period at 
 R 2 
 
E86 EVIDENCES 
 
 which their Messiah was to be expected. 
 In this prophecy, a stated historical fact 
 appears—the decree for the restoration of 
 the temple; 490 years after it, the Mes- 
 siah, according to the prophecy, was to 
 appear, and at this time the oblation and 
 the sacrifice were to cease, by the destruc: 
 tion of the city and the sanctuary, and 
 this was to happen by war; and another 
 fact is stated, that the Messiah was to 
 suffer death. 
 
 The agreement of this well known pro- 
 phecy with the truths of the gospel is not 
 less remarkable than its fulfilment. ‘These 
 truths, as they have been received by 
 mankind, are clearly announced, e. g.— 
 “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy 
 people and upon thy holy city, to finish 
 the transgression, and to make an end of 
 sins and to make reconciliation for ini- 
 quity; and to bring in everlasting right- 
 eousness, and to seal up the vision and 
 prophecy, and to anoint the most holy;” 
 the Messiah, moreover, was also to be 
 “cut off, but not for himself.” These 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 187 
 
 expressions sufficiently harmonize with 
 the faith that is generally established in 
 the world. 
 
 Had the Jews known beforehand the 
 very month or year, in which Messiah was 
 to be cut off, nothing short of an almost 
 miraculous interposition of Providence 
 would have forced them to put Christ to 
 death, and thus be themselves the instru- 
 ments of causing the fulfilment of the 
 prophecy. It may therefore have been 
 made impossible for those whom it con- 
 cerned to select any. definite point of time, 
 on which to fix their expectation; for 
 although the number of weeks was defi- 
 nite, yet the period, from which they were 
 to be calculated, was not definite—“ from 
 the going out of the decree” was the ex- 
 pression; but four decrees are named in 
 Scripture, as having gone out for the res- 
 toration of the temple, and the interval 
 between the first and the last of these, is 
 upwards of eighty years. Before the 
 destruction of Jerusalem nothing more 
 was revealed, except the near approach of 
 the Messiah. 
 
188 EVIDENCES 
 
 A common form of computation in 
 Scripture is by generations, and this 
 space of time, according to the Psalmist, 
 was threescore years and ten. ‘Thus 
 seventy weeks of years are seven times 
 seventy years, or seven generations; in 
 calculating, therefore, the several events 
 foretold, it is not the exact year we are to 
 look to, but the hebdomad or week. 
 
 The first decree was by Cyrus, 586 B. ¢., 
 the second by Darius Hystaspes, 519; the 
 third by Artaxerxes Longimanus, 457; 
 the fourth in the 20th of Artaxerxes, 
 444, Now from the 17th of Artaxerxes to 
 the death of Christ, are exactly seventy 
 hebdomads. From the same epoch, to 
 the commencement of John’s ministry, 
 are sixty-nine hebdomads. From the 
 end of the hebdomad, in which the 20th 
 of Artaxerxes is fixed by our chronology 
 to the middle of the hebdomad in which 
 Christ was born, is sixty-two weeks. 
 From the first preaching of John, to the 
 end of Christ’s ministry, was one hebdo- 
 mad. From the first preaching of the 
 gospel, (or coming of Christ,) to the des- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 189 
 
 truction of Jerusalem, are seven hebdo- 
 mads, and this event happened at the end 
 of the first half of the seventh hebdomad, 
 when the sacrifice of oblation visibly 
 ceased. 
 
 Calculations of this kind may be gone 
 through; the above seems sufficiently satis- 
 factory; but it is enough, I think, to say, 
 that the appearance of Christ took place 
 about the time specified, and that no 
 other person has since or before appeared, © 
 to whom the prophecy could be applied ; 
 and, as I have before mentioned, when 
 this prophecy was urged by Priestley, in — 
 his controversy with Levi, the Jews had 
 no one to produce, but Antiochus Epi- 
 phanes, to whom the prophecy in truth 
 could have no reference. 
 
 In the scheme of prophecy, therefore, 
 the rise of the gospel and the downfall of 
 the Jewish dispensation were indissolubly 
 united. Before Jerusalem had been des- 
 troyed, St. Paul and the first preachers of 
 the gospel insisted, that this first dispensa- 
 tion was superseded by the gospel, and 
 that the Gentiles were to be called in to 
 
190 EVIDENCES 
 
 participate in the benefits of the gospel— 
 that this was the announcement of the 
 prophecies in the Old Testament: and the 
 question now is, how afterwards stood the 
 fact—were the Gentiles called in? Jeru- 
 salem was soon after destroyed, the Mosaic 
 dispensation visibly at an end, but was the 
 Christian dispensation established ? 
 Certainly the progress of the gospel was 
 from the first totally astonishing—quite 
 sufficient for the purposes of the general 
 argument; and the religion itself in the 
 course of little more than two centuries 
 became the established religion of Europe. 
 The early progress of the gospel may be 
 distinctly traced—it is visible in the Acts 
 of the Apostles, and in the Epistles of St. 
 Paul; afterwards in the writings of the 
 Fathers, and in the allusions to the rising 
 sect to be found in profane historians and 
 writers; it is not necessary here to go 
 through the detail. This detail is admirably 
 given by Paley, in his chapter on the Pro- 
 pagation of Christianity. The celebrated 
 letter of Pliny to the emperor Trajan 
 would be of itself sufficient. Pliny is so 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 191 
 
 overpowered by the number of Chris- 
 tians, (men who would not worship the 
 gods of Rome,) that he writes to know 
 what on earth he is todo with them. ‘The 
 letter is full of the most curious particu- 
 lars, and leads to the most important con- 
 clusions ; it is largely commented upon by 
 Lardner, and the letter given—a letter 
 written about seventy years after the 
 apostles had first begun to mention the 
 name of Jesus to the Gentile world. No 
 inquirer can do otherwise than look atten- 
 tively at this letter of Pliny, nor indeed 
 fail to be struck with the minute and 
 masterly detail given by Paley, and his 
 observations on this part of the general 
 subject. 
 
 We may now see the nature of the 
 argument which we have announced. It 
 depends on the passages in the Old and 
 New Testaments, in which the call of the 
 Gentiles is prophesied, and the fulfil- 
 ment of the prophecies by the subsequent 
 success and final establishment of Chris- 
 tianity. ‘The argument was first fully 
 and regularly stated by Archdeacon Lyall, 
 
192 EVIDENCES 
 
 in his “Propedia Prophetica”—a book 
 very valuable, not only as making out this 
 argument, but also as making out more 
 distinctly than had ever before been done, 
 how it came to pass, that the Jews reject- 
 ed Christ—a fact which had always been 
 an obvious and powerful argument to in- 
 duce men in modern times to do the same. 
 The proper answer to the objection had 
 always been given, but the subject was 
 never before so thoroughly examined and 
 displayed, as it has now been by this acute, 
 and learned, and powerful writer. The evi- 
 dences of Christianity are not now a sub- 
 ject much thought of by the community ; 
 their attention is entirely directed to the 
 nature of the doctrines and observances of 
 the ancient Christian church; otherwise 
 the book would have caused a great sensa- 
 tion in the Christian world. ‘The author 
 indeed seems to me sometimes to think too 
 exclusively of his own argument, but if 
 this be so, it is not unnatural; no writer 
 ever escaped from a temptation of this 
 kind, and the reader need not forget, nor 
 would the Archdeacon wish him to forget, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 193 
 
 the weight that is due to Paley and his 
 more obvious argument, derived from the 
 miracles, the sufferings, the privations, the 
 sacrifices, and the labours of the apostles 
 —an argument that has always been 
 effective with mankind, and that Paley 
 urges with such uncommon logical elo- 
 quence and force. ‘The defence of Chris- 
 tianity,indeed, Archdeacon Lyall contends, 
 (and very justly,) may now be left to rest 
 on the prophecies and the diffusion of 
 Christianity, as he has stated it in his book, 
 and also to rest on the grounds on which 
 it has been always placed, by Paley and 
 other preceding writers, both among the 
 Fathers and in more modern times. 
 
 The extensive and sudden propagation 
 of Christianity has been always considered 
 as indicating its supernatural origin—as 
 of itself a sufficient proof of its truth ; and 
 this has been an argument of a general 
 nature, easily understood and always satis- 
 factory to the generality of mankind. We 
 see no such success attending the labours 
 of missionaries in our own days, though 
 they have many and important advantages, 
 
 S 
 
i EVIDENCES 
 
 which the apostles and first propagators 
 of Christianity were without; the autho- 
 rity of power, and of learning, and of 
 wealth, and of all extraneous circumstances 
 are now ranged in support of those doc- 
 trines, to which they were originally 
 opposed. 
 
 It was on account of the effect of this 
 general argument, that Gibbon brought 
 forward his secondary causes to account 
 for the success of Christianity ; these were 
 human means, and were so elevated in 
 their importance and effect by him, as to 
 render the solution of a supernatural in- 
 fluence unnecessary. But the secondary 
 causes, which he produces, are all in fact 
 grounded upon the truth of Christianity, 
 and may be admitted as the human means 
 which contributed to that event. The 
 importance of Gibbon’s celebrated 15th 
 and 16th chapters, lies in the insinuations 
 and objections to the evidences of Christi- 
 anity, which he directly and indirectly 
 urges, not in the causes he specifies of its 
 success. He does not attempt to explain 
 the first rise of Christianity in the world, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 195 
 
 but only to account for its after progress. 
 So far are the causes which he assigns 
 from excluding the supposition of its 
 miraculous origin, that a general belief of 
 this truth on the part of mankind is evi- 
 dently a constituent part of his hypothesis, 
 and must be assumed as the ground-work 
 of it. The causes, which he states, in- 
 stead of accounting for the rise of this 
 belief, are among the effects which had 
 flowed from it. | 
 
 Yet have these chapters been very suc- 
 cessful in creating unbelievers, not only 
 by explaining the progress of Christianity, 
 and resolving it into an ordinary occur- 
 rence, but by the refined wit, the sarcasm, 
 the powerful sneers, with which the chap- 
 ters abound—all exercised upon the Old 
 Testament, the early Christians, the Fathers 
 and. the evidences themselves, as urged by 
 the believers in Christianity. The second- 
 ary causes are only the heads under which 
 these serious attacks are introduced. 
 
 I remember when I had taken my 
 degree, I passed a whole half-year im 
 the study of these celebrated chapters, 
 
196 EVIDENCES 
 
 and the books connected with the sub- 
 ject. I found Gibbon’s quotations all 
 fair and accurate, and his acquaintance 
 with the subject very great; but the total 
 want of all piety in his feelings accounted 
 sufficiently, not only for the objections 
 which he urged, but for his manner of 
 urging them. ‘The observations of the 
 Bishop of Llandaff were alone worthy 
 of the respect of Gibbon, and alone 
 obtained it. Priestley challenged him 
 out, but he declined the controversy, 
 in an insulting letter, and hated and per- 
 secuted him ever after. His reply to his 
 Oxford opponents is one of the most mas- 
 terly specimens of controversial writing 
 that exists; the sarcasm and the contempt 
 are so entertaining and so_ irresistible. 
 These chapters, 1t may be finally observed, 
 and Hume’s Essay on Miracles, made the 
 unbelievers in Great Britain; as Voltaire’s 
 writings did those of the Continent. 
 Archdeacon Lyall, after giving very 
 satisfactory answers to the general argu- 
 ment of Gibbon, founded on secondary 
 causes, proceeds to explain the sudden 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 197 
 
 and extensive propagation of Christianity 
 himself; referring to the different facts, 
 as he contends, of the case, but still, unlike 
 Gibbon, leaving this propagation to be 
 accounted for, by the causes that from the 
 first had been pre-ordained by the <AI- 
 mighty. ‘Thus, that it was the argument 
 from prophecy that everywhere prevailed, 
 that the Jews were everywhere dispersed 
 over the world, that they had everywhere 
 diffused the knowledge of the Old ‘Testa- 
 ment, and the expectation of some ex- 
 traordinary personage, who was then to 
 appear in the world, and that a preparation 
 was thus everywhere made for the recep- 
 tion of the gospel. 
 
 In the first place, he contends that the 
 authors of the New ‘Testament rested 
 their proofs almost exclusively upon the 
 evidence of certain supposed prophecies. 
 St. Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, ap- 
 pears to have done so, as is evident to 
 those that examine his epistles. The 
 early Fathers of the church ascribe their 
 own conversion to this same argument ; 
 indeed, it is clear, that mankind did not 
 
 s 2 
 
198 | EVIDENCES 
 
 reason about miracles, and feel the argu- 
 ment thence arising, as we do now—man- 
 kind in general did not—though the 
 argument cannot be considered as never 
 urged or overlooked; far from it; still it 
 must be admitted that the argument from 
 prophecy was the more effective argu- 
 ment, to be addressed, not only to the 
 Jews, but to the Gentiles, if the books of 
 the Old ‘Testament had become generally 
 known, which might be the case, if the 
 Jews were generally dispersed over the 
 world, in sufficient numbers, and an ex- 
 pectation generally entertained, that some 
 extraordinary personage was to appear. 
 That such an expectation was entertained, 
 there can be no doubt; there is the fourth 
 Eclogue of Virgil, in which the expres- 
 sions are evidently borrowed, immediately 
 or mediately, from Isaiah, and at all 
 events show that at the time he wrote, an 
 opinion prevailed, that some new era was 
 about to arise,in which all wars would 
 cease, the lion no longer vex the folds, 
 &e.; and prophecies of a similar import, 
 are stated by Suetonius and Tacitus to 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. | 199 
 
 have prevailed all over the Kast—* It was 
 an ancient and constantopinion,” says Suet- 
 onius, ‘‘and founded upon a knowledge 
 of some divine decree, that a person or 
 persons would appear in Judea, who 
 should obtain the government of the 
 world.” “It was the persuasion of most 
 ancient persons,” says ‘Tacitus, ‘that the 
 ancient books of the priests contaimed 
 passages, which implied, that the Kast 
 would become powerful, and that there 
 would arise in Judea those who should 
 obtain the empire of the world.” Jose- 
 phus refers to the same expectation, and 
 ascribes to it the rebellion of the Jews— 
 an expectation that some person would 
 arise among them who should govern the 
 world. Now as there can be no doubt 
 whence the Jewish belief arose, there can 
 be none of the true origin of that of the 
 heathen world—the books of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 If we examine the prophetical parts of 
 the Old Testament, we shall find that the 
 largest part is taken up with matter, 
 which relates solely to Judea; but in the 
 
200 EVIDENCES 
 
 books of Isaiah and Daniel the leading 
 subject is, either the calling of the Gen- 
 tiles and the future triumphs of the church, 
 or else the particular judgments of God, 
 against the several nations of which the 
 Gentile world was composed—the destruc- 
 tion of Tyre and Babylon, the desolation 
 of Moab, and Edom, and Ammon, the de- 
 gradation of Egypt, the rise of the several 
 empires of the world and their respective 
 termination—it is these that fill all those 
 parts of the prophecies of Isaiah and 
 Daniel, that do not relate to the gospel. 
 Most of the prophecies had been ful- 
 filled before the coming of Christ, and they 
 referred to the great events of the world, 
 such as were interesting to the Gentiles, 
 and could be understood by them, when 
 the Jews produced them as proofs of the 
 divine authority of their scriptures ; and if 
 a large number of persons in every country 
 and city were thus introduced to the 
 knowledge of the scriptures, and to a 
 general belief in them, a preparation was 
 clearly made for the reception of the 
 gospel. After the destruction of Jerusalem 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 201 
 
 the propagation of Christianity was not 
 slow or gradual, it seems to have been 
 suddenly diffused throughout the world. 
 From Pliny’s letter we may collect that 
 within little more than thirty years from 
 the time when the Jewish form of worship 
 was ostensibly abolished, Christianity had 
 become the faith of “all ranks, and ages, 
 and conditions of men,’ in one of the 
 remotest provinces of the Roman empire. 
 «As the lightning cometh out of the east 
 and shineth even unto the west, so shall 
 the coming of the Son of man be’”—such 
 were the words of Christ; no prediction 
 was ever uttered which corresponded more 
 truly with the event; and the fact may 
 be explained, if we may assume, that a 
 general knowledge of the great and lead- 
 ing prophecies of the Old Testament, was 
 at the time generally diffused among man- 
 kind. 
 
 The place which the Old Testament 
 occupies in the evidences of Christianity 
 is, therefore, the Archdeacon argues, very 
 important. ‘To omit this testimony alto- 
 gether, or pass it over slightly is a great 
 
202 EVIDENCES 
 
 mistake. It may be admitted that the 
 proof from the New Testament is complete 
 in itself, since the establishment of Chris- 
 tianity, without any help from the Old; 
 but the proof from the Old is no less 
 complete by itself, since the same event, 
 without the aid from the New. The ne- 
 cessity for this double principle of evi- 
 dence was created by the exigencies of a 
 new religion; for to prove the truth of 
 Christianity, by the proof of the prophe- 
 cles having been fulfilled, would have 
 been difficult, in the days of the apostles, 
 if not impossible, without the argument 
 from miracles; as on the other side, the 
 divine authority of the miracles could not 
 have been, at that period of the world, a 
 sufficient proof, with the notions then pre- 
 vailing, without the testimony of prophecy; 
 and thus, at the time when Christianity 
 was first preached, both proofs were com- 
 bined in showing the truth of the reli- 
 gion. It can now stand upon either of — 
 them singly. We are not, however, to 
 suppose, that one or the other of these 
 respective proofs may now be laid aside, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 203 
 
 or has become superfluous. A man of 
 serious mind and of proper good sense 
 will study both, not to gratify his curiosity, 
 but to come to a right conclusion respect- 
 ing the authority of the revelation which 
 has been built upon them. 
 
 But that the gospel, at first a mere 
 speck in the horizon, should in the lapse 
 of a single generation have spread itself 
 over the whole firmament, and the name 
 of its founder have become familiar to 
 every people, and in every language of the 
 known world, though an historical fact, 
 presents a problem, which neither the 
 miracles of the New Testament, nor the 
 prophecies of the Old Testament would 
 be sufficient to explain, without the sup- 
 position of God’s continued interference. 
 
 There are some other considerations 
 that may be noted, which are proposed by 
 the Archdeacon; they are of a general 
 nature, but well worthy of attention. 
 Did the writers of the books of the New 
 Testament live at the time, when the 
 events are stated to have happened? 
 Was their statement the same as was be- 
 
204 —« EVIDENCES 
 
 lieved by those who lived on the spot and 
 at the time when they took place? 
 
 The establishment of Christianity seems 
 to afford of itself, the strongest proof that 
 the facts related by the Evangelists must 
 have been believed by mankind in general, 
 at the time to which the narrative re- 
 lates. We know that the actions ascribed 
 to Christ were variously explained, both 
 at Jerusalem and elsewhere, but there is 
 no evidence to show, that they were dis- 
 believed as facts by any person; what 
 evidence we possess leads to the opposite 
 conclusion. 
 
 First, then, the writers of the gospels 
 lived in the age to which the history refers. 
 Nothing need be added to the arguments 
 which Lardner, more especially, and others 
 have produced, to show that the authors 
 of them were the persons to whom they 
 have been always ascribed. All the 
 writers of antiquity put together, do not 
 possess an hundredth part of the external 
 proofs of genuineness which this single 
 volume of the New Testament can exhibit. 
 To say nothing of some hundred MSS., 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 245 
 
 (many of them claiming a far higher an- 
 tiquity than any other similar documents 
 now extant,) there are distinct versions, 
 into all the principal languages of anti- 
 quity, made in the age immediately suc- 
 ceeding that of the apostles; and there 
 are quotations from these books of the 
 New Testament to be found in the early 
 Fathers, and in ecclesiastical writers, some 
 reaching to the very generation in which 
 the books profess to have been composed ;_ 
 and so numerous in the next and every 
 succeeding generation, as to imply that 
 they were then almost as familiarly known 
 and referred to, as in the present day. 
 No one who has examined this part of the 
 subject will have any disposition to dis- 
 pute these positions. | 
 That these books were the forgeries of 
 a later age cannot be thought possible, 
 unless we suppose it possible that all the 
 writings of all the Fathers and of all the 
 early ecclesiastical historians have been 
 also forged; and all the versions into the 
 Syriac, the Coptic, the Armenian, and 
 other languages, likewise forged; some of 
 7 
 
246 EVIDENCES 
 
 which have, for many ages, ceased even to 
 be spoken. 
 
 Take any work on the subject of the 
 evidences. ‘To what sifting criticism have 
 the writings of the New ‘Testament been 
 exposed ; how laboriously has every date, 
 every custom, every historical allusion 
 been discussed. Now, as the writers pro- 
 fess, for the most part only to relate what 
 they had seen themselves, or heard from 
 others who had, it is not surprising to 
 find that they have triumphantly passed 
 through this ordeal, severe as it has been; 
 but it certainly implies that they have said 
 nothing but what they knew to be true. 
 When we consider that the scenes of this 
 history embrace many nations, speaking 
 different languages, with different customs, 
 and laws, and institutions, and add to this, 
 that the writers of the New Testament 
 were not men of learning and various 
 knowledge, the fact admits of no other 
 explanation. 
 
 No doubt, on account of the extraordi- 
 nary contents of these sacred books, and of 
 the importance and nature of the subjects 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. Q4T 
 
 stronger evidence is required in the 
 instance of the gospels, than we require 
 in the works of the classical writers and 
 historians; but, the truth is, that there 
 is no stamp of genuineness, which an 
 ancient writing can possibly exhibit, which 
 we do not find in the books of the New 
 Testament, nor has a single mark of spuri- 
 ousness ever been pointed out. 
 
 Is then the statement made by the 
 evangelists such as was believed by those 
 who were living at the time both in Jeru- 
 salem and elsewhere? With respect to the 
 early Christians, their belief in the miracles 
 attributed to Christ was never doubted. 
 We have the direct evidence of the apos- 
 tolic Fathers, as well as of Justin Martyr, 
 on this pomt; the former indeed supply us 
 only with a general testimony, but there is 
 not a single important circumstance related 
 by the evangelists to which the latter does 
 not refer—the miraculous birth of Christ, 
 his curing all manner of diseases, and infir- 
 mities, his raising the dead to life, are dis- 
 tinctly affirmed by Justin, and these facts 
 are tacitly assumed by him to be so noto- 
 
248 _ EVIDENCES 
 
 rious, as not to render necessary anything 
 more than a general allusion. Now Justin 
 wasanativeof Samaria,and must have lived 
 within a few miles of the spot on which 
 Jerusalem had stood, until his conversion 
 from Gentilism ; his youth, therefore, must 
 have been spent among those, who were 
 not only the cotemporaries of the apos- 
 tles, but who might have, and in some 
 instances probably had, both seen and 
 heard them. It would be a waste of time 
 to make quotations from the later Fathers ; 
 it may fairly be assumed that all the early 
 disciples believed that Christ had per- 
 formed miracles. 
 
 To suppose that idolatry was rooted out 
 of the civilized part of the world, and a 
 pure and powerful religion, like that of 
 Christ, planted in its room, by the belief 
 of mankind in a set of facts, which under 
 the appellation of “pious frauds,” were in 
 truth neither more nor less than the mere 
 conjuring tricks of a few obscure jugglers, 
 living in Judea—to suppose all this is 
 quite impossible ; it would be to resort to 
 an explanation, as little conformable with 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 249 
 
 experience as any miracle could be, and 
 which they who disbelieve the truth of 
 Christianity should be the last persons to 
 produce. But it may be said, that though 
 Christianity was believed by a large num- 
 ber of persons, living in Judea, or rather 
 at Jerusalem, still, that a larger number of 
 those, whom we suppose to have been 
 witnesses in the case, did not join in that 
 belief—ought not their incredulity to be 
 placed in the opposite balance? It ought 
 not, and for this reason. ‘That the incre- 
 dulity here spoken of did not regard the 
 facts themselves, but only the explanation of 
 them—the facts were attributed to magic, 
 not to the interference of divine power. 
 The Jews did not at the time, nor have 
 they ever denied the truth of the facts 
 themselves, related in the New Testament 
 —the miraculous powers ascribed to Christ 
 were no part of the controversy between 
 his first disciples and the Jews, and, 
 indeed, never have been. 
 
 If we turn from the Jews to the heathen 
 writers of the first and second centuries, 
 
 there is not only the same absence of any 
 i W 
 
a ee EVIDENCES 
 
 counter-statement, but there is what 
 amounts to an admission that the facts 
 related in the New Testament were be- 
 lieved, “Admit,” says Celsus, “that 
 Christ really performed all the miracles 
 ascribed. to him by his followers, what 
 conclusion can be drawn from this, except 
 that he was conversant in those arts, by 
 which, for a few pence, quacks and con- 
 jurers perform their wonders, in every 
 market-place.” Porphyry speaks in like 
 manner; and this reasoning would never 
 have been adopted by such men as Celsus 
 and Porphyry, unless the facts related in 
 the New Testament had been generally be- 
 lieved; and the way in which his reasoning 
 is met by Origin and Tertullian is worthy 
 of remark. ‘They do not deny the reality 
 of the miracles, said to have been wrought 
 by Apollonius and others, (perhaps be- 
 cause it would have been of no use,) but 
 they endeavour to show, that there is no 
 ground for attributing them to God, which 
 was in truth the point at issue; and they 
 ask their opponents to state what was the 
 purpose for which they were wrought— 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 251. 
 
 to point out any effect resulting from 
 them—contrasting their barrenness in this 
 respect, with the wonderful fruits which 
 had been produced in the world by the 
 belief of mankind in the miracles which 
 Christ had performed. It may just be 
 mentioned, that the fables contained in 
 the histories of Apollonius and Pythagoras 
 possess no claims to credit of any kind. 
 The facts which are related in them, were 
 never so much as heard of in the age in 
 which they are said to have happened, 
 but were fabricated long after the events. 
 
 But, indeed, the very composition of 
 the books of the New ‘Testament is 
 stamped with so many internal marks of a 
 living authority, that these alone (to say 
 nothing of external evidence) would be 
 sufficient to show, that the Gospels had 
 been composed by a Jew, who was relat- 
 ing facts, at some of which he must have 
 been present. 
 
 Consider more especially the Gospel of 
 St. Matthew. The books of the New 
 Testament purport to have been written 
 by eye witnesses, and persons who were 
 
doi. EVIDENCES 
 
 parties in the events described; if they 
 were not, the narrative must have been 
 an invention, but nothing can be so evi- 
 dent on the face of these compositions as 
 the absence of all appearance of design, 
 or contrivance, or invention. 
 
 Paley, in his ‘“ Hore Pauline,’ has 
 shown, that between St. Paul’s Epistles 
 and the history of his life, as related in 
 the Acts of the Apostles, there are coinci- 
 dences and agreements, of such a nature, 
 as are quite sufficient to prove that the 
 persons and transactions must have been 
 real, the letters authentic, and the narra- 
 tion in the main true. The argument is 
 founded on the undesignedness of these 
 coincidences and agreements—that they 
 are too numerous and too particular to be 
 accounted for from chance, and can only 
 be accounted for by supposing the writ- 
 ings genuine. The same argument has 
 been taken up by other writers, from a 
 comparison of the gospels with each other, 
 with the Acts of the Apostles and the 
 Kpistles, and also with Josephus. Arch- 
 deacon Lyall illustrates the same argu- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 253 
 
 ment from the Talmud and references to 
 Lightfoot: as, for instance when the 
 Saviour said, ‘“ Let the dead bury their 
 dead,” it appears from the Talmud, that 
 by the dead, who were to bury their dead, 
 is meant the mourners who were so called 
 by the Jews. Many instances are pro- 
 duced by the Archdeacon to the same 
 effect. 
 
 It is a constant tradition in the church, 
 that St. Matthew’s Gospel was written. 
 at Jerusalem, for the use of the Jewish 
 Christians; the truth of this tradition is 
 stamped upon every page of the work. 
 In the other gospels, when Jewish cus- 
 toms, or laws, or opinions, are alluded to, 
 it is commonly with some explanatory 
 phrases—such as, “for the Jews have a 
 custom,” or, “there is at Jerusalem”— 
 indicating that the readers require to be 
 informed on such points; but not so in 
 St. Matthew—he always assumes in his 
 readers a knowledge of all circumstantial 
 particulars, whether local or national. Any 
 one who will read St. Matthew’s Gospel, 
 with the Talmudical exercitations by 
 
254 EVIDENCES 
 
 Lightfoot or Schoettgen before him, will 
 find in almost every page, instances of 
 undesigned allusions. Lightfoot is a book 
 within the reach of every one. 
 
 As the New Testament had a Jewish 
 origin, to understand fully the import of 
 many parts of it, a knowledge of Jewish 
 customs, and opinions, and forms of speech, 
 is required; this fact alone would form a 
 presumptive argument of its authenticity, 
 and demonstrate that it really had a Jewish 
 origin. Passages occur full of obscurity ; 
 and passages sometimes that become ob- 
 jections; but they are cleared up when a 
 knowledge has been obtained of the cir- 
 cumstances which gave occasion to them 
 and the sense put upon them bythe hearers: 
 and it is here that the work of Lightfoot 
 _ is of such value. Lightfoot was a most 
 ‘eminent Hebrew scholar ; when I turned 
 to his volumes, I saw no great value in the 
 ordinary matter, but great value in his 
 explanation of different expressions and 
 passages in the sacred text, and I became 
 quite satisfied that when any difficulties 
 arise, his work must be referred to. 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 255 
 
 A curious instance once occurred to me, 
 to show the value of this knowledge of 
 
 Hebrew. <A young lady, that had been j 
 
 extremely distinguished in the circles of 
 the West End of the town for her beauty 
 and talents, suddenly became ill, and per- 
 ceived, that though she was still young, 
 her brilliant career was at an end, and 
 that she was to die. She therefore en- 
 deavoured to prepare herself for the event, 
 and turned (for the first time, probably, 
 with any seriousness) to her Prayer Book: 
 she opened it in the Psalms, and was quite 
 in. despair—* What can I make of a book,” 
 she said, to her friend,“ where the Almighty 
 is represented as casting his shoe over 
 Edom?” Reference was made to me. I 
 could only say, that I had no doubt it was 
 some Hebrew idiom, but that I was no 
 Hebrew scholar, and would inquire from 
 some one who was. I did so, and I found, 
 as I had expected, that this strange ex- 
 pression was an Hebrew idiom: just as 
 
 we have our own English idiom, when we 
 
 say, “I have him under my thumb,” ex- 
 pressing only total domination and control: 
 
256 EVIDENCES 
 
 and from instances like this, (and they are 
 innumerable,) the conclusion is, that no 
 objection must be insisted on, derived from 
 particular expressions or passages, and that 
 it is to the general tenour and meaning 
 that we must alone look. 
 
 But to return. ‘That the events related 
 of Christ were believed by all his disciples, 
 and that we have no evidence to show that 
 they were denied, even by his enemies, is a 
 fact as certain as any fact in history can be. 
 The question, therefore, is—Could many 
 hundreds and thousands of persons, living 
 in and about Jerusalem, have been made 
 to believe, that such facts as the evangelists 
 have related, had taken place under their 
 eyes, or in their immediate neighbourhood, 
 while they, in truth, had no other reason 
 for thinking so, but the mere assertions of 
 Christ and some dozen individuals, his 
 immediate followers? Were the facts wit- 
 nessed only by two or three? were they 
 exhibited in a room, to a select number of 
 persons? were they such as could not be 
 disproved, if they had not happened? did 
 those who were immediately concerned, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 957 
 
 give proofs of their honesty and sincerity? 
 had they any interest to serve? 
 
 It may be said, indeed, not that mankind 
 did not from the first believe the miracles 
 of Christ, but that those who did so insti- 
 tuted no inquiry as to the truth of the facts, 
 but admitted them at once, from the love 
 of the marvellous, on the report of persons 
 who were interested to deceive them. 
 But though it may cost people but little to 
 believe anything which falls in with their. 
 interest, or their wishes, or their previous 
 habits of thinking, it is quite clear that 
 mankind are equally unwilling to receive 
 even themost demonstrable truthsupon con- 
 trary suppositions. The history of modern 
 missions has shown, that there is nothing 
 more difficult, than to persuade a people to 
 renounce the religion in which they were 
 born and educated, however absurd its 
 tenets, and even when -external motives 
 recommend a more rational belief. What 
 then is the difference of situation between 
 the apostles and the modern missionaries, 
 but this, that in the present day the latter 
 have to prove the evidences which they 
 
 U 
 
258 EVIDENCES 
 
 make use of, whereas in the days of the 
 apostles these were matters of public noto- 
 riety, and such as every man might know 
 to be true or false, on his own personal 
 knowledge. 
 
 It is true, that Pliny, and Tacitus, ae 
 distinguished men at this period, did not 
 think it worth while to inquire, and, there- 
 fore, as it appears from their writings, 
 knew nothing of the question, and re- 
 mained unbelievers; but we are speaking 
 of those who became believers, and the 
 reason why the one did become believers, 
 and the other not, is obviously, that the 
 one did inquire, and the other not. Tacitus 
 gives a regular account of the Jews, and 
 evidently is very ignorant on the subject ; 
 and Pliny, as is shown by his letter, was 
 witness to the most extraordinary pheno- 
 mena in the conduct of the Christians, but 
 never thought of inquiring into the reasons 
 of them. Neither Tacitus nor Pliny had any 
 personal sacrifices to make, and, therefore, 
 did not inquire ; but how are we to suppose 
 that men were willing to abandon all those 
 prejudices, of every kind, in which they 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 259 
 
 had been born and educated? in defiance 
 too of every intelligible motive, whether 
 of influence, or interest, or ease, for the 
 sake of a set of opinions, about the truth 
 or falsehood of which they were so indif- 
 ferent, as not to have thought it worth 
 while even to institute any inquiry. The 
 account which history has given us, not 
 only of the sufferings, but of the character 
 of the first Christians, cannot be reconciled 
 to any explanation, which proceeds upon | 
 the supposition of their having taken up 
 their new opinions from no other motive 
 than vulgar credulity, or mere levity of 
 mind. 
 
 Pliny describes Christianity as a degraded 
 superstition, but of the behayiour of its 
 followers he says, “he has been able to 
 discern nothing particular except that they 
 were wont to meet together on a stated 
 day, before it was light, and sing among 
 themselves alternately, a hymn to Christ 
 as to a God, (tanquam Deo, ) binding them- 
 selves by a’ vow, not to be guilty of theft, 
 or robbery, or adultery, never to falsify 
 their word, nor to deny a pledge committed 
 
260 EVIDENCES 
 
 to them, when called upon to restore it.” 
 This last effect is an unequivocal proof of 
 the depth and earnestness of their convic- 
 tion in the truth of their religion. Mankind 
 did not hear for the first time from the 
 preaching of the apostles, that they were 
 not to rob, or cheat, or falsify their word, 
 or violate the trust reposed in them; but 
 it is clear that the reasons of the apostles 
 had been more effective, than either the 
 persuasions of moralists, or the threaten- 
 ings of the magistrate. t 
 
 Here then we have an undoubted fact. 
 What neither Pythagoras, nor Socrates, 
 nor Plato had been able to accomplish in 
 many hundred years, was effected in a 
 single generation by the founder of Chris- 
 tianity, without aid from learning, or 
 rank, or power, or eloquence, or party 
 only by the belief which he impressed 
 upon his followers of his having been 
 sent from God.“ How did it happen,” 
 says Origen to Celsus, who had. taunted 
 the Christians with the recenvy of their 
 faith, “ that in so few years so many, both 
 of the learned and unlearned; had: been 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 261 
 
 brought to embrace it, and not as a mere 
 speculative truth, but to be willing to lay 
 down. their lives, rather than renounce it. 
 Byer al cy. Had Christ reclaimed only a hun- 
 dred persons by the strength of his doc- 
 trine, it would have been an extraordinary 
 thing, but to have reclaimed thousands 
 and tens of thousands, both Greeks and 
 barbarians, both rich and poor, both wise 
 and ignorant, from the wickedness in 
 which they were living, and to have 
 brought them to a life of holiness and 
 virtue, this is surely as strong an argu- 
 ment of divine power as can be given.” 
 This reasoning of Origen seems to be very 
 just. 
 
 On the whole, to suppose that an infinite 
 multitude of persons, in different parts of 
 the world, speaking different languages, 
 and educated in different customs, should 
 suddenly and at the same time, have all 
 consented to adopt not only new ways of 
 reasoning and believing, but of feeling and 
 acting, from the report of facts happening 
 almost at their door, which, however, they 
 had never taken the trouble to examine, 
 
 Ud 
 
262 EVIDENCES 
 
 and which they had no motive, or tempt- 
 ation, or interest to believe—this seems a 
 phenomenon in human nature, which it is 
 impossible to understand, and leaves the 
 first rise of Christianity in the world totally 
 unaccountable, unless recourse be had to 
 suppositions such as have been always 
 entertained, by the civilized world, of the 
 truth of the religion, and the superintend- 
 ing influence of the Almighty. 
 
 The account which history has given us, 
 not only of the sufferings but of the cha- 
 racter of the first Christians, of their actions 
 and whole behaviour, under the influence 
 of the new opinions in religion, which they 
 had embraced with so much zeal, and 
 insisted upon with so much earnestness, 1s 
 not to be reconciled with any supposition 
 of their having taken up those opinions 
 from no other motive than vulgar credulity 
 or mere levity of mind. It hardly sounds 
 like common sense to say that a man suf- 
 fered death and torture patiently, or that 
 he renounced all the opinions of his youth, 
 or that he changed the principles of his 
 conduct, and acted in conformity with these 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 2638 
 
 new principles, without having considered 
 why and wherefore: and amongst the im- 
 mense masses of mankind, that at an 
 early period adopted the Christian faith, 
 there must have been a sufficient number 
 of men of intelligence and sobriety of 
 thought, who were competent judges of 
 what they believed, and why they believed 
 it. ‘That the Christians were sincere in 
 their belief, will not be disputed, but we 
 contend for more, that they must have 
 considered the evidences of their belief, 
 and that their belief thus shows their con- 
 viction of the truth of what they believed, 
 which conviction becomes fair evidence 
 to us who follow them. 
 
 One of the Apostolic Fathers, Papias, 
 observes, “I have never taken delight, as 
 most men do, in those who talk a ereat 
 deal, but in those who speak the truth; 
 nor in those who repeated to me useless 
 precepts, but in those who repeated to us 
 the sayings, which the Lord had entrusted 
 to the keeping of his followers, and which 
 had been handed down to us from the 
 truth itself. And if at any time, I met 
 
964 EVIDENCES 
 
 with one who had conversed with >the 
 elders, I inquired about what they had 
 said; what Thomas, or James, what Mat- 
 thew, or John, or any other of the disci- 
 ples of the Lord, what Aristion, or John 
 the Presbyter, disciples of the Lord, used 
 to teach; for I was of opinion that I 
 could not profit so much by books as by 
 the living.” 
 
 This passage is taken from the third 
 book of Eusebius’ History, from which it 
 seems that Papias was a believer in the 
 millennium, a doctrine which Eusebius 
 strongly impugns. Apparently for this 
 reason, the latter sets him down as a man 
 of small understanding. If, however, 
 such a man was yet solicitous to obtain 
 the best information he could, and for 
 this reason sought out those, who were 
 eye and ear witnesses, we can have no 
 right to take for granted, that the first 
 disciples in general did not do the same. 
 
 Lastly, it may be added, that after ex- 
 amining the scheme of evidence, on which 
 the plan of the Old Testament is projected, 
 it is impossible not to be struck with the 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 265 
 
 exact adaptation of the narrative con- 
 tained in the New ‘Testament, to the con- 
 ditions which the hypothesis of a prepara- 
 tory dispensation in the Old would require 
 —the degree of knowledge imparted to 
 the Jews, and the degree of ignorance in 
 which they were kept; the prophecies 
 which were understood beforehand, and 
 those which were not understood till after- 
 wards; the facts which had been predicted, 
 and those which had not; the nature of 
 the expectations which had been raised, 
 and the limitations of it—to every one of 
 these points, the events which were re- 
 lated in the New Testament were adjusted, 
 with a theoretical nicety, involving so 
 many proofs of design, as to be, perhaps, 
 more convincing than almost any merely 
 historical evidence could be: So. also. 
 with respect to St. Paul’s Epistles, the 
 very subject matter of his arguments, the 
 topics. he does not dwell upon, no. less 
 than. those he does, demonstrate their 
 date; they could not have been written 
 after the destruction. of Jerusalem, because, 
 after. that event, the. controversies. in 
 
266 EVIDENCES 
 
 which he was engaged against the Jews 
 necessarily expired; that is, they were 
 written at the time they are understood 
 to have been written. 
 
 It should seem, therefore, upon a gene- 
 ral review of the books of Scripture, that 
 the Jewish and Christian dispensations 
 were connected together ; that the Jewish 
 law and system was a preparation for the 
 introduction of the gospel, by its types and 
 prophecies, and by exhibiting and main- 
 taining in the world, the principles. of 
 pure theology and of good morals, during 
 a period when the world was sunk in 
 idolatry and licentiousness—this in the 
 first place: and, finally, to bring all man- 
 kind to an exalted, pure, and spiritual 
 happiness, to teach them the nature and 
 the duties of their existence in the present 
 world, and the hopes and promises of that 
 which is to come. These grand objects 
 are perfectly singular and unparallelled, 
 in the religions of the world, and the man- 
 ner in which the scheme was conducted, 
 through the different ages of the world; 
 was such.as no human invention could 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 267 
 
 have. devised, and no human contrivance 
 could have effected. 
 
 We will now allude to the works of some 
 distinguished men, who have considered 
 the evidences of Christianity. Among the 
 great writers of France, one of the most 
 celebrated was Pascal. His Thoughts— 
 his “ Pensées sur la Religion,” may be 
 said to make a part of our English Litera- 
 ture, for the book is in every library, and 
 read by every man of education in this 
 country. Bishop Kennett made an Eng- 
 lish translation of the work; there was 
 an edition printed in 1817 by Didot, at 
 Paris, in his collections of the great works 
 that had appeared in the French lan- 
 guage, with notes by Voltaire and Con- 
 dorcet. Voltaire was a great admirer of 
 Pascal, and his notes only censure Pascal, 
 where, from the temptations of his situa- 
 tion and temperament, Pascal is, more or 
 less, unreasonable. He was of a most 
 ardent mind and a Roman Catholic. To 
 the common editions of the work there is 
 an excellent preface, written by one of 
 Pascal’s friends. Pascal intended, it ap- 
 
968 EVIDENCES 
 
 pears, a grand work, which is described 
 by this friend, as communicated to him in 
 a conversation that took place between 
 them. This work he never executed: 
 The last four years of his life were years 
 of disease and suffering, and he died early 
 in 1662, when only just beginning his 
 fortieth year. But the germ and leading 
 principles of the work are, no doubt, to 
 be seen in the ‘* Pensées”. What has come 
 down to us is selected from a bundle of 
 papers, found after his death. In this 
 conversation, Pascal, it seems, described 
 the nature of man—his unintelligible 
 contrarieties—his greatness and his mean- 
 ness. He declared that he had referred 
 in vain to all the philosophical systems, 
 and all the religions of the world; and 
 that at last he was led to consider the fall 
 of man as the solution of the whole, and 
 the gospel as the only source of comfort 
 and rest to any reflecting mind; ‘insisting 
 on its credibility, and explaining to his 
 friend the evidences on which it was to be 
 received, and of the Thoughts, as they 
 appear in the book; the whole drift and 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 269 
 
 meaning is the same. ‘Thus the fall is 
 the. source of all the sinfulness and de- 
 grading qualities which appear as pheno- 
 mena in the human character; and this 
 fall is the source from which all the re- 
 flections flow, and on the reality of which 
 all the reasonings depend. Original sin 
 is the great doctrine which he continually 
 enforces and illustrates. From his prior 
 state, as he came from the hands of his 
 Creator is derived all that is sublime in 
 the mind and heart of man; from his fall 
 all that is mean, and base, and repulsive. 
 It is the doctrine so strongly insisted upon 
 by the evangelical part of our own 
 Church, and so furiously by the Metho- 
 dists and Calvinists. ‘The difference be- 
 tween them and Pascal is, that they 
 reprobate the human character as much 
 as he can do, but say nothing of the 
 sublimity and greatness that he talks of. 
 A proper appreciation of the subject may 
 be derived from the Sermons of Bishop 
 Butler. 
 
 Pascal insisted strongly on the evidence 
 to be derived from the prophecies. ‘It 
 
 ss 
 
270 EVIDENCES 
 
 is,” says he, “the greatest of all others. 
 Prophecies fulfilled are a standing mira- 
 cle; and thus has God raised up a suc- 
 cession of prophets for sixteen hundred 
 years, and then for four hundred years 
 dispersed these prophecies along with the 
 Jews, who carried them to every corner 
 of the globe. Such was the preparation 
 for the birth of the Saviour, whose gospel 
 was to be believed by all the world. The 
 proof would have been immeasurably 
 strong, if these predictions had been made 
 and published by one man; but we have 
 here a succession of prophets, for four 
 thousand years, announcing the same 
 event. It is a whole people who exhibit 
 to us these prophecies; and they cannot 
 be turned aside from them, by all that 
 they have suffered.” The Jews, indeed, 
 do not understand these prophecies as we 
 do, but, as Pascal says, they do not give 
 them up—through evil report and good 
 report, they insist upon their authenticity. 
 
 The prophets, says Pascal, gave various 
 marks that were to signify the coming of 
 the Messiah—that the fourth monarchy 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 271 
 
 was to arrive—the seventy weeks of Daniel 
 to be accomplished—the sceptre to depart 
 from Judah—and so it was; it was then 
 that the Messiah appeared. In the fourth 
 monarchy, before the destruction of the 
 second temple, before the Jews were de- 
 stroyed as a nation in the seventieth week 
 of Daniel, the Pagans were to be brought 
 to the worship of the true God—and so it 
 was. ‘And it shall come to pass,” says 
 Joel, in his 2nd chapter, “ afterward, that 
 I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh”— 
 and so it was. Mankind were reclaimed 
 from their idolatries and their lusts— 
 became ardent with charity; princes re- 
 nounced their grandeur, the rich their 
 riches; .... the temples were destroyed ; 
 kings submitted to the cross; .... “but 
 what is this,” says Pascal, “ but the spirit 
 of the Lord, poured out upon the world?” 
 “ For from the rising of the sun,” says the 
 prophet Malachi, “even unto the going 
 down of the same, my name shall be great 
 among the Gentiles, and in every place 
 incense shall be offered unto my name, 
 and a pure offering; for my name shall 
 
Pees Nat EVIDENCES 
 
 be great among the heathen, saith the 
 Lord of hosts.” 
 
 “ Neither before nor after Jesus Christ 
 did any other being ever appear, who 
 verified the existing prophecies. To the 
 Jews, said the apostles you are repudiated; 
 to the Gentiles, you are to enter into the 
 knowledge of God. To this was opposed 
 everything that was distinguished in the 
 world—philosophers, sages, and kings— 
 they argued, they condemned, they put 
 the Saviour to death; and notwithstand- 
 ing every opposition, behold, in a short 
 space of time, Jesus Christ triumphant over 
 all, destroying the Jewish worship in Jeru- 
 salem, and the idolatrous worship in Rome. 
 We have the simple and the powerless, 
 the apostles and the first Christians, op- 
 posed to all the powers of the earth, and 
 yet destroying all the established idolatry; 
 and all this by the power of him who had 
 predicted, that soit should be. The Jews, 
 in continuing to reject the Saviour, are 
 become undeniable witnesses, and in put- 
 ting him to death and continuing to reject 
 him, have fulfilled the prophecies. 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 243 
 
 “Who is it that does not recognize 
 Jesus Christ in the midst of all the par- 
 ticular circumstances that have been pre- 
 dicted of him? ‘That he should have a 
 precursor; that he should be born in 
 Bethlehem, from the family of Judah and 
 David; that he should make blind the 
 sages and the wise, and reveal himself to 
 the poor and humble; open the eyes of 
 the blind, and give health to the sick, and 
 light to those that were dwelling in dark- 
 ness; that he should teach the perfect 
 way to the Gentiles; that he should die 
 for the sins of the world; that he should 
 be a stone of offence, yet become the head 
 stone of the corner; that this stone should 
 become a mountain and fill all the earth, 
 as in the prophecy of Daniel; that he 
 should be rejected, denied, betrayed, sold, 
 buffeted, and mocked, have gall given him 
 to drink, and his hands and his feet pierced, 
 spit upon and put to death, and that they 
 should cast lots upon his vesture’—Such 
 are the striking references of Pascal; 
 and he adds, ‘ that he should rise the third 
 day,” and quotes Psalm xv, 10,(or, perhaps, 
 
 a6. Pe 
 
214 EVIDENCES 
 
 xvi, 11,) and Hosea vi, 2, but these refer- 
 ences do not, I think, make out the point, 
 nor two other references to the Psalms; 
 indeed, in these references to the Psalms, | 
 particular passages are sometimes applied 
 to our Saviour’s sufferings, by Pascal and 
 others, which might have been the natural 
 effusions of David, in the midst of his own 
 sufferings. 
 
 “But why,” says Pascal, “did not the 
 Jews believe these prophecies, or why were 
 they not exterminated, for not believing? 
 It was predicted that neither should take 
 place. For it was not sufficient that there 
 should be prophets, it was necessary that 
 their prophecies should be in unsuspected 
 keeping.” Again—“ For us to disbelieve 
 the apostles, we must suppose them either 
 deceived or deceivers. But how could 
 they be deceived in supposing a man risen 
 from the dead, and, on the contrary, sup- 
 pose twelve of them assembled after the 
 death of Christ and agreeing to pretend, 
 that he was risen again; if any one of 
 them was drawn aside by the worldly ad- 
 vantages he might receive, or terrified by 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. SPD 
 
 the private tortures and death to which 
 he was to be exposed, the defection of any 
 one was to be the destruction of all the 
 rest—what were they then todo? While 
 Christ, indeed, was with them, he might 
 support them, but when he no longer ap- 
 peared, who was then to put them into 
 motion, to direct or comfort them?” Again 
 — ‘The Jews did not all reject Christ; 
 the spiritual-minded received him, not the 
 carnal-minded.” Again; with respect to 
 Mahomet—*“ Any man can do what Ma- 
 homet did, for he worked no miracles, nor 
 was he ‘announced by any prophecies. 
 But what man can do what Jesus Christ 
 has done? Mahomet took every way, hu- 
 manly speaking, to succeed; Christ, to 
 perish; and Christianity would have pe- 
 rished if the Almighty had not sustained 
 10 
 
 “ Consider,’ says Pascal, “how a reli- 
 gion, so opposed to human nature, was 
 established without force or violence, and 
 yet so firmly established, that no torment 
 could deter its martyrs, and no hostility of 
 the powerful overthrow it. Consider the 
 
RG. tt EVIDENCES 
 
 holiness, the elevation, and yet the humi- 
 lity of the Christian character. No phi- 
 losophers have ever acknowledged the 
 virtue of ‘humility, though without it, all 
 the other virtues become faults and vices. 
 Consider. all the endless marvels that the 
 Holy Scriptures contam—the grandeur 
 and more than human sublimity of what 
 may there be found—and yet the admira- 
 ble simplicity of the style; where there is 
 nothing affected, nothing out of the way, 
 nothing that does not bear upon the face 
 of it a character of truth, which it is im- 
 possible not to acknowledge. Consider 
 the character of Christ, in particular. 
 Whatever we may think of him, one can- 
 not deny his grandeurand elevation of mind. 
 He disputes with the doctors at the age of 
 twelve; he passes thirty years, not in the 
 cultivation of his talents, but in the labour 
 of his hands and in obscurity ; he chooses 
 for his apostles men without science, 
 without learning, without reputation; he 
 makes enemies of those, who are at the pe- 
 riod, thought the wisest and most learned; 
 and is this then the conduct of a man 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. QT 
 
 who intended to be the founder of a new 
 religion ? Consider who and what were the 
 apostles, chosen by Christ; who and what 
 were their opponents, and yet howthey pre- 
 vailed over these opponents. Consider the 
 marvellous succession of prophets, which 
 continued for 2000 years, and who pre- 
 dicted every thing that happened in the 
 life of Christ, in his death, in his resur- 
 rection, in the mission of the apostles, in 
 the preaching of the gospel; in the con-— 
 version of the nations and many other 
 particulars, that had reference to the 
 establishment of the Christian religion 
 and abolition of Judaism. Consider how 
 different the state of the Jewish nation 
 before and since the coming of the 
 Saviour ; how miserable, since they reject- 
 ed him. Consider the perpetuity of the 
 Christian religion. Consider its sanctity, 
 its doctrines, that account for everything, 
 even for all the contradictions that are to 
 be found in human nature, and the many 
 things above nature, and divine, that break 
 out from every part of it. Consider all 
 this, and then judge how is it possible to 
 
one in EVIDENCES 
 
 doubt of the truth of the Christian religion; 
 of its being the only true religion, and that 
 no other can make any approach to it.” 
 
 Such are the representations of Pascal. 
 Pascal made original sin and the fall the 
 foundation of his whole system, but he 
 was perfectly aware of the difficulties of 
 the doctrine. Observe his discourse on 
 the proof of a true religion. 
 
 “The grandeur,” says he, “and the 
 miserable nature of man are so apparent, 
 that the true religion must necessarily 
 teach us, that there is some great princi- 
 ple, from which arises at once this eran- 
 deur and this meanness; for the true 
 religion must know our nature to the very 
 bottom, all that is grand and all that is 
 mean, and the reason both of the one and 
 the other, the reason of the astonishing 
 contradictions to be found in us.” 
 
 Pascal then turns to consider the nature 
 of man and the systems of the philoso- 
 phers; his paragraphs are very striking 
 and eloquent. 
 
 “ Lift up your eyes, says one sect of the 
 philosophers, you may resemble the Deity ; 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 279 
 
 wisdom will thus elevate you, if you will 
 follow her counsels. Down, cast down 
 your eyes, to the earth, says another sect, 
 worms of the earth as you are, and look 
 at the animals, the beasts of the field, 
 of which you are the companions.” 
 
 “If man had never fallen, he would be 
 in the full enjoyment of truth and 
 happiness; if he had never been other 
 than corrupt, he would have had no 
 notion either of truth or of happiness; 
 but, miserable that we are, and the more 
 so from the grandeur that belongs to us, 
 we have notions of happiness that we can- 
 not reach, and of wisdom that we cannot 
 attain..... Astonishing fact, however, that 
 the very mystery, which is at the greatest 
 distance possible, from our comprehen- 
 sion, the transmission of original sin, 
 is the very mystery which can alone en- 
 able us at all to comprehend our nature ; 
 for undoubtedly there is nothing that can 
 so shock our reason, as to say, that the 
 sin of our first parent has made guilty all 
 those, who, at whatever distance, were to 
 follow him, and in whose guilt it was im- 
 
280 EVIDENCES 
 
 _ possible that they should have participated. 
 All this is not only impossible, but even 
 most unjust. What can be more so to 
 our miserable notions of justice, than that 
 an infant should perish everlastingly for a 
 sin committed six thousand years before 
 it had even come into existence. And 
 yet, without this mystery, incomprehensi- 
 ble as it may be, we are still more incom- 
 prehensible to ourselves. Turn and twist 
 the nature of our condition as we may, 
 the mystery is not so inconceivable, as 1S 
 the nature of man without the mystery. 
 “The doctrine of original sin is foolish- 
 ness before man; but it is not pretended 
 that it is otherwise. The foolishness of 
 God, says the Epistle to the Corinthians, 
 ss wiser than the wisdom of man; how 
 can that be perceived by reason, which 1s 
 above reason; and which, so far from 
 being discoverable by reason, is revolting 
 to reason, even when presented to it. 
 " «But these two states of innocence and 
 corruption once disclosed to us, it is im- 
 possible not to be conscious of the truth 
 of this representation. Let us observe 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 281 
 
 ourselves, observe what passes within us, 
 and see if we do not find within ourselves 
 the living marks of these two natures; so 
 endless are our contradictions and contra- 
 rieties even in this one simple instance. 
 
 Who made, says Pascal, the Evangelists 
 so acquainted with the perfections and 
 qualities of a soul, truly heroic, that 
 they should be able to paint it after so- 
 inimitable a manner in the person of 
 Jesus Christ ? 
 
 This observation seems very just; no- 
 thing appears so impossible, as that a Jew 
 should have assumed such a character as 
 that of our Saviour; and again, nothing 
 so impossible, as that the Evangelists 
 should have invented it. 
 
 Pascal is so celebrated a writer, that I 
 turned from my more immediate er 
 of the Evidences of Christianity, to make 
 a passing reference to some of the chapters 
 of his work. I quoted from Bishop Ken- 
 nett’s publication; the matter which it 
 contains is all found in the modern Paris 
 edition, but differently disposed—the 
 chapters differently arranged. In these 
 
 a 
 
282 EVIDENCES 
 
 chapters the thoughts are often affecting, 
 and there is always a charm about them: 
 whether instructive and elevating, or only 
 paradoxical, they are always interesting. 
 But on revising my manuscript, I found 
 that they took up too large a portion of 
 it, and I therefore omit them. JI will 
 retain, however, one of them. 
 
 Pascal had sounded all the depths of 
 metaphysical scepticism—ancient and mo- 
 dern—and he at last observes—“‘ Nature 
 confounds the -Pyrrhonists, reason the 
 Dogmatists.” That is, we cannot be entire 
 sceptics and believe nothing ; our feelings, 
 our senses, the laws of our being forbid it. 
 On the contrary we cannot be totally cer- 
 tain and dogmatic on such subjects, as the 
 fallibility of our senses, and other para- 
 doxical subtleties. Reason suggests such 
 perplexing grounds of hesitation and sus- 
 pense of judgment. ‘Thus, to take a 
 modern instance—no Dogmatist can con- 
 fute Bishop Berkeley’s system of the non- 
 existence of matter; but what sceptic can 
 believe 1 or act upon it? ‘The above 
 grand comprehensive maxim of Pascal 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 288 
 
 was always much admired by Macintosh 
 —indeed, it was after his own manner. 
 The great Pyrrhonist of modern times 
 was Hume. He delighted in doubt, just 
 as others do in the possession of truth; 
 nowhere does he seem more to indulge 
 his genius than in his sceptical writings. 
 The Thoughts of Pascal, such as I now 
 omit, turn upon general subjects; but it 
 is on his religious ‘Thoughts, that we are 
 accustomed to dwell, and of these such 
 notices, as I have given, may afiord an 
 example. The fall of man and his re- 
 demption by Christ constitute Christianity. 
 Human nature is a mystery, totally inex- 
 plicable, but on the supposition of the 
 fall—it is an union of grandeur and of 
 meanness, otherwise totally unintelligible. 
 The feelings of the heart are every thing. 
 Such are the doctrines, and such the sys- 
 tem of Pascal. 
 » In religion, according to Pascal, as I 
 have just said, the heart is every thing. 
 And this. observation, which is in the 
 main and practical effect so just, leads me 
 to advert to another branch of the evi- 
 
284 EVIDENCES 
 
 dence for the Christian religion, which we. 
 have not yet noticed. 
 
 A distinction has always been made, 
 between the internal and external evi- 
 dence for the truth of the Christian reli- 
 gion—between the direct evidence of the 
 prophecies, the miracles, and the notices 
 of profane writers, and the evidence de- 
 rived from the character and conduct, the 
 words and the actions of all the person- 
 ages that come before us in our consider- 
 ation of the subject and the various 
 circumstances that occur in the course of 
 the narratives delivered tous. ‘The first, 
 or the direct evidence, is more or less ad- 
 dressed to the understanding; the latter 
 to the heart, the taste, and feelings. of 
 the inquirer. ‘These two descriptions of 
 evidence cannot often be separated from 
 each other; nor need they; united they 
 may become reasonable evidence to a 
 sound mind; but the evidence that. is 
 addressed to the feelings of the heart, 
 and the perception of the taste, operates 
 with very different cogency on different 
 minds—nothing can be so convincing to 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. Q85 
 
 many; and it is of great value to those 
 who have not learning nor leisure enough 
 to consider the more matter-of-fact evi- 
 dence to which we have first alluded. 
 But there are men, the feelings of whose 
 hearts and the perception of whose taste 
 are dull and languid, and they assent to 
 this internal evidence, but do little more 
 than assent, and feel not the sort of senti- 
 ment, that lke a stream, flows in upon 
 better constituted minds, and produces an 
 intuitive and indelible conviction. 
 
 I know of no finer specimen of this 
 sort of reasoning than is presented to us 
 by Rousseau. “I will confess to you,” 
 says he, “that the majesty of the scrip- 
 tures strikes me with admiration, as the 
 purity of the gospel hath its influence on 
 my heart. Peruse the works of our philoso- 
 phers with all their pomp of diction; how 
 mean, how contemptible are they, com- 
 pared with the scriptures! Is it possible 
 that a book, at once so simple and sublime, 
 should be merely the work of man? Is 
 it possible that the sacred personage, 
 whose history it contains, should be him- 
 
 vee 
 
286 EVIDENCES 
 
 self a mere man? Do we find that he 
 assumed the tone of an enthusiast or am- 
 bitious sectary? What sweetness, what 
 purity in his manner! What an affect- 
 ing gracefulness in his delivery! What 
 sublimity in his maxims? What pro- 
 found wisdom in his discourses! What 
 presence of mind, what subtlety, what 
 truth in his replies! How great the com- 
 mand over his passions! Where is the 
 man, where the philosopher, who could so 
 live, and so die, without weakness, and 
 without ostentation? When Plato de- 
 scribes his imaginary good man loaded 
 with all the punishments of guilt, yet 
 meriting the highest rewards of virtue, 
 he describes exactly the character of Jesus 
 Christ: the resemblance was so striking, 
 that all the fathers perceived it. What 
 prepossession, what blindness must it be, 
 to compare the son of Sophroniscus to the 
 son of Mary! What an infinite dispro- 
 portion there is between them! Socrates, 
 dying without pain or ignominy, easily 
 supported his character to the last; and 
 if his death, however easy, had not 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 287 
 
 crowned his life, it might have been 
 doubted whether Socrates, with all his 
 wisdom, was anything more than a mere 
 sophist. He invented, it is said, the theory 
 of morals. Others, however, had. before, 
 put them in practice ; he had only to say, 
 therefore, what they had done, and to 
 reduce their examples to precepts. Aris- 
 tides had been just, before Socrates defined 
 justice; Leonidas had given up his life 
 for his country, before Socrates declared 
 patriotism to be aduty ; the Spartans were 
 a sober people before Socrates recom- 
 mended sobriety—before he had even de- 
 fined virtue, Greece abounded in virtuous 
 men. But where could Jesus learn, 
 among his cotemporaries, that pure and 
 sublime morality, of which he only hath 
 given us both precept and example. The 
 greatest wisdom was made known amongst 
 the most bigoted fanaticism, and the sim- 
 plicity of the most heroic virtues did 
 honour to the vilest people on earth. The 
 death of Socrates peaceably philosophizing 
 with his friends, appears the most agree- 
 able that could be wished for; that of 
 
288 EVIDENCES 
 
 Jesus, expiring in the midst of agonizing 
 pains, abused, insulted, and accused by a 
 whole nation, is the most horrible that 
 could be feared. Socrates, in receiving 
 the cup of poison, blessed indeed the 
 weeping executioner who administered 
 it; but Jesus, in the midst of excruciating 
 tortures, prayed for his merciless torment- 
 ors. Yes, if the life and death of Socrates 
 were those of a Sage, the life and death 
 of Jesus are those of a God. Shall we 
 suppose the evangelic history a mere 
 fiction? Indeed, my friend, it bears not 
 the marks of fiction: on the contrary, the 
 history of Socrates, which nobody pre- 
 sumes to doubt, is not so well attested as 
 that of Jesus Christ. Such a supposition, 
 in fact, only shifts the difficulty without 
 obviating it: 1t is more inconceivable that 
 a number of persons should agree to write 
 such a history, than that one only should 
 furnish the subject of it. The Jewish 
 authors were incapable of the diction, 
 and strangers to the morality contained in 
 the gospel; the marks of whose truth are 
 so striking and inimitable, that the in- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 289 
 
 ventor would be a more astonishing cha- 
 racter than the hero.” 
 
 It is impossible not to feel the justice 
 of these remarks, nor do I see what answer 
 can be made to them; and if it had not 
 been for the miracles that are insisted 
 upon in the scriptures, Rousseau had 
 been a believer. By them it seems he 
 was repelled—but his mind was so dis- 
 orderly—his conduct so licentious, so 
 gross, and sensual, in the midst of his 
 high feelings of purity and refinement— 
 that we must take this testimony to the 
 internal evidence, that is, to what he 
 could thoroughly understand, and beauti- 
 fully describe, and further think not of 
 him; for it is in vain to do so, or follow 
 him through the mazes of his eccentrici- 
 ties and the astonishing mixtures and 
 confusion of his sublimities and mean- 
 nesses—his high and his debasing qua- 
 lities. 
 
 We will now turn to a writer of our 
 own. About the period of the breaking 
 out of the great American war, appeared 
 the work of Soame Jenyns—his View of 
 
290 EVIDENCES 
 
 the Internal Evidence of the Christian 
 Religion. Soame Jenyns was a gentleman 
 of independent fortune, well known at 
 the time; there is a good account of him 
 in Cumberland’s Memoirs ; he was a mem- 
 ber of Parliament, a supporter of Sir R. 
 Walpole and of Lord North, and the 
 most lively, able, and acute tory writer 
 that our literature possesses. He was a 
 man of wit, fond of paradox, and univer- 
 sally admired in society; and his works 
 exhibit an admirable model of English 
 style, of idiomatic yet elegant language. 
 His book was very short, and highly fitted 
 for its purpose, universally read, and well 
 deserving the notice it received and the 
 attentive consideration of every inquirer, 
 even at the present period. 
 
 “Grotius, Bacon,” says he, at the con- 
 clusion of his work, “ Newton, Boyle, 
 Locke, Addison, and Lyttleton firmly ad- 
 hered to the belief of the Christian reli- 
 gion, after the most diligent and learned 
 researches into the authenticity of its 
 records, the completion of the prophecies, 
 the sublimity of its doctrines, the purity of 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 291 
 
 its precepts, and the arguments of its adver- 
 saries; a belief which they have testified to 
 the world by their writings, without any 
 other motive, than their regard for truth 
 and the benefit of mankind. Should the 
 few foregoing pages add but one mite to 
 the treasures, with which these learned 
 writers have enriched the world; if they 
 should be so fortunate as to persuade any 
 of these minute philosophers to place 
 some confidence in these great opinions, 
 and to distrust their own; if they 
 should be able to convince them, that 
 notwithstanding all unfavourable appear- 
 ances, Christianity may not be altogether 
 artifice and error; if they should prevail 
 on them to examine it with some atten- 
 tion, or if that is too much trouble, not to 
 reject it without any examination at all; 
 the purpose of this little work will be 
 sufficiently answered. Had the argu- 
 ments herein used, and the new _ hints 
 here flung out, been more largely dis- 
 cussed, it might easily have been extended 
 to a more considerable bulk; but then the 
 busy would not have had leisure, nor the 
 
292 EVIDENCES 
 
 idle, inclination to have read it. Should 
 it ever have the honour to be admitted 
 into such good company, they will imme- 
 diately, I know, determine that it must be 
 the work of some enthusiast or methodist, 
 some beggar or some madman. I shall, 
 therefore, beg leave to assure them, that 
 the author is very far removed from all 
 these characters; that he once, perhaps, 
 believed as little as themselves; but hay- 
 ing some leisure and more curiosity, he 
 employed them both in resolving a ques- 
 tion which seemed to him of some im- 
 portance—W hether Christianity was really 
 an imposture, founded on an absurd, in- 
 credible, and obsolete fable, as many sup- 
 pose it, or whether it is, what it pretends 
 to be, a revelation communicated to man- 
 kind by the interposition of supernatural 
 power. On a candid inquiry, he soon. 
 found that the first was an absolute im- 
 possibility, and that its pretensions to the 
 latter were founded on the most sohd 
 grounds. In the further pursuit of his 
 examination, he perceived, at every step, 
 new lights arising, and some of the bright- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 293 
 
 est from parts of it the most obscure, but 
 productive of the clearest proofs, because 
 equally beyond the power of human arti- 
 fice to invent, and human reason to dis- 
 cover. These arguments, which have 
 convinced him of the divine origin of this 
 religion, he has here put together, in as 
 clear and concise a manner, as he was 
 able, thinking they might have the same | 
 effect upon others, and being of opinion 
 that if there were a few more true Chris- 
 tians in the world, it would be beneficial 
 to themselves, and by no means detrimental 
 to the public. fi 
 
 His view of Christianity stat from 
 the New Testament may be extracted a 
 system of religion, entirely new, both with 
 regard to the object and the doctrines ; 
 not only infinitely superior, but totally 
 unlike everything, which had before en- 
 tered into the mind of man, and that the 
 object of this religion is to prepare us, by 
 a state of probation, for the kingdom of 
 heaven. “ All,” says he, “that we here 
 meet with may thus be easily accounted 
 for; for this mixture of happiness and 
 
 ji 
 
294 EVIDENCES 
 
 misery, of virtue and vice, necessarily re- 
 sults from a state of probation and educa- 
 tion ; as probation implies trials, sufferings, 
 and a capacity of offending, and education 
 a propriety of chastisement for those 
 offences. And the doctrines of this reli- 
 gion (I shall continue to quote from this 
 work for some time) are equally new 
 with the object. ... No other ever drew so 
 just a portrait of the worthlessness of this 
 world and all its pursuits, nor exhibited 
 such distinct, lively, and exquisite pic- 
 tures of the joys of another; of the 
 resurrection of the dead, the last judg- 
 ment, and the triumphs of the righteous 
 on that tremendous day, ‘when this cor- 
 ruptible shall put on incorruption, and 
 this mortal shall put on immortality.’.... 
 No other has ever pretended to give any 
 account of the depravity of man, or to 
 point out any remedy for it; no other has 
 ventured to declare the unpardonable na- 
 ture of sin, without the influence of a 
 mediatorial interposition and a vicarious 
 atonement, from the sufferings ofa superior 
 being.” 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 295 
 
 ‘'These doctrines are all so far removed 
 from every tract of the human imagina- 
 tion, that it seems equally impossible, that 
 they should ever have been derived from 
 the knowledge or the artifice of man .... 
 And the personal character of the author 
 of this religion is no less new and extra- 
 ordinary than the religion itself— He 
 spake as never man spake,’ and lived as 
 never man lived...... He is the only 
 founder of a religion, which is totally un- 
 connected with all human policy and 
 government...... No one ever made his 
 own sufferings and death a necessary part 
 of his original plan, and essential to his 
 mission. If we contemplate the divine 
 lessons, the perfect precepts, the beautiful 
 discourses, and the consistent conduct of 
 this wonderful person, we cannot possibly 
 imagine that he could have been either an 
 idiot or a madman, and yet, if he was not 
 what he pretended to be, he can be consi- 
 dered in no other light.” 
 
 After giving a description of the reli- 
 gious state of the heathen world, and of 
 
296 EVIDENCES 
 
 the views of the most celebrated sages of 
 antiquity, the author proceeds— 
 
 “ At this time Christianity broke forth 
 from the East, like a rising sun, and dis- 
 pelled this universal darkness, which ob- 
 scured every part of the globe, and even 
 at this day prevails in all those remoter 
 regions, to which its salutary influence 
 has not as yet extended; from all those 
 which it has reached, it has, notwithstand- 
 ing its corruptions, banished all those 
 enormities, and introduced a more rational 
 devotion, and purer morals; it has taught 
 men the unity and attributes of the Su- 
 preme Being, the remission of sins, the 
 resurrection of the dead, life everlasting, 
 and the kingdom of heaven—doctrines as 
 inconceivable to the wisest of mankind, 
 antecedent to its appearance, as the New- 
 tonian system is at this day to the most 
 ignorant tribes of savages in the wilds of 
 America—doctrines, which human reason 
 never could have discovered, but which, 
 when discovered, coincide with, and are 
 confirmed by it; and which, though be- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 297 
 
 yond the reach of all the learning and 
 penetration of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, 
 are now clearly laid open to the eye of 
 every peasant and mechanic, with the 
 ‘Bible in his hand. ‘These are all plain 
 facts, too glaring to be contradicted, and, 
 therefore, whatever we may think of the 
 authority of these books, the relations 
 which they contain, or the inspiration of 
 their authors, of these facts no man, who 
 has eyes to see, or ears to hear, can enter- 
 tain a doubt; because there are the books, 
 and in them is the religion.” 
 
 The author’s third proposition is the 
 most striking and original of all. “ ‘That 
 from the New Testament may be collected 
 a system of ethics, in which every moral 
 precept, founded on reason, is carried to a 
 higher degree of purity and perfection, 
 than in any other of the ancient philoso- 
 phers of preceding ages; every moral 
 precept founded on false principles is en- 
 tirely omitted, and many new precepts 
 added, peculiarly convespondins with the 
 new object of this religion.” 
 
 After maintaining this proposition in all 
 
 Ta 
 
298 . EVIDENCES 
 
 its parts, in the most spirited and forcible 
 manner, he afterwards concludes—“ Every 
 one of these propositions, I am persuaded, 
 is most incontrovertibly true; and if true, 
 this short but certain conclusion must in- 
 evitably follow—That such a system of 
 religion and morality could not possibly 
 have been the work of any man, or set of 
 men, much less of those obscure, ignorant, 
 and illiterate persons, who actually did 
 discern and publish it to the world ; and 
 that, therefore, it must have been effected 
 by the supernatural interposition of divine 
 power and wisdom—that is, that it must 
 derive its origin from God.” 
 
 ‘¢ We view with admiration the heavens, 
 and the earth, and all therein contained ; 
 we contemplate with amazement the mi- 
 nute bodies of animals, too small for per- 
 ception, and the immense planetary orbs, 
 too vast for imagination. We are certain 
 that these cannot be the works of man; 
 and therefore we conclude, with reason, 
 that they must be the productions of an 
 omnipotent Creator. In the same manner, 
 we see here a scheme of religion and 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 299 
 
 morality, unlike and superior to all ideas: 
 of the human mind, equally impossible to 
 have been discovered by the knowledge, 
 or invented by the artifice of man, and 
 therefore by the very same mode of rea- 
 soning, and with the same justice, we 
 conclude, that it must derive its origin 
 from the same omnipotent and omniscient 
 Being.” 
 
 By “moral precepts founded on reason” 
 the author means, he says, “ such as incul- 
 cate piety to God, benevolence to man, 
 such as improve our nature, and conduce 
 to the happiness of man; that virtues of this 
 first kind are carried to a higher degree of 
 perfection and purity by the Christian 
 religion than by any other, has never been 
 denied; but by the precepts, founded on 
 false principles I mean those, which re- 
 commend fictitious virtues, productive of 
 none of these salutary effects, and which 
 are, therefore, in fact, no virtues at all— 
 such are valour, patriotism, and friend- 
 ship.” 
 
 These are startling positions, and the 
 work must be referred to, to see the man- 
 
300 EVIDENCES 
 
 ner in which they are made out. “ Active 
 courage,” he contends, “can never be a 
 Christian virtue, because a Christian can 
 have nothing to do with it. Passive 
 courage indeed, is frequently and properly 
 inculcated by this meek and suffering re- 
 ligion, under the titles of patience and 
 resignation—a real and substantial virtue 
 this, and a direct contrast to the former. 
 Passive courage is the resolution of a 
 philosopher; active, the ferocity of a 
 savage.” 
 
 “ Patriotism not only falls short of, but 
 directly counteracts the extensive benevo- 
 lence of this religion. A Christian is of 
 no country; he is a citizen of the world. 
 Christianity commands us to love all 
 mankind ; patriotism to oppress all other 
 countries, to advance the imaginary pros- 
 perity of our own. Christianity enjoins 
 us to imitate the universal benevolence 
 of our Creator; patriotism to copy the 
 mean partiality of an English parish 
 officer.” 
 
 “Friendship, likewise, can have little 
 pretension to merit. ‘If ye love them 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 301 
 
 which love you, what thanks have ye; for 
 sinners also love those that love them.’ 
 But if friendships are formed from alli- 
 ances in parties, factions, and interests, or 
 from a participation of vices, the usual 
 parents of what are called friendships 
 amongst mankind, they are then both 
 mischievous and criminal; but, in their 
 utmost purity, deserve no recommendation 
 from this religion.” 
 
 “To the judicious omission of these 
 false virtues, we may add that remarkable 
 silence which the Christian legislator 
 everywhere preserves on subjects esteemed 
 by others of the highest importance, civil 
 government, national policy, and the 
 rights of war and peace. Of these he has 
 not taken the least notice, probably be- 
 cause any explicit regulations would have 
 been inconsistent with the purity of his 
 religion.” 
 
 ‘‘ Let us now examine,” the author con- 
 tinues, “what are those new precepts in 
 this religion, peculiarly corresponding 
 with the new object of it, that 1s, prepar- 
 ing us for the kingdom of heaven. Of 
 
302 EVIDENCES 
 
 these the chief are, poorness of spirit, for- 
 giveness of injuries, and charity to all 
 men; to these we may add, repentance, 
 faith, self-abasement, and a detachment 
 from the world—all moral duties, peculiar 
 to this religion and absolutely necessary 
 to the attainment of its end.” “ By poor- 
 ness of spirit is to be understood a dispo- 
 sition of mind, meek, humble, submissive 
 to power, void of ambition, patient of 
 injuries, and free from all resentment. 
 This was so new and so opposite to the 
 ideas of all pagan moralists that they 
 thought this temper of mind a criminal 
 and contemptible meanness. ‘ Blessed 
 are the poor in spirit, &c.’ * Whoever 
 shall not receive the kingdom of God, as 
 a little child, he shall not enter therein.’ ” 
 
 ‘Another precept, equally new and no 
 less excellent, is forgiveness of injuries—‘ I 
 say unto you, love your enemies, &c.’..... 
 Yet noble and useful as this virtue is, be- 
 fore the appearance of this religion it was 
 not only unpractised, but denied in prin- 
 ciple, as mean and ignominious, though so 
 obvious a remedy for most of the miseries 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 303 
 
 of this life, and so necessary a qualification 
 for the happiness of another. 
 
 “A third precept, first noticed and first 
 enjoined by this institution is charity to 
 all men—‘ Charity suffereth long and is 
 kind, &c.’ ‘A new commandment I give 
 unto you, that you love one another, &c.; 
 by this shall all men know that ye are my 
 disciples, if ye have love one to another.’ — 
 This benevolent disposition is made the 
 great characteristic of a Christian—an 
 amiable disposition of mind, exercising itself 
 every hour, in acts of kindness, patience, 
 complacency and benevolence to all around 
 us. “It is a commandment so sublime, 
 so rational, and so beneficent, so wisely 
 calculated to correct the depravity, dimi- 
 nish the wickedness, and abate the miseries 
 of human nature, that did we universally 
 comply with it, we should soon be relieved 
 from all the inquietudes arising from our 
 own unruly passions.” 
 
 “Repentance is another new moral 
 duty, strenuously insisted on by this reli- 
 gion, and by no other, because absolutely 
 necessary to the accomplishment of its 
 
50 ain EVIDENCES 
 
 end; for this alone can purge us from 
 those transgressions, from which we can- 
 not be totally exempted in this state of trial 
 and temptation, and purify us from that 
 depravity in our nature, which renders us 
 incapable of attaining this end.” 
 
 “Faith 1s another moral duty enjoined 
 by this institution, of a species so new, 
 that the philosophers of antiquity had no 
 word expressive of thisidea.” In the New 
 Testament it generally means an humble, 
 teachable, and candid disposition, a trust 
 in God, and confidence in his promises; 
 as applied to Christianity it means, that 
 Christ was the Messiah, foretold and ex- 
 pected. It is always a direct contrast to 
 pride, obstinacy and self-conceit. “We 
 have power over the mind’s eye, as well 
 as the body’s, to shut it against the 
 strongest rays of truth and religion, when- 
 ever they become painful to us, and open 
 it again, to the faint glimmerings of scep- 
 ticism and infidelity, when we ‘love dark- 
 ness rather than light, because our deeds 
 aTCMe VAL Mees Men believe and disbelieve 
 any propositions which best suit their 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 305 
 
 interests; ... so that faith is a moral virtue, 
 and is not quite involuntary, and depen- 
 dent on the degree of evidence offered to 
 our understandings.” 
 
 ES Sal eabsaseniarita is another moral duty 
 inculeated by this religion only, which 
 requires us to impute even our own virtues 
 to the grace and favour of our Creator, 
 and to acknowledge that we can do 
 nothing good by our own powers, unless 
 assisted by his over-ruling influence—a 
 doctrine that is productive of so much 
 humility, resignation, and dependence on 
 God, that it justly claims a place among 
 the most illustrious moral virtues. Yet 
 was this duty utterly repugnant to the 
 proud and self-sufficient principles of the 
 ancient philosophers, as well as modern 
 Deists, and therefore before the publica- 
 tion of the gospel, totally unknown and 
 uncomprehended.” 
 
 “ Detachment from the world is another 
 moral virtue constituted by this religion 
 alone; so new, that even at this day few 
 of its rea fsettrs can be persuaded that it 
 is required, or that it is any virtue at all. 
 
 2 A 
 
BU EVIDENCES 
 
 By this detachment from the world is not 
 to be understood seclusion from society, 
 &c...... but such an unremitted anxiety 
 and perpetual application, as engrosses 
 our whole time and thoughts, are forbid, 
 because they are incompatible with the 
 spirit of this religion, and must utterly 
 disqualify us for the attainment of its 
 great end. We toil on in the vain pur- 
 suits and frivolous occupations of the 
 world, die in our harness, and then ex- 
 pect, if no gigantic crime stands in the 
 way, to step immediately into the king- 
 dom of heaven. But this is impossible, 
 for without a previous detachment from 
 the business of this world, we cannot be 
 prepared for the happiness of another. .... 
 To this celestial mansion we should be 
 ever advancing during our journey through 
 lite: but this by no means precludes us 
 from performing the business or enjoying 
 the amusements of travellers, provided 
 they detain us not too long, or lead us too 
 far out of the way.” 
 
 “The contrast between the Christian 
 and all other institutions, religious or 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 307 
 
 moral, previous to its appearance, is suffi- 
 ciently evident, and surely the superiority 
 of the former is as little to be disputed, 
 unless, &c. &e.” 
 
 The above garbled and most imperfect 
 account will give some general notion of 
 what the author has delivered on the 
 morality of the gospel. It has been en- 
 tirely approved by Paley; but what Paley 
 says himself is so masterly that I shall re- 
 fer to it hereafter. The author sums up 
 what he has urged in the following man- 
 ner. 
 
 “ But if any man can believe that at a 
 time when the literature of Greece and 
 Rome, then in their meridian lustre, were 
 insufficient for the task, the son of a 
 carpenter, together with twelve of the 
 meanest and most illiterate mechanics, his 
 associates, unassisted by any supernatural 
 power, should be able to discover or in- 
 vent a system of theology the most sublime, 
 and of ethics the most perfect, which had 
 escaped the penetration and learning of 
 Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero; and that 
 from this system, by their own sagacity 
 
308 EVIDENCES 
 
 they had excluded every false virtue, though 
 universally admired, and admitted every 
 true virtue, though despised and ridiculed 
 by all the rest of the world; if any one 
 can believe that these men could become 
 impostors, for no other purpose than the 
 propagation of truth, villains for no end 
 but to teach honesty, and martyrs without 
 the least prospect of honour or advantage; 
 or that, if all this should have been possi- 
 ble, these few inconsiderable persons 
 should have been able in the course of a 
 few years, to have spread this their reli- 
 gion over most parts of the then known 
 world, in opposition to the interests, plea- 
 sures, ambition, prejudices, and even 
 reason of mankind; to have triumphed 
 over the power of princes, the intrigues 
 of states, the force of custom, the blind- 
 ness of zeal, the influence of priests, the 
 arguments of orators, and the philosophy 
 of the world, without any supernatural 
 assistance—if any one can believe all 
 these miraculous events, contradictory to 
 the constant experience of the powers and 
 dispositions of human nature, he must be 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 309 
 
 possessed of much more faith than is ne- 
 cessary to make him a Christian, and 
 remain an unbeliever from mere credulity.” 
 
 “Nor was the propagation of this reli- 
 gion less extraordinary than the religion 
 itself, or less above the reach of all human 
 power, than the discovery of it was above 
 that of all human understanding. It is 
 well known, that in the course of a very 
 few years, it was spread over all the prin- 
 cipal parts of Asia and of Europe, and 
 this by the ministry only of an inconsider- 
 able number of the most inconsiderable 
 persons, though at this time Paganism 
 was in the highest repute, believed uni- 
 versally by the vulgar, and patronized by 
 the great, &c.” ‘On the preaching of a 
 few fishermen, their altars were deserted, 
 and their deities were dumb. This mira- 
 cle they undoubtedly performed, and this 
 is sufficient to convince us that neither 
 their undertaking nor the execution of it 
 could possibly be their own.” ‘No man 
 who seriously considers the excellence and 
 novelty of its doctrines, the manner in 
 which it was at first propagated through 
 
 eA 2 
 
310 EVIDENCES 
 
 the world, the persons who atchieved that 
 wonderful work, and the originality of 
 those writings in which it is still recorded, 
 can possibly believe, that it could ever 
 have been the production of imposture or 
 chance.” 
 
 “If I have here demonstrated,” he pro- 
 ceeds to say, “The divine origin of the 
 Christian religion, by an argument which 
 cannot be confuted; no others, however 
 plausible or numerous, founded on proba- 
 bilities, doubts, and conjectures, can ever 
 disprove it, because if it is once shown to 
 be true, it cannot be false. But as many 
 arguments of this kind have bewildered 
 some candid and ingenuous minds, I shall 
 here bestow a few lines on those which 
 have the most weight, in order to wipe 
 out, or at least diminish, their perplexing 
 influence. 
 
 “ But here I must previously observe, 
 that the most insurmountable as well as 
 usual obstacle to our belief arises from 
 our passions, appetites, and interests ; for 
 faith, being an act of the will, as much as 
 of the understanding, we oftener disbe- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. Sit 
 
 lieve for want of inclination, than want of 
 evidence.” 
 
 “ Some,” he says, ‘‘ have asserted, that 
 all revelation from God is incredible, be- 
 cause unnecessary, and unnecessary, be- 
 cause the reason which he has bestowed 
 on man is sufficiently able to discern all 
 the religious and moral duties, which he 
 requires of them.” 
 
 “ But although human reason,” he re- 
 plies, is capable of progression in science, 
 yet the first foundations must be laid in 
 supernatural instruction, for surely no 
 other probable cause can be assigned why 
 one part of mankind should have made 
 such an amazing progress in religious, 
 moral, metaphysical, and philosophical 
 inquiries; such wonderful improvements 
 in policy, legislation, commerce, and ma- 
 nufactures, while the other part, formed 
 with the same natural capacities, divided 
 only by seas and mountains, should remain 
 during the same number of ages, in a 
 state little superior to brutes, without go- 
 vernment, without laws or letters, &c.... 
 And as reason in her natural state, is thus 
 
sib EVIDENCES 
 
 incapable of making any progress in 
 knowledge, so when furnished with ma- 
 terials by supernatural aid, if left to the 
 guidance of her own wild imaginations, 
 she falls into more numerous and more 
 gross errors, than her own native igno- 
 rance could ever have suggested. .... She 
 has persuaded some, that there is no God ; 
 others that there can be no future state ; 
 she has taught some, that there is no 
 difference between vice and virtue; and 
 that to cut a man’s throat and to relieve 
 his necessities are actions equally merito- 
 rious; she has convinced many, that they 
 have no free-will in opposition to their 
 own experience; some, that there can be 
 no such thing as soul or spirit, contrary to 
 their own perceptions; and others, no 
 such thing as matter or body, in contra- 
 diction to their senses. By analyzing all 
 things she can show, that there is nothing 
 in anything ; by perpetual sifting, she can 
 reduce all existence to the invisible dust 
 of scepticism, and by recurring to first 
 principles, prove, to the satisfaction of her 
 followers, that there are no principles at 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 313 
 
 all. How far such a guide is to be de- 
 pended on in the important concerns of 
 religion and morals, I leave to the judg- 
 ment of every considerate man to deter- 
 mine.”’ 
 
 “ Others allege that the scriptures can- 
 not be the revelation from God; because 
 in them are to be found errors and incon- 
 sistencies, fabulous stories, false facts, and 
 false philosophy ; which can never be de- 
 rived from the fountain of all wisdom and 
 truth. ‘To thisI reply, that the scriptures 
 are not revelations from God, but the 
 history of them. The revelation itself is 
 derived from God, but the history of it is 
 the production of man, and therefore the 
 truth of it is not in the least affected by 
 their fallibility, but depends on the in- 
 ternal evidence of its own supernatural 
 excellence. ..... Grant, that the Mosaic 
 history of the creation was founded on the 
 erroneous, but popular principles of those 
 early ages;..... will it from thence fol- 
 low, that Moses could not be a proper 
 instrument in the hands of Providence to 
 impart to the Jews a divine law, because 
 
314 EVIDENCES 
 
 he was not inspired with a foreknowledge 
 of the Copernican and Newtonian SYS- 
 tems? or that Christ must be an impostor, 
 because Moses was not an astronomer 2” 
 If the records of this revelation are sup- 
 posed to be the revelation itself, the least 
 defect discovered in them must be fatal to 
 the whole: the want of this obvious dis- 
 tinction has much injured the Christian 
 cause. ‘We are not to understand that 
 every part of this voluminous collection 
 of historical, poetical, prophetical, theo- 
 logical, and moral writings, which we call 
 the Bible, was dictated by the immediate 
 influence of divine inspiration. The 
 author of these books pretended to no 
 such infallibility, and if they claim it 
 not for themselves, who has authority to 
 claim it for them? Christ required no 
 such belief from those who were willing 
 to be his disciples. He says, “ He that 
 believeth on me, hath everlasting life ;’ 
 but where does he say, He that believeth 
 not every word contained in the Old Tes. 
 tament, which was then extant, or every 
 word in the New Testament which was to 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 315 
 
 all other circumstances, they seem to have 
 been left to the direction of their own 
 understandings, like other men.” 
 
 “To some speculative and refined ob- 
 servers, it has appeared incredible that a 
 wise and. benevolent Creator should have 
 constituted a world upon one plan, and a 
 religion for it on another; that is, that he 
 should have revealed a religion to man- 
 kind, which not only contradicts the prin- 
 cipal passions and inclinations which he 
 has implanted in their natures, but is in- 
 compatible with the whole economy of 
 that world which he has created, and in 
 which he has thought proper to place 
 themict}.; To all this, I answer, that such 
 indeed is the Christian revelation. . .. . But 
 
eG EVIDENCES 
 
 they who reject it on this account, enter 
 not into the sublime spirit of this religion, 
 which is not a code of precise laws, de- 
 signed for the well-ordering society, adapt- 
 ‘ed to the ends of worldly convenience, 
 and amenable to the tribunal of human 
 prudence; but a divine lesson of purity 
 and perfection, so far superior to the low 
 considerations of conquest, government, 
 and commerce, that it takes no more 
 notice of them, than of the battles of 
 game-cocks, the policy of bees, or the 
 industry of ants: they recollect not what 
 is the first and principal object of this 
 institution; that this is not, as has been 
 often repeated, to make us happy, or even 
 virtuous in the present life, for the sake 
 of augmenting our happiness here, but to 
 conduct us through a state of dangers and 
 sufferings, of sin and temptation, in such 
 a manner as to qualify us for the enjoy- 
 ment of happiness hereafter.” 
 
 “The great plan and benevolent design 
 of this dispensation is plainly this—to en- 
 lighten the minds, purify the religion, and 
 amend the morals of mankind in general, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. ole 
 
 and to select the most meritorious of 
 them to be successively transplanted into 
 the kingdom of heaven..... Did every man 
 observe strictly every precept of the gos- 
 pel, the face of human affairs and the eco- 
 nomy of the world would indeed be greatly 
 changed, but surely they would be changed 
 for the better..... We must not. forget, 
 that evils are by it forbid, as well as re- 
 sistance ; injuries as well as revenge. But 
 this universal acceptance of such an offer 
 was never expected from so depraved and 
 imperfect a creature as man, and therefore 
 could never have been any part of the 
 design..... ‘Strait is the gate, and narrow 
 is the way which leadeth unto life, and 
 few there be that find it.’ ” 
 
 “The generality of mankind are actu- 
 ated by the same motives—fight, scuffle, 
 and scramble for power, riches, and plea- 
 sure, with the same eagerness: all oc- 
 cupations and professions are exercised 
 with the same alacrity, and there are 
 soldiers, lawyers, statesmen, patriots, and 
 politicians, just as if Christianity had 
 never existed. Thus this wonderful dis. 
 
 2B 
 
318 EVIDENCES 
 
 pensation has answered all the purposes, 
 for which it was designed. It has en- 
 lightened the minds, purified the religion, 
 and amended the morals of mankind, and 
 without subverting the constitution, po- 
 licy, or business of the world, opened a 
 gate, though a strait one, through which 
 all who are wise enough to choose it, and 
 good enough to be fit for it, may find an 
 entrance into the kingdom of heaven.” 
 “Others have said, that if this revela- 
 tion had really been from God, his infinite 
 power and goodness could never have 
 suffered it to have been so soon perverted 
 from its original purity, to have continued 
 in a state of corruption through the 
 course of so many ages, and at last to 
 have proved so ineffectual to the reforma- 
 tion of mankind. ‘To these I answer, that 
 all this on examination will be found ine- 
 vitable, from the nature of all revelations, 
 communicated to so imperfect a creature 
 as man, and from circumstances peculiar 
 to the rise and progress of the Christian 
 in particular: for when this was first 
 preached to the gentile nations, &c.”—The 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 319 
 
 author here gives a most beautiful history 
 of the rise and progress of Christianity in 
 the world and its subsequent corruptions 
 —so beautiful that it is impossible to 
 garble it or produce a few sentences to 
 give some idea of it. ‘“ How far this 
 institution has been effectual to the re- 
 formation of mankind it is not easy now 
 to ascertain, because the enormities which 
 prevailed before the appearance of it, are — 
 by time so far removed from our sight, 
 that they are scarcely visible; but those 
 of the most gigantic size still remain in 
 the records of history, as monuments of 
 the rest.” A striking account is then 
 given of these enormities, which again 
 cannot be garbled. 
 
 “Yet notwithstanding all impediments 
 it has certainly done a great deal towards 
 diminishing the vices and correcting the 
 dispositions of mankind, and was it uni- 
 versally adopted in belief and practice, 
 would totally eradicate both sin and pun- 
 ishment. But this was never expected or 
 designed, or possible, because if their ex- 
 istence did not arise from some necessity, 
 
“Sed | EVIDENCES 
 
 to us unknown, they never would have 
 been permitted to exist at all, and 
 therefore they can no more be extirpated 
 than they could have been prevented; 
 for this would certainly be incompatible 
 with the frame and constitution of this 
 world, and in all probability with that of 
 another.” 
 
 ‘Objections have likewise been raised 
 to the divine authority of this religion, 
 from the incredibility of some of its doc- 
 trines, particularly of those concerning 
 the Trinity and atonement for sin, by the 
 sufferings and death of Christ..... That 
 three beings should be one being is a pro- 
 position which certainly contradicts reason, 
 that is, owr reason; but it does not from 
 thence follow that it cannot be true; .... 
 in like manner our reason informs us, that 
 the punishment of the innocent instead of 
 the guilty is diametrically opposite to 
 justice, rectitude, and all pretensions to 
 utility ; but we should also remember, that 
 the short line of our reason cannot reach 
 to the bottom of this question; it cannot 
 inform us, by what means either guilt or 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 321 
 
 punishment ever gained a place in the 
 works of a Creator, infinitely good and 
 powerful, whose goodness must have in- 
 duced him, and whose power must have 
 enabled him to exclude them...... Unless 
 we could first resolve that great question, 
 whence came evil? we can decide nothing 
 on the dispensations of providence, because 
 they must necessarily be connected with 
 that undiscoverable principle. ...'The truth — 
 of these doctrines must rest entirely on the 
 authority of those who taught them. .. Ifan 
 able mathematician proves to us the truth 
 of several propositions by demonstrations, 
 which we understand, we hesitate not on 
 his authority to assent to others, the pro- 
 cess of whose proofs we are not able to 
 follow; why therefore should we refuse 
 that credit to Christ and his apostles which 
 we think reasonable to give to one another ? 
 
 ‘“Many have objected to the wholescheme 
 of this revelation, as partial, fluctuating, in- 
 determinate, unjust, and unworthy of an 
 omniscient and omnipotent Being, who 
 cannot be supposed to have favoured par- 
 
 ticular persons, countries, and times, with 
 ye) Vay 
 
aoe | EVIDENCES 
 
 this divine communication, &c.....To all 
 this I shall only say, that however unac- 
 countable this may appear to us, who see 
 but as small a part of the Christian, as of 
 the universal plan of creation, they are 
 both in all these circumstances exactly 
 analogous to each other. In all the dis- 
 pensations of Providence, with which we 
 are acquainted, benefits are distributed in 
 a similar manner, health and_ strength, 
 sense and science, &c...... The whole 
 economy of this world consists of evils 
 and remedies...... Why the constitution 
 of nature is so formed, why all the visible 
 dispensations of Providence are such, and 
 why such is the Christian dispensation 
 also, we know not, nor have faculties to 
 comprehend. God might certainly have 
 made the material world a system of per- 
 fect beauty and regularity, without evils 
 and without remedies. .... It seems, in- 
 deed, to our ignorance, that this would 
 have been consistent with justice and rea- 
 son, but his infinite wisdom has decided 
 in another manner, and formed the sys- 
 tems both of nature and Christianity on 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. ooo 
 
 other principles, and these so exactly 
 similar, that we have cause to conclude, 
 that they both must proceed from the 
 same source of divine power and wisdom, 
 however inconsistent with our reason 
 they may appear. Reason is undoubtedly 
 our surest guide, in all matters which he 
 within the narrow circle of her intelli- 
 gence. On the subject of revelation her 
 province is only to examine into its au- 
 thority, and when that is once proved, she 
 has no more to do, but to acquiesce in its 
 doctrines, and therefore is never so ill em- 
 ployed as when she pretends to accom- 
 modate them to her own ideas of rectitude 
 and truth. God, says this self-sufficient 
 teacher, is perfectly wise, just, and good ; 
 and what is the inference? That all his 
 dispensations must be conformable to our 
 notions of perfect wisdom, justice, and 
 goodness. But it should first be proved, 
 that man is as perfect and as wise as his 
 Creator, or this consequence will by no 
 means follow; but rather the reverse, 
 that is, that the dispensations of a perfect 
 and all wise Being must probably appear 
 
324 | EVIDENCES 
 
 unreasonable, and perhaps unjust, to a 
 being imperfect and ignorant..... Nor is 
 it the least surprising that we are not able 
 to understand the spiritual dispensations 
 of the Almighty, when his material works 
 are to us no less incomprehensible ”"—how 
 any union can be formed between material 
 and immaterial essences, &c.—how the 
 anxieties of the soul can emaciate and 
 destroy the body. ‘'That all these things 
 are so, we have visible and indisputable 
 demonstration; but how they can be so, 
 is to us, aS incomprehensible as the most 
 abstruse mysteries of revelation can possi- 
 bly pbesete. If a revelation from such a 
 Being, on such subjects, was in every 
 part familiar to our understandings and 
 consonant to our reason, we should have 
 great cause to suspect its divine authority, 
 and therefore had this revelation been less 
 incomprehensible, it would certainly have 
 been more incredible. 
 
 “ But I shall not enter further into the 
 consideration of these abstruse and diffi- 
 cult speculations, because the discussion 
 of them would render this short essay too 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. B20 
 
 tedious and laborious a task for the pe- 
 rusal of them for whom it was principally 
 intended; which are all those busy or 
 idle persons, whose time and thoughts are 
 wholly engrossed by the pursuits of busi- 
 ness or pleasure, ambition or luxury; 
 who know nothing of this religion, except 
 what they have accidently picked up, by 
 desultory conversation or superficial read- 
 ing, and have thence determined with 
 themselves, that a pretended revelation 
 founded on so strange and improbable a 
 story, so contradictory to reason, so ad- 
 verse to the world, and all its occupations, 
 so incredible in its doctrines, and in its 
 precepts so impracticable, can be nothing 
 more than the imposition of priestcraft 
 upon ignorant and illiterate ages, &c..... 
 To talk to such about the Christian reli- 
 gion is to converse with the blind on the 
 beauties of painting—they want all ideas 
 relative to the subject...... ‘The preach- 
 ing Christ crucified was to the Jews a 
 stumbling-block, and to the Greeks fool- 
 ishness;’ and so it must appear to all 
 who, like them, judge from established 
 
326 : EVIDENCES 
 
 prejudices, false learning, and superficial 
 knowledge; for those who are quite unable 
 to follow the chain of its prophecy, to see 
 the beauty and justness of its moral pre- 
 cepts, and to enter into the wonders of its 
 dispensation, can form no other idea of 
 this revelation, but that of a confused 
 rhapsody of fictions and absurdities. 
 
 “Tf it is asked, Was Christianity then 
 intended only for learned divines and pro- 
 found philosophers? I answer, No; it 
 was at first preached by the illiterate, and 
 received by the ignorant, and to such are 
 the practical, which are the most necessary 
 parts of it, sufficiently intelligible. But 
 the proofs of its authority undoubtedly 
 are not; because these must be chiefly 
 drawn from other parts, of a speculative 
 nature, opening to our Inquiries inexhaus- 
 tible discoveries concerning the nature, 
 attributes, and dispensations of God, 
 which cannot be understood without some 
 learning and much attention. From 
 these the generality of mankind must ne- 
 cessarily be excluded, and must therefore 
 trust to others, for the ground of their 
 
~~ 
 
 OF CHRISTIANITY. 327 
 
 belief, if they believe at all. And hence 
 perhaps it is, that faith or easiness of be- 
 lief is so frequently and so strongly recom- 
 mended in the gospel; because if men 
 require proofs, of which they themselves are 
 incapable, and those who have no know- 
 ledge on this important subject will not 
 place some confidence in those who have: 
 the illiterate and unattentive must ever 
 continue in a state of unbelief. But then 
 all such should remember, that in all 
 sciences, &c..... and they ought surely to 
 conclude, that it may be at least as possi- 
 ble for them to be mistaken in disbelieving 
 this revelation, who know nothing of the 
 matter, as for those great masters of rea- 
 son and erudition, Grotius, Bacon, &c.” 
 And the author then proceeds in the way 
 I have already noted, giving the passage I 
 have quoted at the beginning of this de- 
 scription of his work—“Grotius, Bacon, 
 Newton, &c.,” which is the conclusion of 
 the whole. 
 
 Now this is surely a most striking view 
 of the internal evidences of the religion— 
 that evidence which addresses itself to the 
 
BOR ie EVIDENCES 
 
 feelings and intuitions of the taste, the 
 mind, and the heart of the inquirer, not, 
 as does the evidence arising from the pro- 
 phecies and the miracles, to the logic of 
 the understanding. No doubt these two 
 descriptions of evidence naturally are con- 
 nected and often run into each other, nor 
 is it necessary at all to separate them ; 
 but the former is most fitted to influence 
 such persons, as the author had in view, 
 the people he lived with in society; and 
 his book had a very great effect, and must 
 always have a great effect, though it was 
 considered as objectionable in some of its 
 passages, from the fearless and paradoxical 
 nature of many of the admissions and 
 some of the reasonings ; still, to the gene- 
 ral argument, fairly considered, I see not 
 what answer can be given, and the divine 
 authority of the religion must be con- 
 ceded, notwithstanding all the objections 
 which present themselves to the inquirer, 
 and which the author states in the most 
 forcible manner, and to which he returns 
 the most spirited, and to a mind properly 
 prepared by learning and inquiry, satis- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 329 
 
 factory answers—answers at least, to 
 which no reply can well be made, and 
 that must be acquiesced in—whether wil- 
 lingly or not, must be acquiesced in. At 
 present we know nothing of the origin of 
 evil, nor is it allowed us to know, and this 
 mystery is at the bottom of all our doubts 
 and difficulties, and of all our melancholy, 
 helpless feelings, whenever they arise ; but 
 a future life may solve all, and we have 
 only to think humbly and to hope humbly, 
 and prepare ourselves by our conduct 
 here, for another state of superior know- 
 ledge and happiness hereafter. 
 
 But the observations of our author on 
 the morality of the gospel are so striking 
 and so unexpected, and will appear at 
 first sight so objectionable, that the sub- 
 ject requires some consideration. Courage 
 and patriotism have ever been considered 
 as virtues amongst mankind; the feelings 
 of friendship our Saviour himself exhi- 
 bited—John was the disciple he loved— 
 he shed tears over Lazarus—he recom- 
 mended his mother to the care of his 
 disciple—he was tender and compassionate 
 
 Me 
 
330 EVIDENCES 
 
 to the feelings and imperfect character of 
 Peter; these virtues are surely not ficti- 
 tious virtues, “ founded on false principles, 
 and producing no salutary effects, and 
 therefore no virtues at all.” The author 
 should have been contented with saying 
 that they were judiciously omitted, and 
 not have decried them, as having really 
 no intrinsic merit in them—not have 
 endeavoured to show this, by caricaturing 
 them, and exhibiting them in their abuse. 
 The whole subject, however, is so impor- 
 tant, and is so admirably stated and ad- 
 justed by Paley, and our author’s views 
 are adopted so judiciously, as far as they 
 are reasonable, that reference must be had 
 to this part of Paley’s invaluable work on 
 the Evidences. 
 
 “The division,” says he, ‘‘ under which 
 the subject may be most conveniently 
 treated, is that of the things taught, and 
 the manner of teaching. 
 
 ‘Under the first head, I should wil- 
 lingly, if the limits and nature of my work 
 admitted of it, transcribe into this chapter 
 the whole of what has been said upon the 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. BOL 
 
 morality of the gospel, by the author of 
 The Internal Evidence; because it per- 
 fectly agrees with my own opinion, and 
 because it 1s impossible to say the same 
 things so well. This acute observer of 
 human nature appears to me to have 
 made out satisfactorily the two following 
 positions, viz. That the gospel omits 
 some qualities which have usually engaged 
 the praises and admiration of mankind ; 
 and has brought forward some virtues 
 which possess the highest intrinsic value, 
 and which have commonly been overlooked 
 and condemned.” ..... The truth is, there 
 are two opposite descriptions of charac- 
 ter, under which mankind may generally 
 be} elassedietacs. ac: and no two things can 
 be more different, than the Heroic and the 
 Christian characters’—active courage and 
 passive courage. 
 
 “ Now the author, to whom I refer, has 
 not only marked this difference more 
 strongly than any preceding writer, but 
 has proved, in contradiction to first im- 
 pressions, to popular opinion, to the enco- 
 miums of orators and poets, and even to 
 
332 EVIDENCES 
 
 the suffrages of historians and moralists, 
 that the latter character possesses the 
 most of true worth, both as being most 
 difficult either to be acquired or sustained, 
 and as contributing most to the happiness 
 and tranquillity of social life.” 
 
 Now if the author had been contented 
 with insisting upon the comparative merit 
 of these opposite virtues, as Paley here 
 supposes, his view would have been not 
 only sufficiently accurate, but sufficiently 
 original; but surely the author insists 
 upon a great deal more, and more than 
 any intelligent moralist can admit. The 
 remaining remarks of Paley are, however, 
 very valuable. 
 
 “The preference of the patient to the 
 heroic character,’ says he “which we 
 have here noticed, and which the reader 
 will find explained at large in the work 
 to which we have referred him, is a pecu- 
 larity in the Christian institution, which 
 I propose as an argument of wisdom very 
 much beyond the situation and natural 
 character of the person who delivered it.” 
 
 “A second argument, drawn from the 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. aya" 
 
 morality of the New Testament, is the 
 stress which is laid by our Saviour upon 
 the regulation of the thoughts.” The 
 Saviour “makes the control of thought 
 essential. Internal purity with him is 
 every thing. Now I contend that this is 
 the only discipline which can succeed.” 
 “Our Saviour,” said Boerhaave, “ knew 
 mankind better than Socrates.” 
 
 “Thirdly, had a teacher of morality 
 been asked concerning a general principle 
 of conduct, and had he instructed the 
 person, who consulted him, constantly to 
 refer his actions to what he believed to be 
 the will of his Creator, and constantly to 
 have in view, not his own interest and 
 gratification alone, but the happiness and 
 comfort of those about him, he would 
 have been thought, in any age of the 
 world, and in any, even the most improved, 
 state of morals, to have delivered a judi- 
 clous answer.” Now upon just such an 
 occasion, our Saviour said, “Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
 and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
 mind ; this is the first and great command- 
 
 ae Cine 
 
334 | EVIDENCES 
 
 ment: and the second is like unto it, Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” 
 ‘And what our Saviour had said upon 
 the subject appears to me to have fixed 
 the sentiment amongst his followers.” 
 
 “ A fourth quality, by which the moral- 
 ity of the gospel is distinguished, is the 
 exclusion of regard to fame and reputa- 
 tion.” “I do not think that in any pas- 
 sage of the New Testament, the pursuit 
 of fame is stated as a vice; it is only said, 
 that an action, to be virtuous, must be in- 
 dependent of it. JI would also observe, 
 that it is not publicity, but ostentation, 
 which is prohibited.” 
 
 “The true virtue is that which discards 
 these considerations absolutely, and which 
 retires from them all to the single internal 
 purpose of pleasing God. This at least 
 was the virtue which our Saviour taught. 
 And in teaching this, he not only confined 
 the views of his followers to the proper 
 measure and principle of human duty, 
 - but acted in consistency with his office as 
 a monitor from heaven.” 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. O00 
 
 And next with respect to the manner 
 of his teaching. 
 
 “Fis instructions were conceived in 
 short, emphatic, sententious rules, in occa- 
 sional reflections, or in round maxims.... 
 He produced himself as a messenger from 
 God. He put the truth of what he taught 
 upon authority. In the choice, therefore, of 
 his mode of teaching the purpose by him 
 to be consulted was impression.” Under 
 the circumstances in which he was placed, 
 nothing was so likely to be efficacious as 
 leaving, wherever he came, concise lessons 
 of duty. 
 
 ‘Jt 1s incidental to this mode of moral 
 _ instruction, which proceeds not by proof 
 but upon authority, not by disquisition 
 but by precept, that the rules will be con- 
 ceived in absolute terms, leaving the ap- 
 plication, and the distinctions that attend 
 them, to the reason of the hearer. It is 
 likewise to be expected that they will be 
 delivered in terms by so much the more 
 forcible and energetic, as they have to en- 
 counter natural or general propensities. 
 It is further also to be remarked, that 
 
306 | EVIDENCES 
 
 many of those strong instances which ap- 
 pear in our Lord’s sermon, such as, ‘If 
 any man will smite thee on the right 
 cheek, turn to him the other also;’ ‘If 
 any man will sue thee at the law, and take 
 away thy coat, let him have thy cloke 
 also ;’ ‘ Whoever shall compel thee to goa 
 mile, go with him twain;’ though they 
 appear in the form of specific precepts, 
 are intended as descriptive of disposition 
 and character... A specific compliance 
 with the precepts would be of little value, 
 but the disposition which they inculcate is 
 of the highest.” 
 
 “If it be said that this disposition is 
 unattainable, I answer, so is all perfection : 
 ought therefore a moralist to recommend 
 imperfections? One excellency, however, 
 of our Saviour’s rules is, that they are 
 either never mistaken, or never so mis- 
 taken as to do harm..... The Christian 
 world has hitherto suffered little by too 
 much placability or forbearance. ..... To 
 teach morality at all was only a subordi- 
 nate part of our Saviour’s design; his 
 great business being to supply what was 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. Bod 
 
 much more wanting than lessons of moral- 
 ity, stronger moral sanctions, and clearer 
 assurances of a future judgment. 
 
 “The parables of the New Testament 
 are, many of them, such as would have 
 done honour to any book in the world; I 
 do not mean in style and diction, but in 
 the choice of the subjects, in the structure 
 of the narratives, the aptness, propriety, 
 and force of the circumstances woven into 
 them; and in some, as that of the Good 
 Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Pharisee 
 and the Publican, in an union of pathos 
 and simplicity, which, in the best produc- 
 tions of human genius, is the fruit only of 
 a much-exercised and well-cultivated judg- 
 ment. 
 
 ‘The Lord’s Prayer, for a succession of 
 solemn thoughts, for fixing the attention 
 upon a few great points, for suitableness 
 to every condition, for sufficiency, for con- 
 ciseness without obscurity, for the weight 
 and real importance of its petitions, is 
 without an equal orarival. From whence 
 did these come? Whence had this man 
 his wisdom ?” 
 
308 | EVIDENCES 
 
 “ But there is still another view, in 
 which our Lord’s discourses deserve to be 
 considered ; and that is, in their negative 
 character—not in what they did, but in 
 what they did not, contain. 
 
 «They exhibit no particular description 
 of the invisible world..... I lay a stress 
 upon this reserve, because it repels the 
 suspicion of enthusiasm; for enthusiasm 
 is wont to expatiate upon the condition of 
 the departed, above all other subjects, and 
 with a wild particularity. It is moreover 
 a topic which is always listened to with 
 gréediness. The teacher, therefore, whose 
 principal purpose is to draw upon himself 
 attention, is sure to be full of it. The 
 Koran of Mahomet is half made up of it. 
 
 “ Our Lord enjoined no austerities. He 
 not only enjoined none as absolute duties, 
 but he recommended none as carrying 
 men to a higher degree of divine favour. 
 Place Christianity, in this respect, by the 
 side of all institutions which have been 
 founded in the fanaticism, either of their 
 author, or of his first followers; or rather 
 compare, in this respect, Christianity as it 
 
 ———————— er. Oe 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 339 
 
 came from Christ, with the same religion 
 after it fell into other hands; with the 
 extravagant merit very soon ascribed to 
 celibacy, solitude, voluntary poverty ; with 
 the rigours of an ascetic, and the vows of 
 a monastic life; the hair shirt, the watch- 
 ings, the midnight prayers, the obmu- 
 tescence, the gloom and mortification of 
 religious orders, and of those who aspired 
 to religious perfection. 
 
 “Our Saviour uttered no impassioned 
 devotion. ‘There was no heat in his piety, 
 or in the language in which he expressed 
 it; no vehement or rapturous ejaculations, 
 no violent urgency, in his prayers. The 
 Lord’s Prayer is a model of calm devotion. 
 His words in the garden are unaffected 
 expressions, of a deep indeed, but sober 
 piety. He never appears to have been 
 worked up into anything like that elation 
 or that emotion of spirits, which is occa- 
 sionally observed in most of those, to 
 whom the name of enthusiast can in any 
 degree be applied.” 
 
 “It is very usual with the human mind, 
 to substitute forwardness and fervency in 
 
340 : EVIDENCES 
 
 a particular cause, for the merit of general 
 and regular morality; and it is natural, 
 and politic also, in the leader of a sect or 
 party, to encourage such a disposition in 
 his followers. Christ did not overlook 
 this turn of thought; yet, though avow- 
 edly placing himself at the head of a new 
 institution, he notices it only to condemn 
 it. ‘Not every one that saith unto me, 
 Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven; but he that doeth the will of 
 my father which is in heaven. Many will 
 say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have 
 we not prophesied in thy name? and in 
 thy name have cast out devils? and in 
 thy name done many wonderful works? 
 And then will I profess unto you, I never 
 knew you: depart from me, ye that work 
 aniquity.’” 
 
 ‘“ Nor did he fall in with any of the de- 
 praved fashions of his country, or with 
 the natural bias of his own education. 
 Bred up a Jew, under a religion, ex- 
 tremely technical, in an age and amongst 
 a people more tenacious of the ceremonies 
 than of any other part of that religion, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 341 
 
 he delivered an institution, containing less 
 of ritual, and that more simple, than is to 
 be found in any religion which ever pre- 
 vailed amongst mankind. We have 
 known, I do allow, examples of an enthu- 
 siasm, which has swept away all external 
 ordinances before it. But this spirit cer- 
 tainly did not dictate our Saviour’s con- 
 duct, either in his treatment of the 
 religion of his country, or in the forma- 
 tion of his own institution. In both he 
 displayed the soundness and moderation 
 of his judgment..... All this might be 
 expected perhaps from a well instructed, 
 cool, and judicious philosopher, but was 
 not to be looked for from an illiterate 
 Jew, certainly not from an impetuous 
 enthusiast. 
 
 “Nothing could be more quibbling, 
 than were the comments and expositions 
 of the Jewish doctors, at that time; no- 
 thing so puerile as their distinctions. 
 Their evasion of the fifth commandment, 
 their exposition of the law of oaths, are 
 specimens of the bad taste in morals which 
 then prevailed. Whereas, in a numerous 
 
 aD 
 
BAD EVIDENCES 
 
 collection of our Saviour’s apothegms, 
 many of them referring to sundry precepts 
 of the Jewish law, there is not to be found 
 one example of sophistry, or of false sub- 
 tilty, or of anything approaching there- 
 unto. 
 
 “The national temper of the Jews was 
 intolerant, narrow-minded, and excluding. 
 In Jesus, on the contrary, whether we 
 regard his lessons or his example, we see 
 not only benevolence, but benevolence 
 the most enlarged and comprehensive.” 
 
 “« Lastly, amongst the negative qualities 
 of our religion, as it came out of the 
 hands of its Founder and his apostles, we 
 may reckon its complete abstraction from 
 all views either of ecclesiastical on civil 
 policy.” ‘The Saviour declined every 
 question on these subjects—‘ Man, who 
 made me a ruler or a judge over you?” 
 “Whilst politicians are disputing about 
 monarchies, aristocracies, and republics, 
 the gospel is alike applicable, useful, and 
 friendly to them all. ..... Had there been 
 more to be found in Scripture of a political 
 nature, or convertible to political purposes, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 343 
 
 the worst use would have been made of 
 it, on whichever side it seemed to lie. 
 ‘When, therefore, we consider Christ 
 as a moral teacher—(remembering that 
 this was only a secondary part of his 
 office, and that morality, by the nature 
 of the subject, does not admit of discovery, 
 properly so called)—when we consider 
 either what he taught, or what he did not 
 teach, either the substance or the manner 
 of his instruction; his preference of solid 
 to popular virtues, of a character which is 
 commonly despised to a character which 
 is universally extolled; his placing, on our 
 licentious vices, the check in the right 
 place, viz. upon the thoughts ; his collect- 
 ing of human duty into two well devised 
 rules, his repetition of these rules, the 
 stress he laid upon them, especially in 
 comparison with positive duties, and his 
 fixing thereby the sentiments of his fol- 
 lowers; his exclusion of all regard to 
 reputation in our devotion and alms, and, 
 by parity of reason, in other virtues ;— 
 when we consider that his instructions 
 were delivered in a form calculated for 
 
344 | EVIDENCES 
 
 impression, the precise purpose in his 
 situation to be consulted; and that they 
 were illustrated by parables, the choice 
 and structure of which would have been 
 admired in any composition whatever ;— 
 when we observe him free from the usual 
 symptoms of enthusiasm, heat and vehe- 
 mence in devotion, austerity in institu- 
 tions, and a wild particularity in the 
 description of a future state; free also 
 from the depravities of his age and coun- 
 try; without superstition among the most 
 superstitious of men, yet not decrying 
 positive distinctions or external obser- 
 vances, but soberly calling them to the 
 principle of their establishment, and to 
 their place in the scale of human duties; 
 without sophistry or trifling, amidst 
 teachers remarkable for nothing so much 
 as frivolous subtleties and quibbling ex- 
 positions; candid and liberal in his judg- 
 ment of the rest of mankind, although 
 belonging to a people who affected a 
 separate claim to divine favour, and in 
 consequence of that opinion, prone to 
 uncharitableness, partiality and restric- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 345 
 
 tion ;—when we find in his religion, no 
 scheme of building up a hierarchy, or of 
 ministering to the views of human govern- 
 ments ;—in a word, when we compare 
 Christianity, as it came from its author, 
 either with other religions, or with itself 
 in other hands, the most reluctant under- 
 standing will be induced to acknowledge 
 that there is here a mass of internal evi- 
 dence, that the religion came from God, 
 not to be resisted.” 
 
 “What was Jesus in external appear- 
 ance? <A Jewish peasant, the son of a 
 carpenter, living with his father and 
 mother in a remote province of Palestine, 
 until the time that he produced himself 
 in his public character. He had no mas- 
 ter to instruct or prompt him; he had 
 read no books, but the works of Moses 
 and the prophets; he had visited no 
 polished cities; he had received no les- 
 sons from Socrates or Plato—nothing to 
 form in him a taste or judgment different 
 from that of the rest of his countrymen, 
 and of persons in the same rank of life 
 
 with himself.” . 
 2apae 
 
346 | EVIDENCES 
 
 “Who were his coadjutors in the un- 
 dertaking ‘—the persons into whose hands 
 the religion came after his death; a few 
 fishermen upon the lake of Tiberias, per- 
 sons just as uneducated, and, for the pur- 
 pose of framing rules of morality, as 
 unpromising as himself. Suppose the 
 mission to be real, all this is accounted. 
 for; the unsuitableness of the authors to 
 the production, of the characters to the 
 undertaking, no longer surprises us: but 
 without reality, it is very difficult to éx- 
 plain, how such a system should proceed 
 from such persons.” 
 
 “The character of Christ is a part of 
 the morality of the gospel; one strong 
 observation of which is, that neither as 
 represented by his followers, nor as at- 
 tacked by his enemies, is he charged with 
 any personal vice. This remark is as 
 old as Origen...... Some stain pollutes 
 the morals or the morality of almost every 
 other teacher, and of every other law- 
 giver.” 
 
 “In the histories which are left us of 
 Jesus Christ, although very short, and 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 347 
 
 although dealing in narrative, and not in 
 observation or panegyric, we perceive, be- 
 side the absence of every appearance of 
 vice, traces of devotion, humility, benignity, 
 mildness, patience, prudence. I speak of 
 traces of these qualities, because the 
 qualities themselves are to be collected 
 from incidents; inasmuch as the terms 
 are never used of Christ in the gospels, 
 nor is any formal character of him drawn > 
 in any part of the New Testament.” 
 “Thus we see the devoutness of his 
 mind in his frequent retirement to solitary 
 prayer ; in his habitual giving of thanks; 
 in his reference of the beauties and ope- 
 rations of nature to the bounty of Provi- 
 dence; in his earnest addresses to his 
 Father, more particularly that short but 
 solemn one before the raising of Lazarus 
 from the dead; and in the deep piety of 
 his behaviour in the garden on the last 
 evening of his life: his humility, in his con- 
 stant reproof of contentions for superiority : 
 the benignity and affectionateness of his 
 temper, in his kindness to children; in the 
 tears which he shed over hisfalling country, 
 
348 | EVIDENCES 
 
 and upon the death of his friend; in his 
 noticing of the widow’s mite; in his para- 
 bles of the good Samaritan, of the un- 
 grateful servant, and of the Pharisee and 
 publican, of which parables no one but a 
 man of humanity could have been the 
 author: the mildness and lenity of his 
 character is discovered, in his rebuke of 
 the forward zeal of his disciples at the 
 Samaritan village; in his expostulation 
 with Pilate ; in his prayer for his enemies, 
 at the moment of his suffering, which, 
 though it has been since very properly 
 and frequently imitated, was then, I ap- 
 prehend, new. His prudence is discerned, 
 where prudence is most wanted, in his 
 conduct on trying occasions, and in an- 
 swers to artful questions. Of these, the 
 following are examples:-—his withdraw- 
 ing, in various instances, from the first 
 symptoms of tumult, and with the express 
 care, as appears from St.’ Matthew, of car- 
 rying on his ministry in quietness; his 
 declining of every species of interference 
 with the civil affairs of the country, which 
 disposition is manifested by his behaviour 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 349 
 
 in the case of the woman caught in adul- 
 tery, and in his repulse of the application 
 which was made to him, to interpose his 
 decision about a disputed inheritance: his 
 judicious, yet, as it should seem, unpre- 
 pared answers, will be confessed in the 
 case of the Roman tribute; in the diffi- 
 culty concerning the interfering relations 
 of a future state, as proposed to him in 
 the instance of a woman who had married 
 seven brethren; and, more especially, in 
 his reply to those who demanded from 
 him an explanation of the authority by 
 which he acted.” 
 
 ‘“OQur Saviour’s lessons, beside what 
 has already been remarked in them, 
 touch, and that oftentimes, by very affect- 
 ing representations, upon some of the 
 most interesting topics of human duty, 
 and of human meditations; upon the prin- 
 ciples, by which the decisions of the last 
 day will be regulated; upon the superior, 
 or rather the supreme importance of re- 
 ligion ; upon penitence, by the most press- 
 ing calls and the most encouraging invi- 
 tations; upon self-denial, watchfulness, 
 
350 EVIDENCES 
 
 placability, confidence in God, the value 
 of spiritual, that is, of mental worship, the 
 necessity of moral obedience, and the di- 
 recting of that obedience to the spirit and 
 principle of the law, instead of seeking 
 for evasions in a technical construction of 
 its terms. 
 
 “If we extend our argument to other 
 parts of the New Testament, we may 
 offer, as amongst the best and shortest 
 rules of life, or, which is the same thing, 
 descriptions of virtue, that have ever been 
 delivered, the following passages :—‘ Pure 
 religion, and undefiled, before God and 
 the Father, is this; to visit the fatherless 
 and widows in their affliction, and to keep 
 himself unspotted from the world.’ ‘Now 
 the end of the commandment is charity, 
 out of a pure heart and a good conscience, 
 and faith unfeigned.’ ‘For the grace of 
 God that bringeth salvation, hath ap- 
 peared to all men, teaching us, that, 
 denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, 
 we should live soberly, righteously, and 
 godly in this present world.’ Enumera- 
 tions of virtues and vices, and those suffi- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. Stil 
 
 ciently accurate, and unquestionably just, 
 are given by Saint Paul to his converts in 
 three several epistles.” 
 
 * Lastly, the whole volume of the New 
 Testament is replete with piety; with, 
 what were almost unknown to heathen 
 moralists, devotional virtues, the most 
 profound veneration of the Deity, an 
 habitual sense of his bounty and_ protec- 
 tion, a firm confidence in the final result 
 of his counsels and dispensations, a dispo- 
 sition to resort, upon all occasions, to his 
 mercy, for the supply of human wants, 
 for assistance in danger, for relief from 
 pain, for the pardon for sin.” 
 
 Such are the admirable remarks of 
 Paley. 
 
 The internal evidence of Christianity is 
 a large subject, but some notion of it may 
 be formed from what has been now pro- 
 duced ; in many cases, the intuition to be 
 derived from it flows in upon the mind 
 like a sensation; but intuitions of this 
 kind will best be derived by a watchful 
 observation of:the different incidents, that 
 
352 | EVIDENCES 
 
 present themselves in the perusal of the 
 Gospels; it is not thus that men invent— 
 this is the important observation that con- 
 tinually occurs; the whole is simple, unaf- 
 fected, undisguised truth. The evangelists 
 anticipated no objections—never seem to 
 have supposed that there could be any— 
 in short, thought of nothing else, but 
 stating the facts. 
 
 In continuance of this subject of the 
 internal evidence, Paley’s observations are 
 quite invaluable. Of course they will be 
 well meditated, as indeed the whole of his 
 works must be, by any inquirer. Thus 
 he has a chapter on the Candour of the 
 Writers of the New Testament :-— 
 
 ‘¢T make this candour,” he says, “ con- 
 sist in their putting down many passages, 
 and noticing many circumstances, which 
 no writer whatever was likely to have 
 forged; and which no writer would have 
 chosen to appear in his book, who had 
 been careful to present the story in the 
 most unexceptionable form, or who had 
 thought himself at liberty to carve and 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 398 
 
 mould the particulars of that story, accord- 
 ing to his choice, or according to his 
 judgment of the effect. 
 
 “ A strong and well-known example of 
 the fairness of the evangelists, offers itself 
 in their account of Christ’s resurrection ; 
 namely, in their stating, that, after he was 
 risen, he appeared to his disciples alone. .. . 
 Peter is made to say, ‘ Him God raised up 
 the third day, and showed him openly, not — 
 to all the people, but to witnesses chosen 
 before of God, even to us, who did eat 
 and drink with him after he rose from the 
 dead.’.... If the apostles had thought of 
 anything but of the truth of the case, as 
 they understood and: believed it, they 
 would, in their account of Christ’s several 
 appearances after his resurrection, at least 
 have omitted this restriction.” “ Again, 
 ‘From that time,’ says St. John, “ many of 
 his disciples went back, and walked no 
 more with him.’ Was it the part of a 
 writer who dealt in suppression and dis- 
 guise, to put down this anecdote ?” 
 
 Other instances are given. Paley 
 notices also “the extreme naturalness of 
 
 2 #5 
 
O04 | EVIDENCES 
 
 some of the things related in the New 
 Testament. ‘ Jesus said unto him, If thou 
 canst believe, all things are possible to 
 him that believeth. And straightway the 
 father of the child cried out, and said 
 with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou 
 mine unbelief.” I was myself always 
 particularly struck with this passage, 
 which Paley has brought forward; it is 
 vivid reality. In lke manner I was 
 always very much struck by the following 
 passage in the 12th chapter of Acts— 
 ‘“‘ And as Peter [who was supposed to be 
 in prison] knocked at the door of the 
 gate, a damsel came to hearken, named 
 Rhoda. And when she knew Peter’s 
 voice, she opened not the gate for glad- 
 ness; but ran in, and told how Peter stood 
 before the gate. And they said unto her 
 thou art mad, but she constantly affirmed, 
 that it was even so. Then said they, it is 
 his angel. And Peter continued knock- 
 ing, and when they had opened the door 
 and saw him, they stood astonished.” 
 ‘“‘She opened not the door for gladness” — 
 what nature, what reality, what truth! 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 309 
 
 . Again, “the eagerness of the people to 
 introduce Christ into Jerusalem and their 
 demand, a short time afterwards of his 
 crucifixion, when he did not turn out 
 what they expected him to be, so far from 
 affording matter of objection, represents 
 popular favour in exact agreement with 
 nature and with experience, as the flux 
 and reflux of a wave.” : 
 
 There is a beautiful chapter, which 
 could have been written only by Paley, 
 on what he calls the Identity of Christ’s 
 Character. Thus he observes, that though 
 St. John wrote after the other three evan- 
 gelists, and though the actions and dis- 
 courses, ascribed to Christ by St. John, 
 are different, yet still, that the manner is 
 the same; which indicates that the actions 
 and discourses proceeded from the same 
 person. ‘This agreement of manner is 
 most visible in our Saviour’s mode of 
 teaching, in his raising reflections from 
 the objects and incidents before him ; thus 
 —* Suffer the little children to come unto 
 me, and forbid them not, for of such is 
 the kingdom of God: verily I say unto 
 
306 EVIDENCES 
 
 you, whosoever shall not receive the king- 
 dom of God as a little child, he shall not 
 enter therein:” Mark x. “ Verily I say 
 unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw the 
 miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves 
 and were filled. Labour not for the meat 
 which perisheth, but for that meat which 
 endureth unto everlasting life, which the 
 Son of man shall give unto you:” John 
 vi. Other instances are given, and Paley 
 then observes, “it was a very unlikely 
 manner for any forger or fabulist to at- 
 tempt; and very difficult for any writer 
 to execute, if he had to supply all the 
 materials, both the incidents and the ob- 
 servations Sgt them, out of his own 
 head.” 
 
 Again—Christ calls himself the Son of 
 Man, in all the Gospels—but the term 
 is never used of him, or towards him, by 
 any other person. 
 
 Again—all the different evangelists re- 
 present Christ, as withdrawing himself 
 out of the way, whenever the behaviour 
 of the multitude indicated a disposition to 
 tumult. 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. On 
 
 Again—in all the evangelists it appears 
 that the disciples never could understand 
 our Lord, when he spoke to them of the 
 future part of his history, especially of 
 what related to his passion and resurrec- 
 tion—in St. John, as in the rest, there is 
 the same difficulty of apprehension, the 
 same curiosity, and the same restraint— 
 the disciples, no doubt, like the rest of 
 the Jews, could think of nothing but of. 
 his temporal greatness—“ that it was he, 
 who was to have redeemed Israel.” 
 
 Again—‘ The meekness of Christ dur- 
 ing his last sufferings, which is conspicu- 
 ous in the narrative of the first three 
 evangelists, is preserved in that of St. 
 John under separate examples.” Again, 
 the three evangelists record the devotion 
 of the Saviour in the garden, immediately 
 before he was apprehended; and he is 
 made to pray, “that the cup might pass 
 from him.” St. John does not give the 
 scene in the garden, but he represents the 
 Saviour as using the same metaphor, 
 when reproving Peter—‘ the cup which 
 
 2E 2 
 
358 EVIDENCES 
 
 my Father hath given me, shall I not 
 drink it?” This isa coincidence between 
 writers, in whose narrative there is no 
 imitation, but great diversity. 
 Again—there is a correspondency too 
 about destroying the temple. ‘The three 
 evangelists informs us not, upon what cir- 
 cumstance this accusation of the Jews 
 was founded. St. John; however, men- 
 tions, that the Jews asked the Saviour— 
 * What sign showest thou unto us?” and 
 that he answered, “ Destroy this temple, 
 and in three days J will raise it up.” 
 Again—“the first three evangelists 
 have related the appointment of the 
 twelve apostles; and have given a cata- 
 logue of their names in form. John, 
 without ever mentioning the appoint- 
 ment, or giving the catalogue, supposes, 
 throughout his whole narrative, Christ to 
 be accompanied by a select party of dis- 
 ciples; the number of these to be twelve ; 
 and whenever he happens to notice any 
 one as of that number, it is one included 
 in the catalogue of the other evangelists.” 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 309 
 
 “ All this,” says Paley, “ bespeaks reality.” 
 This is a faint sketch of the chapter; but 
 it will give some notion of it. 
 
 In the next chapter it is observed by 
 Paley, and very justly, that if Christ had 
 been an enthusiast, his enthusiasm would 
 have fallen in with the general delusion, 
 that the Messiah was to be a temporal 
 prince; and if an impostor, that it was 
 his business to have flattered the prevail- 
 ing hopes, which were to be the instru- 
 ments of his attraction and success; and 
 that the fact was that all the pretended 
 Messiahs did so—according to Josephus 
 there were many of them. A mission, 
 the operation and benefit of which was to 
 take place in another life, was a thing 
 unthought of, as the subject of these 
 prophecies: nor can it be explained, why 
 Jesus, coming to the Jews, as their Mes- 
 siah, should come under a character, 
 totally different from that in which they 
 expected him, and deviate into pre- 
 tensions absolutely singular and original. 
 The conclusion is, that he was neither an 
 enthusiast nor an impostor, and that he 
 
360 EVIDENCES 
 
 was the Messiah, that should have been 
 acknowledged by the Jewish nation. 
 “One argument, which has been much 
 relied upon, (but not more than its just 
 weight deserves, ) is the conformity of the 
 facts occasionally mentioned or referred to 
 in Scripture, with the state of things in 
 those times, as represented by foreign and 
 independent accounts; which conformity 
 proves, that the writers of the New Testa- 
 ment possessed a species of local know- 
 ledge, which could belong only to an 
 inhabitant of that country, and to one liv- 
 ing in that age. This argument, if well 
 made out by examples, is very little short 
 of proving the absolute genuineness of 
 the writings.” “And the argument is 
 stronger when applied to the New Testa- 
 ment, than it is in the case of almost any 
 other writings, by reason of the mixed 
 nature of the allusions which this book 
 contains. The scene of action is not con- 
 fined to a single country, but displayed in 
 the greatest cities of the Roman empire. 
 Allusions are made to the manners and 
 principles of the Greeks, the Romans, and 
 
OF CHRISITIANTY. 361 
 
 the Jews. ‘This variety renders a forgery 
 proportionably more difficult, especially to 
 writers of a posterior age. A Greek or 
 Roman Christian, who lived in the second 
 or third century, would have been want- 
 ing in Jewish literature ; a Jewish convert 
 in those ages would have been equally 
 deficient in the knowledge of Greece and 
 Rome.” 
 
 But this is an argument that depends 
 entirely upon an induction of particulars. 
 These particulars are amply exhibited by 
 Paley, who has collected them, he says, 
 from “the first part of Dr. Lardner’s 
 Credibility of the Gospel History.” “The 
 writer principally made use of in the in- 
 quiry, is Josephus. Josephus was born 
 at Jerusalem four years after Christ’s as- 
 cension. He wrote his history of the 
 Jewish war some time after the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem, which happened in the 
 year of our Lord 70, that is, thirty-seven 
 years after the ascension, and his history 
 of the Jews he finished in the year 93, 
 that is, sixty years after the ascension.” 
 
 Forty-one instances are then produced, 
 
362 , EVIDENCES 
 
 abbreviated from Lardner; and the agree- 
 ments between the representations of the 
 New Testament and those of independent 
 writers, appears not only in articles of 
 public history, but sometimes in minute, 
 recondite, and very peculiar circumstances. 
 Take one instance—the first : 
 
 ‘“ Matthew 11, 22. ‘ When he (Joseph) 
 heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea, 
 in the room of his father Herod, he was 
 afraid to go thither; notwithstanding, 
 being warned of God in a dream, he turn- 
 ed aside into the parts of Galilee.’ In 
 this passage it is asserted, that Archelaus 
 succeeded Herod in Judea; and it is im- 
 plied, that his power did not extend to 
 Galilee. Now we learn from Josephus, 
 that Herod the Great, whose dominion 
 included all the land of Israel, appointed 
 Archelaus his successor in Judea, and 
 assigned the rest of his dominions to 
 other sons; and that this disposition was 
 ratified, as to the main parts of it, by the 
 Roman emperor. Saint Matthew says, 
 that Archelaus reigned, was king, in 
 Judea. Agreeably to this, we are inform- 
 
 ee ee 
 
 a en 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 363 
 
 ed by Josephus, not only that Herod ap- 
 pointed Archelaus his successor in J udea, 
 but that he also appointed him with the 
 title of king; and the Greek verb which the 
 evangelist uses to denote the government 
 and rank of Archelaus, is used likewise 
 by Josephus. The cruelty of Archelaus’ 
 character, which is not obscurely inti- 
 mated by the evangelist, agrees with 
 divers particulars in his history, preserved - 
 by Josephus:—‘In the tenth year of his 
 government, the chief of the Jews and 
 Samaritans, not being able to endure his 
 cruelty and tyranny, presented complaints 
 against him to Cesar.’ ” 
 
 Of the other instances, many of them 
 are very striking; they quite make out 
 that the writers of the New Testament 
 lived at the time when we suppose them to 
 have lived—in the midst of the facts to 
 which they allude. Under this general 
 subject of internal evidence may be in- 
 cluded the argument which Paley has 
 drawn out in such an admirable manner 
 in his Hore Pauline. Between the 
 Epistles of St. Paul and the history of 
 
364 EVIDENCES 
 
 St. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 there exist many notes of correspondency, 
 and the undesignedness of the agreements 
 demonstrates that they have not been 
 produced by meditation or by any fraudu- 
 lent contrivance, and in fact it is thus 
 shown, that the history in the Acts is a 
 genuine history, and the Epistles genuine 
 epistles—that both have truth for their 
 foundation. ‘The work has always been 
 thought a master-piece, and with great 
 reason. Whatever we may think either 
 of the transactions in the Acts, or of the 
 contents of the Epistles, it 1s impossible 
 not to see, that the transactions really 
 took place, and that the epistles were 
 really written. 
 
 To be united to the celebrated work of 
 Paley, the late Dr. Tait published a con- 
 tinued history of St. Paul’s proceedings 
 and movements, and the two together 
 may be considered as a perfect whole. 
 St. Paul was the great propagator of 
 Christianity—the great asserter of the 
 important doctrine of the new covenant, 
 that the Jewish dispensation had passed 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 365 
 
 away, and that the Gentiles were now } 
 to be called in to partake, as well as 
 the Jews, of the benefit of the Christian 
 dispensation. He always called himself 
 the apostle of the Gentiles. He certainly 
 added much to Christianity, as it was 
 left by the Saviour. No doubt, when 
 the Saviour had died upon the Cross, 
 had been publicly executed, had risen, 
 the third day, and had commissioned his 
 disciples to go and preach the Gospel, 
 much was necessarily added, which could 
 not before have been produced—many 
 important doctrines had been verified, 
 and could now be contended for, in a man- 
 ner not possible before; and St. Paul by 
 his vehemence, his decision, and his ac- 
 tivity, the ardour and the evident sincerity 
 of all he said and wrote, was remarkably 
 fitted for the introduction of these new 
 doctrines into the world. 
 
 Archdeacon Lyall considers his own 
 argument, that the call of the Gentiles 
 was prophesied, and therefore the truth 
 of Christianity shown, when it prevailed 
 
 2 F 
 
S00 ia EVIDENCES 
 
 in the world, as abundantly illustrated 
 and proved by the writings of St. Paul. 
 Leslie’s Short and Easy Method with 
 the Deists, was a book published in 1698, 
 and is worth reading: the first part is 
 addressed to the Deists, the second to the 
 Jews; and both parts are drawn up on 
 the same principles and appealing to the 
 same arguments that we have already 
 noticed. The second part, which is ad- 
 dressed to the Jews, is longer and more 
 valuable, because here is to be found an 
 exhibition of the arguments that were 
 made use of by the learned Jew Orobio in 
 his conference with Limborch—a confer- 
 ence which has always been thought of 
 ereat importance. Both these parts are 
 learned and able, the style vigorous and 
 unceremonious; but the second, to the 
 Jews, is full of a learning not very acces- 
 sible to a modern inquirer. On the 
 whole, the reasons which have induced 
 the Jews to reject the Messiah seem to be 
 entirely overthrown. Why they rejected 
 the Messiah in the first instance has been 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 367 
 
 fully explained by Archdeacon Lyall, in 
 his Propedia Prophetica; and the argu- 
 ments, on which they now depend, are 
 satisfactorily answered in this book of 
 Leslie. Indeed, when Priestley had it at 
 heart to convert the Jews, he met no con- 
 troversial resistance of any consequence. 
 I have already mentioned that he urged 
 the prophecy of the seventy weeks to 
 Levi, and that Levi could make no reply, 
 but that the prophecyreferred to Antiochus, 
 not to Christ—an answer that seemed 
 quite a surrender of the question. Leslie 
 was a native of Ireland, a Jacobite, in the 
 time of King William, and a voluminous 
 author, of acknowledged learning, and 
 probably by his politics prevented from 
 rising to eminence in the church. 
 
 I will now refer to a circumstance that 
 I have already mentioned, and that on 
 the whole, it may be as well to consider a 
 little more distinctly. Why did not the 
 Saviour show himself after his resurrec- 
 tion to all the people ?—why only to wit- 
 nesses chosen before of God? 
 
 The first is what would naturally be 
 
368 7 EVIDENCES 
 
 expected ; but upon consideration, it will 
 ‘appear, that the other mode of proceeding 
 was the most effectual means of propaga- 
 ting his religion through the world. Let 
 us suppose that our Saviour had shown 
 himself as openly, as before he suffered. 
 His former miracles had not effectually 
 converted the body of the people, nor 
 would this ; they might have been startled 
 at the time, but why should this amaze- 
 ment have lasted. Had our Lord appeared 
 in public, but few could have touched him 
 and certified to themselves, tirat it was he 
 himself; few, comparatively, in a oreat 
 multitude could so have seen him, both 
 before and after his death, as to be ade- 
 quate witnesses of the reality of the mira- 
 cle—it would have been open to the 
 greater number of them still to deny, that 
 they really saw the person who had been 
 crucified, dead, and buried; the miracle 
 would have been resolved into some 
 general supposition of imposture or magi- 
 cal illusion; the chief priests would not 
 have been moved atall; and the populace, 
 however they might have been moved at 
 
 = a i 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 369 
 
 the time, would not have been lastingly 
 moved, nor practically moved, nor so 
 moved as to proclaim to the world what 
 they had heard and seen. The very 
 reason why Christ showed himself at all 
 was in order to raise up witnesses to his 
 resurrection, ministers of his word, found- 
 ers of his church; but how in the nature 
 of things could a populace ever become 
 such. A few were selected, because 
 (humanly speaking) only a few could be 
 made instruments, to be proper witnesses 
 of his resurrection; it was requisite to 
 have known our Lord intimately before 
 his death, it was necessary that they 
 should be certain it was he himself, the 
 very same, whom they before knew. 
 “Him God raised up the third day, and 
 showed him openly, not to all the people, 
 but unto witnesses chosen before of God, 
 even to us, who did eat and drink with 
 him after he rose from the dead ;” (Acts 
 x, 40, 41;) and this they did for forty 
 days. Nor were they required merely to 
 know him, but the thought of him was to 
 be stamped upon their minds, as. the one 
 
 yi ae Ye 
 
370 : EVIDENCES 
 
 master-spring of their whole course of 
 life for the future; it was to produce all 
 the phenomena of their unparallelled suf- 
 ferings, privations, labours, and abandon- 
 ment of all their former habits and asso- 
 ciations, which it really did produce. 
 
 And now that I am taking leave of 
 difficulties and objections, I must remind 
 my reader of what must be very obvious 
 to him, that revelation was not given to 
 us to satisfy doubts, but to make us bet- 
 ter men; and it is, as we become better 
 men, that it becomes light and peace to 
 our souls. ‘To all those who are perplexed 
 in any way soever—who wish for light, 
 but cannot find it—one precept must be 
 given—obey ; it is obedience which brings 
 aman into the right path—it is obedience 
 keeps him there and strengthens him in 
 it. “ Wait on the Lord and keep his 
 way, and he shall exalt thee;” go about 
 your duty; mind little things as well as 
 great; do not pause; it must be right to 
 serve God—* blessed are they that keep 
 his commandments.” “He that hath my 
 commandments,” saith the Saviour, “ and 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. oil 
 
 keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and 
 he that loveth me, shall be loved of my 
 Father, and I will love him, and will 
 manifest myself to him:” John xiv, 21. 
 This text it must be observed gives a 
 more definite sense to the term of “ loving” 
 God, than is generally found in the Gospel 
 of St. John—more definite and more at- 
 tainable—and on the whole of this subject 
 of mysteries and difficulties certainly no 
 assistance is afforded by the Gospel. The 
 Saviour never satisfied any curiosity. 
 
 We will now allude to the language of 
 the Old and New Testaments. First, of 
 the Old Testament. “The Hebrew may or 
 may not have been the primitive language 
 of mankind; but it is the most ancient of 
 any with which we are conversant. The 
 antiquity of the vowel points can scarcely 
 be contended for. The Talmud, not fin- 
 ished, according to some, but in the year 
 of Christ 500, never speaks a word of 
 them; but they represent, as they now 
 stand, the traditionary meaning assigned 
 by the Jewish church, to many passages 
 of the sacred authors. There must be at 
 
372 | EVIDENCES 
 
 least 500 years between Moses and Homer. 
 The Hebrew language, or that which was 
 in use among the descendants of Abra- 
 ham, continued without any substantial 
 alteration, till the tribes of Judah and 
 Benjamin were carried away to Babylon, 
 606 years z.c. There they continued, 
 till they were permitted by Cyrus to re- 
 turn in 5386—conformably to a prophecy, 
 delivered by Isaiah above 150 years be- 
 fore. During this captivity of seventy 
 years, the first remarkable change took 
 place in the Hebrew language..... The 
 tribes of Judah and Benjamin continuing 
 in Babylon and the adjacent country, in- 
 sensibly adopted the inflections and pro- 
 nunciation of the Chaldee tongue........ 
 Hence it became necessary, when the law 
 was read in the synagogues from the 
 original work of Moses, that a paraphrase 
 or explanation should be at the same time 
 read in the Chaldee dialect. ‘To these 
 
 paraphrases the name of Targum has 
 
 been appropriated.” 
 « After the success of the Macedonians 
 under Alexander, the Jews, as well as 
 
 x ee 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 10 
 
 other nations of the East, became recon- 
 ciled to the use of Greek. Alexander 
 founded a city in Egypt, still called after 
 hisname. He and his successors invited 
 settlers, and the various colonists infused 
 variety into the dialect of Greece, spoken 
 by the founders. The Jews appear to 
 have been in a moral, as well as political 
 view, far superior to the degraded vas- 
 sals of oriental despotism. It became 
 the policy of their conquerors, instead of 
 destroying or seiling them into slavery, to 
 transplant them, as settlers and subjects, 
 and make them a valuable accession to 
 their own dominions. Thus Alexancer 
 and his successors, the Ptolemies, an:x- 
 iously endeavoured to increase the Jew- 
 ish population of Alexandria. The first 
 comers by degrees forgot a considerable 
 portion of the Hebrew or Chaldee which 
 they had brought with them; ..... those 
 who were born in the new settlement 
 would naturally acquire a knowledge of 
 the Greek language, as it was spoken.” 
 It was natural to be expected, “that the 
 Jews should be anxious to have a transla- 
 
3714 EVIDENCES 
 
 tion of their ancient Scriptures into 
 Greek; or at least, that they should 
 readily accede to the wish of King 
 Ptolemy, when he desired to have a ver- 
 sion made of the books of Moses, for the 
 purpose of being placed in the library; 
 which he had for some time, with equal 
 munificence and judgment, been collecting 
 at Alexandria.” 
 
 Either at the end of Ptolemy Soter’s 
 reign, or in the beginning of Philadelphus’, 
 about 48 years after the foundation of 
 Alexandria, the version of the Pentateuch 
 into Greek was undertaken and completed. 
 Afterwards a version of all the canonical 
 books of the Old Testament into Greek 
 was made, during the reign of the same 
 Philadelphus, not by seventy-two inter- 
 preters, but by a few. The name of 
 «“ Septuagint” was probably derived from 
 the sanction given to the version by 
 the Sanhedrim, or great council of seventy, 
 residing at Jerusalem. Subsequent to 
 the translation of the Hebrew into Greek 
 at Alexandria, another alteration took 
 place in the language. “Amidst the quar- 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. O15 
 
 rels which arose among the successors of 
 Alexander, the kings of Syria, Antiochus 
 Epiphanes in particular, seized upon the 
 the country of Judea. In consequence of 
 the closer communication which took 
 place by the intermixture of Syrians and 
 Jews, the Chaldee dialect imbibed Syrian 
 idioms and inflections; and, at the time 
 of our Saviour, the language of Judea— 
 that in which our Lord spake and taught 
 —is considered to have been properly de- 
 nominated Syro-Chaldaic; the original 
 Hebrew, modified by a mixture of Syriac 
 as well as Chaldee.” 
 
 “After the Macedonian conquest, the 
 Jews were accustomed to call all foreign- 
 ers, consequently all heathens, by the 
 general name of Hellenes, Greeks. To 
 imitate Greeks or foreigners, by adopting 
 their customs, or speaking and writing 
 their language, is termed, according to a 
 Greek form of expression, to Hellenize. 
 The person who thus imitates, as in the 
 case of Jewish sojourners in foreign coun- 
 tries, is an Hellenist ; and the language 
 used by such a person becomes known by 
 
3716 EVIDENCES 
 
 the appropriate term, Hellenistic. This 
 is the peculiar species of Greek in which 
 the Septuagint version and the Scriptures 
 of the New Testament appear.” 
 
 Many peculiarities arose from the in- 
 fusion of the Hebrew idiom into Alexan- 
 drine Greek; and these, scholars can 
 observe. A competent judge will per- 
 ceive, that the Hebrew idiom is not so 
 strongly adhered to in the New Testament 
 as in the Septuagint. In the former he 
 will see an increased influence of the 
 Chaldaic dialect and freer use of the 
 Syriac, in consequence of the subjection 
 of the Jews to the sovereign of that 
 country. But the greatest cause of varia- 
 tion in the Greek of the New ‘Testament 
 from the Septuagint version of the old, is 
 derived from the introduction of Roman 
 words and phrases. ‘This might naturally 
 be expected; and thus we have “ dena- 
 rion,’ ‘centurion,’ and other words, 
 actually Latin words, occuring in the 
 Greek Testament. The names of coins, 
 military terms, places of distributing jus- | 
 tice, current in a conquered country, 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. er 
 
 might naturally be expected to be incor- 
 porated into the language, and this may 
 be observed to take place, and can be 
 distinctly marked by men of learning. 
 “Thus a strong internal evidence arising 
 from the pee tis idiom, and gener al cenit 
 of composition, both in the version of the 
 Old, and the original writings of the New 
 Testament, corresponds, in a most remark- 
 able manner, with the character and_pre- 
 tensions of the writers. The Septuagint 
 version professes to be the work of Jews, 
 who had for some time been resident in 
 Alexandria under the Ptolemies. We find 
 the translation of these sacred records exe- 
 cuted in such a way, as to show a clear 
 insight into the idiom of the original; 
 aiid the language, into which they trans- 
 lated the Hebrew, bears plain marks of 
 Greek, written and spoken at Alexandria. 
 Again: the New Testament is said to have 
 been the production of Jews, acquainted 
 with the Greek language from the study 
 of the Septuagint, and from intercourse 
 with Greeks of different countries. It is 
 evident that the writers of these books 
 2G 
 
3718 EVIDENCES 
 
 were well versed in the Septuagint; and 
 that they wrote in Helenistic Greek, though 
 not so strongly impregnated with the Alex- 
 andrine dialect, as the old version. We 
 find also a sprinkling of Syriasms, the ver- 
 nacular language of Judea; with some 
 expressions peculiar to Cilicia, in which 
 was the native country of one principal 
 writer of the Epistles. There is moreover 
 an accession of Latin words ; which shows 
 that the books were written after the occu- 
 pation of Judea by the Romans. On the 
 other hand, this is a species of language, 
 which was not likely to be in use any long 
 time after the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 because the Jews then adhered more per- 
 tinaciously to the Hebrew, and the new 
 Christians betook themselves to the culti- 
 vation of Gentile literature. In fact, with 
 very inconsiderable exceptions, there are 
 no specimens of language, exactly’ resem- 
 bling that of the New Testament. Yet is 
 it precisely the sort of compound, that we 
 might expect to be produced in Judea, 
 within twenty or thirty years of the very 
 date, which, from external and indubitable 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 379 
 
 testimony, is affixed to this collection of 
 writings,” 
 
 This argument which can only be tho- 
 roughly felt by scholars, is still intelligible 
 to ordinary inquirers, and is a powerful 
 addition of evidence to the genuineness 
 and authenticity of these sacred writings. 
 
 Now, not only are the books of the New 
 Lestament written in a language which is 
 nowhere else to befound, but learned divines 
 make important remarks with respect. to 
 the language of the Old Testament. Cer- 
 tain it is, that marks of distinction are ap- 
 parent between different portions of the 
 Old Testament, sufficiently characteristic 
 to show that they were the production of 
 different ages, and even to point out those, 
 as in reality, the most ancient, which the 
 generally received opinion, founded upon 
 historic testimony, has referred to the re- 
 moter period. In the Pentateuch and the 
 earlier historical books, expressions occur 
 of a more antiquated form, nor are any 
 traces of the Chaldaic or Syriac to be dis- 
 covered; whereas in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, 
 indications are found of Chaldee significa- 
 
380 EVIDENCES 
 
 tions and inflections, while in Daniel whole 
 chapters are written in that dialect. But 
 even as regards these later works, whilst 
 they exhibit traces of an era posterior to 
 those of Moses and David, yet do they still 
 claim an antiquity surpassing that which 
 can be assigned to the earliest extant his- 
 torical work of the Greeks. The Baby- 
 lonish captivity, from which the regular 
 decline of the ancient Hebrew may be 
 dated, was two hundred years, and the 
 book of Daniel more than one hundred 
 years prior to the age of Herodotus. 
 
 It is observed by Eichhorn, a daring 
 German critic, “That the Old Testament 
 was not the forgery of a single imposter is 
 proved, by every page. What variety in 
 language and expression! Isaiah does not 
 write like Moses, nor Jeremiah like Eze- 
 kiel, and between these and any of the 
 minor prophets, there is again a great di- 
 versity of style. The style of Moses is dis- 
 tinguished by its scrupulous, grammatical 
 correctness: the book of Judges is filled 
 with provincialisms and barbarisms: in 
 Isaiah we meet with old words under new - 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 381 
 
 inflections: Jeremiah and Ezekiel have 
 their Chaldaisms ; and in short, as we trace 
 the succession of writers from the earlier 
 to the later ages, we find in the language 
 a gradual decline, till it finally sinks into 
 a dialect of broad Chaldee. Then, too, 
 what diversity in the march of ideas and 
 range of imagery! In the hand of Moses 
 and Isaiah, the lyre is deep and loud; but. 
 its tone is soft when touched by David. 
 The muse of Solomon is decked in the 
 splendours of a luxurious court, while her 
 sister wanders with David, in an artless 
 dress, by streams and banks, through the 
 fields and among flocks. One poet is ori- 
 ginal; like Isaiah, Joel, and Habakkuk; 
 another is imitative, like Ezekiel. One 
 strikes out the untrodden path of genius, 
 while another strolls by his side in the 
 beaten foot-way. Rays of learning beam 
 from one, while his neighbour never emits 
 a spark of literature. In the oldest writers 
 we see strong lines of Egyptian tint, which 
 grow fainter and fainter on the canvass of 
 their successors, and at last disappear. 
 Finally, in the manners what a beautiful 
 
 Qe Gass 
 
382 EVIDENCES 
 
 eradation! At first all is simple and un- 
 affected, as in the poems of Homer, and 
 among the Bedouin Arabs to this day. By 
 degrees this noble simplicity declines into 
 luxury and effeminacy, and vanishes at 
 last in the court of Solomon. Nowhere is 
 there a violent transition, but a gradual and 
 progressive course throughout. It is but 
 an ignorant thoughtless sceptic, who can 
 think the Old Testament is the fiction of a 
 single impostor.” 
 
 Eichhorn is considered a very learned, 
 but, as [I have already intimated, a very 
 daring critic, of the German school. 
 
 It is observed by Marsh, in his short 
 tract on the Authenticity of the Penta- 
 teuch, that ‘‘ Hebrew ceased to be the 
 ' living language of the Jews during the 
 Babylonish captivity, and that the Jewish 
 productions after that period were in gene- 
 ral either Chaldee or Greek. The Jews - 
 of Palestine, some ages before the appear- 
 ance of our Saviour, were unable to com- 
 prehend the Hebrew original, without the 
 assistance of a Chaldee paraphrase ; and 
 it was necessary to undertake a Greek 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 383 
 
 translation, because that language alone 
 was known to the Jews of Alexandria... . 
 The several parts of the Hebrew Bible are 
 found to differ not only in regard to style, 
 but also in regard to character and culti- 
 vation of language; if the one discovers 
 the golden, another the silver, a third the 
 brazen, a fourth the iron age, we have 
 strong internal marks of their having been 
 composed at different and distinct periods. 
 No classical scholar, independently of the 
 Grecian history, would believe that the 
 poems ascribed to Homer were written in 
 the age of Demosthenes, the orations of 
 Demosthenes in the time of Origen, or the 
 commentaries of Origen in the days of 
 Lascaris and Chrysoloras. For the same 
 reason it is certain that the five books, 
 which are ascribed to Moses, were not 
 written in the time of David, the Psalms 
 of David in the age of Isaiah, nor the 
 prophecies of Isaiah in the time of Mala- 
 chi. But it appears from what has been 
 said above, in regard to the extinction of 
 the Hebrew Janguage, that the book of 
 Malachi could not have been written much 
 
384 | EVIDENCES 
 
 later than the Babylonish captivity ; before 
 that period therefore were written the pro- 
 phecies of Isaiah, still earlier the Psalms 
 of David, and much earlier than these the 
 books which are ascribed to Moses.” 
 
 The Pentateuch, he observes, “* contains 
 a system of ceremonial and moral laws, 
 which, unless we reject the authority of 
 all history, were observed by the Israelites 
 from the time of their departure out of 
 Egypt till their dispersion at the taking of 
 Jerusalem. These laws, therefore, are as 
 ancient as the conquest of Palestine. It 
 is also an undeniable historical fact, that 
 the Jews in every age believed their ances- 
 tors had received them from the hand of 
 Moses, and that these laws were the basis 
 of their political and religious institutions, 
 as long as they continued to be a people. 
 We are reduced therefore to this dilemma, 
 to acknowledge either that these laws were 
 actually delivered by Moses, or that a 
 whole nation, during fifteen hundred years, 
 groaned under the weight of an imposture, 
 without once detecting, or even suspecting 
 the fraud.” “ Itis impossible that the Jews 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 385 
 
 could have received in a later age a set 
 of writings as the genuine work of Moses, 
 if no history and no tradition had preserved 
 the remembrance of his having been the 
 author.” 
 
 The Pentateuch existed in the time of 
 Christ and his apostles; they quote it; 
 and Kzra expressly ascribes the book of 
 the Law to Moses—‘and they set the 
 priests in their divisions, and the Levites 
 in their courses, for the service of God, 
 which is in Jerusalem, as it is written in 
 the book of Moses:” Ezra vi, 8; see also 
 Ezra ii, 2; and Nehem. xiii, 1; “ The 
 Pentateuch existed not only before the 
 time of Ezra, but before the division of the 
 kingdoms of Israel and Judah. For it was 
 not only accepted as genuine by the Sama- 
 ritans, as well as by the Jews, but was 
 equally in both nations the basis of their 
 civil and religious institutions. It must 
 have been written, therefore, before the 
 division of the kingdoms had taken place ; 
 for if it had been forged in a later age 
 among the Jews, the perpetual enmity 
 that subsisted between the two nations 
 
386 | EVIDENCES 
 
 would have utterly prevented its being 
 adopted by the Samaritans; and had it 
 been a spurious production of the Sama- 
 ritans, it never would have been received 
 among the Jews.” 
 
 Nor could it have been written be- 
 tween the age of Joshua and Solomon ; for 
 the whole Jewish history presupposes that 
 the book of the law was written by Moses; 
 it is described as such in the Chronicles, 
 in Kings, and especially in Joshua. ‘“ Only 
 be thou strong,” it is said in Joshua, “and 
 very courageous, that thou mayest observe 
 to do all according to the law, which 
 Moses my servant commanded thee—this 
 book of the law shall not depart out of thy 
 mouth.” It is to be observed, too, that 
 the copy of the book of the law, as written 
 by Moses, was entrusted to the priests and 
 the elders, preserved in the ark of. the 
 covenant, and read to the people every 
 seventh year. ‘And Moses wrote this 
 law, and delivered it unto the priests, the 
 sons of Levi, who bare the ark of the cove- 
 nant of the Lord, &c.” Deut. xxxi, 9..-The 
 books we have are the same work, which 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 387 
 
 was translated into Greek, and is now the 
 Septuagint; and they agree with the Sa- 
 maritan Pentateuch—all being derived 
 from the original Hebrew. 
 
 The mode of writing in the four last 
 books discovers an author contemporary 
 with the facts which he relates. The legis- 
 lative and historical parts are so interwoven 
 with each other, that neither of them 
 could have been written by a man who - 
 lived in a later age. “The language itself 
 is a proof of its high antiquity, which ap- 
 pears partly from the great simplicity of 
 the style, and partly from the use of archa- 
 isms, or antiquated expressions, which in 
 the days even of David and Solomon were 
 obsolete. But the strongest argument that 
 can be produced to show that the Penta 
 teuch was-written by a man born and edu- 
 cated in Egypt, is the use of Egyptian 
 words ; which never were, nor ever could 
 have been used by a native of Palestine: 
 and it is a remarkable circumstance, that 
 the very same thing which Moses had ex- 
 pressed by a word that is pure Egyptian, 
 Isaiah, as might be expected from his birth 
 
388 EVIDENCES 
 
 and education, has expressed by a word 
 that is purely Hebrew”’—in the Septuagint 
 both words are translated by the same 
 Greek word. 
 
 The transcribers of MSS. have often 
 put into the margin words of their own, 
 to explain the text; and these spurious 
 additions sometimes got into the texts by 
 the mistake of subsequent transcribers. 
 Marsh gives two instances of this, as spe- 
 cimens, of what he thus says—one from 
 the Epistle to the Corinthians and one 
 from St. John—indeed this source of 
 error is well known to scholars, and pro- 
 duces difficulties; a few in the Penta- 
 teuch, as well as in the classical writings. 
 
 The first part of these observations 1s 
 taken from Two Sermons by Dr. Maltby, 
 the latter from a short publication by 
 Professor Marsh—the first writer, one of 
 the most distinguished Greek, and the 
 other, one of the most distinguished 
 Hebrew scholars of his time. 
 
 And it is thus that in every part and 
 in every view of the evidence for the truth 
 of Christianity there is a consistency and 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 389 
 
 an harmony which could not possibly be 
 found, if that truth was not real—the pro- 
 phecies, the miracles, the internal evi- 
 dence, the language of the Scriptures, the 
 great facts of history, everything answer- 
 ing each to the other, and together con- 
 stituting an harmonious whole, surely 
 fitted to engage the assent, to occupy the 
 thoughts, and to fix the belief of any 
 rational mind. Judea was the rock, (how 
 can it be doubted?) from which the water 
 broke; and the world around it was, and 
 still is, the wilderness, through which it 
 flows; and the moral change that has 
 been produced is the greatest known in 
 the history of the world. We are born 
 in the midst of this religion, and cannot 
 possibly estimate the extent and magnitude 
 of that moral change; but in the midst of 
 all our stormy passions and selfish interests 
 it is the civilizer of the world without, and 
 the teacher of the heart within. Its in- 
 fluence, wherever felt, is always salutary, 
 and the extension of that influence, in its 
 mild form, and its gentle and holy nature 
 2 4H 
 
390 | EVIDENCES 
 
 properly preserved, is the great cause of 
 humanity. 
 
 Of the evidences of this faith, the reader 
 of these pages may now perhaps form 
 some general notion. The evidences of 
 Christianity are like those of natural reli- 
 gion. The fabric of the world is full of 
 the marks of the Creator’s agency, wis- 
 dom, and goodness; but if scepticism fall 
 upon weak parts of this great argument, 
 we must appeal to the structure of the 
 world at large and to the copiousness and 
 ubiquity of the demonstration. And so it 
 is with the evidences of revealed religion, 
 the whole conspiring system exhibits, on 
 the whole and in mass, the proper rea- 
 son of the faith of a Christian. The 
 proof of Christianity gathers light and 
 strength from the concentrated force of 
 all its evidences, and the whole must be 
 laid together, and the aggregate of 
 these concurrent evidences must close the 
 investigation. It is to be observed, too, 
 that even if any one of these descriptions 
 of evidence had arisen from fraud or 
 
OF CHRISTIANITY. 391 
 
 accident, they could not all have so arisen— 
 they could not all have converged—they 
 could not all have run up together, so as 
 to invite conviction ; miracles, prophecies, 
 morals, success—these may indeed, as we 
 see, unite; but could not have been made 
 to do so, by human art, or by the mere 
 effect of accident. The evidence of Chris- 
 tianity is drawn from testimonies differing 
 in kind, but conspiring in effect; and yet 
 so differing in kind, as to indicate by 
 their accumulation, the interference of a 
 superintending Providence, and the ques- 
 tion at which we are now arrived is this— 
 When such a mass of evidence is in exis- 
 tence, is it possible, that the religion should 
 not be true? We may not understand 
 the dispensations of the Almighty, but we 
 can understand the nature of moral evi- 
 dence, and is it possible, I repeat, that 
 the religion should not be true? 
 
 Let any man, however sceptical, sup- 
 pose, if he pleases, that the religion is 
 not true, and let him go, with that suppo- 
 sition, into the consideration of the facts 
 which in the evidences are to be found, 
 
392 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 and let him then observe by what impos- 
 sibilities he will be surrounded, and how 
 irresistibly he will be driven back into a 
 conviction, that, after all, a revelation 
 must have been vouchsafed to us, by the 
 Almighty Being that created us, and that 
 Christianity must be true. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 NORWICH: PRINTED BY J. FLETCHER. 
 
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