fo 3 \^ ; 8: ? ; OF-CA11F(% \\\E UNIVEW//, s x O wi. ^ C> - OKVSO^ LETTERS ON THE EVIDENCES, DOCTRINES, AND DUTIES, OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND. " Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." " Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh yon a reason of the hope that is in you. For we have not followed cunningly devised tables." " Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cumeth from the Father of Lights." " These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." LETTERS EVIDENCES, DOCTRINES, AND DUTIES, CHRISTIAN RELIGION ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND. OLINTHUS GREGORY, LL. D. PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY AT WOOLWICH, ETC. SIXTH EDITION. WITH MANY ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS, in One Volume. LONDON: BALDWIN AND CRADOCK, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1836. CHISWICK : PRINTED BY C. WHITT1NGHAM. 9MK/I* LS I Am* PREFACE. THE history of the work now presented to the public may be given in very few words. It originated in a series of conversations which I had about five years ago with a friend much younger than myself, who had a considerable acquaintance with almost all except religious subjects. He expressed much surprise that a person of my habits and pursuits in other respects should adopt the religious notions I had long entertained, or indeed be solicitous about any religious opinions whatever; and I endeavoured to assign the reasons which led me to embrace them, and to consider such topics as of the first import- ance. After a short time we were so far separated as to have much fewer opportunities of personal intercourse : and I in consequence became induced to carry on the momentous inquiry we had previ- ously commenced, by letter. Pursuant to this intention, all the letters in the first volume 1 were actually written : they were read in manuscript by my friend ; and, as I have reason to believe, were not unproductive of benefit. Having proceeded thus far, a growing particularity of inquiry was produced 1 This work was originally published in two volumes, the first volume closing with the llth letter. v i PREFACE. on the one side, and a gradual extension of plan on the other: and thus, after many interruptions, and in the midst of numerous avocations of a very different kind, the work has become what it now is. I had not however proceeded half way in the execution of my plan before it occurred to me, that what I first intended for private use might be be- neficial to others in circumstances analogous to those of my friend ; and I recollected that what- ever I might publish on the subject of religion would at least have the advantage of appearing disinterested, as it proceeded from the pen of a layman. It is, I am aware, extremely ridiculous for those who adopt the prescriptions of their phy- sicians, and act upon the advice of their lawyers, although they are professional, to object to defences of Christianity from the pens of Clergymen because they are professional; yet, absurd and uncandid as the objection is, it is often advanced : it is there- fore proper to meet it ; and at times to show that there are those who cannot on such occasions be actuated by any love of worldly applause, or any thirst after emolument, but who feel sufficiently interested about Religion, and are sufficiently con- vinced of its powerful tendency to improve the conduct of individuals and to augment the general stock of happiness, to step for a little while out of their more appropriate province to plead its cause. Such defenders of revealed religion there have been in all ages ; yet they have not been so numerous PREFACE. Vll as to render it improper or indecorous to increase their number: especially as the old prejudice still continues to operate with unabated energy ; and there are many persons from whom the claims of Christianity receive a more respectful attention, when they are urged by one who is neither " a clergyman'' nor " a methodist." There have long existed several valuable essays on the Evidences of Christianity ; and we now possess in the English language especially, the treatise of Dr. Paley, which all Christians consider as an honour to our age and nation. Had a lumi- nous statement of the Historical Evidences been all that was aimed at or required, I should at once have referred my friend to Dr. Paley's as a standard, and, I believe, unanswerable work ; and never have troubled either him or the public with any remarks of mine on the subject of religion. But it is very possible, and indeed very common, for men to be Christians in name and theory, and infidels in practice ; to profess a belief in Christ, and in heart to deny him ; to acknowledge him as Messiah, and to refuse to obey him as king ; to avow the warmest admiration of the New Testament, and to despise and ridicule every thing in it which is characteristic and peculiar, and which constitutes it a summary of that " truth" which alone " can make us free " from the dominion of sin and from the punishment due to it. This I consider as the most striking and lamentable error of the present times ; and it is, Vlll PREFACE. therefore, the more remarkable that such an error should not have been frequently and pointedly exposed. To adopt the language of an admirable living writer " While the outworks of the sanc- tuary have been defended with the utmost ability., its interior has been too much neglected, and the fire upon the altar suffered to languish and decay. The truths and mysteries which distinguish the Christian from all other religions, have been little attended to by some, totally denied by others ; and while infinite efforts have been made, by the utmost subtlety of argumentation, to establish the truth and authenticity of revelation, few have been ex- erted in comparison to show what it really con- tains." Now the deficiency here adverted to is that which I have endeavoured to supply. I have attempted to exhibit in small compass a view, not merely of the Evidences, but of the distinguishing Doctrines, and principal "binding Duties of the Christian Reli- gion. I have endeavoured to show that Christianity is not so contemptible and bungling a fraud as some infidels have represented it to be ; and to point out at the same time many palpable and enormous absurdities into which Infidelity precipi- tates its votaries. But this I reckon the least important part of my undertaking, though I hum- bly hope it may have its uses. The facts of Chris- tianity are only so far momentous as the doctrines are momentous which are suspended upon them. PREFACE. IX The crucifixion of Jesus Christ would be no more to us (I mention it with reverence) than the death of Socrates, were it not that he suffered as a sacri- fice for sin; and his resurrection of no more im- portance to us than the emancipation of a butterfly from its crysalis, were it not for the assurance that " even as he has risen" so shall all his faithful followers. I have, therefore, entered pretty much at large into the establishment and defence of the leading doctrines which distinguish Christianity from all other religious systems. In the choice of these I have kept almost entirely out of sight the higher points which separate the Arminians and Calvinists ; while I have attempted to illustrate and confirm, as essential, those grand doctrines in which both Arminians and Calvinists, and indeed the great majority of Christians, differ from the Socinians. The truth is, that upon most of the questions which have long 'divided, and still con- tinue to agitate, the Christian world, my mind is nearly in a state of perfect neutrality : so that I cannot bring myself to attach much importance to any question which is not obviously favourable or unfavourable in its moral tendency, or which does not appear to me fundamental, that is, which does not in some way affect the grand doctrine of man's redemption through the crucifixion of" the Son of God." With all Christians who in this respect " hold the head," and live conformably to the doc- trines they profess, however they may be separated PREFACE. upon minor topics, I am anxious to maintain, and long to see universally prevail, the " unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." I am willing to hope, indeed, that this spirit is gaining ground among us ; and that many men are beginning to act upon the persuasion that every controversy agitated in the Christian Church upon points of inferior moment, causes a deduction, and in numerous instances a very serious one, from the regard paid to the really important objects of faith. In attaining the objects proposed, I have not aimed at elaborate composition, or the elegancies of style : believing that if my professional employ- ments did not tend greatly to render success in such an attempt improbable, my real inability to dazzle by splendid imagery and profuse embellish- ment would. I have endeavoured to reason clearly and fairly ; have availed myself of every argument I have met with in other authors that has met my purpose; and have endeavoured to compress them into small space; and have, farther, had Occasional recourse to some arguments which it is probable would not readily present themselves to any one who was not moderately conversant with scientific topics ; these, it may be added, were frequently suggested by the consideration, that the gentleman fqr whose use they were originally written had successfully engaged in scientific pursuits. I know not whether it may be necessary to apologize for the frequency and extent of my PREFACE. XI quotations from Scripture, especially in the second volume. Let it be recollected that the main object of that volume is to teach the doctrines of Scripture; that is, to show what they are, to ex- hibit them faithfully : and to effect this without being allowed to cite the language of Scripture, would be, as Mr. Boyle long ago remarked, " to challenge a man to a duel, and oblige him not to make use of his best weapons ; or to compel him to prove the torrid zone habitable, and not make use of the testimony of navigators." Besides, the maxim of Chillingworth, though old, has not yet been proved absurd ; namely, " that we cannot speak of the things of God better than in the words of God." I would fain hope that my numerous references to other authors, or quotations from them, will not be ascribed to a desire to make a parade of exten- sive reading. My acquaintance with the works of other writers, and especially on the subject of reli- gion, is, in truth, far less than it ought to be; and my object in such frequent references and extracts has been either to direct the attention of young men of reading to standard works on topics which my plan would not allow me to treat so fully as I wished, or to confirm and fortify my own senti- ments by the authority of many whom the world in general consider as learned, wise, and, therefore, highly worthy of regard. Lastly, I beg to remark, that I hope and trust Xll PREFACE. the freedom of my occasional animadversions upon theologians from whom I differ on several topics discussed in these letters, has in no instance arisen from contempt of them, or their opinions, from uncandid interpretations of their language, or from unworthy personal feeling. My business has been to attempt to refute sentiments which I deem erro- neous and dangerous, as well as to establish those which appear to me true and beneficial. It is pos- sible, I am persuaded, to feel the strongest convic- tion of the errors certain men may hold, without cherishing a particle of ill will against those who hold them. And surely it is perfectly fair and per- fectly candid, when theologians of a certain class endeavour to divest Christianity of almost every thing which (as I conceive) is peculiar to it, pride themselves upon the skill and dexterity with which they effect this, and triumph over what they de- nominate the irrational and contracted tenets of others ; to turn the tables upon them, and to show that their system is clog-o-ed with its full load of / OO absurdities and contradictions; that their mode of translation, if adopted universally, would rob the New Testament of its whole spirit, energy, and per- spicuity ; and that by stripping the Christian sys- tem of its peculiarities, they deprive it nearly of all which renders it of consequence whether a man be a believer or an unbeliever. Under the influence of these sentiments, I shall conclude by adopting the language of Dr. Jortin on another occasion : PREFACE. Xlll the following disquisitions " are designed, slight and imperfect as they are, for the service of TRUTH, by one who would be glad to attend, and grace *> * O her triumphs : as her soldier, if he has had the honour to serve successfully under her banner : or, as her captive, tied to her chariot wheels, if he has though undesignedly, committed any offence against her." OLINTHUS GREGORY. Oct. 11, 1811. P. S. That successive editions of this Work should be required is a circumstance which calls for my most grateful acknowledgements, at the same time that it has stimulated me to give the whole a very careful revisal, that it may be ren- dered more worthy public favour. I cannot but be highly gratified that my labours on the most interesting of all subjects should continue to be so favourably received : and still more to learn, that in various instances they have been the means of convincing persons, especially young men devoted to two of the learned professions (medicine and law), that " with the talent of an angel a man may be a fool," in the worst sense of the word, unless he be " wise unto salvation." Several have been reclaimed from the regions of Infidelity, and still XIV PREFACE. more from Socinianism, not merely in England, but on the continent of Europe, in India, and Ame- rica, by the blessing of God upon an attentive perusal of these " Letters." I had no other object in their publication; and can most sincerely de- clare that I wish them no longer to meet with encouragement than while they shall be useful in instilling into the minds and hearts of others, the essential, immutable principles which have always been found to work most efficaciously towards the renovation and salvation of mankind. Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Oct. 11, 1829. CONTENTS. LETTER Page 1. ON the Folly and Absurdity of Deism 1 2. On the Necessity of a Revelation of the Will of God 15 3. On the Opinions of the Heathens, their Legislators, Poets, and Philosophers, relative to God, to moral Duty, and a future State 20 4. On the Probability that there should be Mysteries in a Revealed Religion 42 5. On the Genuineness and Authenticity of the Scrip- tures 65 6. On the Evidence deducible from the Prophecies . . 108 7. On the Evidence deducible from Miracles ; and on the Credibility of Human Testimony .... 129 8. On the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 157 9. Evidence drawn from the rapid Diffusion of Chris- tianity, and its Triumph over Persecution ; also from the Purity and Excellency of the Scripture Morality and Theology 178 10. On the Inspiration of Scripture 199 11. On some of the most plausible Objections urged against the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures 216 XVI CONTENTS. LETTER Pagfc 12. Introductory Letter on the leading Doctrines of the Christian Religion 243 13. On the Fall of Man, and the Depravity of Human Nature 262 14. On the Atonement for Sin, by the Death of Jesus Christ 280 15. On the Divinity of Jesus Christ 308 16. On the Nature of Conversion, and its Necessity . . 347 17. On the Influences of the Spirit 368 18. On Justification by Faith 390 19. On Providence .... 410 20. On the Resurrection of the Body 430 21. On Eternal Existence after Death 444 22. Summary of Christian Duties . ..... 467 LETTERS OX THE EVIDENCES, DOCTRINES, AND DUTIES, OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. LETTER I. On the Folly and Absurdity of Deism. MY DEAR FRIEND, I WAS much gratified, on the arrival of your letter, to find that you had not forgotten me ; and more gratified still to learn, that the important topic, on which we so often conversed when we were together, has as fre- quently occupied your thoughts since our separation. In this respect your conduct evinces your usual solici- tude to inquire after truth of every kind, and I trust it will be followed by your accustomed success. While human existence is as much characterized by the un- certainty as by the shortness of its duration, and there is interposed between us and Heaven, or Hell, or an- nihilation, nothing but life, the most brittle and preca- rious thing imaginable ; while there is no cause for vanity in being involved in impenetrable darkness, and none for consolation ; when we are in despair of ever finding a comforter, so long will it be the first and principal concern of a wise man, to inquire into his nature, his duties, and his expectations ; to ascertain where he ought to doubt, where to be confident, and where to submit : and these inquiries necessarily com. prise the subject of Religion. " Who is wise, and he B 2 FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. shall understand these things ? prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall ivalk in them ; but the transgressors shall fall therein V ^ The derision with which some of your deistical com- panions affect to treat you, is matter of regret, but not of surprise. If their Deism be the result of supposed conviction, they are objects of pity ; if, which is more likely to be the case, it be a consequence of indiffe- rence, and this deplorable indifference furnish them with a ground for boasting, they, instead of yourself, would be fit subjects for ridicule, were it proper to indulge such a propensity on so serious an occasion. To a person of your extensive observation and con- templative turn of mind, it must appear extremely obvious, that as the vicious lives of many men make it their interest that religion in general should be " a bugbear," and the Christian Religion especially " an artful system of delusion ;" so they will too commonly be found, not only ready, but eager to believe them really such. Nor can it be expected that they should stop here. For when once a certain method of treating a subject is nicely adapted to men's humours and situations, it would be strange, indeed, if they did not indulge in it; particularly when they find, as they soon will, that the majority of almost every company will cordially concur with them. If you wish to be proof . against sneers and laughter, when directed against so momentous a subject, consider that the mirth and pleasure of the unthinking part of man- kind (by far the greater part) is almost as blind and mechanical as the actions of an automaton. Let them be but struck, and they will move as mere inert matter moves, until the effect of the impulse ceases. They are stirred, and often delighted; though with what, or for what cause, or to what purpose, they know not. Except, perhaps, when the string of religion is roughly touched by the hand of an enemy ; for then, many 1 Hosea, xiv. 9. FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. 3 ignorant, and all irreligious hearts, like chords in unison, dance to the motion, and yield the same sound ; just as the clank of a madman's chain, while it thrills to the soul of a man in his senses, shall collect around him all the lunatics in the same ward of his prison, and tempt them to dance with maniac delight, when every spectator shudders with horror. I have heard of some modern free-thinkers, whose comprehension of mind has placed them on such an eminence, that they look down with contempt, not only upon Christians, but upon the shrivelled minds of other unbelievers, who have not yet taken such an adventurous flight : some who not merely deride those whom half the world calls fanatics and visionaries, but who are seated in a " scomer's chair" of such peculiar qualities as enchants them till they sneer at the narrow prejudices of Hume and Gibbon, and Voltaire and Paine, whom they fancy they have discovered to be " as superstitious as washerwomen." Others have been impelled to still greater heights in this intel- lectual delirium. They contemplate with delight the ""'prospect of a world without a Creator or a Governor; and boast of their demonstrations, by which they can convert any sensible man into an Atheist in a quarter of an hour ; a transformation which, of course, would not be very difficult after they had explained to that V sensible man, upon their own hypothesis, from whom lie derived his sense. But the gentlemen, into whose company you are now so frequently thrown, dfc not, I presume, belong to either of these classes. It is more probable that some of them have embraced a kind of SEMI-ATHEISM (I cannot think of a more appropriate term) ; a fine-spun theory, in conformity with which they persuade themselves that the Supreme Being does not govern the universe he created ; but, after having covered it with living, and many of them rational beings, leaves them to console themselves with the cheering reflection that they are inhabitants of a for- saken and fatherless world while HE, according to 4 FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. this comfortable as well as philosophical notion, like a kind of Sardanapalus, sits at ease and surveys the goodly scene. If men who endeavour to disseminate such opinions ever cease to ridicule the maintainers of opposite sentiments, and condescend to argumentation, you might ask them to explain how it is possible that a derived being can be independent? You might inquire of them, whether that which is derived from another can exist necessarily in the first moment of its being? Whether that which does not exist neces- sarily in the first moment of its existence, can exist necessarily in the second, or in any succeeding instant? or, whether it must not owe its continued existence to the being by whom it was at first produced? If they be men of any acumen, they will at once perceive that, by supposing the existence of the being to continue when that on which it depended ceases, they would suppose it to be without the cause of its existence ; and thus they would, by a kind of mental felo-de-se, support their hypothesis by destroying the superstruc- ture on which it rests : so that, if they, to this acute- ness which I have supposed them to possess, unite only common candour and openness to conviction, you would, by a very short process, make them ashamed of their fashionable Semi-atheism, and compel them to acknowledge that all the creatures of God do inces- santly depend upon Him for the continuance of their existence. Thus will your opponents be forced to take the ground of pure Deism ; and on that ground it is that you must meet them, if you have any wish to enter upon this momentous contest. The opinions of Deists, from the time of Lord Herbert (the first and purest of the British free- thinkers) to the present period, have assumed such multifarious shapes, that it is difficult to state them in such a way as to be free from objection 2 . Nominal 2 This extreme diversity of sentiments among the pretended phi- losophers who reject Christianity has not escaped the pointed notice of some of their own class. The following language of Rousseau, FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. 5 Deism is separated into nearly as many climates and districts as nominal Christianity ; so that, if Calvinism be placed in the torrid zone, and Socinianism in the polar regions of Christianity ; you may with equal descriptive of their conduct and contradictions, is highly worthy of attention : " I have consulted our philosophers, I have perused their books, I have examined their several opinions, I have found them all proud, positive, and dogmatizing, even in their pretended scepti- cism, knowing every thing, proving nothing, and ridiculing one ano- ther ; and this is the only point in which they concur, and in which they are right. Daring when they attack, they defend themselves without vigour. If you consider their arguments, they have none but for destruction ; if you count their number, each one is reduced to himself; they never unite but to dispute ; to listen to them was not the way to relieve myself from my doubts. I conceived that the insufliciency of the human understanding was the first cause of this prodigious diversity of sentiment, and that pride was the second. If our philosophers were able to discover truth, which of them wonld interest himself about it? Each of them knows that his system is not better established than the others ; but he supports it, because it is his own : there is not one amongst them who, coming to distin- guish truth from falsehood, would not prefer his own error to the truth that is discovered by another. Where is the philosopher, who, for his own glory, would not willingly deceive the^vbole human race ? Where is he, who, in the secret of his heart, proposes any other object than his own distinction? Provided he can but raise himself above the commonalty, provided he can eclipse his competi- tors, he has reached the summit of his ambition. The great thing for him is to think differently from other people. Among believers, he is an Atheist, among Atheists, a believer. Shun, shun then, those who, under pretence of explaining nature, sow in the hearts of men the most dispiriting doctrines, whose scepticism is far more affirma- tive and dogmatical than the decided tone of their adversaries. Under pretence of being themselves the only people enlightened, they im- periously subject us to their magisterial decisions, and would fain palm upon us, for the true causes of things, the unintelligible systems they have erected in their own heads. Whilst they overturn, destroy, and trample under foot, all that mankind reveres, snatch from the afflicted the only comfort left them in their misery, from the rich and great the only curb that can restrain their passions ; tear from the heart all remorse of vice, all hopes of virtue, and still boast themselves the benefactors of mankind. ' Truth,' they say, ' is never hurtful to man.' I believe that as well as they ; and the same, in my opinion, is a proof that what they teach is not the truth." Rousseau, as quoted by M. Gandolphy, in bis Defence of the Ancient Faitb. 6 FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. propriety imagine the sentiments of Herbert to occupy the equatorial regions, and those of Hume, Holcroft, and Godwin, the frigid zone of infidelity. Moderate Deists, however, and to such a candid reasoner would direct his arguments, profess to believe in one God, possessing natural and moral attributes, the former of which may be comprehended under power and know- ledge, the latter under justice and benevolence; they believe, I presume, that virtue is that which is consistent with the will of God in act and motive ; and yet that God has never made any revelation of his will to men ; but that the collection of books which we receive as such, and consequently by way of distinction denomi- nate THE SCRIPTURES, are in fact no such thing, but are the oldest, the most artful, and most successful collection of forgeries that ever was palmed upon the world. And are they the apostles and disseminators of this heart-chilling system who wish to laugh you out of your religion ? or rather, who are ridiculing you for the scrupulous attention with which you are investigating the evidences of Christianity, and for the solicitude you express that you may " be established in Faith and Holiness?" Let them enjoy the comforts of their supposed intellectual superiority, while you pursue your inquiry ; and then you will in due time " enjoy the fruits of the spirit," while they may haply retain all that fine flow of soul which so naturally results from the consciousness of being lost in a labyrinth of uncer- tainty. Do not suppose that the exultation so com- monly manifested by these men, and which seems so much to have impressed your mind, is always natural. Confident as they often profess themselves to be, that unless you are a mere child in intellect you will soon think as they do; be assured, that in general their sarcasms and affected contempt originate in the appre hension that your sentiments will soon be diametrically opposite to theirs, and in their consequent eagerness to deter you from inquiry. Do not imagine that when FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. 7 these your lively, and laughing, and witty companions leave you, their mirth and hilarity support them equally in solitude. Could you follow them into their retire- ments without being tvitnessed, or could you conceive the language of their souls to be formed into audible words, you might, without any breach of candour, fancy them soliloquizing in the following language of Pascal. " I hardly know who has sent me into the world. Nor know I what the world is, or what I am myself. I am shockingly ignorant of all things. I know not what my body is, what my senses are, or what my soul is. This very part of me, which thinks what I speak, which reflects upon itself and upon every thing round me, is yet as ignorant of itself, as it is of every thing else. I behold these frightful spaces of the universe with which I am encompassed, and feel myself confined to one little portion of the vast extent, without understanding why I am placed in this part of it rather than in any other; or why the short period of time that was allotted me to live was assigned to me at this particular point, rather than at any other, of the whole eternity which was before me, or of that which is to come after me. I see nothing but infinities on all sides, which swallow me up like an atom, or transform me to a shadow which endures but a single instant, and is never to return. All that I know is, that I must shortly die; but this very death, from which I cannot escape, is the thing of which I am the most ignorant. " As I know not whence I came, so I know not whither I am going ; only this I know, that, at my departure out of the world, I must either be for ever annihilated, or fall into the hands of an incensed GOD, without being able to decide which of these two conditions will be my everlasting portion. " Such is my state, so full of weakness, darkness, and wretchedness. And from all this I conclude, that I ought to pass all the days of my life without ever considering what is hereafter to befall me : and that I FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. have nothing to do but to follow my inclinations with- out reflection or disquiet, doing- all that which, if what is said of a miserable eternity, be true, will infallibly plunge me into it. It is possible I might find some light to dispel my doubts; but I will not take the trouble to stir one foot in search of it ; rather, despising all those who do take pains in this inquiry, I am re- solved to go on, without fear or foresight, and brave the grand event ; I will pass as easily as I can out of life, and die utterly uncertain about the eternal state of my future existence." If this be a fair representation of the strange process of thought often pursued by the generality of modern Deists, as I apprehend it is, you will agree with me, that it is an honour to religion to have such unreason- able men for its professed enemies, and to Christians, that such, or such principally, are their revilers. Yet, as idolizers of reason, we cannot suppose that these gentlemen reject the Christian religion, and adopt the notions of Deism, without thinking they have found sufficient reasons for the preference. Let us, my friend, by instituting a short comparison, see if we can discover them. Can a Deist arrive at his convictions by any thing like the following gradation ? Christianity reveals a God, glorious in holiness ; Deism, though it acknowledges a God, yet in great measure overlooks his moral character : therefore I prefer Deism. Christianity contains a professed reve- lation of the will of God ; Deism leaves me in perfect darkness as to his will : therefore I prefer Deism. Christianity exhibits palpable, obvious, and simple criteria of the nature of virtue and vice; Deism enve- lopes the nature of virtue and vice in the greatest doubt and perplexity : therefore I prefer Deism. Christianity furnishes the strongest possible motives for virtuous conduct, and the most cogent reasons for abstaining from vicious conduct ; Deism appeals only to some vague notions relative to the fitness of things, or to moral beauty, or to expediency, which makes a FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. 9 man's own sentiments and feelings, however fluctuating-, his ultimate guide: therefore I prefer Deism. Chris, tianity often reforms profligate and vicious men ; Deism never: therefore I prefer Deism. Christianity fre- quently prompts men to schemes of the most extensive philanthropy, and compels them to execute those schemes ; Deism scarcely ever devises any such schemes : therefore I prefer Deism. Christianity imparts princi- ples that support men under all the trials and vicis- situdes of life ; Deism can have recourse to no such principles: therefore I prefer Deism. Christianity assures me of eternal existence beyond the grave ; and that, if it is not to me an eternal portion of felicity, it will be my own fault : Deism leaves me perfectly ignorant, let my conduct here be what it may, whether I shall live beyond the grave or not; whether such existence, if there be any, will be limited or infinite, happy or miserable : therefore I prefer Deism. Christianity will support me under the languishments of a sick bed, and in the prospect of death, with the " sure and certain hope," that death is only a short though sometimes dark passage into " an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for God's people :" Deism will then leave me, sinking in an ocean of gloomy appre- hension, without one support in trembling expecta- tion, that the icy hand of the king of terrors is about to seize me ; but whether to convey me to Heaven, to Hell, or to a state of annihilation, I know not ; there- fore I prefer : no, my friend, it is impossible that any man capable of correct reflection can, after tracing this contrast, say, deliberately and sincerely, therefore I prefer Deism. The reasons, then, which weigh with a Deist must be different from the above. Perhaps you may be told, that the difficulties attending the belief of Christianity are very numerous and great, while the mere reception of the principles of Deism is in a considerable degree free from difficulty, or at least presents no difficulties 10 FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. against which one's mind can strenuously revolt. To ascertain the force of this assertion, let us endeavour to collect into one point of view the chief propositions which must necessarily be included in the creed of a Deist : and I am much mistaken if they will not furnish us with some cogent motives for wishing 1 Christianity may be true, independent of all those that result from its own intrinsic beauty, value, and excellency. Here, again, we will suppose a Deist speaking; delivering, if I may so call it, in his own person, " A confession of his Faith." And after you have at- tended to this declaration, I think you will coincide with me in opinion, that the credulity of unbelievers is the most marvellous thing imaginable the rejectors of the Gospel, the most resolute believers in the world ; or with Soame Jenyns, that they " must be possessed of much more faith than is necessary to make them declared Christians, and remain unbelievers from mere credulity." The creed of a Deist so far as I am able to comprehend his principles, would run thus: 1. I believe that God is a being of matchless holi- ness, wisdom, power, and benevolence ; that in conse- quence of his holiness, He " cannot look upon iniquity with satisfaction ;" that His wisdom would enable him to contrive, His power to execute, and His bene- volence stimulate him to accomplish, the most effectual plans for the establishment of virtueand the suppression of vice ; for the extinction of mental and moral dark- ness, and the diffusion of mental and moral light: and yet, that God has suffered mankind in every age, and in almost every country, to remain in the grossest ig- norance and darkness, for nearly 6000 years ; to struggle with prejudices, to immerse themselves in the blackest and most dismal crimes, to perform the most horrid and murderous rites, and fancy them religious services ; that He makes the being who possesses the finest faculties to be the greatest enemy to his species, and thus to plunge himself and others into the deepest miseries : and all this in consequence of His never FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. 1 1 affording them the remotest aid, never supplying them with any invariable principles as preservatives against error, or any specific rules by which they should shape their conduct. That is, I believe this palpable contradiction, that the goodness of God has allowed this horridly miserable state of mankind to continue for so many centuries, and has all along prompted him to refuse them any effectual aid or direction. 2. I believe that what is called the Mosaic account of the Creation of the World, and the Fall of Man, is a mere fable ; and therefore I believe that God, the wisest and the best of beings, created man with the most noble, refined, and extraordinary faculties of body and mind, faculties infinitely superior to what are possessed by other living creatures ; that while they eat, and drink, and sleep, unconscious of what shall befall them, he may indulge the doubtful anticipation intermingled with frequent dread of future occur- rences ; and that while they are supplied with all that is necessary for their subsistence without either " toiling or spinning," man, the Lord of the creation, is so circumstanced, that, " by the sweat of his brow," the labour of his hands, and the anxiety of his mind, he shall earn and " eat bread :" I also believe that the same infinitely wise and benevolent Being formed women with delicacy of perception, sweetness of dis- position, tenderness of heart, and beauty of frame, far above all we could conceive, did we not witness, them, in order that " her sorrow and her conception shall be greatly multiplied," that she " shall bring forth chil- dren in sorrow," (while other animals suffer but little comparatively in bearing and bringing forth their young) : and that she shall be formed exquisitely susceptible of all the emotions of love, in order that " her desire may be to her husband, and that he may RULE over her." That is, I will not believe that these are the effects of just punishment ; but believe that they are marks of hard treatment from the wisest and best of beings towards the most exalted part of his 12 FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. visible creation. I know there is no possible medium between these alternatives ; but I reject the former because it is reasonable, and revealed in the Bible; and adopt the latter, because it is unreasonable, and revealed nowhere. 3. I believe that the book called the Bible was, every word of it, invented and written by men who had no help from God : that what are called Prophecies were not such ; that what are denominated Miracles were either tricks of art, or never occurred ; and that though the precepts are often admirable, and the mo- rality pure, it proceeded from impostors, and not from God. The whole book being a collection of delusions and deceptions; which God nevertheless suffered to be accompanied by such evidence to gain it belief, as is not possessed by any other book. 4. I believe that bad men are often made better through the influence of this strange system of lie's, delusions, and impostures ; and that those who were good men often become bad, as soon as they are wise enough to free themselves from such influence, and to cast off the shackles with which this system encumbered them. 5. I believe that several of the best scholars, the ablest disputants, the most acute lawyers, the subtlest metaphysicians, the most cautious investigators, and the most profound philosophers, that ever lived, such as Sir Thomas More, Grotius, Hale, Bacon, Barrow, Locke, Hartley, Boyle, Pascal, Euler, Newton, and many others, were never able to detect the cheat, but lived as much under the influence of this system of bold and blasphemous deception, as the most vulgar and illiterate peasant could do ; and were, the majority of them, very excellent men notwithstanding. 6. I believe that the different persons who employed themselves at various times, and in different places, to compose the Bible, which avows itself, by a thousand most solemn and explicit declarations, to be a collec- tion of communications from heaven, were not madmen FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. 13 (for that supposition is untenable), but all shocking liars, and deceivers ; that these wicked men, who thus impiously pretended to be employed by God, when they were not so employed, did, notwithstanding, with an amazing energy, resolution, and perseverance, go about doing good, and delivering the most important moral precepts ; braving, and often sustaining, the greatest present evils ; not one of them ever recanting or discovering the fraud ; but supporting themselves in the daily diffusion of their noble precepts and de- testable impostures, and the terrible sufferings which they thereby had to sustain, by the conviction that they had no hope but of experiencing further hardships here, and the vengeance of the God whom they had insulted hereafter. Lastly; I believe that the Great Being of infinite perfections, who sits enthroned at the head of the uni- verse, has seen this horrid delusion prevail more and more for nearly two thousand years; yet, instead of interposing to stay its progress, has suffered it to be accompanied with the most remarkable apparent sanc- tions, and has often accelerated its promulgation by surprising operations and occurrences. That is, I believe that the God of truth has, with regard to what is called the Christian Religion, most astonishingly aided imposture. All this, I acknowledge, is perfectly incomprehensible, and totally irreconcilable with the obvious attributes of Deity ; but it is consistent with the principles of Deism, however repugnant it may be to common sense, and therefore I believe it. If these and similar absurdities, my friend, result from the rejection of Revelation (and, as far as I am able to judge, they are not merely fair, but necessary consequences of such rejection), your deistical ac- quaintances cannot have so much reason as they sup- pose, to pride themselves on that noble exercise of their understanding which has freed them from vulgar prejudices and sordid restraints. Is there not, hence, too much reason to fear, that in nineteen instances out 14 FOLLY AND ABSURDITY OF DEISM. of twenty, Deism springs more from the state of the heart than from the operations of intellect? and that it is not so much because Christianity offends the reason, as because it condemns the conduct, of men, that they affect to despise it? They commence their progress with a carelessness respecting- their future interests ; in the language of Young, they " Give to time eternity's regard, And, dreaming, take their passage for their port." Gliding along thus carelessly, it is natural enough that they should sink, first into error, next into vice. In such a situation, an inquiry into the evidences of Revealed Religion is not instituted under very favour- able auspices; for the inquirer has his mind overgrown with the worst of all prejudices, those that are rooted in interest. How should a man be indifferent as to the truth of a system, which, if true, must condemn him ? Though his life may not be grossly immoral, he knows that the tenor of his conduct is incompatible with the renunciations and requirements of real reli- gion. He comes, therefore, to the trial, not as an impartial judge, but as a party deeply interested in the issue. He in consequence ivishes that Christianity may not be true; and what a man fervently wishes, he can easily persuade himself to believe, though he should involve himself in a thousand absurdities in consequence of that persuasion. You, my friend, have happily entered upon this important inquiry, free from the lamentable incum- brances of vice : that it may be so pursued, as to be the mean of preserving you from the deistical delusions to which I have adverted in this letter, delusions, as derogatory to the intellectual, as they are dangerous to the moral, character of man ; is the most earnest wish of Your sincere Friend. Royal Military Academy, May, 1809. 15 LETTER II. On the Necessity of a Revelation of the Will of God. WHEN you request, my dear Friend, that I will not let the letter I recently sent you, terminate the remarks I mean to transmit on the subject of Religion, but that I will allow you to consider it as the first of a series which I shall devote to the discussion of the Evidences, Doctrines, and Duties of Christianity, you propose to me a task, which, however willing I may be to under- take it on your account, will, I am aware, be attended with some difficulty, and require much time and me- ditation. The difficulty does not arise from the paucity and scantiness of the materials that lie before me, and the consequent necessity of exercising original or in- ventive powers to produce such argumentative matter as may convince a candid inquirer; but from the ex- treme copiousness of the subject, the abundance and variety of the means by which it has been established, confirmed, and illustrated, and the judgment requisite to draw out of an immense mass, to which men of learning and piety in all ages of the Church have con- tributed, those particulars which may be best calculated to impress the mind, and to call forth both a rational and practical conviction. The lively interest, however, which I feel in all that concerns you, and my extreme solicitude that you should think correctly and act wisely in relation to this most momentous of all topics, induce me to comply with your wishes, notwithstand- ing the embarrassment in which such compliance may sometimes involve me. I have only to premise, before I pursue the inquiry you have suggested, that as, on the one hand, I do not expect you will assent to every proposition I shall advance, but will be determined by the aggregate impression resulting from the whole ; so, on the other, you must not expect to be entertained with novelties, or fascinated with beauties. " Nullum est jam dictum, quod non dictum prius." TEE. 16 NECESSITY OF REVELATION. My objects will be to select not to invent; to con- vince not to compel ; to instruct not to delight ; to persuade not to enchant : and if I shall be so fortu- nate as to effect these without occupying- very much of your time; if I shall save you the fatigue of turning over many a ponderous volume, and the vexation of reading many in vain (through the want of a judicious friend at your elbow to direct your choice) ; if I can compress into small compass the most essential argu- ments that are diffused through numerous works of various authors in different ages, and the result of my labour be beneficial to you; I shall have the satis- faction, the purest allotted to man, of having exerted myself successfully in a good cause. Having premised this, I may venture to remark, that if the train of argumentation in my former letter be calculated to make any impression, it is, that the absurdities of Deism render a Revelation of the will of God probable. It may also be inferred further, that what we may naturally expect from the character of God renders such a revelation more probable ; and we may now observe, that the state of men renders it necessary. It indeed seems extremely unlikely, that the Divine Being would suffer mankind to have fallen into such great apostasy from him as is every where manifest, without intending to render them assistance through which they may be recovered. He has made provision in the natural world for the removal of bodily disorders ; can we then imagine that he will be alto- gether regardless of the much more dangerous diseases of the mind? It is, for example, a most deplorable degree of blindness to live utterly unconcerned about what we are ; and it is a far more tremendous thing to live wickedly, to live as " without God in the world," when we are surrounded with his essence, and believt: in his existence : yet the greater part of mankind are under one or other of these dismal infatuations ; and there can be no reason assigned why they should ever be otherwise, unless they are roused from their slum- NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 17 ber, or checked in their irreligious courses, by the voice of the Deity. Leave man to himself, and to his own efforts, even when most actively inclined, and what can he accom- plish? He is evidently formed for thinking; his intel- lectual part gives dignity to his character : to think correctly constitutes a prime duty ; correct thinking is manifested in his contemplating himself, his author, and his end ; and yet, how commonly does he neglect these inquiries to pursue trifling vanities, and " waste his strength in that which profiteth not?" Or suppose he directs his unassisted intellectual energies into a more suitable channel, what does he effect ? He has an idea, an inward perception of truth, not to be effaced by the sophistry of the sceptic; yet, on the most important topics, he has an incapacity of argu- ment scarcely to be rectified but by supernatural aid. He seeks virtue, and at the close of life may exclaim with Brutus that the virtue he pursued was but a shadow. He wishes for truth, and obtains nothing but uncer- tainty. He pants after happiness, and finds only misery in substance, or the vacuity of disappointment. He is incapable of ceasing to wish both for truth and happiness ; and yet perceives that he is equally in- capable of attaining either certainty or felicity. He is also subject to a perpetual war between his reason and his passions. Had he reason without passions, or passions without reason, he might enjoy something like repose; but, actuated as he is by both, he-lives in perpetual disquiet; finding it impossible to yield him- self to the guidance of the one, without experiencing the consequences of rebellion to the other. Hence he is always at variance with himself, always under the influence of contending principles; and how is he to ( mancipate himself from this thraldom? Suppose he seeks for freedom and repose, by pursuing the specu- \ itions of Natural Religion. He endeavours to lay le foundations of duty, to establish rules of conduct; 1 e attempts to put them in practice, and/i7*. He is c 18 NECESSITY OF REVELATION. compelled to acknowledge himself a wanderer, and often doubtless a wilful wanderer from the path of rectitude. He reasons, without knowing it, upon the principles of an Apostle, who said, " if our hearts con- demn us, God is greater than our hearts, and ivill condemn us also;" and is thus led to institute inquiries relative to the pardon of sin, the nature, duration, misery, or happiness of a future state ; respecting all which he finds it impossible to remove difficulties, or to be freed from the most trembling anxiety : " The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before him ; But shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it." Even of those things which such an inquirer may be able to unravel to his own satisfaction, there will be many in which it will be extremely difficult to convey a satisfactory impression to others; considering, on the one hand, how abstruse many of his arguments will be ; and, on the other, that ignorance, indolence, pre- judice, and secular cares, will, according to their indi- vidual or combined existence and influence, prevent the generality of persons from inquiring into the truth of what he proposes, as well as from investigating these matters for themselves. Could the doubts which envelope the subject of Natural Religion be dispelled by any one philosopher, to his own satisfaction, yet he might want the inclina- tion, or, if he possessed that, he must want the power, to make others adopt his views, and thus taste his en- joyments. Or, could the great doctrines of religion and the rules of morality be settled, and proposed and taught, ever so plainly or frequently, yet it would be difficult, or indeed impossible, to enforce the practice of them. A system of ethics may be considered, by those who acquaint themselves with it, as extremely ingenious; but it is entirely optional whether they will or will not adopt it as a rule of conduct; and the expe- rience of all ages shows that it is perfectly ridiculous to expect that any such system should ever be consi- NECESSITY OF REVELATION. 19 dered as binding. Even were human laws established in aid of it, it would still be inefficacious ; for no secular power, however it might restrain from crimes, can produce a single action that shall be truly and essentially virtuous 1 . Either, then, God himself must interpose and favour us with rules of virtue, and mo- tives to the practice of it, such as it is difficult to with- stand, or the world must necessarily sink deeper and deeper into vice and misery. To admit the latter is to deny that the Supreme Being interests himself about the welfare of those whom he created and governs. Since, therefore, God is a Being of matchless justice, mercy, and bounty, it follows, irrefragably, that if the deficiencies of natural reason, or the inattention of mankind to the footsteps of his providence, were such at any time (and such they have been) that all the inhabitants of the world were in danger of being lost in ignorance, irreligion, and idolatry, then would God interpose by extraordinary instruction, by alarming instances of judgment or of mercy, by events beyond human anticipation or control, by prophetical decla- rations of things to come, that is, by a supernatural revelation of his will, to make us better acquainted with his attributes and our own character, to point out to us the path of duty, to draw us from the vani- ties of the world, and to lead us to himself. June, 1809. l am > &c " 1 Similar to this was the reasoning of Tertallian, in his admirable Apologetic (cap. 45). " Yonr systems of virtue (says he) are but the conjectures of human philosophy, and the power which commands obedience, merely human : so that neither the rule nor the power is indisputable; and hence the one is too imperfect to instruct us fully, the other too weak to command us effectually : but both these are abundantly provided for by a revelation from God. Where is the philosopher who can so clearly demonstrate the true good, as to fix the notion beyond dispute ? And what human power is able to reach the conscience, and bring down that notion into practice? Human wisdom is as liable to error, as human power is to contempt." See also cap. 18, of the same piece. 20 LETTER III. On the Opinions of the Heathens, their Legislators, Poets, and Philosophers, relative to God, to Moral Duty, and a Future Stale. IT is not surprising, my clear Friend, that your philo- sophical companions should endeavour to persuade you, in opposition to the train of argument in my last letter, that unassisted reason not only can discover, but has discovered, all that is necessary to be known, as it regards our duty or our expectations. The powers of the intellect, notwithstanding their defects and their limitations, have doubtless done much in every depart- ment of art, of literature, and of science : and those who are best able to estimate the value of intellectual productions, ape probably, for that very reason, apt to ascribe to the mind much more than it can really ac- complish. Besides this, several of the philosophers who have indulged in moral speculations since the aera of the Christian revelation, and even those who have been the warmest opposers of that revelation, have de- rived, indirectly, from the source to which they would disdain to apply directly, many highly important truths, many valuable rules of conduct, many powerful incen- tives to virtue : they have thus travelled by a torch snatched from the temple of God, while both them- selves and their followers idly imagine their path is illuminated by light of their own creating. Thus, the later Platonists, Plotinus* Porphyry, Jumblicus, and Hierocles, are well known to have been pupils of Am- monius of Alexandria, a Christian, and the tutor of Origen : whence it happens that the Christian Fathers were accused of Platonizing; instead of which the truth is, that the philosophers just mentioned filched from the Christian repository. But, to judge correctly in this respect, let us inquire what was effected in OPINIONS OF THE HEATHENS. 21 morals and religion by the intellectual energies of the great and learned men and philosophers who existed previously io the dawn of " the Sun of righteousness 1 ." Such an inquiry will place the subject in a proper point of view ; nor can it be thought uncandid towards the advocates of unassisted reason, when it is recol- lected that, whatever may have been the mental stature of Bolingbroke, and Gibbon, and Hume, and Voltaire, they would appear diminutive enough when placed by the side of Aristotle, and Socrates, and Plato, and Seneca. If, then, this research, conducted with as much regard to brevity as its nature will admit, shall evince the inferiority of the principal ethical and reli- gious systems of the ancients to the Christian scheme, or shall show their inefficacy to restrain from vice, or to incite to virtue, we shall possess an additional argu- ment for the necessity of Revelation, as well as a cogent proof that the system which is so infinitely superior to all that has been produced by the greatest of unin- spired men, must have emanated from Him who is " the Father of lights," physical and mental. 1 Indeed there is great reason to believe, that nothing strictly speaking, in morals or theology, was the genuine result of the mental efforts of the wisest ancient heathens. Many of them were candid enough to profess to have derived what knowledge they had, not merely from the exertions of their reason, but from a higher source, even from very ancient traditions, to which they usually assigned a divine original. " What Socrates said of the Deity (observes Dryden in the Preface to Iteliyio Laid), what Plato writ, and the rest of the heathen philosophers of several nations, is all no more than the twi- light of revelation, after the sun of it was set in the race of Noah." Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and Euse- bius, all prove that Plato especially learned much from the Hebrews while he was in Egypt. Hence flows an observation which operates two ways in favour of religion, and doubly evinces the goodness of God in his dispensations towards mankind ; for we may learn that He prepared a way in his providence for the traditionary dissemi- nation of the principal moral truths he revealed to our first parents ; and it will appear farther, I trust, in the course of this work, that at the very period when the light originally communicated had well nigh become extinct, He introduced the full blaze of the gospel dispensation. 22 OPINIONS OF HEATHENS Now, as to the heathens generally, though it was commonly admitted among them that the formation of the world was owing to chance, yet many of them ascribed it to a plurality of causes or authors : and even those who acknowledged one Supreme Being cor- rupted the doctrine of the unity, by making him to be of the same nature as the other gods, though of a higher order. And thus originated the custom of the priests, who, in all their sacred ceremonies and devo- tions, after addressing themselves to the especial deities to whom it was necessary at each particular time to offer up prayers or sacrifices, were wont to invoke all the gods in general. It was, besides, a universal notion among them, that the Supreme God did not concern himself with the affairs of this world, but committed them wholly to inferior deities; whence sprang their idolatry, and the habit of neglecting the worship of the Supreme God, or of confounding it with that of the multitude of idol-deities. They first deviated from the worship of one Gocl, to the worshiping heaven and the heavenly bodies ; then to the worship of heroes and deified men ; then they turned the names and attributes of God into distinct divinities, and wor- shiped them as such ; then they paid divine honours to the images and symbols of the gods; and then they deified whatever was useful in human life, however mean, and the qualities, affections, and dispositions of the human mind, however grovelling and despicable. It did not suffice with them to worship oxen, and burn incense to crocodiles and serpents. It did not satisfy them merely to metamorphose beasts into gods, but they conversely transformed their gods into beasts, ascribing to them drunkenness, sodomy, and the most loathsome vices. Drunkenness they worshiped under the name of Bacchus; lasciviousness under that of Venus. Momus was with them the god of calumny, and Mercury the god of thieves. How little scrupulous would they be respecting adultery and rebellion, when they considered Jupiter, the greatest of their gods, to AND ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. 23 be an adulterer and a rebellious son. The consequence of all this was that, at length, the worship of avowedly evil beings became very prevalent. Hence many of their rites were cruel and contrary to humanity ; and hence the licentiousness and impurity of tbeir religion and worship became notorious. Thus, to select only one or two instances out of many, the rites of the goddess Cybele were no less infamous for lewdness than for cruelty ; and these impure customs spread far and wide. Strabo relates that there was a temple of Venus at Corinth so rich that it maintained above a thousand harlots sacred to her service, /C^OO^H'XBC iratpas, which were consecrated both by men and women to that goddess. And Eusebius 2 is compelled to use language, when describing the height of wickedness and impurity the worship of the heathens attained, which no virtuous man can read without shuddering. Well might it be said of the heathens by an Apostle, " God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts." The vices and enormities in which the heathens indulged were not checked by any suitable restraining motive : for whatever might be the speculative opinions of one or two philosophers, who were influenced to believe the immortality of the soul by very fanciful reasonings 3 , the belief of a future state was totally set at nought by the majority of both Greeks and Romans. Thus, according to Plato, the doctrine taught by Socrates, concerning the immor- 2 Praepar. Evangel, lib. ii. cap. 6, p. 74. The reader may bow- ever find, in the Octavias of Mioutius Felix, an account of the hea- then gods and worship, delivered in a fine strain of irony, with the suppression of the grosser circumstances. 3 As Pythagoras, who we are informed by Diogenes Laertius (in Pythag.) held that the human soul is a portion of the ether (airoairaana dtQipof), and therefore immortal, because the ether is so. And Pliny the naturalist, speaking thus of Hipparchus, gives at the same time his own opinion : " The never enough commended Hipparchus, being one than whom no one more fully approved the relation of the stars to man, and the opinion of our souls being a part of the heaven, Auimasque nostras partem esse coeli." Nat. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 20. 24 OPINIONS OF HEATHENS tality of the soul and a future state, " met with little credit among men ; and indeed Socrates himself re- marked that the opinion of the soul's being blown away, and perishing with the body, prevailed generally. Po- lybius also complains that in his time the belief of a future state was rejected both by the great men and the bulk of the people, and he ascribes to this disbelief the great corruption of manners : though even Poly- bius, while he blames the great men among the Greeks for encouraging the people to disbelieve and despise future punishments, represents them as only useful fictions. How much the disbelief of future retribu- tions prevailed at Rome is evident from one of Caesar's orations on the Catiline conspiracy ; and Cato's reply, in which he said, "Caesar looked upon those things to be fables which are related concerning the Inferi, where bad men, far from the mansions of the virtuous, are confined to abodes, dreary, abominable, and full of horrors." Long after the time of Caesar the like con- tempt of an awful futurity was entertained : for Pliny the naturalist labours hard to expose the absurdity of ascribing accountable immortality to the soul, and says " that these are childless and senseless fictions of mortals, who are ambitious of a never-ending exist- ence." " Puerilium ista deliramentorum, avidaeque nunquam desinere mortalitatis comment a sunt 4 ." That a contempt and disbelief of future punish- ments weakened the fear of God, is obvious : and as to the love of God, that noble principle which is evi- dently fitted to produce the most elevated degrees of moral uprightness, and a happiness corresponding to our sublimest desires, the heathens were utter strangers to it. And with regard to their conduct towards one another, it must not be forgotten that none of them recognised the exalted principle of loving enemies. I am aware that some have affirmed that this principle was taught in the Grecian schools, and have referred totheGorgias of Plato in proof of their assertion, But, 4 Hist. Nat. lib. vii. cap. 55. AND ANCIEJs'T PHILOSOPHERS. 25 if we attend duly to the whole conversation of Socrates, there related, we shall find that, instead of teaching the forgiveness of injuries, the love of enemies, and the duty of " doing good to them that hate us," he inculcates the indulgence of the most refined, and, according to his own statement, the most baleful malice towards those who have injured us. The substance of his reasoning is this : " You allow that moral excel- lence is the greatest good. You allow also that the punishment of offences is one mean of reforming the authors of them. If then our enemy has injured us, the greatest good we can bestow upon him is to bring him to a court of justice, and inflict the vengeance of the law. Then by no means punish your enemy for having injured you, for so you defeat your own purpose of revenge. Leave him to the whole, uncontrolled, un- counteracted influence of his moral depravity, because that is the greatest evil which can be endured." It appears then, that the heathen world, and espe- cially the Greeks and Romans, of whom we know most because they were most refined, were in a state of gross darkness and ignorance with respect to the knowledge of "God, of themselves, and of those moral relations and obligations in which they stood to the Supreme Being, and to one another. Their incentives to virtue were few and weak ; their motives to avoid vice inefficacious and founded on a wrong basis. Nor was this the case with regard to the populace merely : their Legislators, Poets, and Philosophers, held the most erroneous opi- nions; or promulgated right sentiments, when they had discovered them, upon wrong principles. Thus, with regard to LEGISLATORS, it is well known that from political views they established and encouraged the worship of those who had once been men, and took them into the number of their gods. Consistently with this, Cotta observes, that in most cities it was usual, in order to encourage men to hazard their lives for the commonwealth, to take those who had been eminent for their fortitude into the number of their 26 OPINIONS OF HEATHENS gods. This indeed is expressly prescribed by Cicero, in his second book of laws (cap. viii.) where he requires that those should be worshiped whom their merits had called into heaven. It is also a general observation, which applies to the whole civil theology of the pagans, that of the Romans as well as of the other heathen nations, that the public worship which was instituted by their more celebrated legislators, and prescribed and established by the laws of their several cities and countries, was paid to a multiplicity of deities. They were therefore encouraged, or rather compelled, to be polytheists, by law. It has, I am aware, been urged by some, that the legislators who established the pagan mysteries de- signed thereby to overthrow the vulgar polytheism. But, in opposition to this, it has been shown by Bishop Warburton that " the legislators and magistrates who first instituted the mysteries, and continued to have the chief direction of them, had the principal hand in the rise of that polytheism, and contrived it for the sake of the state, to keep the people in awe, and under a greater veneration for their laws." So far, indeed, was it from being the fact that hea- then legislators discountenanced polytheism, that the whole tenour of ancient records goes to establish the contrary. Thus, Stobaeus informs us, it was one of the laws of Charondas, " Let the contempt of the gods be reckoned among the greatest crimes." And at Athens every citizen was bound by oath to defend and con- form to the religion of his country. This oath was in the name of the gods, and concluded thus: " I swear by these following deities, the Agrauli, Enyalius, Mars, Jupiter, the Earth, and Diana 5 ." Nor did the legislators inculcate erroneous notions with regard to the gods alone. Their laws, established for the express purpose of furthering the public virtue and happiness, had often a highly unfavourable effect upon both. I shall here only specify a few of those of 5 Potter's Greek Antiquities, vol. i. AND ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. 27 Lycurgus, because the united voice of antiquity speaks of him as rather a god than a man; and Plutarch pro- duces him as " an undeniable proof that a perfectly wise man is not a mere notion and chimera. 5 ' I am not inclined to deny that many of the laws of Lycurgus are very excellent; yet I must be permitted to think that some things, enacted by this " perfectly wise man," counteracted the practice of virtue. Plato, though a great admirer of Lycurgus, acknowledges that his laws were rather fitted to make men valiant than just. Aristotle makes the same observation. And even Plutarch confesses that some persons censured the laws of Lycurgus as well contrived to make men good soldiers, but very defective in civil justice and honesty. Many of his laws were contrary to humanity : and hence it happened that the conduct of the Lace- daemonians to their slaves, the helotes, was proverbially cruel. They had, besides, a custom, encouraged by their laws, of whipping boys to death at the altar of Diana Orthia. Lycurgus also enacted that deformed infants should not be suffered to live, but be cast into a cavern to perish gradually ! Healthy boys, on the contrary, were to be treated charitably, and trained up to dexterous thieving, being whipped unmercifully if they were taken in the fact, not for stealing, but for being such bunglers as to expose themselves to detec- tion. I will only add farther, under this head, that the Spartans had common baths, in which both men and women were compelled to bathe together; and that it was ordered by Lycurgus that the young maidens should appear naked in the public exercises, as well as the young men; and that they should dance naked with them at the solemn festivals and sacrifices. These, you will remember, are among the legislative enact- ments of one whom we are to respect as a " perfectly wise man ;" are laws which a learned, grave, and phi- losophic heathen, Plutarch, justifies and commends, seeming scarcely conscious, except in one instance, that it would be possible to censure them. 28 OPINIONS OF HEATHENS Allow me next to say a word or two respecting the heathen POETS, whose influence upon the opinions and practices of the people was naturally great. They were, indeed, the prophets and chief instructors of the people, and were looked upon, even by Socrates and Plato, as divinely inspired. Now, how did they main- tain the ancient tradition of one Supreme God? Why, truly, by confounding him with their Jupiter, by bring- ing him to a level with this the chief of their idol-deities, of whom they made the most indelicate representa- tions. Instead of exerting the powers of their imagi- nation to array the Deity in the sublimity of grandeur, or even in pointing to the obscurity which invests the most incomprehensible of all beings, and " With the majesty of darkness round Circles his throne :" they invented ideal gods of all classes, and for all pur- poses, even the most base and ignoble : they deified the inanimate parts of the world ; they ascribed to their deities passions and propensities the most odious and abominable ; and instead of describing the gods as beings worthy of imitation, and giving richness and elevation of character to men by the contemplation of their excellence, they lowered and debased the senti- ments of those who were already " of the earth, earthy," by calling their attention to monstrous and indecent stories of the intrigues of heaven. The poetical theo- logy, it is true, was disapproved by some of the wiser pagans; yet it was carefully wrought into the popular religion, and lay at the foundation of most of their sacred rights. Those poetical fables which Varro and Tully 6 censure as unworthy of the gods, and as im- puting to them actions which none but the vilest of men could be guilty of, were not only permitted to be acted on the public theatres, but were regarded as things pleasing to the gods themselves, and were ac- 6 Fingebat haec Horaerus, et humana ad deos transferebat, divina mallem ad DOS. Tuscul. Disput. lib. i. cap. 26. AND ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. 29 cord ingly incorporated with the public and established religion. The effusions of the heathen poets have also a deplorably mischievous tendency, on account of the manner in which they almost uniformly speak of the state after death. On some few occasions it is true, they introduce the idea of rewards and punishments to make a part of the poetical machinery : yet, fre- quently they express themselves as though they thought death brought an utter extinction of being. Plutarch, in his consolation to Apollonius, quotes this passage of an ancient poet, that no grief or evil touches the dead, "A\yoQ yap OVTWQ tidiv airrfTai vticpa. He there also quotes another passage from a poet, declaring that the dead man is in the same condition that he was before he was born. The first of these passages is ascribed by Stobaeus to JEschylus. So again, Moschus, Idyll, iii. lin. 107, having observed that herbs and plants, after seeming to die, yet revive in the succeeding year, subjoins, KOI KapTtpoi, i\ ffoofltpitiv Qofiipwrarov ce 6 ^avaroq. Ethic, ad Nicomach. lib.jii. cap. 9, and Jib. iv. cap. 11. 38 OPINIONS OF HEATHENS and besides this, he commonly expressed himself after the manner of the polytheists. In arguing for the existence of God, he leads the people to a plurality of deities ; and he asserts expressly that the Dii ma- jorum gentium, those that were accounted gods of the higher order, were taken from among men. Indeed, he very much approves the custom of paying divine honours to famous men, and regarding them as gods 15 . He argues excellently for the immortality of the soul in several parts of his works ; yet sometimes, in his letters to his friends, represents death as putting an end to all sense of good or evil. Thus, in an epistle to L. Mescinius, he says, " Death ought to be despised or even wished for, because it will be void of all sense." " Propterea quod nullum sensum esset habitura." And again, in an epistle to Torquatus, he comforts himself with this thought : " Whilst I shall exist, I shall not be troubled at any thing, since I have no fault with which to charge myself; and if I shall not exist, I shall be deprived of all sense." " Nee enim dura ero, angar ulla re, cum omni caream culpa; etsi non ero, sensu omni carebo." He makes no use, at any time, of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul for moral purposes, either for supporting men under their troubles, or for stimulating them to the practice of virtue; and the notion of future punishments is absolutely rejected and derided by him. In his noto- rious oration for Aulus Cluentius, he speaks of the punishments of the wicked as silly fables, and adds, "if these things are false, as all men understand them to be, what has death taken from him" (that, is from Oppianicus, a man whom Cicero himself represents as a monster of wickedness, guilty of the most atrocious murders, &c.) " but a sense of pain." After perusing this you will not be surprised at being told, that Cicero often commends and justifies suicide ; and warmly pleads for fornication, as having nothing blameable in it, and as a thing universally allowed and practised, 14 De Natura Deorum, lib. ii. cap. 24. AND ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. 39 I might next proceed to speak of PLINY, who openly argues against a future state 16 ; of PLUTARCH, who treats the fear of future punishment as vain and childish, and wrote his book of Isis and Osiris as an apology for the pagan polytheism ; of CATO of Utica, who has been held up " as a perfect model of virtue," but who lent his wife to Hortensius, was an habitual drunkard 17 , and taught and practised self-murder ; and of SENECA, who pleads for suicide, justifies Cato's drunkenness, asserts that no man in his reason fears the gods, and contemns future punishments as vain terrors invented by the poets ; but a detailed account of their sentiments and opinions would, in all the main points, be so strictly similar to what I have related of the other wise men of antiquity, that I omit it rather than render this letter tautologous and tiresome 18 . Before I terminate the present discussion, however, I cannot avoid remarking that several of the heathen philosophers, instead of being puffed up with vain ideas of the powers of their own understanding, when directed to religious and moral inquiries (as most modern Deists are), frequently acknowledged their own impo- tency and blindness. Thus Tully exclaims, " Utinam tarn facile vera invenire possim, quam falsa convin- 16 Hist. Nat. lib. vii. cap. 55. 17 Seneca, De Tranquillitate Animi, cap. ult. 18 For a very masterly view of the opinions of tlie Greek and Ro- man heathens, for the first four centuries after the Christian era; a most able sketch of their mythological and moral notions, their cru- elty and profligacy, as opposed to the everlasting promises of the Gospel, and the meekness and purity of its primitive followers, the reader may consult Dr. Ireland's Lectures, or, " Paganism and Chris- tianity compared." Tertullian, in his Apol. cap. 46, terminates a fine contrast between the sentiments and conduct of the philosophers and of the early Christians by asking " Where now is the similitude between a philosopher and a Christian ? between a disciple of Greece, and of heaven? a trader in fame, and a saver of souls? between a man of words, and a man of deeds ? a builder of virtue, and a destroyer of it ? a dresser up of lies, and a restorer of truth? between a plunderer, and a guardian of this sacred deposit?" See also Lactan- tius, lib. 2, de Oriyiiie Erroris, 3, on the character of Cicero. 40 OPINIONS OF HEATHENS cere !" " O, that I could discover truth with the same ease that I can detect error!" and, in another place, aware of the little that human creatures can do of them- selves, he says expressly, " Nemo vir magnus, sine ali- quo afflatu divino unquam fuit.'' " No man was ever truly great without some divine influence." And Plato, (whether from the recollection of the traditions and truths he gathered from the Jews while he was in Egypt, or whether 'twas " the Divinity that stirr'd within him ;" I pretend not to determine), concludes 19 , that we cannot know of ourselves what petition will be pleasing to God, or what worship to pay him ; but that it is neces- sary a lawgiver should be sent from heaven to instruct us ; and such a one he did expect : and " O," says he, " how greatly do I desire to see that man, and who he is!" Nay, he goes farther, and affirms 20 that this law- giver must be more than man: for, since every nature is governed by another nature that is superior to it, as birds and beasts by man, he infers that this lawgiver, who was to teach man what man could not know by his own nature, must be of a nature superior to man, that is, of a divine nature. But farther still, as Rousseau re- marked, in his celeb rated letter to the archbishop of Paris, " when Plato described his imaginary good man, loaded' with all the shame 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." He gives, indeed, as lively a picture of the person, qualifications, life and death, of this divine man, as if he had been acquainted with the 53d chapter of Isaiah : for he says 21 " that this just person must be poor, and void of all recommendations but that of virtue alone ; that a wicked world would not bear his instructions and reproof; and therefore within three or four years after he began to preach, he 19 Alcibiad. ii. de Precat. M De Legibus, lib. 4. 2' De Republica, i. ii. AND ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. 41 should be persecuted, imprisoned, scourged, and at last put to death." I have now, my dear Friend, presented you with a summary of the most striking opinions of the ancient Legislators, Poets, and Philosophers, with regard to Superior Beings, to human conduct, and a future state; if it be asked what is the tendency of the sentiments of any one philosopher, or of the aggregate of them, to elevate the conceptions in respect of Deity, to purify the affections, to humanize the heart, to amend the conduct; the reply is lamentably obvious nothing. What principle in theology, or what rule in morals, has any one of them, or have all of them, indubitably established? How many of the doctrines of what is now called Natural Religion did any of them hold ? The four great propositions which the moderns almost universally concede to Natural Religion, as integral parts of it, are " 1st. That there is one God. 2dly. That God is nothing of those things which we see. 3dly. That God takes care of all things below, and governs all the world. 4thly. That he alone is the great Creator of all things out of himself." Now they are incontroverti- ble facts, which cannot be too deeply engraven upon the mind, that none of the greatest and wisest men among the Greeks and Romans held all these propo- sitions, and that very few held any of them firmly; that before the Christian era no people in the world believed these propositions but the Jews ; and that they did not discover them, but received them by divine Revelation, in the basis of the first four precepts of the decalogue. Let also theidolizers of the powers of reason in the development of religious truths have it equally impressed upon their minds, that none of the heathen philosophers attempted a solution of the question, " How shall a sinner appear before the God whose laws he has broken?" and that none of them made even a remote approximation to that simple, comprehensive and admirable rule of moral conduct, "Do unto others as you would they should do unto you ;" and then, I 42 OPINIONS OF HEATHENS, ETC. trust, they will be constrained to acknowledge that the Apostle of the Gentiles was not indulging a flight of enthusiasm, but was simply impelled by the force of truth, when he broke out into the triumphant exclama- tion "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world ? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe 22 !" I remain, dear Sir, yours truly. P. S. You will, perhaps, be surprised that I have not in this letter taken any notice of Zoroaster, of whom many Deists have so much to tell. I have omitted all recital of his supposed opinions for two reasons : 1st, Dr. Hyde has shown, in his treatise De Religione veterum Persarum, that Zoroaster had been a disciple of one of the Jewish prophets : and 2dly, all the writ- ings that are ascribed to this philosopher are unques- tionably spurious; LETTER IV. On Hie Probability that there should be Mysteries in a Revealed Religion. YOUR deistical friends, my dear sir, seem determined to contend zealously for every inch of ground before they yield it. But this is not to be regretted ; for our future progress will be facilitated in proportion to the number of obstacles that are completely removed at the outset of our inquiry. When they tell you they will believe nothing that they cannot comprehend, and that the Scriptures are unworthy of credit, because they abound in mysteries, they adopt the language of unbelievers in all ages. But these declarations prove that they have never correctly investigated the power and office of reason in matters of religion, and at the 22 1 Corinthians, i. 20, 21. ON MYSTERIES IN REVEALED RELIGION. 43 same time run counter to their whole plan of conduct in relation to all except religious subjects ; for who is there that does not believe numerous facts which are utterly incomprehensible; and reduce principles into practice, which are beyond, though not repugnant to, reason ? It is, indeed, in a neglect of the essential distinction between what is above reason and what is contrary to it, that the objection now under consideration is founded. Yet surely nothing can be more obvious than that many things, beyond the scope of our intellectual powers, may nevertheless be perfectly true. When we were children, several matters were to us entirely incompre- hensible, which have now sunk into the simplest, and lowest, and plainest elements of our knowledge. We were then learners ; docility became us ; and we were highly reprehensible if we opposed our puny under- standings to that of our tutors. Now, in the bestowal of a revelation, the principle is assumed that men are in a state of pupilage. The God of infinite wisdom condescends to be their teacher; and it therefore be. * hoves them, on such an occasion, to employ their reason solely for the purpose of ascertaining whether what is presented to them be really the word of God, and then to resign their understandings wholly to the adoption of the truths with which they are favoured. This is consistent with what is prescribed by that great philosopher Lord Bacon, who directs that reason be employed in studying " Holy mysteries, with this cau- tion, that the mind for its module be dilated to the amplitude of the mysteries ; and not the mysteries be straitened and girt into the narrow compass of the mind." He says again, in his Advancement of Learn- ing, " We ought not to attempt to draw down, or sub- mit the mysteries of God to our reason ; but, on the contrary, to raise and advance our reason to the divine truth. In this part of knowledge, touching divine phi- losophy, I am so far from noting any deficiency, that I rather note an excess whereto I have digressed, be- 44 ON MYSTERIES IN cause of the extreme prejudice which both religion and philosophy have received from being commixed together, as that which will undoubtedly make an here- tical religion and a fabulous philosophy." And again, " As to seek Divinity in Philosophy, is as if you would seek the living amongst the dead ; so, on the other hand, to seek Philosophy in Divinity, is all one as to seek the dead amongst the living." Lastly, that I may not tire you with quotations, " The prerogative of God comprehends the whole man. Whereby, as we are to obey God's law, though we find a reluctance in our will ; so we are to believe his word, though we find a reluct- ance in our reason; for, if we believe only that which is agreeable unto our reason, we give assent to the mat- ter, not to the author, which is no more than we would do towards a discredited witness." Mighty as is the authority of Lord Bacon, I do not shelter myself under it for the purpose of avoiding the discussion ; but merely in order to show that this great father of the inductive philosophy saw, not only the propriety, but the advantage, of subjecting his gigantic intellect to divine instruction. Nor was this the conse- quence of affected humility, but of real knowledge of the actual situation of man. He that is shut up in a close place, and can only peep through crevices, or who stands in a valley, and has his prospect inter- cepted, or who is encompassed with fogs that render all surrounding objects obscure> would be overwhelmed with contempt if he set at nought the superior informa- tion of those who had beheld the same things from an eminence, and through a translucent atmosphere: yet such is the folly of him who will not adopt what ex- tends beyond his previous knowledge. Beneath omni- science there are innumerable forms of intelligence, in the lowest of which man seems to be placed, but one step above " the beasts that perish :" hence his mind has a pitch beyond which it cannot soar without extra- neous aid ; and things clearly intelligible to more noble creatures, moving in a higher sphere, may be dark and REVEALED RELIGION. 45 inexplicable to him ; and shall he despise and deny the truth of verities revealed to him by the Fountain of all Intelligence, because he cannot comprehend them? Is it not an established axiom, that " that which may be comprehended is less than the hands that grasp it ; that which may be valued is less than the senses which rate it 1 ?" Why, then, should this axiom be annulled, and any thing be rejected as untrue, because it cannot be reduced within the narrow dimensions of human intellect? It is certain that infinity is not a word void of sense, but a word that expresses something which really exists. Whichever way man turns, immensity presents itself. In vain will he seek a duration which is the term of all duration, a space which shall be the ultimate limit of space : after having wearied itself in its excursions, the mind will 6nd itself limited, but in a new point of dura- tion, a fresh portion of space. Nor can the ideas of duration and of space be annihilated. We may ima- gine that all motion ceases, that all heat is extinct, that attractions and repulsions are at an end, that all living beings have perished, that all nature is dissolved, and matter no longer exists ; but if it were proposed to go on and imagine that the place which these things occu- pied had itself disappeared, the mind would stop short and withhold its assent. In like manner, we may sup- pose the sun no longer to shine, the stars no longer to pursue their real or apparent revolutions, that universal lethargy and the profoundest night prevails through all nature. On this hypothesis, it is evident that days and hours would not be known, and time would lose its measure : yet duration would retain its being. It is obvious, therefore, that neither space nor dura- tion yield their existence to any supposition which the imagination of man, fertile and powerful as it is, can create. They exist, they continue to exist, in all their immense capacity ; for to imagine them limited is to conceive the commencement of their non-existence; 1 Tertul. Apol. 17. 46 ON MYSTERIES IN and it follows indubitably that neither space nor dura- tion can have bounds. Infinitude then exists, and it is impossible for man to sound its depths: for while it is easy to convince ourselves of its existence, it is far otherwise to conceive adequately in what it consists. We may rise to the idea of infinity, but we cannot penetrate it. It is not merely in the contemplation of the infinitely great that the intellect fails ; it is equally confounded when attempting to investigate the infinitely little. Man is posited between these two limits, in a sphere which comprehends things finite, and even these evade his ken in a thousand directions. Truth, therefore, is not restricted to the point occupied by man. It soars above him ; it lies beyond him ; it sinks beneath him ; yet it reveals to him so much of its nature, as to reward his industry, to stimulate and gratify his well-directed modest scrutiny : let him but bear in mind incessantly that the finite cannot comprehend the infinite, and he will learn more than by any other process since he will be prepared to admit that in a world of mystery a Religion without mystery must be an illusion. I shall not, however, rest satisfied with this general mode of argumentation ; but since the subject is one in which mistakes are very prevalent, shall descend into particulars, and demonstrate that those who withhold their assent from any of the propositions of Revealed Religion because they are incomprehensible, act upon a principle which, if they adopted it in other matters, would lead them to the most unbounded and incurable scepticism. This will be effected if I can show that, in Natural Religion, in many branches of Natural Philo- sophy, and in several parts of pure and mixed mathe- matics, there are numerous incontrovertible proposi- tions, which are, notwithstanding, incomprehensible. Many things are now classed under the irrefragable truths of Natural Religion, which are still far beyond our utmost comprehension. Such are God's necessary subsistence, his production of things from nothing, his REVEALED RELIGION. 47 ever giving without having ever received, his always sustaining others without being himself sustained by any thing ab extra, his ever acting but never changing, his prescience without necessity of events, his immen- sity without extension, his eternity without succession, his existing before all ages, and yet never being younger or older, his being in heaven, and yet " about our bed and about our path :" all of which are evidently out of our mental grasp, because finite minds cannot measure infinite subjects, and because the Supreme Being has not seen fit to communicate to us in our present state the faculty of knowing all things that are intelligible. Take God's eternity for example. Suppose a person is disposed to cavil at this great truth, he may ask, " What maxim is less controvertible than this, that nothing can take place without cause?" and again " What can be more staggering to reason, than that a being should exist without a beginning, without a cause?" If it were replied, that God is the cause of his own existence, it would be only such a multiplication of words as would render the subject still more obscure : for the objector might say, "If you mean this explanation to remove the difficulty, it must imply these palpable and impi- ous absurdities ; that the Supreme Being once did not exist, and yet, before he existed, operated to produce his own existence." Here there are great and acknow- ledged difficulties : yet, commence your reasoning in another direction, and you establish the disputed posi- tion notwithstanding. Deduce from your own exist- ence, and that of the universe, the necessity of the existence of a Creator ; and you will soon perceive that the argument is direct, and that it necessarily leads you to conclude that a Being must have existed for ever, without beginning, and without cause; be- cause, if something have not existed from eternity, the things which now are must have arisen from nothing, and without any producing cause. Yet observe, and this is the point to which I would particularly draw your attention, that, though this train of argumentation 48 ON MYSTERIES IN firmly establishes the truth in question, it does not remove or diminish one of the difficulties with which it was originally surrounded. You see that it is an irrefragable truth ; but you are still incapable of com- prehending, much less of elucidating, the mode of the fact. It is obvious, however, and it was for this the example was adduced, that what our reason is incapable of comprehending, and what one train of argument may induce us to reject, another process of reasoning may establish as an indisputable and necessary truth, even while the original difficulties remain undiminished and untouched. Thus, with regard to the being of God, the general inference is of this kind. There is, avowedly, some- thing perfectly incomprehensible to us in the attributes of Deity, when contemplated in relation to time; there is also something utterly incomprehensible when we contemplate them in reference to space; there may, then, be something as incomprehensible when we refer them to other metaphysical modes. Why, for example, may they not be as incomprehensible, when contem- plated in reference to number, P And why should any matter of revelation be rejected on this latter ground, when mysteriousness on the two former accounts does not lead to any such rejection? Let us now pass from the truths of Natural Religion to the topics of Natural Philosophy, where you will find, or where indeed you know, and only require to be reminded of it, that almost all our knowledge of the universe, its laws, and its phenomena, is but a collection and classification of circumstances of fact, with the consequences resulting from them ; some of which lie nearer, and others more remote from view. We may ascertain relations and dependencies, and can often predict what will occur in particular connexions; but we know next to nothing of things in themselves, nor can we penetrate into their real, and sometimes not even into their proximate, causes. Philosophers and chemists have made very extraor- REVEALED RELIGION. 49 dinary discoveries respecting the various subjects of their researches, have in many cases determined the laws of their operation, and can frequently predict with perfect confidence what phenomena will occur under certain circumstances. They have demonstrated, for example, that the planetary motions are so regulated, that the squares of the times, in which the planets revolve about the focal luminary, are always propor- tional to the cubes of their mean distances from that body; that electric and magnetic attractions are in- versely as the squares of the distances ; that, within certain limits, the expansive force of gaseous substances is as the force of compression to which they are sub- jected; that, at certain determinate temperatures, many solids become liquid, and liquids are transformed into aeriform fluids, &c. : and these points are so incontro- vertibly established, that no man of competent under- standing can possibly refuse his assent to them, though this conviction must be yielded previously to his receiv- ing any satisfactory information as to the real nature of the things to which these propositions relate. For, suppose a student were obstinately to suspend his assent till he received satisfactory answers to the following string of queries, it would inevitably follow, that he must remain perpetually ignorant of almost every use- ful truth in these sciences. What is the cause of the attraction of gravitation, of cohesion, of electricity, of magnetism, or the cause of congelation, of thawing? How are the constituent gases of the atmosphere in- termingled ? What is caloric ? From what does the essential distinction between solids and liquids, and between liquids and aeriform fluids, arise? Nay, what is the dust which I tread under my feet? What is the impenetrability by which its corpuscles resist, the mobility by which it is capable of changing its place, the attraction by which it draws and is drawn, the affinity by reason of which it is ready to combine with some substances, and not with others? In reply to these, and a hundred such inquiries, the querist proba- E 50 ON MYSTERIES IN bly will receive an explicativer, if any be attempted, in which, as the adage expresses it, " the load is shifted from the back of the elephant to that of the camel," or one series of facts is substituted for another; and thus, so far as real explanation goes, he obtains nothing but words in current payment. Suppose, for example, with regard to evaporation, he asks, " How is water taken up and retained in the atmosphere?" it cannot be in the state of vapour, it is said, because the pressure is too great: there must therefore be a true chemical solution. But when we consider that the surface of water is subject to a pressure equal to that of thirty inches of mercury, and that, besides this pressure, there is a sensible affinity between the particles of water them- selves ; how does the insensible affinity of the atmos- sphere for water overcome both these powers? How does vapour, which ascends with an elastic force of only half an inch of mercury, detach itself from water, when it has the weight of thirty inches of mercury to oppose its ascent? This difficulty applies nearly the same to all theories of the solution of water in air; and it is therefore of consequence for every one, let him adopt what opinion he may, to remove it. Chemical solution, to which we are often referred, but very ill explains it; and, indeed, the best chemical philosophers acknowledge that they have not, as yet, any theory of evaporation which is even plausible ; evaporation is then, at present, incomprehensible ; yet no man in his senses attempts to deny that evaporation is perpetually taking place. Suppose the querist makes a transition from common to animal chemistry, and wishes to trace its operations in the nervous system, or its connection with vital power : no less a philosopher than Professor Berzelius shall reply to his inquiries. " With all the knowledge we possess of the forms of the body, considered as an instrument, and of the mixture and mutual bearings of the rudiments to one another, yet the cause of most of the phenomena within the animal body lies so deeply hidden from our view, that it certainly never will be REVEALED RELIGION. 51 i'.mncl. We call this hidden cause vital power ; and, like many others who before us have in vain directed their deluded attention to this point, we make use of a word to which we can affix no idea. This power to live belongs not to the constituent parts of our bodies, nor does it belong to them as an instrument, neither is it a mple power ; but the result of the mutual operation of i .ie instruments on one another a result which varies .is the operations vary, and which often, from small changes and obstructions, ceases altogether. When our tJementary books inform us, that the vital power in one { Jace produces from the blood the fibres of the muscle ; ;ii another a bone ; in a third a medulla of the brain ; ,ind, in another again, certain humours which are des- tined to be carried off; we know after this explanation AS little as we knew before. This unknown cause of the phenomena of life is principally lodged in a certain part of the animal body ; viz. in the nervous system, the very operation of which it constitutes. The brain and the nerves determine altogether the chemical pro- cesses within the body ; and although it cannot be denied that the exercise of their functions tends to produce chemical effects ; yet we are constrained to confess, that the chemical operations therein are so far beyond our reach, that they entirely escape all our observations. Our deepest chemical researches, and the finest discoveries of later times, give us no information on this subject. Nothing of what chemistry has taught us hitherto has the smallest analogy to the operations of the nervous system, or affords us the least hint toward u knowledge of its occult nature: and the chain of our experience must always end in something inconceivable. Unfortunately, this inconceivable something acts the prin- cipal part in animal chemistry, and enters so into every process, even the most minute, that the highest know- ledge which we can attain is the knowledge of the nature of the productions, whilst we are for ever excluded from the possibility of explaining how they are produced 3 ." 3 Brunnmark's translation of Dr. Berzelius's View of the Progress and present State of Animal Chemistry. 52 ON MYSTERIES IN I hope I shall not diminish the effect of these valuable remarks, by dwelling for a few minutes upon conside- rations which they in fact suggest. With regard to the formation, the development, and growth of the human body, for example, our know- ledge extends scarcely at all beyond the grossest facts. I know that the same bread which serves for my nourishment would serve also for that of my dog. But how is it that in the two cases it conduces to such altogether different transformations ? Still more, how is it that the nourishment which, up to a certain period, gives continued augmentation and energy to the frame, then ceases to produce a similar effect : from that epoch the body begins to lose its energy ; it declines daily, and at length ceases to exist. What then, is the principle of organization which produces, as it is developed, effects so different; that spring which acts incessantly, which yet is preparing for death the very day that life commences? Then, again, that mean state between life and death, that state which brings to a pause all the exterior motions of the body, and interrupts or modifies for a season several of the interior motions, leaving in action only those that refer to the respiration, the circulation, the digestion ; that sleep which is so apt an image of death " that no good man trusts it without his prayers," and which is, notwithstanding, the source of new life and energy ; is that to be referred to the same principle; if not, whence comes it ? What is it? Farther, with respect to the nourishment which pre- serves life, does it feed only the principle upon which depend our involuntary motions, or does it contribute to those which may be modified, suspended, stopped, under the direction of the will? Life is continued and manifested in us by the com- bination of two sorts of motion. Respiration, circu- lation, digestion, are involuntary and continued, and constitute (if I may employ such a phrase solely by way of distinction) the vegetative life. Walking, running, crying out, laying hold of, pushing forward, REVEALED RELIGION. 53 &c. are actions, evidently, of a second class, and mark the animal life. The two classes are altogether distinct ; may we, then, affirm, or may we not, that they emanate from the same principle, and derive their nourishment in the same way ? Observations by which we may thus trace the proba- bility of distinct causes, where men have usually been satisfied with one, still leave us in doubt as to the specific nature of those causes ; and indeed open a vast and unexplored field of research. For, it would not suffice, in tracing the source of life, to assign a single principle, and show how that principle acts separately ; the investigator must rise successively to the primitive cause of vegetative life and the principle of animal life ; and, with regard to man, his researches will be palpably incomplete, if he do not also trace the origin of intellectual life, and of the moral life; and show whether they are essentially different, or one and the same. Then, how does human volition occasion the motion of parts of the human body, or of a separate body, living or dead? How does mind operate upon nerves und muscles? How do nerves and muscles operate upon mind ? Or, how is it that at the moment of voli- tion I stretch out my arm, or rise from my seat ; while no volition of mine will cause another man to stretch out his arm, or rise from his seat, unless his will con- cur with mine. Still farther, how is it that I cannot cause a heavy weight to move at my volition, without recurring to some mechanical process? I will the mo- tion of a stone, it moves not : I will the motion of my arms, or my legs, or my eyes, they instantly obey. Why has my mind this power over the matter of my body, and not over other matter? I may be told, because there is an intimate connection between the substance which thinks, and the material substance in which it dwells. Be it so. Then what is that connec- tion? Since it is certain that an immaterial substance cannot have with body the least point of contact; that thought cannot by communication become body, nor 54 O1S MYSTERIES IN body become thought. Hence, then, an adequate cause of all the varieties of phenomena to which I have here adverted is as inscrutable, as deeply hidden among' the mysteries, as the most recondite subject connected with religion. Allow me next to proceed to a branch of knowledge in which opinions and theories are not daily fluctuating, as are those in chemistry ; I mean the mixed mathe- matical science of MECHANICS. This science is conver- sant about force, matter, time, motion, space. Each of these has been the cause of the most elaborate disqui- sitions, and of the most violent disputes. Let it be asked, what is force? If the answerer be candid, his reply will be, " I cannot tell, so as to satisfy every in- quirer, or so as to enter into the essence of the thing." Again, what is matter? "I cannot tell." What is time? " I cannot tell." What is motion? " I cannot tell." What is space? " I cannot tell." Here, then is a science, the professed object of which is to deter- mine the mutual relations, dependencies, and changes of quantities, with the real nature of all of which we are unacquainted ; and in which the professed object is, notwithstanding, effected. We have certain know- ledge respecting subjects of which in themselves we have no knowledge : demonstrated, irrefragable pro- positions, respecting the relations of things, which in themselves elude the most acute investigations. The reason of this I shall attempt to assign by and by. But before I proceed farther, I must request that you will acquit me of any intention to depreciate the sciences: on the contrary, they furnish me with daily delight ; I know their value, have laboured long and actively m diffusing a knowledge of them, and am in some mea- sure, I hope, able to appreciate their utility. I am also happy to affirm that in the physical sciences, and espe- cially that to which our attention is now directed, very much has been accomplished. Yet I may challenge the wisest philosopher to demonstrate, from unexcep- tionable principles, and by just argument, what will be the effect of one particle of matter in motion meet- REVEALED RELIGION. 66 ing with another at rest, on the supposition that these two particles constituted all the matter in the universe. The fact of the communication of motion from one body to another is as inexplicable as the communica- tion of divine influences. How, then, can the former be admitted with any face, while the latter is denied solely on the ground of its incomprehensibility ? We know nothing of force any more than we do of grace, except by their effects. There are questions, doubts, perplexities, disputes, diversities of opinions, about the one as well as about the other. Ought we not, there- fore, by a parity of reason, to conclude, that there may be several true and highly useful propositions about the latter as well as about the former? Nay, I will venture to go farther, and affirm, that the preponde- rance of argument is in favour of the propositions of the theologian. For while force, time, motion, &c. are avowedly constituent parts of a demonstrable science, and ought, therefore, to be presented in a full blaze of light, the obscure parts proposed for our assent in the Scriptures are avowedly mysterious. They are not ex- hibited to be perfectly understood, but to be believed. They cannot be explained, without ceasing to be what they are: for the explanation of a mystery is, as Dr. Young long ago remarked, its destruction. They cannot be rendered obvious without being made mean: for a clear idea is only another name for a little idea. Obscurities, however, are felt as incumbrances to any system of philosophy : while mysteries are ornaments of the Christian system, and tests of the humility and faith of its votaries. So that, if the rejectors of incom- prehensibilities acted consistently with their own prin- ciples, they should rather throw aside all philosophical theories in which obscurities are found, and exist as defects, than the system of Revealed Religion, in which they enter as essential parts of " that mystery of godli- ness" in which the Apostles gloried 4 . 4 It has been asserted by a writer in the Monthly Review, in reply to all this, that to talk of " mysteries in revealed religion" is to frame a contradiction in terms. Bat this writer affects precision in language, 56 ON MYSTERIES IN But perhaps I may be told that although things which are incomprehensible occur in our physical and mixed inquiries, they have no place in " pure mathe- matics, where all is not only demonstrable, but intel- ligible." This, again, is an assertion which I cannot admit; and for the denial of which I shall beg leave to produce my reasons, as this will, I apprehend, make still more in favour of my general argument. Now, here it is known geometricians can demonstrate that there are curves which approach continually to some fixed right line, without the possibility of ever meeting it. Such, for example, are hyperbolas, which conti- nually approach towards their asymptotes, but cannot possibly meet them, unless an assignable finite space can become equal to nothing. Such, again, are con- choids, which continually approach to their directrices, yet can never meet them, unless a certain point can be both beyond and in contact with a given line at the same moment. Mathematicians can also demonstrate that a space infinite in one sense may, by its rotation, generate a solid of finite capacity ; as is the case with the solid formed by the rotation of a logarithmic curve of infinite length upon its axis, or that formed by the rotation of an Apollonian hyperbola upon its asymp- tote. They can also show in numerous instances that without a corresponding precision in his ideas. It seems never to have entered into his mind, that a fact, either past, present, or to come, might be made known to us by express Revelation, which should nevertheless remain mysterious ; the limits of our faculties, or perhaps the imperfection of language, rendering it inexpedient, or impossible, that it should be explained. Revelation may furnish BS with clear evidence of the present existence of a truth, or the future occurrence of an event, though the thing itself may still re- main incomprehensible to its. We have a striking example of this kind in Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. xv. where he says, "Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep; but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Here he revealed a mystery : he revealed it, because it was till then unknown ; it is notwithstand- ing o mystery, for there is not a syllable that explains to us how it will be efl'ected. REVEALED RELIGION. 57 a variable space shall be continually augmenting, and yet never become equal to a certain finite quantity : and they frequently make transformations with great facility and neatness, by means of expressions to which no definite ideas can be attached. Can we, for ex- ample, obtain any clear comprehension, or indeed any notion at all, of the value of a power whose exponent is an acknowledged imaginary quantity, as x */ 1 ? Can we, in like manner, obtain any distinct idea of a series constituted of an infinite number of terms? In each case the answer, I am convinced, must be in the negative. Yet the science, in which these and nume- rous other incomprehcnsibles occur, is called Mathesis, THE DISCIPLINE, because of its incomparable superiority to other studies in evidence and certainty, and, there- fore, its singular adaptation to discipline the mind. And this, notwithstanding these mysteries, (for are they not such?) is the science, says the eloquent and pro- found Dr. Barrow, " which effectually exercises, not vainly deludes, nor vexatiously torments, studious minds with obscure subtleties, perplexed difficulties, or contentious disquisitions; which overcomes with- out opposition, triumphs without pomp, compels with- out force, and rules absolutely without any loss of liberty; which does not privately overreach a weak faith, but openly assaults an armed reason, obtains a total victory, and puts on inevitable chains." How does it happen, now, that when the investigation is bent towards objects which cannot be comprehended, the mind arrives at that in which it acquiesces as cer- tainty, and rests satisfied? It is not, manifestly, be- cause we have a distinct perception of the nature of the objects of the inquiry (for that is precluded by the supposition, and, indeed, by the preceding statement) ; but because we have such a distinct perception of the relation those objects bear one toward another, and can assign positively, without danger of error, the exact relation, as to identity or diversity, the quantities be- fore us, at every step of the process. Mathematics is 58 ON MYSTERIES IK not the science which enables us to ascertain the nature of things in themselves ; for that, alas ! is not a sci- ence which can be learned in our present imperfect condition, where we see " through a glass darkly ;" * but the science of quantity as measurable, that is, as comparable: and it is obvious, that we can compare quantities satisfactorily in some respects, while we know nothing of them in others. Thus we can demon- strate, that any two sides of a plane triangle are, toge- ther, greater than the third, by showing that angles, of whose absolute magnitude we know nothing, are one greater than the other; and then inferring the truth of the proposition, from the previously demonstrated proposition, that the greater angle in a triangle is sub- tended by the greater side. So again, when we affirm that between any two consecutive terms of the natural series of whole numbers, there may be interposed an indefinite number of magnitudes which are not frac- tional, the reason at first revolts as if we proposed an absurdity ; for it seems repugnant to the first principles of common sense that between 99 and 100, for example, it should be possible to interpose a multitude of num- bers, none of which can be correctly represented by either 99 plus a fraction, or 100 minus a fraction. Yet, far from involving absurdity, the proposition is so strictly true, that we cannot refute it without rasing to its foundation all mathematical science. For, it is de- monstrable that the square roots of 9802, 9803, 9804, 9805, &c. to 10000, are each, in succession, greater than the former, and the first of them greater than 99. In like manner we can prove that the cube roots of 860300, 860301, 860302, &c. to 1000000, are each in succession greater than the former; that the cube root of 860300, the smallest of them, while it exceeds 99, is less than the square root of 9802. In like manner we can assign separate series of biquadrate and sursolid roots still more numerous than the square and cube roots, all of which shall be demonstrably unequal to each other, shall be interposed in point of numerical REVEALED RELIGION. 59 value between 99 and 100, and yet shall, none of them, be correctly expressible either by the sum of 99 and a fraction, or by the difference of 100 and a fraction. Here, then, reason must bend, put on the " inevitable chains," and feel itself constrained, not merely to acknowledge the existence of those incommensurables which are neither fractional nor integral numbers, but also that while they are unsusceptible of precise appre- ciation, they admit of as accurate comparison as any other mathematical quantities. No mathematician can tell the precise value of ^/2 or /5 ; every one can tell the precise value of ^/4 or ^/9 : no one, notwithstand- ing, will hesitate longer to declare that ^/5 exceeds t/2, than to declare that ^/9 exceeds ^/4, that is, that 3 is greater than 2. Once more, we cannot possibly know ALL the terms of the infinite series 1 c r 2 t 3 c* I I O _ H : H , &c. in MM. a a 2 a 3 a 4 a because such knowledge implies a contradiction : nei- ther can we know all the terms of the infinite series 1 a c? a? a 4 7" + ~?~~7~ l ~7~ & yet we can show that these series are equal. For we can demonstrate that the first series is an expanded function, standing with the quantity - in the re- lation of equality: we can likewise demonstrate, that the second series bears the relation of equality with the quantity -j : and although we can have but a C " I & vague idea even of the quantities ; and ; , c + a a -\- c while a and c stand as general representatives of any quantities; yet those fractions must necessarily be equal, and thence we infer the like equality between 60 ON MYSTERIES IN the sums of the two infinite series. In a similar man- ner we can have no clear conception of the nature of the quantities *J a, as that 20 + 30 50 : since we can demonstrate that equality sub- sists in the former expression as completely as we can in the latter, both being referable to an intuitive truth. Every mathematician can demonstrate strictly that the conclusions he obtains by means of these quantities, though he cannot comprehend them in themselves, must necessarily be true : he therefore acts wisely when he uses them, since they facilitate his inquiries ; and, know- ing that their relations are real, he is satisfied, because it is only in those relations that he is interested. To you, my friend, who are so conversant with ma- thematical subjects, this enumeration of particulars would be perfectly unnecessary, were it not in order to recommend that similar principles to those which I have here traced be adopted, when religious topics are under investigation. We cannot comprehend the na- ture of an infinite series, so far as that nature depends upon an acquaintance with each term ; but we know the relation which subsists between it and the radix from which it is expanded : we cannot comprehend the nature of the impossible quantities ^/ a, ^/ b, &c. ; but we know their relation to one another, and to other algebraic quantities. In like manner (though J should scarcely presume to state such a comparison, but for the important practical inference which it fur- nishes), we cannot, with our limited faculties, compre- hend the infinite perfections of the Supreme Being, or reconcile his different attributes, as to see distinctly how " mercy and peace are met together, righteous- ness and truth have embraced each other; or how the Majestic Governor of the universe can be every where present, yet not exclude other beings; but we know, or at least may know (if we do not despise and reject REVEALED RELIGION. 61 the information graciously vouchsafed to us by the God of truth), his relation to us, as our Father, our Guide, and our Judge. We cannot comprehend the nature of the Messiah, as revealed to us in his twofold character of " the Son of God," and the " Man Christ Jesus ;" but we know the relation in which he stands to us as the Mediator of the New Covenant, and as he " who was wounded for our transgressions, who was bruised for our iniquities, and by whose stripes we are healed :" Again, we cannot comprehend, perhaps, why the introduction of moral evil should be permitted by him " who hateth iniquity ;" but we know, in relation to ourselves, that he hath provided a way for our escape from the punishment due to sin (which way if we lose, the fault is entirely our own), and therefore, though we cannot comprehend and explain it so as to silence all cavillers, yet we have abundant reason to " glory in the mystery of Reconciliation." By pursuing this cur- rent of reflection farther, and running over the general principles of other branches of mathematical, chemical, and metaphysical science, than I have here adverted to, you will still find, I am persuaded, that the result of the inquiry will come in aid of our religious belief, by show- ing that the difficulties attending Christianity are of the same kind (and probably should be referred to the same cause, the weakness of our faculties) as those which envelope all the fundamental principles of knowledge. Philosophers, notwithstanding all these difficulties, recommend the cultivation and diffusion of the sciences, because of their tendency to sharpen the intellectual faculties of man, and to meliorate his condition in society. With how much greater reason and earnest- ness, then, should Christians recommend the dissemi- nation and adoption of " pure and undefiled religion," considering its direct tendency to enlarge the under- standing, and yet fill it with the contemplation of Deity, to purify and harmonize the passions, to refine the moral sense, to qualify and strengthen for every Junction in life, to sustain under the pressure of afflic- 02 ON MYSTERIES IN tion, to afford consolation in sickness, and enable us to triumph in death ! What other science can make even a pretension to dethrone oppression, to abolish slavery, to exclude war, to extirpate fraud, to banish violence, to revive the withered blossoms of Paradise? Such are the pretensions and the blessings of Genuine Christianity; and wherever Genuine Christianity pre- vails, there are they experienced. Thus it accomplishes its promises on earth, where alone it has enemies; it will therefore accomplish them in Heaven, where its friends reign. Here, indeed, its advocate must be re- duced to silence; for how shall he display the meaning of its celestial promises! how describe dignity so vast, or picture glory so brilliant! How shall language deli- neate what mind cannot imagine ! and where is that mind, among puny and ephemeral creatures, that can penetrate the thick obscure, that can describe the light of Perfect Knowledge, that can feel the glow of Perfect Love, that can breathe the air of Perfect Happiness ? Let it not, however, be forgotten, that, though some of the truths revealed in Scripture are mysterious, and the " eternal weight of glory" it promises too vast for us to estimate ; yet the tendency of the most exalted of its mysteries, and the most exquisite of its promises, is practical. If we cannot explain the influences of the Spirit, for example, happy will it be for us, never- theless, if we experience, that " the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- ness, faith, meekness, temperance." If we cannot com- prehend all we read in the Sacred Pages, let us, not- withstanding, submit, adore, and profit by them; recollecting, that " the sublimest truths, and the pro- foundest mysteries of religion, are as level, perhaps, to the capacities of the meanest as of the highest human intellect. By neither are they to be fully fathomed. By both they may be easily BELIEVED, on the sure testi- mony of Divine Revelation. As simple and important facts which connect time with eternity, and heaven with earth, they belong equally to men of every order, REVEALED RELIGION. 63 and are directly calculated to produce those emotions of awe and reverence, of faith and hope, and reliance on the Divine presence, providence, justice, and bene- volence, of which the consequences must be in the highest degree MORAL 5 ." " When I behold with mine eyes (says the profound and philosophic author of the Ecclesiastical Polity) some small and scarce discernible grain or seed, where- of nature maketh a promise that a. tree shall come; and when afterwards of that tree, any skilful artificer undertaketh to frame some exquisite and curious work, I look for the event, I move no question about per- formance, either of the one or of the other. Shall I simply credit nature in things natural? Shall I, in ihings artificial, rely myself on art, never offering to make doubt? And in that which is above both art and nature refuse to believe the Author of both, except he acquaint me with his ways, and lay the secret of his xkill before me? Where God himself doth speak those things, which either for height and sublimity of matter, or else for secrecy of performance, we are not able to reach unto, as we may be ignorant without danger, so it can be no disgrace to confess we are ignorant. Such as love piety will, as much as in them lieth, know all things that God commandeth, but especially the duties of service which they owe to God. As for his dark and hidden works, they prefer, as becometh them in such cases, simplicity of faith before that knowledge, which curiously sifting what it should adore, and disputing too itoldly of that which the wit of man cannot search, chilleth for the most part all warmth of zeal, and bringeth sound- ness of belief many times into great hazard 6 ." It is right to add, in relation to this subject, that Common and even illiterate Christians may often have clearer ideas of what are considered mysterious things, than the bolder and more inquisitive; because, as Dr. Waterland remarks, " they are content to rest in gene- 5 Edinburgh Review, vol. xvii. p. 269. 6 Ecclesiastical Polity, book v. sect. 67. 64 ON MYSTERIES IN REVEALED RELIGION. rals, and to stop at what they understand, without darkening it afterwards by words without knowledge." The notion of eternity, for example, is clear enough to a plain Christian ; while to a person who perplexes himself with nice and minute inquiries respecting suc- cession, or past or interminable duration, that notion, which at first was clear, becomes obscure, by his blend- ing perplexities with it. So again, in respect of omni- presence, the general notion is competently distinct; but when a man has been rambling in pursuit of curi- ous inquiries relating to substantial and virtual presence, extension and non-extension, space and place, and so on; he will most probably bewilder himself, and lose sight of the general idea which alone was necessary to render the truth under contemplation of practical efficacy. In fine, let me remark, that no man, however capa- cious his intellect, or extensive his acquirements, is justified in affirming that a proposition (especially a religious one) is absolutely repugnant to reason, because it is repugnant to his reason. If he do not deem him- self infallible (and that is inconsistent with the hypo- thesis of his possessing a cultivated and enlarged mind) he must be conscious that his passions, his prejudices, his conduct, bias and distort his reasonings, and impel him to erroneous conclusions. If, then, he find only one or two men, equal to himself in mental power, adopting what he rejects; he is bound to hesitate and examine afresh. And if, not merely one or two, but the great bulk of men of intellect, investigation, and unimpeached moral character, receive as consistent with sound reason what he has regarded as repugnant to it, he is required by all the laws of modesty, humility, good sense, and philosophy, either to accede to their general admission of the proposition, or to lament his own unfortunate insensibility to conviction, and remain silent. Believe me, &c. 65 LETTER V. On the Genuineness and Authenticity of the Scriptures. HAVING endeavoured in my preceding letters to point out the absurdity of Deism the necessity of Revela- tion, especially as manifested by the defectiveness of all the discoveries of the ancient philosophers in respect of morals and theology, and to show that mysterious and incomprehensible things occur in every branch of knowledge ; I shall now proceed to an examination of that collection of writings which the majority of Chris- tians in all ages have considered as coming from God, and revered as constituting that system of Revealed Religion by which our conduct should be regulated, and on which should be founded our hopes and fears of" future bliss or future woe." The Bible is not to be contemplated as one book, but as a collection of several, composed at different times by different persons, and in different places. It is a collection of writings, partly historical, partly pro- phetical, partly didactic, composed some previously, some subsequently, to an important event, adverted to in most of them, called " the coming of the Messiah;" an event which is generally described as having a re- markable tendency to enhance the glory of God and the happiness of man. Now, to believe the Christian Religion is to believe that Moses and the Prophets, Christ and his Apostles, were what they were described to be in these books ; that is, were endued with divine authority, that they had a commission from God to act and teach as they did, and that He will verify their declarations concerning future things, and especially those concerning & future life, by the event; it is to receive the Scriptures as our rule of life, as the founda- tion of our hopes and fears. Such a belief, that it may be operative, must have a substantial basis: and so varied and persuasive are the evidences of Christianity, F 60 GENUINENESS OF that every man, whether his intellectual faculties are weak or strong, have been little or much cultivated, may obtain evidence suited to his circumstances. He who cannot enter into elaborate disquisitions concern- ing the credibility of the Scriptures, has other and often stronger grounds of faith. He may see the provision which the Bible makes for the restoration of man to happiness to be precisely such as his own necessities require: he may see that the purity of its commands has a wonderful tendency to elevate the nature of man, and to produce universal felicity ; he may experience that actual change of heart and life which the Gospel promises to all sincere believers ; and then, as the Apos- tle expresses it, " he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself 1 ," a witness that may grow and triumph during the decay of the mental faculties, the anguish of a sick-bed, and the agonies of death. But the evidence of which I now intend principally to speak, is that deducible from a more critical examination of the Bible itself, and from collateral testimony drawn from historic and other indisputable sources. Now, any candid and reflecting person, when he first directs his attention to this wonderful volume, and notices the awful, characteristically authoritative, lan- guage which is often assumed in it, will be naturally impelled to inquire, Is this book what it professes to be, the Word of God ? Were its various authors in- structed by God to relate the histories, announce the doctrines, enforce the precepts, predict the events, which are the subjects of their respective books? Were they " holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," or were they impostors? Or, to reduce these inquiries into a methodical form, it will be asked generally, Are the Books of the Old and New Testaments (excluding those which are avowedly apocryphal) genuine? Are they authentic? Are they inspired? Here nothing is asked that is tautologous, nothing that is superfluous. For a book may be genuine 1 1 John, v. 10. THE SCRIPTURES. 67 that is not authentic; a book may be authentic that is not genuine; and many are both genuine and authen- tic that are not inspired. The History of Sir Charles Grandison, for example, is genuine, being indeed writ- ten by Richardson, the author whose name it bears; but it is not authentic, being a mere effort of that inge- nious writer's invention in the production of fictions. The Account of Lord Anson's Voyages, again, is an authentic book, the information being supplied by Lord Anson himself to the author; but it is not genuine, for the real author was Benjamin Robins, the mathemati- cian, and not Walters, whose name is appended to it. Hayley's Memoirs of the Life of Cowper are both genuine and authentic ; they were written by Mr. Hayley, and the information they contain was deduced from the best authority. The same may be said of many other works, which, notwithstanding, lay no claims to the character of being inspired. These three characteristics of genuineness, authenticity, and inspi- ration, meet no where but in the books which constitute the Old and New Testaments. In order to establish this position, I shall now attend to the qualities of genuineness and authenticity, which will furnish ample employment for the present letter; and shall consider that of inspiration in a subsequent part of the series. Here I shall first present you with three general propositions on the genuineness of Scripture, taken principally from an ingenious philosopher of the last century' 2 ; and' then subjoin some such particular con- siderations as must, I think, in conjunction with those propositions, remove all doubt from every candid mind. I. The Genuineness of Ike Scriptures proves the Truth of the principal Facts contained in them. For, First, it is very rare to meet with any genuine writings professing to be real history, in which the principal facts are not true ; unless where both the mo- tives which engaged the author to falsify, and the cir- cumstances which gave some plausibility to the fiction, 2 Hartley on Man, vol. ii. 68 GENUINENESS OF are apparent ; neither of which can be alleged in the present case, with any colour of reason. Where the writer of a history appears to the world as such, not only his moral sense, but his regard to his character and his interest, are strong- motives not to falsify in notorious matters ; he must, therefore, have stronger motives from the opposite quarter, and also a favourable conjuncture of circumstances, before he can attempt this. Secondly. As this is rare in general, so it is much more rare where the writer treats of things which hap- pened in his own time, and under his own cognizance or direction, and communicates his history to persons under the same circumstances All which may be said of the writers of the Scripture History. That this and the following arguments may be ap- plied with more ease and perspicuity, I shall here, in one view, refer the books of the Old and New Testa- ments to their proper authors. It is assumed, then, that the PENTATEUCH consists of the writings of Moses, put together by Samuel, with a very few additions ; that the books of JOSHUA and JUDGES were, in like manner, collected by him ; and the book of RUTH, with the first part of the book of SAMUEL, written by him; that the latter part of the first book of SAMUEL, and the second book, were written by the prophets who succeeded Samuel, probably Nathan and Gad ; that the books of KINGS and CHRONICLES are extracts from the records of the succeeding prophets concerning their own times, and from the public genealogical tables, made by Ezra; that the books of EZRA and NEHEMIAH are collections of like records, some written by Ezra and Nehemiah, and some by their predecessors ; that the book of ESTHER was written by some eminent Jew, in or near the times of the transactions there recorded, perhaps MorJecai, though some conjecture it was Ezra; the book of JOB by a Jew, probably by Moses; the PSALMS by David, Asaph, Moses, and other pious persons; the books of PROVERBS and CANTICLES by Solomon; the book of ECCLESIASTES by Solomon, towards the close of THE SCRIPTURES. G9 his life, when distress and anguish had reclaimed him from idolatry ; the PROPHECIES by the prophets whose names they bear 3 ; and the books of the NEW TESTA- MENT by the persons to whom they are usually ascribed. There are many internal evidences, and, in the case of the New Testament, many external ones too (which will be touched upon as we proceed), by which these books may be shown to belong to the authors here specified. Or, if there be any doubts, they are merely of a critical nature, and do not at all affect the authenticity of the books, nor materially alter the application of the argu- ments in favour of this proposition. Thus, if the Epis- tle to the HEBREWS be supposed to have been written not by St. Paul, but by Clement, or Barnabas, or Luke, the evidence therein given to the miracles performed by Christ and his followers, will not be at all invalidated by this circumstance. Thirdly. The great importance of the facts men- tioned in the Scriptures makes it still more improbable that the several authors should either have attempted to falsify, or have succeeded in such an attempt. This, indeed, is an argument for the truth of the facts, which proves the genuineness of the books at the same time. The truth of the facts, however, is inferred more directly from their importance, if the genuineness of the Scrip- tures be previously allowed. The same thing may be observed of the great number of particular circum- stances of time, persons, &c. mentioned in the Scrip- tures, and of the harmony of the books with themselves, and with each other. These are arguments both for the genuineness of the books, and the trutlf of the facts distinctly considered, and also arguments for deducing the truth from the genuineness. And indeed the argu- ments for the general truth of the history of any age or 3 For the doubts expressed by sound biblical critics respecting the last six chapters of the prophecies ascribed to Zechariah, and the reasons on the whole for concluding that they were composed by Jeremiah, see Newcome's Improved Version of the Minor Prophets, pp. 303 305 of the Pontefract edition. 70 GENUINENESS OF nation, where regular records have been kept, are so interwoven together, and support each other in such a variety of ways, that it is extremely difficult to keep the ideas of them distinct, so as not to anticipate, and not to prove, more than the exactness of logical method requires one to prove. Or, in other words, the incon- sistencies of the contrary supposition are so great, that they can scarcely stand long enough to be confuted. You may easily try this upon the history of England or France, Rome or Greece. Fourthly. If the books of the Old and i\ T ew Testa- ments were written by the persons to whom they are ascribed above ; i. e. if they be genuine, the moral cha- racters of these writers afford the strongest assurance that the facts asserted by them are true. Falsehoods and frauds of a common nature shock the moral sense of common men, and are rarely met with except in per- sons of abandoned characters: how inconsistent, then, must those of the most glaring and impious nature be with the highest moral characters ! That such charac- ters are due to the sacred writers appears from the writings themselves, by an internal evidence ; but there is also strong external evidence in many cases ; and indeed this point is allowed in general by unbelievers. The sufferings which several of the writers underwent both in life and death, in attestation of the facts delivered by them, is a particular argument in favour of these. Fifthly. The arguments here alleged for proving the truth of the Scripture History from the genuineness of the books, are as conclusive in respect of the miracu- lous facts, as of the common ones. But besides this, it may be observed, that if we allow the genuineness of the books to be sufficient evidence of the common facts mentioned in them, the miraculous facts must be allowed also, from their close connexion with the com- mon ones. It is necessary to admit both or neither. It is not, for instance, to be conceived, that Moses should have delivered the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt, or conducted them through the wilderness for forty THE SCRIPTURES. 71 years, at all, in such manner as the common history represents, unless we suppose the miraculous facts in- termixed with it be true also. In like manner, the fame of Christ's miracles, the multitudes which followed him, the adherence of his disciples, the jealousy and hatred of the chief priests, scribes, and pharisees, with many other facts of a common nature, are impossible to be accounted for, unless we allow that he did really work miracles. And similar observations apply in general to the other parts of the Scripture History. Sixthly. There is even a particular argument in i favour of the miraculous part of the Scripture History, to be drawn from the reluctance of mankind to receive miraculous facts. It is true that this reluctance is greater in some ages and nations than in others, and probable reasons may be assigned why this reluctance was, in general, less in ancient times than in the pre- sent (which, however are presumptions that some real miracles were then wrought) ; but it must always be considerable, from the very frame of the human mind, and would be particularly so amongst the Jews at the time of Christ's appearance, as they had then (accord- ing to their own account) been without miracles for at least four hundred years. Now this reluctance must make both the writers and readers very much upon their guard ; and if it be now one of the chief prejudices against revealed religion, as unbelievers unanimously assert, it is but reasonable to allow also, that it would be a strong check upon the publication of a miraculous history at or near the time when the miracles were said to be performed ; i. e. it will be a strong confirmation of such a history, if its genuineness be granted previously. And, upon the whole, we may conclude certainly, that the principal facts, both common and miraculous, , ^ mentioned in the Scriptures, must be true, if their// genuineness be allowed. But the particular evidences of miraculous facts, as well as the principal objections which have been urged against them, will be stated more fully in a future letter. 72 GENUINENESS OF The converse of this proposition is also true, namely, if the principal facts mentioned in the Scriptures be trite, they must be genuine writings. This converse proposi- tion is much more important than it may appear at first sight; for there are many evidences for the truth of particular facts mentioned in the Scriptures; such, for example, as those taken from natural history, from geo- graphy, and the contemporary profane history, which no way presuppose, but, on the contrary, prove, the genuineness of the Scriptures ; and this genuineness, thus proved, may, by the arguments alleged under this proposition, be extended to infer the authenticity of the rest of the facts. Nor is this to argue in a circle, and to prove the truth of the Scripture hislory from its truth ; but to prove the truth of those facts which are not at- tested by natural or civil history, from those which are, by the medium of the genuineness of the Scriptures. II. The Language, Style and Manner of Writing, used in the Books of the Old and New Testaments, are Argu- ments of their Genuineness. Here let it be observed, First, that the Hebrew lan- guage, in which the Old Testament was written, being the language of an ancient people, and one that had little intercourse with their neighbours, and whose neighbours also spake a language that had great affi- nity with their own, would not change so rapidly as modern languages have done, since nations have been variously mixed with one another, and commerce, arts, and sciences, greatly extended. Yet some changes there necessarily must be in about one thousand and fifty- four years elapsing between the time of Moses and that of Malachi. And accordingly critical Hebrew scholars assure us, that the Biblical Hebrew corresponds to this criterion with so much exactness, that a considerable argument may thence be deduced in favour of the genuineness of the books of the Old Testament. Secondly. The books of the Old Testament have too considerable a diversity of style to be the work either of one Jew (for a Jew he must be, on account of the THE SCRIPTURES. 73 language), or of any set of contemporary Jews. If, therefore, they be all forgeries, there must be a succes- sion of impostors in different ages, who have concurred to impose upon posterity, which is inconceivable. To suppose part forged, and part genuine, is very harsh and unnatural ; neither would this supposition, if admitted, be satisfactory. Thirdly. The Hebrew language ceased to be spoken, as a living language, soon after the time of the Baby- lonish captivity ; but it would be difficult or impossible to forge any thing in it after it was become a dead lan- guage. For learned men affirm positively, that there was no grammar made for the Hebrew till many ages after; and, as it is difficult to write in a dead language with exactness, even by the help of a grammar, so it seems impossible without it. All the books of the Old Testament must therefore be, at least, nearly as ancient as the Babylonish captivity ; and since they could not all be written in the same age (for the reason just assigned), some must be considerably more ancient: which would bring us again to a succession of conspiring impostors. \ Fourthly. This last remark may perhaps afford a new argument for the genuineness of the book of Daniel, if any were wanting. But indeed the SEPTUAGINT trans- lation, executed about two hundred and eighty-seven years before the Christian aera, shows not only this, but all the other books of the Old Testament, to have been considered as ancient and genuine books soon after the times of Antiochus Epiphanes, at least. Fifthly. There is a simplicity of style, and an unaffected manner of writing, in all the books of the Old Testament (excepting only those parts that are avowedly poetical or prophetical) which is a very strong evidence of their genuineness, even exclusively of the suitableness of this circumstance to the times of the supposed authors. {Sixthly. The style of the New Testament also is remarkably simple and unaffected, and perfectly suited 74 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY lo the time, places, and persons. There is a diversity of style and idiom, such as infallibly proves them to be the production of different writers. And, though a large proportion of the language of the New Testament is pure Greek ; yet it is not like the language of Iso- crates, of Demosthenes, of Xenophon, or of Plutarch : then there would have been strong ground to suspect forgery, since such would ill accord with the character of Jews writing in a language not their own. But the use of words and phrases is such, as well as the ideas and method of reasoning, that the books of the New Testament could be written by none but persons origi- nally Jeics, which brings the inquiry into a still narrower compass : for I believe it would be impossible to devise any hypothesis which would satisfactorily account for Jews telling such a story, and sacrificing their lives in attestation of it, unless the death and resurrection of Christ make an essential part of that hypothesis. It may also be observed, that the narrations and precepts of both the Old and New Testaments are delivered without marks of hesitation ; the writers teach as having authority ; a circumstance peculiar to those who have both a clear knowledge of what they deliver, and a perfect integrity of heart; and this uprightness of intention is, farther, most strikingly evinced by their incessantly relating, either as historians, prophets, or teachers, what runs counter to the whole train of their prejudices as Jews. And farther, that the care used in specifying that some of the Psalms were composed by Asaph, others by Moses, some of the Proverbs by Lemuel, &c. furnishes another argument in favour of the genuineness of the books of Scripture, and leads us to infer that those books are the real productions of the authors to whom they are ascribed. III. The very great Number of particular Circumstances of Time and Place, Persons, fyc. mentioned in the Scrip- tures, come in, Proof both of their Genuineness and Authenticity. OF THE SCRIPTURES. 75 Here I shall recite some of the principal heads under which these circumstances may be found. Thus, there are mentioned in the book of GENESIS the rivers of Paradise, the generations of the antediluvian patriarchs, the deluge with its circumstances, the place where the ark rested, the building of the tower of Babel, the con- fusion of tongues, the dispersion of mankind, or the division of the earth among the posterity of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the generations of the post-diluvian patri- archs, with the gradual shortening of human life after the flood ; the sojournings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with many particulars of the state of Canaan, and the neighbouring countries in their times ; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the state of the land of Eclom both before and after Esau's time, and the descent of Jacob into Egypt ; with the state of Egypt before the time of Moses. In the book of EXODUS are mentioned the plagues of Egypt, the institution of the passover, the passage through the Red Sea, with the destruction of Pharaoh and his host there, the miracle of manna, the mur- mu rings of the people, the victory over the Amalekites, the solemn delivery of the laiv from Mount Sinai, many particular laws both moral and ceremonial, the worship of the golden calf, the circumstance of Moses breaking the tables on which the law had been inscribed, and a very minute description of the tabernacle, priests, garments, urim and thummim, ark, &c. In LEVITICUS there is a collection of ceremonial laws, with all their particularities, and accounts of the con- secration of Aaron and his son, and of the remarkable deaths of Nadab and Abihu. The book of NUMBERS contains the first and second numberings of the several tribes, with their genealogies ; the peculiar offices of the three several families of the Levites, many ceremonial laws, the journeyings and encampments of the people in the wilderness during forty years, with the relation of some remarkable events 76 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY which happened in this period ; such as the searching of the land, the rebellion of Korah, the victories over Arad, Sihon, and Og, with the division of the kingdoms of the two last among the Gadites, Reubenites, and Manassites ; the history of Balak and Balaam, and the victory over the Midianites; all described with the several particularities of time, place, and persons. The book of DEUTERONOMY contains a recapitulation of many things contained in the last three books, with a second delivery of the law, chiefly the moral one, by Moses, upon the borders of Canaan, just before his death, with an account of that death, and the true reason assigned why he saw, but did not enter, the promised land. In the book of JOSHUA are related, the passage over Jordan, the conquest of the land of Canaan in detail, and the division of it among the tribes; including a minute geographical description. The book of JUDGES contains a recital of a great variety of public transactions, with the private origin of some. In all, the names of times, places, and persons, both among the Israelites, and the neighbouring nations, are noted with particularity and simplicity. In the book of RUTH is a very particular account of the genealogy of David, with several incidental circum- stances. The books of SAMUEL, KINGS, CHRONICLES, EZRA, and NEHEMIAH, contain the transactions of the kings before the captivity, and of the governors afterwards, all delivered in the same circumstantial manner. And here the particular account of the regulations, sacred and civil, established by David, and of the building of the temple by Solomon, the genealogies given in the beginning of the first book of Chronicles, and the lists of the persons who returned, sealed, &c. after the cap- tivity, in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, deserve particular notice, in the light in which we are now considering things. OF THE SCRIPTURES. 77 The book of ESTHER contains a like account of a very remarkable event, with the institution of a festival in memory of it. The book of PSALMS mentions many historical events both common and miraculous, in an incidental way, or sometimes by way of celebration 4 ; and this, as well as the books of JOB, PROVERBS, ECCLESIASTES, and CAN- TICLES, allude to the manners and customs of ancient times, in various particulars. In the PROPHECIES there are blended some historical relations ; and in other parts the indirect mention of facts, times, places, and persons, is interwoven with the predictions in the most copious and circumstantial manner. If we turn to the NEW TESTAMENT, the same obser- vations present themselves at first view. Here also there are often comprehensive syllabuses of the leading facts of the Old Testament history, comprised in a single chapter, of which those mentioned at the foot of the page are striking instances 5 . It is also observable, that our Lord, in his various conversations with the Jews, assumes the genuineness and authenticity of the Jewish Scriptures, that is, of the Old Testament books, and argues upon them. Thus we find him speaking of Moses as a lawgiver, referring to the decalogue, and various laws and observances mentioned in different parts of the Pentateuch; to Abram, to Jacob, to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, to the Queen of Sheba (mentioned in 1 Kings x.), and Solomon ; to David as a prophet, and as inspired; to " Moses and the Prophets" generally; to Jonah, as a type of him- self; and to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, and Malachi, as prophets. In the several parts of the New Testament, too, we have the names of friends and enemies, the conduct of both, the faults of 4 See especially Psalms 78, 105, 106, 114, 135, 136. And for a defence of the Canticles, see Theodoret's Commentary thereon ; or Dupin's Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. iv. p. 62. 8 Acts, vii.; 1 Cor. x. ; Heb. xi. ; 2 Pet, ii. 78 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY friends told without gloss, those of enemies without exaggeration or virulence ; the names of Jews, Greeks, and Romans, obscure and illustrious ; the times, places, and circumstances, of facts specified directly, and alluded to indirectly, with various references to the customs and manners of those times and places. And here again we may notice, by the by, that many of the historical books, both of the Old and New Testament, contain prophecies which have been fulfilled ; and from which both their truth and their divine authority may be inferred ; as I shall show in my next letter. Now, from the preceding enumeration it may be observed, First, that in fact we never find forged or false accounts of things to superabound thus in particu- larities. There is always some truth where considerable particularities are related, and they always seem to bear some proportion to one another. Thus there is a great want of the particulars of time, place, and persons, in Manetho's account of the Egyptian dynasties, Ctesias's account of the Assyrian kings, and those which the technical chronologers have given of the ancient king- doms of Greece ; and agreeably to this obvious prin- ciple, these accounts have much fiction and falsehood, with some truth. Whereas Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, and Caesar's of the War in Gaul, in both which the particulars of time, place, and persons are mentioned, are universally esteemed authentic to a great degree of exactness. Secondly. A forger, or a relator of known falsehoods, would be careful not to mention so great a number of particulars, since this would be to put into his reader's hands criteria by which he may be detected. Hence appears one reason of the fact mentioned in the last paragraph, and which, in confirming that fact, confirms the proposition here to be established. Thirdly. A forger or relater of falsehoods, could scarcely furnish such lists of particulars. It is easy to conceive how faithful records, kept from time to time, by persons concerned in the transactions, should con- OF THE SCRIPTURES. 79 tain such lists ; nay, it is natural to expect them in this case, from that local memory which takes strong possession of the fancy in those who have been present at transactions : but it would be a work of the highest invention, and greatest stretch of genius, to raise from nothing such numberless particularities, as are almost every where to be met with in the Scriptures. There is, besides, a circumstance relating to the Gospels, which deserves particular notice in this place. St. Matthew and St. John were apostles ; and therefore, since they accompanied Christ, must have this local memory of his journeyings and miracles. St. Mark was a Jew of Judea, and a friend of St. Peter ; and therefore may either have had this local memory him- self, or have written chiefly from St. Peter, who had. But Si. Luke, being a proselyte of Antioch, not con- verted, perhaps, till several years after Christ's resurrec- tion, and receiving his accounts from different eye- witnesses, as he says himself, could have no regard to that order of time which a local memory would suggest. Let us try now how the gospels answer to these positions. Matthew's, then, appears to be in exact order of time, and to be a regulator to Mark's and Luke's, showing Mark's to be nearly so, but Luke's to have little or no regard to the order of time in his account of Christ's ministry. John's gospel is like Matthew's, in order of time ; but as he wrote after all the other evangelists, and with a view only of recording some remarkable par- ticulars, such as Christ's actions before he left Judea to go to preach in Galilee, his disputes with the Jews of Jerusalem, and his discourses to the apostles at his last supper, there was less opportunity for this evangelist's local memory to show itself. Yet his recording what passed before Christ's going into Gali- lee might be in part from this cause ; as Matthew's omission of it was probably from his want of this local memory. For it appears that Matthew resided in Galilee, and that he was not converted till some time after Christ's going thither to preach. Now this suitable- 80 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY ness of the four gospels to their reputed authors, in a circumstance of so subtle and recluse a nature, is quite inconsistent with the supposition of fiction or forgery. This remark is originally due to Sir Isaac Newton 6 . Fourthly. If we could suppose the persons' who forged the books of the Old and New Testaments to have furnished their readers with a great variety of particulars mentioned above, notwithstanding the two reasons here alleged against it, we cannot, however, conceive, but that the persons of those times, when the books were published, must, by the help of these cri- teria, have detected and exposed the forgeries or false- hoods. For these criteria are so attested by allowed facts, as at this lime, and in these remote parts of the world, to establish the authenticity and genuineness of the Scriptures; and, by parity of reason, they would suffice even now' to detect the fraud, were there any : whence we niay conclude, a fortiori, that they must have enabled the persons who were upon the spot when the books were thus circulated to do this ; and the importance of many of the particulars recorded, many of the renunciations required, would furnish them with abundant motives for this purpose. So that upon the whole it may be safely inferred, that the very great number of particulars of time, place, persons, &c. men- tioned in the Scriptures, is a proof of their genuineness and truth ; even independently of the consideration of the agreement of these particulars with history, natural and civil, and the agreement of the several books with themselves and with one another. Were I to rest the proof of the genuineness and authenticity of the Scriptnres solely upon what has been already advanced in this letter, I might safely challenge the most learned men to adduce evidence-of any thing like equal weight in proof of the genuineness of Caesar's Commentaries, Pliny's Letters, Livy's Ro- man History, Tacitus's Annals, or any other pieces 6 See his chapter on the birth and passion of Christ in his Com- ment on Daniel. OF THE SCRIPTURES. 81 preserved to us from antiquity, and received without hesitation by all except madmen. But I am unwilling to quit a subject so copious and important without going still farther than this, and bringing forward other evidence in favour of particular portions of the Bible, from which their antiquity and genuineness will be placed in the most incontrovertible light. Here though, that our inquiry may be circumscribed within moderate limits, I must make selections ; and shall for the most part speak of those books the authority of which has been most disputed by unbelievers. Let us, then, for a first example, inquire into parti- cular proofs of the authenticity of the PENTATEUCH. And here the evidences are numerous, various, and striking : I shall select the most prominent. First, an- cient heathen writers testify to Moses and his writings in some way or other. Thus Manetho, Cheremon, Apollonius, Lysimachus, and many others, testify that Moses was the leader of the Jews, and the writer of their Law. Eupolemus, Artapanus, Strabo, Trogus Pompeius, Chalcidius, and Juvenal, speak of Moses as the author of a volume which was preserved with great care among the Jews, by which the worship of images and eating of swine's flesh were forbidden, cir- cumcision and the observation of the Sabbath strictly enjoined 7 . Longinus cites Moses as the Lawgiver of the Jews, and a person of no inconsiderable character : and adds, that he has given a noble specimen of the true sublime in his account of the creation of the world, when light was called into existence 8 . Diodorus Sicu- lus in his Catalogue of those lawgivers who aftected to have received the plan of their laws from some deity, mentions Moses as ascribing his to that God whom he (fl^ls Jaoh, or Jah. And farther he speaks of Moses as a man illustrious for his courage and prudence, who instituted the Jewish religion and laws, divided the Jews into twelve tribes, established the priesthood 7 It will be sufficient to refer to Juv. Sat. xiv. ver. 96 106. 8 Long. De Subliin. 9, p. 50. Pearce's 8vo. ed. 1732. G 82 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY among them with a judicial power 9 , &c. Numenius, a Pythagorean, held the Jewish Scriptures, and especially the books of Moses, in such great esteem, that his books of the chief good, &c. are full of passages quoted from Moses and some of the prophets with great reverence. He says, " Plato was only Moses speaking Greek," and affirms that Moses, by his prayers, brought dreadful calamities upon Egypt 10 . Justin Martyr enumerates many poets, historians, lawgivers, and philosophers of Greece, who mention Moses as the leader and prince of the Jewish nation 11 . Berosus and Abydenus, men- tion the deluge. Artapanus, Eupolemus, and Aby- denus, speak of the tower of Babel ; and the latter of the failure of that enterprise. Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Tacitus, Pliny, and Solinus, agree in giving an account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the main agreeable to that of Moses 1 " 2 . Berosus, Alex- ander Polyhistor, and others, make express and honour- able mention of Abraham, and some of his family ; and even speak of his interview with Melchisedec. Secondly. The genuineness and authenticity of the books of Moses may be inferred from their being men- tioned in other books of Scripture. Thus, in the book of Joshua, in both the books of Kings, in the second book of Chronicles, in the books of Ezra, of Daniel, of Malachi,the writingoftheLaw is unequivocally ascribed to Moses. The divine mission of Moses is attested in the first book of Chronicles, in the Psalms, the prophe- cies of Isaiah and Jeremiah. Several of the miraculous facts recorded in these books suggest to the Prophets their finest images 13 . Each of the five books of Moses 9 Diod. Sic. ap. Phot Bib. 10 Euseb. Praep. Ev. ix. 8 ; xi. 10. Orig. Contra Cels. lib. iv._ " Just. Cohort, ad Gent. p. 9 11. It may be added, that flp> phyry, one of the most acute and learned enemies of Christianity, admitted the genuineness of the Pentateuch ; and contended for the truth of Sanchoniathan's account of the Jews, from its coincidence with the Mosaic history. Celsus also admitted it. 12 Tacit. Hist. 1. v. c. vii. Plin. Nat. Hist. Solinius. c. xxxvi. x " Vide Eden, Ezek. xxviii. 13. The Deluge, Is. xxiv. 18. So- OF THE SCRIPTURES. 83 is referred to, or separately quoted, by Christ himself in the Gospels. And, after his resurrection, his Apotles add their testimony, not only to the fact that the law was written by Moses, but that it was written under the superintendence of inspiration ". Thirdly, The fact is affirmed in the books them- selves. Thus, in Exodus, " Moses wrote all the words of the Lord ; and took the book of the Covenant, and read it in the audience of the people." And again, in the book of Deuteronomy, part of which appears, as Bp. Watson observes, to be a kind of repetition or abridgment of the four preceding books. " When Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, Moses com- manded the Levites which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying Take this book of the Law, and put it into the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee 15 ." In conformity with this it was testified, full eight hundred years after, in the 2d book of Kings, and the 2d book of Chronicles : " Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the Law in the house of the Lord.'* " Hilkiah the priest found a book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses 16 . Fourthly. Moses in these books gives a detailed ac- count of various miracles openly wrought by himself, and of several miraculous interpositions of God in tes- timony of his divine mission : practices and ceremonies among the Jews were founded upon those miraculous events. The books of Moses also contain prophecies, as that which declares " that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," the prophecies of the dying patriarch Jacob, and that of a prophet "like unto dora and Gomorrah, Is. xxxiv. 9. The Exodus, Is. xi. 15, 16 ; xliii. 10 19 ; li. 9. 10. Descent ou Sinai, Mieah, i. 3, 4. Acts, iii. 22 ; vii. 35 37 ; xiii. 39; xxvi. 22; xxviii. 23. Rom. x. 5. 1 Cor. x.2. 2 Cor. iii. 715. Heb. iii. 2 ; vii. 14 ; x. 28. Rev. xv. 3, &c. 14 See note 13. l5 Ex. xxiv. 4, 7. Deut. xxxi. 24 2y.. 18 2 Kings, xxii. 8. 2 Chr. xxxiv. 14. 84 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY Moses." Now the existence of the customs and cere r monies proves the actual occurrence of the miraculous facts, and these establish the fidelity of the writings, and the divine authority under which Moses acted. So likewise theaccomplishmentof the prophecies proves that they were dictated by God. Had not the miracles taken place, it would be absurd to imagine the books could ever have been received, or the practices we advert to introduced. But the arguments suggested under this head will be enlarged upon in subsequent letters. I now proceed to remark with regard to the books of Moses : Lastly. That their reception among the Jews proves that they were written by Moses, and that what he affirms respecting the divine dictation of greater part of them is true. PAUL says, " Even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart 17 ," that is, the Jews are ignorant of the true spiritual meaning of the Mosaic writings. Whence it is evident that, in his time, these writings were read regularly among the Jews, and had long been so. Again, JOSE- PHUS, in his book against Appion, says, " We (the Jews) have two-and-twenty books which are to be be- lieved as of divine authority, and which comprehend the history of all ages: jive belong to Moses, which contain the origin of man, and the tradition of the succession of generations down to his death ; which takes in a compass of about three thousand years." MAIMONIDES also, in the eleventh century, drew up a confession of faith for the Jews, which all of them at this day admit. Two of its articles relate to Moses: they are, 1. "The doctrine and prophecy of Moses is true." 2. " The law that we have was given by Moses." The Jews, then, from the time of Josephus down to the present, have ascribed the Pentateuch to 17 2 Cor. iii. 15. Spinoza's objections to the books of Moses, as veil as his assertion that they were not written by Moses but by Ezra, or essentially altered by him, are very completely refuted, and shown to involve the most monstrous absurdities, by Abbadie in his " Vindication of the Truth of the Christian Religion." OF THE SCRIPTURES. 85 Moses. Assume the hypothesis that these five books were forged any time between Moses and Josephus, and mark the great absurdity thereby produced; you must, in consequence, believe that at some one period the whole Jewish nation suffered themselves to be deluded, to adopt burdensome rites in remembrance of events which they knew never occurred, and to re- ceive, as the law which was ever after to regulate their conduct, rules contrived by a vile pretender, who en- deavoured to palm them upon them as laws emanating from the Supreme Being himself. This is in itself so extremely preposterous and improbable, that I might safely have rested the authority of the Pentateuch upon the present, argument alone, were it not that as this portion of the Bible has been more exposed than any other to infidel attacks, I thought it right to show that, fortified as it is on all points, it may fairly be reckoned impregnable 18 . 18 Another very strong argument in favour of the authenticity of the Pentateuch is derived from the variety of minute allusions, and indirect coincidences, between the book of Deuteronomy and the preceding books : coincidences such as would never have been found in forged compositions. This argument has been established upon numerous instances selected by the late Dean Graves, of Trinity Col- lege, Dublin, in his valuable " Lectures on the Pentateuch." The genuineness of one of the books, Exodus, may also be inferred from the short and modest account of eighty years of Moses's life, pre- ceding his Divine Mission, comprised in twenty-two verses. Many collateral proofs establishing the truth of important facts related in the books of Moses might easily be adduced. Thus, although the history of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is recorded in the Bible, it cannot thence be contended that the testimony of the Dead Sea, and the present state of its waters, (see Dr. Marcet's analysis of them in Phil. Trans. 1807), ceases to be applicable or credible. Thus, again, the tribes of Arabs which deduce their descent from Ishmnel, cannot be denied to be at least some authority for the exist- ence oflshmael's father. Thus, also, the pyramids of Egypt demon- strate, at the present period, the slavery of the people who built them ; and the last of them indicates the unfinished state in which the business was left by the workmen : so that even architectural antiquities, as well as profane history, which names the chiefs of the Hebrews as builders of these mountains, serve to confirm the truth of 86 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY I shall now pass to the book of JOB, the authenticity of which has been more questioned than any of the historical parts of Scripture next to the Pentateuch. The great antiquity of this book, however, has not, as far as I recollect, been much disputed. But it has been made a question, " Is this book dramatic or nar- rative?" Or, "Was there ever such a man as Job?" Now, although the Apostle Paul, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, quotes a passage from the book of Job with his accustomed reference to a book of Divine Authority, " For it is written I9 ; yet this does not de- termine the point. But the reality of the history, however poetical and elevated the style may be, may be fairly inferred from the prophecies of Ezekiel, and the Epistle of James. In the former, God himself, in speaking to the prophet, repeatedly mentions Job, in the residence of the Israelites in Egypt, and consequently appear in support of the authenticity of the Mosaic history. I cannot help swelling this already long note, by pointing to one remarkable historical fact, which proves the existence of (he law of Moses at the dissolution of the kingdom of Israel, when the ten tribes were carried captive to Assyria by Shalmaneser, and dispersed ;nnong the provinces of that extensive empire ; that is, about seven hundred and forty-one years before Christ. It was about that time ihe Samaritans were transported from Assyria to repeople the coun- try, which the ten captive tribes of Israel had formerly inhabited. The posterity of the Samaritans still inhabit the land of their fathers, and have preserved copies of the Pentateuch, two or three of which were brought to this country in the last century but one. The Sama- ritan Pentateuch is written in old Hebrew characters, and therefore must have existed before the time of Ezra. But so violent were the animosities which subsisted between the Jews and Samaritans, that in no period of their history would the one nation have received any books from the other. They must therefore have received them at their first settlement in Samaria from the captive priest whom the Assyrian monarch sent to teach them how they should fear the Lord, (2 Kings, xvii. 27). This observation is due to M. Dupin, whose defence of the books of Moses, against the objections of Hobbes, Spinoza, and F. Simon, is most complete and decisive. As it is too extensive for insertion here, I refer to the Preliminary Dissertation in the first volume of his Bibliotlieca Patrum. 19 1 Cor. iii. 19. Job. v. 13. OF THE SCRIPTURES. 87 conjunction with Noah and Daniel, as men of extraor- dinary righteousness. " Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God." And in the latter, James exhibits the patience of Job, and its reward, as an example and encouragement to professing Christians". These pas- sages prove, satisfactorily, I think, that Job was a real, and not an ideal, character. It is probable this book of Job has greater antiquity than any other in the Old Testament: for it contains no allusion to the children of Israel, to their grievous afflictions in Egypt, or their happy deliverance from them ; though these topics would have given fine scope to Job and his friends in their various conferences. It should seem, indeed, from the age to which Job lived (but little less than two hundred years), that he was a contemporary with the ancient Hebrew patriarchs ; and that Uz, his coun- try, was in Edom. The book was most probably written by Moses while he was in the land of Midian, where he had opportunity of coming to the knowledge of this history ; and, seeing that it might be very useful to comfort and direct the Israelites, wrote it, under divine superintendence, for their benefit. Thus much, at least, is clear; that the book was written by a He- brew, by one who had been in Arabia, and by one who wrote before the promulgation of the Mosaic law : these criteria all attach to Moses, and to no other. Besides this, Hebrew scholars affirm that, in the original, the language is often peculiar, the expressions being such as are met with in the writings of Moses, and no where else. This book is indeed the only one from which we can derive a correct knowledge of the patriarchal reli- gion, and which " gives completion to the Bible, by adding the dispensation of the earliest ages to those of the Law and of the Gospel, by which it was succes- sively superseded 21 ." 20 Ezek. xiv. 14, 16, 18, 20. James, v. 1 1. 21 See farther, J. D. Michaelis in R. Lowth Praelectiones, Notse, et 88 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY As to the PROPHECIES, the only other compositions in the Old Testament I intend to specify here, it may be observed, that they all entered the Septuagint ver- sion of which I have already spoken, and which was executed at least two hundred and eighty-seven years before Christ, through the means of Demetrius Phale- reus, and by the command of Ptolemy Philadelphus. I know very well that Dean Prideaux affirms, on the evidence of Philo, Josephus, and a few others, who had never seen the original version of the LXX, that it only contained the law. But Aristobulus, who was an Alexandrian Jew, tutor to an Egyptian king, living within one hundred years after the translation was made, and having free access to it in the Royal library, affirms, that " the ivhole Sacred Scripture was rightly translated," by the means just mentioned. And Justin Martyr says expressly that it contained the prophetic writings, and indeed quotes the prophets including Moses from it, because he says " that very translation was then in the hands of almost every Jew all the world over 22 ." Here, then, is strong evidence of the correctness of the original Greek translation. And the general correspondence of the Hebrew Bibles now in existence, and of the Septuagint copies in Greek, is a proof that both have been handed down to us without material variation, and that either is therefore, in the main, genuine and authentic. Thus, then, we estab- lish the existence of the Prophetical books of the Old Testament (nearly as we now have them) at least two hundred and eighty-seven years before the Christian era; and we may farther remark, that most of them Epimetra, p. 185. Thomas Scott's Translation of Job ; and the ele- gant Introductory Dissertation to the recent translation of " The Book of Job," by my late learned friend Dr. John Mason Good, F. R. S. The substance of this dissertation is now inserted in iny Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Character of Dr. Good. 23 Enseb. Prrcp. Evan. 1. 1. Just. Mart. Apol. ii. sect. 38. See also Origen's quotation from the Septuagint version of [saiah, in the following Letter on Prophecy, aud Gregorie on the LXX Inter- preters. OF THE SCRIPTURES. 89 are referred to and quoted, often with high distinction, by Christ and his Apostles, in the several passages mentioned below a . I shall only add, that our Savi- our's emphatic language, " All things MUST be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me 24 /' is a re- markable attestation in favour of the truth, in the fullest sense, of all the books of the Old Testament, since he here adopts the threefold distribution under which the Jews comprehended every portion of their Sacred Volume. That this latter testimony, however, may bear upon our inquiry with all the weight to which it is entitled, it is now requisite that we investigate the genuineness and authenticity of the New Testament. And here, in addition to the general arguments advanced in the be- ginning of this letter, I shall adduce a few particular 23 Isaiah, in Matt. iv. 14; viii. IT; xii. 17 ; xiii. 14. Mark, vii. 6. Lake, iii. 4 ; iv. 7. John, xii. 39, 41. Acts, viii. 28; xxviii. 25. Rom. is. 27 ; x. 16, 20, &c. Jeremiah, Matt. ii. 17, 18 ; xvi. 14. Ezekiel, compare Rev. xix. 17 21; xx. 8, 9, with Ezek. xx.xviii. and xxxix. 1 20. Daniel, Ezek. xiv. 14 ; xxviii. 3. Matl. xxiv. 15. Mark xiii. 14. Hosea, Matt. ii. 15 ; ix. 13 ; xii. 7. Rom. ix. 25, 26. Joel, Acts, ii. 16. Rom. x. 13. Amos, Acts, vii. 42, 43 ; xv. 15, 17. Jonah, Matt. xii. 39, 41; xiv. 4. Luke, xi. 29, 30. Micah, Matt. ii. 5,6. John, vii. 42. Habakkuk, Acts, xiii. 41. Rom. i. 17. Gal. iii. 2. Heb. x. 37, 38. Haggai, Heb. ii. 26. Zechariah, Matt. xxi. 4,5 ; xxvi.3I. Mark, xiv. 27. John, xii. 15 ; xix. 37. Rev. i. 7. Malachi, Matt. xi. 10 ; xvii. 1012. Mark, i. 2; ix. 12. Luke, i. 16,17; vii. 27; xvi. 26. Rom.ix.13. 24 Lake, xxiv. 14. In favour of the genuineness of our present text of the prophecies, the following very just observation deserves attention. " It may be inferred from the admission of Celsus, that the prophecies were found in the Jewish Scriptures in his time; and since then no alteration has been made in them by the Jews. But if so, this is the strongest presumption that the Jews had never altered them before. For, if, when by the fulfilment of the prophecies in the person of Christ, they were most tempted to erase predictions, so hostile to their own creed, they made no change, much less would they do it when the temptation was diminished." See Mr. F. Cun- ningham's Hulsean Prize Essay on the books of Origen against Celsus. The same inference is deducible from Justin Martyr's con- troversy with Trypho the Jew. 90 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY evidences. Now, first, it is indisputable, that the pri- mitive publishers of Christianity wrote books contain- ing an account of the life and doctrine of their master, several of which bore the names of the various books which now constitute the New Testament ; and, far- ther, passages cited from those books by very early writers, are found in the copies now existing of the respective books. Secondly, the early Christians had as good opportunities of satisfying themselves as to the genuineness of these books, as other ancients had with regard to the genuineness of books on other sub- jects which they received : and since the new religion required considerable renunciations, and exposed its professors to heavy persecutions, it is unreasonable to suppose they would adopt it without a due examina- tion. Thirdly, there were many books issued under the names of the Apostles, which were, notwithstanding, rejected by the primitive Christians ; which proves that they were not very open to deception. Fourthly, we do not find that either the Jews or the Heathens, with whom the early Christian apologists were engaged, ever called in question the genuineness of the records to which their attention was called. Fifthly, the books of the New Testament were, in very early times, col- lected into a distinct volume. Thus, EUSEBIUS says that Quadratus and others, the immediate successors 'of the apostles, carried the Gospels with them in their travels. MELITO speaks of the Old Testament, as in contradiction to the collection called the New Testa- ment. TERTULLIAN divides the Christian Scriptures into the Gospets and Apostles, and calls the whole volume the Neiv Testament* 5 . But, farther, the principal books of the New Testa- ment are quoted, or alluded to, by a series of Christian writers, in regular succession from the apostolic times. IGNATIUS, for example, became bishop of Antioch 24 See on this, and connected subjects, Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. 23 ; lib. iii. cap. 3, 4. 25. 39 ; lib. v. cap. 8. 24 ; lib. vi. cap. 21. 23 ; lib. vii. cap. 25, &c. OF THE SCRIPTURES. 91 thirty-seven years after Christ's ascension. In his most interesting Epistles are undoubted allusions to the Gospels of Matthew and John, though they are not marked as quotations. f POLYCARP, who had been taught by the Apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, has nearly forty allusiovs to the New Testament in one short epistle, several of them quoted, without hesitation, as the words of Christ. He obviously quotes from Mat- thew, Acts, Romans, Island 2d Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1st and 2d Thessalonians, 1st and 2d Timothy, 1st Peter, and 1st John. JUSTIN MARTYR, who died at latest about the year 163, has several distinct and copious extracts from the Gospels and the Acts: and by his calling Jesus Christ the Son of God and " Apostle," which is no where done in Scripture but in Hebrews iii. 1, it would seem that he was acquainted with that Epistle. In all his works there are but two instances in which he refers to any thing, as said or done by Christ, which is not related in the Gospels now extant. All his references suppose the books notorious, and that there were no other accounts of Christ received and credited. He also says expressly, that the " Memoirs of the Apostles (which elsewhere he calls the Gospels) are read in public worship." HEGESIPPUS, a converted Jew, who flourished thirty years after Justin, says, that in his journey from Pales- tine to Rome, " in every city the same doctrine was taught, which the law, and the prophets, and the LORD teacheth." POTHINUS, bishop of Lyons about 170, then ninety years old, sent an epistle to Asia containing an account of the sufferings of that Church. In this epistle he makes exact references to the Gospels of Luke and John, and to the Acts of the Apostles. IREN.EUS, successor to Pothinus, and who asserts that " he had seen Polycarp," gives positive testimony to most of the books of the New Testament. He does not, however, quote Jude : but from the book of Reve- lation he makes frequent and large quotations. He 92 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY asserts, that the story which the Gospels exhibit is that which the Apostles told, and that the Gospels were written, " as the foundation and pillar of our faith." He then describes (he authors, traces the origin, and defends the genuineness of their histories. He affirms also, that in his time there were four, and only four Gospels, which by his references appear to be those we now have M . These persons, it should be remarked, though their 26 Words can scarcely he framed to declare more clearly the au- thenticity of the four Gospels, than the following from the Third Book of Irenaeus, against Heresies : " We have not received," says this Father, " the knowledge of the way of our salvation by any other than those by whom the Gospel has been brought to us ; which Gos- pel they first preached, and afterwards by the will of God committed to writing, that it might be for time to come the foundation and pil- lar of our faith. For after our Lord rose from the dead, and they (the Apostles) were endued from above with the power of the Holy Ghost coming down upon them, they received a perfect knowledge of all things. They then went forth to all the ends of the earth, de- claring to men the blessing of heavenly peace, having all of them, and every one alike, the Gospel of God. Matthew then, among the Jews, wrote a Gospel in their own language, while Peter and Paul were preaching the Gospel at Rome, and founding a church there. And after their exit (death, or departure), Mark also, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, delivered to us in writing the things that had been preached by Peter : and Luke, the companion of Paul, put down in a book the Gospel preached by him (Paul). Afterwards John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned upon his breast, he likewise published a Gospel while he dwelt at Ephesns, in Asia. And all these have delivered to us, that there is one God, the Maker of the heaven and the earth, declared by the law and the prophets, and one Christ, the Son of God." " The Word," says he again, " the former of all things, who sits upon the cherubim and upholdeth all things, having appeared unto men, has given us a Gospel of a four- fold character, but joined in one spirit. The Gospel according to John, declares his primary and glorious generation from the Father, In the beginning u-as the Word. But the Gospel according to Luke being of a priestly character, begins with Zacharias the priest offer- ing incense to God. Matthew relates his generation, which is ac- cording to man, The book of the generation of Jesus Christ , the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Mark begins from the prophetic spirit which came down from above to men, saving, The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Esaias the prophet." Adv. Haeres. lib. iii. c. 11, et apud Grabe, p. 221 ; vide Lardner's Credi- bility, vol. ii. p. 159, edit. Kippis. OF THE SCRIPTURES. 93 testimonies concur, lived in countries remote from one another. Ignatius flourished at Antioch ; Poly carp at Smyrna; Justin Martyr, in Syria; Pothynus and Ire- naeus, in France. ATHENAGORAS, who lived between 166 and 178, and before his conversion was an Athenian philosopher, wrote an able Apology for Christianity, which he ad- dressed to the emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and Lucius Commodus. In this, and in his discourse on the Resurrection, he quotes Matthew, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st and 2d Corinthians, Galatians, and 1st Timothy. He seems also to refer to passages in James, 2d Peter, and Revelation. TERTULLIAN, presbyter of Carthage, flourished at the end of the second and beginning of the third century. In his works, which are numerous and still well known, he expressly quotes all the books of the New Testa- ment, except James, the second epistle of Peter, and the third of John. It has been remarked, that there are more quotations from the New Testament in his writ- ings, than from the various writings of TULLY in all the ancient books in the world. This writer intimates, that the actual autographs of the Apostolic writings, or at least some of them, were preserved till the age in which he lived, and were then to be seen 27 . After Tertullian, the successive, though in part co- temporaneous writers, HIPPOLYTUS, ORIGEN, GREGORY, DIONYSIUS, CYPRIAN, ARNOBIUS, &c. all of whom fur- nish strong and decided testimonies, bring us to the lime of EUSEBIUS, who flourished about the year 315, and was the most accurate historian among the ancient Christian writers. He mentions it as a fact well known, and asserted by Origen and others, his predecessors, that the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Lnke, and John, the Epistles of St. Paul, one of Peter, and one of 27 Age jam, qui voles curiositatem melius exercere in negotio sa- lutis tnae, percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas, apud qnas ipsae adhuc catliednr Apostolorum suis locis president, apud quas ipsse Autlien- ticac Literae eoruin recitantur. De Prtescri^t. adversus Htereticos. 94 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY John, were UNIVERSALLY received by the Church. He says Origen culls them evayytXia avavrlpp^Ta and o[io\oyu/bii>oi, as not being able to find that they had ever been disputed. And, though the *4cts are not expressly mentioned by Origen in this catalogue, Eu- sebius himself declares that he has no scruple concern- ing that book ; nuy, even Origen, in another place, mentions the Acts as written by Luke, and pays the same regard to them as to the other books of the New Testament. Origen, in fact, quotes from twenty-nine books of the Old Testament, from all in the New but the Epistle to Philemon, 2 John, and Jude; and his quotations correspond very accurately with our present text. As to those seven books of the New Testament, i. e. the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of James, the 2d of Peter, the 2d and 3d of John, Jude, and the Revelation, which had been disputed, and were there- fore called by Eusebius arriXf/ofj-et'oi ; even he asserts, that they were at length introduced into the Canon, that is, into the number of those books which Christians regard as the rule of their faith and practice, and which they distinguish from other books written by persons whom they thought less eminently under the divine direction, whatever their sanctity might be 21 *. From the time of Eusebius, the works of Christian 28 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. 1. iii. c. xxv. Jerom also affirms that the Epistle to the Hebrews " has been received as the Apostle Paul's not only by the eastern churches, but by all the ancient churches." Besides this, let it be remarked, that St. Peter's- reference in his 2d Epistle, iii. 15, 16, is, evidently, to the Epistle to the Hebrews. Bishop Kidder has an observation relative to this epistle, richly worth transcribing : " Of all the books of the New Testament, I know not any, where the mystical senses of the passages of the Old Testament, and applications of them to the Messias (current among the Jews), are so frequent as in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This is a probable argument (independent of all others) that it was writ- ten by St. Paul ; who, having been brought up by Gamaliel, a famous doctor, may be presumed to be well versed in the mystical sense of the places of the Old Testament. And he might use the greater liberty in this way, because he wrote to the Hebrews, who were much used to that way of interpretation, and were best able to judge OF THE SCRIPTURES. 95 writers abound in references to the New Testament. But, instead of citing more, I may next observe, that the Scriptures were spoken of, and either received, or so appealed to, by the various early sects among Chris- tians, us to prove their existence, nearly in the present shape. Thus, Tertullian assures us that Dositheus (who was a cotemporary with the Apostles) was the first who dared to reject the authority of the prophets, by denying their inspiration : but both he and his fol- lowers allowed the five books of Moses to be divine. The Ebionites again, in the first century, allowed the existence of all the books of the New Testament, but only received as divine the Gospel by Matthew. The Valentinians, about the year 120, appealed to the evan- gelic and apostolic writings. The testimony of Chry- sostom (A. D. 398) is, that " though many heresies have arisen, yet all have received the Gospels, either entire or in part." In favour of the early existence of the principal books of the New Testament, 1 must not forget to urge that the first heathen adversaries of Christianity speak of the historical books as containing the accounts upon which the religion was founded. CELSUS, for example, in the second century, writing against Christianity, of that method which he used. I cannot but relate a passage of a late learned writer upon this occasion. (P. Simon, Hist. Grit. N. T. c.. 21.) He tells that he gave this Epistle to the Hebrews to a Jew to read, who was greatly acquainted with their ancient authors. Upon :he perusal of it, the Jew frankly avowed that that book could be writ by none but by some great Mekabul (i. e. man of tradition) of iiis own nation. This Jew was so far from ailimiing that the writer of that Epistle has set aside the true sense of the Scripture, by alle- gories according to his own fancy, that he celebrated his profound Knowledge in the sublime sense of the Bible, and spake of this great Mekabul (as he called him) with admiration." Kidder's Messias, Part ii. c. 5. For a masterly examination of the internal evidence furnished by tiie Epistle to the Hebrews, that it was written by Paul, and a can- ilid investigation of the objections of Bertholdt, Schultz, &c. see Stuart's Commentary on the Hebrews, vol. i. 98 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY alludes to books written by the disciples of Jesus. He accuses the Christians of altering the Gospel, but this accusation is not made out by any important variations existing in the present day. He says his arguments are drawn from their own writings: and he evidently quotes from Matthew's and John's Gospels, from the Acts of the Apostles, from the various Epistles of Paul, Peter, and John. He makes the largest and most remarkable concessions about Jesus Christ; acknow- ledging the truth of his nativity, his journey into Egypt, his passing from place to place with his disciples, the fact of his miracles, his being betrayed, and lastly his passion and death; affirming, that after he was be- trayed, he was "bound," " scourged," "stretched upon the cross," that he " drank vinegar," that after his death he was " said to have appeared twice," but that " he did not appear to his enemies." He speaks, moreover, of the slaughter of the infants, of the descent of the Holy Ghost, of Christ's divinity, his worship; and collectively of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is true he ridicules most of these particulars; but he does not attempt to deny them, which he would have been ready enough to do, could he have done it with any show of reason 29 . He states, indeed, and this most probably was the case, that the reading of certain pas- sages was not exactly the same in all the copies ; but he never questions the truth of the proposition, that the Gospels were written by the Aposlles and Evangelists to whom the first Christians have ascribed them. He does not even let drop a single hint, or attempt an argument upon the matter. And yet his opportunities were excellent, his inclination is not to be doubted (for 29 Lardner's Heath. Test. vol. iii. cap. 18 ; Cunningham's Hulsean Essay, pp. 14, 20 ; and Gyles on the Authenticity of the New Testa- ment, pp. 52, 56. By the way, the remarkable testimony of Tacilux ought not to be omitted in this enumeration. " Auctor nominis ejus Chrislus, qui, Tiberio imperante, per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum, supplicio adfectus erat." Anna). 1. xv. c. 44. The entire passage from which this is extracted deserves attention. OF THE SCRIPTURES. 97 the passages preserved in Origen prove that he was a most virulent opposer of Christianity), and his abilities are extolled by the infidel writers themselves. We have their own word for it, that he was a surprising philoso- pher. " We put it therefore to the judgment and the candour of our adversaries, whether we are not suffi- ciently warranted in the conclusion, that Celsus did not call in question the genuineness of the inspired records, because ' he could not find any plausible rea- son for doing so,' because he had marked his ground, and was well aware that any insinuation which would have affected their genuineness would have affected that of every ancient writer, and, if carried to its utmost length, would have unsettled the foundations of all historical belief." PORPHYRY again, in the third century, though a most inveterate enemy to Christianity, not only allowed that there was such a person as Christ, but honoured him as a most wise and pious man, and one who was trans- lated into heaven. He thought, however, that, by over- throwing the Gospels and the Acts, he should overthrow the Christian Religion itself. Speaking of Matthew, in writing against the Christians, he calls him their Evan- gelist. " He possessed (says Michaelis) every advantage which natural abilities or political situation could af- ford, to discover whether the New Testament was a genuine work of the Apostles and Evangelists, or whe- ther it was imposed upon the world after the decease of its pretended authors. But no trace of this suspicion is any where to be found, nor did it ever occur to Por- phyry to suppose that it was spurious 30 ." JULIAN, in the fourth century, recites the sayings of Christ in the very words of the Evangelists, states the early dates of these records, and calls them by the names they now bear, without questioning their genu- ineness. He endeavours to lessen the reputation of Christ's life and miracles, by telling the world that he 30 Euseb. Dem. Evang. 1. iii. p. 134. Marsh's Michaelis, rol. i. p. 43. H 98 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY " did nothing worthy of note all the while he was here upon earth (notwithstanding all the noise that was made about him), except a person will reckon it a great work, to open the eyes of the blind, to restore limbs to the lame, and deliver persons possessed, from the power and enchantment of devils 31 ." His great object seems always to cause the Divinity of Jesus Christ to be sus- pected ; and therefore he argues that neither Matthew, Mark, Luke, nor Paul himself, ever presumed in direct terms to call him God, but it was St. John (6 ^pt^ds ladvvr}<;} who talked after this manner: that John, perceiving how the persuasion of Christ's being God prevailed mightily among the Christians dispersed through the cities of Greece and Italy, took upon him to assert the same doctrine in his Gospel, with a view to humour them, and obtain himself reputation 32 . Now, however wrong may be the reason assigned here for John's conduct, the concession of Julian is important, in so far as it proves that he took the writings which in his time bore the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 81 Cyril Alexander, contra Julian. 1. vi. p. 191. Ed. Par. 1638. 32 Cyril contra Julian, 1. x. p. 327. In another place, Julian, after certain accusations, says to the Christians, " But these are your own inventions ; for Jesus has no where directed you to do such things, nor yet Paul: the reason is, that they never expected you would arrive at such power: they were contented with deceiving maid- servants and slaves, and by them some men and women ; such as Cornelius and Sergius. If there were, then, any men of eminence brought over to yon, I mean in the times of Tiberius and Claudius, when these things happened, let me pass for a liar in every thing I say." From this quotation we may conclude, that Christianity was first preached in the reigns of the emperors Tiberius and Claudius ; that Cornelius, a Roman Centurion at Caesarea, and Sergius Paulas, Proconsul at Cyprus, were converted to the faith of Jesus before the end of the reign of Claudius (Acts, x. and xiii.) ; and that the Acts of the Apostles is a genuine and true history. Dr. Lardner (vol. viii. p. 404) states this argument very forcibly.' Julian challenges the Christians to produce the names of any eminent men (except Corne- lius and Sergius Paul us) converted (from the Gentiles) to Christi- anity in the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius. This is a proof that Julian did not and could not contest the truth of the history in the Acts of the Apostles. OF THE SCRIPTURES. 99 and Paul, to be the genuine productions of those au- thors ; and farther, because it shows that John's Gospel bore then the same testimony respecting the divinity of Jesus Christ which it now bears. Besides these, there are several other evidences of the genuineness and truth of the various books of the New Testament, into which I cannot now enter mi- nutely. But I must briefly advert to the cogent argu- ments so ably advanced by the late venerable Dr. Paley, drawn from the numerous obviously undesigned coinci- dences, mutually subsisting between the several Epis- tles of St. Paul, and the History of the Acts of the Apostles: these coincidences are so little seen by com- mon observers, that it is impossible to suppose them the effect of forgery ; an examination of them is sufficient to prove that neither the history was forged to square with the letters, nor the letters to accord with the his- tory ; that they are too numerous and close to be accounted for by the accidental, or by the designed, concurrences of 6ction, or in any other way than by the uniformity of the tendency of truth to one point 33 . I have already remarked, on the authority of Euse- bius, that some of the books now admitted into the New Testament were for a while disputed in the early ages of the Church. I may here add, that a few small portions of particular books have had their authenticity called in question by modern critics. Of the latter class are the first two chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel, which have been recently much controverted by those who impugn the doctrine, or rather fact, of Christ's miraculous conception, stated in those chapters, and some of whom forget that the same fact is asserted in Luke's Gospel. Without entering at large into this question, it may suffice to remark that Justin Martyr, 33 For a full developement and application of this train of argu- mentation, see Dr. Paley's admirable work, entitled " Horte Pau- lina." This book has now been published thirty years, during all which period, though many of the Infidel host have " gnashed their teeth" at it in private, not one has attempted to refute it. 100 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY and Clement of Alexandria, have quoted from these two chapters, without signifying any doubt of their authenticity ; that Celsus quotes more than once from the first of these chapters, and refers to the second ; and that Origen, in replying to him, admits that they are authentic; that the massacre of the children (a supposed incredible event on which the objections of several rest) is confirmed by Macrobius 34 as a thing well known in his time; and, lastly, to affirm, on the authority of a very learned critic, Dr. Herbert Marsh, in his valuable notes to Michaelis, that the evidence of the Greek manuscripts is decidedly in favour of the authenticity of these two chapters: and that the testi- mony of the ancient versions is equally decisive, these 34 " Augustus, " says he, (Saturnal. lib. ii. cap. 4,) " having been informed that Herod had ordered a son of his own to be killed, among the male infants within two years old, whom lie had put to death in Syria, said, ' it is better to be Herod's hog than his son.' 1 " Voltaire, in arguing against this fact, with his usual unfairness, avails himself of an idle tradition, that the children thus massacred amounted to fifteen thousand. We can admit as readily as Voltaire, that Bethlehem and all its territory would not, at any one moment, contain fifteen thousand male children under two years of age: but this is the language of an exaggerated tradition, and not the sober statement of Holy Writ, so that we need feel no solicitude about it. The testimony of Macrobius more than counterbalances the witti- cisms of Voltaire. Besides, let it be recollected that Matthew's Gospel was published within so very few years of the event recorded, that the enemies of the gospel, whose hostility was never at rest, would, doubtless, have denied its occurrence on living authority, had it been in their power; yet no vestige of such denial is in existence. Some persons lay great stress upon the silence of Josephus as to this fact; but I think unnecessarily. Are we to call in question every fact that is not mentioned by every historian ? Such a rule would level all authentic history to its base. Tacitus has omitted many things which Suetonius supplies, and Dion Cassius specifies many particu- lars mentioned by neither of the other two ; and, with regard to the history of our own country, Philip Henry, Richard Baxter, and Mrs. Hutchinson, relate many things, both curious and important, of Charles I. and his cotemporaries, which none of our eminent histo- rians have noticed. These are received by men of sound judgment upon their own evidence, and without impeaching, in consequence, the veracity of others who have not adverted to them. OF THE SCRIPTURES. 101 chapters being contained in them all. Besides, how can it well be imagined that those two are spurious, when the beginning of the third chapter is considered ? What writer would begin a history with the phrase, " In those days 35 ?" You will expect that I should produce some evi- dences in favour of the genuineness of the Apocalypse, or Revelation of St. John, especially since this book has been given up as doubtful by some late writers in favour of the New Testament. Allow me, then, to observe on this subject, that Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Clemens Alexandrinus, allow the Apo- calypse to be an ancient book, and ascribe it to " John the disciple of (he Lord :" and Justin, as well as others, asserts that " it was written by divine inspiration." K There is a very able defence of tbe authenticity of the first two chapters of Matthew's Gospel in tbe Quarterly Review, vol. i. p. 320 330, from which I should have been happy to borrow some pas- sages, were I not compelled by my plan to consult brevity. But Dr. Magee's summary, being concise and forcible, is here inserted. " How, then," says he, " stands the evidence upon the whole 1 The SyHac Version, which is one of Apostolical antiquity, and the old Italic, both contain the two chapters. Ignatius, the only Apostolical Father irAo had occasion to make reference to them, does so. The Sibyl- litie Oracles do the same. Justin Martyr does the same. Celsus, the bitter enemy of the Christian faith, does the same. Htgesippus, a Hebrew Christian, does the same. Irenaus, and all the Fathers who succeed him, it is admitted on all hands, do the same. And the chap- ters are at this day found in every manuscript and every version of the Gospel of St. Matthew, which is extant throughout the world. Thus have we one continued and unbroken series of testimony from the days of the Apostles to the present times ; and, in opposition to this, we find only a vague report of the state of a Hebrew copy of St. Matthew's Gospel, said to be received amongst an obscure and unrecognised description of Hebrew Christians, who are admitted, even by the very writers who claim the support of their authenticity, to have mutilated the copy which they possessed, by removing the genealogy. I should not have dwelt so long upon a subject, which is at this day so fully ascertained, as the authenticity of tbe first two chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel, did it not furnish a fair opportunity of exhibiting the species of evidence, which Unitarian critics are capa- ble of resisting; and the sort of arguments with which they do not scruple to resist it." Magee on the Atonement, vol. ii. p. 470. 102 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY And, if we may credit the testimonies of Eusebius and Jerom, who had in their hands the writings of many of the ancients which are now lost, Papias, Melito, Theophilusof Antioch,and Apollonius, all in the second century, received and quoted it. Indeed, Melito wrote a commentary upon this book : and he, being bishop of Sard is, one of the seven churches addressed, could neither be ignorant of their tradition respecting it, nor impose upon them as to its nature and contents. Con- sider, in addition to this, the author's own language. " The Revelation of Jesus Christ," &c. " sent and sig- nified by his angel unto his servant John." " John to the seven churches." " I John, who also am your bro- ther, and companion in tribulation" " was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." " I was in the spirit on the Lord's day." This same writer, who thus posi- tively and unequivocally declares himself to be JOHN, imprisoned in the isle of Patmos, writing, under inspi- ration on the Lord's day, affirms that "ALL liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone," and in another place excludes from celes- tial glory " whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." Adopt, for a moment, the hypothesis that this book was forged, and nothing can be more shocking and blasphemous than the conduct of its author in impiously assuming the language of " Him who searcheth the reins and the heart;" admit, on the contrary, the genuineness and aulhenticity of the book, and you are overpowered with the majesty and sublimity of its language, the purity and excellence of its precepts, the awfulness of its denunciations, the supernatural grandeur of its pro- mises; and, to stamp the highest possible authority upon the whole, bear in mind that it contains prophecies, several of which have already been accomplished. Permit me to avail myself of the observations of Dr. Priestley, in reference to the subject before us. " This book of Revelation (says he), I have no doubt was written by the apostle John. Sir Isaac Newton, OF THE SCRIPTURES. 103 with great truth, says, he does not find any other book of the New Testament so strongly attested, or commented upon so early as this. Indeed, I think it impossible for any intelligent and candid person to peruse it without being struck, in the most forcible manner, with the peculiar dignity and sublimity of its composition, superior to that of any other writing whatever ; so as to be con- vinced that, considering the age in which it appeared, none but a person divinely inspired could have written it. Also the numerous marks of genuine piety that occur through the whole of this work will preclude the idea of imposition, in any person acquainted with human nature 36 /' My labours on the multifarious topics of this letter may now draw to a close. I shall leave you in your future meditations to appreciate the full weight of what I have adduced. In opposition to it you will have merely to place the reiterated, though perfectly unsup- ported, assertion, that the Scriptures are forged. But had I not wished to put you in possession of a con- densed body of evidence, by referring to which you may " put to silence the ignorance of foolish men," I might have refuted this assertion by simply referring to the great end of the Sacred Volume, and the unity of design in all its authors. I might have affirmed, with- out fear of contradiction, that the coincidence of the histories, precepts, promises, threaten ings, and prophe- cies of the Scriptures, in that great end, " the glory of God, and the holiness and happiness of man," is an irrefragable argument, not only of their genuineness and truth, but of their divine authority. I might have affirmed, that if the several writers had been guided by their own spirits, and not by the illuminating and sup- porting influences of the Spirit of truth, they could neither have unfolded to us the various dispensations of God tending to this one point, nor have pursued it themselves with such entire steadiness and uniformity through so many different ages of the world. Viewed 36 Notes on Scripture, vol. iv. p. 573. 104 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY in this light, the gradual opening of the design is an invincible argument. The wisdom of man, if it could ever have formed such a design (though that, as I have shown in a former letter, was far from the case), would have rushed forward to the grand conclusion precipi- tately. On the whole, then, I think every candid inquirer after truth must be constrained to admit, that the various writers of the Bible were not deceivers, that the books they have left us are genuine, that the religion contained in those books is trite, that it emanated from GOD. Whence, indeed, " hut from HEAVEN should men unsktll'd in arts, In different ages born, in different parts, Weave such agreeing truths? or how ? or whj? Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie? Unask'd their pains, ungrateful their advice; Starving their gains, and martyrdom their price." DKYDEN. There remains only one other question to consider before I terminate this letter, namely, " Have the Scrip- tures descended pure to our hands, or do the copies extant differ materially from those which existed in the primitive ages?" Now, in answer to this, it may be stated with regard to the NEW TESTAMENT, as the uni- versal opinion of all Biblical critics of competent know- ledge and judgment, that we have received it pure and genuine. This is evinced by the accordance of the early versions with our present Greek te.xt; by the collations which have taken place of great numbers of existing manuscripts (being much more numerous, indeed, than the manuscripts of any other ancient writing), and some of them extremely ancient; which collations, while they show that mistakes, as it was to be expected, have been made in the individual manu- scripts by the transcribers, prove those mistakes to be of trifling importance, such as never affect the relation of any important fact, or the statement of any impor- tant doctrine, either respecting faith or morals, and afford the means of correcting them : and by the utter OF THE SCRIPTURES. 105 impossibility that either negligence or design could have introduced, without detection, any material alter- ation into a book dispersed among millions in widely distant countries, and among many discordant seels; regarded by them all as the rule of their faith and prac- tice ; and in constant and regular use among them all in public worship, in private meditation, and in their ve- hement and unceasing controversies with each other 37 . With regard to the BIBLE in general, including both the Old Testament (or Covenant) and the New, a cogent proof of the general conformity of our present copies of the several books, with those which existed in early times, is derived from an examination of the works of the Fathers of the Christian Church. If we take, for example, the epistle of CLEMENS ROMAN us to the Corinthians, written at latest about A. D. 70, we shall find at least thirty-four express quotations from different parts of the Pentateuch.ybwr from the book of Joshua, two from Esther, ten from Job, thirty from the Psalms.ybwr from the book of Proverbs, sixteen from the prophecies of Isaiah, three from Jeremiah, one from Ezekiel, three from Daniel, one from Jonah, one from Habakkuk, one from Malachi. In the New Testament, 37 Gisborne's Familiar Survey, p. 229. Doddridge's Pnemnato- logy, &c. Lect. 118, 119. " Not frighted (says that very eminent critic Dr. Bentley) with the thirty thousand various readings, I, for my part, and, as 1 believe, many others, would not lament, if out of the old MSS. yet untouched ten thousand more were faithfully col- lected : some of which, without question, would render the text more beautiful, just, and exact; though of no consequence to the main of religion ; nay, perhaps wholly synonymous in the view of common readers, and quite insensible in any modern version." Philaleuth. Lipsieus. p. 90. See also pp. Ill 114. On the subject of Various Read'ngs, the critical reader may con- sult the Eclectic Review, vol. v. pp. 236 250 ; a small but instruc- tive pamphlet in reply to the blasphemous ' ' Manifesto of the Christian Evidence Society,'' by my esteemed friend, Dr. J. Pye Smith ; and the Rev. T. Hartwell Home's Introduction to the Critical Study of the Holy Scriptures. I cannot refer to this work, without cordially recommending if, as constituting a most valuable accession to biblical literature, serving, indeed, to supply a serious desideratum long feit by our theological students. 106 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY two from St. Luke's Gospel, one from the Acts of the Apostles, fourteen from the Epistles of St. Paul, inclu- ding three from that to the Hebrews, three from the Epistles of St. Peter, three from that of James, and one from that of Jude. Some of these are long quotations, nearly of whole chapters; several of them are introduced by the notices, " Thus it is written," " Thus saith the Scripture," " The Holy Spirit itself beareth witness," &c. ; and all of them agree with the corresponding passages in our present copies. This I affirm', not upon the au- thority of others, but from a careful inspection ; and I think it furnishes a most striking proof of the general integrity of the Scriptures we possess. So far as I have carried the comparison through the works of the Fathers of the first three centuries, the inference from it in- creases in force: and I have no doubt that those who have leisure and inclination to pursue this train of inquiry will find its result irresistible. The Bible has also unexpectedly met with strong additional confirmation, as to the correctness of the most received versions, in the discoveries of recent tra- vellers in India. Dr. Buchanan especially, who in 1806 visited the Syrian churches, amounting to one hundred and nineteen, in Malayala, was informed by the inhabi- tants that no European had, to their knowledge, visited the place before. Their liturgy is derived from that of the early church of Antioch. They affirm too, that their version of the Scripture was copied from that used by the primitive Christians at Antioch, and brought to India before or about the council of Nice, A. D. 325, at which council some ecclesiastical historians inform us Joannes, bishop of India, attended. These Syrian Christians allege also, that their copies have ever been exact transcripts of that version, without known error, through every age, down to this day. There is one volume found in a remote church of the mountains, which merits particular description: it contains the Old and New Testaments, engrossed on strong vellum, and written with beautiful accuracy. The character is OF THE SCRIPTURES. 107 Estrangeh-Syriac, and the words of every book are numbered. This volume is illuminated, but not after the European manner, the initial letters having no ornament. Prefixed to each book there are figures of principal Scripture characters (not rudely drawn), the colours of which are distinguishable; and in some places the enamel of the gilding is preserved : but the volume has suffered injury from time or neglect, some of the leaves being almost entirely decayed. In certain places the ink has been totally obliterated from the page, and has left the parchment in its natural whiteness; but the letters can, in general, be distinctly traced from the impress of the pen, or from the partial corrosion of the ink. The Syrian church assigns to this manuscript a high antiquity; and alleges that it has been for some centuries in the possession of their bishops ; and that it was industriously concealed from the Romish inqui- sition in 1599 : but its true age can only be ascertained by a comparison with old manuscripts in Europe of a similar kind ; and from such a comparison its date has been referred to the seventh century. On the margin of the drawings are some old Roman and Greek letters, the form of which may lead to a conjecture respecting the age in which tbey were written. This copy of the Scriptures has admitted as canonical the epistle of Clement, in which respect it resembles the Alexandrine manuscript: but it has omitted the Revelation, that book having been accounted apocryphal by some churches during a certain period in the early ages. The order of books in the Old and New Testament differs from that of the European copies, this copy adhering less to unity of subject in the arrangement than to chronological order. The very first emenda- tion of the Hebrew text proposed by Dr. Kennicot (Gen. iv. 8) is to be found in this manuscript. The disputed passage, I John v. 7, is not to be found in it : in almost every other respect, its several books agree with those which Europeans obtained ages ago through other channels 38 . , 38 Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, No, 115. 108 GENUINENESS, ETC. OF THE SCRIPTURES. I have only to add, that this most valuable and in- teresting manuscript is now in England. Mar Diony- sius, the resident bishop of Caclanette, presented it to Dr. Buchanan, who again has presented it to the Uni- versity of Cambridge, in whose public library it is now lodged. It has been lately examined with great care and skill by Mr. Yeates, who has published a more minute account of it than the above, in the Christian Observer 39 . These particularities, in reference and description, will prove to you the value I attach to the discovery of this Manuscript. Its existence will compel unbelievers to drop, as broken and pointless, their fa- vourite weapon against the genuineness of our Scrip- tures. I therefore consider its preservation as another interposition of Divine Providence in favour of the Christian Religion ; another reward to European Chris- tians for their zeal and activity in transmitting the benefits of the Gospel to heathen nations : and I rejoice in this fresh instance in which " I may assert eternal Providence, Aud justify the ways of God with men." LETTER VI. On the Evidence deducible from the Prophecies. IT is well, my dear Friend, for Christians in general, that they can arrive at a perfect conviction of the truth of the religion they profess, a well-grounded assurance of " the hope that is in them 1 ," without instituting so 39 Christian Observer, for May and June, 1810. A still fuller account of it has been recently published by Mr. Yeates in a separate volume. He has also given in the Christian Observer, for October, ] 812, an interesting account of the Ethiopic Christians in Abyssinia ; who amount to many millions; whose origin may be safely traced to the apostolic age; and who, having the same ordinances with other Christians, possessing likewise pure doctrine, and copies of the Holy Scriptures, which, though they have descended to them in an indepen- dent channel, agree in all essential points with our own, thus furnish another powerful evidence of the genuineness of the sacred writings. 1 1 Peter, iii. 15. ON PROPHECY. 109 long 1 an investigation as that, the results of which were laid before you in my last letter. Such an inquiry may serve to convince unbelievers that even the external evidences of Christianity are, in their nature, really ir- resistible to all those who do not voluntarily sheath their understandings against the impressionsof evidence flowing from all quarters, and shut their eyes against the light of truth : but those who are willing to derive conviction from the fountain of divine knowledge, have a far shorter way to arrive at it than that we have so recently been tracing. The Bible is its own witness : the predictions scattered through it prove its divine origin. Other evidences may obtain admission to the mind, but this species demands it: others may dispel darkness, but this comes clothed in light. In the pre- sent world we are in a benighted state ; but happily " we have a sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do dwell that we take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts 2 ." Prophecy, viewed in the sense we now wish to con- template it, that is, as implying the knowledge and announcement of things, which are either secret in their own nature, as the mind and will of God, or so remote in point of space, or distant in point of time, as to be undiscoverable by human skill and foresight; or simply, as .denoting the prediction of future events depending on the action of free agents 3 , was obviously never intended as evidence of an original revelation. It is plainly unfit for such a purpose, because it is impossi- ble, without some extrinsic proof of its divine origin, to know whether any prophecy be true or false, till the aera arrive at which it ought to be accomplished. Yet 2 2 Peter, i. 19. 3 I here give this restricted definition, because the word is some- times used iti Scripture to denote preaching or teaching. See Nehe- miah, vi. 7, 1 Cor. xiv. 1, 3, 4, &c. Indeed, we find the word prophesyiny in Scripture used to denote in general the speaking, or writing, b^ Divine revelation, whether with reference to doctrines or to matter of fact. 110 ON PROPHECY. the frequent occurrence of prophecies may be produc- tive of great religious advantages antecedent to their being fulfilled, since it may keep alive a sense of religion, and inspire with a hope of future deliverance from present calamity, such as slavery or banishment. And this seems to have been one great object in delivering the prophecies under the Old Testament dispensation, since most of them pointed to emancipa- tion from either bodily or spiritual bondage. But whatever may be the tendency or the utility of prophecy previous to its completion, its tendency sub- sequent to such a completion is, so far as it is known, decidedly and inevitably favourable to the divine ap- pointment of him who delivered the prediction, and, in certain cases, to the divine selection of the person to whom such prediction points. The foreknowledge of future contingent events is universally allowed to be a peculiar attribute of Deity. P^ture contingencies, such, for example, as those which relate to the rise and fall of nations and states not yet in existence, or to the minute concerns of individuals not yet born, are secrets which it is evident no man or angel can penetrate ; their causes being indeterminate, their relations with other things fluctuating and unknown: it follows, therefore, that the prediction of such contingent events cannot otherwise than proceed from God ; and farther, since God cannot, without a violation of his perfect Holiness and Rectitude, visibly aid delusion and wick- edness, the inference is equally cogent and necessary, that the accomplishment of predictions delivered by those who pretend they have divine authority, amounts to a full proof that they really possess the authority they assume. Other arguments may be evaded ; other evidence may not convince; strange effects (though not miraculous ones) may be produced by other than divine power: but the plain and complete correspond- ence of events to the standing records of ancient pro- phecies, obvious and conspicuous to all who will be at the pains to compare them, and applying accurately ON PROPHECY. 1 1 1 to the nicest shades of the specified circumstances, suggests most forcibly the conviction, that the predic- tions came from God, and were declared to man for the wisest and most important purposes. " This or nothing (says Justin Martyr) is the work of God to declare a thing shall come to be, long before it is in being, and then to bring about the accomplishment of that very thing, according to the same declaration 4 ." This then is a kind of evidence that may be known, read, and appreciated by all men ; and this is the species of evidence with which every part of Scripture, from the Pentateuch to the Apocalypse, abounds. The history of the fall of man is immediately succeeded by the significant prediction of that " Seed of the Woman which should bruise the Serpent's head." Even there the Messiah was marked out so as not to be mistaken : the prophecy has never been applied to another: the " light of the world" shone distinctly, though it might, notwithstanding, glimmer feebly, when seen through the long vista of four thousand years. Previous to the general deluge, the will of God was but seldom declared in prophecy ; but almost immediately after that remark- able event, Noah delivered some extraordinary predic- tions relative to the descendants of his three sons ; and those predictions, though they were divulged more than two thousand years before the Christian sera, have been fulfilling through the several periods of time to this day ! In like manner the prophecies revealed from time to time, as those concerning the Ishmaelites, those of dying Jacob, of Balaam, of Moses (concerning the Jews), the prophecies relating to Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, Egypt, the great empires, the destruction of Jerusalem, have been perfectly fulfilled to the minutest particular ; and that in several cases where attempts have actually been made to prevent their accomplish- ment. Moses, for example, foretold, that when the Jews forsook the true God they should be removed 4 Just. Mart. Apol. ii. sect. 14. This excellent apologist has indeed entered fully into the argument from prophecy, in the Apology just quoted. 112 ON PROPHECY. into all the kingdoms of the earth ; that " they should become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by- word among 1 all nations 5 ." None who notice the state of this singular people, scattered yet preserved, every where preserving their identity, no where possessing power, can be so regardless of truth as to deny that this is fully accomplished. Concerning Babylon it was foretold, that it should be shut up and besieged by the Medes, Elamites, and Armenians; that the river should be dried up; that the city should be taken in the midst of a feast ; that the conqueror should be named Cyrus 6 . All of which, as you are well aware, came to pass. Concerning Egypt it was predicted, " Egypt shall be a base kingdom : it shall be the basest of kingdoms ; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations." " And there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt 7 ." I need not ask whether this prophecy of the fate of Egypt, so celebrated for its antiquity, its power, and its wisdom, is not fulfilled. Concerning Tyre, the prediction and its completion are no less remarkable : " I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more. Thou shalt be no more: the merchants among the people shall hiss at thee ; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more 8 ." 5 Deut. xxviii. 37. 6 Is. xxi.2. Jer. li. 11. Is. xliv. 7, 28. Jer. li. 36. Is. xlv. 1. 7 Ezek. xxix. 14, 15 ; xxx. 12, 13. 8 Ezek. xxvi. 14, 21. A remarkable instance in which apparently discordant prophecies were strictly accomplished, occurs in the case of Zedekiah. Jeremiah predicted concerning him, that as a captive he should see the king of Babylon, so that " his eyes should behold his eyes," and that he should be carried to that city (Jer. xxxii. 4, and xxxiv. 8). Ezekiel declared that " he should not see Babylon." (Ezek. xii. 13). How might a contemporary doubter of the divine illumination of those prophets have triumphed on account of the seeming contradiction of these two predictions. But Nebuchadnezzar, who was alike ignorant of both, is the instrument in the divine hands to effect their accomplishment: for Zedekiah was brought into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar, at Riblah ; who, after having com- manded his eyes to be put out, sent him in " fetters of brass" to Babylon (2 Kings, xxv. 6, 7.) ON PROPHECY. 113 Now in all these, and a variety of other instances that might be adduced, it cannot with any semblance of reason be pretended, that " Prophecy came in old time by the will of man;" the contrary assertion of the Apostle accords far better with a fair induction from the premises before us, that " Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 9 ." Indeed, one of the most acute metaphysicians and ablest reasoners Great Britain ever produced, the friend of Newton, and his advocate against Leibnitz, says, he feels no hesitation in putting the truth of Revealed Religion entirely upon the reality of that prophetic spirit which foretold " the man of sin," and the desolation of Christ's church and kingdom by Antichrist. " If" (says he, after enumerating some of the predictions that relate to Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots), " if, in the days of St. Paul and St. John, there were any footsteps of such a sort of power as this in the world : or, if there ever had been such power in the world : or, if there was then any appearance of probability, that could make it enter into the heart of man to imagine that there ever could be any such kind of power in the world, much less in the temple or church of God : and, if there be not now such a power actually and con- spicuously exercised in the world : and if any picture of this power, drawn after the event, can describe it more plainly and exactly than it was originally described in the words of the prophecy: then may it with some degree of plausibleness be suggested, that the prophecies are nothing more than enthusiastic inventions 10 ." But the weight of evidence accumulates prodigiously when it is drawn from those prophecies which relate to the Messiah. Had only a single prophet left a collec- tion of predictions concerning Christ, specifying the time and manner of his coming, and he had come agreeably to those predictions, it would seem next to impossible to evade the conclusion deducible from it. But in the Bible we have much more. Here is a series 9 2 Pet. i. 21. 10 Dr. Clarke's Works, vol. ii. p. 728. I 114 ON PROPHECY. of Prophets, for thousands of years, who regularly succeed each other to foretell the same event, and t>> depict the benefits it will produce. Nay, more than this, a whole nation constitutes his harbingers: they subsist distinct from the rest of the world more than three thousand years, to testify in a body the assur- ances they entertain respecting him : when he arrives, they disbelieve him, become reluctant witnesses of the truth of the prophecies they have preserved, but willing instruments in "killing the Prince of life 1 * ?' and thus in accomplishing those predictions which, though they understood but in part, they constantly hoped to see realized until their hopes were about to be fulfilled ! Nor should it be forgotten that Jesus Christ himself, during his personal ministry on earth, referred the Jews, who were then his enemies and afterwards his murderers, to their own Sacred Books, in order to learn who he was, and what was his office : and that, after his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, his disci- ples pointed them again to the prophecies which they read regularly in the Synagogue, to convince them that he whom they had slain was " the Messiah who ivas to come." " Search the Scriptures (said Jesus Christ), for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. Ye ivill not come to me, that ye might have life'V " Beginning from Moses, and from all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself* 3 ." Conformably with this, his Apostles make a like appeal. " To him (says Paul) give all the Prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. Thus he mightily convinced the Jews, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ 14 ." So likewise Peter affirms: " Yea, and all the Prophets, from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these " Acts, iii. 15. 12 John, v. 39,40. I3 Luke, xxiv. 27. 14 Acts, x. 43 ; xiii. 27 ; xv. 15 ; xviii. 28. ON PROPHECY. 115 (Jays 15 ." This kind of argumentation was so forcible, that many of the Jews were convinced by it, and were " cut to the heart," that they should " ignorantly" have " crucified their King." But the reasoning which prevailed over the prejudices of many Jews in the apostolic times is thought trifling and light by modern free-thinkers. If any of the prophecies are obscure, then that obscurity is an argument against them ; if, on the contrary, they are plain, then it is boldly affirmed, in opposition to the whole train of history, that they were forged after the event. It would be more becoming the ingenuity of these men to show t'rom the Prophets that Jesus Christ was necessarily to rise from the dead, and then to prove from the history that in fact he did never rise. Then they would accom- plish something, and we must assent to the force of their reasoning. But if they cannot disprove the fact, i.heir cavilling about the mode in which it was foretold is perfectly nugatory. Christ claims to be the person oredicted in the Law and the Prophets; his Apostles issert the same claim ; and it is far from enough to affirm on the contrary side that some of the prophecies are obscure, since very good reasons may be assigned why such obscurity should exist previously to the completion of prophecy. It might be, for instance, to make the Messiah known to the good, and unknown to the wicked, as was indeed predicted by Daniel 16 , that God caused him to be, in a certain sense, obscurely foretold. For, had the manner of his appearance been clearly described, there would not have been any obscurity even to bad men : and if the time had been obscurely predicted, even good men would have felt themselves in darkness. The time, therefore, was clearly declared ; but the manner only in figure. Hence it happened that the wicked, apprehending that the promised blessings were merely temporal, were de- ceived, notwithstanding the clear predictions of the time; while the righteous were not deceived after the 15 Acts, iii. 24. 18 Dan. \ii. 10. 116 ON PROPHECY. crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The mode of interpreting the promised blessings depends upon the heart, which calls that which it loves good ; but the interpretation of the promised time does not depend upon the heart. So that the clear prediction of the time, and the obscure prediction of the blessings, left none to be misled but the wicked, the rejecters of religion by choice. But the principal question for us to consider is this: Are there prophecies enow sufficiently plain to prove that Christ is the person foretold in the Old Testament as the Messiah? If there be, it follows, for reasons already assigned, that the Old Testament is the Word of God, Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World, the New Testament not " a cunningly-devised fable," but a structure formed for everlasting duration, which those who endeavour to overthrow will fail in accomplishing, and be found " even to fight against God l7 . First, then, let us attend a little to the time and place marked out by the Prophets for the appearance of the Messiah. JACOB, on his dying bed, speaks of a person to whom the people should be gathered ; this person he calls S/iiloh, and declares that he shall appear before Judah ceases to be a tribe 18 . 17 Acts, v. 39. 18 Gen xlix. 10. Qriyen in his piece against Celsiis, lib. i. cap. 43, asks, " How Jacob could foretell that the rulers of the Jewish nation, which consisted of no less than twelve tribes, should come always of the tribe of Judah ?" He proceeds, " this we see has been so evidently and so remarkably verified, that the whole body of the Jews now take their name from that tribe, which held the reins of government in their bands : and it is matter of astonishment to all, who are not biassed by prejudice, that this patriarch should not merely predict that the governing power should be vested in the tribe of Judah ; but that it should come to a period at an assigned time ; for the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet UNTIL Shiloh come. And He, for whom the supreme authority was reserved, is come ; the Messiah, I mean, by whom the trne glory of the tribe of Judah was advanced to its greatest height ; he who was the prince whom God had promised, and who might lay a fairer claim to that title The Desire of Nations, than any one who ever went before, and certainly than any one who will follow him." Justin Martyr, also, adduces the same text as irrefragable. ON PROPHECY. 117 DANIEL foretells a glorious kingdom, which God would erect on the ruins of the four grand monarchies, under the government of one whom he calls the Son of Man; and whose empire, though small in its origin, should be both universal and eternal 19 . He afterwards predicts that in seventy weeks (of years), that is, in four hundred and ninety years, after the issuing of the com- mandment to rebuild Jerusalem, probably referring to that given in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longi- manus, reconciliation should be made for iniquity, and an everlasting righteousness be brought in by one, whom he calls Messiah the Prince, who, he declares, shall be cut o^" without any demerits of his own ; after which event the prophet predicts that the city of Jeru- salem shall be destroyed, and sacrifices cease; yet not till the Messiah had confirmed his covenant with many of his people 20 . ISAIAH speaks of an extraordinary child, who should be born of a virgin, of the house of David, whose name should be called Immanuel, who should grow up from infancy to manhood, who should also bear many illus- trious titles (such as " the mighty God," " the everlasting Father"}, which indicate him to be more than human: he predicts farther, that this personage should be most eminent for wisdom and piety, and as remarkable for sorrow and sufferings ; and yet, finally, that he should establish a most successful and permanent kingdom by very peaceful and gentle methods; these important events commencing with the cure of the blind, the lame, the deaf, and the dumb; thus laying a foundation stone in Zion n . JOEL foretells an extraordinary effusion of the Spirit of God, and speaks of a remarkable deliverance which should be wrought out in Mount Zion and Jerusalem 22 . MICAH delivers a prophecy analogous to part of Isaiah's, respecting the glorious and peaceful kingdom 19 Dan. ii. 34, 35, 44, 45 ; vii. 13, 14. 80 Dan. ix. 24, 27. 21 Is. vii. 14; ix. 5 7; xi. 1 10 ; xlii. 1 7; liii. xxxv. 3, 10; xxviii. 16. 22 Joel, ii. 2832. 1 18 ON PROPHECY. that God would erect in " the latter day ;" and after- wards expressly mentions Bethlehem Ephratah as the place whence should go forth the Ruler, who should he the Illustrious Shepherd both of the Israelites and of other distant people 23 . HAGGAI prophesies, that, during the time in which the second temple was standing, a temple which was not entirely demolished till the captivity by the Romans (though in Herod's time gradually rebuilt), God would " shake all nations," and the " Desire of all nations" should come into his temple: and that, on this account, the glory of it should be greater than that of the former house, though it was much inferior in external visible ornaments 24 . MALACHI predicts, that JEHOVAH " the Lord" should have a forerunner : and that the Lord himself "should suddenly come to his temple 25 ." Now these and some other prophecies, which I do not here quote, so accurately define the time and place in which the Messiah was to appear, that there was an universal expectation of his appearance, as all the can- did Jewish writers acknowledge, just about the period that Jesus Christ was actually upon earth. In point of time and place, then, he corresponds with the results of prophecy. Secondly. Let us advert to predictions relative to his Character, Doctrine, Rejection, and final Triumph. In these respects we recognise Jesus Christ as foretold in the prophets by the following among a great num- ber of particular circumstances : That as a prophet he should be like unto Moses 26 . That he should blind the eyes of the wise and learned, and preach the Gospel to the poor and despised ; that he should restore health to the diseased, and give light to those who languish in mental and moral darkness 27 . That he should teach the perfect way, and be the instructor of the Gentiles 28 . 53 Mic. iv. 1 5 ; v. 21. 24 Hag. ii. 69. 25 Mal.iii. 1. * Deut. xviii. 15. Acts, iii. 22. 27 Is. v. 15 ; xxxr. 5 ; ix. 2. M Is. xlii. 6. ON PROPHECY. 119 That he would write his law, not on tables of stone, but on their hearts ; and put his fear, which till then was displayed in external ceremonies, into their hearts likewise 29 . That he should sit as a refiner and purifier, to purge his disciples, that they might offer righteous offering 30 . That he should be a sacrifice for the sins of the world, be wounded for the transgressions of his people, bear their iniquities, justify many by the know- ledge of him, and make intercession for the transgres- sors 31 . That he should be the chief and precious corner- stone, and yet be a stone of stumbling and rock of offence, on which the Jews should fall 32 . That the Jews should reject him, and should themselves be re- jected of God, the choice vine bringing forth only wild grapes; and that the chosen people should be rebel- lious and gainsaying, should stumble at noonday, and henceforward be oppressed 33 . That the stone which was rejected by the builders should be made the prin- cipal corner-stone, that it should grow into a great mountain and fill the whole earth 34 . That after the rejection and murder of the Messiah, he should rise again the third day from the dead 35 . That he should ascend into heaven, and sit on the right hand of God, where he should triumph over all his enemies 36 . That the kings of the earth, and all people, should in due time worship him 37 . But that the Jews who rejected him should subsist as a distinct people ; yet should be scattered over all nations, and wander about without princes, without sacrifices, without an altar, without prophets, looking for deliverance, and not finding it till a very distant period 38 . Thirdly. The amazing correspondence between the contemptuous treatment and suffering* of Jesus Christ, 29 Jer. xxxi. 33 ; xxxii. 40. Heb. x. 16. 10 Mai. iii. 3. 3I Is. liii. 3 * Is. xxviii. 16; viii. 14, 15. 33 Is. v. 27 ; Ixv. 2. Detit. xxviii. 28, 29. 34 Ps. cxviii. 22. Dan. ii. 35. 35 Ps. xvi. 10. Hos. vi. 3. 36 Ps. ex. 1. 37 ls.lx.10.21, 22; liii. 11,12. 3 " Jer. xxxi. 36. Hos.iii.4,5. 120 ON PROPHECY. and the predictions scattered through the Bible, has been traced so clearly by several writers 39 , that I need do little else than transcribe their remarks. On com- paring the principal predictions with the historical passages, and thus bringing the accounts of the Pro- phets and of the Evangelists together, it will be found that there is throughout an extraordinary correlation, that the latter become echoes of the former, and that the former specified nothing for the Messiah to suffer which Christ himself did not suffer. ZECHARIAH says, "they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver;" and MATTHEW records that Judas sold Jesus for neither more nor fewer pieces, but that the chief priests " cove- nanted with them for thirty pieces of silver 4 "." ZECHA- RIAH says, they " took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter;" MATTHEW tells us, "they took the thirty pieces of silver, and gave them for the potter's field 41 ." The PSALMIST, under the spirit of prophecy, says, when " trouble is near there is none to help," and ZECHARIAH says, " Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered ;" MATTHEW, in cor- respondence, affirms, "that the Scriptures of the pro- phets might be fulfilled, all the disciples forsook him and fled 42 /' ISAIAH says, " he was wounded ;" ZECHA- RIAH, "they shall look upon me whom they have pierced;" and DAVID still more particularly, "they pierced my hands and my feet ;" the Evangelists tell us how he was fastened to the cross, and Jesus himself shows "the print of the nails 43 ." DAVID predicts, " they shall laugh him to scorn, and shake their heads, saying, He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him ; let him deliver him, since he delighted in him:" 39 See especially Bishop Pearson on the Creed, p. 88, &c. ; and General Burn's judicious Summary on the Evidences of Christianity, in his valuable little book, the Christian Officer's Complete Armour. 40 Zech. xi. 12. Matt. xxvi. 15. 41 Zech. xi. 13. Matt, xxvii. 9, 10. 43 Ps. xxii. 11. Zech. xiii. 7. Matt. xxvi. 56. 43 Is. liii. 5. Zech. xii. 10. Ps. xxii. 16. Malt, xxvii. 35. John xx, '2~> ON PROPHECY. 121 the historian describes the same action, and gives like expressions ; " they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, He trusted in God, let him deliver him 44 ." DAVID exclaims, when pro- phesying as a type of the Messiah, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" he who was both " the root and the offspring of David" determines in whose person the Prophet spoke it, " Eli, Ell, lama sabacthani^P ISAIAH foretells, " He was numbered with the transgressors:" the Evangelists inform us, he was " crucified between two thieves, one on his right hand, the other on his left 46 ." We read in the pro- phetic Psalms, " They gave me gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink:" and in the Gospel, " they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall 47 ." We read again in the Psalms, " They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture;" and, to fulfil the prediction, "the soldiers took his gar- ments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part, and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout: they said, therefore, among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it whose it shall be 48 ." In another 'prophet we read, " He shall be brought like a lamb to the slaughter, and be cut off out of the land of the living 49 :" conformably with this, all the Evangelists declare how like a lamb he suffered ; and the Jews themselves acknowledge that he was "cut off." In the institution of the paschal lamb, which typified this "Lamb of God," it was ordained, "Ye shall not break a bone of it:" DAVID, prophesying of the Messiah, says, " He keepeth all his bones ; not one of them is broken :" and, in the event, " He who saw it bare record, and he knoweih that he saith true;" and he affirms, "They brake not his legs" (though 44 Ps. xxii. 7, 8. Matt, xxvii. 39, 43. 45 Ps. xxii. 1. Matt, xxvii. 46. 46 Is. liii. 12. Matt, xxvii. 38. Mark xv. 27. 47 Ps. Ixix. 21. Matt, xxvii. 31, 48. 43 Ps. xxii. 18. John, xix. 23, 24. < 9 Is. liii. 7, 8. 122 ON PROPHECY. they brake the legs of the malefactors crucified with him), " that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken 50 ." ISAIAH, prophesying- of his burial, says, " He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death :" and here again we may admire the exact completion of the prediction; for Jesus was buried like the wicked companions of his death, under the general leave granted to the Jews for taking down their bodies from the cross; yet Joseph of Arimathea, a RICH man and an honourable counsellor, and Nicodenms, a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews, a master of Israel, conspired to make his grave with the rich, by " wrapping his body in linen clothes," &c. and "laying it in a new sepulchre," which Joseph of Arimathea had caused to " be made for his own use 51 ." When the Scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus Christ for a sign by which they might ascertain his Divine authority, the reply was, " As Jonas was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth 52 :" and on another occasion, when the Jews requested a proof of his authority, he said, " speaking of the temple of his body," "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up 53 ." These sayings w r ere tauntingly thrown in his teeth during his crucifixion by the unfeeling multitude, who, " wagging their heads, said, Ah! thou that destroyest the temple and buildesl it in three days, save thyself, and come down from the cross 54 !" Soon, however, Jesus proved that he had " power to lay down his life, and power to take it up again 55 ;" and, to fulfil his own prophecies, as well as all those relating to him that were scattered through the Jewish Scriptures, burst the bars of the tomb, and rose from the dead on the third day 56 . The preceding instances are abundantly more than "Nnm.ix.12. Ex.xii.46. Ps.xxxiv.20. John, xix. 33, 35, 36. 51 Is.Iiii.9. Matt, xxvii. 57. Mark xv. 43. John, xix. 39, 40. * 2 Matt. xii. 40. 53 John, ii. 19. 5 * Mark, xv. 29, 30. 63 John, x. 18. 5S Luke, xxiv. 7. ON PROPHECY. 123 sufficient to show that, according to the prophets, thus it behoved the MESSIAH to suffer, to die, and to rise again ; and that according to the testimony of eye-wit- nesses, who could not be deceived, who had no object to accomplish in deceiving others, and whose testi- mony is confirmed by iheir enemies and persecutors, thus JESUS CHRIST DID suffer, die, and rise again. How the contemplation of these things may affect others we cannot always conjecture ; but surely the natural tendency of such an astonishing correspon- dence as that we have been tracing, is to " make our hearts burn within us" with the cheering warmth of conviction, and the pure flame of devotion, similar to what was experienced by the two disciples on that ever- memorable evening, when the risen Saviour "talked with them in their way" to Emmaus, " opened to them the Scriptures, and, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expounded unto them the things concerning himself 57 ." Suppose that, instead of the spirit of prophecy breathing more or less in every book of Scripture, pre- dicting events relative to a great variety of general topics, and delivering besides almost innumerable cha- racteristics of the Messiah, all meeting in the person of Jesus there had been only ten men in ancient times who pretended to be prophets, each of whom exhibited o\\\y five independent criteria as to place, government, concomitant events, doctrine taught, effects of doctrine, character, sufferings, or death ; the meeting of all which, in one person, should prove the reality of their calling as prophets, and of his mission in the character they have assigned him : suppose, moreover, that all events were left to chance merely, and we were to compute, from the principles employed by mathematicians in the investigation of such subjects, the probability of \hes&Jiffy independent circumstances happening at all. Assume that there is, according to the technical phrase, an equal chance for the happening or the failure of any 57 Luke, xxiv. 13, 27, 32. 124 ON PROPHECY. one of the specified particulars; then 58 the probability against the occurrence of all the particulars in any way, is that of the 50th power of 2 to unity; that is, the probability is greater than 1125000000000000 to 1, or greater than eleven hundred and twenty-five millions of millions to one, that all these circumstances do not turn up, even at distinct periods. This computation, how- ever, is independent of the consideration of time. Let it then be recollected farther, that, if any one of the specified circumstances happen, it may be the day after the delivery of the prophecy, or at any period from that time to the end of the world ; this will so indefi- nitely augment the probability against the contempo- raneous occurrence of merely these fifty circumstances, that it surpasses the power of numbers to express cor- rectly the immense improbability of its taking place. Be it remembered also, that in this calculation I have assumed the hypothesis most favourable to the adver- saries of prophecy, and the most unfavourable possible to the well-being of the world, and the happiness of its inhabitants; namely, the hypothesis that every thing is fortuitous ; and it will be seen how my argument is strengthened by restoring things to their proper state. If every thing were left to blind chance, it appears that the probability against the fulfilment of only fifty inde- pendent predictions in the same time, place, and indi- vidual, would be too great to be expressed numerically : how much greater, then, must it be in fact, when all events are under the control of a Being of matchless wisdom, power, and goodness, who hates fraud and deception, who must especially hate it when attempted under his name and authority, who knows all that occurs in all places, and who can dissipate with " the breath of his mouth " every deceiver, and all their de- lusions? The more we know of the prophecies, and of history, whether sacred or profane, the more we are struck with the correspondence of predictions and 58 Emerson on Chances, prop. 3. Wood's Algebra, art. 419, Chances. ON PROPHECY. 125 events; their coincidence in hundreds of instances is so palpably notorious that none can deny it : every principle of reason, every result of correct computation, instituted with a view to this inquiry, is in favour of the positions maintained by Christians in all ages. Imagine these to be still doubtful, and what is there else that is stable and certain? " If these fall, The pillar'd firmament is rottenness, And earth's base built on stubble." MlLTON. But a person who wished to reason in favour of the truth of the Christian Religion from prophecy, need not take this wide field of argument. There are many small portions in some of the prophetic writings, on either of which he may safely make his stand. He may take, fur example, either the ninth, thirteenth and fourteenth, forty-fifth, or fifty-third chapters of Isaiah, and challenge any one to account satisfactorily for the exact correspondence of the prediction and the history, except he admit that the prophet was inspired by God to foretell the events. Suppose we fix upon the fifty- third chapter. So striking are its contents, and so exactly were its distinct particulars, amounting clearly to ten or twelve, verified in the life and sufferings of Jesus Christ, that there have not been wanting modern Deists to affirm that it was actually composed after the Christian sera. This calumny, however, needs no la- boured refutation. The Septuagint version is well known, as I remarked in a preceding letter, to have been undertaken nearly three hundred years before Christ; and that version, according to the testimony of one who saw the original, contained the prophecies of Isaiah. Besides, it is an incontrovertible fact, that the Jews in all ages, from the delivery of these prophecies to the present, admitted Isaiah to be taught of God. The later Rabbins, it is true, to avoid the conclusions which Christians deduce from Isaiah, and especially the chapter last specified, have invented a distinction of a double Messiah, " one who was to redeem us, and 126 ON PROPHECY. another who was to suffer for us; for they say, that there are two several persons promised under the name of the Messiah ; one of the tribe of Ephraim, the other of the tribe of Judah ; one the son of Joseph, the other the son of David; the one to precede, fight, and suffer death ; the other to follow, conquer, reign, and never die 59 ." But Bishop Pearson proves that this distinction is false as well as novel ; and farther, that the Rabbins who preceded Jesus Christ understood the chapter, of which we are now speaking, to be a prediction of the Messiah, and of him alone. Origen, indeed, informs us 60 , that in his lime the Jews took another w ? ay to evade the difficulties in which the consideration of this chapter placed them. They argued, that the prophecy did not relate to one man, but to one people, the Jews, who were smitten of God, and dispersed among the gentiles for their conversion. But to show the absurdity of their interpretation, he pressed them with this sentence from the Septuagint, OTTO TUV avofJLiuv TV Xaa /U.B 'n\Q'>l t<; Qa.va.Tov'. and the argument was so decisive, they could not withstand it. This proves not only the truth of the received interpre- tation of this famous prophecy, but farther, that the Hebrew text of that time read agreeably to the ac Oavarov of the Septuagint; otherwise, the Jews, by quoting their own text (Is. liii. S), and showing that it did not mean " smitten to death," would have repro- bated the Greek version, and triumphed over the Christian advocate. It may be farther remarked, that, if it be the people of Israel of whom the prophet speaks in this chapter, he makes them to descend from a very base and ob- scure origin, when he compares them to " a tender 59 Pearson on the Creed, p. 185. 60 Orig. contra Celsuni, lib. 1. cap. 44. See also Abbadie, who argues with great acuteness and force from this chapter (Isai. liii.) in his work already referred to, sect. iv. chap. 9. His reasonings, also, from the predictions of Daniel, Zecliariah, and Malachi, are eqaallj convincing. ON PROPHECY. 127 plant which grew out of a dry and barren ground :" this cannot well apply to a nation which in its origin was, as Abbadie observes, " the most glorious and mag- nificent that ever was known ; as having been separated and distinguished from all other nations in the person of their first parent, Abraham, and which was honoured with the promises of the covenant." So again, to seize only another feature of this portion " of prophecy, how was God's people stricken for the iniquity of his people." None could fairly resist the inference that the allusion here was not to the people of God, but to -,ome one who suffered affliction for their sake. Nor has this remarkable portion of prophecy been successful merely in puzzling and silencing the Jews. It has, under the divine blessing, been instrumental in converting unbelievers, in every age of the church. There has occurred a signal instance in modern times, namely, that of the celebrated John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, a man, " whom the Muses were fond to in- spire and ashamed to avow," who lived the life of a libertine and Atheist; but who, agreeably to the testi- mony of Bishop Burnet, died the death " of a penitent Christian." The perusal of this chapter, the meditation upon its complete fulfilment, and upon the beautiful summary it contains of the most peculiar and distin- guishing doctrines of Christianity, so operated on the mind of this profligate, though able man, as to lead (in the opinion of the prelate just mentioned) to an un- feigned faith in Him " who was wounded for his trans- gressions, and by whose stripes he was healed." Such then, my friend, being the cogency of the evi- dence resulting from prophecy, let us not attempt to resist it; such the purity and heavenly tendency of the precepts and doctrines often blended with the predic- tions, let us yield ourselves to their influence. Let us gather food for meditation from the animating language of those who " th' inspiring breath Ecstatic felt; and, from this world retir'd, Convers'd with angels and immortal forms On gracious errands bent." THOMSON. 128 ON PROPHECY. Let us implant the delightful anticipations of faith, upon the triumphant declarations of prophecy, and hail that happy period foretold by Isaiah, when " Every valley sball be exalted, and every mountain and hill be brought low ; " And the Brooked shall become straight, and the rough places a smooth plain ; " And the glory of JEHOVAH shall be revealed ; " And all flesh shall see together the salvation of our GOD." Infidelity, every where active, though always baffled, will suggest the improbability of the completion of the prophecies yet unfulfilled : but when it is considered that many of the predictions, long ago realized, were delivered at the same time, and by the same prophet, as those for whose accomplishment we are waiting, it would be the height of absurdity and impiety to encou- rage a doubt. It may happen naturally enough, that the true meaning of a prediction may be disguised, in order that the wayward wills of men may not operate for its prevention ; but this is no reason for its rejec- tion. Prophecies are like writings in cipher, which require either tutors or events to explain their hidden meaning, and render them natural and intelligible. This, with regard to the Old Testament predictions, " is what Jesus Christ and his Apostles have done. They have opened the seal, they have rent the veil, and de- veloped the spiritual sense. They have taught us, that our enemies are our passions, that our Redeemer is a spiritual Redeemer: that he is to have a first and a second coming, the one in humility to abase the proud, the other in glory to exalt the humble; that Jesus Christ is God as well as man 61 ." I am, &c. 61 Pascal's Thoughts : " The Law figurative." ON MIRACLES. 129 LETTER VII. On the Evidence dedudble from Miracles ; and on the Credibility of Human Testimony. THE advocates of Revealed Religion affirm, without any fear of refutation, that the argument resulting from the completion of Prophecy is one that is continually in- creasing in force ; while they are often as ready to admit, that the argument from Miracles diminishes in proportion as we recede farther from the Apostolic times. I hope, my friend, to be able to convince you, in the course of the present letter, that this is a conces- sion which need not be made : but that we have as good reason to believe the miraculous facts of Scripture, as any except eyewitnesses, or those who received their information immediately from the lips of eyewitnesses. The evidence flowing from the performance of mira- cles is indeed so summary and convincing, that it may be stated satisfactorily in very few words: for this rea- son, however, as it should seem, it has been selected by ingenious unbelievers to exercise their dexterity and acumen upon; and thus it becomes requisite to dis- cuss this branch of our subject with a minuteness and comparative prolixity which might, otherwise, have been altogether avoided. By miracles, I do not mean "juggling tricks," but supernatural events. This genuine notion of miracles has been sometimes obscured by definition ; yet a can- did inquirer after truth cannot well mistake. Most of the opinions entertained by men of good sense, apart from any controversial views as to this topic are cor- rect. JVoman would think that curing lameness, by a regular surgical or medical process, was miraculous : every man would say that the instantaneous produc- tion of a limb, and " making the maimed whole," was miraculous. And this exactly reaches the logical sci- entific notion of miracles : for, when such effects are K 130 ON MIRACLES. produced as (cteteris paribus) are usually produced, God is said to operate according to the common course of nature: but when such effects are produced as are (ccet. par.) contrary to, or different from, that common course, they are said to be MIRACULOUS." Now no man will presume to affirm that it is impos- sible a teacher should be sent from God. It may be necessary that one should be sent ; and I think the train of observation and deduction of facts in my second and third letter, establish that necessity. If one or more be sent, they must bring credentials to evince that their mission is divine ; and what can those credentials be but miracles? In fact, the very idea of a revelation in- cludes that of miracles. A revelation cannot be made but by a miraculous interposition of Deity : so that the probability of a revelation implies a correspondent probability of the occurrence of miracles; and the ne- cessity of a revelation a like necessity of miracles. Nay, I may venture to affirm farther, that there is a mutual and necessary correlation between the two: for, as, on the one hand, miracles (or prophecies, which are in fact miraculous, being contrary to the course of nature) are necessary to prove the divine authority of an agent ; so, on the other hand, the performance of uncontrolled miracles, or the delivery of true predictions, immedi- ately suggests to the mind the conviction that they have been permitted solely for the purpose of proving that the person, by whom they are performed, is employed by God to do something, or reveal something, which mankind would not have known in any other way. It is, one would suppose, almost an intuitive truth, that, when a person performs evident and uncontrolled miracles in proof of any doctrine, those who have suffi- cient evidence of the reality of such miracles ought to admit the doctrine to be true, or from God. At all events, the proposition is easily deduced from a few steps of obvious reasoning; limiting it, as I have done, with Baxter, Barrow, and Chandler, to uncontrolled miracles, or those the apparent design of which is not ON MIRACLES. 131 contradicted either by the absurdity of the thing they are intended to prove, or by some equal or greater miracles opposed to them. We thus exclude every thing like juggling from the idea of miracles; and at the same time free ourselves from all consideration of pretended miracles, such as those performed by the Egyptian magicians, with the permission or the per- formance of which, as they were controlled, we have nothing to do. The reasoning from which our propo- sition flows is simply this: a genuine miracle cannot be performed without an extraordinary divine inter- position, either mediate or immediate. If the Supreme Being would confirm the truth of a proposition to one man, by the testimony of another to whom it was im- mediately revealed, we can conceive no method by which it would be so effectually accomplished, as by conferring on him power to work a miracle in confir- mation of it. When a miracle is uncontrolled, we can conjecture no particular by which it can be distin- guished from a miracle wrought to confirm a truth. If God were to suffer an uncontrolled miracle to be wrought in confirmation of a falsehood, there would seem to be no criterion by which his testimony could be distinguished. It is inconsistent with the ivisdom and goodness of God, to suffer an uncontrolled miracle to be wrought to establish a falsehood ; since it would leave his creatures in a perpetual uncertainty, and an uncertainty that would be most painful to the most vir- tuous, who have always most wished for a revelation. Since, therefore, God is both wise and good, it follows that a proposition attested by uncontrolled miracles is attested by him, and is of necessity true. From this reasoning it is natural to expect, that in the Scripture History there should be recorded many miracles ; and thus, on examining the sacred volume, are our expectations realized. The faith of Moses was confirmed by the miracle of the burning, yet uncon- sumed, bush. Moses convinced the children of Israel that God employed him to lead them out of Egypt, by 132 ON MIRACLES. performing miracles by means of his rod : he appealed to similar miracles before Pharaoh for the same pur- pose: the passage through the Red Sea, which opened to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptians, who were afterwards swallowed up in the collapsing waters, was miraculous : the gushing of waters from a solid rock on its being struck by Moses, was miraculous : the pas- sage of the river Jordan under Joshua, the standing still of the sun and moon at his command, and the falling of the walls of Jericho, were miraculous : the sacrifice kindled by fire from heaven; the raising of the Shuna- mite's and of the widow of Sarepta's sons; the destruc- tion of the captains and their fifties by fire from heaven ; the dividing of the waters of Jordan by means of the mantle of Elijah, and the translation of that prophet, are events of the same class ; and so are those recorded in Daniel, respecting the fiery furnace and the den of lions. From the numerous New Testament miracles, beginning with that wrought at the marriage at Canal I cannot attempt to make an adequate selection. Though it may be proper to remark, that those performed by Jesus Christ differed essentially from others: Moses could not work miracles without his rod; (he Apostles performed theirs, for the most part expressly, and always virtually, " in the name of Jesus Christ of Na- zareth :" the Messiah exerted miraculous power from himself, without any reference to another. And, far- ther, the miracles of Jesus Christ were uniformly bene- volent: he cured the sick, he healed the lame, he made the maimed whole, he made the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, he raised the dead, and finally he raised himself; thus evincing at once the greatest miracle, and the sublimest act of benevo- lence ; for, as he " died for our sins," so he " rose again for our justification." So numerous, indeed, and so beneficial were his miracles, that " the multitude were astonished, saying, It was never seen so in Israel ;" and well might their astonishment be excited, as our Lord wrought more benevolent miracles in one after- ON MIRACLES. 133 noon 1 , than had been performed by any of the prophets in all their lives. That one great object, kept in view by Christ and his apostles in performing miracles, was to furnish awakening and convincing proofs of their divine mis- sion, is evident from the uniform tenor of the New Tes- tament Histories. The language of the Jewish Ruler was the pure unadulterated language of common sense, the force of which all the sophistry in the world cannot weaken : " Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God : for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him 2 ." The Chief Priests and the Pharisees had the same conviction ; for, said they, after Lazarus was raised from the dead, " This man doeth many miracles : if we let him alone, all will be- lieve on him 3 ." Jesus Christ himself appeals to his miracles: "I have greater witness (says lie) than that of John , for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me 4 ." And again, when the Jews asked him, If thou be the Christ tell us plainly. How long dost thou make us to doubt? Jesus answered them, The works that I do, they bear witness of me. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him." " If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin 5 ." And on another occasion, when John sent his disci- ples to Christ to ask, " Art thou HE that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see : the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them 6 ." In like manner, with 1 See Matt. ix. 1834. 2 John, iii. 2. 3 John, xi. 47, 48. 4 John, \. 36. * John, x. 24, 25. 37, 38 ; xv. 24. 6 Matt. xi. 3, 4, 5. 134 ON MIRACLES. regard to the Apostles, " God also bare them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will 7 ." Consistently with this, the early Christian writers and apologists, in all those cases where they do not assume the history as true, and thence argue that Jesus ought to be received as the Messiah, appeal in very ex- press terms to his miracles. Thus QUADRATUS appeals very strongly to those miracles. JUSTIN MARTYR as- serts the performance of miracles by Jesus in as forcible words as language will admit, and assigns the reason why he rather had recourse to the argument from pro- phecy, than that from miracles ; viz. that his opponents would ascribe the latter to magic. IREN.ZUS, LACTAN- TIUS, TERTULLIAN, ORIGEN, AUGUSTIN, and JEROME, speak of Christ's miracles (and often, indeed, of those wrought subsequently to the Apostolic times), and no- tice the same evasion on the part of the adversaries to Christianity. It is highly worthy of remark, too, that none of the early opposers of the religion of Jesus, pretend to dis- pute that he performed miracles. LUCIAN, JULIAN, PORPHYRY, HIEROCLES, CELSUS, &c. admit that mira- cles were wrought. Julian, it is true, endeavours to make light of them, and wonders that so much stir should be made about a person, who merely " opened ihe eyes of the blind, restored limbs to the lame, and delivered persons possessed." Celsus, again, ridicules the miracles, but never disputes that they occurred. "Well (said he), suppose that you really did those things that ye talk of; pray must we deem the persons who perform such wonderful operations to be sons of God ; or must we not rather deem them vile wretches, well versed in a diabolical art?" Now, who can ima- gine, for a moment, that so violent an opposer of Chris- tianity would have admitted the miracles of Christ as real facts, had he not been compelled to it by the uni- 7 Hefi. ii. 4. See also Acts, xiv. 9 ; x. 38, 39, &c. ON MIRACLES. 135 versal consent of all inquiring men of the age in which he lived? Hence it may be asked (with Mr. F. Cun- ningham), " whether modern infidels who have ven- tured to contradict the miracles of Christ, a weapon Celsus was afraid to take up, have estimated the rash- ness of their enterprise? Are they competent to deny what a spectator no less malevolent than themselves was compelled to admit? Has the lapse of eighteen hundred years enabled them to ascertain a fact of daily occurrence with more accuracy than a by-stander? Are objects best seen at the greatest distance?" Thus it appears, that we have the most marked and direct testimony of the friends of Revealed Religion (those, too, who had been converted from heathenism by the weight of its evidence), and the concessions of its enemies, in favour of those miracles, which were per- formed in order to prove that the religion came from God ; and this testimony, and these concessions, were delivered so near the period in which the miracles were supposed to have been wrought, that they cannot be accounted for in any other way than by admitting that both Christians and unbelievers, in the early ages, were convinced that something which required more than human energy had occurred. Why, then, should this be disputed in these remote ages? Voltaire and Mr. Hume will answer this question, by telling us in effect, though not in express words, " that since miracles are not wrought now, they never were wrought at all." The substance of Mr; Hume's argument (which I describe, because almost all later Deists have echoed his sentiments) is this: "Experience, which in some things is variable, in others is uniform, is our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact. Varia- ble experience gives rise to probability only ; a uniform experience amounts to proof. Our belief of any fact, from the testimony of eyewitnesses, is derived from no other principle than our experience of the veracity of human testimony. If the fact attested be miraculous, 136 ON MIRACLES. there arises a contest of two opposite experiences, or proof against proof. Now, a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature ; and as a firm and unalterable ex- perience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as complete as any argument from experience can possibly be ima- gined ; and if so, it is an undeniable consequence, that it cannot be surmounted by any proof whatever derived from human testimony 8 ." Now, to this reasoning, or the most prominent and essential parts of it, several decisive answers have been, or may be, given. A few of these may properly find a place here. I. Dr. Campbell, in his celebrated " Dissertation on Miracles," shows the fallacy of Mr. Hume's argument thus: "The evidence arising from human testimony is not solely derived from experience : on the contrary, testimony has a natural influence on belief, antecedent to experience. The early and unlimited assent given to testimony by children, gradually contracts as they advance in life : it is, therefore, more consonant to truth to say, that our diffidence in testimony is the result of experience, than that our faith in it has this founda- tion. Besides, the uniformity of experience in favour of any fact is not a proof against its being reversed in a particular instance. The evidence arising from the single testimony of a man of known veracity will go farther to establish a belief of its being actually re- versed. If his testimony be confirmed by a few others of the same character, we cannot withhold our assent to the truth of it. Now, though the operations of nature are governed by uniform laws, and though we have not the testimony of our senses in favour of any violation of them ; still if, in particular instances,-we have the testimony of thousands of our fellow-creatures, and those, too, men of strict integrity, swayed by no mo- tives of ambition or interest, and -governed by the principles of common sense, that they were actually 9 Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. Abridgment, OTV MIRACLES. 137 witnesses of these violations, the constitution of our nature obliges us to believe them 9 ." II. Mr. Hume's reasoning is founded upon too limited a view of the laws and course of nature. If we consider things duly, we shall find that lifeless matter is utterly incapable of obeying any laws, or of being endued with any powers : and, therefore, what is usu- ally called the course of nature can be nothing else than the arbitrary will and pleasure of God, acting conti- nually upon matter according to certain rules of uni- formity, still bearing a relation to contingencies. So that it is as easy for the Supreme Being to alter what men think the course of nature, as to preserve it. Those effects, which are produced in the world regularly and indesinently, and which are usually termed the works of nature, prove the constant Providence of Deity ; those, on the contrary, which, upon any extraordinary occa- sion, are produced in such a manner as it is manifest could not have been either by human power, or by what is called chance, prove undeniably the immedi- ate interposition of the Deity on that especial occasion. God, it must be recollected, is the governor of the moral as well as of the physical world ; and since the moral well-being of the universe is of more consequence than its physical order and regularity, it follows, obviously, ' that the laws, conformably with which the material world seems generally to be regulated, are subservient, and may occasionally yield, to the laws by which the moral world is governed. Although, therefore, a mira- cle is contrary to the usual course of nature (and would indeed lose its beneficial effect, if it were not so), it can- not thence be inferred that it is " a violation of the laws of nature," allowing the term to include a regard to moral tendencies. The laws by which a wise and holy God governs the world, cannot, unless he is pleased to reveal them, be learned in any other way than from testimony; since, on this supposition, nothing but testimony can bring us acquainted with the whole series of his dis- 9 Encyclopaedia Brilannica, art. Abridgment. 138 ON MIRACLES. pensations, and this kind of knowledge is absolutely necessary previously to our correctly inferring those laws. Testimony, therefore, must be admitted as con- stituting the principal means of discovering the real laws by which the universe has been regulated ; that testimony assures us, that the apparent course of nature has often been interrupted to produce important moral effects : and we must not at random disregard such tes- timony, because, in estimating its credibility, we ought to look almost infinitely more at the moral, than at the physical, circumstances connected with any particular event 10 . III. But the defence of miracles against the objec- tions of infidels need not be thrown wholly upon these general and abstract reasonings, satisfactory and cogent as they are. The miracles recorded in Scripture, and especially those performed by Moses, by Jesus Christ, and his Apostles, are accompanied by evidence such as you will find it difficult to adduce in support of any other historic fact, and such as cannot possibly be brought in support of any pretended fact whatever; evidence, such as the pretended miracles of Mahomet- anism, and those of the Romish church, are totally destitute of. The truth of a matter of fact may be positively in- ferred and known, if it be attended by certain criteria, such as no pretended fact can possibly have. These criteria are at least four. It is required, first, that the fact be a sensible fact, such as men's outward senses can judge of: secondly, that it be notorious, performed publicly in the presence of witnesses : thirdly, that there be memorials of it, or monuments, actions, and customs, kept up in commemoration of it : fourthly, that such monuments and actions commence with the fact 11 . There may be facts in favour of which these |0 This argument is pursued to a considerable extent by the late Professor Vince, in his " Sermons on the Credibility of Miracles, preached before the University of Cambridge." " These criteria were first proposed as decisive in favour of the ON MIRACLES. 139 four marks cannot be produced ; but the argument of Leslie, and St. Real, is, that whatever has all these four marks cannot be false' 2 . For example, could Moses have persuaded six hun- dred thousand men that he had led them through the Red Sea in the manner related in Exodus, or have in. stituted the passover in commemoration of the destruc- tion of the Egyptian first-born, if these circumstances had never occurred ? Could he make the Israelites/awe?/ that they were fed miraculously with manna forty years in the wilderness, or that, during all that period, their "raiment waxed not old, neither did their feet swell 13 ," unless those things, however extraordinary, were facts? Here our four criteria apply. The first two secure from any cheat or imposture, at the time the facts oc- curred, and the last two preserve equally against any imposition in after ages; because the authors of the book in which these facts are related, speak of it as written at that time by the actors or eye-witnesses, and as commanded by God to be carefully kept and pre- served to all generations, and read publicly to all the Scripture Miracles about 1697, by Mr. Charles Leslie, in his admi- rable and unanswerable book, " A Short and Easy Method with the Deists" (from which I select the instances given in this section), and by the Abbe St Real. It is of no consequence to the argument, to determine whether these authors invented it independently of each other, or borrowed it one from the other ; but it is important to re- mark, on the authority of the late very able Mr. Jones, of Nayland, that Dr. Conyers Middleton, feeling how necessary it was to his principles that he should find some way of getting over Mr. Leslie's arguments, looked out assiduously, for twenty years together, to find some pretended fact to which these four criteria could be applied, but without success. Dr. Middleton died a Deist notwithstanding ! Alas ! is this the conduct of one who professed to yield to nothing but reason? or of one, who, through some strange fatality, "loved dark- ness rather than light?" 12 The miracles of Scripture have two additional tests, upon which, however, no stress is laid in this argumentation. They have an im- portant end, worthy of their author : and they are independent of second causes. 13 .Deut. viii. 4 ; xxix. 5. 140 ON MIRACLES. people at stated times 14 . And farther, the institutions appointed in this book were to be perpetually observed from the day of each institution for ever among these people, in memory of the miraculous facts. Now, suppose this book to have been forged a hundred or a thousand years after the time of Moses; would not every one say when it first appeared, " We never heard of this book before; we know of no such institutions, as of a passover, or circumcision, or sabbaths, and the many feasts and fasts therein appointed ; we know nothing of a tribe of Levi, or of a tabernacle in which they were to serve in such an order of priesthood : this book must be an arrant forgery, for it is destitute of all those marks which it gives of itself, as to its own con- tinuance, and of those institutions which it relates." No instance can be shown since the world began of any book so substantiated that was a forgery, and yet passed off, as exhibiting truth, upon any people. Mr. Leslie, however, does not stop here, but adds a fifth mark as peculiar to our Bible, distinguishing it from all other histories, relating facts that formerly oc- curred : that is, that the book, in which the facts are related, contains likewise the law of that people to whom it belongs, and is their statute book by which their causes are determined. This will render it im- possible for any one to coin or forge such a book, so as to make it pass as authentic among any people. If, for example, a person should forge a statute-book for England, and publish it next term, could he make all the judges, lawyers, and people believe that this was their genuine and only statute book by which their causes had been determined for centuries past? They must forget their old statute-book, and believe that this new book, which they never saw or heard of before, was the very book which had been referred to in the pleadings in Westminster-hall for so many ages, which had been so often printed, and of which the originals 4 Deut. xxxi. 10, 11, 12. Josh. viii. 34, 35. Neb. viii. ON MIRACLES. 141 are now kept in the Tower, to be consulted, as there is occasion. Thus it is that the books of Moses contain, not only the history of the Jews, but also their muni- cipal law, as well civil as ecclesiastical: and thus, also, it is with respect to the New Testament, which is the spiritual and ecclesiastical law to the Christian 'church in all nations; and which cannot, therefore, be cor- rupted, unless all persons in all nations whithersoever Christianity is spread, should conspire in the corrup- tion of the Gospel. Mr. Leslie selects some striking, though familiar, examples in illustration of his general argument; among others, he adverts to the Stonchenye on Salis- bury Plain, and compares it with the stones set up at Gilgal. Every one, as he observes, knows this Stone- henge, or has heard of it ; and yet none know the rea- son why those great stones were set there, or by whom, or in memory of what. Now, suppose a person should publish a book to-morrow, and therein affirm that these stones were set up by Hercules, Polyphemus, or Gara- gantua, in memory of such and such of their actions: if he merely make the affirmation, some few may perhaps give him credit. But if, for farther confirmation of his assertion, he should say in this book, that it was writ- ten at the time when such actions were performed, and by the very actors themselves, or by eye-witnesses : and that this book had been received as true, and quoted by authors of the greatest reputation in all ages since ; moreover, that this book was well known in England, and enjoined by act of parliament to be taught our children ; and that in consequence we did teach it our children, and had been taught it ourselves when we were children ; it would seem impertinent to ask any Deist whether he thinks such a delusion could be passed upon the people of England. Let us now compare this with the Stonehenge, as we may call it, or twelve great stones set up at Gilgal; and erected in order that when the children of the Israelites in after ages should inquire their meaning, 142 ON MIRACLES. it should be told them 15 . The occurrence, in comme- moration of which these stones at Gilgal were set up, is as wonderful and miraculous as the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and free from the puerile carpings which have been raised by unbelievers against that remarkable event. Notice of this miracu- lous passage over the Jordan at Gilgal was given to the people on the preceding day 16 . It took place at noon- day before the whole nation. And when the waters of the Jordan were divided, it was not at any low ebb, but at the time when the river overflowed its banks 17 . It was effected, too, not by winds, or in length of time, which winds would require to accomplish it ; but all on a sudden, as soon as the " feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, then the waters which came from above stood, and rose up upon an heap : and they that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt-sea, failed, and were cut off$ and the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jor- dan, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lift up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jor- dan returned into their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before. And the people came out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and en- camped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones, which the twelve men (from every tribe a man) took out of the midst of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fa- thers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For the Lord 16 Josh. iv. 6, 7. l6 Josb. iii. 5. " Josh. iii. 15. ON MIRACLES. 143 your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us until we were gone over : that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever 18 ." Now to frame our argument, let it be supposed that there never was any such occurrence as that passage over Jordan ; that these stones at Gilgal were set up on some other occasion, in some after age ; and then that some designing man invented this book of Joshua, and pretended that it was written by Joshua at this time; adducing this erection of stones at Gilgal as a testimony of the truth of it. Would not the Israelites say to him, " We know the stonage at Gilgal, but we never before heard this reason assigned for it: nor of this book of Joshua. Where has it been all this while? and where, and how came you, after so many ages, to find it? Besides, we are told in this book, that this same passage over Jordan was ordained to be taught our children, from age to age; and therefore that they were always to be instructed in the meaning of that stonage at Gilgal, as a memorial of it. But we were never taught it when we were children; nor did we ever teach our children any such thing. And it is not at all likely that could have been forgotten, while so remarkable a stonage continued, which was set up for that and no other purpose." If, then, for the reasons before assigned, no such im- position could be practised successfully upon us as to the Stonehenge upon Salisbury Plain, how much less could it be with regard to the erection at Gilgal? And. farther, if, when we know not the reason of an insulated monument, such a delusive reason cannot be imposed ; how much more impossible is it to impose on us in actions and observances which we celebrate in memory of particular miraculous events ? How im- possible to make us forget those passages which we 18 Josh. iii. 1517 ; iv. 1824. 144 ON MIRACLES. daily commemorate ; and to persuade us that we had always observed such institutions or ceremonies in me- mory of what we never before heard of; that is, that we knew it before we knew it ! And if it be found thus impossible to practise an imposition upon us, even in some things which have not all the four criteria before- mentioned, how much more impossible is it that there should be any deceit with regard to particulars in which all those criteria actually meet. Similar reasoning is applied with equal success by this acute writer to the principal facts, including the miraculous ones, recorded in the Evangelical history. The works and the miracles of Jesus Christ are said, by the Evangelists, to be done publicly in the face of the world ; and so, indeed, himself affirmed in reason- ing with his accusers : " I spake openly to the world, and in secret have I said nothing 19 ." We learn also in the Acts of the Apostles, that three thousand at one time, and more than two thousand at another' 20 , were converted, upon conviction of what themselves had seen and known, what had been done publicly before their eyes, and in particulars respecting which it was impossible to impose upon them. So that here we find the two first of Mr. Leslie's criteria. Then for the two second : Baptism and the Lord's Supper were instituted as perpetual memorials of these things : they were not instituted in after ages, but at the very time when the circumstances to which they relate took place ; and they have been observed with- out interruption, through the whole Christian world, in all ages down from that time to the present. Besides, Christ himself ordained apostles, and other ministers of his Gospel, to preach and administer the sacraments: and that always " even unto the end of the world 21 ." Accordingly, they have continued by regular succes- sion to this day. So that the Christian ministry is, 19 John, xviii. 20. See on this point, Home on the Study of the Scriptures, vol. i. p. 541, 1st edit. 20 Acts, ii. 41 ; i?. 4. 2I Matt, xxviii. 20. ON MIRACLES. 145 and always has been, as notorious in point of fact, as the tribe of Levi among the Jews. The Gospel also is as much a law, a rule of conduct to the Christians, as the books of Moses to the Jews : and it being part of the matters of fact or truths related in the Gospel that " pastors and teachers 22 " were appointed by Christ, and to continue till the end of*the world ; consequently if the Gospel history and doctrines were invented (as they must be, if forged at all) in some ages after Christ ; then, at the time of the invention, there could be no such order of clergy or ministers as derived themselves from the institution of Christ; a circumstance which must give the lie to the Gospel, and demonstrate the whole to be false. The miraculous actions of Christ and his Apostles being affirmed to be true no other- wise than as there were at that identical time (when- ever the Deist will suppose the Gospel history to be forged), not only sacraments or ordinances of Christ's institution, but an order of Christian pastors, &c. to administer them ; and it being impossible there could be any such things before they were invented, it is as impossible they should be received and accredited when invented. Hence it follows that it was as im- possible to have imposed these miraculous relations upon mankind in after ages, as it would have been to make persons believe they saw the miracles, or were parties concerned in the beneficial effects resulting from them, if they were not. IV. Notwithstanding all that has been said, how- ever, by Leslie and others, since there is no making a fence high enough to keep out extravagant conjectures and surmises, we find unbelievers exclaiming after all, that still men's senses might be imposed upon. To reasoning we may always oppose reasoning; and it is often perfectly legitimate to oppose conjecture to con- jecture ; yet, with regard to the New Testament mira- cles, we cannot have so ill an opinion of the intellects of infidels as to conjecture that they really believe 28 Ephes. iv. 11. L 146 ON MIRACLES. " That pei-sons afflicted with the most excruciating maladies and diseases should be juggled into perfect ease and health, and cured (as Celsus pretended) by legerdemain : " That blind men should see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, lepers be cleansed, and dead men come to life, fnerely by the play of fancy, and the force of imagination : " That the senses of whole multitudes should be imposed upon to such a degree that they should all fancy together, they saw, heard, spake, ate and drank, repeated these actions many times over, and that in different places and circumstances, too, and yet, after all, did nothing of all this; but were either asleep, or in ecstasy, or under the influence of some strange charm all the while : " That five thousand men, for example, at one time and four thousand at another (besides women and children), should persuade themselves they fed only upon a few loaves and fishes; should publish it to ail the country that they did so; refer to time, place, and persons present ; and yet, instead of this, have been in fact at a splendid and magnificent feast, where plenty and variety of all provisions, fit to entertain such mul- titudes, were set before them." If these things may be, of what utility are our senses? What dependence can be placed upon them? or what credit can be due to a Deist who attests nothing but upon experience, and yet admits that thou- sands together may be deceived in reference to some of the most common and frequent actions and functions in human life? In truth, there are but four hypotheses that can be assumed with respect to the miracles of Jesus Christ, one or other of which a reasonable being must adopt. Either, first, the recorded accounts of those miracles were absolute fictions wickedly invented by some per- sons who had a wish to impose upon mankind : Or, secondly, Jesus Christ did not work any true ON MIRACLES. 147 miracles ; but the senses of the people were in some way or other deluded, so that they believed he really did perform miracles, when in fact he did not : Or, thirdly, that the spectators were not in any way deluded, but knew very well he wrought no miracles: yet were all (both enemies and friends, the Jews them- selves not excepted, though they daily " sought occa- sion against him") united in a close confederacy to persuade the world that he performed the most sur- prising things. So that, while some actively circulated reports of these amazing occurrences, the rest kept their counsel, never offering to unmask the fraud, but managing the matter with so much cunning and dex- terity, and such an exact mutual harmony and corres- pondence, that the story of Jesus Christ's performing miracles should become current, should obtain almost universal credit, and not a single person be able to dis- prove it: Or, fourthly, that he did actually perform these astonishing works, and that the accounts given of them by the Christian writers in the New Testament are authentic and correct. He that does not adopt the last of these conclusions will find it a matter of very small consequence which of the three others he chooses. For that the stories cannot be fictions is evident from the reasoning of Leslie already adduced : and it will be seen farther, from a few moments' consideration, that the denial of the miracles of Jesus Christ, in any way, leads neces- sarily to the admission of a series of real miracles of another kind. The progress of the human mind, as may be seen by all the inquiries into it, is a thing of a determinate nature: a man's thoughts,. words, and actions, are all generated by something previous ; there is an esta- blished course for these things (as well as for the physical part of the universe), an analogy, of which every man is a judge from what he feels in himself, and observes in, others: arid to suppose any number 148 ON MIRACLES. of men in determinate circumstances to vary from tins general tenour of human nature in like circumstances is a miracle, and may, as Dr. Hartley remarks, be made a miracle of any magnitude, i. e. incredible to any de- gree, by augmenting the number and magnitude of the deviations. It is therefore a miracle in the human mind, as great as any that can possibly be conceived to take place with regard to the body, to suppose that multitudes of Christians, Jews, and Heathens, in the primitive times, should have borne such unquestion- able testimony, some expressly, others by indirect cir- cumstances, as we learn from history they did, to the miracles said to be performed by our Lord upon the human body, unless they were really performed. In like manner, the reception which the miracles recorded in the Old Testament met with is a miracle, unless those miracles were true. These are not however the only miracles which unbelievers in the Scripture mi- racles must admit. The very determination of the apostles to propagate the belief of false miracles (inde- pendent of the additional difficulty arising from the silent concurrence of the Jews and Gentiles in the story, according to the third hypothesis suggested above), in support of such a religion as that taught in the New Testament, is as great a miracle as human imagination can conceive. For when they formed this design, whether they hoped to succeed, or conjectured that they should fail, in their undertaking, they chose what they knew to be moral evil, with the contingency of experiencing natural evil; nay, so desirous were they to obtain nothing but misery, that they made their own persecution a test of the truth of their doc- trines; thus violating the strongest possible of all laws of human nature, namely, that " no man can choose evil for its own sake." Here, then, an unbeliever must either deny all analogy, association, uniformity of action, operation of motives, selection of good in preference to evil, &c. and become an absolute sceptic in the most extensive ON MIRACLES. 149 Acceptation of the term, or acknowledge that very strong physical analogies may sometimes be violated ; that is, he must have recourse to something miraculous in order that he may get quit of something miraculous. Let him next inquire which of the two opposite classes of miracles will agree best with his other notions : whether it be more analogous to the nature of God, the course of providence, the history of the world, the known progress of man in this life, &c. to allow that God imparted to certain select persons, of eminent piety, the power of working miracles ; or to suppose that he confounded the understandings, affections, and whole train of associations, of thousands of persons, nay, of entire nations, in such a manner that men, who in all other things seemed to have acted like other men, should, in respect of the history of Jesus Christ, the Prophets, or the Apostles, abandon all established rules of thinking and acting, and conduct themselves in a way miraculously repugnant to all our ideas and all our experience. In order to determine this inquiry, let it not be forgotten that the object, of the class of miracles against which the Deists contend, is worthy of a God of infinite wisdom, power, and good- ness: while the object of the latter is decidedly and absolutely inconsistent with wisdom and goodness, attributes which all Theists ascribe to that Great Being by whom alone miracles can be performed, allowing that they can be wrought at all. V. Much of the preceding reasoning is entirely independent of any minute investigation of the nature of concurrent or successive testimony; and the whole discussion might safely be terminated without any reference to these abstruser inquiries, were it not that Hume and his disciples have frequently adverted (o them, and that silence might be construed into inability to break through their web of sophistry. The argument of Dr. Campbell has already been briefly sketched; I shall here add a few distinct considerations. And, first, with regard to concurrent testimony, it has been 1-50 ON MIRACLES. demonstrated upon genuine mathematical principles 2 *, that where the credibility of each witness is great, a very few witnesses will be sufficient to overcome any contrary probability, derived from the nature of the fact; that the evidence resulting from testimony can not only approach indefinitely near to certainly, but can at length exceed the evidence of any inference, however cogent, which can possibly be deduced from personal experience, or from personal and derived experience conjointly ; that is, that the evidence of testimony can overcome any degree of improbability, however great, which can arise from the nature of the fact. The reason is, that the evidence of testimony admitting of an unlimited increase on two different accounts (namely, that of the veracity of the witnesses, and that of the number of concurrent witnesses), while the probability of the happening of any specific event admits only one of them, the former is capable of indefinitely sur- passing the latter. But, indeed, the force of the evidence resulting from concurrent testimony is avowedly so great upon the minds of all who have not been biassed by the perusal of deistical speculations, or an indulgence in them, that the matter scarcely needs the support of mathematical investigation. Let it be supposed that twelve men of probity and good sense were circumstantially and seri- ously to tell, each independently of the others, on his own personal conviction, " a round unvarnished tale 5 * of a miracle performed before their eyes, and respecting which it was impossible (as they affirm) for them to be deceived ; I believe few persons would wait to receive a thirteenth concurrent testimony, before they yielded their assent to the truth of the relation, however extra- ordinary. Let it be supposed, farther, that the twelve evidences, on being suspected of " bearing false wit- ness," subjected themselves to be scourged, tortured, nay strangled, rather than deny the truth of their attes- tation ; could any reasonable or reasoning man refuse 33 See the article Credibility in the PANTALOGIA. ON MIRACLES. 151 to believe their testimony? According to Mr. Hume's argumentation, we are not to believe them, were we to witness such a story and such sufferings ; but I am so persuaded that no person in his senses would disbelieve them, that I will venture to say even Mr. Hume, under such circumstances, could not have withheld his assent to the truth of their story. " But," say his disciples, " whatever might be done or conceded in such a case, those who live a thousand years after the event, can have no reason to believe it: if we admit that concurrent testimony may augment ; still successive testimony diminishes, and that so rapidly as to command no assent, after a few centuries at most." This is specious ; but, as I remarked at the commence- ment of this letter, far from correct. I do not deny that there may be cases in which credibility diminishes with time ; but no testimony is really, in the nature of things, rendered less credible by any other cause, than the loss or want of some of those conditions which first made it rationally credible. A testimony continues equally credible, so long as it is transmitted with all those circumstances and conditions which first procured it a certain degree of credit amongst men, proportionate to the intrinsic value of those conditions. Let it be supposed that the persons who transmit the testimony are able, honest, and diligent, in all the requisite inquiries as to what they transmit, and how should the credibility due to their testimony be weakened, but by the omission of circumstances? which omission is con- trary to the hypothesis. No calculation of the decrease of the credibility of testimony, in which a man bears witness respecting realities, and not the fictions of his own brain, can ever proceed upon any other principle than that of the characters and qualifications of the witnesses: and therefore, so far as the credibility of any matter of fact depends upon pure testimony, they who live at the remotest distances of time may have the same evidence of the truth of it as those persons who lived nearest to the time in which the thing was 152 ON MIRACLES. said to be done ; that identical time being, of course, excluded. In what possible manner, for example, can the evi- dence on which we believe the facts related in the Gospels be less than that on which those facts were accredited by Christians in the second or third cen- turies? They possessed the standard writings of the Evangelists; so do we: what those books then con- tained, they now contain ; and the invention of printing seems likely, under the care of Providence, to preserve them genuine to the end of time. This admirable in- vention has so far secured all considerable monuments of antiquity, that no ordinary calamities of wars, disso- lutions of governments, &c. can destroy any material evidence now in existence, or render it less probable to those who shall live in a thousand years' time than it is to us. With regard to the facts of the Christian religion, indeed, it is notorious that our evidence in favour of them has increased instead of diminished since the era of printing, the reformation of religion, and the restoration of letters: and, as even the recent inquiries of learned men 24 have produced fresh evidence, there is every reason to hope it will continue to increase. Indeed, it is only with regard to the facts related in the Bible that men ever talk of the daily diminution of credibility. Who complains of a decay of evidence. in relation to the actions of Alexander, Hannibal, Pompey, or Caesar? How many fewer of the events recorded by Plutarch, or Polybius, or Livy, are believed now (on account of a diminution of evidence) than were believed by Mr. Addison, or Lord Clarendon, or Geoffrey Chaucer? It might be contended with some semblance of probability, that we know more of those ancients than the persons now mentioned : but that it is widely different from accrediting less. We never hear persons wishing that they had lived ages earlier, that they might have hud better proofs that Cyrus was the conqueror of Babylon, that Darius was beaten in 24 See the close of Letter V. ON MIRACLES. 153 several battles by Alexander, that Titus destroyed Jeru- salem, that Hannibal was entirely routed by Scipio, or Pompey by Julius Caesar : though we sometimes find men of ardent and enterprising minds exclaiming 1 , " O that I had lived and been present when such and such splendid events occurred : how lively an interest should I have taken in such scenes, how much concern in their termination !" And, indeed, it is the frequent hearing of like exclamations that causes men to confound weight of testimony with warmth or depth of feeling; and to lose sight of the essential difference between real evidence, or the true basis for belief of history, and the sensible impression or influence which such history may make upon the mind. We believe as firmly that Lucretius stabbed himself in the delirium of a fever, as that Lucretia stabbed herself in consequence of the wrongs she had received from Tarquin's son ; yet we feel a much more lively interest in the latter event than in the former. The fate of Carthage, or the result of the contest between Antony and Octavius respecting the empire of the world, would doubtless be much more deeply felt, and much more. eo Mattt xxviii> 19> ON THE RESURRECTION. 173 late their report in some secret and obscure corner ; but in one of the most celebrated and public places then existing in the world : that they made choice of a season in which there was the greatest concourse and resort of all sorts of people thither, that they might gain the greatest number of hearers and of inquirers into the truth of their extraordinary narration: that the professed adversaries of the Christian doctrine then at Jerusalem had many cogent reasons to stimulate them to exert their utmost efforts to prove it false : that they had as much time and opportunity as could well be desired to devote to the detection of the impos- ture, had there been any : and, that they had likewise power in their hands, by which they were enabled to examine all persons arid things that might in any way conduce to throw light upon this remarkable and highly interesting subject. Under circumstances so favourable to refutation, there can be no doubt that the Jews would have re- futed the story of the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ, had it been in their power: and, besides this, the Jews had an additional motive arising from the injury sustained by their moral character, unless they could prove the statements of the Christians to be in- tentionally and wickedly erroneous. It will be readily granted, I suppose, that, when two parties of men are directly and strongly opposed to each other, if the one asserts and publishes a statement as to matter of fact which is of the highest moment, and absolutely de- structive of the interest of the other, and is not so palpably false as to carry with it plain indications of malignity and revenge, or of studied slander and scandal ; that then, if the other party, upon whom this charge is made, does not in as solemn and public a manner refute it, or do something in their own vindi- cation, which will, in the opinion of unbiassed and un- prejudiced persons, bear some proportion to the attack made upon them in such case, the accused party tacitly acknowledge the truth of what the accusing 174 ON THE RESURRECTION. party have alleged against them, and thus, of conse- quence, relinquish the cause. Now this is exactly the state of the case between the Jews and early Christians. The evangelist, Matthew, publishes to the world in un- equivocal terms, that the Jews bribed the soldiers to report that the body of Christ was stolen by his disci- ples when they (the guards) were asleep 61 ; and the early Christians uniformly asserted the same tiling 1 . To record thus in the evangelical history that the Jews were guilty of this ridiculous and self-destructive, and yet horrid and abominable, piece of forgery and bribery ; to tell the world that they acted so foul and sordid a part as to tamper with the soldiers, and get them to circulate a story which in their hearts they knew to be notoriously false, as well as absurd, since no man can accurately ascertain what is carried on near him when his senses are locked up in sleep ; to do this, was to depict the ruling Jews to the world in the very worst colours in which men could be drawn, and to expose the cause of these enemies of Christ, as desperate and forlorn to the last degree. Is it not natural to con- clude that the Jews would in some signal manner have vindicated themselves from this charge, if they had not known and felt that vindication was impos- sible, the thing being no tor to us? and is it not an equally necessary inference, that the Jews at that time were fully persuaded that Jesus Christ was indeed risen? otherwise, why should they offer bribes, and invent un absurd story, to conceal it? Thus much may suffice to establish the truth of the momentous fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. From this outline of arguments, for it is indeed nothing more than an outline, you will per- ceive that the evidence in favour of this event is both forcible and satisfactory. To believe it, then, is reason- able ; and it is freed from absurdity, because resurrec- tion from the dead is manifestly as much within the power of God as creation ; and every consistent theist 61 Matt, xxviii. 13. ON THE RESURRECTION. 175 Imits the latter. But the adoption of a contrary pinion is pregnant with absurdities and natural im- possibilities ; with the mention of u few of which I shall close this letter. He, who denies the resurrection of Jesus Christ, must believe, That twelve poor fishermen and tent- makers, without power, and (all except Paul) without human learning, were able to deceive the wise, the learned, the prudent ; and to lay their plot so deep, that neither their cotemporaries, nor any succeeding- genera- tion, should be able to detect and expose the cheat. That those very persons who but a few hours be- fore were trembling with timidity and fear, whose want uf courage (even according to their own account) over- came their fidelity, and caused them to forsake their master in his greatest extremity, notw ithslantling their \arious professions, nay, protestations, of inviolable attachment and zeal; being so terrified with apprehen- sions that they dare not acknowledge themselves to be his disciples, but secreted themselves by day for fear of the Jews; yet that these timid, irresolute creatures should all at once not only form the plan, but execute the bold, hazardous, and useless undertaking of con- quering the guards, forcing the sepulchre, and carrying off the body of their crucified Lord. That men thus rash and desperate, engaged in an enterprise of so much danger, an enterprise which therefore required all possible expedition and des- patch, should waste time in unaccountable niceties, and ceremonies (such as divesting the body of its burial-clothes, disposing them in separate parcels, &c.) which could be of no manner of use; but evidently exposed them to the danger of being surprised by the guards, and taken into custody. That these timid, yet desperate men, who con- stituted a company of the greatest impostors that ever existed in the world, and who, therefore, must neces- sarily be the worst men that ever were, did, notwith- standing, furnish mankind with the most comprehensive 176 ON THE RESURRECTION. and exact system of morality extant, teach such rules of living as were infinitely superior to any of the pro- ductions of Greek or Roman philosophers, and though their whole business was only to promote and dissemi- nate falsehood and deception, yet denounced the se- verest eternal punishments upon all who indulged in such wicked practices. That these impostors, having themselves no cor- rect notions of God, should notwithstanding impart the most rational and becoming opinions respecting him to the rest of mankind ; and, by no other prin- ciples than those of delusion and irreligion, kindle a flame of desire in the breasts of thousands to serve and worship God. That they took far more pains to expose themselves to all the world, as the most abandoned sinners that ever came into it (for that they should deceive them- selves so as to believe Jesus was seen ten distinct times after his resurrection, when he was not seen at all, can- not be imagined), than they need have done to establish the best reputation among their cotemporaries, and procure an immortal fame in all succeeding ages. That these impostors, after spending their lives in promulgating falsehood, died, not to testily their belief in a speculative doctrine respecting which they might be deluded by others, or self-deluded ; but in attesta- tion of a pretended fact, while they knew it was no fact ; and all this under the strongest declarations of devotedness to God, and of adoration to their risen Sa- viour, who, they pretended, was now silting in heaven to receive them 62 . Hence you will perceive that, as a general denial of revelation leads to numerous gross absurdities, of which a few were detailed in my first letter, so a denial of individual topics of revealed truth brings each its ap- propriate and dependent string of difficulties. He who denies the truth of Scripture prophecy must admit that things have occurred, although there was an infinitely 65 Acts, vii. 59. ON THE RESURRECTION. 177 great probability against their occurrence. He who disbelieves the miracles recorded in Scripture, must believe in other miracles. And he who denies the par- ticular miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in consequence involves himself in the particular class of absurdities to which I have just adverted : besides which he voluntarily excludes himself from the only strong consolation a rational creature can possess at the hour of death, that which flows from a full persua- sion of the resurrection to eternal life. " I am the Resurrection and the Life," said Jesus Christ: " who- soever believeth in me shall not die eternally 63 :" and his own resurrection fully establishes the truth of this consolatory declaration. But the proud philosophist who rejects this doctrine, so suited to the wishes and the wants of man, not only places himself below the Christian, but below the Indian, in point of prospects of futurity. The poor untutored, despised Indian " Thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company." While many of those who pity the stupidity of the Indian, and sneer at the credulity of the Christian, live and die under the embasing conviction that at death themselves and their dogs will be alike extinct, alike free from responsibility, alike unconscious of all around them, alike excluded from pleasure, alike liberated from pain 64 ! I am, &c. 63 John, xi. 25, 26. 64 It was a common assertion of Diderot, that between him and his dog " U n'y avoit de difference que Jtabit," 178 RAPID PROMULGATION LETTER IX. Evidence drawn from the rapid Diffusion of Christianity, and its Triumph over Persecution ; also from the Pu- r'dif and Excellency of the Scripture Morality and Theology. THE two topics I have selected for discussion in this letter might each furnish matter for a volume ; and the argument, if judiciously handled, would rather gain strength, than become weakened, by such dilation. I mean, however, in either case to present you with a mere outline of the argument, and leave you to give colour and force to the former, by your acquaintance with the history of the first four centuries of the Church, and to the latter, by a careful perusal of the Holy Scriptures. Our reasoning is simple, and rests upon the princi- ples of Natural Religion. God will aid that which is good, and check that which is bad, in so far that each shall be rendered subservient to a higher good : hence it is agreeable to Divine Providence to give the most rapid and extensive diffusion, independently of secular concurrence, to that which is, in itself and its tenden- cies, best: and hence it will follow, since God has regard to human affairs, and since the Christian Reli- gion cannot be good if it be not true, or could not gain ground as it did in opposition to earthly power and unassisted by heavenly power, that it is what it professes to be, and is therefore divine. It is, I believe, an undeniable fact, that before the end of the second century Christianity had been more widely disseminated over the face of the earth, than any one religion, true or false. Heathenism, in all its varieties of dismal shades, had been thickening for thousands of years, until " darkness covered the lands, and gross darkness the people." But as the natural sun chases away darkness from whole regions, \\ith analogous rapidity did the " Sun of Righteousness" OF CHRISTIANITY. 179 dispel the moral gloom which every where prevailed. Thus IitENjEUS affirms that, in his time, not only those who dwelt near Palestine, but the Egyptians, the Libyans, the Celts, the Germans, &c. had one belief: nay, says he, " the preaching of the truth shines every where, and enlightens all men who are willing to come to the knowledge of the truth 1 ." CLEMENS ALEXAN- DIUMJS again affirms that, in his time, " Christ was known in all nations 2 ." And, that I may not need- lessly multiply quotations, let me, once for all, cite TERTULLIAN S . " In whom else have all nations be- lieved, but in Christ, who lately came? In whom have all these nations believed? i. e. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, Cappadocia; the inhabitants of Pontus, and Asia, and Pamphylia; they that dwell in Egypt, and they who live in Africa, beyond Cyrene ; Romans, and strangers ; Jews, and other nations in Jerusalem ; the various sorts of people in Getulea ; the many countries of the Moors; all the borders of Spain ; the different nations of Gaul ; and those parts of Britain which the Romans could not reach, even they are subject to Christ; the Sarmatae also, and Daci, the Germans and Scythians ; and many other obscure nations, with many provinces and islands scarcely known to us : in all these the name of Christ, lately as he came, reigns." Presently after, this distinguished apologist shows how much larger the kingdom of Christ was, even in his time (the end of the second century), than any of the 1 Iren. lib. i. c. 3. 2 Strom, v. 3 Cent. Jud. lib. 1. The following is ihe reluctant testimony of Gibbon, Hist. Rom. Empire, ix. 244. " The progress of Christianity was one hundred and twenty at the Ascension (Acts, i. 15), soon after three thousand (c. ii. 41), then five thousand, and in little less than two years after the Ascension to great multitudes at Jerusalem only. Mahomet was three years silently occupied in making fourteen converts, and they of his own family ; and proceeded so slow at Mecca, that in the seventh year only eighty-three men and eighteen women retired to Ethiopia and he had no established religion at Mecca to contend with.'' 180 RAPID PROMULGATION Great Monarchies, as they are usually called, and (lien proceeds thus : " The kingdom of Christ is every where extended, every where received ; in all the above-men- tioned nations is esteemed. He reigns every where, is adored in all places, is divided equally amongst all known countries." From this wonderful success at- tending the promulgation of Christianity in all nations, it soon obtained the name of 77 Kparuffa ct^a^, or the prevailing doctrine; as Porphyry and Julian both ac- knowledge. Now what religion was there that could compare with this for the extent of its possession? The only plausible answer is Heathenism. But Heathenism, it should be recollected, though it be one name, is not one religion. Heathens do not all worship the same thing, as I have abundantly shown in a former letter ; nor are they governed by the same law, or bow to one common master in religious matters. The only religions which even now can bear any comparison in point of number of votaries with the Christian, are the Jewish and the Mahometan ; and both of them are decidedly inferior in respect of rapid diffusion. The Jews, indeed, though very much scattered over the face of the earth, are but one nation, and profess one reli- gion, namely, that which in the Divine dispensations prepared the way for Christianity. But their religion, it is well known, has received no remarkable increase since the time of Christ ; and even their sacred law is made more known through the efforts of the Christians than their own. As to MahometanSsm, it is settled and established in many countries; but not alone: for Christianity is esteemed in some of those countries ; nay, in some, indeed, by a greater proportion of the inhabitants: whereas, on the contrary, there are many parts of Christendom where there is not a single Maho- metan to be found, except as a sqjourner or a visitor. How, then, was this rapid promulgation, and per- manent preponderancy, of the Christian religion occa- sioned ? Was it primarily, by courting the aid of the OF CHRISTIANITY. 181 great, the learned, the powerful ; by enlisting states and governments in the cause of Christ? Certainly not. Most men, we observe, are prepared to follow the example, and comply with the wishes, of kings and rulers; especially if they are enforced with retributive or compulsive laws. To these the religion of the Jews, of the Pagans, and of the Mahometans, owed much of their increase. But Christianity, during the time it spread most rapidly, was not incorporated with the state, as was Judaism, and many systems of Paganism ; nor was it propagated by the sword of its advocates, as was Mahometanism. They who first taught the Christian religion were not only men without any secu- lar authority, but of low fortune, such as fishermen and tent-makers : and yet, by the instrumentality of these men, that doctrine was in the course of thirty years disseminated, not only through all parts of the Roman empire, but as far as the Parthians and Indians. And not only at its earliest commencement, but for nearly three hundred years, by the industry and zeal of pri- vate, obscure persons, without any threats, without any invitations, nay, opposed as much as possible by those who were in authority, this religion was so. widely promulgated, that long before Constantine professed Christianity, it was received in the greatest part of the Roman empire. " We are hut of yesterday," says TERTULLIAN, " and have filled all places belonging to you ; your cities, islands, castles, towns, councils ; your very camps, wards, companies, the palace, senate, and forum : we have left you only your temples 4 ." Nor was this effected by adventitious means. They among the Greeks who delivered their perfect precepts 4 Tert. Apol. ii. cap. 37. He adds: "We could make a terrible war upon you, by simply being so passively revengeful as only to leave you. Should the numerous host of Christians retire from the empire into some remote region, the loss of so many men of all ranks and degrees would leave a hideous gap, and inflict a shameful scar upon the government. You would stand aghast at your desolation, aud be struck dumb at the general silence and horror of nature, as if the \vho!e world were departed. 1 ' 182 RAPID PROMULGATION of morality, at the same time rendered themselves ac- ceptable by other arts: as the Platonists, by the study of geometry ; the Peripatetics, by the history of plants and of animals; the Stoics, by logical subtlety; the Pythagoreans, by the knowledge of numbers, and their applications to the principles of harmony. Many of them, as Plato, Xenophon, Theophrastus, &c. were endowed with the most admirable eloquence. Not so the Apostles and first teachers of Christianity. " When I came to you," says Paul to the Corinthians 5 , " I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God ; for I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling ; and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom ; but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Indeed, as if in order to mortify human va- nity, to convince the world that religion was a plain, simple thing, and that a little common sense, accom- panied with an honest good heart, was sufficient to propagate it, without any aid derived from the cabinets of princes, or the schools of human science, the Founder of the Christian Religion took twelve poor illiterate men into his company, admitted them to an intimacy with himself, and after he had kept them awhile in tuition, promised them the aid of his Spirit, and sent them to preach the good tidings of salvation to their countrymen. A while after he selected seventy more, giving them a simple but efficacious preparation : and sent them forth to preach the Gospel. " As ye go," says he, "preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses: nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul 6 ." Thus * 1 Cor. ii. 14. s Matt< x 7_io, 28. OF CHRISTIANITY. 183 equipped, they went forth to their momentous but dangerous undertaking. They delivered the history, they taught the doctrines, they declared the precepts, promises, and threatening^, in bare words, unaccompa- nied by any secular power. Yet they were every where successful as to the object of their mission, and in the course of two centuries accomplished what I have al- ready described : so that we must of necessity allow, either that they were attended by miracles, or that the secret influence of God favoured their efforts, or both : and in either case it follows, that the cause they es- poused was the cause of God. This will appear still more obviously, if we consider the impediments wilh which they had 10 contend, and the difficulties which arose even from the nature of the religion they professed. Considered as a system in- tended to effect proselytism by the usual means, it was fundamentally erroneous. No quality could be ima- gined more directly calculated, considering the state of the world about the Christian era, to frustrate the at- tempts of the primitive Christians, than the inflexibility, or, as it has been called, the intolerance of their zeal. It is true, the religion they proposed was so far of a general nature, that none were necessarily excluded from the benefit of it : all were invited to partake of its blessings. Yet, notwithstanding this liberality, Chris- tianity was in the strictest sense, in relation to other religions then prevailing, an unsocial religion. Unlike the various schemes and modifications of polytheism, it would neither accommodate itself to the reigning su- perstitions, nor would it admit of any association with them. " Keep yourselves from idols'," was an injunc- tion incessantly ringing in the ears, and meeting the eyes of the first disciples. " What can be the reason," said ^Emilian, prefect of Egypt, to Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, " why you may not still adore that God of yours, supposing him to be a God, in conjunction u'ith our Gods?" " We worship no other God," re- 7 1 John, v. 21. 1 Cor. x. 14. 2 Cor. vi. 16, 17. 184 RAPID PROMULGATION plied Dionysius 8 . In the ears of a Polytheist such language was unpardonable; yet it was the language uniformly suggested by the Christian religion. Thus when Cyprian was brought before the Proconsul, "Thou art Thascius Cyprian (says he) who hast been a ring- leader to men of a perverse mind : the emperor com- mands thee to do sacrifice ; consult, then, thy welfare." To this he answered, " I am Cyprian, I am too a Chris- tian, and I cannot sacrifice to your gods: do, therefore, what you are commanded ; as for me, in so just a cause J need no time for consideration." Similarly noble and decided was the conduct of Polycarp and Basil; all tending to evince that their religion was formed to stand alone ; and wherever it prevailed, it was over the ruins of other systems. With such pretensions the heralds of the Gospel could not well hope for a favour- able reception. Their apparent arrogance could only serve to provoke the indignation of those whom they endeavoured to convert ; and the ardent zeal with which they prosecuted their cause would, " according to the NATURAL course of things," have a direct tendency to defeat their object 9 . Besides this, the minds of those to whom this new religion was proposed were preoccupied. They were filled with opinions, and moulded into habits, all of which were directly and powerfully repugnant to the spirit of Christianity. The Hebrews were prepared for the reception of the Law of Moses by the previous appointment of circumcision, and by their knowledge of one God. But, from a moderate acquaintance with the state of the Jewish and Gentile world at the origin of Christianity, it must be evident that every thing that most strongly influences and tyrannizes over the mind of man, religion, custom, law, policy, pride, interest, vice, and even philosophy, were united against the Gospel 10 . These enemies were, in their own nature, 8 Vide Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. 11. 9 See Warbarton's Divine Legation, book ii. sect. 6. 10 Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with the Jew Trypho, affirms OF CHRISTIANITY. 185 very formidable and difficult to be subdued, bad they even suffered themselves to be attacked upon eqyal ground. But, not relying upon their own strength, when barely opposed to the obscure disciples of a cru- cified malefactor (for prejudice and falsehood are always timid and fearful), they entrenched themselves behind that power of which they were in possession, and ren- dered themselves inaccessible, as they imagined, to Christianity, by planting round them, not only all kinds of civil discouragements, but even torments, chains, and death; terrors which no one could despise, who had any views of ambition or interest, and who was not even contented to resign his reputation, his ease, his fortune, and his life ; for the relinquishment of all these was, as Jesus Christ himself had predicted, the frequent consequence of the early profession of Chris- tianity. " And now," said St. Paul, on taking leave of the elders of the Church at Ephesus, " now behold I go urged by the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things which shall befall me there : save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, that bonds and that the Jews in the first century established a universal mission, for the express purpose of counteracting the propagation of the Christian faith. The High-priests and teachers, he assures us, caused the name of Christ to be blasphemed and profaned throughout the known world : " They sent messengers into all countries to say that an im- pious and unjust sedition had been raised by one Jesus a Galilean, whose body, after crucifixion, was stolen away by his disciples ;" and now their descendants are every where scattered, a perpetual monument of the divine origin and truth of the religion, which eigh- teen hundred years ago was so assiduously and vehemently opposed ! See Just. Mart. Dial, cum Tryp. sect. 25, Enseb. Hist. Eccles.. lib. iv. cap. 18, Cave's Apostolici, vol. i. p. 147, or Collinsou's Key to the Fathers, p. 344. We who have been accustomed to read of the persecutions of sin- cere, devotional Christians, in all ages of the world, are apt to for- get that on the introduction of Christianity, persecution for religion was a new thing. Origen (cont. Celsus, lib. ii. cap. 14), adduces this fact in proof of our Lord's divine mission, and asks, " What re- ligion is there in the whole habitable world, that wants the advan- tage of a toleration) except that which our Saviour introduced .' ' 186 RAPID PROMULGATION afflictions await me. But none of these tilings move me, neither count T my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God ll ." Similar to this in kind, if not in degree, must have been the expectation of all zealous Christians in the primitive ages. They were called, in consequence of their profession, to the great- est sufferings. For centuries they were excluded from all places of honour, were fined, had their goods con- fiscated, were banished ; and these were comparatively small things. They were condemned to the mines, had inflicted upon them the most cruel torments that men could invent; such as the rack, the wheel, throw- ing to wild beasts, tearing asunder by branches of trees, burning in pitched coats, boiling in oil or lead, crucifixion with the head downwards: thus, in a short time, the punishments of death were so common that, as related by the writers of those times, no famine, pestilence, or war, ever consumed more men at a time. The persecutions, to which the early Christians were exposed, followed one another with furious and unre- lenting rapidity, leaving the Church scarcely time to breathe between the several sanguinary attacks under which she languished and suffered. No sooner had the converts to Christianity, in the language of Tacitus, become a vast multitude 1 ^, than the first great perse- cution began, under Nero, A. D. 65. The second hap- pened under Domitian, A. D. 90. The third com- menced under Trajan, A.D. 100. The fourth under Adrian, A.D. 126, and continued under Antoninus Pirn, to A.D. 140. The fifth under Marcus Aurclius, A. D. 162. The sixth under Sever us, A. D. 203. The seventh under Maximinus, A. D. 236. The eighth under Decius, A.D. 251. The ninth under Valerian, A.D. 258. The tenth under Diocletian, A.D. 303. And what, you will ask, was the nature of these persecu- 11 Acts', xx. 22 24. 15 Ingens multitude. Tac. Hist. lib. xv. sect. 44. OF CHRISTIANITY. 187 tions ? In reply, I shall briefly describe the last. In the edict issued by Diocletian, in 303, he commanded all the churches to be demolished, and the Christians to be deprived of their sacred writings, and of all their civil privileges and immunities : it occasioned the death of very many, who refused to surrender their religious books to the magistrates. Indeed Tertullian informs us that twenty thousand Christians were burned by Diocletian's orders on ONE Christmas Day; of whom many were burned in a church where they were assem- bled for worship. A second edict ordered the impri- sonment of all bishops and ministers of the Gospel. A third commanded that the most exquisite tortures should be employed, to constrain these captives to lead the way in open apostasy. In the fourth, promul- gated A. D. 304, magistrates were enjoined to exercise these tortures upon all Christians, without distinction of rank or sex, for the purpose of forcing them to re- nounce their religion. These edicts, which extended over the whole Roman empire, with the exception of Gaul, were executed with such active, brutal, and suc- cessful zeal, that pillars were erected in Spain in honour of Diocletian, for having " every where abolished the superstition of Christ; and a medal of this empe- ror, still extant, was struck with the inscription, " Nomine Christianorum deleto 13 ." Besides these, there were persecutions in Africa, in Persia, in Arabia, Cap- padocia, Mesopotamia, Nicomedia, Phrygia, and in almost every place where the Christian name was known. Christianity had every where armed against it, the policy of empires, the jealousy of magistrates both supreme and subordinate, the interests of the priesthood, the virulent, systematic, and well disci- plined rancour of the philosophers, and the furious passions of an inflamed and superstitious populace; and thus, those who suffered for " the cause of Christ," 13 Milner's Church History, vol. ii. p. 6, 7. See also Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. viii. and the testimonies collected in his " Four Dissertations," p 210, &c. 188 RAPID PROMULGATION men, women, youths of both sexes, were so numerous as to be estimated only in the mass ; many of them falling under the weight of such excruciating torments, as cannot be read or thought of without agony and horror. Still, as Cyprian, when exhorting the martyrs of his time, tells them of those who had gone before, " in the hottest conflict they never shrunk, but main- tained their ground with a free confession, an unshaken mind, a divine courage, destitute indeed of external weapons, but armed with ' the shield of faith :' in torments they stood stronger than their tormentors ; their bruised and mangled limbs proved too hard for the instruments with which their flesh was racked and pulled from them ; the blows, however often repeated, could not conquer their impregnable faith ; even though they not only sliced and tore off the flesh, but raked into their very bowels, and let out blood enough to extinguish the flames of persecution, or mitigate the heat of their hellish fire." Thus, though such as these were the difficulties with which Christianity had to struggle for many ages, still she prevailed. " The blood of the martyrs became the SEED of the Church 14 ." That which might have been thought most uncongenial 14 '' The more you mow us down, the thicker we rise : the Christian blood you spill i.s like the seed you sow ; it springs from the earth again, and fructifies the more." Tertullian, Apol. c. 50. D'Oyley, in the book referred to in the last note, says, " I cannot, I confess, reflect upon these examples but with the highest admira- tion. For, though it is very natural to conceive, that, for a man to huff and bluster, when shelled in steel, and indebted to the armourer for his bravery, is no great argument of merit : as, when the ancient poets lirst made their heroes invulnerable, and then represent them as fearless, they give but a poor idea of their courage. Yet, when every stroke wounds, and sufferings make a smart and piercing impression : nay, as in the case of torture, when cruelty gorges itself upon the naked tender body, as a prostrate, defenceless prey ; for a man to be then daring and regardless, to resist unto blood, shows a boldness and constancy truly Christian ; an evidence not barely of a well praised and masculine spirit, but of such A faith as disarms fear and pain, and despises death ; a faith which is greater and more honourable in the sight of heaven, thnn that which removes mountains, or, like Joshua's, arrests the motiou of the sun." OF CHRISTIANITY. 189 to the growth of the new religion, was found most propitious to it. It prevailed, notwithstanding this astonishing, this unprecedented, this universal oppo- sition, so as to change the whole face of things, to overturn the temples and the altars of the gods, silence the-oracles, mortify the impious pride of emperors, confound the presumptuous wisdom of philosophers, and infuse into the hearts of thousands and tens of thou- sands a new spirit, and transform them into new men. Whence did the new religion acquire this mysterious and inextinguishable potency? " Was it from Heaven, or of men ?" No natural cause can account for it : indeed it is contrary to the whole course of natural causes. Weak, illiterate men, of the lowest class, men, who had nothing in thin world to offer their converts, but sufferings, tortures, and the cross, who were every where oppugned, persecuted, and ill treated, " even unto death ;" these were they who triumphed " over flesh and blood," and converted the universe. They continued to suffer, century after century, till they had subdued the world by dying for their religion. The cause is to be found alone in the omnipotence of truth, and especially the truth of God. "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the blind see, the dead are raised, the poor (reckoned of no estimation in the eyes of the world) the poor have the Gospel preached unto them 12 ." In this name the Legislator of the universe speaks, nations hear, and rejoice, and live : and thus we arrive at the only competent and adequate solu- tion of the difficulty, why genuine Christianity, whose peculiar characteristic was non-resistance, should be every where and in all ages opposed ; and yet should every where and in all ages increase. Thus, in the clearest and purest manifestation of himself to the world, God evinced his perfect independence of human wisdom and human power : he passed by the splen- dour of thrones and the glory of philosophy, and showed that he could command all nature, and influ- 15 Matt. xi. 5. 190 CHRISTIAN MORALITY ence all hearts, by means the most humble, and most likely to be contemned. " He chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and the weak things of the world to confound those which are mighty ; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, did God choose, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are : that no flesh should glory in his presence 16 ." Having thus exhibited the argument drawn from the early propagation of Christianity, let me now briefly advert to that which flows from the purity, excellency, and extent, of the Christian morality and theology. The nature of these may be gathered from the testi- mony of the enemies to Christianity, from its effect upon the character and conduct of its converts in all ages, and from the tenour of the Holy Scriptures. Here then, first, as to the testimony of enemies to Christianity, since I must conform to the principle of selection, I shall cite only two; but they will be amply sufficient for my purpose. Of these, the first is PLINY, the younger, who, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, writes thus from Nicomedia, concerning the Christians under his government : " The sum total of their fault, or of their error, consisted in assembling upon a certain stated day, before it was light, to sing alternately among themselves hymns to Christ as to a God; binding them- selves, by oath, not to be guilty of any wickedness ; not to steal, nor to rob; not to commit adultery ; nor break their faith when plighted ; nor to deny the depo- sits in their hands, whenever called upon to restore them. These ceremonies performed, they usually de- parted, and came together again to take a repast, the meat of which was innocent, and eaten promiscuous- ly 17 ." The only crime this governor could discover in the Christians, was " merely an obstinate kind of super- stition, carried to great excess." He therefore asks, " Must they be punished for the name, though otherwise innocent? Or is the name itself so flagitious, as to be 16 1 Cor. i 2729. " Orrery's Plinv, book x. epist. 97. AM) THEOLOGY. 191 punishable?" Conformably with this, we find that the early Christian apologists are frequently exposing the cruelty and folly of the heathen magistrates ; because, while they put others to the rack to extort confession of their crimes, they tormented Christians that they might deny and renounce their characteristic name. My next evidence is LUCIAN, one of the ablest writers of his age, and one of the chief magistrates of a great province of the empire. " The legislator of the Christians (says he) persuades them that they are all brethren. They secede from us : they abjure the gods of the Grecians. They adore their crucified teacher, and conform their lives to his laws. They despise riches; every thing amongst them is in common ; and they are constant in their faith. To this day they adore their great man crucified in Palestine 18 ." Such, then, according to the testimony of Pliny and Lucian, was the effect of Christianity upon the minds and conduct of those who embraced it, that they engaged not to commit any crime, that they adhered strictly to their promises, that they could have no crime imputed to them but obstinate attachment to their religion, that fhey despised riches, and that they loved one another us brethren. If any person were seeking for criteria of .t false religion, of a religion founded upon wickedness, and cemented by deceit (and such must the Christian eligion be, if it did not emanate from God), would he be satisfied with such as these ? But let us notice the effect of Christianity upon one >vho was long a hater of it, and became, notwithstand- ing, its illustrious defender. I mean the apostle Paul. What was his character before his conversion to Chris- lianity? That of a furious bigot, an unrelenting per- " Lu, Lucian cle Morte Peregrin!. For other testimonies from Anto- ninus Pius, Trypho, &c., see Cave's Primitive Christianity, parti. <-!i. 4. And for Tertullian's powerful raillery on Trajan's celebrated 'Her to Pliny, delineating the conduct which he was to pursue v ith respect to the Christians, see Apologet. cap. 2, or the Pantologia, t. TRAJAN. 192 CHRISTIAN MORALITY seen tor of all whose religious opinions were different from his own, a man who " breathed threatening and slaughter" against others whose only crime was sublime virtue, a man who delighted in sanguinary scenes, who held the clothes of those who stoned martyrs, probably gnashing his teeth for vexation all the while, that he was too young to be more actively engaged in the brutal scene, a man whose principal delight was in " making havoc of the church," disturb- ing domestic privacy, " entering into houses, and haling men and women to prison ;" who " punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly mad against them, persecuted them unto strange cities 19 ." How different were his actions and his sentiments after he had been converted on his way to Damascus, and became " obedient unlo the heavenly vision !" Observe how gentle, tender, and sympathizing, is the demeanour; how pure, how elevated, how benevolent, how peculiarly fitted to the wants of universal society, are the ethics become of the man who just before found his greatest pleasure and glory in persecuting and torturing his fellow-creatures! " Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be kindly-affec- tioned one to another with brotherly love ; in honour preferring one another; not slothful in business; fer- vent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints ; given to hospi- tality. Bless them which persecute you ; bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice; and weep with them that weep. Mind not high things. Be not wise in your own conceits. Live peaceably with all men. Avenge not yourselves, but rathoprive place unto wrath. If thine enemy hunger, feetffiim ; if he thirst, give him drink. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good 20 ." Where, except in the 19 Acts, vii. 58 ; viii. 13 ; ix. 1 ; xxvi. 10, 11, 19. 80 Rom. xii. 921. AND THEOLOGY. 193 Bible, or in books which inculcate the sentiments of the Bible, will you find such a group of admirable, peace-inspiring, precepts? Observe, again, how forcibly this apostle depicts the sublime importance of charity, or love. " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing 21 ." Surely this was not always the language of the fanatical persecutor Saul ! Whence, then, did he derive these elevated sentiments, this preference of universal bene- volence to the most splendid and miraculous endow- ments ? Are these the notions of a vile impostor, or of a poor deluded enthusiast, or of one whom " much learn- ing has made mad?" No ; they are the genuine pro- ductions of the religion of Jesus, invariably manifested in a greater or less degree wherever it is efficacious ; and proving clearly that that religion proceeds from Him who wills the harmony and the happiness of the physical and rational world. Look again at the language of the Divine Founder of the Christian religion. Read some of his discourses. Take those, for example, which are recorded in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 10th, and 25th chapters of Matthew's Gospel; and those in the 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th chapters of John's Gospel. I know your soul is susceptible of exquisite feelings, and that you can readily discern and distinguish the good, the beautiful, the pathetic, the sublime, the sincere : and I therefore may a, in 1 Cor. vii. 40, imports not an uncertain opinion, but conviction and knowledge, as in John, v. 39, still the argument as to the distinction made by the Apostle between the authority of his private sentiments and his inspired doctrines remains unimpaired. INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 213 Scribes and Pharisees (who on all proper occasions are censured so freely) with having introduced into the sacred volume any merely human compositions; that, on the contrary, they not only recommend a diligent and constant perusal of these Scriptures, as- of the greatest importance to men's eternal happiness, but speak of them as divine oracles, and as written by the extraordinary influence of the Holy Spirit upon the minds of the authors. " I desire that the following list of Scriptures may be attentively consulted and reflected on in this view. I might have added a great many more, indeed several hundreds, in which the sacred writers of the New Testa- ment argue from those of the Old in such a manner, as nothing could have justified but a firm persuasion that they were divinely inspired. Now as the Jews always allowed that ' the testimony of an approved prophet was sufficient to confirm the mission of one who was sup- ported by it,' so I think every reasonable man will readily conclude, that no inspired person can errone- ously attest another to be inspired; and indeed the very definition of plenary inspiration absolutely ex- cludes any room for cavilling on so plain a head. I throw the particular passages which I choose to men- tion into the margin below 22 ; and he must be a very indolent inquirer into a question of so much import- ance, who does not think it worth his while to turn carefully to them ; unless he have already such a con- viction of the argument that it should need no farther to be illustrated or confirmed." But, before you totally dismiss the subject, meditate upon a few important particulars, in which those por 22 John, v. 39. Matt. iv. 4, 7, 10. Mark, xii. 24. Luke, x. 26, 27. Matt. v. 17, 18 ; xxi. 42 ; xxii. 29, 31, 43 ; xxiv. 15 ; xxvi. 54,56. Luke, i. 67, 69, 70; xvi. 31; xxiv. 25, 27. John, vi. 31 ; x. 35. Acts, ii. 16, 25 ; iii. 22, 24 ; iv. 25 ; xvii. 11 ; xviii. 24, 28 ; xxviii. 25. Rom. iii. 2, 10; ix. 17, 25,27, 29; x. 5, 11, 16; xv. 4 ; xvi. 26. 1 Cor. x. 11. 2 Cor. iv. 13 ; vi. 16, 17. Gal. iii. 8. ITiin. v. 18. 2Tim. iii. 15, 16. Heb. i. 1, 5 13; iii. 7; Jam. ii. 8;iv.5,6. 1 Pet. i. 10 12. 2 Pet. i. 19 21. 214 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. tions of the Old Testament which are not altogether or principally prophetic, differ from all compositions that are merely human. Thus, 1st. They do not accommodate themselves to the tastes, inclinations, and prejudices of mankind. For, instead of fostering the voluptuousness of men, they extirpate it ; at least, that is their tendency ; as well as to eradicate injustice, self-love, and all unholy passions. Instead of gratifying our pride, they tend to overthrow it, by presenting a most vivid picture of our weakness, misery, and corruption. Instead of feeding the vain curiosity of those who would fain know the nature of things, that they may have the fame which accrues from the knowledge, or become wise, that they may be thought wise; the Hebrew Scriptures teach us that this knowledge is but vanity and vexation of spirit. Instead of exhibiting to us the niceties, and dwelling upon the distinctions of polished life, they present an amiable simplicity of manners, and teach us that " though a man have riches, and wealth, and honour, so that he can glut his soul with what he clesireth," yet if his wishes centre and terminate in these, " he cometh in with vanity and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness." Instead of exhorting us to love virtue merely for its own sake, or for some other motive taken from the glory which will redound from the practice of it, the Hebrew teachers soar much higher, and exhort us to love virtue from love to God, and to rejoice not more at the remem- brance of his mercy than " at the remembrance of his holiness." Does not this argue an emanation from the " fountain of lights?" 2. They do not write to gratify their own prejudices. Thus Moses believed that God had set apart the Is- raelites as his chosen people, depositing his oracles in their hands, and honouring them with his covenant. What other nation, says he, has God so dealt with? Yet Moses speaks of Mekhisedech, king of Salem, whom he calls a priest of the most high God, although he lived INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 215 among other nations, and was not of the family of Abraham. Thus, also, what he relates of Abimelech, that he had feared God; and of Balaam, that he had received the gift of prophecy, though he had daily con- versed with idolatrous nations, was equally repugnant to his prejudices. So again, Moses was a firm believer, and an unequivocal assertor, of the unity of God. How is this reconcileable with Gen. iii. 22; xviii. 17 20; Gen. xiv. xvii. xviii. xxviii. xxxi. xlv. xlix? with Exod. iii. 1, 2, 14; v. 3 ; vi. 2, 3, &c. ? Jehovah is confounded with an angel ; a man is called Jehovah ; creatures are invested with the attributes of the Creator of the uni- verse; and this, in the writings of Moses, a man of great natural talents, enriched with all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and whose great design was to excite the Israelites to glorify God, nor " ever give his glory to another." Much that was said by Joshua and others is equally repugnant to all their opinions and prejudices: would they, could they, have thus run counter to themselves, but in consequence of an irre- sistible superior influence? Then, 3dly. Not to dwell upon the repugnancies between the belief of the Jewish prophets, as to the Israelites being God's peculiar people, and their reite- rated predictions of the kingdom of the Messiah, and the universal diffusion of divine truth and knowledge ; let the attention be simply directed to a few predictions comprised in the Pentateuch. How, but in virtue of inspiration, properly so called, could it be announced in the time of Moses, nay, by Moses (for to ascribe his books to any other author is the refinement of ab- surdity), that God would raise a strange nation against the Jews, that they should be dispersed among other people, who should seduce them to idolatry during their captivity, that their cities should be razed to the ground, that in the extremity of famine some of them should feed upon their own children : but that they should be converted to God, and that God would then bring back the captives of Israel, and gather them from 216 INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. among other people? All these particulars, with others which I do not now enumerate, are announced, as you will recollect, in one book, that of Deuteronomy. I should quite despair of bringing any arguments to bear upon the mind, which is proof against the con- siderations to which I have thus adverted. Here, then, may safely terminate our inquiry into the inspiration of Scripture. We have ascertained that it is the Word of God : and, if we read it attentively, we shall soon find it profitable " for doctrine, for in- struction, for reproof." Let us, therefore, my friend, believe and rejoice " that the grace of God which bring- eth salvation hath thus appeared to all men ; to the end that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godlily, in the present world ; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appear- ing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ 23 ." LETTER XL On some of the most plausible Objections urged against the Truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures. IT has been my object, in the preceding letters, to con- vince you that the collection of writings received by Christians as sacred and authoritative, are indeed ge- nuine, authentic, and inspired. I shall be happy if this great object be obtained. At all events, I trust I have shown that the Christian religion has the strongest probability in its favour; and, if that be the case, you will at once see that the rejection of it is the height of folly. In the economy of human life we act almost entirely upon probabilities; and in most instances, I believe it will be found that the more important the tendency or the result of a particular action or series of actions may be, the slighter need be the preponderance of probability to determine our adopting it. It is pro- bable, for example, that we may be heirs at law to a 23 Tit, ii. 1113. OBJECTIONS TO THE SCRIPTURES. 217 valuable estate: therefore we examine into the legal instruments which ascertain our title to such estate. It is probable a particular line of conduct will be success- ful: therefore we pursue it. It is probable a certain commercial speculation will be productive : therefore we put it in practice. It is probable a certain regimen will be highly injurious to our health: therefore we abandon it. It is probable a particular medicine will be beneficial to the constitution : therefore we have re- course to it. It is probable the house we inhabit will fall : therefore we quit it. And thus it might be shown in a variety of other instances, that where there appears a presumption however low on one side of an inquiry, and none on the other, where there appears a prepon- derancy however slight in favour of one side, this de- termines the point, even in matters of speculation, and usually impels to action in matters of practice. But alas! this wise and prudential rule of conduct is only applied generally in regard to the things of the present world : for although it is probable, nay, infinitely pro- bable, that the Christian religion is true, that the evils against which we are warned in the Bible will be our portion unless we " flee from the wrath to come," that the ineffable and interminable happiness it promises believers may be ours, unless we thoughtlessly or con- temptuously spurn it from us ; yet, in direct opposition to the conduct discreet persons adopt in every other concern, men disbelieve the evidence, despise the warn- ings, laugh at the threatenings, reject the blessings, held out to them in the Scriptures, go through life wrapped in an impenetrable insensibility to eternal things; and at death "rush upon the thick bosses of God's buckler," and plunge naked into " fierceness and darkness/' instead of bathing in those perennial " rivers of pleasure" which flow from the throne of God, and to which the condescending Deity had invited them! We do not deny that the scheme of revelation has its difficulties : for if the things of nature are often difficult to comprehend, it would be strange indeed if 218 OBJECTIONS TO THE SCRIPTURES. supernatural matters were so simple, and obvious, and suited to finite capacities, as never to startle or puzzle us at all. Origen remarked, with his usual sagacity, that " he who believes the Scripture to have proceeded from him who is the Author of Nature, may well ex- pect to find the same sort of difficulties in it as are found in the constitution of nature :" and this obviously suggests the reflection, that he, who denies the Bible to have come from God on account of these difficulties, may, for exactly the same reason, deny that the world was formed by him. Indeed the Bible could not have been, as many declarations included in it show it to be, a touchstone by which fo try men's honest dispositions l , were it so free from difficulties that every man's faith would be inevitably excited on the perusal. To reject Christianity, therefore, on account of its difficulties, is unreasonable : because it is to reject it for possessing what its own writings declare to be essen- tial to its nature and purpose : and to proceed by way of objections drawn from these difficulties is unfair; because it is walking in a path in which a man can never be stopped unless he please, and in which, though he travel for ever, it is impossible he can arrive at truth and certainty. Let him propose a thousand objections in succession, and suppose nine hundred and ninety- nine of them to be answered satisfactorily ; still the one which he retains, and which he supposes to be un- answerable, because he has not received an answer to it, will be deemed a sufficient plea to justify his conti- nuing incredulous. He will boast of this single objec- tion, though probably the point to which it relates may be one which it is impossible for us to place in a proper light, unless we could see and know as God does. " Many and painful are the researches usually neces- sary to be made for settling points of this kind. Pert- ness and ignorance may ask a question in three lines, 1 Ut ita serrao evangelii tanquani lapis esset Lydius ad quern ingenia sanabilia explorarentur. Grotius De Ver. Rel. Christ, lib. ii. sect. 19. OBJECTIONS TO THE SCRIPTURES. 219 which it will cost learning and ingenuity thirty pages to answer. When this is done, the same question shall be triumphantly asked again the next year, as if nothing had ever been written upon the subject. And as peo- ple in general, for one reason or another, like short objections better than long answers, in this mode of disputation (if it can be styled such) the odds must ever be against us ; and we must be content with those for our friends, who have honesty and erudition, can- dour and patience, to study both sides of the question 2 ." You must not, however, infer from these observa- tions, that I wish to avoid all discussion of the objec- tions urged against Scripture. They are, it is true, too multifarious in their nature to render it possible we should meet them all ; and many of them would lead us into too wide a field of inquiry, to admit of their being considered in the compass of a letter. Still it may be proper to select a few which you have probably heard advanced, and to present you with such answers as have been given, or may be given to them ; that you may judge how trifling some of them are, and how sa- tisfactory solutions may be furnished to others, the most specious and plausible, that have been brought forward. OBJ. I. It has been thought strange that God should select, as the principal recipients of his favours, so obscure a people as the ancient Jews were ; a nation described by Voltaire as " wretched, ever ignorant, and vulgar, and strangers to the arts." The following reply was made to Voltaire : and it is unnecessary we should seek for any other, until the disciples of Voltaire and Hume shall have shown us that this is weak and unsatisfactory. " Does it become you, a writer of the eighteenth century, to charge the ancient Hebrews with ignorance ? A people, who, while your barbarous ancestors, whilst even the Greeks and Latins, wandering in the woods, could scarcely pro- cure for themselves clothing and a settled subsistence, already possessed all arts of necessity, and some of 2 Home's Letters on Infidelity, p. 82. 220 OBJECTIONS TO THE SCRIPTURES. mere pleasure ; who not only knew how to feed and to rear cattle, till the earth, work upon wood, stone, and metals, weave cloths, dye wool, embroider stuffs, polish and engrave on precious stones ; but who even then, adding to manual arts those of taste and refinement, surveyed land, appointed their festivals according to the motions of the heavenly bodies, and ennobled their solemnities by the pomp of ceremonies, by the sound of instruments, music and dancing; who even then committed to writing the history of the origin of the world, that of their own nation, and their ancestors; who had poets and writers skilled in all the sciences then known, great and brave commanders, a pure wor- ship, just laws, a wise form of government: in short, this was the only one of all ancient nations that has left us authentic monuments of genius and of literature. Can this nation be justly charged with ignorance and inur- banity P" OBJ. II. The books of Moses are scarcely mentioned by any ancient pagan writers; a circumstance which seems irreconcilable with the extreme antiq uity assigned to them by Jewish and Christian authors. They are, however, noticed by some writers of cele- brity, as I showed in the letter on the genuineness of Scripture ; so that this objection is overthrown. But, even though reference could not be made to a single heathen author who speaks of Moses, it would be unfair to infer from thence that Moses never existed, and that the books distinguished by his name are spurious. Neither Herodotus nor Thucydides ever mention Rome, though the conquests of the Roman people were in the times of those historians extended far and wide : would it not be thought extremely unreasonable to affirm, on this account, that the received histories of Rome are fabulous ? OBJ. III. The massacres and desolations which marked the expulsion of the Canaanites from their land, and led to the establishment of the Israelites in it, could never be authorized by the good and merciful DESTRUCTION OF THE CANAANITES. 221 Governor of the universe;, and, of consequence, those parts of the Old Testament history which relate these horrid stories must be rejected. So have argued Morgan, Tindal, Bolingbroke, Paine, and many others; yet it may be shown that these trans- actions were calculated for a beneficial purpose, even for the general advantage of mankind ; and were, there- fore, neither inconsistent with the justice of God, nor with the usual proceedings of Divine providence. Let the objectors to this portion of the Old Testament his- tory consider : 1. That God, as the offended Creator of the Canaan- ites, had a right to their forfeited lives, and therefore might as well destroy them and their posterity by the sword of the Israelites, as by famine, pestilence, fire and brimstone rained from heaven, or any other calamity appearing more obviously to come from himself. 2. The unparalleled wickedness of this people, espe- cially as aggravated by the destruction of Sodom, was such as made the execution inflicted upon them a use- ful lesson to neighbouring nations 3 . 3. The people of those ages were affected by no proof of the power of the gods which they worshiped, so deeply as by their giving them victory in war. Hence, the destruction of the Canaanites by the Israelites tended to convince surrounding nations, and all who were observers and spectators of what passed, 1st. That the God of Israel was a real God : 2dly. That the gods which other nations worshiped' were either no gods, or had no power against the God of Israel. 3dly. That it was he, and he alone, who had both the power and the will to exterminate from before his face both nations and individuals, who gave themselves up to the crimes and abominations for which the Canaanites could not but be notorious. Destruction from an earthquake, or a plague, might not have been attributed to divine agency at all, or not to the interposition of the God of Israel. 4. Had not the extermination been complete, those 3 Compare Gen. xv. 16. Lev.xviii. 20 28. Jude,i.4 7. Wisd. xii. 37. Acts, xiii. 19. Judges, ii. 15. 1923. 222 DESTRUCTION OF THE CANAAMTES. old inhabitants which were left might have seduced the new comers by degrees into the same crimes and cor- ruptions. Vice, and especially that of the licentious kind, is astonishly infectious ; of which striking proofs are furnished in the last of the chapters just quoted. 5. That the punishment was preceded by mercy : the forbearance of God had been manifested towards their " abominable customs" long, and Divine judgments were not executed till their " wickedness was full." 6. This signal exercise of Divine punishment is ac- companied by evidence tending to show that God's abhorrence and treatment of crimes is impartial, without distinction, and without respect of nations, or persons. It served likewise as an awful lesson even to the "Jews, the people of God," themselves; they being over and over again reminded, that notwithstanding they were the appointed instruments of extermination, if they followed similar practices they must expect a like fate. " Ye shall not walk in the way of the nations which I cast out before you : for they committed all those things, and therefore, I abhorred them : as the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face, so shall ye perish, because ye were not obedient to the voice of the Lord your God." The Israelites would thus be more strongly impressed with an abhorrence of the abomina- tions of idolatry, and this impression would subserve the design of keeping them a distinct people, adhering to the worship of the true God, so beneficial to them in particular, and ultimately so gracious to mankind in general. 7. The miracles wrought in favour of the Israeliles, not only at their coming out of Egypt, but at their entrance on Canaan, proved that they were indeed commissioned as God's executioners: and consequently that their conduct was not to be a model for conquerors in ordinary cases. 8. We may remark, farther, that had any among the Canaanites surrendered themselves at discretion to the God of Israel, a new case would have arisen not expressly provided for in the law, in which, it is pro- DESTRUCTION OF THE CANAANITES. 223 liable, God, being consulted by Urim and Thummim, would have spared the lives of such penitents ; and either have incorporated them with the Israelites by cir- cumcision, or have ordered them a settlement in some neighbouring country, as the family of Rahab seems to have had. But it may be objected, after all, that these argu- ments do not show that it is not repugnant to God's moral justice "to doom to destruction the crying or smiling infants of the Canaanites." To this we reply : 9. Why is it not maintained repugnant to his moral justice, that he should suffer crying or smiling infants to be swallowed up by an earthquake, drowned by an inundation, consumed by a fire, starved by famine, or destroyed by pestilence? The earth, at the command cf God, opened, and swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with their wives, their sons, and their little ones. " Two she-bears" destroyed " forty-two children" who had just before been "mocking" Elisha. These, as well as the destruction of the Canaanites, are deemed so repugnant to God's moral justice, that infidels spurn, as spurious, the books in which the circumstances are related. When Catania, Lima, and Lisbon, were seve- rally destroyed by earthquakes, men, with their wives, their sons, and their little ones, were swallowed up alive : why do not these inquirers spurn, as spurious, the book of nature, in which these facts are written? The latter circumstances are as apparent infringements upon the moral justice of God as the former; and a person would just as forcibly, upon this ground, argue against the latter being facts as against the former. Besides, it should be recollected, with respect to " cry- ing and smiling infants," that their early death, so far from being a punishment, as these objectors represent it, might be an act of the greatest mercy, since it might save them from the dreadful future punishment due to the actual guilt they would probably have incurred had they reached maturity 4 . 4 Pantologia, art. Canaanites. 224 ABRAHAM OFFERING UP ISAAC. OBJ. IV. The story of Abraham's offering- up his only son Isaac is so highly unnatural, that neither it nor the book which advances it as true can possibly be reckoned credible. There is nothing so very unreasonable in this story as the objectors seem to imagine. Abraham had him- self received so many divine communications, and had been acquainted with so many which had been made to his ancestors, that he could easily ascertain whether the command really came from God ; and God could manifestly accompany it by such marks of his power and will, as would leave Abraham no room to enter- tain a single doubt about it. Abraham could as little doubt of God's right to Isaac's life, nay, the youth himself could as little doubt it, as of his care of him in another state. These were essential parts of the patri- archal religion. Still it must be acknowledged, that great faith was required in Abraham, before he could overcome his natural affection and tenderness for Isaac by a principle of obedience to God, and trust God for the accomplishment of his promise when he com- manded him to destroy the only apparent means of accomplishing it. Had not Abraham been highly advanced in faith and obedience, he could not have sustained so severe a trial ; but such a trial would greatly confirm both. And thus this history is so far from being liable to objection, that it is peculiarly conformable to those methods, which mere reason and experience dictate as well suited for advancing and perfecting true religion in the soul. When the typical nature of the whole is also considered, it seems very difficult indeed to question the divine authority of the appointment. And in the previous steps over which Abraham passed in order to obtain the blessings con- ferred upon him, we have a striking adumbration and example of that faith, patience, and gradual advance- ment in the spiritual life, which are essential to all those who hope to be "blessed with faithful Abraham." As to the particular cavil drawn from the supposed CHINESE CHRONOLOGY. 225 delusive declaration of Abraham to his servants, " I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you ," it receives an obvious reply in the lan- guage of the Apostle Paul. Abraham knew and most probably believed that " God was able to raise his son up, even from the dead 5 ;" and therefore that he should return to his servants with his sacrificed though living son. OBJ. V. The Mosaic chronology is unworthy of cre- dit, since it makes the era of the creation only about four thousand years earlier than the Christian era; while the established chronology of the Chinese carries us back to a point of time earlier by many thousands of years than that assigned by Moses to the creation. That this objection may be of any weight we must give greater credit to monstrous chronologies, contain- ing nothing but names without actions, than to regular methodical histories, which relate in succession all the most important events occurring amongst a particular people for thousands of years; we must forget that the Chinese pretensions are inconsistent with them- selves; we must forget that it has been proved that the earliest Chinese observations are those of two fixed stars, one in the winter solstice, the other in the vernal equinox, in the reign of their king Yao, who lived after the Mosaic date of the General Deluge, that is, two thousand three hundred and fifty-seven years before Christ 6 ; we must forget that Cassini assigned the date of another of their most early observations to be only two thousand and twelve years before Christ 7 ; assum- ing the correctness of the Chinese accounts of those observations. To give force to this objection, we must, farther, disregard the testimony of M. de Guignes, who has very recently shown most satisfactorily, that the existence of the Chinese empire cannot be traced farther back than five hundred and twenty-nine years before 5 Gen. x\ii. 5. Heb. ix. 19. 6 Biancliiri Histor. Univers. cap. 17. 7 Burn's Officer's Complete Armour, p. 32. Q 226 CHINESE CHRONOLOGY. Christ 8 ; and we must equally disregard the similarly decisive evidence of President Goguet in the following passage : " What dependence can we place upon the certainty of Chinese chronology for the early times, when \ve see these people unanimously avow, that one of their greatest monarchs, interested in the destruction of the ancient traditions, and of those who preserved them, caused all the books which did not treat of agriculture, or of medicine, or of divination, to be burnt; and ap- plied himself, for many years, to destroy whatever could recall the knowledge of the times anterior to his reign ? About forty years after his death, they wanted to re-establish the historical documents. For that pur- pose, they gathered together, say they, the hear-say s of old men. They discovered, it is added, some fragments of books which had escaped the general conflagration. They joined these various scraps together as they could, and vainly endeavoured to compose of them a regular history. It was not, however, till more than one hum dred and fifty years after the destruction of all the monuments, that is to say, till the year 37 before Christ, that a complete body of the ancient history appeared. The author himself who composed it, Sse-Ma-hiene, had the candour to own, that he had not found it possible to ascend with certainty eight hundred years beyond the times in which he icrote. Such is the unanimous con- fession of the Chinese 9 ." 8 De Guignes's Voyages a Peking, &c. torn. i. 9 Goguet's Origin of Laws, Dr. Henry's translat. vol. iii. Similar pretensions have been set up for the antiquity of the Chaldeans and Egyptians, of whom it has been said that they had observed the mo- tions of the stars for four hundred and seventy thousand years. This is easily said, and easily believed by those who would rather believe any thing than the Mosaic records : yet, as none gives to the art of writing so early a date, this could only be preserved by tradition, and the idea of a tradition of astronomical facts for four hundred and seventy thousand years is too absurd to need any refutation. Plutarch puts us in a ready way of estimating the whole, when, in his life of Xiimo, he says, " Though their year, according to some authors, con- INCONSISTENCIES, ETC. IN SCRIPTURE. 227 It is not a little curious, however, to mark the dif- ferent ways in which unbelievers attack the authority of Scripture, in respect of the age it gives to the world. Voltaire is fiery, and even furious, in contending for the superior antiquity given by the Chinese, while Laplace insinuates, as if almost unconscious he was making any such insinuation, that the world cannot be above half as, old as Moses makes it, and hunts about, very philosophically, for reasons to explain " la nou- veaute du monde moral, dont les monumens ne rent-on- tent guere au-deld de trots mille ans 10 . OBJ. VI. The Scriptures contain so many inconsist- encies, contradictions, and absurdities, that it is difficult to think them authentic, much less inspired. This objection presents itself with a very formidable aspect, and will, therefore, require something more than a mere glance at it. Let me remark, then, first, as to those few and small apparent inconsistencies which are supposed to run counter to the notion of inspiration, or at least to restrict the inspiration of the Scriptures to its lowest sense, that they decrease daily, in proportion as the inquiries of learned men are extended farther ; and that even if, in the originals, the Scriptures were perfectly exact and accordant in every particular, there would, notwithstanding, be some apparent difficulties, arising merely from our ignorance of ancient languages, customs, distant places, &c. ; and consequently, that if sisted of four months, yet at first it was composed but of one, s and contained but the course of a single moon. Thus their making a year of a single month, is the reason that the time elapsed since their origin seems extremely long ; so that, though it is but lately that they first inhabited their country, yet they are reckoned the most ancient of all nations." 10 Expos, du Syste'rae du Monde, liv. iv. chap. 4. Attempts have also been made to destroy the credibility of the Mosaic chronology, from the phenomena of volcanic lava, and the great length of time requisite to form a scanty surface of soil upon them ; but these objections carry their own refutation with them ; as has been shown by Mr. Gisborne, in his " Familiar Survey," note p. 515, and by the " Contemplative Philosopher," in vol. ii. No. 55. 228 INCONSISTENCIES, ETC. IN SCRIPTURE. difficulties arising from this source are not more nu- merous than may fairly be ascribed to our ignorance, they constitute in fact no objection at all. Besides, it must not be forgotten, that in other cases apparent inconsistencies, to a certain extent, exclude the suppo- sition of forgery; because they, who bear testimony to that which is false, take care so to make their stories correspond, that there shall not be any apparent dif- ference. It may be observed, moreover, that the principle of the objection goes much farther than the objectors themselves wish to carry it: for if, on account of some small irreconcileable differences, we may im- mediately disbelieve and reject whole books, then no book of history can possibly be believed. Yet Polybius, Livy, Plutarch, and others, in whom much greater con- tradictions are to be found, preserve their authority and credibility amongst us, as to most points : how much more reasonable then is it, that no such thing should destroy the credibility of those, who prove by their own writings that they had constantly a high regard to piety and truth. With respect to the discrepances between the four Gospels, which are so often and triumphantly urged in this connexion, it should be recollected that most of them arise from omission, which is always an uncertain ground of objection. Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio Cas- sius, have all written of the reign of Tiberius, and each has omitted many things mentioned by the rest. These discrepances will also of course be more numerous when men write rather memoirs than histories; when they do not undertake to deliver, in the order of time, a regular account of all things of importance which the subject of the history did and said ; but only such passages as were suggested by their particular design at the time of writing. It has been often affirmed, that the genealogies given by Matthew and Luke are irreconcileable ; but Dr. Hart- ley has struck out an hypothesis, which in my estima- tion removes all reasonable ground of hesitation. He DISCORDANT GENEALOGIES. 229 supposes that Matthew mentions the real progenitors of Joseph, while Luke gives the series of those who were heirs to David by birthright; and that both transcribed principally from genealogical tables well known to the Jews of those times. Matthew, after David, takes Solo- mon, from whom Joseph lineally descended. Luke takes Nathan, upon whom, though he was younger than some others, and even than Solomon, it may be supposed the birthright was conferred, as in the in- stances of Jacob and Joseph. Matthew proceeds by real descent to Salathiel, at the time of the captivity ; Luke proceeds by the heirs according to birthright, and comes to Salathiel likewise. Hence Hartley sup- poses, that Salathiel, Solomon's heir, was at that time David's also, by the extinction of all the branches of Nathan's family. Matthew then takes Zorobabel as Joseph's real progenitor ; Luke takes him as heir or eldest son to Salathiel. Again, Matthew takes Abiucl, the real progenitor ; Luke mentions Rhesa, the eldest son; and thus Matthew proceeds by lineal descent to Joseph ; Luke, by heirs, to the same Joseph ; for it is to be supposed that, Heli dying without heirs male, Joseph became his heir by birthright, that is heir to Zorobabel, that is, heir to David. If it be farther sup- posed, that the Virgin Mary was daughter to Heli, for which there appears to be some evidence, the solution will be more complete, and more agreeable to the Jewish customs. This solution is confirmed by the considera- tion that Matthew uses the word iyiwrjart, which re- strains the genealogy to lineal descent; whereas Luke uses the article TOV, which is very general 11 . It is far- ther confirmed also by the fact that Luke's descents, reckoning from David to Salathiel, are but about twenty- two years each; which is much too short for descents from father to son, but agrees very well to descents by birthright 12 . 11 Afiaaan iytwrjat TOV 'IffaaK. Matt. i. 2. Tov'lffauK TOV 'Aflnaafi. Luc. iii. 34. " Hartley on Man, part ii. prop. 2-3. See also Christian Observer, 230 CONTRADICTORY TEXTS. With regard to several passages apparently contra- dictory, the contradiction may be removed by a slight and justifiable change in the translation. Thus, in the often-cited example of the thirteenth chapter of John's Gospel, the expression in the second verse, " Jlnd sup- per being ended," is irreconcileable with the twenty-sixth verse, " He it is to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it," according to the received translation. But let the phrase Stiirvov yevopzvov be rendered supper being COME, a sense which it will very well bear, and is consistent with the rendering given to the word in seve- ral other places 13 , and every appearance of difficulty vanishes. In the version of Doddridge, and in the new version of the Socinians, this translation is given. In Dr. Campbell's translation, the passage is given ver- bally different, but essentially the same as the one proposed above, i.e. while they were at supper: thus reconciling the text with verse twenty-six. So again, with respect to supposed absurdities, it may be most positively affirmed, that they are such as for the most part disappear entirely, whenever we have obtained the knowledge requisite to make us competent judges of any specific case. Thus an instance, fre- quently urged, is taken from the prophet Jeremiah's description of the advance of Cyrus to effect the de- struction of Babylon: " He shall come up as a lion from the swelling of Jordan M . Why, exclaim the ani- madverters triumphantly, why should a lion come from the swelling of a river'? The answer is by no means difficult. Maundrell informs us, that the river Jordan may be considered as having two banks on one side of it, the lowermost of which is annually overflowed in March. After having descended the outermost bank, Feb, 1812, p. 72, 73. It is proper to add, that an analogous expli- cation of the difficulty, founded upon the distinction between " sons by nature'' and " sons by the law," was given early in the second century by Africanus in an Epistle to Aristides. See Euseb/ Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. 7. 13 John, xxi. 4. Acts, xii. 18; xvi. 35 ; xxi. 50. 14 Jeremiah, xlix. 19 ; 1. 34. ABSURD TEXTS. 231 the distance is about a furlong; over the strand to the immediate bank of the river. This second bank is so covered with bushes and trees, such as tamarisk, wil- lows, oleanders, &c. as to make a complete thicket, in which the various kinds of wild beasts, known in those regions, are wont to harbour themselves. These animals are driven from their covert by the periodical overflow- ings of the river ; and of course burst from their hiding- places with an eagerness and fury, which but too appo- sitely represent the passions that impel a conqueror in his approach to a city he has devoted to destruction 15 . Before I quit this part of our subject, you will expect me to notice the absurd story of " Jonah in the whale's belly." It could not be a whale that swallowed the prophet, says every objector, for whales are not found in the Mediterranean, and they have not throats capa- ble of receiving a man. Suppose we admit that to be the case (though whales are sometimes found in the Mediterranean, and indeed thrown on the Italian shores), still the difficulty is not insurmountable. It might be replied, that the same God who preserved the 15 See We 'As'* Scripture Geography, vo\.ii,p. 152. And for illus- trations of several other passages which have been made the subjects of infidel cavil, consult Harmer's Observations, Burder's Oriental diatoms, the Fragments at the end of the new edition of Calmet's Dictionary; and Home's Introduction to the Critical Study of the Bible, vol. i. In this latter mentioned work, there are many valu- able remarks in reference to apparent contradictions in circum- stances, in chronology, in prophecies, in doctrine, between sacred and profane writers, and apparent contradictions to philosophy and the nature of things. A variety of other objections have originated entirely in inatten- tion to the metaphorical language of many parts of the Bible. To those who are in danger from this cause I would most earnestly re- commend the very ingenious and interesting " Lectures on the Figu- rative Language of the Holy Scriptures," by the late truly learned, able, and excellent William Jones, M.A. of Nayland. The whole volume is highly instructive and entertaining : and it may be proper to add (as an apprehension of the contrary seems much to have im- peded the circulation of the work), that it scarcely contains a single explication founded upon the author's peculiar tenets as a Hutchin- sojiian. 232 ABSURD TEXTS. prophet alive within the fish, could have enlarged the swallow of the whale so as to absorb him : yet, on the present occasion, there is no necessity for our infring- ing upon the judicious maxim of Horace Nee Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus. The word KSTOS in Greek, and Hebrew scholars in- form us the analogous word tanim, may signify any large fish. The learned authors of the Universal His- tory say, "The word here used 1C signifies no more a whale than any other large fish that has fins ; and there is one commonly known in the Mediterranean by the name of the carcharias, or lamia, of the bigness of a whale, but with such a large throat and belly, as to be able to svyallow the largest man whole. There was one of this kind caught, within these thirty years, on the coast of Portugal, in whose throat, when stretched out, a man could stand upright 17 ." Conformably with this, M. Pluche, speaking of the shark, says, " It has a very long gullet, and in the belly of it are sometimes found the bodies of men half eaten, sometimes whole and entire 18 ." These extracts may suffice to show that the story of Jonah and the whale is not so pregnant with absurdity, as many of those who scoflf where they ought to admire will endeavour to persuade you. OBJ. VII. The Scripture doctrine of Redemption is inconsistent with the opinions now received of the magnitude of creation. This was a favourite objection with Mr. Paine, urged with his usual confidence, and thrown into a shape the most ludicrous he could devise. On this objection, which I have been requested to notice here (though by so doing I must necessarily anticipate part of the topics of subsequent discussion), I have been favoured with the following remarks, which seem to comprehend all that a candid inquirer need wish for upon this subject. From what is known by sensible experiment of the 16 Matt. xii. 40. > 7 Univ. Hist. vol. x. p. 554. 18 Nature Displaced, vol. iii. p. 140. Bochart, vol. iii. p. 742. REDEMPTION, ETC. 233 world we live in, it is reasonable to infer, that in space there must be contained a multitude of similar worlds, so great, that with respect to our limited faculties, it may be termed infinite. We may conclude, upon similar grounds, that in each of these worlds there exists a race of animals endued with reason ; and most probably between us and the Fountain of Reason, there is an infinite gradation of rational creatures. Now all creatures must, necessarily, come short of the perfec- tion of their Creator. They are, therefore, fallible ; and being fallible, must fall, unless their defects are supplied by the aid of a nature more perfect than their own. Those who stray into a road leading away from the object at which they should arrive, must continually increase their distance. The natural consequence of falling is therefore continual deterioration. There is only one species of rational creatures which God has permitted to exist within the scope of our observation. We know that they have fallen, and we also know that it has pleased God, in his infinite goodness, to prepare for them a way of salvation, and to restore them by his power. Since all the counsels of God are perfect, and therefore uniform, eternal, and immutable, we may also conclude, with tolerable safety, from what we know in one instance to have been the law of his working, that such it has been, and will be, in every similar instance. We may therefore assume as certain that there is a way of salvation for each of the mighty multitude of rational species which exist in space and eternity, and that the provision for their restoration, as far as their case corresponds with ours, resembles that which has been made for us. Three questions now present themselves. 1. How is this to be reconciled with the scheme for the redemp- tion of mankind? 2. Are we to suppose that the Son of God has suffered as many times as there are species of rational beings? 3. If not, why was that method of cancelling guilt employed with regard to our earth? The answers to these seem to me very obvious. 234 REDEMPTION INCONSISTENT WITH It would be most unreasonable to conclude, on the general proposition, otherwise than we have stated already. Where the cases are the same, the same means will have been pursued. But those who take what is by many regarded as the narrowest view of the subject, and consider the suffering of Christ as a price paid to cancel guilt and to redeem mankind, need not surely be under any embarrassment in admitting that a similar sacrifice may have been offered whenever a similar occasion has occurred. Christ will still have laid down his life but once for men. That one oblation will have completed their redemption. And it is not in the least more derogatory from the infinite dignity and the infinite beatitude which we attribute to him, that he should have suffered a million of times, than that he should have suffered once. This answer com- prehends the first two questions ; and, of course, dis- poses of the third. The difficulty in most of these matters is not in the things themselves, but in the expressions we must use. We may fancy that we comprehend a scheme of redemption (and we may doubtless comprehend it with sufficient clearness for all its practical uses): but to pretend that we can express it in incontrovertible terms, except those of Scripture, is surely an absurdity too great for any man, capable of logical deduction, to en- tertain ; for it must involve both the nature of man and the nature of God. We cannot at all express our dark and limited conceptions of the one or of the other, but by metaphor, and comparison with the objects of our bodily senses. We collect something of the attributes of God from his works, and more from Revelation. We know also something of the qualities of man by means of our senses, and something, by the same means, of the operations of his mind ; but of the sub- stance either of the mind or of the body of man, or the principle of his generation, or of his animal life, we are absolutely ignorant. Can we then presume to lift our inquiry to the substance of God? Even our capacity THE MAGNITUDE OF CREATION. 235 of receiving Revelation is limited by bis limitation of our faculties. Man must cease to be what he is, before he can comprehend things so much above him. Why God has done any thing, why he made this world, why he created, why he restored us, he has not revealed to us ; it does not concern us to know ; it is impossible for us to discover; and can it be consistent with that perfect submission, faith, and resignation, which are (iue to him, from our frail, lowly, and dependent nature, to inquire? From the infirmity of our nature we cannot speak of God at all, without using figurative expressions, drawn from natural objects. We limit in terms his immen- sity to particular form. We speak of his " smelling a sweet savour/' of his " inclining his ear," of his " look- ing from heaven ;" and having thus brought him down to our imaginations, in the likeness, and with the passions and senses of man, we are apt to attribute to him all our intellectual and material qualities and infirmities; and make him love and hate, and forget and remember, and be jealous and take vengeance. Who does not see and feel, that when we cannot speak of him at all, but in terms so far below even our gross conceptions of him, we ought to b,e very careful indeed how we presume to scan those matters which he has not made obvious to all capacities, lest we should be led away by the literal meaning of the terms to blaspheme him in our hearts. Suffice it, then, that we know that we are created in a rational and fallible nature ; that without the con- tinual support of God we must fall; that by leaning upon our own powers and our own understanding, we all have fallen ; that the consequences of the fall must be perpetual deterioration; that we cannot be restored but by the grace and power of God ; that it has pleased God in his mercy and goodness, through his wisdom, by his power, to decree that he will pardon and restore the penitent and the faithful, through the mediation of Jesus Christ, and the operation of the Holy Spirit ; and 236 BELIEVERS OFTEN IMMORAL. to give us by the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension, sensible evidence of this his merciful dispen- sation, and an example of the obedience he requires ; promising that he will give, by the intercession, and for the merit of his son Jesus Christ, his Holy Spirit to those who turn to him with all their hearts ; and lead them finally to peace and salvation, of which, by any other means, they must have despaired. God has been pleased to reveal to us, fully, the plan of salvation ; and this (with regard to such subjects) is not only all that it concerns us to know, but probably all that our nature is capable of comprehending 19 . OBJ. VIII. It very often happens, that the Christian Religion does not produce good moral effects upon those who profess to believe it. Be it so. This is matter of lamentation, but it certainly furnishes no real ground of objection against Christianity ; nay, if any such objection be urged, it includes within itself a tacit concession in favour of the Christian system: since it acknowledges, that, if human conduct were universally consistent with this despised system, a correct and exalted morality would as universally prevail. The legislator of the universe, in promulgating the sublime laws of Christianity, though he furnished men with motives calculated to 19 I was honoured with the preceding observations by a nobleman of great learning, taste, and judgment; for whose generous advice and assistance on numerous occasions, during the course of thirty years, I know not how to express adequately my sense of obligation. I do not expect that his lordship's theory will in every respect be adopted by every reader ; but I shall pity from my heart the man who can peruse his remarks, and not admire that accurate estimate of the human powers, and that fine strain of devotional sentiment, which they throughout evince. This constant and highly valued friend being now dead, I need no longer out of regard to his diffidence, which was commensurate with his talents and his erudition, conceal that the observations inserted above, are due to the late Earl of Carysfort. For another able reply to this objection, upon a widely different theory, I beg to refer to the late Mr. Fuller's excellent work, The Gospel its own \Vitness. BELIEVERS OFTEN IMMORAL. 237 elevate them to his throne, and to extend their hopes far beyond the grave, did not at the same time trans- form the intelligent creatures to whom he gave those laws into mere machines. He has given them the power either to conform to Christian precepts, or to infringe them : and thus has placed in their own hands their own destiny. If, after this, a great many of them reject the good, and choose the evil, the fault is manifestly theirs, and not His, who by so many the most tremendous denunciations, warns them against the latter, and by the most alluring invitations solicits them to the former. The objectors must allow, that no man is any farther a sincere Christian, than he is pure, and holy, and upright, and free from guile, and this, if they would only permit their reason to take the lead of their prejudices, would set the great question between them and us at rest for ever. For if, notwithstanding this the acknowledged tendency of the doctrine, we perceive that it has not always answered its end, the only just conclusion to be drawn from the circumstance is, that the prejudices, the passions, and the consti- tution of man, frequently weaken or destroy the im- pressions which that doctrine naturally tends to produce on the soul. We ought not to be surprised, much less ought we to raise an objection on this basis: for it is easy to conceive, that a free and intelligent being can- not be necessarily impelled by motives and reasons; since they are not causes which have certain and neces- sary effects, like weights, levers, or springs: " they influence (says Dr. Waring), but not compel/' Besides, it ought not to be forgotten, that all those who make an external profession of a doctrine are not always really and effectually convinced of its truth: in proportion to the real excellency of Christianity is the probability of hypocrisy; counterfeit Christians may abound as well as counterfeit guineas, and that for a like reason. Nor should it be forgotten, that the mode of argu- mentation on which this objection is founded is not general. No one thinks of objecting against philosophy, 238 BELIEVERS OFTEN IMMORAL. that all those who profess it are not philosophers. Yet, like as the tendency of Christianity is to make Christians, so in its different kind and manner is it the tendency of philosophy to make philosophers. Let it then be allowed as a fact, that all who profess the doctrine of Christ are not saints; and, as an analogous fact, that all who profess to be philosophers are not such ; yet, let none be so weak, or so unwise, as to be laughed out of his religion, or of his philosophy, on this account. Indeed, here, as in many other respects, religion has greatly the advantage of philosophy. No person rests the truth of any philosophical system upon the difficulty with which it is received, or upon the paucity of those who adopt it : while many of the declarations of Scrip- ture show clearly 20 , that the Christian religion was for a long period to be the religion of the minority ; and that it is only in the latter times that great multitudes " of every nation, and kingdom, and tribe, and people," shall be converted unto God, and become sincere disci- ples of Christ. The actual state of the world, even where religion is known, therefore, rather proves the truth of Christianity, than militates against it. I might add much more in reply to this objection, as well as to the kindred one that is founded upon the evils which have been done in the name of Christianity ; but I prefer substituting a quotation from an author of great celebrity, who has never been accused of undue partiality towards the system these letters are intended to support. " To pretend to say that religion is not a restraining motive because it does not always restrain, is equally absurd as to say that the civil laws are not 20 Matt. vii. 14, 21 ; xx. 16 ; xxii. 14 ; xxvi. 11. Luke, xiii. 2-1. Is.xi.6; xl. 1 11; lxv.25, &c. Another objection, founded upon the circumstance that an interval of four thousand years was per- mitted to elapse between the epochs of the creation and the birth of Christ, was satisfactorily repelled by Arnobius, in the third century (Adv. Gentes). See also Cave's Primitive Christianity, part i. cap, 2, p. 28 ; and Baxter's valuable Reasons of the Christian Religion, part ii. cap. 10, p. 396. BELIEVERS OFTEN IMMORAL. 239 a restraining motive. It is a false way of reasoning against religion, to collect, in a large work, a long detail of the evils it has produced, if we do not give at the same time an enumeration of the advantages which have flowed from it. Were I to relate all the evils that have arisen in the world from civil laws, from monarchy, and from republican government, I might tell of frightful things. Were it of no advantage for subjects to have religion, it would still be some if princes had it, and if they whitened with foam the only rein which can restrain those who fear not human laws. A prince, who loves and fears religion, is a lion who stoops to the hand that strokes, or to the voice which appeases him. He, who fears and hates religion, is like the savage beast that growls and bites the chain which prevents his flying on the passenger. He, who has no religion at all, is that terrible animal, who perceives his liberty only when he tears in pieces and devours 21 ." OBJ. IX. The Bible is a tasteless, insipid, inelegant, uninteresting book, composed almost always in a dull heavy style ; and therefore cannot come from Him who is the Author of language and sentiment. In replying to this we must relinquish reasoning, and oppose assertion to assertion. To overthrow the objection then, I cheerfully refer to the Bible itself, and ask where else can be found such wonderful and varied specimens of sublimity, as in the fifth chapter of Judges, the fourth, twenty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of Job, the twenty-ninth, hundred and fourth, hundred and seventh, and hundred and thirty-ninth Psalms, several portions of Isaiah and Ezekiel, the first and second chapters of Joel, and the first chapter of the Apocalypse? Taking them even as they appeal- under the disadvantage of a translation, I will venture 21 Montesquien, Spirit of Laws, book xxiv. chap. 2. For a very master! y refutation of the numerous attempts to weaken the authority of Scripture, founded upon the real or imaginary anomalies in the con- duct of David, see Dr. Delany's admirable and elegant Historical Account of the Life and Reign of David, King of Israel, in 2 vols. 8vo. 240 INSIPIDITY OF THE BIBLE. to affirm, that nothing can be found in Homer, Virgil, Shakspeare, or Milton, that will bear comparison with most of them in point of beauty, splendour, majesty, and grandeur. Where, again, will you find such in- teresting stories, so artlessly, yet often so pathetically, told, as those of Jacob and Rachael, of Joseph and his brethren, of the death of Jacob, of the widow of Zare- phath's and of the Shunamite's sons, of Naomi and Ruth? Where will you find more genuine touches of nature, more delightful pictures of the effects of friend- ship and sympathy, than those in the eleventh and fourteenth chapters of John's Gospel, and the twentieth chapter of the Acts? Be assured that those, who lay aside the Bible under the notion of its being dull, dry, and unentertaining, deceive themselves most miserably, and thereby deprive themselves of the highest intellectual delight. This most excellent of all books, besides being of the highest authority in its historical portions, and of invaluable utility, as furnishing the only consistent and practicable scheme of morality, contains very much that is super- latively adapted to gratify the finest mental taste. It enters more sagaciously and more deeply into human nature ; it developes character, delineates manners, charms the imagination, and warms the heart, more effectually than any book extant : and if once a person would take it into his hand, without the strange unrea- sonable idea of its flatness, and be only not unwilling to be pleased, I doubt not that he would find all his favour- ite authors dwindle in the comparison, and soon perceive that he was not merely reading the most religious, but the most entertaining book in the world 22 . The great objects, however, for which the Scriptures were put into our hands, are vastly more important than M For numerous examples and quotations in proof of this position, I refer those who have any doubts, to Black wall's Sacred Classics, and Mel moth's Sublime and Beautiful in Scripture : also to Burke on the Sublime, pai t ii. sec. 4,5, 13 ; and to various parts of Blair's Rhetoric. REAL VALUE OF THE BIBLE. 241 the mere furnishing us with amusement. God, who is infinitely wise as well as infinitely good, knows our compound nature, and has regard to it, by bestowing upon us a Revelation which is fitted to man who has a mind to be instructed as well as entertained, a heart to be amended and renewed, and a soul to be saved. By this time, I hope, you feel persuaded, upon the solid ground of the most rational conviction, that the Bible contains the pure and unadulterated word of God; such as comported with the majesty and mercy of the Supreme Being to bestow, and such as it will be highly salutary to man to receive with humility and gratitude. Study it, then, with daily attention, thankfulness, and reverence. Consider it as an unerring " light to your i'eet, and lamp to your path/' Here we are strangers and pilgrims : the Bible points to heaven as our home. Here we are in an enemy's country : the Bible directs us to " fight the good fight of faith," under the guid- ance of the " Captain of our salvation." Here we are exposed to temptations, even to all the " fiery darts of Satan :" the Bible furnishes us with " the whole ar- mour of God," and exhorts us to put on the " breast- plate of righteousness, and the shield of faith; and to take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit." Here we are subject to want, distress, and dis- appointment : the Bible cheers us with the prospect of " a better and an enduring substance" in a happy region, where " God shall wipe away all tears from all faces." Here we may be poor, destitute, and despised ; but if we are Christians indeed, the Bible assures us we are heirs of an invaluable and indestructible inhe- ritance, " an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us." Thus numerous and inestimable are the benefits offered to those who believe the Scriptures, and live conformably to the precepts therein exhibited. That these benefits and blessings may be yours, my dear friend, suffer me to entreat you sedulously to cherish the dispositions essential to a profitable perusal of the 242 REAL VALUE OF THE BIBLE. sacred pages : those dispositions have been ably de- lineated by an excellent clergyman now living' 23 , in a passage with which I shall close this branch of our correspondence. " In the first place, study them devoutly. Remember that they are the word of God: that they were written under the superintendence of his Spirit ; and that their great purpose was to introduce and extend over the whole earth the Gospel and the kingdom of his Son. Remember, also, that they were written to conduct you to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Read them, therefore, with a reverence and holy fear ; and make it your earnest and constant prayer to Him, from whom alone cometh every good and perfect gift, that his grace may open your understanding, enable you clearly to comprehend the import of the Sacred Writings, and deeply impress it upon your heart. " Secondly, study the Scriptures with Humility; with a sincere desire to receive instruction from them, and to submit your own opinions to the declared will of your Maker and your Saviour. If we may judge, by the manner in which some persons speak concerning the Scriptures, of the temper and spirit with which they read them, we may almost conclude that they read them for the purpose of cavilling, finding fault, and raising difficulties and objections. Be not thus blind and presumptuous. If you take up your Bible with Christian humility, you will not say concerning any doctrine, ' This is a strange and unreasonable doctrine, and I cannot receive it.' Your language will rather be, ' This doctrine is clearly contained in the word of God, and therefore must be true.' You will not say concern- ing any rule of practice, ' This is a hard and grievous commandment, and I may be excused from regarding it very strictly.' Your language will be, ' This com- mandment is positively enjoined by my Lord and Judge, and I must obey it, if I would prove my love to him, or escape condemnation at the last day.' 23 Mr. Gisborne, in" his Familiar Survey, &c. p. 231. REAL VALUE OF THE BIBLE. 243 " Finally, read the Scriptures with a full purpose of heart, not merely to learn what they require of you, but faithfully to practise it, through God's blessed as- sistance every day of your life. ' Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king- dom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father.' ' Not the hearers of the law are just before God; but the doers of the law shall be justified 24 .' If you read the Scriptures carelessly or merely from custom, or rather from a spirit of curiosity than from anxiety to profit by them, and to grow in grace ; you do not read them as you ought to read the word of your Maker. You do not read them like a person solicitous above all things to obtain through Christ the Kingdom of Heaven ; and conscious it will be bestowed by Christ on those only, who strive according to their power to learn from the Scriptures the way of his commandments, and faithfully to walk in it, by his help, unto death." Believe me, dear Friend, unalterably yours. END OF THE LETTERS ON THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. LETTER XII. Introductory Letter on the Leading Doctrines of the Christian Religion. MY DEAR FRIEND, IT is much more easy for you to conjecture, than for me to describe, the pleasure I received from learning that you are now fully persuaded of the truth and Divine authority of the Christian Religion : and I cheer- fully accede to your renewed request that this series of letters shall be extended until I have furnished you with a view of the principal doctrines proposed in Scripture for your belief, and of the grand duties which we are called upon as Christians to discharge. Had I not, however, a decided conviction of your supreme 24 Matt. vii. 21. Rom. ii. 13. 244 GENERAL VIEW OF love of truth, and of your steel fast determination to follow it whithersoever it may lead you, I should be somewhat apprehensive that, in performing this second part of the task your friendly deference to my opinions lias assigned me, my efforts will be attended with less success than they have been in what I have already attempted. The truths which lie at the basis of the Christian system are so humiliating- to human nature, so revolting to the sentiments of those who have too exalted ideas of (he powers of reason, and who cherish erroneous conceptions of the dignity of man, that though they are so plainly stamped in the universal character and conduct of mankind, that " he who runs may read ;" yet they require to be asserted repeatedly in the Word of God before they receive our assent : and after all we yield that assent more reluctantly than to any other truths ever presented to the mind. Still, when a person admits, as you do, that the Holy Scriptures are a collection of books whose authors were divinely inspired, were led into all necessary truth, and preserved from all doctrinal error by the superintend- ence of God himself, he at once sees the necessity of studying those sacred treasures under different feel- ings, and with different intentions, from those with which he turns to the perusal of any other work. He is aware that there are two points known to God, the inspirer of the Scriptures, which man cannot compre- hend ; that is to say, " the secrets of the heart, and the succession of times." He therefore interprets the Bible with that entire submission of his own understanding to the divine teaching, which such a persuasion is cal- culated to produce; and proceeds to the study of The- ology with the maxim of Lord Bacon in his head at least, if not in his heart, that " by how much any di- vine mystery is more unpalatable and incredible, by so much the more honour is given to God in believing, and the victory of our faith is made more noble 1 ." Now to me it appears impossible, and I trust you will 1 Advancement of Learning, book ix, CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES. 245 find it so, for any person attentively to read the Bible, and especially the New Testament, free from any previ- ous bias, without coming to the conclusion that what distinguishes Christianity from all other religious sys- tems is the circumstance of its being a restorative dispen- sation. The great dramatic poet, who, in one of his admirable descriptions of mercy, remarked that " All the souls that are were forfeit once ; And he, that might the 'vantage best have took, Found out the remedy!" correctly expressed, whether he intended it or not, the most humbling fact, and most consoling doctrine, the Bible proclaims to us. Had not " all sinned and come short of the glory of God," it would never have been declared that " Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world 2 ." Nor can we imagine that our Lord would himself have declared, " I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance 3 ;" or the Apostle Paul have affirmed, " it is worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to SAVE sin- ners 4 ;" had not the universal prevalence of iniquity, in all ages, called for the Divine invention of that stu- pendous scheme of mercy, whereby God should at once " be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly 6 ." Christianity, it is true, is distinguishable from all other systems by the purity, excellency, and extent of the morality it enforces ; yet this is not, I conceive, its most prominent characteristic. It no where presents us with a connected scheme of ethics, but it does far better in advancing the most simple precepts relative to every part of moral duty, and accompanying them with the most powerful incentives to upright and holy conduct. Its grand peculiarity consists in assuming the fact that man is in a fallen state, that he has lost the image of God, that he is of himself incapable of regaining the favour of his Creator, and in providing a remedy by 2 1 John, ii. 2. 3 Mark, ii. 17. 4 -l Tim. i. 15. s Rom. Hi. 26 ; iv. 5. 246 GENERAL VIEW OF \vhich man may be cured of his moral disorder; lliis remedy being no less than the gift of " the Son of God:" who, in relation to mankind, is not so frequently called their pattern, as " the Physician of Souls," " the great Deliverer," " the Saviour of the world." The more intimately you become acquainted with Christianity, as depicted in the New Testament, the more forcibly will you be struck with the wisdom of its constitution. It does not, if I may so say, insult and triumph over man by prescribing him a code of laws which he cannot obey, by referring him to statutes every one of which he has broken, and commanding him to preserve them entire; but it takes man as he is, provides for his restoration, points out the means of salvation, invites him to embrace those means, and then presents him with precepts, by the observance of which he may " adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour in all things 6 ." The scheme by which all this is effected is, doubtless, extraordinary; but it is not less worthy of acceptance on that account. Had it not been far beyond human capacity, and human discovery, it need not have been transmitted from heaven. God need not make supernatural communications to reveal to us what might have been found out by a natural process. Hav- ing ascertained that the Bible is the word of God, it is our duty to receive all it makes known to us (whether it coincide or not with our preconceived notions), with- out appeal to any other quarter. " I cannot comprehend the reason of this/' may an inquirer after scriptural truth often say, " but it is God who declares it; I re- ceive it on his authority, and I humbly rely upon the promise, that what I know not now, I thall know hereafter 7 ." It is of extreme importance to have right views of the Christian system in general, because our eternal safety depends upon it. Probably there is no commu- nion, nor any individual, whose religious notions are in every point correct; because human explications 6 Titus, ii. 10. 7 John, xiii. 7.. CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES. 247 even of the true religion are likely more or less to be affected by human imperfection. Still, we may rest assured, because God has promised it, that the devout, humble, and sincere inquirer, shall, in every thing that is essential to salvation, be preserved from error. Now, among the various sects into which the Christian world is divided, all except one embrace the hypothesis that Christianity is a provision of mercy for an apostate and sinful world, through a divine Mediator. To determine whether the majority or the minority are wrong in this respect is of the utmost consequence: for they who adopt this hypothesis and they who reject it, " having differ- ent objects of worship, and different grounds of confi- dence, -must be allowed to be of religions essentially different." What, then, saith the Scriptures? for to them must be our ultimate appeal. A man of plain understanding, who has no previously adopted system to favour, who reads for the sake of arriving at truth, and who therefore attaches to Scrip- ture its most palpable and obvious meaning, being per- suaded that it is incompatible with the character of a revelation from God to abound in enigmas, will soon find that the evangelical scheme is this: God, fore- seeing the fatal apostasy into which the whole human race would fall, did not determine to deal in a way of strict severity with us, so as to consign us over to universal ruin and inevitable damnation ; but, on the contrary, determined to enter into a treaty of peace and reconciliation, and to publish to all whom the Gospel should reach, the express offers of life and glory, in a certain method which his infinite wisdom judged suitable to the purity of his nature, and the honour of his government. This method is so asto- nishing and peculiar, that for man to have proposed it, independent of Divine teaching, would have ap- proached to blasphemy, and to have believed it on any other than divine authority, next to impossible. " God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but en- 248 GENERAL VIEW OF joy everlasting life." He sent into the world "the bright- ness of his glory, and the express image of his person 8 ," partaker of his own divine perfections and honours, to be not merely a teacher of righteousness, and a messen- ger of grace, but also a sacrifice for the sins of men. Accordingly, at such a time as infinite wisdom saw most fitted for the purpose, the Lord Jesus Christ, " when he took upon him to deliver man did not abhor the virgin's womb," but was bom " of a virgin 9 ," and ap- peared in human flesh : after he had fulfilled the whole law, gone through incessant fatigues, and borne all the injuries which the ingratitude and malice of men could inflict, he voluntarily " submitted himself to death, even the death of the cross," and having been "delivered for our offences, was raised again for our justification 10 " " When he had overcome the sharpness of death, he opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers:" forty days after his resurrection he, " ascended into heaven," in sight of his disciples, where he has become our Inter- cessor; and, agreeably to his promise, sent down his Spirit upon his apostles to enable them, in the most persuasive and authoritative manner, " to preach the Gospel ;" giving it in charge to them and their succes- sors to publish it " to every creature ;" and declaring that all who repent and believe in that Gospel may be saved, may be released from punishment, and restored to the image and favour of God, by virtue of its abid- ing energy, and the immutable power and grace of its Divine Author 11 . It is possible that a belief of these truths, striking and momentous as they are, may float loosely in the understanding, without being efficacious. But they are exquisitely formed to affect us deeply: and when- ever the secret links which connect the understanding with the heart are acted upon by the mysterious energy of him " who knoweth our frame," and all its hidden John, iii. 16. Heb. i. 3. 9 Is vii. 14. Matt. i. 23. Lnke, i. 31. lo Rom. iv. 25. 11 See Doddridge's Works, vol. i. p. 274. CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES. 240 springs, this belief leads to that saving change which is cailed conversion. Then he who is the subject of it becomes " a new creature : old things are passed away ; behold, all things become new 12 ." He has new apprehensions of things, new hopes, new fears, new joys, new sorrows, new affections, new employments, new prospects, and, it may be, new friends and new foes : he feels a perfect renovation of character ; his greatest solicitude is to be " a fellow worker with God, and a fellow heir with the saints:" and impelled by the joint influence of delight and self-abasement, he may be ready to exclaim, with Baxter, " O wonderful ! that heaven will be familiar with earth, God with man, the Most High with a worm, and the Most Holy with a vile sinner ! Man refuses me when God entertains me. Those I never wronged reproach me ; and God, whom I have unspeakably injured, invites and entreats me, and condescends to me, as if he were obliged to serve me. Men may abhor me, whom I have deserved well of: but God, from whom I deserve eternal tor- ments, graciously accepts me. I upbraid myself with my sins, but he now upbraids me not: I condemn myself for them, but he will not condemn me. He forgives me sooner than I can forgive myself. I have peace with him, before I can have peace in my own conscience/' The Christian religion, as portrayed in the Gospel, differs from all others in furnishing an internal princi- ple, from which the purest conduct emanates. It is not a religion of forms and ceremonies, but the religion of the " inner man." The language of God to every Christian is, " My son, give me thine heart." The true Christian, as depicted in the New Testament, is a faithful and active servant, who inquires what his Lord's will is, and performs it with cheerful alacrity. He makes it " his meat and his drink to do the will of his heavenly Father;" and he knows that, conforma- bly with that will, he must " relieve the fatherless and 12 2 Cor. v. 17. 250 GENERAL VIEW OF widows in their affliction, and keep himself unspoiled from the world 13 ." He considers it his duty, and finds it his delight, to please God, and render as far as possible his fellow creatures happy ; " to add to his faith, virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness, charity 14 ." Still he walks as on the confines of the eternal state, and is anxious, therefore, to renounce the world, its course and its spirit, yea, to be " dead unto the world" and " alive unto God," to attain more and more of the Divine image, to "grow up to Christ in all things," to enjoy "fellow- ship with God," and, " if he be risen with Christ, to seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God 15 ." Such are the dispositions and the employments which are required to be exemplified in the sincere Christian. He is exhorted to flee from a contrary tem- per and conduct, by the assurance that " the wrath of God abideth on" all those who reject the offer of the Gospel ; and he is stimulated to persevere in the Christian course by the assurance that heaven is the inheritance of every sincere and humble follower of Jesus. His hopes are constantly directed to that happy period when he shall be " ever with the Lord, to behold" and participate in " his glory/' He lives under the persuasion that, after he has passed through " the valley of the shadow of death," " God will wipe away all tears from his eyes," and he will be no more exposed to fear or sorrow, to mourning or death. He believes that his spirit will be united to his glorified body in those delightful regions, where an enemy shall never enter, and from whence a friend shall never de- part ; where there will be satiety without disgust, day and no night, joy and no weeping, difference in degree 18 James, i. 27. 14 2 Pet. i. 57. 15 Gal. vi. 14. Rom. vi. 11. 2 Cor. iii. 18. Eph. iv. 15. 1 John, i. 3. Col. iii. 1. CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES. 251 and yet all full, " love without dissimulation/' excel- lency without envy, multitudes without confusion, harmony without discord ; where the understanding shall be astonishingly enriched, the w 7 ill perfectly recti- fied, the affections all transformed into love and joy ; where " the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, shall feed him, and lead him unto living fountains of waters 16 :" where God shall be the light and the glory of the place for ever and ever ! These, in brief, are the doctrines of the New Testa- ment, the " fruits of the Spirit," manifested in those who believe, and the glorious expectations of a future world, which are intended at once to stimulate and to reward "a patient continuance in well doing." "But these," you will probably say, " are not recognised by many who call themselves Christians; for there are many that profess a belief in Christianity, who never- theless ridicule the idea of living under its power. If that system of religion, which is inculcated in the New Testament, teach, as your language clearly implies, the depravity of human nature, the necessity of regenera- tion, the influences of the Spirit, particular Provi- dence, the atonement and the Divinity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, the resurrection of the body, and the eternity of future punishment; it teaches what not many rich, not many noble, not many wise, are pre- pared to receive, and what none can receive without being exposed in consequence to contumely, derision, and reproach." While I acknowledge the justice of this observation, I would wish to guard you against drawing any such conclusions from it as would be unfavourable to a cordial reception of the great and essential peculiarities of the evangelical system. That several of the rich and noble should reject the religion of Jesus Christ is not at all to be wondered at, when it is recollected that the most genuine fruits of that reli- gion are meekness humility, godly simplicity, an aver- sion to pomp and display ; dispositions, which flow 16 Rev. vii. 17. 252 GENERAL VIEW OF in a current directly opposite to all the natural tenden- cies of opulence, and which, notwithstanding (such is the irresistible energy of Christian principles), have often been found to adorn the character of persons of the most exalted rank. Blessed be God, there are those " Who wear a coronet and pray :" there are also monarchs who delight in acknowledging their allegiance to the King of kings, and whose piety is to them a greater ornament than the richest gem which decks their crowns. So that God is not without witnesses, nor Jesus Christ without sincere disciples, among those who surround, or those who sit upon, earthly thrones. As to the frequent rejection of the peculiarities of the Christian religion by men of learning and science, neither can that be a matter of surprise. It is very possible to know much without being wise, and espe- cially without being " wise unto salvation." " Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connexion. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men ; Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, The mere materials with which wisdom builds, Till smoothed, and squared, and fitted to its place, Does but encumber whom it seems t' enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much ; Wisdom is humble that he knows 110 more." COWPER. That great literary and philosophical endowments may be possessed by persons, who, notwithstanding, have the most low and grovelling conceptions of almost every thing connected with religion, is evident from the sketch of the notions of heathen poets, legislators, and philosophers, which I presented you in an early part of these letters. From that sketch you will perceive, that while no subject in art or science was too lofty or too difficult for the acquisition of those men, no object in nature was too mean, no conception of the basest mind too obscene, to serve as objects of worship ; there CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES. 253 you saw that the men whose genius has been the admi- ration of all successive ages, whose performances as poets, orators, historians, logicians, or mathematicians, are, after the lapse of two thousand years, held up as models of excellence in their respective kinds, were yet sunk in such deplorable ignorance respecting reli- gion, as to be not a whit superior to the most barbarous and uncultivated inhabitants of South America or New Zealand. But the reason is evident. The reception of religious truth depends on the state of the heart, not on that of the intellect ; and hence it has happened lhat though some men of enlarged intellect have had hearts in which the seeds of grace could not germinate, there have been others, such as NEWTON and EULER, who, while they have extorted from nature some of her profoundest secrets, and have illuminated the world by their discoveries, have thought it their greatest honour to "sit at the feet of Jesus," to imbibe the pure spirit of the Gospel, and to be not merely philosophical, but practical and devotional, believers of Christianity, in- cluding its peculiarities and mysteries. You will often, I doubt not, hear it asserted, notwith- standing the authority of the great names which I have already mentioned, that Christianity is a scheme fitted only to the measure of vulgar and uncultivated minds. Yet be assured that they who say so have deluded themselves, if they are in earnest, in thus dealing with you. Rather, consider it a vulgar and grovelling intel- lect, which suffers itself to be enchained and riveted to the sensible objects immediately at hand. Why, in- deed, should men be thus enchained when nature her- self, rightly contemplated, invites them to expatiate? Look downwards, and your eyes have something imme- diate to fix upon; but can they penetrate beyond the surface? Why is all shut up in darkness beyond the mere shell and exterior, except to teach you that you should have your desires shut out from those earthly things which are under your feet, and hidden from your sight? If all the beauty and all the fruit of the earth are 254 SUMMARY OF placed on its surface, should it not at least teach you, that though they may delight and interest you, you must guard against giving them (in comparison of eternal things) more than the surface of your affections? And why is it that when you raise your head and direct your eyes upwards, they can expatiate without limit, but to teach you that the heavens are bright and transparent by day, and glitter with splendour by night, because the Great Spirit is beyond, who lets forth a little of his glory and majesty through those chinks and crannies of his pavilion, to remind you how vast should be your affections towards Him, how incessant your desires and aspirations towards his kingdom ? You well know that, with respect to navigation and geography, we correct and fix our knowledge of the earth, by means of the heavenly bodies. Sun, moon, and stars, all lend their aid in determining the magni- tude of the planet which we inhabit, and the relative positions and dimensions of the towns, cities, king- doms, and empires upon its surface. If, then, the philosopher, the geographer, and the mariner, are thus compelled to consult heaven that they may know the earth, why should it be thought an indication of a vulgar and ignoble man to look to heaven to learn his nature, his duty, and his expectations? But this, you will probably be told, is to declaim on a bare analogy. Consider, then, since man is a moral and responsible, as well as a sinful, creature, whose future and everlasting condition will be influenced by the habitual tenor of his life and conduct ; whether any pursuit can display a wisdom more becoming a culti- vated mind than the acquisition of the means by which it may regain the forfeited favour of heaven, and the knowledge which connects time with eternal duration, and inspires a hope full of immortality ? All else, unless it be duly restricted to its appropriate use, and each sub- ordinate to the nobler purposes of our entire nature, " is fume, Or emptiness, or fond impertinence; CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES. 255 And renders us, in things that most concent, Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek." MILTON. Then, as to intellectual pursuits, instead of conceding to the opposers of evangelical religion, that the topics which Christianity supplies, are adapted merely to vul- gar and uncultivated minds, ought it not to be conceded to us that they furnish meditation for the most soaring and inquisitive genius ; since they relate to matters of infinite moment, infinite dignity, infinite diversity, ma- nifesting the richness of infinite love. What a field for the noblest excursions! Eternal duration: souls im- mortal, ranked in an order of existences from which none have the power to escape, and involving the awful alternatives of perennial bliss or endless woe: other created beings, altogether spiritual, ever active, ever watchful ; pure intelligences, from whom the secrets of " the Ancient of Days," and the closets of men's hearts alone are hidden ; always enjoying the beatific vision of their Maker, always delighting to do his will, always " ministering to the heirs of salvation :" other created beings, too, the powers of darkness, " the spiritual wick- ednesses in high places," whose number, energy, and combination, constitute a dreadful world of evil spirits, conflicting where they prevail not, and often harassing those whom they are not permitted to overcome: the Son of God, who was also Son of Man, he " who cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah," yielding himself to humiliation, derision, suffering, and death ; then bursting the bonds of the tomb, tri- umphing not only over death, but over " him that had the power of death, even the Devil ;" assuming his seat, as the KATHEMENOS, " the Sitting One," at the right hand of his Heavenly Father, and seeing the promise veri- fied, that " God will make his foes his footstool :" the kingdoms of the world becoming the kingdoms of God, and of his Christ; holiness, happiness, and harmony, incessantly extending themselves, and vivifying the assurance that not one jot or one tittle of what the Scriptures announce shall fail. Topics such as these, 2-56 SUMMARY OF far from being ignoble, far from tending to contract tbe mind, give it an expansion of occupation, and a glow of delight, which no discoverer but him who has found " the Pearl of great price" can ever attain ! " Ye are come" (says St. Paul, and invites us to unite with him in the sublime and ecstatic contemplation), " ye are. come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See, then, that you re- fuse not him that speaketh ;" and suffer not men who, whatever may be their knowledge in other respects, are ignorant of religion, to tempt you to reject it. I address you thus earnestly, my friend, because I know that they who misconceive the characteristics of our faith, in consequence underrate its mental tenden- cies; not seeing that while it is more certain, more attainable, and more useful, than any other knowledge, it is also more refined and elevated ; and because I am anxious to impress it upon your mind, that Chris- tianity, apart from its distinguishing doctrines (if it be possible to conceive of so strange a disruption of body and soul, in that which will endure for ever), will have no firm hold upon the heart; nor, in those great con- junctures where its aid is most necessary, can it reason- ably be expected to have any abiding influence upon the conduct. I wish you, farther, to believe (and trust I shall, ere I close these letters, succeed in causing you to believe) that there is no intermediate ground in argu- ment, which a fair, candid, and unsophistical reasoner can render tenable, between pure Deism, and moderate orthodoxy ; that is, between the system exploded in my first letter, and that which in the remainder of the series I purpose to defend. Let me also be permitted to remark, that it is no new scheme of religion which I CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES. 257 am recommending for your adoption. I have not argued, nor will I argue, exclusively in favour of Cal- vinism, or Arminianism, or Methodism, or any set of opinions of human fabrication ; but shall endeavour to attain that middle point where all that is good in either seems to meet, and all that is exceptionable to be ex- t-luded 17 ; and therefore shall defend those sentiments 17 Since the publication of tbe first edition of these Letters, I have met with two passages in the writings of Dr. Watts, which, as they very clearly express sentiments on the disputed topics, analogous to those which I have long entertained, I shall beg leave to transcribe into this note. " Let it be observed that when the Remonstrants assert that Christ died for all mankind, merely to purchase conditional salvation for them, and when those who profess to be the strictest Calvinists assert that Christ died only and merely to procure effectual pardon and salvation for the elect; it is not because the whole Scripture every where expressly or plainly reveals or asserts the particular sentiments of either of these sects, with an exclusion of the other: but the reason of these different assertions of men is this, that the holy writers in different texts, pursuing different subjects, and speak- ing to different persons, sometimes SEEM to favour each of these two opinions ; and men being at a loss to reconcile them by any medium, run into different extremes, and entirely follow one of these tracks of thought, and neglect the other. But surely, if there can be a way found to reconcile these two doctrines of the absolute salvation of the elect, by the obedience, righteousness, and death of Christ pro- curing it for them, with all things necessary to the possession of it ; and also of the conditional salvation provided for all mankind, and offered to them in the Gospel, through the all-sufficient and overflow- ing value of the obedience and sufferings of Christ ; this will be the most fair, natural, and easy way of reconciling these different texts of Scripture, without any strain or torture put upon any of them." W.iHs's Ruin and Recovery of Mankind, Quest. 13. See also, Bax- ter on Doctrinal Controversies, pp. 17, 18; and the Rev. Robert Hall's preface to the third edition of his father's " Help to Zion's Travellers." The second passage relates to the Divinity of Christ. " In my younger years (says he) when I endeavoured to form my judgment on that article, the Socinians were the chief or only popular oppo- nents. Upon an honest search of the Scripture, and a comparison of their notions with it, I wondered how it was possible for any person to believe the Bible to be the Word of God, and yet to believe that Jesin Christ teas a mere man. So perverse and preposterous did their sense of the Scripture appear, that / was amazed how men, who 258 ON TERMS OF REPROACH and doctrines which are so clearly contained in the Bible, that none deny them who are not in conse- quence compelled to give up the authority of some part of Sacred Writ, which were held and taught by the ablest and best men in the first three centuries, which warmed the breasts of saints and martyrs, which have inspired the hopes and regulated the con- duct of a great majority of pious men in all ages of the universal church, which, through the providence of God, have been inserted in the formularies of most established churches, and which, if language have a plain and obvious interpretation, are defined in the Articles, incorporated in the Ritual, and enforced in the Homilies of the Church of England. The adoption of these opinions, and especially the manifestation of them in a holy, pure, and exemplary life, will probably subject you to the ridicule of the most thoughtless of your former associates. But for this you will be amply compensated by enjoying peace of conscience, and " reconciliation with God." And that you may be in some measure fortified by the ob- servation of others against the derision to which you will be exposed, allow me to extract for your use three or four quotations from authors of the present times, whom no person of taste and judgment (to say nothing of piety) will affect to despise. You may, perhaps, be called an enthusiast, or at least told that these notions lead to enthusiasm ; but you may repel the charge by the following quotation. " The preacher (or the religious writer) who neglects the peculiarities of the Gospel, neglects the most profound and the most copious the most important and the most interesting the most impressive, and the most moral, part of his profession ; and, above all, he affords an advantage to the delusions of enthusiasts, of which an opposite system would effectually deprive them. pretended to reason above their neighbours, could wrench and strain their understandings, and subdue their assent to such interpretations. And I am of the same mind still." Pref. to Chris. Doct. of Trinity. APPLIED TO MEN OF PIETY. 259 Enthusiasm, in the sense here used, is not a natural product of the Gospel, but an accidental perversion of its tendencies ; the origin of which is to be traced, in every age, to the neglect of the Gospel as a peculiar sys- tem, and to the confounding its authoritative sanctions with the more indefinite obligations of natural mora- lity. Look at the early ages of Christianity, when its peculiarities were first communicated, and largely in- sisted on, as the essential parts of the system, in every sermon. The effect was powerful, and it was moral, beyond all example, producing the utmost efforts of heroic and disinterested virtue, with very few, and com- paratively feeble, examples of that wretched enthusi- asm, or interested hypocrisy, which combines the pro- fession of the most important truths with the practice of the most contemptible and sordid vices 18 ." Seeing that the vocabulary of reproach is indefinite, others may apply to you a different term, and brand you as a methodist. If so, try whether you cannot laugh at the unmeaning absurdity of the appellation. " The vain and malignant spirit (says a most acute and profound Essayist), which had decried the ele- vated piety of the Puritans, sought about, as Milton describes the wicked one in Paradise, for some vehicle in which it might again, with facility, come forth to hiss at zealous Christianity, and in another lucky mo- ment fell on the term methodist. If there is no sense in the word as now applied, there seems, however, to be a great deal of aptitude and execution. It has the advan- tage of being comprehensive as a general denomination, and yet humiliating as a special badge, for every thing that ignorance and folly may mistake for fanaticism, or that malice may wilfully assign to it. Whenever a grave formalist feels it his duty to sneer at those opera- tions of religion on the passions which he never felt, he has only to call them method istical ; and notwithstand- ing that the word is both so trite and so vague, he feels as if he had uttered a good pungent thing. There is 18 Edinburgh Review, vol. xvii. p. 470. 2CO ON TERMS OF REPROACH. satiric smartness in the word, though there be none in the man. In default of keen faculty in the mind, it is delightful thus to find something that will do as well, ready bottled up in odd terms. It is equally conve- nient to a profligate, or a coxcomb, whose propriety of character is to be supported by laughing indiscrimi- nately at all the symptoms of religion ; the one to evince that his courage is not sapped by conscience, the other to make the best advantage of his instinct of catching at impiety as a substitute for sense. Each feels that he has manfully set them down, when he has called them methodism. Such terms have a pleasant facility of throwing away the matter in question to scorn, without any trouble of making a definite, intel- ligible charge of extravagance or delusion, and attempt- ing to prove it 19 ." Others, to give vent to their contempt, may charac- terise you as evangelical. And " such is the new mean- ing now assigned to old terms, that we doubt if the application of the epithet in question would not excite a sneer, if not a suspicion, in some minds against the character of Isaiah himself, were we to name him by his ancient denomination, The Evangelical Prophet. This laconic term includes a diatribe in a word. It is established into a sweeping term of derision of all seri- ous Christians, and its compass is stretched to such an extent as to involve within it every shade and shape of real or fictitious piety from the elevated, but sound and sober Christian, to the wildest and most absurd fanatic; " its large enclosure takes in all, from the most honour- able heights of erudition to the most contemptible depths of ignorance. Every man who is serious, and every man who is silly ; every man who is holy, and every man who is mad, is included in this comprehen- sive epithet. We see perpetually that solidity, subli- mity, and depth, are not found a protection against the magic mischief of this portentous appellation 20 ." 19 Foster's Essays, vol. ii. Lett. I. 20 Mrs. More's Christian Morals, vol. ii. p. 81. ON DERIDING MEN OF PIETY. 261 The men, who are so fond of employing terms of reproach to designate those who think that religion is something more than a mere matter of speculation, seem to have forgotten that the first and most indis- pensable requisite in religion is seriousness; and that levity in religion upon religious topics, or sneering at men who are in earnest whenever such topics are intro- duced, has a very prejudicial effect upon those who indulge in such practices. Of such you may call the attention to the sentiments of a late venerable moralist and divine, as exhibited in the passage below. " The turn which this levity usually takes is in jests and raillery upon the opinions, or the peculiarities, or the persons, of men of particular sects, or who bear particular names : especially if they happen to be more serious than ourselves. And of late this loose, and I can hardly help calling it profane, humour has been directed chiefly against the followers of method ism. But against whomsoever it happens to be pointed, it has all the bad effects, both upon the speaker and the hearer, which we have noticed ; and as in other in- stances, so in this, give me leave to say that it is very much misplaced. In the first place, were the doctrines and sentiments of those who bear this name ever so fool- ish and extravagant (T do not say that they are either), this proposition I shall always maintain to be true, viz. that the tvildest opinion that ever was entertained, in mat. iers of religion, is more rational than unconcern about these matters. Upon this subject nothing is so absurd as indifference: no folly so contemptible as thought- lessness and levity. In the next place, do methodists deserve this treatment? Be their particular doctrines what they may, the professors of these doctrines appear to be in earnest about them : and a man who is in earnest about religion cannot be a bad man, still less a fit subject for derision. I am no methodist myself. In their leading doctrines I differ from them. But I con- tend that sincere men are not for these, or indeed any, doctrines, to be made laughing-stocks to others. I do 262 ON DERIDING MEN OF PIETY. not bring- in the case of the methodists for the purpose of vindicating their tenets, but for the purpose of ob- serving (and I wish that observation may weigh with all my readers) that the custom of treating their cha- racters and persons, their preaching or their preachers, their meetings or worship, with scorn, has the perni- cious consequence of destroying our own seriousness, together with the seriousness of those who hear, or join in, such conversation ; especially if they be young persons ; and I am persuaded that much mischief is actually done in this very way 21 ." Leaving these admirable sentiments to make their full impression on your mind, or to steel you against the puny attacks of those who imagine burlesque and buffoonery are the proper instruments to correct what they deem fanatical eccentricities, while others may class them among religious excellencies : I remain, dear Sir, your sincere Friend. May 30, 1811. LETTER XIII. On the Fall of Man, and the Depravity of Human Nature. PLATO, as you will doubtless recollect, defined man, in his time, a biped without feathers : and DIOGENES, in order to show what he deemed the absurdity of this definition, plucked all the feathers from a cock, and placing it in the midst of the academy, exclaimed, " There is one of Plato's men !" Diogenes, it seems, was not aware that Plato's definition was suggested by a tradition which had reached him, that man was once in a far superior state with regard to morals, but had been degraded by vice, and was now so lowered as to become, w ith respect to his former condition, what a bird would be when stripped of his feathers, so as to 21 Dr. Paley's Posthumous Sermons, Ser. 1 : On " Seriousness in Religion indispensable above all other Dispositions." DEPRAVITY OF HUMAN NATURE. 263 be no longer able to fly. In conformity with tbis, the Platonists in general believed a pre-existent state, in which all souls had sinned, and thus lost their wings, whereby they were once capable of ascending; and so they sunk into these bodies partly as a punishment for former follies. This was called in their form of speech, TTTfpoppvrio-K;, or a moulting of their icings. Their daily experience in themselves, and their wise observance of others, convincing them that all mankind come into the world with a propensity to vice rather than to virtue ; and that man is not such a creature now as he came from his Maker's hand, but is some way or other plucked of his feathers, or degenerated from his primi- tive rectitude and glory. So again, MARCUS ANTONIUS confessed that men were born mere slaves to their appetites and passions ; and very many of the Heathen philosophers, guided only by the light of nature, affirmed that men are of themselves destitute of true knowledge, purity, and reason, while in the Hebrew scriptures, the word used for man as the son of Adam, is Enosh, indicating that he is " sorry, wretched, and incurably sick." Several modern philosophers, however, and some modern Di- vines, represent this doctrine as absurd and contempt- ible in the highest degree: on which account it will be proper to employ a little time in ascertaining its cor- rectness, and evincing its conformity, as well with what may be observed in the world, as with the declarations of Scripture. According to every conception we can form of the wisdom and goodness of the Deity, as well as accord- ing to the most express and unequivocal language of the Bible, "God formed man upright:" he was fur- nished with a clear and sagacious mind, with reason bright and strong, and possessed transcendent qualifi- cations for the most elevated happiness. But, that he might be accountable, he was necessarily created free ; and, that he might never forget that he was under the cognizance and dominion of a moral governor, a test of obedience was set before him. 264 DEPRAVITY OF " God made thee perfect, not immutable ; And good he made thee ; but to persevere He left it in thy power; ordained thy will By nature free, not overrul'd by fate Inextricable, or strict necessity : Our voluntary service he requires, Not our necessitated ; such with him Finds no acceptance, nor can find ; for how Can hearts, not free, be tried whether they serve Willing or no, who will but what they must By destiny, and can no other choose?" MiLTON. In this respect, God did not deal worse with man than with his other creatures; but man acted worse towards his Maker than any of them. He did not conform to the laws of his nature, but broke his alle- giance to God by choosing evil instead of good. Thus he sunk from his original happy state, and, according to the constitution of things, " Brought death into the world, and all our woe ;" his whole nature and race becoming tainted, so that he was viler than the brutes that perish, forfeited his native blessings, and, with his progeny, became rebels, and obnoxious to their Maker's displeasure. Thus, it was the sin of man that filled the creature with vanity; and it is the vanity of the creature that fills the soul of man with vexation : such is the circle of unrenewed nature. Without having regard to this original dege- neracy, it is hard, nay, I believe impossible, to account satisfactorily for the poor, dark, stupid, and wretched circumstances, in which so great a part of mankind are brought into this world, in which they grow up age after age in gross ignorance and vice, thoughtless of their duty to the God that created them, and negligent of the true happiness which flows from the enjoyment of his favour. For, on looking upon man before he is turned unto God by the spirit of holiness, what do you find? The mind, full of vanity, ignorance, darkness, contradiction: the conscience, full of insensibility or o( false excuses : the heart, full of deceit, impenitence, and hardness; no sins, no judgments, no mercies, no allurements, no hopes, no fears, able to awake and HUMAN NATURE. 265 shape it aright, without Divine energy : the will, full of disability, of aversion, of enmity, and opposition : the memory, unfaithful in retaining the good, tenacious in recollecting the evil : and thence is the whole man full of perturbation and disorder. The history of the Fall of Man is succinctly related, as you will doubtless remember, in the third chapter of the book of Genesis. Its effects are indelibly marked upon every individual, inasmuch as "in Adam all die;" and even upon the earth itself, which, still groaning under the original malediction, brings forth " thorns, and thistles, and briers," and thus will continue to do till " the restitution of all things." These are not, as has been often insinuated, the notions of men of dis- tempered minds, made imbecile by infirmity, or soured by disappointment ; but of the wisest and best men in all ages. Consult the writings of the Christian Fathers, and you will find JUSTIN MARTYR, in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, saying, " The whole race of men descending from Adam, have become liable to death and to the deception of the serpent, each of them by reason of the same thing, having fallen under the in- fluence of sin." CLEMENS ROMAN us, and others, most fully express the same sentiment. Attend also to the language of the Reformers, and especially to the foun- ders of the English church. " Forasmuch (say they) as the true knowledge of ourselves is very necessary to come to the right knowledge of God, ye have heard how humbly all good men ought always to think of themselves." " The Holy Ghost, in writing the holy Scriptures, is in nothing more diligent than pulling down man's vain-glory and pride, which of all vices is most universally grafted in all mankind, even from the first infection of our first father Adam." "Of our- selves we be crab-trees that can bring forth no apples. We be of ourselves of such earth, as can but bring forth weeds, nettles, brambles, briers, cockle, and dar- nel. Our fruits be declared in the fifth chapter of Ga- latians. We have neither faith, charity, hope, patience, 266 DEPRAVITY OF chastity, nor any thing- else that good is, but of God ; and therefore these virtues be called there the fruits of the Holy Ghost, and not the fruits of man." " We are, of ourselves, very sinful, wretched, and damnable. Of ourselves, and by ourselves, we are not able either to think a good thought, or work a good deed, so that we can find in ourselves no hope of salvation, but rather whatsoever maketh unto our destruction. O Israel, thy destruction comelh of THYSELF, but in ME only is thy help and comfort 1 " " Our very virtues (says Richard Hooker) may be snares unto us. The enemy that waiteth for all occa- sions to work our ruin, hath found it harder to over- throw an humble sinner, than a proud saint. There is no man's case so dangerous as his whom Satan hath persuaded that his own righteousness shall present him blameless in the sight of God. If we could say, we were not guilty of any thing at all in our con- sciences (we know ourselves far from this innocency ; we cannot say, we know nothing by ourselves ; but if we could) should we therefore plead not guilty before the presence of our Judge, who sees farther into our hearts than we ourselves can do? If our hands did never offer violence to our brethren, a bloody thought doth prove us murderers before him: if we had never opened our mouth to utter any scandalous, offensive, or hurtful word, the cry of our secret cogitations is heard in the cars of God. If we did not commit the sins, which daily and hourly, either in deed, word, or thoughts, we do commit ; yet in the good things which we do, how many defects are intermingled ! God, in that which is done, respecteth the mind and intention of the doer. Cut off, then, all those things wherein we have regarded our own glory, those things which men do to please men, and to satisfy our own liking, those things which we do for any by-respect, not sin- cerely and purely for the love of God ; and a small score will serve for the number of our righteous deeds. 1 Homily on the Misery of all Mankind : see also Article the 9th. HUMAN NATURE. 267 Let the holiest and best things which we do, be consi- dered : we are never better affected unto God than when we pray; yet when we pray how are our affec- tions many times distracted ! How little reverence do we show unto the grand majesty of God, unto whom we speak ! How little remorse of our own miseries ! How little taste of the sweet influence of his tender mercies do we feel! Are we not as unwilling many times to begin, and as glad to make an end, as if in saying, call upon me, he had set us a very burthensome task? It may seem somewhat extreme, which I will speak; therefore let every one judge of it, even as his own heart shall tell him, and no otherwise; I will but only make a demand : If God should yield unto us, not as unto Abraham : If fifty, forty, thirty, twenty, yea, or if ten good persons could be found in a city, for their sakes that city should not be destroyed : but, and if he should make us an offer thus large; search all the generations of men, since the fall of our father Adam, find one man that hath done one action, which hath past from him pure, without any stain or blemish at all, for that one man's only action neither man nor angel shall feel the torments which are prepared for both. Do you think that this ransom, to deliver men and angels, could be found to be among the sons of men ? The best things which we do have somewhat in them to be pardoned. How then can we do any thing meritorious, or worthy to be rewarded ? Indeed, God doth liberally promise whatsoever appertaineth to a blessed life, to as many as sincerely keep his law, though they be not exactly able to keep it. Wherefore, we acknowledge a dutiful necessity of doing well; but the^ meritorious dignity of doing well we utterly renounce. We see how far from the perfect righteousness of the law; the little fruit which we have in holiness, it is, God knoweth, corrupt and unsound : we put no confi- dence at all in it, we challenge nothing in the world for it, we dare not call God to reckoning, as if we had him in our debt books : our continual suit to him is, and 268 DEPRAVITY OF must be, to bear with our infirmities, and pardon OUT offences*" But many will say, in opposition to all this, "We admit the fact of the great, though not universal, wick- edness that prevails in the world : but we cannot assent to what you give as the Natural History of it. We do not think it inseparable from man's present nature, but an accidental acquisition ; we do not ascribe it to the influence of an hereditary taint, but conceive it to be the effect of imitation and custom, of acquired habit, of corrupt example, of injudicious tuition." This, by the way, is only saying in other words, that depravity is the effect of depravity. Let us, however, examine the matter a little more closely. That vile passions may in some be the result of improper tuition or of imita- tion, I have no inclination to deny ; but they cannot always be referred to such an origin. How often do we see children in the veriest infancy exhibit strong and unquestionable indications of boisterous tempers, of obstinacy, or impatience? How often do children of the most pious parents, who are so brought up as during the first six or seven years of their lives, never to witness any species of crime, any instances of ingra- titude, of falsehood, or deception, or any indulgence in irascible passions, furnish painful proofs that they can be deceivers, wilful liars, ungrateful, passionate, malig- nant, and unforgiving? These instances, I will ven- ture to say, occur very frequently when it is impossible to ascribe them to imitation. But suppose the contrary were admitted, the opposers of the Scriptural doctrine would gain nothing by the concession. For of whom could a child acquire iniquity by imitation, but of some one who was born before him ? And whom did that person imitate, but some one born before him ? And where must this series terminate? If you say any where short of the first man, you have to account for the remarkable phenomenon of sin's making its first inroad at the identical time, and fixing upon the 2 Hooker's Discourse on Justification, 7. HUMAN NATURE. 269 identical person you have selected ; and this will be found infinitely more difficult than extending the series to the great progenitors of the human race. Besides, does not the very circumstance of an aptitude to imi- tate evil, and rather to imitate evil than good, indicate something like that hereditary taint, which it is brought forward to contravene and supersede? Can an inhe- rent tendency to imitate evil, an undeviating propen- sity to slide into vice, (unless the strong hand of moral discipline, or the suasive influence of Divine grace, prevents,) be fairly or rationally ascribed to any thing less than such a cause as that with which the Bible makes us acquainted ? Pursuing this train, you will see that the Scriptural solution of the difficulty before us is reasonable; and that it has the farther advantage of showing, that moral evil was not, as some have been presumptuous enough to assert, produced by the Crea- tor, but contracted by the creature, who, though he was endowed with " power to stand, was free to fall 3 ." Sceptical writers, who are solicitous either to destroy or diminish the authority of the sacred records, have usually selected three points at which to attack the 3 Let it be recollected, however, that though our defection is a necessary consequence of the fall of our first parents, it by no means follows that if they had continued upright we should. The notion of a covenant " that Adam should stand as well as fall for himself and his posterity," appears to me totally unsupported by Scripture. We obviously suffer by his fall ; and, if he had stood, we might have been benefited by it in some way : yet some of his progeny, we know not how early or how late, might, by virtue of their freedom, have introduced sin and all its miserable attendants into the world. In this view it would rather seem that the fall of the first pair was a benefit to mankind ; because the partial though extensive intro- duction of sin, might have caused many to perish irretrievably, there being no provision for their escape; whereas the foreseen univer- sality of the disorder led, in the exuberance of the Divine mercy, to the gracious plan which furnishes us with a universal and all- sullicient remedy. But on such a topic it behoves us to speak with reverence: I have ventured simply to suggest this thought, because I have found it tend lo remove from the minds of well-disposed but undecided men, one of their greatest objections to the doctrine of the fall." 270 DEPRAVITY OF Mosaic account of the Fall of Man. 1st. They ask, why was so strange an act of obedience as that of refraining from eating a particular fruit, exacted of Adam and Eve? 2dly. How could eating that fruit destroy the perfection of their nature, and entail guilt and misery upon themselves and their latest posterity? 3dly. Why should the earth be cursed for the transgres- sion of man ? Supposing we were not able to furnish satisfactory answers to these questions, that circumstance would not justify any person in withholding his assent to the portion of sacred history to which they relate. " Secret things belong unto God:" and though he has been gra- ciously pleased to reveal unto us every thing essential to our well-being here, and that is calculated to invite and draw us to eternal felicity hereafter, we have no reason to expect that all the questions, doubts, and speculations, which might be started by ingenious men should be cleared up by immediate revelation. When an apostle indulged in useless inquiries, the reply of his Master was, " What is that to thee? follow thou me 4 ;" and if Jesus were speaking to many querists in our days, he might employ similar language. The difficulties, however, to which the present questions relate are by no means insurmountable. To the first it may be replied, that none but God can be absolutely independent: that dependance in a creature, without some criterion or test of that dependance, is unintelli- gible, or, in truth, a contradiction ; because it would in such case become with regard to that creature a state of independence ; that in a free and rational creature this test of dependance should be such as would often remind him of his dependance, and lead him to acknow- ledge it; that this acknowledgment could only be by obedience, that is, by some restraint of natural liberty ; that the first and only man and woman upon earth could not be guilty of any of the crimes which arise from the connexion of human beings with society 4 John, xxi. 22. HUMAN NATURE. 271 were safely prevented by mutual affection, from com- mitting any crime with regard to each other and could therefore only sin by infringing upon the obedience due to their Maker. It seems almost idle to propose such questions, yet it may serve still farther to show the suitableness of the actual prohibition to Adam's state, if we ask, could he be tempted to make idols, when he thought himself Lord of all creatures? would a temptation to sabbath-breaking avail with him who had no need to work? To kill who? his wife, and be left alone? To sleal or to covet when every thing was his own ? To bear false witness against whom ? To commit adultery impossible ? Since, then, some restraint of natural liberty was necessary, and some permanent and visible memorial of man's dependance upon his Creator beneficial, what could be more proper and easy than a restraint of his appetite from one fruit, amidst an infinite variety of others equally delicious? what more worthy the wisdom and goodness of the Supreme Being, than the prohibition of a fruit which He knew would be injurious to man? what more kind and merciful than the placing the dangerous and pro- hibited object (expressly prohibited because it was dan- gerous) in so conspicuous a situation as to preclude the possibility of its being mistaken for any other? The cavil about this fruit's being an object of temp- tation, is almost too idle to deserve specific notice ; for surely no being can be out of the reach of temptation but God alone. The same may be said respecting the puerile objection founded on the supposed dispropor- tion between the crime and the punishment. " Was man and his posterity to incur death for eating an apple?" No. But who ever said this was the case? The sin consisted not simply in eating the fruit, but in breaking the commandment of God by so doing. Besides, though this act of disobedience may appear very trivial to those who do not duly consider it ; " a little reflection will render it evident that it contains in it the seeds of all sin. It was ingratitude. God had, 272 DEPRAVITY OF of his free bounty, given to man every thing 1 that could be conducive to his happiness ; yet he could not refrain from that one fruit which God had reserved for his own purposes. It was breach of trust ; he was placed in the garden to keep and to dress it; every thing else was his own ; yet he availed himself of the con6dence placed in him, to take what God had told him was to be reserved. It was rebellion; he knowingly put forth his hand to do what God had prohibited. It was intemperance; Eve saw that the tree was good for food and pleasant to the eyes, and she did eat, and gave to her husband also, and he did eat. It was ambition; they imagined that they were to become as gods, knowing good and evil. It was charging God with falsehood: God had said, in the day thou eatest of it thou shall surely die. Had Adam believed that decla- ration, he would as soon have eaten of the most deadly poison as of that fruit. But the serpent said ye shall not surely die, and Adam believed the serpent rather than God, and proved this by the overt act of eating the fruit. Are these to be represented as forming no just ground of expulsion and exclusion from the Divine presence 5 ?" With regard to the second question, it may be simply necessary to remind the querist, that even now there are fruits, the eating of which will destroy the best bodily and mental constitution upon earth, will inflame the blood, cause frenzies, and in many cases idiotism. Might not, then, some such fruit as now produces these deleterious effects upon the human constitution, operate most unfavourably upon those of our first parents? Might it not, in consequence of its previously endowed properties, ordained for a specific purpose, sow the seeds of disorder and death in their mortal frames weaken the energy of their minds, and reduce their godlike understandings to the present standard of ordinary men? Might it not destroy the just equili- brium of their powers, and render passion no longer 5 Carlisle on the Deity of Christ, p. 416. HUMAN NATURE. 273 subordinate to reason thus occasioning- guilt, misery, disease, and (since man can, by a necessity of his nature, only produce his like) entailing these upon their posterity to the latest ages? If there be any thing unreasonable in these admissions, I confess I am unable to delect it. As to the circumstance included in the third question, it was clearly the effect of mercy, not of relentless fury, as the inquiry usually implies. When man by his folly and disobedience had contracted a mortal disease, and had merely the power of communicating to his children that " life" which " is nothing but their death begun," surely it was the height of mercy in an insulted God, to take away some of its allurements and fascinations from a world which man must quit to make the earth the scene of troubles and disquietude, as soon as life became temporary that when this was no longer his home, it should no longer be supremely desirable ; at the same time graciously assuring the offender, that more than what he had lost by transgression might be regained by repentance, and " turning unto God ;" that thus, though " Blooming Eden withers in his sight, Death gives him more than was in Eden lost." YotlNG. Some persons, and (as I haVe already hinted) even some Divines, whose minds lean towards the Socinian 6 * I do not wish to give any offence by employing the term Socinian in this place : but I am really unable to find any other word that will be both appropriate and distinctive, when applied to the chiss of Theologians to whom I now refer ; and I am not aware that the use of it occasions any doctrine to be ascribed to them which they do not hold. It is not at all essential to our present purpose, lo in- quire in what minute particulars the opinions of Fanstus Socinus differed from those of his uncle La-lius : or in what respects the mo- dern Socinians differ from either : all of them differ from other Christians, by denying the doctrines of original sin, of imputed righ- teousness, and of Christ's divinity. To call them by the name Uni- tarian, is to give them a name comparatively new, and to concede them a term which they have often unfairly turned against us ; al- though they know that every firm believer in the doctrine of the Tri- nity as much abhors the notion of a plurality of Gods as they do. T 274 DEPRAVITY OF hypothesis, contend that the whole story of the fall of man is allegorical. To this it is easy to reply by many Besides, they generally include under the appellation Unitarian the Arians, who hold at least two doctrines essentially distinct from theirs, namely, that of a propitiation for sin, and that of the divinity of Christ in some sense. If this sense, whatever it be, is not equi- valent to Christ's being.the supreme and only God, the holders of it are in theory Polylheists ; and therefore can no more be classed with the Socinian believers in the Unity of God, than with the Trini- tarian asserters of the same great truth. [Addition to the, 3e who question every thing, whether sacrilices were of Divine Institution. But sacrifices are descriptive; and as the thing described is the redemption of man by the shedding of the blood of Christ, which never could be known but by revelation ; the supposi- tion that sacrifice could be of human invention i.i an absurdity. It is as if we were to imagine that words could be invented by those who had no knowledge of things ; or that sit/us could be brought into use without any prior idea of the things signified. The knowledge of a redeemer was first given to man ; and the observation of sacrifice was the expression of that knowledge by a significant act. All man- kind were derived from those to whom this knowledge was first given ; and therefore all nations of the world, in all times of the world, did in some form or other retain the observation of sacrifice, for the putting away of sin." Lectures on the Hebrews. For some instructive remarks on the distinction between the fact and the doctrine of the atonement, see the Rev. R. Hall, on the Essential Difference between Christian Baptism and the Baptism of John, p. 40, 41,&c. ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. 301 be forgotten, was perfectly voluntary. His own lan- guage, even according to the Socinian translation of it, was. " For this my Father loveth me, because I lay clown my life, that I may take it again. None taketh it from me ; but I lay it down OF MYSELF. I have autho- rity to lay it down, and I have authority to receive it again 46 ." This completely annihilates the force of the objection, since it shows that the sufferings and death of Christ, being voluntary, must necessarily be consistent with the equity and justice of God, although the innocent suffered that the guilty might be redeem- ed : that being, indeed, the only way in which the innocent can suffer without infringing upon justice. It is of some importance to remark, that many of those who are loudest and most eager in urging this objection admit that Jesus suffered for our benefit ; which is much the same as refuting their own argu- menlt : for surely there is just as little reason why an innocent person should suffer for the benefit of a cri- minal, as that he should suffer in his stead. Indeed, as Archbishop Tillotson remarks, " If the matter were searched to the bottom, all this perverse contention about our Saviour's suffering for our benefit, but not in our stead, will signify just nothing. For if Christ died for our benefit, so as some way or other by virtue of his death and sufferings, to save us from the wrath of God, and to procure our escape from eternal death; this, for aught I know, is all that any body means by his dying in our stead. For he that dies witli an inten- tion to do that benefit to another, as to save him from death, doth certainly to all intents and purposes die in his place and stead. And if they will grant this to be their meaning, the controversy is at an end ; and both sides are agreed in the thing, and do only differ in the phrase and manner of expression ; which is, to seek a quarrel and an occasion of difference where there is no real ground for it; a thing which ought to be very far from reasonable and peaceable minds. For many of 46 John, x. 17, 18. 302 ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. the Socinians say, that our Saviour's voluntary obedi- ence and sufferings procured his exaltation at the right hand of God, and power and authority to forgive sins, and to give eternal life to as many as he pleased ; so that they grant that his obedience and sufferings, in the meritorious consequence of them, redound to our benefit and advantage as much as we pretend and say they do; only they are loth in express terms to acknow- ledge that Christ died in our stead : and this, for no other reason that I can imagine, but because they have denied it so often and so long." The last objection I shall here notice has been stated in the following terms : " According to the usual theory of atonement, none less than a Divine person can bear away the sins of the whole world ; yet a Divine person cannot atone for sin, because Deity cannot die." This, it must be acknowledged, presents a difficulty of for- midable aspect; yet it is one which arises rather from our ignorance of the nature of death, than from any inadequate views of the nature of atonement. The following observations will, I trust, greatly diminish the difficulty, if they do not remove it. The death of a being constituted of a material and an immaterial part, does not consist in a perfect extinction of its ex- istence, but in a separation of its constituent parts. What we call the death of an animal is a separation of the spiritual principle of animation and sensation from the organized matter which it animated. The death of a man is, in a similar manner, the separation of the spiritual source of sensation, volition, and action, from the material organization which forms the human body. " The body without the spirit is dead 47 ;" it is no longer an active, thinking, sensitive, determining being, but an insensible, inactive lump of clay. After death the man no longer exists in his compound nature ; his con- stituent parts are separated ; his body to be still farth- decomposed and divided, but his soul to remain entire, a single, indivisible, indestructible soul as before. It 47 James, ii. iG. ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. 303 does not follow, therefore, that the soul is dead: in- deed, strictly speaking 1 , a soul cannot die. None but a compound being can undergo that separation which constitutes death. But a soul is simple and indivi- sible; for if it were divisible into two or more parts, those parts, each partaking of the same spiritual essence, would each possess distinct consciousness, and would each, therefore, become a distinct soul; which is repug- nant to reason. Hence it appears that a soul, though it may be annihilated by the power of Him who created it, cannot die. What is dead exists, however its mode of subsistence be changed ; but what is annihilated has no existence. Admitting this, the objection must be relinquished ; for, allowing Christ to have a soul (which I'll the Humanitarians do allow), it might as perti- nently be objected, that since his soul cannot die, he cannot atone for sin : and therefore, since nothing Oivine, nor any thing human, can atone for sin, and i.othing else can (see Hebrew x. 4), it would result that -in cannot be atoned for at all, which is contrary to the uniform tenour of Scripture. From this view of the subject it follows that, when the Divine and human spirit of the Redeemer ceased lo animate his body, the person of Jesus Christ as pro- i'erly died as did that of Moses, David, or any other, when such individual yielded up his spirit. It follows ulso, that the death of Jesus Christ neither caused any mutation in his Divine nature, nor in the powers and properties of his soul. As to the value or efficacy of his death, that manifestly depends upon the value of his person in the scale of being. Among animated beings relative importance is estimated by the propor- tionate extent to which the spirits which animate them carry their actions or their influence. Thus we place ;i sparrow, a pigeon, and an eagle, successively higher in the scale : in like manner, a sheep, an ox, an ele- phant, would have assigned to them successively in- creased values. A rational and accountable being is naturally placed above all these : of rational beings, a 304 ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. man is reckoned superior to a child ; a philosopher, to a peasant; a monarch, to one of his subjects : and the effects resulting from their deaths are proportionally felt. Hence, since Jesus Christ is, according to the system I am now explaining, infinitely wiser than the profoundest philosopher, infinitely more powerful than the greatest monarch, his death must be sufficiently efficacious to cancel all the guilt which rendered that awful event necessary. " Possessing (as Dr. Abbadie remarks) the glory of the Deity in the midst of infir- mities and miseries incident to a nature like our own, he need undergo but one death of an infinite value; and God who gave him to ' suffer for us,' made us a present without limit." The sum of all, to adopt the condensed emphatic phraseology of Bishop Beveridge, is this : " Man can suffer, but he cannot satisfy ; God can satisfy, but he cannot suffer: but Christ, being both God and man, can both suffer and satisfy; and so is perfectly fit, both to suffer for man, and to make satisfaction unto God, to reconcile God to man, and man to God." Thus have I endeavoured to state, establish, and de- fend from the principal objections, that great and fun- damental doctrine of the new or Christian dispensation, whence it derived the name EfayyfXiov, so^rpell, Gos- pel, good or joyful news. It remains that I solicit your earnest attention to some striking and useful reflections upon the sufferings and cross of Christ, from authors who have already furnished me with quotations in this letter. " To the exterior view and carnal sense of men, our Lord was then (on the cross) indeed exposed to scorn and shame ; but, to spiritual and sincere discerning, all his and our enemies did there hang up as objects of contempt, utterly overthrown and undone. " There the devil, that strong and sturdy one, did hang up bound in chains, disarmed and rifled, quite baffled and confounded, mankind being rescued from his tyrannic power. ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. 303 " There the world, with its vain pomps, its counter- feit beauties, its bewitching pleasures, its fondly ad- mired excellencies, did hang up all defaced and dis- paraged ; as it appeared to St. Paul: for God forbid (saith he) that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ, by which the ivorld is crucified to me and I unto the world. " There, in a most lively representation, and most admirable pattern, was exhibited the mortification of our flesh, with its affections and lusts ; and our old man was crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed. " There our sins, being (as St. Peter telleth us) car- ried up by him unto the gibbet, did hang as marks of his victorious prowess, as malefactors, by him condemned in the flesh, as objects of our horror and hatred. " There death itself hung gasping, with its sting pulled out, and all its terrors quelled ; his death having prevented ours, and induced immortality. "There all wrath, enmity, strife (the banes of com- fortable life), did hang abolished in his flesh and slain upon the cross, by the blood whereof he made peace, and reconciled all things in heaven and earth. " This consideration is, farther, most useful to ren- der us very humble and sensible of our weakness, our vileness, our wretchedness. For how low was that our full, from which we could not be raised without such a depression of God's only Son ? How great is that im- potency, which needed such a succour to relieve it? How abominable must be that iniquity, which might not be expiated without so costly a sacrifice? How de- plorable is that misery, which could not be removed without commutation of so strange a suffering? Would the Son of God have so emptied ('Eavrov iKivuas. Phil. ii. 7) and debased himself for nothing? Would he have endured such pains and ignominies for a trifle? No, surely ; if our guilt had been slight, if our case had been tolerable, the Divine wisdom would have chosen a more cheap and easy remedy for us. " Is it not madness for us to be conceited of any worth in ourselves, to confide in any merit of our x 306 ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. works, to glory in any thing belonging to us, to fancy ourselves brave, fine, happy persons, worthy of great respect and esteem ; whereas our unworthiness, our demerit, our forlorn estate, did extort from the most gracious God a displeasure needing such a reconcilia- tion, did impose upon the most glorious Son of God a necessity to undergo such a punishment in our behalf? " Yet, while this contemplation doth breed sober humility, it also should preserve us from base abject- ness of mind ; for it doth evidently demonstrate that, according to God's infallible judgment, we are very considerable ; that our souls are capable of high re- gard : that it is a great pity we should be lost and aban- doned to ruin. For surely, had not God much esteemed and respected us, he would not for our sakes have so debased himself, or deigned to endure so much for our recovery ; Divine justice would not have exacted or ac- cepted such a ransom for our souls, had they been of little worth. We should not therefore slight ourselves, nor demean ourselves like sorry contemptible wretches, as if we deserved no consideration, no pity from our- selves; as if we thought our souls not worth saving, which yet our Lord thought good to purchase at so dear a rate 48 ." To this language of the eloquent and philosophic Dr. Barrow, allow me to add the following powerful expostulation of our Reformers. " Canst thou think of this, O sinful man, and not tremble within thyself? Canst thou hear it quietly, without remorse of consci- ence and sorrow of heart? Did Christ suffer his passion for thee, and wilt thou show no compassion towards him? While Christ was yet hanging on the cross, and yielding up the ghost, the Scripture witnesseth that the veil of the temple did rent in twain, and the earth did quake, that the stones clave asunder, that the graves did open, and the dead bodies rise; and shall the heart of man be nothing moved to remember how grievously and cruelly he was handled of the Jews for our sins:' 48 Barrow's Sermon on the Passiou. ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. 307 Shall man show himself to be more hard-hearted than stones, to have less compassion than dead bodies? Call to mind, O sinful creature, and set before thine eyes Christ crucified: think thou seest his body stretched out in length upon the cross, his head crowned with sharp thorns, and his hands and his feet pierced with nails, his heart opened with a long spear, his flesh rent and torn with whips, his brows sweating water and blood : think thou hearest him now crying in an into- lerable agony to his Father, and saying, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Couldst thou behold this woeful sight, or hear this mournful voice, without tears, considering that he suffered all this not for any desert of his own, but only for the grievousness of thy sins? O that mankind should put the everlasting Son of God to such pains ! O that we should be the occa- sion of his death, and the only cause of his condemna- tion ! May we not justly cry, Woe worth the time that ever we sinned? O, my brethren, let this image of Christ crucified be always printed in our hearts; let it stir us up to the hatred of sin, and provoke our minds to the earnest love of Almighty God. For why? is not sin, think you, a grievous thing in his sight, seeing for the transgressing of God's precept he condemned all the world unto perpetual death, and would not be pacified, but only with the blood of his own Son 49 ?" 49 Second Homily on the Passion, p. 359, Oxford edit. 1810. I beg leave to remark here, once for all, that the frequency of my quoting from the Homilies, and other discourses of great men amongst the Episcopalians, does uot arise from my supposing they are of supe- rior authority, or that they have clearer views of Scriptural truth, than Baxter, Howe, Watts, Doddridge, and some- other eminent Dis- senting authors ; but from the circumstance that these Letters were originally written for the benefit of a professed member of the Church of England ; and because a large portion of those who are adverse to the doctrines I am here defending, and which are so forcibly stated in the " Articles " and " Homilies," fancy themselves to be very " sound Churchmen " notwithstanding. 308 LETTER XV. On the Divinity of Jesus Christ. " FOUR things," said the great and judicious Hooker, " concur to make complete the whole state of our Lord Jesus Christ: his Deity, his manhood, the conjunction of both, and the distinction of the one from the other, being joined in one. Four principal heresies there are which have in those things withstood the truth. Arians, by bending themselves against the Deity of Christ ; Apol- linariana, by maiming and misinterpreting that which belonged) to his human nature; Nestorians, by rending Christ asunder, and dividing him into two persons : the followers of Eutiches, by confounding in his person those natures which they should distinguish. Against these there have been four ancient general councils: the council of Nice, to define against Arians, A.D. 325; the council of Constantinople, against Apollinarians, A. D. 381 ; that of Ephesus, against Nestorians, A. D. 431; against Eutichians, that of Chalcedon, A.D. 451 : the decisions of which may be comprised in four words: a\rjQ(,>(; truly, rfXtwe perfectly, aSiaipfruf indii'isibly, and anvy^yruc distinctly. The first applied to his being God ; and the second to his being Man ; the third to his being of both one; and the fourth to his still continu- in that one both. We may fully, by way of abridgment, comprise whatsoever antiquity hath at large handled, either in declaration of Christian belief, or in refutation of the aforesaid heresies, within the compass of these four heads 1 ." This view of the Messiah's person agrees with the opinion that has most universally prevailed, among Christians, from the first introduction of Christianity into the world down to the present period. Nor does the mere existence of other opinions by any means militate against the truth of this: for, since evidence, though it be clear, forcible, and satisfactory, does not 1 Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, book v. seel. 54. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 309 necessarily convince, the human mind being free either to receive evidence with its due weight, or to reject it as defective ; it follows that a doctrine, as well as a fact, may be disbelieved by minds of a peculiar structure, however preponderating and decisive may be the evi- dence in its favour. This is undoubted, and an apostle referring to matters of faith, accounts for it in language which I tremble while 1 quote: "If our Gospel be veiled, it is veiled to those that destroy themselves, whose minds the god of this world hath blinded" Many learned and ingenious men disbelieve the Divinity of Christ; but neither the process by which they have arrived at their disbelief, nor that by which they endeavour to prove that we are in error, seems calculated to operate strongly upon the minds of those who have been previously persuaded that the Scrip- ture is the production of inspired writers, who were so inspired that they might teach doctrines infallibly true (many of which could be known no other way), and whose instructions, therefore, are to be implicitly re- ceived. Having ascertained that the Bible is the Word of God, that none of the discrepances between the various existing copies in the original languages affect any doctrine, or any important precept, and that the translation we adopt is correct, we have nothing to do but to determine its plain and obvious meaning, and receive it as true 2 . But this is not the plan pursued 8 " It hath been the custom of late to lay too much stress upon Jewish idioms, in the exposition of the didactic parts of the New Testament. The Gospel is a general revelation. If it is delivered in a style which is not perspicuous to the illiterate of any nation except tlie Jewish, it is as much locked up from general apprehension, as if the sacred books had been written in the vernacular gibberish of the Jews of that age. The Holy Spirit, which directed the apostles and the evangelists to the use of the tongue, which in their day was the most generally understood the Greek would, for the same reason, it may be presumed, suggest to them a style which might be gene- rally perspicuous. It is therefore a principle with me, that the true sense of any phrase in the New Testament is, for the most part, what may be called a standing sense : that which will be the lirst to occur to common people of every country, and in every age ; and I am apt 310 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. by those who deny the Divinity of the Messiah. They constantly examine the Scriptures rather as critics, than us humble inquirers after truth: the natural conse- quence of which is, that they are critical beyond mea- sure, and adopt those "refinements in criticism which make men nauseate what is obvious, and pursue through the mazes of etymology what was never ima- gined before." This, indeed, is the necessary result of adopting a defective hypothesis. If both the Divine and human nature meet in the person of the Messiah, and if they are essentially distinct though they are inseparably united, then is it to be expected that some passages should clearly announce his Divinity, others as clearly his humanity, while others may (perhaps indistinctly) indicate both. But if Jesus Christ be merely a man, then all those texts which declare his Divine nature, or indicate his compound nature, must be either rejected as spurious, or explained away by the arts of criticism. Hence Socinians argue, that when Jesus is called " the Son of man," the words must not only be construed in the most literal, but in the most restricted, sense, so that the word man shall be under- to mean one particular man : but when he is called " the Son of God," they must be explained to mean knowledge, commission, affection, office (though the office of son is a strange vagary, that would enter the mind of none but a Socinian critic), any thing or no- thing, provided it be not taken literally. If one phrase of St. John be in favour of the Deity of Christ, it is either a solecism, or it is Hebraical-Greek ; if another phrase of the same writer have the same tendency, it is an oratorical flourish, or it is an Atticism, or it is an hyperbole : as if it were not contrary to the entire to think, that the difference between this standing sense and the Jewish sense will, in all cases, be far less than is imagined, or none at all ; because, though different languages differ widelj in their refined and elevated idioms, common speech is in all languages pretty much the same." Horsley's Letters in Controversy with Dr. Priest- ley, p. 1-22, Ed. 3. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 31 1 scope and practice of the sacred writers to employ hy- perboles in order to do prejudice to the glory of God; which, nevertheless, is done repeatedly not only by John, but by all the apostles, if the Socinian hypothe- sis be true ; if in a third place he says, when speaking of Jesus, " We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only Son of the Father 3 ;" we are told it means " his miracles," which it should seem are " used to express merely a higher degree of affection." If Jesus Christ call himself " the Son of God ;" it is a strong expres- sion, conformable to the Eastern phraseology, signify- ing that he was sent by God ; though the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who were at least as well acquainted with Eastern phraseology as we are, understood the lan- guage literally, and said that Jesus was guilty of " blas- phemy, because he made himself equal with God V If, as Jerome and Eusebius state, John wrote his Gos- pel principally in vindication of our Lord's Divinity, tigainst Cerinthus and the Ebionites 5 , still a critic with 3 See the Socinian version of John, i. 15, and the notes upon that text, p. 201, 202. John, v. 18; x. 33. * It is highly probable, however, that John had other heretics in his eve than those above-named, both when writing his Gospel and iiis First Epistle. Thus the names and titles applied to our Lord at the very commencement of John's Gospel would certainly puzzle, if not silence, those in the first century who were inclined to contend, either that he was a mere man, or a Divine appearance merely with- out flesh. Even in the first chapter, he is denominated: 1. The Word. 2. God. 3. The Life. 4. The Light. 5. The True Light. G. The Only Begotten of the Father. 7. Jesus Christ. 8. The Only Begotten Son. 9. The Christ, or Anointed. 10. That Prophet. 11. The Lord. 12. The Lamb of God. 13. A Man. 14. The Son of God. 15. The Messiah. 16. Jesus of Nazareth. 17. The Son of Joseph. 18. The King of Israel. 19. The Son of Man. Whence this extraordinary diversity of terms, but to designate an extraordi- nary character, and to excite the utmost attention to the history of the nature, words, actions, and offices of Him in whom, by a glori- ous unity of design, the diversity centred to constitute at once "The Messenger of the Covenant" and "The Sun of Righteousness?" So again, when, in his First Epistle, John taught that Jesus Christ " is the Son of God," and that " he came in the flesh," he meant to oppose those who denied his divinity, as well as those who affirmed 312 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. a certain turn of mind may manage to elude its force; as does Leclerc, who thus ridiculously renders the first sentence of John's Gospel : " In the beginning was reason, and reason was in God, and reason was God." But as a complete specimen of critical ingenuity at- tenuated into absurdity, I beg to present you with the late Mr. Theophilus Lindsey's translation of part of the first chapter of this Gospel. Leclerc's version is not sufficiently unreasonable ; we are, therefore, now pre- sented with it after this fashion: " In the beginning was Wisdom, and Wisdom was with God, and God was Wisdom. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by it, and without it was nothing made. In it was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. " It (Divine Wisdom) was in the world, and the world was made by it, and the world knew it not. // came to its own land, and its own people received it not. But as many as received it, to them it gave power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe on its name. "And Wisdom became man, and dwelt among us; and we beheld its glory, the glory as of the well-beloved of the Father, full of grace and truth." that his body was only a body in appearance. And hence, as Mac- knight and others have remarked, the opinions of the Docetae or Phantasiastir, on the one hand, and of the Cerinthians and Ebionites, on the other, render it probable, if not certain, that the apostles taught, and the first Christians believed, Christ to be both God and man. For, if the Docetae had riot been taught the divinity of Christ, they had no temptation to call in question his humanity. And if the Cerinthians had not been taught the humanity of Christ, they would, in like manner, have felt no temptation to deny his divinity. But regarding it as impossible that both parts of the apostolic doctrine concerning the Messiah conlil be true ; one class of these heretics conceived themselves compelled to reject his humanity, that they might more purely maintain his divinity; while the other, to main- tain his divinity, thought it equally necessary to reject his humanity. Thus it is that men make shipwreck of faith when they are prepared only to receive the truth by halves. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 313 Now, in all this quotation, although as we are in- formed 6 its "sense is approved by Dr. Lardner, Dr. Priestley, Mr. Wakefield, and others/' there appears to be only one sentence accurately translated, " the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not:" of the truth of which, considering it as a predic- tion, the translation itself, and the approbation of such truly learned men as Lardner, Priestley, and Wake- field, is a most lamentable proof. What a deplorable system of theology must that be, which requires such egregious trifling to support it! But even this is not the whole of the ridiculous in- cumbrance that impedes the progress of the theological hypothesis, to which I now advert. It takes for granted, that uninspired men may, at the distance of eighteen hundred years, know more of " the mind of Christ," and of the nature of his religion, than those who saw and conversed with him in " the days of his flesh," and were chosen and inspired to communicate his doc- trines, by their preaching and writings, to " the end of the world." It, therefore, cherishes a sentiment which is diametrically opposite to that humility and lowli- ness of mind which is essential to Christianity, and which is possessed by those to whom God has pro- mised to " give grace." But, more than all, it makes it the duty of teachers of the Gospel to be ever active in sinking the value, utility, and importance of the Gos- pel; and diminishing "the riches of Divine mercy." Ambassadors and ministers in general are proud to exalt the power, honour, and dignity of the monarch whom they represent and serve ; but, according to the Socinian theory and practice, the chief employment of ministers and " ambassadors of Christ" is to depreciate as far as possible the character of their Lord and King, and to show that he is not entitled to the honour, dig- nity, majesty, and power, which others usually ascribe to him. One of this class of Gospel ministers, Mr. Bel- sham, seems by no means persuaded of the purity of 6 Notes to the New Socinian Version, p. 203. 314 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. the life of Jesus. "Whether (says he) the perfection of Christ's character in public life (as recorded by the evangelists) combined with the general declarations of his freedom from sin, establish, or were intended to establish, the fact, that Jesus through the whole course of his PRIVATE life, was completely exempt from all the errors and failings of human nature, is a question of no great intrinsic moment, and concerning which we have no sufficient data to lead to a satisfactory answer! !" In another work the same writer affirms that we are totally ignorant of the place where Christ resides, and of the occupations in which he is engaged 7 ! These are notions which Thomas Paine, with all his hatred to Christianity, would probably have been ashamed to promulgate. The scheme of theology which includes the divinity of Jesus Christ as an essential and fundamental part, is free from these puerilities, absurdities, anomalies, and, I could almost say, blasphemies. According to this scheme we believe that Jesus Christ is a man ; that he is also GOD ; yet we do not believe that the man Jesus is deified. We do not worship the man Jesus; but we believe his own declaration relative to the union of the Divine and human nature in his person, when conversing with Nicodemus, and therefore we do wor- ship the God who dwells in the man; for " in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Deity, bodily ;" and " through him tve have access, by one Spirit, unto the Father 8 ." We do not deny that there is something mysterious in this, for in our present state we do not expect to arrive at the full " knowledge of the mystery of God, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge 9 :" nor do we forget that the Scriptures are intended rather to reveal what God is in relation to us 10 , than what he 7 Belsham on the Divinity of Christ, p. 190. Belsham's Review of Mr. Wilberforce's Treatise, p. 85. 8 See the original of John, iii. 13, where the 6 tav tv rcndance. He stilled the raging of the sea, without any effort. He raised the dead with as great ease as he rformed the most common actions. A simple and ntle command caused tempests to cease, and the dead 1 come forth from their graves : and instead of guard- ; the bystanders against forming too high concep- tions of him on these accounts, he informed them, that whatever wonder was effected by his Father on earth, likewise performed ; and that his Father's works were his. He attributed to himself o\\ the grand things lie performed. Was this the conduct of a true prophet, I he had, been only a prophet ? Under the old dispensation, it sometimes pleased (Jod to permit his glory and his power to shine forth in his servants. Thus Enoch was translated to heaven, '/lijah was conveyed thither in a fiery chariot, John Baptist was foretold as the harbinger of God. Yet these were individual circumstances. But in Jesus 1 1st we have an assemblage of wonders. In him all the different characteristics of a Divine mission, dis- scd amongst the extraordinary men who had formerly :n messengers of the Most High, are collected ; and 322 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. in a manner infinitely more glorious and Divine. He prophesies, but with far more minuteness and subli- mity than John the Baptist 25 ; nay, he penetrates into the future with more accuracy and clearness than any of the prophets; he appears transfigured on Mount Tabor, and surrounded with more glory than Moses: he ascends to heaven, but with more marks of power and majesty than Elijah : he reproves " wickedness in high places," and purifies the temple with an unresist- ed energy, assuming the authority of " the Lord of that temple." And on all occasions his language comports with his dignity. Jesus Christ, we find, is continually representing himself as equal to his father. " I and my Father/* says he, " are one." He acquaints us that he hath come down from heaven, and that he hath quitted the bosom of God ; that he was before Abraham ; that he was before all things ; that eternal life consists in the knowledge of the Son as well as in the knowledge of the Father; that it is not a servant, but a San, that abideth ever 26 ; that if the Son make his people free, then shall they be free indeed. Did any prophets as- sume such strange and authoritative language, and in- stead of rendering glory to God as the author of every good and perfect gift, attribute to their own efficiency the great things which God performed through their instrumentality ? On one occasion, indeed, and but one, I believe 27 , Jesus says, that the Father is greater than he. But what a singular acknowledgment is that, if he be not " God manifested in the flesh ?" Should we not consider as idiotic, or insane, any mere man who should tell us seriously, that the Supreme Being is greater than he? The texts, also, in which our Lord asserts his pre- 23 For a summary of the distinct particulars, exceeding twenty* in our Lord's prophecies, see Talbot's Analysis of the Holy Bible, book ii. ch. 4. And for a history of the verification of several of them, see Home's Introduction, Sup. 1st. edit. pp. 182 204. 26 John, viii. 35, 42, 58, &c. ; x. 30. ^ John, xvi. 28. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 323 existence, connected with those in which he affirms his equality with his Father, furnish cogent evidence in favour of his true Divinity. This consequence is at- tempted to be weakened by a perfectly gratuitous hy- pothesis, namely, that he was taken up to heaven for a short time to receive his instruction. Now here it is obvious to remark, that if it be true that Jesus Christ went up into heaven, and came down from heaven a little afterwards, it was incomparably more necessary (to prevent our adoption of erroneous opinions) to mention his ascent than his descent ; yet the Scripture speaks frequently of the latter, never of the former. On this point allow me to lay before you Dr. Abbadie's plain and unforced illustration. Suppose we met with a stranger who should talk to us after this manner ;- " I came from China'; I go to China. Ye shall soon see me return where I was before. I departed from China and landed in this country ; not to do my own business, but that of the Emperor of China. I came to do the will of my Father, even the Emperor of China : He is my own Father 1 ; and no man (here) knoweth my Father but the Son, and they to whom the Son hath revealed him. Lo, I leave this country and go to the Emperor of China, for he sent me. Now that I am to return thither, what is it but that I was sent into this country? He that is of this country speaketh as the men of this country ; but he that has come from China speaketh as one that came from China. In a little while longer ye shall not see me, because I return to my Father." Now what is the natural impression which such language 4s calculated to make ? Is it, that this man was a mere European, who had spent a few weeks in China, and had caught a glimpse of the Em- peror? Or that he was really a native of China, who expected soon to return thither; and had peculiar rea- sons for wishing to return, that he might receive the honour due to him as the son of the Emperor ? It would 28 Vide John, v. 18. Hartpa iliov, his cwn. or proper father, and . Rom. viii. 32, tSiov inov, his own or proper son. 324 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. be an insult to your understanding to make the appli- cation, to the uniform conduct and repeated declara- tions of our Lord. Such conduct and such declarations, were calculated to excite homage and worship ; and how did Jesus Christ receive it? Paul and Barnabas, you will recol- lect, rent their garments when they were taken for gods, and restrained the people who wished to worship them. Peter, also, when the devout Cornelius " fell down at his feet and worshiped him," forbade him, saying, " Stand up; I myself also am a man." In the same spirit the angel in the Apocalypse, when St. John prostrated himself to worship him, rejected the homage with horror, saying, " See thou do it not ; I am a fellow-servant with thee, and with thy brethren who bear testimony to Jesus: worship Goo 30 ." But Jesus Christ tranquilly suffered Divine honours to be rendered to him ; commended the faith of the disciples who worshiped him, and who with Thomas called him their " Lord and their God ;" upbraided this Thomas with his unbelief, yet suffered his idolatry to pass un re- proved : and even confuted those enemies who contested his own Deity and celestial origin. Was this the way to prove that he was nothing more than man ? Ubiquity belongs to none but God ; yet Jesus Christ made promises which it was impossible to fulfil without this perfection. " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there AM I in the midst of them." " If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and 29 Acts, xiv. 11 18; x. 25, 26. From this example it is plain tbat the distinction between supreme and subordinate worship, upon which so much stress has been recently laid, was unknown to the apostles of our Lord. For, it is evident from the story, that Cornelius did not worship Peter, as God, but as the messenger of God : and it is farther evident that Peter thought all external worship, even such as could in no sense be conceived to tend towards a Supreme Object, when paid to a creature, a man, however dignified by office, did ir.fi- nitely prejudice the glory of the Creator. 30 Rev. xix. 10; xxii. 9. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 325 make our abode with him." " I am with you always, even unto the end of the world 31 ." When Nathanael went to him to ascertain if any " good thing could come out of Nazareth," Jesus at once described his character; the language of the astonished Jew was, " Whence knowest thou me?" The reply of Jesus, " Before Philip called thee when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saiv thee," convinced Nathanael that he was " the Son of GOD," because it evinced his omnipresence. The Messiah, instead of correcting the mistake (which he would naturally have done, had it been one), said, " Because I said unto thee, ' I saw thee under the fig- tree/ believest thou ? Thou shalt see greater things than these 32 :" and doubtless he did : he might witness many more circumstances that showed how Jesus " knew even the thoughts of man 33 ;" and might hear him authoritatively pronounce the forgiveness of sins, though " none can forgive sins, but GOD only 34 ." Indeed, the single circumstance of his never unde- ceiving the Jews, who thought that by " calling him- self the Son of God he made himself equal with God," 31 Compare Matt, xviii. 20. John, xiv. 23. Matt, xxviii. 20, with Exod. iii. 12; xx. 24. Josh. i. 5, and Jer. i. 6 8. _ The Socinian translators say the promises in the Gospel " are to be understood as limited to the apostolic age, and perhaps to the apostles themselves." How did the Messiah acquire this temporary omnipresence (say for seventy years), to whom did he resign it, and what notices have we in Scripture of any such resignation? That is, what passages are to be found in Holy Writ which contradict the express declaration in Hebrews, xiii. 8, that " Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever?" Besides, let it be considered that omnipresence is an infinite attribute, and then two things will follow : First, it can never be communicated to a creature, because in that case it would be both finite and not finite ; which is a palpable contradiction. Secondly, Since there can be no intermission of an infinite attribute, if our Lord possessed this omnipresence in the apostolic age (which these gen- tlemen do not deny), he must be omnipresent in all ages. The reason- ings which would set aside the declarations of omnipresence in Matthew would just as effectually invalidate that in Exodus, xx. 24.. 32 John, i. 4851. 33 Matt. xii. 25. Luke, vi. 8. John, ii. 24, 25 j vi. 64.. * Mark, ii. 711. 326 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. is sufficient with inquirers of unbiassed minds, to set the question at rest. This was the cause, at least the ostensive cause, of all the maltreatment he experienced. It was for this he was apprehended, and tried as a blasphemer. The high priest adjured him most solemnly " by the living God, that he would tell them whether he was the Christ, the Son of God 35 ;" clearly showing, on the one hand, that in the expectation of the Jews the Messiah was to possess Divine attributes ; and, on the other, that none but a Divine Messiah could with- out blasphemy assume the title of " the Son of God." If these were mistakes, why did not Jesus seize this opportunity of correcting them, especially when by so doing he would probably have avoided crucifixion ? but, instead of this, he persisted in what the high priest, as well as the other Jews, deemed blasphemy 3 *; was therefore thought deserving of death, and suffered in consequence. It is admitted by all Christians (and as far as I know by all unbelievers), that he suffered unjustly: yet how could this be, if he were not what he professed himself to be, " the Son of God," equal to his Father, and " possessing glory with him before the world existed 37 ." If he were a mere man, his life was a life of imposture ; during his whole ministry he usurped honours to which he was not entitled ; he died as an impostor, and kept up the delusion to the last by even deceiving a fellow-malefactor, who called him " Lord," and heaven his " kingdom," with vain pro- mises of future happiness 38 , which he had no power to confer. In opposition to this induction of particulars there cannot, as I conceive, be more than one argument set up, with any semblance of reason. It may be said, if Jesus Christ were really Divine, why did he not give such palpable evidences of it as could be neither doubted nor disputed? The answer is obvious. Had he furnished convincing proofs of his Godhead, they 35 Matt. xxvi. 63. 36 Matt. xxvi. 65. 37 John, xvii.5. 38 Luke, xxii. 43. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 327 would not have been verbal declarations, but real ex- hibitions of his majesty and unlimited power; these would of course have restrained the Jews from putting him to death, agreeably to the assertion of Paul, "Had the princes of this world known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory 39 ;" and in that case the prin- cipal object for which he visited this world, that of " taking away sin by the sacrifice of himself," would have been defeated. I have just said there cannot be more than one oppos- ing argument set up with any semblance of reason, because an argument of which Socinians are very fond, namely, that because a doctrine is " not revealed in the Gospels it is not true," is not only inapplicable to the present question, but is as trifling and childish as can well be conceived. For what does it amount to? Just this: If a proposition is not to be found in a certain assigned portion of Scripture, it is not divinely revealed in any other part of Scripture ! How logically conclu- sive ! Must every proposition of revealed truth be condensed into every portion of Holy Writ? Jesus Christ is no where, I think, in the four Gospels, called a High priest: will these gentlemen therefore affirm, that he is not " a High priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedec?" Nor, as far as I recollect, is he any where in those Gospels denominated a mediator: will they, therefore 1 , deny that " there is one mediator be- tween God and man, the man Christ Jesus?" Most of them admit his mediation; though for one allusion to that, in the New Testament, there will be found at least twenty to his Divinity. III. The testimony of the apostles is decidedly in favour of the Divinity of our Lord. Stephen, an apostle, and the first martyr, when dying, invokes the " Lord Jesus to receive his spirit." The apostles in general perform their miracles not in the name of Jehovah, but in that of" Jesus of Nazareth :" 39 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8. See also, to this effect, the striking language of our Lord in Matt. xxvi. 53, 54. 328 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. and they uniformly ascribe to him the epithets, the attributes, and the works which are peculiar to Deity. They tell us that, conformable to prophecy, " his name is Emmanuel, GOD with us 40 ." Moreover John turned " many to the Lord their God* 1 ." " Christ is Lord of all**." " We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ ; and every one give an account of himself to Goo 43 ." " The second man is the Lord from heaven**." " In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Deity bodily ; and he is the head of all principality and power* 5 ." Jesus Christ is " Lord of Glory." " For by him ALL THINGS WERE CREATED, that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible ; whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him ; and he is before all things, and by him all things subsist 46 ." He is " the first and the last, and he that lived and became dead, and lives for ever and ever, and has the keys of death and hades*" 1 ." " The Lamb is Lord of lords, and King of kings," a peculiar title of Jehovah 48 . He " searcheth the reins and the hearts, and will give to every one according to his works 49 ." He " knows the works" and conduct of all churches 50 . " He promises to bestow upon his people eternal life 51 :" while he will "con- sume the unrighteous with the breath of his mouth 5 *.' 3 o w 40 Matt. i. 23. 41 Luke, i. 16, 76. 42 Acts, x. 36. 43 Rom. xiv. 10, 12. 44 1 Cor. xv. 47. 45 Col. ii.9, 10. See also the initial salutation in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, " Paul, an apostle (or one sent) not from man, nor by man, but by Josus Christ." And let it be farther recollected that the apostles usually mention Jesus Christ by the title of Kvptoc " the Lord," the very word which in the Septuagint (from which they quoted) is employed as equivalent to Jehovah. This title Zanchie assures us is, " in the writings of the apostles, simply and absolutely ascribed to Christ, at least a thousand times," and generally so as to import necessary existence. 46 1 Cor. ii. 8. James, ii. 1. Col. i. 16, 17. Rev. i. 17, 18. 48 Rev. xvii. 14. Deut. x. 17. 1 Tim. vi. 15. 49 Rev. ii. 2. 50 Rev. ii. 2, 0, 13, 19; iii. 8, 15. 51 John, x 28. 52 2 Thes. ii. 8. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 329 And he was the Logos or word of God, who was made " flesh, and dwelt among us," and of whom John says, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word ivas GOD; all things were made by Him, and without him was not a single thing made that was made 53 ." Quotations tending to establish the same point might be extended almost indefinitely ; but if the real object of inquiry be to arrive at truth, the preceding will be quite sufficient. Here again, indeed, the merits of the question might be very safely made to turn upon the text last cited. For, taking A oyoe (a word not borrowed from the writings of Plato or of Philo, as some pretend, but from the Jewish Scriptures 54 ), to signify, as it doubtless does in this passage, the divine and substan- tial Word of God, the MESSIAH, we are hence assured, 1st, That Fie was in the beginning ; that is, that he 53 John, i. 1, 3, 14. Consult also Eph. v. 5. 1 Thes. iv. 14. 2 Thes. i. 12. 1 Tira. v. 21. Tit. ii. 13. 2 Pet. i. 1 ; and Jude ; applying to most of them in the original the established doctrine of tlie Greek article. To diminish the force of these proofs from the language of the apostles, I have been reminded that in the Acts of the Apostles, if not in their Epistles, they usually call Jesus Christ a man; and farther, that they usually in argumentation speak of him as a man ; whence it is inferred that they knew not that he was Divine, but acknowledged that he was a man. Here, it is obvious to reply, as Dr. Horsley has long ago done, that " according to the faith which I defend, Christ is truly a man as well as GOD. It is no wonder, therefore, that he should be mentioned as a man, when nothing in the narrative, or in the argument, requires that his Divinity should be particularly brought to view. To the first argument in particular, it is a farther answer, that it was the style of all the sacred writers, and it is the style of all writers, to name things rather after their appear- ances than their internal forms. The tempter, you know, in the Mosaic history of the fall, is called the serpent; and is not once mentioned by any other name. The three angels, who appeared to Abraham in the form of men, are called men, throughout the story. To the second argument in particular, it is a farther answer, that, as the scheme of man's redemption required the incarnation of the Son of God, the apostles would often find it necessary, in reasoning upon that scheme, and in argumentation in defence of it, to insist on his humanity." See also Abbadie 011 the Divinity, sect. vi. chap. 3, &o. 44 Parkhurst's Greek Lexicon. Aoyoj, xvj. 330 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. already was and did exist when things began to be created. 2dly, That in that state .of his existence, before the creation of the world, he was partaker of the Divine glory and happiness. 3dly, That he was God by participation of the Divine nature with the Father. 4thly, That not a single being (ovce sr) was made with- out him : he made all creatures without exception ; and consequently he is not a creature 55 . In estimating the force of these texts, let it be con- sidered that they are selected from the writings of men whose great business was to destroy idolatry, and im- plant the true worship of God upon its ruins ; and that it was foretold their description of " the way, the truth, and the life 56 ,'' should be so obvious that " the way- faring men, though fools, should not err therein 57 ." If Jesus Christ were a mere man, the predictions of the prophets are in this respect, again, not accom- plished, and we are yet left to wander without any infallible guide ; for on that supposition, the Bible, instead of being so plain and perspicuous " that he 55 The followers of Socinus are frequently introducing new trans- lations and new interpretations of this passage : but if we allow them to be received, we must also admit two very extraordinary and almost incredible things, namely, that Ignatius and others who lived very near John's time, and were therefore most likely to know his mean- ing, should so widely mistake it ; and that all Christians (or at least the great body) should err so extremely in an important article of faith for almost one thousand six hundred years, that no man under- stood this text rightly before Socinus. This latter consideration would be enough of itself to startle any modest man : but Socinus seems more inclined to boast of it; for, when speaking of this very Terse, he says, " Quorum verus, sensus omnes prorsus, qui quidem, extarent, explanatores latuisse videtnr." Another text equally decisive with the above, and which also the rejectors of the Divinity of Christ have endeavoured to weaken by a most extraordinary construction, is Phil. ii. 5 10. For a very masterly refutation of their strained interpretation, see " Abbadieon the Divinity of Jesus Christ," sect. iii. chap. 7. This book, which I never saw till just as my third edition was passing through the press, I beg to recommend most cordially, as, on the whole, the most valu- able and invulnerable work on the subject I have read. 56 John, xiv. 6. Is. xxxv.8. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 331 who runs may read " and understand it, if he read with singleness of heart, is the most obscure and delusive book in the world : and the Christian dispensation, in- stead of having eradicated idolatry, has given birth to an idolatry, more refined, it is true, bul at the same time moreprevalent,more formed for universality and perma- nence, than any idolatry that ever before existed 58 ." There is another class of texts which become divested of all their propriety and importance, and sink into mere trifling, if the Divinity of Jesus Christ be denied : I mean those which represent to us in such glowing terms the love and condescension of the Redeemer. If Christ were in the " form of God, equal with God, and very God ;" then it was an act of infinite love and condescension in him to become man and die for us. But if he were no more than a creature, surely it was no such amazing condescension to undertake so noble and sublime a work as being the Saviour of mankind : a work which would advance him to be Lord and Judge of the world ; cause him to be for ever admired, reverenced, and adored by men and angels, and highly exalted and glorified by God himself. If either the work of redemption was too stupendous for a creature to undertake, or the honours of it were too high for a creature to aspire after ; then, certainly, the very notion of condescension is merged and lost, upon every hypothesis which does not make Christ truly and properly God, God eternal. In fact, " to 58 Being- obliged to regard brevity, I have omitted all those reason- ings in favour of the Divinity of our Lord, which are deduced from his miraculous conception. To such as wish to consider this branch of the argument, I would beg to recommend the striking passage from Cassian, quoted by Hooker in 32 of his Discourse on Justification, Archbishop Tillotson's 45th and 46th Sermons, a very able pamphlet entitled " Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God," by Mr. R. Alliot of Nottingham, and Bishop Horsley's " Sermon on the Incarnation," published in his most interesting and decisive volume of " Tracts in controversy with Dr. Priestley." The doctrine of the miraculous conception was asserted and defended by Justin Martyr. See his 2d Apol. 28,30,41,43. 332 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. become man, to suffer and die for the redemption of the world, and to be made the Lord and Judge both of the quick and of the dead, can be an act of condescend- ing love and goodness only in God. So that to deny the Divinity of Christ alters the very foundation of Chris- tianity, and destroys all the powerful arguments of the love, humility, and condescension of our Lord, which are the peculiar motives of the Gospel 59 ." IV. The prevailing opinion among Christians dur- ing the first three centuries was, that Jesus Christ was really a Divine Person, and not a mere man. I assume it here as a position which cannot with any justice be disputed, that the opinions held by the ma- jority of real and pious Christians in the early ages, when, as Jerome finely observes, " the blood of Christ was yet warm in the breasts of Christians, and the faith and spirit of religion were brisk and vigorous," were those that were taught by the apostles, and constituted the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion. The observable harmony and unanimity of the several churches in their most public acts is a circumstance which irresistibly confirms this position. It is scarcely probable that any large church of those early ages should vary, in things of moment, from the apostolical doctrines : and it is quite absurd to imagine that all the churches should combine in the same error, and conspire together to corrupt the doctrine of Christ. This argument is much and justly insisted upon both bylrenaeus and Tertullian against the heretics of their respective times 60 . They both affirm that the true dis- ciple (that is, according to their own interpretation, one who believes that He who wrought their salvation upon earth was God) " is a follower of the public doc- trine of the church." Now, they are well known facts, that soon after the middle of the first century (that is, about A. D. 60 and 72), Cerinlhus and Ebion impugned the doctrine of 59 Sherlock's Vindication of the Defence of Stillingfleet, p. 268. 60 Iren. 1. iii. c. 3 ; 1. iv. c. 53 59. Tertul. Prescript, c. 20, 28. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 333 the Divinity of Christ ; that John wrote his Gospel with a view to refute their errors; and that both were condemned for openly impugning- this doctrine, by the whole church at that time, and frequently after- wards, before the establishment of Christianity by Con- stantine ; this doctrine being then reckoned a funda- mental and essential part of the Gospel faith. It is also equally notorious, that Theodotus, Artemon, Be- rillus, Paul of Samosata, and Arius, did in succession, before the year 320, deny the proper Divinity of Jesus Christ in a greater or less degree, making him a crea- ture ; that they were all in their turns censured by the church : the sentiments of the latter, for example, being strongly censured at the council of Nice, by three hun- dred and fifteen out of three hundred and eighteen bishops, the wisest, worthiest, and every way most excellent, which the Christian world could then fur- nish 61 , called together out of Europe, Asia, and Africa; constituting a free council under no secular influence, or awe of superior human control. Reverting to the first of these deniers of Christ's Divinity, the substance of his opinion was, that Jesus and Christ were two persons : Jesus a mere man, conceived, in the natural way, of Joseph and Mary; Christ a celestial spirit, which descended from above, and resided in the man Jesus, not constantly, but occasionally. Here the proper Divinity of our Lord was denied ; and this was condemned, as error and heresy, by the bishops of Asia, and others of Cerinthus's contemporaries, who went in a body to St. John, and importuned him to bear his testimony against these sentiments 62 . Now the only question for consideration relative to Cerinthus is this. Was he the first who truly understood that doctrine of the new religion which respected the person of its founder ; or had the great body of the churches which were converted by the apostles received from them the true doctrines, and was Cerinthus the first 61 Euseb. de Vit. Constantin. 1. iii. c. 7, 9. 62 Victorin in Assoc. Bibl. PP. torn. i. p. 570. Hieronjm. Prolog, in Matt. p. 3. Opp. torn. iv. Ed. Bened. 334 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. who had sufficient boldness to promulgate erroneous sentiments? This question admits but of one rational answer; and that will accord with the decision of the primitive Christians against Cerinthus. Similar obser- vations will apply, mutatis mutandis, to Ebion, and the other heresiarchs down to Arius : I beg to confirm them by a remarkable concession of Mr. Bayle's. He allows that, " in the days of the apostles or their dis- ciples, it had been easy to detect those who gave the Scriptures a wrong interpretation, because the infalli- bility of the apostles (who might have been consulted by word or by letter), and the fresh remembrance of the verbal instructions they had given their disciples and pastors, whom themselves had consecrated, fur- nished ready means for clearing any doubt, or disputed point 63 ." It would be easy to cite proofs that the sentiment of whole churches in the primitive times agreed, on the subject of Christ's Divinity, with what is now denomi- nated the orthodox doctrine. But I shall select only two. And first let me direct your attention to the epistle written by the church of Smyrna to other churches, in which they describe the sufferings and martyrdom of Polycarp ; for there is related this re- markable circumstance: viz. That as soon as Polycarp was dead the Jews suggested to the heathen judge the expediency of not permitting the Christians to take the martyr's body, " lest they should forsake their crucified master, and begin to worship Polycarp," " not consi- dering (add those early Christians taught by a bishop who was the disciple of St. John) that we can never either forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of all such as shall be saved throughout the whole world, the righteous for the ungodly, or worship any other. For him as the Son of God, we WORSHIP ; but the mar- tyrs we only love, as the disciples and followers of our Lord <*." 63 Bajle's Sup. to Phil. Comment, p. 692. 64 Sin^rn. Eccles. Epist. ap. Euseb. lib. iv. cap. 15. Wake's Fathers, p. 150. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 335 To this remarkable testimony allow me to add that of Caius, who, in his book called "The Labyrinth," written against Artemon, in refutation of the assertion that Artemon's doctrine was coeval with Christianity, points first to the then well-known sentiments of Justin, Miltiades, Tatian, Clemens, Irerueus, Melito, in favour of Christ's Divinity, and then asks, " How many Psalms, Hymns, and Canticles were written from the beginning by the brethren, and transcribed by the faithful, in which Christ the Word of God is celebrated for no other than God indeed? And these being adopted in the churches, how is it possible that our ancestors until the time of Victor should have so preached, when the true ecclesiastical sentiment for so many years is cer- tainly known unto all the world ? How can they thus shamelessly report of Victor, when they know for cer- tainty that Victor excommunicated Theodotus the Tan. ner, who denied the Divinity of Christ, because he was the first who affirmed that Christ was a mere man? If Victor, as they report, had been of their blasphemous opinion, how is it likely that he would have excommu- nicated Theodotus 65 ?" Having thus shown that in the early ages the denial of Christ's Divinity was condemned as heretical and dangerous, while whole churches avowed the great truth, and formed their prayer and praise accordingly; I shall proceed to inform you what were the senti- ments of the chief antenicene Fathers with respect to 65 Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. v. cap. 28. In farther describing these early heretics, Caius shows that there was an awful similarity between their practices, and those of many modern rejectors of Christ's Divinity. " They corrupted the Holy Scriptures without any reverence ; they rejected the canon of the ancient faith ; they remain ignorant of Christ, not searching simply what the Holy Scrip- ture aflirms, but exercising themselves and sifting it syllogistically to impugn the Divinity of Christ. So, if any reasoned with them out of Holy Writ, forthwith they demanded whether it were a con- junct or a simple kind of syllogism They abuse the art of infi- dels to the establishing their heretical opinion, and corrupt the sim- plicity of the Scriptures. To prove that I do not affirm this untruly, examine their copies; compare them one with another, and note their 336 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. this important doctrine ; that you may know how they, who were doubtless better acquainted with the original language of the New Testament than we are, inter- preted it; and may see how completely their senti- ments accord with those now maintained by a very great proportion of pious men. I quote first from IGNATIUS, who wrote, at latest, about the year 107. " Be not led aside (says he) by strange doctrines, nor by antiquated tales, which are unprofitable. For, if we yet live according to Judaism, it is equivalent to declaring that we have not accepted grace: for the most holy prophets lived according to Christ Jesus. And for that cause were they perse- cuted, being inspired by the grace of Christ that the un- believers might be convinced that there is one God who hath manifested himself by his Son Jesus Christ, who is his Eternal tVord 66 ." JUSTIN MARTYR has the following passage, pre- served by Dr. Grabe: " When man's nature had con- tracted corruption, it was necessary that he who would save it should do away the principle of corruption. But this could not be done without uniting essential life with the nature so corrupted, to do away the corrup- tion, and ever after to immortalize the corrupt nature. Wherefore it was meet that the Word should become incarnate to deliver us from the death of natural cor- ruption 67 ." The same writer, in one of his " Apologies," says, " The pagans tax us with atheism ; and we frankly contrariety. The books of Asclepiades agree not with those of Theo- dotus; nor those of Hermophilus with either: nor are the copies of Apolhiiius at concord among themselves Either these persons persuade themselves that the Scriptures were not indited by the Holy Spirit, and in that case they'are infidels; or else they think themselves iciser than the Holy Spirit, thus showing themselves pos- sessed of a devil. Such things they cannot deny, because we possess them in their writings : nor can they show us who instructed them, who delivered them such Scriptures, or whence they translated their copies." 66 Ignat. ad Magnes. s. viii, 67 Grab. Spicileg. vol. ii. p. 17. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 337 confess the charge, that with respect to the gods in worship among you we are atheists. But we are far otherwise in respect of the most true God, the Father of righteousness, purity, and every virtue, a God infinitely removed from the least mixture or spot of '.vil: Him, and his only begotten SON, together with i he SPIRIT, who spake by the prophets, we worship and adore : and our way of worshiping is in spirit and in truth 63 ." iRENjEus treats very forcibly and fully respecting the Deity of Christ; but I shall only extract two passages. After remarking that the Son of God, and Word of the Father, became man that he might "give salvation to his own creature," he proceeds thus : " Therefore, as I said before, he united man to God. For if it were not man that should overcome the adversary of man, the enemy would not have been rightly vanquished : and, on the other hand, if it were not God to give the sal- vation, we could not be firmly possessed of it. Besides, if man had not been united to God, he could never have been partaker of incorruption. So it was neces- sary that a mediator between God and man should bring both together into amity and concord by his own proximity to both, that so he might present man to God, and notify God to man 69 ." The same Father, when speaking of the miracles which were wrought in his time, assures us they were effected "not by enchant- ments, or by invocation of angels, but by calling on the name of Jesus Christ" This, by the way, is farther manifest from the prayer for the Energumens, in the eighth book of the Apostolical Constitutions, which is 68 Just. Apol. ii. 6. See also Dial, cum Tryp. 17, and 28, where Justin illustrates the generation of the Son of God, by a refe- rence " to fire, which, without diminution of its substance, kindles another." " God of God, as fire of fire." 69 Irenaens, iii. c. 18 ; 1. ii. c. 55. It may not be amiss to add that Irenaeus contends, in lib. iv. cap. 52, "that they who make Christ the Son of Joseph attain neither remission of sins, nor the adoption of the sons of God, nor so much as the right of a blessed resurrec- tion." This is also testified by Feuardentius. Z 338 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. directed personally to Christ under the title of " the only begotten God." ATHENAGORAS, who flourished in the second century, speaks of Christians as " men that made small account of the present life, but were intent only upon contem- plating God, and knowing his Word, who is from him ; what union the Son has with the Father, what commu- nion the Father has with the Son; what the Spirit is, and what the union and distinction are of such so united, the Spirit, the Son, and the Father 70 ." TERTULLIAN understood the phrase Son of God as applied to Christ to mean the same as God of God; as is obvious from many parts of his writings 71 . There is still extant a creed of his, which runs thus : " We believe in one God ; but under this dispensation, which we call the economy, that the one God hath a Son, ivhich is his Word, ivho proceeded from him, and by whom all things loere made. He was sent from the Father to the Virgin, and was born of her both God and man, Son of man and Son of God who afterwards, according to his pro- mise, sent from the Father the Holy Ghost, the Com- forter, the Sanetifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This is the rule which has come down to us from the beginning of the Gospel 1 ' 2 . And again, "What is it that the Gospel has done, what is the substance of the New Testament, extending the Law and the Prophets as far as John, if, from thenceforwards, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, are not believed to make one God 73 ?" 70 Athenag. Legat. 1. xi. p. 46. Ed. Ox. 71 See especially Tertul. Apol. c. 21. 72 Tert. adv. Prax. c. 2, p. 5, 6. Welchman Ed. 73 Tert. adv. Prax. c. 31, p. 102. The Collection of Creeds and Doxologies given by Binghani, aud indeed many of those that are drawn together by Wbiston, furnish ample proof of the early preva- lence of this momentous truth. So, agaiu, many of the early hymns. One of these, composed in the second century, has been transferred into the Liturgy of the Church of England. It begins with " Glory be to God on High !" and occurs just before the benediction in the Communion service. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 339 ORIGEN, also, in his writings against Celsus, fur- nishes many assertions which are unequivocal and de- cisive. Thus, he affirms: first, that Christ was the uncreated Son of God : secondly, that the Maker of the world is to be worshiped : thirdly, that Christ is the Maker of the world. He maintains a precise distinc- tion between creatures and their Creator; and he brings them together into comparison as to the respect that is due to them. He next says that we ought not to wor- ship any creatures, but only the Creator: that we can only lift up our eyes to the Creator of all the magni- ficence of nature to see whom we ought to admire, serve, and adore. Then he proclaims Jesus Christ as the Creator of the Universe; that God working with him said, at the Creation, " Let there be light; let us make man." Nay, he is yet more distinct in the state- ment of his opinions. He distinguishes between the Divine and human natures of Jesus Christ, and refers the necessity of their union to the required efficacy of the sacrifice or atonement. He says that the Father is indeed eminently God ; but that the worship of the Son is not an inferior but a Divine worship : he applies the same expression to the adoration of Jesus Christ by the Magi, that he does to the worship of God ; he speaks of the Father and the Son being jointly wor- shiped as one God ; he admits the worship of the Son in his distinct individual character; attributing to him immutability, omnipresence, and other qualities which are characteristic only of the Most High ; and calling him the Eternal Word, the Son, and Power of the Eter- nal God" 14 . CYPRIAN, when arguing against the invalidity of heretical baptisms, inquires how the subject of such baptism can become the temple of God, saying, " If 74 See Mr. F. Cunningham's Hulsean Prize Essay on the Books of Origen against Celsus, p. 40, 41. See also for some striking pas- sages, Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicen. sec. ii. cap. 9; to which I may also add here, that even Celsus concedes that the true Messiah was to be the Son of God. 340 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. he be thereby made the temple of God, I would ask of what Divine person is it ? Is it of God the Creator ? He could not be so, if he believed not in him. Is it of Christ? Neither can he be his temple, while he denies Christ to be God! Is it then of the Holy Spirit? But since the three are one, how can the Holy Spirit have friendship with him that is at enmity with either Father or Son 75 ?" This Father abounds with passages in which the Divinity of Christ is asserted. NOVATIAN expresses himself as follows : " If God the Father save none but through God, then no one can be saved by God the Father, who does not confess that Christ is God ; in whom, and by whom, the Father promises to give salvation. Wherefore very justly, whosoever acknowledges him to be God is in the way to be saved by Christ who is God ; and whosoever does not acknowledge him to be God forfeits salvation, be- cause he cannot otherwise have it than in Christ as God'' 6 ." DIONYSIXTS, bishop of Rome, after censuring Mar- cion's tritheistic doctrine as diabolical, says, " Nor are they less to blame, who think the Son a creature, and who suppose the Lord to have come into being, as if he were one of the things that were really made 77 ." His cotemporary, DIONYSIUS of Alexandria (both flourishing about A. D. 259), expressed himself thus: " The Father being eternal, the Son must be eternal too, Light of Light. The names mentioned by me are undivided and inseparable : when I named the Father before I mentioned the Son, I signified the Son in the Father. If any of my false accusers suspect that be- cause I called God creator and former of all things, I made him creator of Christ, let him consider that I before styled him Father, and so the Son was included in him*." The case of this Dionysius of Alexandria evinces very plainly of what great moment the belief of Christ's 75 Cyprian, Ep. 73 ad Jubaian. 76 Novat. c. 12, p. 36. 77 Apud Atlianas. vol. i. p. 231. 78 Dionys. Alex, apud Athanas. de Sententia Dionjsii, p, 254. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 341 Divinity was reckoned in the middle of the third cen- tury. In controversy with the Sabellians, he expressed himself rather unwarily, and thence became suspected of leaning too far towards the opposite extreme, and of holding inadequate notions of the Deity of Christ. Such was the jealousy with which this doctrine was guarded, that the whole Christian world were thrown into alarm on account of the supposed heresy of so eminent a man as this Dionysius. Complaint was brought from Egypt as far as Italy : and though the Bishop of Rome had not at that time any authority over the Bishop of Alexandria, the aged prelate of the latter place made known to the whole world through the medium of the Bishop of Rome, that he never in- tended " the least injury to the Divinity of Christ, or to his consubstantiality ; but himself believed them, as sincerely and fully as any other man could 79 ." That these were not the sentiments of a few indivi- duals, but of the great body of the Christian church in the primitive ages, is evident both from the remarks which precede these quotations, and from the testi- mony of cotemporary heathen authors 80 . In a former letter I laid before you two frequently cited passages from Lucian and Pliny 81 ; from which it appears that the grand crime of the first Christians consisted in singing " hymns to Christ as unto a God." It was for 79 See Waterland on the Trinity, p. 352, Ed. 1800. Consult also (since I have been obliged to omit many quotations from Barnabas, Polycarp, Theopbilus, Clemens Alexandrinus, &c.) for a more full account of Ihe opinions of the Christians of the first three centuries Dr. Priestley, upon the Historical Question of the Belief of the First Ages in our Lord's Divinity," and Mr. Badcock's deservedly cele- brated articles in confutation of Dr. Priestley, in the Monthly Review for 1783. 80 I might adduce the authority of Socinus himself, who assured his disciples that to worship Christ was the ancient and universal practice of saints and martyrs. Ad Matt. Radec. Epist. 3, p. 391. bl See Letter IX. 342 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. their obstinate adherence to this idolatrous worship, as the heathens deemed it, that they were persecuted and brought to martyrdom. Now if this were a calumny, which, if they had not rendered Divine honours to Jesus Christ, it must have been, they would not have rested quietly under it, especially when its consequences were so dreadful. They would have reiterated again and again, " We do not worship Jesus Christ, as you suppose : we celebrate his memory and his virtues, it is true ; but we consider him as merely a creature, and therefore never transfer to him the worship due to God alone." The admirable apologists of Christianity, in the early ages, eagerly seized and refuted every the slightest calumny : yet upon this momentous point, in which, if Jesus Christ had not been God, their conduct would have been most odious and censurable, they attempted no defence. They, who could not be per- suaded to bend to the statue of the Caesars, justified by their silence the accusation of adoring a crucified male- factor. They would not offer incense to idols, but affirmed that " whatever was exalted above the stand- ard of civil worship (or respect) in imitation of the Divine excellency was directly made an idol 82 ; yet they worshiped one who had died ignominiously ; and, confiding in strength which he would impart to them, despised the malice of their enemies, and the wrath of emperors, and cheerfully submitted to the most agoniz- ing sufferings, terminated only by death, rather than attempt to wipe off the reproach of adoring the " male- factor Jesus." Admit that Jesus is " the Christ the son of God," that though " dead he is alive for ever- more," and that he is still " head over all things to the church," " dwelling in all hearts by faith," and ena- bling his faithful disciples "in all things to be more than conquerors through him that loved them 83 ," and the conduct of the martyrs of the primitive times is in- telligible and defensible: deny it, and you reduce them 82 Vide Tert. de Idol. c. 15. Greg. Naz. Or. 38, in Nat. Chris. 63 Rom. viii. 35, 37. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 343 to a level with idiots; and have moreover to account for the remarkable phenomenon of a church whose foundations were laid in error, which was supported by enthusiasm and folly, but opposed by learning, philosophy, and the strongest secular power, being " built up" notwithstanding, and becoming the "joy and rejoicing of the whole earth." Here, then, I beg to close the evidence, not because there is not more to produce, but because I regard the producing of more as totally unnecessary. The Jewish prophets foretold that the Messiah would be " the Mighty God," " God with us/' John the precursor of Jesus was the harbinger " of the Most High," Jesus Christ himself asserted his equality with the Father, his apostles ascribed to him the works and attributes of Deity, the great body of professing Chris- tians in the first three centuries lived and died in the persuasion that he was " one with God," the primi- tive martyrs resigned their lives in attestation of this great truth, and while they suffered " rejoiced in God their Saviour ;" and they derived their conviction from the personal instruction of the apostles, or from the perusal of the word of God. On these grounds we affirm that the doctrine is true. If it were not, it would follow that the most diligent perusers of that book which is given to be " a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our paths 84 ," have lost the truth, while Mahome- tans, who do not read the Bible, have found it: for if Jesus Christ be not God, Mahomet has described his character more correctly than the apostles. This is his language : " They are infidels who declare that God is Christ: Christ the son of Mary is no more than God's envoy. Christians say Christ is the son of God ; how are they infatuated : far be it from God that he should have a Son. Jesus is no other than a servant. O Jesus, son of Mary, dost thou persuade mankind to put thee in the place of God 85 ?" And truly, if he have so done, and be not essentially God, it must follow (though it is 84 Ps. cxix. 105. 8& Sale's Koran, passim. 344 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. a horrid inference) that Mahomet, even Mahomet the impostor, was more faithful, more wise, and more zeal- ous for God's glory than was Jesus Christ himself! ! I cannot, however, pass from the subject before us without entreating you to bear in mind that it is, strictly speaking, fundamental. Different religions are (as was suggested in a preceding letter) distinguished one from another by their having different objects of worship, and proposing different grounds of hope. Considered in this light, the religion of him who admits and him who rejects the Deity of Christ, are as essentially different as the religions of the Jew and the Christian. This is no uncandid remark; but one founded in the nature of things, and justified by the conduct of both parties. If Jesus Christ be a mere man, those who worship him are guilty of idolatry : in that case the Socinians rightly call them idolaters, and, for aught I can see to the contrary, were justifiable upon their own principles in proposing (as they did in the reign of Charles the Second 86 ) to reduce the two 86 I have been called upon to furnish proofs of this singular fact, and feel no hesitation in complying with the requisition. A negotiation uas opened on the part of our English Unitarians, with his Excellency Anieth Ben Aineth, Ambassador of the Emperor of Morocco at the English Court, in order to form an alliance with the Mahometan Prince, for the more effectual propagation of the Unitarian principles. The two Unitarian divines, who undertook this singular treaty, address the Ambassador, and the Mussulmen of his suite, as " votaries and fellow-worshippers of the sole Supreme Deity." They return thanks to God that he hath preserved the Emperor of Morocco, and his subjects, in the excellent knou'h'dye of one only Sovereign God, who hath no distinction, nor plurality of persons : and in many other whole- some doctrines. They say, that they with their pens defend the faith of one Supreme God: and that God raised up Mahomet to do the same with the sword, as a scourye on idolizing Christians. They therefore style themselves the fellow champions with the Mahometans for these truths. They ofl'er their assistance to purge the Koran of certain corruptions and inter- polations, which after the death of Mahomet had crept into his papers, of which the Koran was composed. For of Mahomet they think too hiylily, to suppose that he could be guilty of the many repugnances, DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 345 schemes of Socinianism and Mahometanism into one consistent aggregate. If, on the other hand, Jesus Christ be God incarnate, then " every spirit that con- fesselh that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God ; and every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is not come in the flesh, is not of God :" " whosoever denieth the Son, hath not the Father," while he " that acknow- ledged! the Son hath the Father also:" " he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath which are to be found in the writings that go under his name. This work they declare themselves willing to undertake, for the vindication of Mahomet's ylory. They intimate that the corrections which they would propose would render the Koran more consistent; not with itself only, but with the Gospel of Christ, of which they say Mahomet pretended to be but a preacher. They tell the Ambassador, that the Unitarian Christians form a great and considerable people. To give weight to the assertion, they enumerate the heresiarchs of all ages ic/io have opposed the Trinity, from Paulas SamOsalenis, down to Faus- tus Sociuus, and the leaders of the Polonian fraternity. They cele- brate the modern tribes of Arians, as asserters of the proper unity of God ; and they close the honourable list with the Mahometans thvm- selces. All these, they say, maintain the faith of one God: and " why should we forget to add you, Mahometans, who also consent with us in the belief of one only Supreme Deity ?" Such is the substance of a letter which they presented to the Am- bassador with some Latin manuscripts respecting the differences be- tween Christianity and the Mahometan religion, and containing an ample detail of the Uuitarian tenets. They apply to the Mussulman, as to a person of known discernment in spiritual and sublime matters : and they entreat him to communicate the import of their manuscripts to the consideration of the fittest persons among his countrymen. This singular epistle may be seen entire in Leslie's Socinian Con- troversy discussed. Dr. Horsley, in whose controversial writings with Dr. Priestley this is inserted (Letter 16, page 307, ed. 3), by way of stamping its authenticity, has added a note, in which he says, that in consequence of Dr. Priestley's questioning the veracity of it, he examined the Arch- bishop's library at Lambeth, from whence the copy was originally taken, where he found it in a thin folio, under the mark 673, among the Codices MSfi. Tenixoniani; and entered in the catalogue, under the article tiocinians, by the title of Sijslema Theologies Sociniante. On the preceding leaf are these remarks : " These are the original papers which a cabal of Socinians in London offered to present to the Ambassador of the King of Fez and Morocco, when he was taking leave of England, August 1082. The said Ambassador refused to 346 DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. not life m ;" they are as opposite in their nature as the dead and the living, and it is as impossible for them to unite cordially together in religious worship. The one party contends, and contends naturally, that by wor- shiping a creature he should dishonour God, to whom alone worship is due : the other affirms as naturally, and (as I trust you will now allow) more consistently with the uniform tenour of the Gospel, that, by with- holding worship from the Saviour, he should deny his Divine perfections, dishonour and degrade Him, and thus lose his title to eternal glory. The character the Redeemer now sustains renders this a matter of infinite moment. Jesus has " ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of his Father," " far above all principalities and powers." Here he was our prophet and teacher, and died as our atoning sacrifice; there he is incessantly pleading for his peo- ple; nay, there he both intercedes as our High Priest, and sits and reigns as King ; reigns with inexpressible dignity and glory, rich in power and grandeur, rich in compassion and tenderness, rich in adorable perfec- receive them, after having understood that they concerned religion. The agent of the Socinians was Monsieur Virze. Sir Charles Cot- trell, Knt. Master of the Ceremonies, then present, desired he might have them, which was granted ; and he brought them, and gave them to me, Thomas Tenison, then Vicar of St. Martin's in the Fields, Middlesex." Dr. Horsley adds, by way of farther confirmation, " I do most so- lemnly aver, that I have this day (Jan. 15, 1789), compared the letter to Ametb Ben Ameth, as published by Dr. Leslie, in his Socinian Controversy discussed, with the MS. in the Archbishop's library, and find that the printed copy, with the exception of some trivial typogra- phical errors, which in no way affect the sense, and are such as any reader will discover and correct for himself, is exactly conformable to the MS., without the omission or addition of a single word." 87 1 John, iv. 2, 3 ; ii. 23 ; v. 12. In the first of these passages, the phrase in the flesh either clearly indicates a possibility or capa- bility of other ways of coming, or it is nugatory. If it be not merely- expletive, which is not easily to be admitted, it is, therefore, deci- sively in favour of the orthodox doctrine respecting the person of Christ. The Socinian interpretation of the passage is refuted by Bishop Horsley, Letters, p. 120, and by Abbadie, sect. iii. cap. 2, 10. DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. 347 tions, as the SON OF GOD, the SAVIOUR to the utter- most, the PRINCE OF LIFE. He governs all things in heaven and on earth, that he may defend his Church, adorn her with his Spirit, and procure and accomplish her eternal salvation. But " from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:" " for the Father judgeth no man; but hath given all judgment to his Son, that all may honour the Son AS they honour the. Father 88 . May the contemplation of this great event stimulate us, my friend, sedulously to seek, and hear- tily to embrace, the truth. For, " behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him 89 ." Then will they "say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, even from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand 90 ?" while the meek and humble and upright followers of Jesus, re- joicing that at length " they are indeed becoming like him, for they see him as he is, will exclaim in grateful triumph, " Lo, this is OUR GOD; we have waited for him, and he will save us : this is THE LORD, we have waited for him; we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation 91 !" LETTER XVI. On the Nature of Conversion, and its Necessity. THE subject which I have selected for discussion in the present letter is one of the highest moment, and yet, unfortunately, is one, respecting which the greatest and most lamentable mistakes have prevailed. Some have imagined that religious conversion, or regeneration, is effected by baptism ; so that whoever is baptized is, of necessity, regenerated. This, however, is neither con- sistent with Scripture nor with fact, except in those 88 John, v. 22, 23. w Rev. i. 7. 90 llev. vi. 16, 17. 91 1 John, iii. 2. Is. xxv. 9. 348 ON CONVERSION. very rare instances in which the " baptism with water," and that " with the Holy Spirit," occur at the same moment. Gibbon and Hume were baptized in their infancy, but lived and died infidels: Simon Magus was baptized, but certainly not regenerated, for he was subsequently declared by an apostle to be " in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity :" and you and I have known some who, though they were baptized when adults, on a profession of faith, afterwards re- lapsed into an open denial of the truth, and a daily neglect of the duties, of Christianity: from which it is evident, that baptism and regeneration are not neces- sarily connected. Others have considered repentance to be regeneration ; but neither is this correct. True repentance often terminates in regeneration, and, in- deed, is commonly connected with it; but it is not the thing itself. Others, again, regard reformation and regeneration as synonymous; but this notion is as incorrect as either of the former. Regeneration may accompany baptism, repentance, or reformation ; but it is more than either of them. Saul became " another man," without becoming a new man : Ahab " humbled himself," yet became not truly humble: many repent of some great iniquity, but relapse again into evil courses : and some reform their conduct, because the state of their health, or perhaps the monitions of con- science, lead them so to reform; though they still re- main ignorant of "the one thing needful," and have hearts as unimpressed as the " unwedgeable and gnarled oak." To guard you against these and other erroneous views of conversion, to w hich your attention may sometimes be called, I shall endeavour to describe it concisely as it is portrayed in Scripture, our only unerring guide with respect to this and every other Christian doctrine. And here you cannot fail to remark, for it must be evident to every impartial reader of the word of God, that the mutation, which we are now to contempla ( e, can neither be slight, nor transient, nor, in general, ON CONVERSION. 349 slow. In ihe principal texts, where it is delineated, it seems either named or characterised in reference to one or other of two modes or circumstances of change, both of which are important and usually rapid, compared with the corresponding duration of existence: these are conversion and regeneration; the one indicating fre- quently fi turning from one thing towards another, and in theology, according to Dr. Johnson's definition, " a change from a state of reprobation to a state of grace ;" and the other, a new creation, or a new birth ; or, ac- cording to the same lexicographer, " birth by grace to a Christian life." The selection and classification of a very few texts will show that the two general terms I have just mentioned are not artificially forced into the technology of theologians, but are those which most naturally convey the idea of the change they are chosen to describe. The prophet Jeremiah had manifestly something more in view than a mere nominal passage from one religion to another, when he fancied Ephraim, after bemoaning himself, to pray " Turn thou me, and I shall be turned ; for thou art the Lord my God '." And again, in his faithful exhortation to the Jews "Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings 2 ." More expressive still is the language of Joel " Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful 3 ." The language of our Lord to his disciples was, " Ex- cept ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." " He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath passed from death unto life*." The apostles speak of this change as equally mo- mentous: their divine Master taught them to preach to the Gentiles, that they might " turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto 1 Jer. xxxi. 18. See also Lam. v. 21. 2 Jer. xxv. 5. 3 Joel, ii. 13. 4 Matt, xviii. 3. John, v. 24. 350 ON CONVERSION. God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins by faith. How great must be the transformation from the darkness of ignorance and vice to the light of know- ledge and holiness; how delightful the emancipation from the thraldom of the devil to be placed under the merciful government of God ! They therefore acted under the persuasion that " if any one erred from the truth, and one converted him, that he, which converted the sinner from the error of his way, saved a soul from death; and considered this conversion as a deliverance from the power of darkness, and a translation into the kingdom of God's dear Son 5 ." Among the numerous texts which evince this great change to be no less than an entire renovation of cha- racter, the following deserve notice. " Create in me clean heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit within me 6 ." " I will put a new spirit within them ; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh ; that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them 7 ." "Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God s ." " Born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God 9 ." Though they are " dead," they shall "hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live 10 ." " In Jesus Christ neither circum- cision is any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a a new creation 11 ." " Love one another with a pure heart fer- vently, having been born again not from corruptible seed, but from incorruptible, by that word of God which liveth and remaineth 12 ." "Every one that doeth righ- teousness (habitually) is born of Him 13 ." " Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin" habitually " and loveth and belieceth that Jesus is the Christ, and over- cometh the world H ." " Christ saved us, according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration, and the renova- 5 Acts, xxvi. 18. Jam. v. 19. Col. i. 13. 6 Ps. li. 10. 7 Ezek. xi. 1!), 20. 8 John, iii. 3. 9 John, i. 13. 10 John, v. 25. u Gal. vi. 15. l2 I Pet. i. 23. 13 1 John, ii. 29. 1 John, iii. 9 ; iv. 1 ; v. 1. 4. ON CONVERSION. 351 tion of the Holy Spirit 'V " We are his workmanship, having been created through Christ Jesus to his good works 16 ." " Ye have been instructed to put off the old man, who was corrupt according to deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the Spirit of your mind; and to put on the new man, who is created according to God in righteousness and true holiness 17 ." "Wherefore, if any man be in Christ, there is a. new creation: the old things are passed away, behold all things are become neiv 18 ." " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Wonder not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest its sound, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither itgoeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit 19 ." From these passages it must appear, that the grand transformation we are now contemplating is not ideal: nor does it consist merely in enlightening and con- vincing the understanding, in a change of sentiments, or a change of outward conduct ; though it often in- cludes all these. A man may change his religious opinions, or his outward conduct, without experiencing a change of heart : and, on the other hand, a person may experience a genuine and complete change of heart (and the heart it must never be forgotten is the seat of true religion), without being able to trace the slightest difference in any one article of his creed. Every one knows, that in a certain sense the world is vanity, that he must die, that in the hour of death riches will not profit him, that time is precious, that the portion of it allowed us to prepare for eternity is uncertain and often short, that a death-bed repentance is not an infallible passport to heaven ; and many know that they are sinners, that " Christ Jesus came to save sinners," that there is one and only one, way of salva- tion. Yet though these are known and received as trulhs, they are noifelt as such: they want the Pro- 14 Tit. iii. 5. > 6 Eph. ii. 10. I7 Epli. iv. 2224. 18 -2 Cor. v. 17. 19 Johu, iii. 68. 352 ON CONVERSION. methean fire to give them life and animation ; or, to drop so profane an allusion on so solemn an occasion, they are but as the new-formed body of Adam, before " God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," and need a touch from Him who alone can effectually (whe- ther immediately, or by his own appointed instruments) reach the soul, to render them living, operative, effica- cious sentiments. In regeneration, so much of the light of heaven is let into the soul as enables us to know (or at least to begin to know) ourselves aright, to know God in his most awful and lovely manifestations, to see the enor- mity of sin, the " beauty of holiness," the worth of the Gospel, the " riches of divine grace." It is a light accompanied with warmth and vigour, that produces an internal and permanent change ; a change that is universal, reaching to the heart, and evinced in the life : that renovates the powers of the spirit, dissipates folly, guilt, darkness, and despair, introduces holiness, joy, and hope, and creates in the soul an ardent, un- quenchable desire to enjoy the life-supporting rays of the Sun of Righteousness, to be altogether holy, altogether heavenly, altogether full of affection towards God. This change is rightly called conversion: not (as you have often known it represented) because it converts the subject of it from vivacity to lifelessness, from cheerfulness to gloom, from kindness and affability to churlishness and reserve; but because it converts him " from the error of his way," from the abuse to the proper use of the blessings with which he is surrounded, from a false to a true hope, from indifference to zeal, " from the power of Satan unto G od." It is also as rightly denominated regeneration; for it brings the person who experiences it, not under the influence of the mecha- nical transports of animal nature, or the blind impulses of a heated imagination, or into the delusive paths of enthusiasm ; but into a new state, through the operation of the Spirit of God upon the spiritual part of man. Surely there can be nothing essentially chimerical, no- ON CONVERSION. 353 thing contrary to reason, nothing that is not highly ornamental and infinitely beneficial to our natures, in having the powers of our mind thus changed by energy imparted from God, and having our pursuits directed after such objects as are most worthy the attention and regard of intelligent, accountable, immortal creatures! " To have our apprehensions of Divine and spiritual things enlarged, and to have right conceptions of the most important matters ; to have the stream of our af- fections turned from empty vanities to objects that are proper to excite and fix them ; to have our resolutions set against all sin, and a full purpose formed within us of an immediate reformation and return to God, with a dependence on his grace to help us both to will and to do; to have our labours steadfastly applied to conquer sin, and to promote religion in ourselves and others ; to have our entertainments founded in a reli- gious life, and flowing in upon us from the sweet inter- course we have with God in his word and ordinances, and the delightful conversation that we sometimes have with Christian friends : and, finally, to have our hopes drawn off from earthly things, and fixed upon eternity ! Where is there any thing can be more hon- ourable to us, than thus to be renewed after the image of him that created us, and to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness? And where is any thing that can be more desirable than thus to have the darkness of our understandings cured, and the disorders rectified, that sin had brought upon our nature? Who is there that is so insensible of his depravity, as that he would not long for such a happy change? Or who is there that knows how ex- cellent a work it is to be transformed by the renewing of the mind, that would not with the' greatest thankfulness adore the riches of Divine grace, if it appear that he is thus become a new creature, that old things are passed away, and all things are become new 20 f" That such improvements of character often have 20 Doddridge's Sermons on Regeneration. A A 354 ON CONVERSION. occurred, and are often taking place now, cannot be denied by any philosophic observer of human nature : to disregard them, or to neglect an investigation of their cause, is to neglect one of the most interesting and remarkable classes of facts observable amongst mankind. Who has not either heard of, or witnessed the most extraordinary changes of conduct, produced through the apparent influence (to say the least) of religious motives; I say nothing here of the three thou- sand converted in one day at the feast of Pentecost, of the conversion of St. Paul and others, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, because those are usually ascribed to the miraculous and extraordinary influences of the Holy Spirit in the apostolic times. But I may call your attention to matters of more recent occurrence. You have witnessed instances of men running eagerly the career of folly and dissipation, who have been suddenly arrested, and changed from " lovers of plea- sure to lovers of God." You have known others who have devoted themselves early to the military profession, who literally knew no fear, who have spent their lives in the pursuit of glory, who have approached the verge of life full of scars and full of honours, still panting after " glory, honour, and immortality," but thinking nothing of "eternal life;" till touched by an irresisti- ble hand, they have been transformed from good sol- diers to " good soldiers of Jesus Christ," have buckled on " the armour of God," " fought the good fight of faith," and, following "the Captain of their salvation," have obtained " the victory," and been rewarded with unfading laurels. Others again, you have known, who have been strong and high-minded, professing never to be subdued but by the force of argument, and dexter- ously evading an argument when it was forcible, if it were calculated to expose the sophistry of " free think- ing" (as it is called), or to exhibit the reasonableness and advantages of being pious : you have seen them increase in the dexterity of unbelief, and in callousness to moral impressson, year after year, ON CONVERSION. 355 " Gleaning the blunted shafts that have recoil'd, Aiming them at the shield of truth again:" and when a band of them has gone to church for the laudable purpose of quizzing, or of' staring out of countenance, some preacher of rather more than usual energy and zeal, have known one of this band pierced by " a dart from the archer," convinced that religion is the "one thing needful," and, though he came " to scoff, remaining to pray." Recollect too, the recorded conversion of Cecilius (so finely described in the Octavius of Minutius Felix) in the early ages of the church : and those of Lord Roches- ter, of Colonel Gardiner, of Mr. Newton, and Mr. Scott, in later times; and contemplate them as matters of fact. Recollect, again, the memorable advice given by the late Dr. Price to Lord Shelburne, the father the present Marquis of Lansdowne. That nobleman inquired of the philosophic doctor what would be the best means of reforming some profligate, idle, worthless fellows, who were employed on one of his estates; and was recommended to " introduce a zealous methodist preacher among them." Here the reasoning was from a fact, and that no other than the preaching of Whit- field and Wesley among the Kingswood Colliers. " These were men who required not only to be Chris- tianized, but humanized. It was a mighty mass of de- formity, without shape or order : and it was moulded into the human form ; nay, more, it received the im- press of the Divine image, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of these laborious minis- ters. The world will not easily forget the transformation : when men, who scarcely had any thing about them human but their external configuration, changed their very nature; when the ferocious became softened, and the profane exemplary for the simplicity of holiness : and when the tears chased each other down their dark cheeks as they listened to the declarations of a Savi- our's love, while the total alteration of their life and manners bore no resemblance to ' the morning cloud 356 ON CONVERSION. and the early clew which passeth away 21 .'" Now either this is real regeneration, the genuine operation of the Spirit of God, or it is an effect without a cause, or at least without any cause even speciously assignable ; we affirm, on the authority of Scripture, that it is the former, and thus assign an adequate cause of this grand and durable effect: our opponents take the con- trary alternative, and yet have the modesty to accuse us of enthusiasm. But if enthusiasm be a disease which is indicated by " overlooking the relation which subsists between ends and means, by counting upon casualties instead of contemplating the stated order of events, and by hoping to realize the most momentous projects without any -means at all, or by means totally inadequate to the effect," it will not be difficult for any one to ascertain whether we or our adversaries are most deeply tainted by it. Perhaps it may not be uninstructive for us to fix our attention upon the leading particulars of some remark- able and well authenticated instance of conversion ; and to this end allow me to select that of the Earl of Ro- chester, to which I adverted in my Letter on Prophecy 22 . In one respect it is doubtless defective, being void of evidence of the permanency of the change; and in that respect the examples of Colonel Gardiner, Mr. Newton, and Mr. Scott, have a decided advantage ; but in these last-mentioned cases, the historians may by some be deemed suspicious witnesses, on account of the theo- logical sentiments they supported ; I therefore have chosen the instance which was thought worthy the at- tention of Bishop Burnet, a writer whom no candid reader will accuse of any the least proneness to fana- ticism. Lord Rochester was distinguished through the active part of his life as a great wit, and a great profligate, an open and unwearied advocate of atheism. He had, however, especially during the last year of his life, strong convictions of the folly of his conduct; and once, 21 Collyer's Appeal to the Legislature. 22 See page 127. ON CONVERSION. 357 after he had been arguing vehemently against the ex- istence of a Supreme Being, he exclaimed, on retiring from the company, " Good God, that a man who walks upright, who sees the wonderful works of God, and has the use of his reason, that such a one should bid de- fiance to his Creator!" But impressions like these soon wore off: so that it was not till his last illness, which continued about nine weeks, that he appears to have undergone the change which we denominate conver- sion. Then it was, according to his own account, that he first saw the enormity of sin, and learned the value of the atonement on which his hopes of pardon were founded. " Shall the joys of heaven," exclaimed he, "be conferred on me? O mighty Saviour, never, but through thy infinite love and satisfaction ! O never, but by the purchase of thy blood !" The Scriptures, which had so often been the subject of his merriment, now secured his esteem, and impressed delight; for they had spoken to his heart : the seeming absurdities and contradictions vanished ; and he thence- forward not only received the truth, but adhered to it. It appears to have been the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, which was repeatedly read to him by Mr. Parsons, his chaplain, that was principally instrumental in the change. Comparing it with the history of our Saviour's passion, he saw the fulfilment of a prophecy, written several ages before, and which the Jews, who blas- phemed Jesus, still kept in their hand, as an inspired book. He confessed to Bishop Burnet, that, as he heard it read, " he felt an inward force upon him, which did so enlighten his mind and convince him, that he could resist it no longer: for the words had an autho- rity which did shoot like rays or beams in his mind, so that he was not only convinced by the reasonings he had about it, which satisfied his understanding, but by a power which did so effectually constrain him, that he did ever after as firmly believe in his Saviour, as if he had seen him in the clouds." He had this chapter read so often to him, that he 358 ON CONVERSION. " got it by heart, and went through a great part of it," says the Bishop, " in discourse with me, with a sort of heavenly pleasure, giving me his reflections on it : some of which I remember." Who hath believed our report ? "Here," he said, "was foretold the opposi- tion the Gospel was to meet with from such wretches as he was." He hath no form or comeliness ; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. On this he said, "The meanness of his appear- ance and person has made vain and foolish people dis- parage him, because he came not in such a fool's-coat as they delighted in." Many other observations he made which were not noted down ; enlarging on many passages with a degree of heavenly pleasure, and ap- plying various parts of it to his own humiliation and comfort. "O, my God," he would say, "can such a creature as I, who have denied thy being, and con- temned thy power, be accepted by thee? Can there be mercy and pardon for me? Will God own such a wretch as I am ?" His faith now rested on Christ alone for salvation, and often would he entreat God to strengthen it ; cry- ing out, "Lord, I believe: help thou my unbelief." He gave numerous proofs of the depth of his repent- ance: amongst which his earnest desire to check and diminish the evil effects of his former writings, and too uniform example, deserve particular recollection. His abhorrence of sin was now as extraordinary as his for- mer indulgence in it : he said more than once, " he would not commit a known crime to gain a kingdom." " He told me (says the Bishop) he had overcome all his resentments to all the world ; so that he bore ill- will to no person, nor hated any upon personal ac- counts. He. had given a true state of his debts, and had ordered to pay them all, as far as his estate that was not settled could go ; and was confident that, if all that was owing to him were paid to his executors, his creditors would be all satisfied. He said he found his mind now possessed with another sense of things, than ON CONVERSION. 359 ever he had formerly. He did not repine under all his pain, and in one of the sharpest fits he was under while I was with him, he said he did willingly submit ; and looking up to heaven, said, ' God's holy will be done, I bless him for all he does to me,' He said he was con- tented either to die or live, as should please God : and though it was a foolish thing for a man to pretend to choose whether he would die or live, yet he rather wished to die. He knew he could never be so well that life should be comfortable to him. He was confi- dent he should be happy if he died, but he feared if he lived he might relapse : and then said he to me, ' In what a condition shall I be, if I relapse after all this? But (he said) he trusted in the grace and goodness of God, and was resolved to avoid all those temptations, that course of life and company that was likely to en- snare him : and he desired to live on no other account, but that he might by the change of his manners in some way take off the high scandal his former behaviour had given' All these things at several times I had from him ; besides some messages which very well became a dying penitent to some of his former friends, and a charge to publish any thing concerning him that might be a mean to reclaim others. Praying God, that as his life had done much hurt, so his death might do some good. "Having understood all these things from him, and being pressed to give him my opinion plainly about his eternal state, I told him, that though the promises of the Gospel did all depend upon a real change of heart and life, as the indispensable condition upon which they were made, and that it was scarce possible to know certainly whether our hearts are changed, unless it appeared in our lives ; and the repentance of most dying men being like the bowlings of condemned pri- soners for pardon, which flowed from no sense of their crimes, but from the horror of approaching death ; there was little reason to encourage any to hope from such sorrowing: yet certainly if the mind of a sinner, even on a death-bed, be truly renewed and turned to God, so 360 ON CONVERSION. great is his mercy that he will receive him, even in that extremity. He said, ' he was sure his mind was en- tirelv turned ; and though horror had given him his first awakening, yet that was now grown up into a set- tled faith and conversion* 3 .''" This narration naturally suggests several reflections : but these I must leave to be the result of your own meditations; and proceed to answer a few questions which arise out of the subject now before us. 1. Is conversion absolutely necessary? If this question is to be decided by the uniform tenour of Scripture, it must be answered in the affirma- tive. Some persons, I am aware, will tell you, that, however necessary this great change may be among heathens, it is not universally requisite in a Christian country. But this notion is founded -upon a very ina- dequate view of the subject. By nature all are Gen- tiles. We are " by nature the children of wrath, even as others 24 ." Whether men bow down to idols of wood and stone, or are immersed in the cares, or idolizing the amusements of this world, they may be equally distant from God, and equally need an entire change of heart to bring them to his spiritual presence, and restore them to his favour. " Those (says Bishop Tom- line) who call themselves Christians, but attend neither to the doctrines nor to the duties of the Gospel, seem to differ but little, with respect to the point now under consideration, from those to whom the Gospel was first preached. The process in both must be nearly the same 25 ." Both classes are descended from the corrupt stock of Adam, both are influenced by improper motives, both are strangers to " Christ the hope of glory ;" both are " in the bond of iniquity," whether they are conscious 23 See Bishop Burnet's work entitled " Some Passages in the Life and Death of John, Earl of Rochester," a work which cannot be recommended in more appropriate terms than those of Dr. Johnson, who said " the critic ought to read it for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for its piety." i4 EpL ii. 3. 2 Refutation of Calvinism, p. 59. ON CONVERSION. 361 of it or not; and therefore, " must he born again." The necessity for this change is doubtless as extensive as that great moral declension, from which it is the object of the Christian dispensation to restore mankind : so that since "all have sinned," all are " shapen in ini- quity and conceived in sin," all must undergo a total change, or they " cannot see the kingdom of God 26 ." In- deed nothing in religion can be more evident than that " if we be bound on earth, we shall be bound in hea- ven ;" " if we be absolved here, we shall be loosed there:" for, in this sense, " where the tree falleth there it shall lie 27 ." Hence the prophets who preceded our Lord, Jesus Christ himself, and the apostles who were commissioned to succeed him, all agreed in declaring that no unregenerate person shall enter the kingdom of God. The reason of this is obvious, both from the nature of God, and from that of man. " No unclean thing" can be admitted into the presence of God (who "cannot behold iniquity" but with abhorrence), nor into the regions of universal holiness and purity. And on the other hand, if an unregenerate soul could be ad- mitted, heaven would yield it no delight. Such a spirit would be incapable of relishing the happiness of a future world ; for the knowledge there communicated, the enjoyments there experienced, are of a kind it never aspired after. The holiness of heaven, the sight and service of God, and of a glorified Redeemer, the society of angels and of saints made perfect, the "singing the song of Moses and the Lamb," would all be tasteless and insipid, if not disgusting, to one who had been a stranger to the employments and gratifications of reli- gion while on earth. To believe otherwise would be to believe that a man could be regenerate and unregene- rate at the same time. " The happiness of heaven (said good old Richard Baxter) is holiness; and to talk of being happy without it, is as palpable nonsense, as to talk of being well without health, or of being saved without salvation." 26 Rom. v. 12, 14. Ps. li. 5. John, iii. 3. w Eccles. xi. 3. 362 ON CONVERSION. 2dly. Is the exact era of this great renovation of character always assignable? Certainly not; though in many cases it is. In the most momentous business of regeneration " there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all 28 ." Through the blessing of God upon early instruction, the seeds of grace have been sown in the hearts of many during infancy. God or- dains " strength out of the mouths of babes and suck- lings 29 ," and enables them to give evidence at six or seven years of age that their hearts are principally fixed on "Christ and things divine." These, of course, cannot assign the period of their conversion. Others again, and perhaps the greater number of those who have had the benefit of a religious education, are led on by the suasive influence of Divine grace through such insensible gradations that they are unable to specify any remarkable circumstances attending their conver- sion, or to point out the particular time when it occur- red. But others, and especially those who have passed their lives without any internal religion, or those who have allowed themselves in the course and habit of some particular sin, who must undergo in maturity a complete revolution of principle, or a total change of conduct, are commonly roused by some alarming or some afflictive dispensation of Providence, to " flee from the wrath to come," and eagerly inquire " what they must do to be saved 38 ?" To such persons, says Dr. Paley, " Conversion is too momentous an event ever to be forgot. A man might as easily forget his escape from a shipwreck." And though, says good Bishop Taylor, " after the manner of this life our re- collection is imperfect, yet the greatest changes of our state of grace or sin are always present, like capital letters to an aged and dim eye." " It may not be necessary (says Paley again) for a man to speak of his conversion, but he will always think of it with un- 88 1 Cor. X ii. G. Ps. viii. 2. 30 Acts, xvi. 30. ON CONVERSION. 363 bounded thankfulness to the Giver of all grace, the Author of all mercies, spiritual as well as temporal 31 ." 3dly. Is this important change ever sudden? Most, if not all, of the instances of conversion re- corded in the New Testament were sudden. This operation of God on the souls of men was then fre- quently instantaneous, and they were transformed from unbelievers to believers at once : " the Spirit fell on them while they heard the word 32 :" and in consequence of this miraculous effusion, they who had just before professed Judaism or Polytheism, and neither knew nor loved Jesus Christ, at once confessed his name and felt the power of his religion. But many moderns contend that sudden conversions, such as those to which we now advert, were confined to the apostolic times; as if the common operations of the Spirit were not sufficient to produce any rapid change. Yet I conceive it requires but slight reflection, to see that this their opinion comports neither with the declara- tions of Scripture, nor with the usual phenomena of intellect or rules of action. Does not " God work in us both to will and to do" now as well as in the primi- tive limes? Cannot the eyes of our understanding be as effectually and as speedily " enlightened by the Spirit of wisdom" now as then? Was the promise of " bestowing a new Spirit, and taking away the stony heart," confined to the early ages; or is God's arm " shortened," or weakened, that he cannot reach and at once turn our spirits now, as he has done with others before us? And, with regard to operations upon the mind, do men yield to them while the impressions are strong, or do they wait till they become weaker, and then give way? When a man is thoroughly persuaded that the course in which he is persevering is immi- nently dangerous, does he not Immediately quit it? When he is convinced that the road in which he travels is conducting him from the place he wishes to reach, 31 Palev's Posthumous Sermons, pp. 123, 124. Tailor's Holy Living, ch. i. 3. 32 Acts, x. 44. 364 ON CONVERSION. and is besides infested with robbers or beset with diffi- culties, does he not immediately come to a stand ? And if a path be pointed out which is both direct and safe, will he not with cheerfulness and alacrity pursue his journey in that newly-discovered path, and press for- ward to regain the time lost in the wrong road ? Apply this reasoning to religion, and you will perceive that conversion not only mat/ be, but in many cases is neces- sarily, sudden. " Some men (says Tillotson), by an extraordinary power of God's grace upon their hearts, are suddenly changed, and strangely reclaimed from a very wicked and vicious, to a very religious and virtuous, course of life ; and that which others attain by slower degrees, and great conflicts with themselves, before they can gain the upper hand of their lusts, these arrive at 'all of a sudden,' by a mighty revolution wrought in them by the power of God's grace, and, as it were, by a new bias and inclination put upon their souls 33 ." The inclination to deny this seems to have arisen 33 Tillotson's Works, vol. ii. p. 341, fol. ed. While the fourth edition of these Letters was going through the press, I met with the following in Richard Baxter's Directions for Spiritual Peace. " When you are weighing tilings in the balance, you may add grain to grain, and it makes no turning or motion at all, till you come to the very last grain ; and then suddenly that end which was down- ward is turned upward. When you stand at a loss between two highways, not knowing which way to go, as long as you are delibe- rate, you stand still ; all the reasons that come into your mind do not stir you ; but the last reason which resolves you, setteth you in motion. So is it in the change of a sinner's heart and life. He is not changed (but preparing towards it) while he is but deliberating, whether he should choose Christ or the world ? But the last reason that cometh in and determineth his will to Christ, and makes him resolve and enter a firm covenant with Christ, and say, I will have Christ for better or icorse, this maketh the greatest change that ever is made by any work in this world." " For how can there be greater than the turning of a soul from the creature to the Creator? So dis- tant are the terms of this change. After this one turning act Christ h:ith that heart, and the main bent and endeavours of the life, which the world had before. The man hath a new end, a new rale, a new guide, a new master." ON CONVERSION. 365 from the confounding of two very distinct things, rege- neration and sanctification. The former of these is the commencement of spiritual life, the other is spiritual or religious growth : the former is " a passing from death unto life," the latter a " changing from glory to glory ;" and both " by the Spirit of the living God." If this distinction were duly attended to, I think the question would be set at rest. 4thly. May a person always know when he is in a converted state ? Probably not : but he may always with perfect ease ascertain the contrary. If he cherish worldly-minded- ness or an unholy disposition, if he allow himself in the practice of any known sin, if he habitually neglect public worship or private communion with God, if allusions to conversion by others either excite his ridi- cule or provoke his wrath, he need no more waste time to inquire whether his religious state be safe, than to ask whether heavy bodies fall downwards when left to themselves, whether opium is soporific, or ardent spirits productive of intoxication. On the other hand, if, as Paley remarks, " he allow himself in no sin whatever, but, cost what it may, contends against and combats all sin :" if he sedulously cultivate a holy disposition, and " grow in grace, in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ," and in the steady practice of all the relative duties, he may hope that his spiritual life is commenced. Still, as we live in times of much reli- gious delusion and infatuation, let him not be satisfied, let him cherish nothing like assurance, unless he uni- formly feel tenderness of conscience, and a desire to increase his religious attainments. Let him then "ex- amine himself whether he be in the faith." Let him seriously endeavour to ascertain whether he has "eter- nal life wrought in his. heart;" whether he has ever felt a penitent sense and hatred of sin, a sincere and anxious desire to be delivered from it, an ardent love of the Saviour and his salvation, an unreserved deter- mination to obey his commands from the heart; whe- 366 ON CONVERSION. ther he finds any satisfaction of soul in drawing- near to God through a Mediator ; whether he has an increas- ing love to God ; whether he has a rooted aversion to all neglect of duty; whether he has in any measure " overcome the world" as they who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and have put their trust in him ; whether his desires to escape from the miseries of hell, however strong, are weaker than his desires after holi- ness and heaven; whether he is zealous in God's ser- vice, aims at his glory, delights in his presence, and in doing his " will on earth as it is done in heaven ;" whether he can forgive enemies, can sincerely return blessing for cursing ; whether he is anxious not simply to stand but to " run in the way of God's command- ments." In religion there is no standing still; if we are actuated by true religious principles, they will continually impel us forward, and cause us, with Paul, to " press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus 34 ." Be it remembered, then, that true repentance and conversion reduce all holy resolutions to actions, and either thus create religion, or transfer it from the head to the heart, there to reside permanently as an actuating principle. " He that resolves to live well when danger is upon him, or a violent fear, or when the appetites of lust are newly satisfied, or newly served, yet when the temptation conies again, sins again, and then is sor- rowful, and resolves once more against it, and yet falls when the temptation returns, is a vain man, but no true penitent, nor in the state of grace ; and if he chance to die in one of those good modes is very far from sal- vation : for, if it be necessary that we resolve to live well, it is necessary we should do so. For resolution is an imperfect act, a term of relation, and signifies nothing but in order to the actions. It is as a faculty is to the act, as spring to the harvest, as eggs are to birds, as a relative to its correspondent, nothing without it. No man therefore can be in a state of grace and actual 34 Phi), iii. 14. ON CONVERSION. 367 favour by resolutions and holy purposes; these are but the gate portal towards pardon : a HOLY LIFE is the only perfection of repentance, and the firm ground upon i-hich we can cast the anchor of hope in the mercies of God through Jesus Christ 35 ." Know, however, for your encouragement, that " in Christ's temple it is not as in ordinary material build- ings. In these, though the whole frame stand upon the foundation, yet it stands together by the strength uf the parts amongst themselves, and therefore their mutual weakness and failings do prejudice the stability of the whole. But in the Church, the strength of Christ the foundation, is not an immanent, personal, fixed thing; but a derivative and an effused strength, which runs through the whole building. Because the foundation, being a vital foundation, is able to shed forth id transfuse its stability into the whole structure. What- ever the materials are of themselves, though never so frail, yet being once incorporated in the building, they are presently transformed into the nature and firmness of their foundation. To whom coming as unto a living stone, saith St. Peter, ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house: thus noting unto us the transfor- mation and uniformity of the saints with Christ, both in their spiritual nature, and in the firmness and sta- lity of the same." When converted to God " we stand not, like Adam, upon our own bottom, but are branches of such a vine as never withers, members of such a head as never dies ; sharers in such a spirit as cleanseth, healeth, and purifieth the heart; partakers of such promises as are -aled with the oath of God. Since, then, we live not by our own life, but by the life of Christ ; are not led or sealed by our own spirit, but by the spirit of Chrisi ; do not obtain mercy by our own prayers, but by the intercession of Christ ; stand not reconciled in virtue if our endeavours, but by the propitiation wrought by Christ, who ' loved us when we were enemies ;' who is 35 Bishop Taylor's Holy Living, ch. iii. $ 9. 368 ON CONVKRSION. both willing and able to save us to the uttermost, and to preserve his own mercies in us ; to whose office it belongs to take order that none who are given unto him be lost ; undoubtedly that life of Christ in us which is thus underpropped, though it be not privi- leged from temptations, nor from backslidings, yet is an abiding life." " Infinitely, therefore, doth it con- cern the soul of every man to be restless and unsatisfied with any other good thing, till he find himself entitled unto this happy communion with the Life of Christ, which will never fail him 36 ." LETTER XVII. On the Influences of the Spirit. AMONG the several momentous doctrines that are deve- loped in the system of revelation, none seems to have experienced a reception less consistent with the natural order of things, than that of the influence of the Spirit of God upon the mind and conduct of man. This doctrine is so compatible with the dictates of unassisted reason, that several of the heathen philosophers firmly believed it, and unambiguously asserted it. Yet, not- withstanding this, it is doubted by some philosophers residing in Christian countries; and although it is plainly declared in various portions of Scripture, still the only persons, as far as I know, by whom it is posi- tively and unhesitatingly denied and despised, are professing Christians 1 . This singular anomaly in the progress of opinion is often ascribed to the gradual expansion of the mental faculties, occasioned by the constant accumulation of the store of scientific, literary, 36 Reynolds's Three Treatises, p. 454. 1 Persons who thus despise and reject, one by one, the constituents of vital Christianity, may be addressed in the quaint language of an old theologian, " I beseech you, sirs, as you regard the reputation of your reason, tell us, why you will profess a religion which you abhor ' Or, why will you abhor a religion which you profess?" INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 369 and Biblical knowledge ; especially since the era of the reformation, when a new impulse was given to every species of human inquiry. The reason thus assigned, however, though plausible, is not satisfactory. Old sciences have, it is true, been much improved and extended ; and new sciences have often grown with rapidity out of the old stock ; so that truths which in one age have stood almost at the summit of knowledge, have in the next sunk into the mere elements ; or propositions which in one age have been received as irrefragable, have in a succeeding age been exploded as untenable and fallacious. But nothing of this kind can be traced with regard to religious truth. The in- cessant and successful labours of Biblical critics have purged away impurities in existing copies, especially of the New Testament; and, by a careful collation of different manuscripts, have expunged errors and re- moved difficulties ; but they have not added one propo- sition to the repository of revealed knowledge, as it was left by the apostles : nor have they taken one proposition away. The Bible gave the same view of human nature to the Primitive Christians in the early ages, and to the Reformers in the sixteenth century, as it exhibits to us : it pointed out the same method of salvation, and promised like aids of " the same Spirit," to pious persons in all times, and in all places' 2 . This, indeed, is essential to its perfection, and fits it for universality: while the unceasing modifications in human sciences, notwithstanding their gradual augmentation, at once 2 " Whatever then (says Vincentius Lirinensis) was faithfully sown by the Fathers in the church, which is ' the husbandry of God,' ought to be diligently observed and cultivated by the sons : this must flourish and fructify, this must increase and multiply, and be con- tinuall v growing on (retaining its original proportions) to its proper perfection. Succeeding ages may set off, file, and polish, the ancient Doctrines of this Divine Philosophy ; but they must never change, never retrench, or mutilate any thing: the doctrines may admit of more evidence, clearness, and distinction, but they must be inviolably preserved in their full, entire, primitive perfection." Commonitory, cap. 29. B B 370 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. prove their imperfection, and suggest the strong proba- bility that such imperfection will never be completely removed in the present state of existence. But, without pursuing farther this train of reflection, permit me now to lay before you the opinions of philosophic heathens relative to the subject of Divine influences. That they thought the Deity the Inspirer of pure thoughts and holy conduct, as well as the Author of animal life, will, I conceive, be sufficiently obvious from the few quotations I shall here select. XEXOPHON represents Cyrus, with his dying breath, " as humbly ascribing it to a Divine influence on his mind, that he had been taught to acknowledge the care of Providence, and to bear his prosperity with a becoming moderation 3 ." PLATO describes Socrates as declaring that " wheresoever virtue comes, it is appa- rently the fruit of a Divine dispensation 4 ." And PLATO, XENOPHON, ANTISTHEISES, and PLUTARCH tes- tify, that Socrates publicly declared before his judges, that he was accompanied by an invisible conductor, or attendant spirit, whose frequent interposition stopped him in the commission of evil. Plato also himself observes, that " virtue is not to be taught but by Divine assistance 5 ." And in his sixth book, De Republica, he affirms that, " if any man escape the temptations of life, and behave himself as becomes a worthy member of society, he has reason to own that it is God who saves him 6 ." SIIMPLICICS has a prayer " to God, as the Father and Guide of reason, so to co-operate with us, as to purge us from all carnal and brutish affections, that we may be enabled to act according to the dictates of reason, and to attain to the true knowledge of himself 7 ." MAXIMUS TYRIUS argues " that if skill in the professions and sciences is insinuated into men's minds by a Divine influence, we can much less imagine that a thing so 3 Xen. Cyropsed. lib. viii. cap. 7, i. 4 Plat. Men. ad. fin. p. 428. 5 Epinom. p. 1014. 6 De Repub. lib. vi. p. 077, Ed. Francof. 1002. 7 Simplic. in Epictet. ad (in. INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 371 much more excellent as virtue is, can be the work of any mortal art ; for the notion must be very strange to think that God is liberal and free in matters of less moment, and sparing in the greatest." And in the same discourse he remarks that " even the best disposed minds, as they are seated in the midst between the highest virtue and extreme wickedness, need the assist- ance of God lo incline and lead them to the better side 8 ." TULLY, in a passage quoted in the third letter of this series, declares that " No man was ever truly great without some divine influence 9 ." And SENECA, when he is speaking of a resemblance to the Deity in charac- ter, ascribes it to his influence upon the mind : " Are you surprised (says he) that man should approach to the Gods P It is God that comes to men : nay, which is yet more, he enters into them : for no mind becomes virtuous, but by his assistance 10 ." 8 Max. Tyr. Dissert, xxii. 9 See p. 40. 10 Senec. Epistol. Ixxiii. Among modern nations destitute of the light of Christianity, the doctrine that wisdom of various kinds is imparted by spiritual teaching, is frequently avowed. Thus one of the answers of a Cliicasaw to Wesley indicates clearly that the tra- dition of Divine influence had reached that people : " There are but a few (says he) whom the Beloved one chooses from a child, and is in them, and takes care of them, and teaches them. They know these things [religious matters], and our old men practise, therefore they know; but I do not practise, therefore I know but little." So again, the following translation of a letter " sent with a present from the Chief of the five Indian Nations to Dr. Jenner," furnishes pleasing evidence to the same effect: " Our Father has delivered unto us the book you sent us how to use the discovery which the Great Spirit made to you, whereby the small-pox, that fatal enemy of our tribes, may be driven from the earth. We have deposited your book in the hands of the man of skill, whom our Great Father employs to attend lis when sick or wounded. " We shall not fail to teach onr children to speak the name of Jenner, and to thank the Great Spirit for bestowing upon him so much wisdom and so much benevolence. " We send with this a belt and string of Wampum, in token of our acceptance of your precious gift; and we beseech the Great Spirit lo take care of you in this world and in the hind of spirits. " Signed by the Chiefs of the Mohawk, Ouaudaga, Senega, Oneidn, and Cayauga nations." 372 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. Numerous passages might easily be extracted from the Christian apologists and other writers in the first four centuries, to elucidate and confirm the same great truth 11 . But, as I wish to reduce this branch of our inquiry into as narrow compass as possible, you will prefer my laying before you the sentiments of the venerable English Reformers, as they are represented in the Homilies; that their notions on this point were sufficiently clear and decisive will appear from a quo- tation or two. " The charity wherewith we love our brethren (say they) is verily God's work in us. If after our fall we repent, it is by him that we repent, which reached forth his merciful hand to raise us up. If we have any will to rise, it is he that preventeth our will, and disposeth us thereto. If after contrition we feel our consciences at peace with God through remis- sion of our sin, and so be reconciled again to his favour, and hope to be his children and inheritors of everlast- ing life; who worketh these great miracles in us? Our worthiness, our deservings, our wits, our virtue? Nay, verily, St. Paul will not suffer flesh and clay to presume to such arrogancy, and therefore saith, All is of God." " Without his lively and secret inspiration can we not once so much as speak the name of our Mediator, as St. Paul plainly testifieth ; no man can once name our Lord Jesus Christ, but in the Holy Ghost. Much less should we able to believe and know those great myste- ries, that be opened to us by Christ." " Very liberal and gentle is the Spirit of Wisdom. In his power shall we have sufficient ability to know our duty to God, in him shall we be comforted and encouraged to walk in 'our duty, in him shall we be meet vessels to receive the grace of Almighty God ; for it is he that purgeth and purifieth the mind by his secret working. 11 For a brief but judicious summary of the sentiments of those individuals in every age from the Fathers down to the Reformation, who were either famous for piety, or instruments of the several minuter changes which led to the Reformation itself, see the Edin- burgh Christian Instructor, vol. v. pp. 325 328. INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 373 He lighteneth the heart to conceive worthy thoughts of Almighty God, he sitteth in the tongue of man to stir him to speak his honour : no language is hid from him, for he hath the knowledge of all speech, he only minis- tereth spiritual strength to the powers of our soul and body. To hold the way which God hath prepared for us to walk rightly in our journey, we must acknow- ledge that it is the power of his Spirit which helpeth our infirmity. That we may boldly come in prayer, and call upon Almighty God as our Father, it is by this Holy Spirit, which maketh intercession for us with continual sighs. If any gift we have wherewith we may work to the glory of God, and profit of our neigh- bour, all is wrought by his own and self-same Spirit, which maketh his distributions peculiar to every man as he will a ." Fix your thoughts for a moment upon the mass of opposition and aversion which must be removed before Christian principles get possession of the heart, and you will soon perceive that nothing short of Divine energy can effectually subdue it. Within us, there are the opposition of darkness, and blindness, and igno- rance, only to be dispelled by heavenly light ; the aversion of error and prejudice, and of overweening self-esteem ; a love of sin, to be transformed into hatred ; a prevailing sensuality, to be mortified and subdued : all these engrafted upon the trunk of custom, a baneful tree, so deeply rooted in the corruptions of our nature that nothing short of supernatural efforts can remove it from the soil in which it has thriven ever since the fall of man. Without us, there are to be overcome, the allurements and fascinations of the world, the scoffs and taunts of men given up to the world, and, where no other persecution prevails, there may still be experienced the persecution of the tongue, and, that which is peculiarly trying to an upright man, the misinterpretation' of motives and principles of 12 Homily for Rogation Week, 3d part, pp. 412414. Oxf. ed. 1810. 374 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. action ; and all this, be it not forgotten, aided by the suggestions of the most intellectual of fallen beings, the great enemy of souls, " the Prince of the Power of the Air." What besides the Spirit of God can neutralize such malignant agency, can subdue such powerful internal and external opposition? These are no new notions engendered, as you may be told, in the hot-bed of enthusiasm ; but are con- sistent with the sentiments of a very great majority of religious writers from the Reformation down to the present time. Even Bishop Tomline, though his Ian. guage on several religious topics indicates a strange aversion to the notions current amongst the majority of pious men, yields his testimony in favour of the doctrine now in contemplation. In explaining the words of the Liturgy, " O God, because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing, without thou grant us the help of thy grace," &c. his Lordship says, " I have only to observe that the ' good thing' here mentioned must mean good in the sight of God : such an action our weak and unassisted nature will unquestionably not allow us to perform." To the same purpose he observes in another place, "The human mind is so weakened and vitiated by the sin of our first parents, that we cannot by our own natural strength prepare it, or put it into a proper state for the reception of a wiring faith, or for the performance of the spiritual worship required in the Gospel; this mental purification cannot be effected without divine assistance." Once more : " The grace of God prevents us Christians, that is, it goes before, it gives the Jirst spring and rise to our endeavours, that we may have a good will : and when this good will is thus excited, the grace of God does not desert us, but it works with us when we have that good will." And again : " It is acknowledged that man has not the disposition, and con- sequently not the ability, to do what in the sight of God is good, till he is influenced by the Spirit of God l3 ." 13 Tomline's Refutation of Calvinism, pp. 54, 60, 61, 67, 68. INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 375 Christians then ascribe, or ought to ascribe, every intellectual, moral, and spiritual attainment to God. And when we speak of the ordinary influences of the Spirit of God, we mean to impute to the operation of that Spirit our turning- from vanity, folly, or thought- lessness unto God, -our sanctification, all the actions of our Christian course, our constancy and perseverance, all particular graces and virtues which we seek at his hands, our adoption, our access to God and assistance in prayer, our " joy and peace in believ- ing," our support in trials and afflictions, and deli- verance from temptations, our continual progress in holiness ; and we affirm that these gifts are not offered to here and there a favoured individual, but to all sin- cere Christians in every age of the church; for, when speaking of the promise of the Spirit, the declaration of PETER was as universal as language could make it " the promise is to you and to your children; and to all that are afar off' (either in point of space or of time), to as many as the Lord our God shall call"." That this opinion is compatible with the uniform tenour of Scripture will be made evident by a few quotations set down promiscuously, as they occur to my mind. " No man, speaking by the Spirit of God, saith 'Jesus is accursed:' and no man can say ' Jesus is the Lord' but by the Holy Spirit. There are differences of gifts, but it is the same Spirit is ." "We have not received the spirit of the world, but that which is from God, that we may know the things which haVe been freely given to us of God l6 ." "Such were some of you ; but ye have been washed, ye have been sanctified, ye have been justified, by the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God a ." " Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit ; since the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man have not Hie Spirit of Christ he is none of his." " If through the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For, as many as are 14 Acts, ii. 39. 1 Cor. xii. 3, 4. See also ver. 6. 16 1 Cor. ii. 12. " 1 Cor, TI. 11. 376 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons God." " The Spirit also helpeth our weaknesses; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought ; but the Spirit itself intercedeth for us in groans which cannot be ex- pressed 18 :" or, as Doddridge renders the latter clause, " the Spirit itself manages affairs for us with unuttera- ble groanings." " The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, in believing ; that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." " That the Gen- tiles might be made an acceptable offering, being sanc- tified by the Spirit 19 ." " He who hath begun a good work in you, \\i\\jinish it until the day of Jesus Christ 20 ." " They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their .strength 21 ." " My gracious assistance is sufficient for thee ; for my power is made perfect in weakness 22 ." " He saved us, not by works of justification which we did, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration, even the renovation of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour 23 ." "That good doctrine which is committed to thy trust, keep, through the Holy Spirit which dwell- eth in us 24 ." " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty 25 ." " The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which hath been given us 26 ." " That ye may be strengthened ivith might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that being rooted and grounded in love, ye may know the surpassing love of the knowledge of Christ." " For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance 27 ." " Unless a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king- dom of God." " He that abideth in me and I in him, he beareth much fruit; but, severed from me,*ye can do nothing" " Nevertheless, it is expedient for you that 18 Rom. Tiii. 9, 14, 26. Dodd. in loo. 19 Rom. xv. 13, 16. 20 Phil. i. 6. 2l i s . x i. 3 lt 22 2 Cor. xii. 9. 23 Tit. iii. 5. * 4 2 Tim. i. 14. - s 2 Cor. iii. 17. 26 Rom. v. 5. Eph. iii. 16, 18, 19. Gal. v. 22, INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 377 I go away ; for, if I go not away, the Advocate (Com- forter, Monitor, or Instructor, YlapaKXijTOf,) will not come unto you ; but if I go I will send him unto you. And when he is come he will convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. When he cometh, even the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth 28 ." " We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit also, which God hath given to those that obey him 29 ." "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bearing witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God 30 ." " In whom ye, having believed, have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of pro- mise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the purchased possession." "Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father 31 ." "I can do all things through him who strengtheneth me 3 ' 2 ." " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God ; and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? If any man corrupt the temple of God, God will corrupt him ; for the tem- ple of God is holy, which temple ye are." " Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God 33 ?" There- fore, " offend (or grieve) not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye have been sealed to the day of redemption." But, " Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling : for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do (i. e. influences your desires and endea- vours), of his benevolence 34 ." Such is the language of Scripture; from which it is manifest that it is not a mark of ignorant enthusiasm, but of pious reliance upon the Divine promise, to ex- pect the assistances of the Spirit of God, when they are humbly sought in the way of his appointment. The mode in which these influences are communicated 28 John, iii. 5 ; xv. 5 ; xvi. 7, 8, 13. Acts, v. 32. 30 Rom. viii. 15, 16. al Eph. i. 13, 14 ; ii. 18. 32 Phil. iv. 13. 33 1 Cor. iii. 16 ; vi. 19. 34 Eph. iv. 30. Phil. ii. 12, 13. 378 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. may be indefinitely diversified, but the effect will uni- formly be the improvement of the religious character, a more complete emancipation from the domination of passions, from the slavery of sin ; or, to express the continued effect in Scripture phraseology, it will be " growth in grace " In accomplishing this, the whole circle of means and instruments, animate and inani- mate, by which we are circumscribed, is within the reach of God, and at his command. Sometimes he has recourse to alarming dispensations of his Providence, which awaken a sense of the fluctuating nature of all terrestrial sources of enjoyment, teach us our depend- ance upon Him, and lead us to repose our enlire con- fidence on Him alone. At other times he employs the conversations, the arguments, perhaps the faithful remonstrances, of Christian friends, to stimulate us in the path of duty, and point us to " the fountain of living waters." At others, and this most frequently, he makes use of " the word of truth," either read or preached : this he has assured us he will " render lively and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing, even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirt, and to be a cliscerner of the thoughts and inten- tions of the heart 33 ;" and thus, by putting life into it, cause it by an irresistible energy to communicate spi- ritual life to our souls. Sometimes he operates upon us by the recollection of past occurrences, and " while we are thus musing, the fire of divine love burns" within us 36 . On such occasions He can awaken a dormant idea which long lay neglected in the memory, can secretly attract the attention of the mind to it, can enable, nay compel, us to trace its various relations, can throw a lustre upon things which were obscure, place those which seemed remote immediately before our mental eye, suspend the operation of secular ob- jects, dispel the clouds of prejudice, impart an unusual power to what was before considered as trifling or unworthy present regard, convince us fully and practi- 3i Heb. iv. 12. 36 Ps. xxxix. 3. INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 379 cally of the vanity of all enjoyments except those which are consecrated by religion, and thus effectually lead us to " fix our affections on things above." In these, and numerous other ways, there may be a posi- tive operation of the Spirit of God upon men's minds, though they may be utterly unconscious of it. His energy is not the less real, because it is silent, secret, and unperceived ; for here, as well as in the manage- ment of the natural world, " Alone He works in all, yet He alone Seems not to work." THOMSON. To ridicule, disbelieve, and deny all this, has of late been reckoned an indication of a powerful and philo- sophic mind ; yet it requires but a cursory examina- tion to perceive that such is a spurious criterion of true elevation either of sentiment or character ; and to affirm, on the contrary, that, with only our present knowledge of human intellect and of Divine power, the denial of spiritual influences is as unphilosophical as it is im- pious. No person can look into the world with the eyes of a philosopher, and not soon ascertain that the grand theatre of phenomena which lies before him is natu- rally subdivided into two great classes of scenery, the one exhibiting constrained, the other voluntary, mo- tion ; the former characteristic of matter, the latter as clearly indicating something perfectly distinct from matter, and possessing totally different qualities. " Pul- verize matter (says Saurin), give it all the different forms of which it is susceptible, elevate it to Us highest degree of attainment, make it vast and immense, mo- derate or small, luminous or obscure, opaque or trans- parent, there will never result any thing but figures; and never will you be able by all these combinations or divisions to produce one single sentiment, one sin- gle thought." The reason is obvious : a substance compounded of innumerable parts, which every one acknowledges matter to be, cannot be the subject of an 380 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. individual consciousness, the seat of which must be a simple and undivided substance; as the great Dr. Clarke has long ago irrefragably shown. Intellect and voli- tion are of a quite different nature from corporeal figure or motion, and must reside in, or emanate from, a dif- ferent kind of being, a kind which, to distinguish it from matter, is called spirit or mind. Of these, the one is necessarily inert, the other essentially active. The one is characterised by want of animation, life, and even motion, except as it is urged by something ab extra; the other is living, energetic, self-moving, and possessed of power to move other things. - We often fancy, it is true, that matter moves matter ; but this, strictly speaking, is not correct. When one wheel or lever in a system of machinery communicates mo- tion to another, it can at most only communicate what it has received, and if you trace the connexion of the mechanism, you will at length arrive at a first mover, which first mover is, in fact, spiritual. If, for example, it be an animal, it is evidently the spiritual part of that animal from whence the motion originally springs. If, otherwise, it be the descent of a weight, or the fall of water, or the force of a current of air, or the expan- sive force of steam, the action must ultimately be referred to what are termed powers of nature, that is, to gravitation or elasticity ; and these, it is now well known, cannot be explained by any allusion to mate- rial principles, but to the indesinent operation of the Great Spirit, in whom we live, and move, and have our being the finger of God touching and urging the various subordinate springs, which in their turn move the several parts of the universe. Thus God acts in all places, in all times, and upon all persons. The whole material world, were it not for his Spirit, would be inanimate and inactive w : all motion is derived 37 See Baxter on the Soul, $ 2, in which that acute metaphysician proves the necessity of an immaterial mover in all spontaneous mo- tions ; and Professor Vince's Essay on the Cause of Gravitation, in which he assigns many cogent reasons for believing that the Deily INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 381 either from his energy, or from that of spirits which he animates ; and it is next to certain that the only primary action is that of spirit, and the most direct and imme- diate that of spirit upon spirit. All consistent Theists allow that God is every where present by his essence, and as Bishop Taylor has most exquisitely expressed it, " God is every where present by his power. He rolls the orbs of heaven with his hand, he fixes the earth in its place with his foot, he guides all the creatures with his eye, and refreshers them with his influence : he makes the powers of hell to shake with his terrors, and binds the devils with his word, and throws them out with his command, and sends the angels on embassies with his decrees; he hardens the joints of infants, and confirms the bones when they are secretly fashioned. He it is that assists at the numerous productions of fishes; and there is not one hollowness at the bottom of the sea, but he shows himself to be Lord of it, by sustaining there the creatures that come to dwell in it ; and in the wilder- ness the bittern and the stork, the dragon and the satyr, the unicorn and the elk, live upon his provi- sions, and revere his power, and feel the force of his Almightiness." If, then, the moral well-being of the universe be of greater importance than its mere existence ; and that it is so is evident from the fact, that the continuance of the earth is solely rendered subservient to " the gathering in of the saints," after which " the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be greatly heated and dissolved 38 ;" if it be irrecon- cileable with the idea of a wise governor to imagine that he will incessantly attend to minor matters, and as habitually disregard concerns of greater moment, then may we adopt the succeeding language of the " in bis government does not act by material instruments, but that the whole is conducted by his more immediate agency, without the intervention of material canses." 38 Is. Ixv. 8. Malt. v. 13 ; xxiv. 22, 31. 2 Pet. iii. 10. 382 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. same admirable writer, and say, that " God is especially present in the hearts of his people by his Holy Spirit : and indeed the hearts of holy men are temples in the truth of things, and in type and shadow they are heaven itself. For God reigns in the hearts of his servants : there is his kingdom. The energy of grace hath sub- dued all his enemies: there is his power. They servt him night and day, and give him thanks and praise : that is his glory. This is the religion and worship of God in the temple. The temple itself is the heart of man ; Christ is the High Priest, who from thence sends up the incense of prayers, and joins them to his own intercession, and presents all together to his Father; and the Holy Ghost, by his dwelling there, hath also consecrated it into a temple ; and God dwells in our hearts by failh, and Christ by his Spirit, and the Spirit by his purities : so that we are also cabinets of the mysterious Trinity : and what is this short of heaven itself, but as infancy is short of manhood, and letters of words 39 ?" Many, I am aware, ascribe all notions of communion with God, and the operations of the Spirit, to " some strange ferment of the animal spirits." But this is to give mere words in current payment, and leave the phenomenon unexplained. For, if you inquire, what are the animal spirits? how do they ferment? how does this temporary fermentation produce a permanent change of character, enduring through life, with no other modification than the constant approximations to still greater perfection ? you immediately reduce the assertors to silence, and leave them to enjoy the conso- lation of seeing their much vaunted proposition shrink- ing into its pristine vacuity and inanity. And where indeed is the necessity of recurring to any other theory to explain this momentous class of facts, than that which the Scriptures present? Why should the Deity, whose moral excellencies if possible outshine his ma- jesty and his power, be excluded from interference 39 Bishop Taylor's Holy Living, ch. 1, $ 3. INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 383 in the moral department of his creation? Where is the philosophy of imagining (when it is acknowledged that God created us, sustains us by his power, cherishes us his providential care, and sheds upon us temporal blessings) that he will never pour his influences into soul, the only avenue through which Religion can enter, or from which it can proceed ? We are taught by the great Author of Christian knowledge that " God i Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." He therefore " searches the heart;" and the only religion he approves is a spiritual religion, manifested, it is true, by external deportment, by uprightness of conduct, and purity of life, but still having its seat in the soul : and yet we are to be told that he has it not in his power, or it comports not with his purposes, to reach the spiritual part of man. The writers of the New Testament ex- hort us to fervency and frequency in prayer ; but our modern promulgators of Christianity improved (for such they esteem it by their innovations), remove the very basis of prayer : for what is prayer but aspiration of soul, "spiritual breathing?" what can a religious creature, as such, pray for, but to be rendered better? and how can he possibly be rendered better but by experiencing Divine energy, by having strength and xlness imparted to him from the Fountain of strength and excellence, that is, by being made a recipient of the influences of the Spirit? Farther, I believe it will be found that the deniers of this consolatory and cheering doctrine, by so doing, exclude the greater while they admit the less: and it, whether they believe in spiritual existences, or are completely materialists in theory. Whether the mind be purely spiritual (that is, in this sense, im- material), or some ethereal conformation of refined matter, it is an incontrovertible fact that mind can act upon mind, either mediately or immediately. For example: A correspondent at a distance communicates his sentiments to me by written symbols: on the perusal 384 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. of these my mind is as completely operated upon, and more powerfully than the wheels of a watch by its mainspring, or of a clock by its pendulum and de- scending weight: joy or sorrow, pain or pleasure, malevolent or benevolent sympathies, shall thence be excited : and this is the entire operation of human intellect upon human intellect, through the medium of the various instruments we have in our power. Simi- lar effects result from the perusal of poetry, or from witnessing dramatic representations. I repeat that they are the genuine influence of mind upon mind: and you will at once perceive the truth of the assertion, if you simply recollect that by excluding the thinking, inventive, sentient, percipient part (whatever it be) from writers, readers, performers, and spectators, you in consequence annihilate the whole of this interesting class of phenomena. This, then, being the case, there remains no other alternative than either to admit that the mind of God can act upon the mind of man, or to concede to the human intellect greater power than be- longs to the Most Powerful ; a conclusion from which it must be a singularly strong mind indeed that does not recoil with horror and dismay. Having thus shown that the doctrine of Divine influ- ences is revealed in Scripture, and is consistent with the purest philosophy, it remains that I fortify it against one or two prevailing abuses. And first, it is by some affirmed that the gift of the Spirit is arbitrary, that is, entirely independent of human conductor human qua- lifications; but that this is invariably the case, is not, 1 apprehend, a fair inference from the New Testament, contemplated in the aggregate, however it may have been deduced from some insulated passages. There is, I conceive (though on this delicate subject I would speak with diffidence, and with the deepest conviction of the omnipotent energy with which the Spirit often prepares its own way) an established connexion be- tween the condition of those who are, or will be, believ- ers, and the communication of spiritual life and growth ; INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 385 and that connexion may be doubtless founded upon sufficient reasons in the nature of things, though they may not have the least dependance upon antecedent merit, and are, and must be, unknown to us in our pre- sent state. God sees us as we are, and imparts to us according to our necessities, and his own wise and be- neficent (not capricious) intentions, efficacious grace being given to some, while sufficient grace is offered to all. Divine assistance thus bestowed does not take away our liberty, but frees us from " bondage," and, as David expresses it, " enlargelh our hearts to run the way of God's commandments." And though it is conferred gratuitously, and not because we deserved it, yet we must not assert that it is usually in its origin imparted arbitrarily ; for it is communicated in answer to prayer, and we are exhorted to pray for it. "If ye (says the Lord), being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children ; how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" And conformably with this the first great effu- sion of the Spirit was given in answer to prayer, when the disciples were for that purpose " with one accord in one place ;" and, on another occasion, " when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they had as- sembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spake the word of God with free- dom 40 ." Nor, again, is the operation of the Spirit arbitrary in degree. Its rule and measure is, " Whosoever hath much, to him shall be given, and he shall abound : but whosoever hath little, from him shall be taken even that which he hath 41 ." Hence result the exhortations of the apostles to the Gentiles, which would otherwise be remarkable enough : " Be strong in the grace which is by Jesus Christ." " Strengthen yourselves in the Lord and in the power of his might." " Be filled with the 40 Luke, xi. 13. Acts, ii. 1 ; iv. 31. See also James, i. 3. 41 Matt. xiii. 12. Luke, viii. 18. C C 386 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs 42 ." Nor, on the other hand, is the withholding or the withdrawing spiritual influences merely an arbitrary act. It is the just punishment of men's wickedness, pervers'eness, and folly, in trifling with the means of grace, " doing despite unto the Spirit," and thus " griev- ing that Spirit," till it is compelled to withdraw 43 . Hence, by the way, results the necessity of a constant self-denial : because it is evident that so far as we in- dulge any vanity of mind, or corruption of heart, so far we resist the graces of the Spirit, and render our- selves indisposed to relish and improve its inspiration : we should, therefore, sedulously avoid all those tem- pers and employments, all those enjoyments and in- dulgences which may cause us to be " less able, and less disposed, to improve those degrees of Divine grace that are communicated to us." Lastly, I may remark, that the doctrine under con- sideration is most dreadfully abused by every one who says, " I can do nothing without Divine assistance, therefore I will sit still and use no effort for my reco- very till God irresistibly impel me to it." Here, as in numerous other instances, the state of torpid inactivity persevered in is completely different from that which is recommended and adopted in all analogous circum- stances where religion is not concerned. For, although, as it is forcibly expressed in the Liturgy, " we have no power of ourselves, to help ourselves," yet it does not follow that we can do nothing : we can put ourselves in the way to obtain the aid offered to us. The depend- ance of the creature on God is not confined to religious matters, but runs through all our concerns. We can no more stretch out our hands, or walk, than we can raise our hearts to God, without his aid ; yet stretching out the hands, or walking, is perfectly voluntary. Our 2 Tim. ii. 1. Eph. vi. 10 ; v. 18, 19. 43 Heb. x. 29. Eph. iv. 30. INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 387 gardens and our fields will be totally unproductive, un- less God further our endeavours by his agency and his blessing : yet who but a madman or an idiot would think this a sufficient excuse for neglecting- the culture of his garden, or the business of ploughing and sowing in his fields? Spiritual influences neither destroy our moral liberty, nor remove our moral responsibility; but bring with them a corresponding class of duties. We are not to be careless in our conduct, because we are assured of the suggestions, reproofs, and expostu- lations of our faithful friends; nor are we to be supine in our religious concerns because we know not how soon or how long it may be before the suggestions and monitions of the Holy Spirit are prevailingly influen- tial. The apostle Paul does not refer to the promised aids of the Spirit, as an argument for sloth, but for ex- ertion ; his language (already quoted in this letter) is Work out your own salvation with fear and trem- bling; for it is God that influences your desires and endeavours of his benevolence." As this topic, and especially exhortation to obey the solicitations of the Spirit, falls peculiarly within the province of ministers of the Gospel, allow me to termi- nate (his letter by a quotation from an excellent modern author, whose eloquence and piety on this as on all occasions mutually adorn and exalt each other. "Though a general attention to the duties of piety and virtue, and a careful avoidance of the sins opposed to these, are certainly included in a becoming deport- ment to the Holy Spirit, perhaps it is not all that is included. The children of God are characterised in Scripture by their being 'led by the Spirit:' led, evi- dently not impelled, not driven forward in a headlong course, without choice or design ; but, being, by the constitution of their nature, rational and intelligent, and by the influence of grace, rendered spiritual, they are disposed to obey at a touch, and to comply with the gentle insinuations of Divine grace ; they are ready to take that precise impression which corresponds with 388 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. the mind and purpose of the Spirit. You are aware of what consequence it is in worldly concerns to em- brace opportunities, and to improve critical seasons; and thus, in the things of the Spirit, there are times peculiarly favourable, moments of happy visitation, where much more may be done towards the advance- ment of our spiritual interest than usual. There are gales of the Spirit, unexpected influences of light and of power, which no assiduity in the means of grace can command, but which it is a great mark of wisdom to improve. If the husbandman is attentive to the vicissitudes of weather, and the face of the sky, that he may be prepared to take the full benefit of every gleam of sunshine, and every falling shower, how much more alert and attentive should we be, in watch- ing for those influences from above, which are necessary to ripen and mature a far more precious crop ! " Permit me to suggest two or three heads of inquiry. You have sometimes felt a peculiar seriousness of mind, the delusive glare of worldly objects has faded away, or become dim before your eyes, and death and eter- nity, appearing at the door, have filled the whole field of vision. Have you improved such seasons for fixing those maxims and establishing those practical conclu- sions which may produce an habitual sobriety of mind, when things appear under a different aspect? You have sometimes found, instead of a reluctance to pray, a powerful impulse to that exercise, so that you felt, as if you could do nothing else. Have you always com- plied with these motions, and suffered nothing but the claims of absolute necessity to divert you from pouring out your hearts at a throne of grace? The Spirit is said to make intercession for saints, with groanings which cannot be uttered ; when you have felt those ineffable longings after God, have you indulged them to the utmost? Have you spread every sail, launched forth into the deep of the divine perfections and pro- mises, and possessed yourselves as much as possible of the fulness of God? There are moments when the INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. 389 conscience of a good man is more tender, has a nicer and more discriminating touch than usual ; the evil of sin in general, and of his own in particular, appears in a more pure and piercing light. Have you availed yourselves of such seasons as these for searching into ' the chambers of imagery,' and while you detected greater and greater abominations, been at the pains to bring them out and slay them before the Lord? Have such visitations effected something towards the morti- fication of sin? Or have they been suffered to expire in mere ineffectual resolutions? The fruits which godly sorrow produced in the Corinthians, are thus beauti- fully portrayed : ' What carefulness it wrought in you, yea what clearing of yourselves, yea what indignation, yea what fear, yea what vehement desire, yea what re- venge?' There are moments in the experience of a good man, when he feels a more than ordinary softness of mind ; the frost of selfishness dissolves, and his heart flows forth in love to God and his fellow-creatures. How careful should we be to cherish such a frame, and to embrace the opportunity of subduing resent- ments, and of healing those scars and wounds which it is scarcely possible to avoid in passing through this unquiet world ! " Remember, we as Christians profess a peculiar relation to God as his children, his witnesses, his peo- ple, his temple; the character of that glorious Being and of his religion will be contemplated by the world, chiefly through the medium of our spirit and conduct, which ought to display, as in a mirror, the virtues of him who hath called you out of darkness into his mar- vellous light. It is strictly appropriate to the subject of our present meditations, to remind you that you are ' temples.' ' For ye, says the apostle, ' are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' What purity, sanctity, and dignity may be expected in persons who bear such a character! A Christian should look upon himself as 390 INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT. something sacred and devoted, so that what involves but an ordinary degree of criminality in others, in him partakes of the nature of sacrilege ; what is a breach of trust in others, is in him the profanation of a temple. Let us watch and pray that nothing may be allowed a place in our hearts that is not suitable to the residence of the holy and blessed God. Finally, having such great and precious promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord 44 ." LETTER XVIII. On Justification by Faith. HERE again, my dear friend, we enter controverted ground: and on such ground, indeed, you must ex- pect to find me, nearly till we terminate our corres- pondence. This, however, does not arise from any obscurity in the subjects themselves, or from the vague- ness of the terms in which they are revealed ; but rather from the natural aversion of the unenlightened human mind to receive religious truth in the way God has been pleased to communicate it, and from that peculiarity of the Christian system which requires that " the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men bowed down," in order that "the Lord alone may be exalted V It is the humiliating fact, that " all have sinned and come short of the glory of God 2 ," that renders the Christian Religion necessary. Or, in other words, it is because " by the works of the law no flesh living can be justified," that the new dispensation was requisite. If obedience be at all times our duty, in what way can present repentance release us, as some would argue, from the punishment of former transgressions ? Can repentance annihilate what is past? Or can we do 44 Letter on the Work of the Spirit, by R. Hall, A. M. 1 Is. ii. 11. 2 See pp. 245, 270280. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 391 more, by present obedience, than acquit ourselves of present obligation? Or does the contrition we expe- rience, added to the positive duties we discharge, con- stitute a surplusage of merit, which may be transferred to the reduction of our former demerit? " We may as well affirm," says a learned divine, " that our former obedience atones for our present sins, as that our pre- sent obedience makes amends for antecedent trans- gressions !"_ No man can discharge an old debt merely by taking care to incur no fresh ones : and, in like manner, since sin is a debTto" "I>ivhTe~justice (which de- mands undeviating rectitude and holiness), when once incurred it would not be cancelled merely by abstain- ing from sin in future ; supposing it were possible (which I am not inclined to admit) that sin could be entirely avoided without the aid of that restraining and invigorating principle which is implanted in the heart of a sincere believer on his conversion 3 . The question, then, to which not merely every philosophical inquirer, but every man who is interested about his eternal wel- fare, must be solicitous to receive a satisfactory answer is, " How shall God be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly ?" To this question the New Testament hap- pily furnishes a most explicit reply. " For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly*." And how were the ungodly to avail themselves of the benefit resulting from the death of Christ? The scriptural reply is, " by faith." "By him (Jesus) all who believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses." " Being justified freely by his grace through 3 As the due consideration of that branch of the argument which fixes the guilt of sin upon every individual, however he may have escaped all the grosser vices, would draw me too far from my pre- sent purpose, I beg to refer to ch. 5 of that valuable work, Dr. Dod- dridge's " Rise and Progress of Religion," and to section 7 of the excellent Hooker's Discourse on Justification : and, for a striking proof of the practical necessity of the entire doctrine of the Trinity, to the first part of Bishop Beveridge's " Private Thoughts." 4 Roui. v. 6. 392 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." "Man is justified by faith, without the works of the law." " He saved us not by tvorks of justification, but according 1 to his mercy." " By grace are ye saved through FAITH, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God ; not of works, lest any. man should glory." " Wherefore, being jus- tified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ 5 ." Such being the main tenour of the declarations in the New Testament, it is no wonder that the doctrine of justification by faith should in all ages have obtained a very general reception, or that infidels and others should in all ages have disputed it. "You tell sinners (says Celsus), not to examine, but to believe; and their faith will save them;" which is just the language that it might be expected an uncandid opponent would adopt 6 . Our Reformers, whose views of most doctrinal points were remarkably clear and extensive, furnish us with abundant evidence, not of their opinions alone, but of those of much earlier writers, as to the subject before us. "After this wise (say they) to be justified only by this true and lively faith in Christ, speak all the old and ancient authors, both Greeks and Latins; of whom we will specially rehearse three, Hilary, Basil, and Ambrose. St. Hilary saith these words plainly in the ninth canon upon Matthew; 'Faith only justifieth.* And St. Basil, a Greek author, writeth thus : ' This is a perfect and whole rejoicing in God, when a man advanceth not himself for his own righteousness, but acknowledgeth himself to lack true justice and righte- ousness, and to be justified by the only faith in Christ/ " These be the very words of St. Basil ; and St. Am- brose, a Latin author, hath these words: 'This is the ordinance of God, that they which believe in Christ shall be saved without works, by faith only, freely re- 5 Acts, xiii. 39. Rom. iii. 24, 28. Tit. iii. 5. Eph. ii. 8, 9. Gal. ii. 16, Rom. v. 1. 6 Orig. con. Cels. p. 8. Ed. 1C58. Bellamy's ed. p. 6?. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 393 ceivirij> the remission of their sins.' Consider diligently these words, ' without works, by faith only, freely we receive the remission of our sins.' What can be spoken more plainly than to say, that freely without works, by faith only we obtain remission of our sins ? These, and other like sentences, that we be justified by faith only, freely, and without works, we read oft-times in the best and most ancient writers : as, beside Hilary, Basil, and Ambrose, before rehearsed, we read the same' in Grig-en, St. Chrysostom, St. Cyprian, St. Au- gustine, Prosper, Oecumenius, Proclus, Bernardus, Anselm, and many other authors, Greek and Latin. Nevertheless, this sentence, that we be justified by faith only, is not so meant of them that the same justifying faith is alone in man, without true repentance, hope, charity, dread, and the fear of God, at any time and season. Nor when they say that we should be justi- fied freely, do they mean that we should or might afterwards be idle, and that nothing should be required on our parts afterward: neither do they mean so to be justified without good works, that we should do no good works at all, like as shall be more expressed at large hereafter. But this saying, that we be justified by faith only, freely, and without works, is spoken to take away clearly all merit of our works, as being unable to deserve our justification at God's hands, and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of man and the goodness of God ; the great infirmity of our- selves, and the might and power of God ; the imper- fection of our own works, and the most abundant grace of our Saviour Christ; and therefore wholly to ascribe the merit and deserving of our justification unto Christ only, and his most precious blood-shedding. This faith the holy Scripture teacheth us; this doctrine all ancient authors of Christ's church do approve ; this doctrine advanceth and setteth forth the true ylory of Christ, and bcateth down the vain-glory of man; this, whosoever de- nieth, is not to be accounted for a Christian man, nor for a setter forth of Christ's glory j but for an adversary to 394 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. Christ and his Gospel, and for a setter forth of men's vain-glory. " It hath been manifestly declared unto you, that no man can fulfil the law of God ; and therefore by the law all men are condemned : whereupon it fol- loweth necessarily, that some other things should be required for our salvation than the law; and that is, a true and lively faith in Christ, bringing forth good works, and a life according to God's commandments. You heard also the ancient authors' minds of this say- ing, 'Faith in Christ only justifieth man,' so plainly declared, that you see that the very true meaning of this proposition or saying, ' We be justified by faith in Christ only,' is this : We put our faith in Christ, that we be justified by him only, that we be justified by God's free mercy, and the merits of our Saviour Christ only, and by no virtue or good works of our own that is in us, or that we can be able to have, or to do, for to deserve the same; Christ himself only being the cause meritorious thereof. Here you perceive many words to be used to avoid contention in words with them that delight to brawl about words, and also to show the true meaning to avoid evil-taking and mis- understanding ; and yet peradventure all will not serve with them that be contentious; but contenders will ever forge matters of contention, even when they have no occasion thereto 7 ." And thus, as it should seem, it happens that the ad- versaries of the doctrine of justification by faith, some from pure ignorance, others from a love of calumny, affirm that it is a doctrine which leads to licentiousness. " But it is a childish cavil," says good old Hooker 8 , " wherewith in the matter of justification our adver- saries do so greatly please themselves, exclaiming that we tread all Christian virtues under our feet, and re- quire nothing but faith, because we teach that faith alone justifieth ; whereas, by this speech we never 7 Homily on Salvation, pp. 2Q, 21, 23. Oxford ed. 1810. 8 Discourse on Justification. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 3P5 meant to exclude either hope or chanty, from being always joined as inseparable handmates, with faith in the man that is justified ; or works from being added, as necessary duties, required at the hands of every jus- tified man: but to show that faith is the only hand which putteth on Christ unto justification, and Christ the only garment which being so put on covereth the shame of our defiled natures, hideth the imperfection of our works, preserveth us blameless in the sight of God: before whom otherwise the weakness of our faith were cause sufficient to make us culpable, yea, to shut us from the kingdom of heaven." Thus again, as Reynolds remarks, " Faith hath two properties (as a hand) to work and to receive. When faith purifies the heart, supports the drooping spirits, worketh by love, carries a man through afflictions and the like, these are the works of faith : when faith ac- cepts of righteousness in Christ, and receives him as the gift of his Father's love, when it embraceth the promises afar off ( Heb. ii. 13), and lays hold on eternal life (1 Tim. vi. 12), this is the receiving act of faith. Now faith justifies not by working (lest the effect should not be wholly of grace, and partly of work, Ephesians, ii. 8, 9): but by bare receiving and accept- ing, or yielding consent to that righteousness, which in regard of working was the righteousness of Christ (Rom. v. 18), and in regard of disposing, imputing, appropriating unto us, was the righteousness of God (Rom. iii. 21. 1 Cor. i. 30. Phil. iii. 9). To make the point of justification by the receiving, and not the working of faith, plain, let us consider it by a familiar similitude. " Suppose a chirurgeon should perfectly cure the hand of a poor man from some desperate wound which utterly disabled him from any work ; when he hath so done, should at one time freely bestow some good alms upon the man, to the receiving whereof he was enabled by the former cure ; and at another time should set the man about some work, unto the which likewise the for- 396 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. mer cure had enabled him ; and the work being done, should give him a reward proportionable to his labour: I demand which of these two gifts are arguments of greater grace in the man, either the recompensing of that labour which was wrought by the strength he re- stored, or the free bestowing of an equal gift, unto the receiving whereof likewise he himself gave ability? Any man will easily answer, that the gift was a work of more free grace than the reward, though unto both way was made, by his own merciful cure ; for all the mercy which was shown in the cure was not able to nullify the intrinsical proportion, which afterwards did arise between the work and the reward. Now, this is the plain difference between our doctrine and the doctrine of our adversaries, in the point of justification. They say, we are justified by grace, and yet by works, because grace enables us to work : we say we are justified freely, not by the works of grace, but by the grace which bestows our justification, and therefore our strength of working unto us. For surely God's free grace is more magni- fied in giving us undeservedly both righteousness and works; than in giving us works to deserve our righte- ousness 9 ." To decide, however, in this important inquiry, from the nature of things as revealed in Scripture, and not from any appeal to inferior authority, let Us attend to three questions : What is meant by justification P What by faith P What is the genuine import of the term justification by faith? I. With regard to justification ; it manifestly in its primary sense has relation to accusation. Those who have committed no crime, or omitted no binding duty, are free from guilt, or reasonable charge of guilt; but may still require justification. If there be no accusa- tion or charge brought against a person, he does not stand in need of being justified : but when he is accused of a crime of which he is entirely innocent, he thence has an opportunity of justifying himself by making his 9 Bishop Reynolds's Three Treatises, p. 483. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 397 innocence appear ; and his judge has thence an oppor- tunity of justifying him by pronouncing or declaring publicly that he is innocent of the crime laid to his charge. This is justification according to its original meaning : but in this sense none can, strictly speaking, be justified, since all are sinners, and all are accused : for the law accuses, Satan accuses, and conscience accuses. The law accuses: for all are made under " the law," and "we know (says Paul) that what things soever the law saith it saith to those that are under the law; so that every mouth is stopped, and all the world becometh subject to the judgment of God )0 ." So again Satan accuses. He is the " Prince of this world," " the adversary, the false accuser," " the accuser of the brethren, that accuses them before God day and night 11 ." And farther, conscience, that mighty troubler of the human breast, is a frequent accuser. Paul, speaking of the Gentiles, says, " their conscience beareth witness, and their thoughts accuse or excuse one another 12 ." And truly none but those who have learnt by experience can tell fully what the pangs inflicted by a guilty and awakened conscience are. A man may flee from many calamities, and bear up with dignity and patience under others ; but he can no more flee from an accusing conscience than he can flee from himself. " The spirit of a man may sustain his infirmity : but a wounded spirit who can bear 13 ! 1 " Against such accusers, retaining the primary inter- pretation of the word, " no flesh living can be justi- fied :" so that some more appropriate acceptation of the term must be adopted. And we find that by the phrase to justify is often meant so to do a man right, as to pronounce sentence in his favour, to acquit him from guilt, to excuse him from burden, to liberate him from punishment, and to repute or deem him just. Thus in one of these senses " wisdom" is said to be 10 Rom. Hi. 19. " John, xii.31. 1 Pet. v. 8. Rev. xii. 10. 12 Rom. ii. 15. I3 Prov. xviii. 14. 398 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. "justified of her children :" and thus justification, in a still more extended sense, is not opposed to accusation merely, but to condemnation. As in the observation of Solomon, " He that juslijieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord :" and in the declaration of Jesus Christ, " By thy words thou shall be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned 14 ." In the evangelical acceptation of the term, as it is applied by the apostle Paul, justification is " of God," and imports his acquitting us from guilt, condemna- tion, and punishment, by free and full remission of our sins, reputing and declaring us just persons, and dealing with us as though we were upright and innocent in his esteem. For this apostle treats of justification as an act of judgment performed by God, by which he declares his own righteousness and justice, and at the same time our liberation from the punishment due to transgression : his justice consisting in accepting a competent satisfaction offered in lieu of the debt due to him, and in reparation of the injury done to him, by reason of which the debtor is acquitted and the offence remitted. " For now a Divine justification (saith this apostle in his Epistle to the Romans), independently of the law, is discovered, being testified by the law and the prophets; that Divine justification is extended te all that believe ; for there is no distinction ; for all having sinned, all have forfeited the praise of God : being justified of free gift by his grace through the redemption that is by Jesus Christ: whom God hath ordained to be a propitiatory through faith in his blood, for the manifestation of his rectitude, in passing over and remitting their past transgressions through Divine forbearance : to manifest, also, his rectitude at this time: that he may appear to be just, and the justifier of him who trusts in Jesus 15 ." Hence, we see, that 14 Prov. xvii. 15. Matt. xii. 37. 13 Rom. iii. 21 26. The above will, I believe, be found a correct rendering of the passage. That it is not much distorted to accord JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 399 justification is a result of Christ's redemption ; that remission of sins is so likewise ; and that they may be msidered as synonymous expressions; God demon- strating by either or both of them his justice and good- ness. Justification, in fine, including 1 , in St. Paul's view at least, an acquittal from guilt and condemnation, and a Iming regarded as righteous, with " God who justifieth" II. I propose, in the next place, to ascertain what is the evangelical interpretation of the word faith, as it relates to justification. I make the inquiry with this restriction, because it is evident, as was indeed re- i.iarked by Chrysostom 16 , that the word Trtrme, usually ud e red faith, is variously employed in Scripture. I also confine myself entirely here to the kind of faith required of those who possess the Gospel; not wishing to embarrass the question with any thing relative to such as have never had it proposed to them. 1. This faith is something more than simple belief, or that assent of the understanding, which neither affects the heart nor the conduct. For, Paul speaks of " believing in the heart" as essential to salvation, cause " with the heart man believeth to righteousness justification 17 ." 2. This faith is something different from believing that the Scriptures are the word of God, and that all tilings contained in them are true. For this, as Dr. Doddridge remarks, is liable to a double objection ; as, on the one hand, it supposes it absolutely necessary kitli a particular hypothesis will be evident on comparing it with the ninii version, which is this : " Without a law, God's method of justification is manifested ; being attested by the law and the pro- phets; even to all [and upon all] who believe; for there is no dif- ference ; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ; being lu-d of free bounty, even by his favour, through the redemption wbich is by Christ Jesus : Whom God hath set forth as a mercy-seat in his own blood ; to show his method of justification concerning the remission of past sins, through the forbearance of God ; to show, I say, his method of justification at this present time : that he might be just and the justifier of him who hath faith in Jesus." liomil. xxvi. in Epist. ad llebiaeos. xi. ' 7 Rom. x. 9, 10. 400 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. that every man should believe both the plenary inspira- tion, and the extent of it to all the books of Scripture ; which, tjiough it may admit of strong- proof, can never be shown to be a thing the belief of which is absolutely requisite to salvation : and, on the other hand, an impli- cit and entire belief in this may be yielded by a mind which is grossly ignorant of, or sadly misapplies, some of the most important doctrines of Christianity. 3. This faith presupposes a conviction of the corrup- tion of our nature, a lively and painful sense of the guilt of sin, a solicitude to be delivered from it; and implies a persuasion that through the mystery of re- demption " there is forgivenes's with God, that he may be feared :" but it does not necessarily imply a persua- sion that God hath remitted our sins : for it relates to propositions revealed by God ; and God has no where declared that he has remitted our sins individually. He has, indeed, declared that he will pardon our transgres- sions, and " blot out our iniquities," if we cordially and sincerely comply with certain requisitions; but the ascertaining that we have so complied is matter of experience, and not of faith. When we distrust God, we want true faith ; but it is possible we may possess faith, although we distrust ourselves. The observation of the wisest of men was, " Blessed is he ibaifeareth always ;" so feareth as to excite solicitude and watchfulness over his heart and conduct: and to render him diligent to " make his calling and election sure." The great danger is on the side of presumption, arrogance, and self-con- fidence, and not where lies humility, diffidence, and poverty of spirit, which God has assured us he loves. 4. Much less is that a correct notion of faith which defines it to be " a firm and certain knowledge of God's eternal good will towards us particularly, and that we shall be saved." For according to this a man may be tempted, as Mr. Cecil remarked, to believe that he is among the elect, because he thus holds the doctrine of election ; and he must possess a certain knowledge both of his present sincerity and sanctity, and of his JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 401 perseverance: and farther, if he be not sure he has repented and is converted, it would follow from this definition that he must be sure he is not converted, which would be truly perplexing and discouraging to most persons of genuine humility and lowliness of mind. " Let us beware (says Hooker) that we make not too many ways of denying Christ, or denying the faith, lest we scarcely leave any way for ourselves truly and soundly to confess him." On this thorny position I beg to confirm my own sentiments by the authority and the arguments of Dr. Barrow. " We may con- sider," he says, " I. That this doctrine inverts and confounds the order of things declared in Scripture, wherein faith is set before obtaining God's good will, as a prerequisite condition thereto, and is made a means of salvation (' without faith it is impossible to please God.' ' By grace are ye saved through faith.' ) And if we must believe, before God loves us (with such a love as we speak of), and before we can be saved ; then must we know that we believe, before we can know that God loves us, or that we shall be saved, and conse- quently we must indeed believe before we can know that God loves us, or that we shall be saved. But this doctrine makes the knowledge of God's love and of salvation in nature antecedent to faith, as being an essential ingredient in it ; which is preposterous. Con- sider this circle of discourse : a man cannot know that he believes unless he does believe, this is certain ; a man cannot know that he shall be saved, without know- ing he doth believe ; this is also certain : for upon what ground, from what evidence, can he know his salvation, but by knowing his faith ? But again, backward : a man, say they, cannot believe (and consequently not know that he believes) without being assured of his salvation. What an inextricable maze and confusion is here ! This doctrine, indeed, doth make the knowledge of a future event to be the cause of its being future; it supposes God to become our friend (as he was of Abra- ham by his faith), by our knowing that he is our friend ; D D 402 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. it makes us to obtain a reward, by knowing that we shall obtain it ; it supposes the assurance of our coming to a journey's end, to be the way of getting thither; which who can conceive intelligible or true? Our Sa- viour doth indeed tell us, that it is the way to life ever- lasting (or conducible to the attaining it) to know the true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent : but he doth not say it is life everlasting (or conducible to the obtaining it) to know that we shall have life everlast- ing: that were somewhat strange to say. St. Peter exhorts us to use diligence to make our calling and elec- tion sure, or firm and stable : but he doth not bid us to know it to be sure. If we did know it to be so, what need should we have to make it so? yea, how could we make it so? He doth not enjoin us to be sure of it in our opinion, but to secure it in the event by sincere obedience and a holy life; and by so impressing this persuasion upon our minds, so rooting the love of God and his truth in our hearts, that no temptation may be able to subvert our faith, or to pluck out our chanty. " 2. This notion plainly supposes the truth of that doctrine, that no man, being once in God's favour, can ever quite lose it, yet is thereby everted : for it follows thence that no man, who cloth not assent to that doc- trine, is, or can be, a believer; for he that is not as- sured of the truth of that opinion (although we suppose him assured of his own sincerity, and being in a state of grace), cannot know that he shall be saved ; so that only such as agree with them in that opinion can be believers, which is somewhat hard, or rather very ab- surd. And, to aggravate this inconvenience, I adjoin, 3. That, according to their notion, scarce any man (except some have had an especial revelation concern- ing their salvation), before the late alterations in Chris- tendom, was a believer; for before that time it hardly appears that any man did believe, as they do, that a man cannot fall from grace ; and therefore scarce any man could be always assured that he should be saved ; and therefore scarce any man could be a believer in JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. 403 their sense 18 ." To these observations I have only to add, that faith, according to this interpretation of it, leaves no room for the exercise of hope; and since, as we have seen, it necessarily classes the humble Chris- tian, who is conscious that " the heart is deceitful above all things," and is therefore " working out his own sal- vation with fear and trembling," among unbelievers, it stifles charity; and thus banishes two out of the three associate Christian graces. 3. True faith, which is " Christianity in Consent," implies acts of mind, acts of will, and subjection of conduct. It is called "faith in Christ," and includes not merely belief in Christianity, belief in Jesus as the Messiah ; but a practical assent to all that the Gospel reveals concerning him, an inward conviction and a full persuasion of his all-sufficiency, in his complex character, to suffer and die, to rise and save, to fulfil every thing that was necessary for a Mediator, in order to reconcile guilty creatures to an offended God ; and consequently an entire resigning of our souls to him for salvation in his appointed way. It is also termed " faith in the name of Christ," " faith in his blood," " faith in his righteousness l9 ," implying an acknowledgment of worthlessness and insufficiency in ourselves, and a de- pending on what the Saviour has done and suffered for our pardon and acceptance. It farther includes " com- ing to Christ" in the way of his commandments, and a firm and prevailing resolution of sincere obedience, such as, though it may unhappily be sometimes preci- pitated by temptation into sinful actions, does not, dare not, fall into a sinful course; but manifests itself in a " purified" heart, a " sanctified" conduct, and exalted attainments in " righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith 20 ." With regard to this true faith it has justly been observed, that " the words iritis and irivevu, which 16 Barrow's first Sermon on Justifying Faith. 19 John, i. 12. Rom. iii. 25. Col. i. 20. 2 Pet. i. 1. 80 Rom, ix. 30. 404 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. continually return upon us in reading the Greek Testa- ment, should be frequently translated by trust and trust- ing in God, or Christ, especially where the preposition ev or ftc is added to it : and it should not be so often called belief or believing ; for it is not such a mere assent to the Gospel of Christ as excites hope or trust in mercy, and so draws forth the soul to love God, repent of sin, and fulfil the duties of holiness. " The Hebrew words, which, in the Old Testament, imply trust and dependance, are represented often by 7n