MmmAiiY ^itmmtj a| ^slif^ijitut. ^C No. 'f jZ<}/i6 Division Range Shelf. Received. ^i- ■-r;. --ST ..,;.. .>■ -•■' Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/evidencesofclirisOOmcilricli THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY THEIR EXTERNAL OR IIISTORICll DIVISION: EXHIBITED Uf A COURSE 01" Lligp^tJRES, BY CHARLES PETTIT M'lLVAINE, D. D. BISHOP OF THE PRpTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE STATE OP OHIO. Sint castsB delicisB meao scriptursB tus ; nee fallar in eis, nee fallam ex eis. Attoubtink. NINTH EDITION. BEYISED AND IMPROVED BY THE AUTHOR. PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. /^d Entered by the author, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S32. in the Clerk's OfRce of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. Ri^lit of publishing transferred to the Amerionn Tract SoriPty. CONTENTS. v; LECTURE I. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS, 21 The difficulty of presenting the evidences of Christianity arises, not from any lack of arguments, but from the difficulty of a just selec- tion and arrangement where materials are so abundant, . . 22 I. The. high importance of the investigation proposed, .... 23 The question is, Is the religion of Jesus Christ, as exhibited in the New Testament^ a revelation from God, and consequently possessed of a sovereign right to universal faith and obedience ? 24 We must have the religion of Christ or none, 24 Deism, the only imaginable substitute, shown to offer no refuge, 25 The investigation urged on the experimentally convinced Christian, as a matter of spiritual pleasure and improvement, and as a matter of duty to the cause of truth, and to the good of his neighbor, 34 The same urged on the merely nominal Christian, as necessary to a rational and steadfast belief of what he professes not to doubt, and for a deeper impression of the soleimiity of its truth, . . - 36 The investigation derives additional importance from the peculiar character of the present times, as those of licentiousness, under the boast of freedom, in such inquiries, 38 It derives, also, advantage from the present times, as distinguished for scientific research and discovery, 43 II. The importance of strict attention to the spirit in which this investi- gation is conducted, 46 The opposition between the precepts of Christianity and the natural dispositions of man makes the question one of feeling as well as . evidence, and has a tendency to magnify objections, and to depre- ciate the contrary, 46 The pride of human reason is often deeply offended at the claims of Christianity, 49 It is true of Christianity, as of many other very important matters of tmtk. that objections are more easily irt vented- than answered, 52 4 CONTENTS. Phenomena which these considerations account for, .... 53 Docility of mind, 53 A deep seriousness of purpose, 54 And prayer, earnestly recommended as necessary to this investi- gation, 54 LECTURE II. AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, 56 The study of the evidences of Christianity may be brief or extended, according as the object is simply conviction ; or, in addition to that, the pleasure of collecting all the various lights which may be con- centrated on this subject. The evidences are of two general classes, namely, external^ or histoV' ical, and internal^ ', • . 57 A brief account of what each head includes, 57 The present course of lectures confined to the external. The complete treatment of this division would begin with the neceS' sity of a divine revelation^ as the history of mankind exhibits it, 58 We begin with the authenticity of the New Testament, . 59 Difference between authenticity and credibility, as used in these lec- tures, 59 The question is, How does it appear that the several parts of the New Testament were written by the men to whom they are ascribed, the original disciples of Christ, and are therefore authentic ? . . 61 The same course pursued as in ascertaining the authenticity of any other book, 61 A general sketch of the argument, 62 The books of the New Testament are quoted, or alluded to, by a series of writers, who may be followed up in unbroken succession from the present age to that of the apostles, 64 This shown by reference to catalogues, etc., from the fourth century to the age of the apostles, 65-75 Particulars included in the above which require a more special notice. 1. The books of the New Testament, when quoted or alluded to, are treated with supreme regard, as possessing a singular authority, and as conclusive in questions of religion, 75 2. They were united at a very early period in a distinct volume, . 76 3. They were at a very early period publicly read and expounded in the churches, 77 4. Commentaries were written on them, harmonies constructed, copies diligently compared, and translations made into different languages, 78 CONTENTS. 6 5. The agreement of the ancient churches as to what were the authentic books of the New Testament was complete, ... 79 6. There was as entire an agreement among the heretics of the earliest centuries as among the orthodox, 80 7. These several heads of evidence cannot be pretended to be in favor of any apocryphal scriptures, 81 Six evidences of spuriousncss^ all of which are found in the apocryphal scriptures, none of them in the New Testament, 84 Confirmation given by the existence of apocryphal writings to the claims of the New Testament, 85 Lesson to the believer from what has been exhibited, .... 87 LECTURE III. AUTHENTICITY AND INTEORITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, 89 From the tenor of the preceding lecture, it is evident that the canon of the New Testament was not made toithout the most intelligent and careful investigation, 90 This further appears from the numerous catalogues that have corao down to us, 91 From the pains taken to procure information, and the decisive censure with which an attempt to pass a spurious book was visited, . 91 The gradual steps by which the canon was completed afforded the best opportunity for the settlement of the claim of any book to authenticity, 92 }5ome remarks concerning the formation of the canon of the New Testament, 93 The canonical authority of the epistle to the Hebrews, of James, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, of Jude, and of the book of Revelation, 98-105 TTie testimony of the adversaries of Christianity, 105 The preceding evidence confirmed by a reference to 77ie language and style of the books of the New Testament. 1. They are in perfect accordance with the local and other circum- stances of the reputed writers, 110 2. They are in perfect harmony with the known characters of the reputed \NTiters, 115 The result is, that if the books of the New Testament be not authen- tic, nothing less than a miracle can account for their early and uni- versal currency, 116 On the INTEGRITY of these books, that they have undergone no mate- rial alteration, we reason, 1. From the perfect impossibility of any material alteration, . 123 2 From the agreement among the existing manuscript^, . .125 6 CONTENTS. 3. From the agreement of the text with the numerous quotations in the works of early Christian writers, and with ancient transla- tions, 127 LECTURE IV. CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL HISTORY, 129 A book may be authentic and not credible, 129 Aim of this lecture to prove that what the gospel history relates as matter of fact is worthy of reliance as such, independently of all inferences or doctrines connected therewith, 130 The credibility of the gospel history ascertained precisely like that of any other history, 130 The peculiarity of the present case such as that, having proved the authenticity of the books containing the gospel history, we have proved the erf rfiMiVy of the history, 130 But a broader plan of argument is taken : A general view of the proof of credibility. The two points to bo made out in relation to any historical document are competent knowledge and trustworthy honesty in the writer, 134 I. The writers of the gospel history had opportunities of possessing adequate knowledge as to those matters of fact which they re- lated, 138 II. There is abu/ndant evidence that they were too honest to relate any thing but truth, 139 1. The narratives are in a high degree circumstantial, . . .139 2. The authors manifest no consciousness of narrating any thing about which, as a matter of fact, there was the smallest doubt, 142 3. There is a minute accuracy in all the allusions to the manners, customs, opinions, political events, etc., of the times, . . . 144 4. The argument greatly strengthened by considering the New Testament as a collection of writings by eight perfectly independent authors, 146 The consideration that the writers of the gospels were disciples and ministers of Christ should be regarded as strengthening their testi- mony, . .• 147 Absurd consequences of supposing them not to have been sincere in their statements, 152 5. The gospel history has all the testimony that could possibly have been expected, in the nature of things, from the enemies of Chris- tianity, l^S It was utterly impossible that the gospel history should have gained such currency as it had in the apostles* time, had it not been true, 157 CONTENTS. 7 LECTURE V. MIRACLES, 164 Authenticity of the books, and credibility of the history contained therein, being ascertained, we are prepared to open the contents of the New Testament. The first thing we perceive is, that it pro- fesses to teach a divinely revealed religion^ and the question is, What, are the evidences that the religion contained in the New Testa- ment is a divine revelation ? 164 The Lord Jesus Christ constantly appealed to miracles for his creden- tials as an ambassador from God, 165 The sufficiency of miracles as credentials, when well attested, acknow- ledged by infidels, 166 Reasons for not proceeding directly to the proof of such creden- tials, 166 The present lecture devoted to certain preliminary considerations. 1. There is nothing unreasonable or improbable in the idea of a miracle being wrought in proof of a divine revelation^ 167 2. If miracles were vrrought in attestation of the mission of Christ and his apostles, they can be rendered credible to us by no other evidence than that of testimony^ 170 3. Miracles are capable of being proved by testimony, . . . .172 Hume's argument against miracles, in proof of a divine revelation, stated and answered, 173 4. The testimony in proof of the miracles of the gospel hoe not dimin- ished in force by the increase of age, 189 5. In being called to examine the credibility of these miracles by the evidence of testimony, we are more favorably situated than if we had been enabled to subject them to the evidence of the senses, . . . 192 The whole truth exhibited in this lecture calls us to adore the wisdom of God, 197 LECTURE VI. MIRACLES— Cb;t<*7»we3 read his writings. And probably they who had en- joyed the high privilege of hearing this apostle preach, would not be less desirous of reading his epistles. As we know from the nature of the case, as well as from testimony, that many uncertain accounts of Christ's discourses and miracles had obtained circu- lation, how greatly would the primitive Christians rejoice to obtain an authentic history from the pen of an apostle, or from one who wrote precisely what was dictated by an apostle. "We need no longer wonder, therefore, that every church should wish to possess a collection of the writings of the apostles: .and knowing them to be the productions of inspired men, they would want no farther sanction of their authority. All that was requisite was to be certain that the book was indeed written by the apostle whose name it bore."* Hence the care of St. Paul, as he commonly wrote by an amanuensis, to have the salutation in his own hand, or to annex his sig- nature ; as, for example, in the second epistle to the Thessalonians : " The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write." Hence, also, the care so often manifest in* the epistles, to designate those by name to whom the office of carrying them whither they were addressed was intrusted. * Alexander on the Canon, p. 138, etc. 98 M'TLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. From the authorities quoted in the previous lec- ture, it must be full in your reccllection that while the agreement of the ancient churches may be con- sidered to have been complete, so far as is important to the argument for the divine origin of Christianity; still, there was a difference of opinion as to the authenticity and canonical authority of the epistle to the Hebrews, of the epistle of James, the second of Peter, the second and tliird of John, the epistle of Jude, and the book of Revelation. This diversity was not by any means so great or important as some sup- pose. Had it not been for the great care and candor of those early Christians, from whom we learn the fact, it would have seemed of too limited an extent, and too inconsiderable in its origin, to merit any more than a very transient notice in their writings. But wo have no reason to regret the publicity they have given it. They have thus put into our hands a very strong proof of the discriminating care and jealous vigilance with which the primitive churches investi- gated the title of any book to admission into the canon of the New Testament. That some were doubted, though afterwards universally acknowledg- ed, exhibits in a very strong light the certain authen- ticity of all those of which there was never a ques- tion. The canonical authority of the six epistles above- named, as well as of the Apocalypse, has no material connection with the argument of the ensuing lectures. The evidence of the divine origin and revelation of Christianity is entirely independent of the question of AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 9-9 their authenticity. Should we acknowledge them to be spurious, no point of Christian doctrine or duty would be removed ; no gospel truth would be shaken ; no evidence of divine revelation would be diminished. To vindicate their authenticity cannot, therefore, be required of a lecturer on the evidences of Christianity. It is the appropriate office of the biblical critic, and belongs to discussions on the canon of Scripture, and to the prolegomena of a commentary, instead of the course we are now pursuing. But lest the mere statement of the fact that doubts were once enter- tained as to the authenticity of these writings, should leave on some minds an impression unfavorable to their character as inspired Scriptures, it will be well to bestow a moment's attention on the amount of im- portance to which those doubts are justly entitled. With regard to the epistle to the Hebrews, no question was entertained as to its being the work of St. Paul, among the churches of the earlier centuries, except those of the Latin Christians. The fact that the Arians were the first in the Greek churches who are said to have denied that it was written by St. Paul, is an important testimony in its favor. The objections of the Latins did not pretend to any eccle- siastical tradition, or any authority of earlier churches, in opposition to its Pauline origin ; but were based entirely on its internal character, and especially on the handle which the fourth and fifth verses of the sixth chapter seemed to afford the sect of the Mon- tanists, in vindication of their prominent doctrine, that those guilty of grievous transgressions should be irre- 100 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. vocably cut off from the church. Hence it was that Jerome and Augustine, though of the Latins, could not adopt the opinions held by many of their con- temporaries, being convinced of their incorrectness by the testimony of the ancient churches to the authen- ticity of the epistle. It should be remarked, that all those who ques- tioned the canonical authority of this epistle, treated it with high respect as a Christian and very ancient writing of the apostolic age, if not by an apostle's hand. They ascribed it either to Barnabas or Clem- ent. But for this they had no testimony to appeal to. On the contrary, the testimony of the earliest Chris- tian writers is very decidedly for St. Paul. The fathers of the Greek church unanimously ascribed it to him. Jerome, of the fourth century, testifies that it was received as a production of that apostle, not only by the eastern churches, but by all the Greek ecclesiastical writers. " I receive it," said he, ** as genuine — guided by the authority of the ancient writers." Eusebius, the historian of the church of the fourth century, quotes it as the work of St. Paul, and says it had, not without reason, been reckoned among the other writings of the apostle. Theodoret positively asserts that Eusebius received this epistle as St. Paul's, and that he manifested that almost all the ancients were of the same opinion. Augustine said " he followed the opinion of the churches of the East, who received it among the canonical Scrip- tures." Origen, born A. D. 184, expresses his opin- ion that ** it was -not without cause that the ancients ^^'* AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 101 that is, the immediate successors of the apostles, " regarded this as an epistle of Paul." The internal evidence is decidedly in favor of its having been writ- ten by that apostle. The salutation from the Jewish Christians who had been driven out of Italy, Heb. 13 : 24, and the mention of Timothy as his fellow- traveller, Heb. 13 : 23, are very applicable to Paul. Not only does the general scope of this epistle tend to the same point on which so much stress is laid in his other writings, that we are justified only by faith in Christ, and that the works and institutions of the law are of no avail to our salvation ; but there are also various propositions found in it which are conspic- uous in his other works. The same characteristic warmth and energy of expression appear in this as in all writings ascribed in the New Testament to the pen of St. Paul. Hebraisms abound in it as in his other epistles. It contains particular expressions, phrases, and colocations of words, which are either peculiar to him, or are most frequent in his compositions.* But as this is not the place to do justice to a question of so much importance, and yet not material to the argument of these lectures, I must refer you, for fur- ther knowledge and satisfaction, to the learned work of professor Stuart of Andover, on the epistle to the Hebrews, or to an excellent article in the " Biblical Notes and Dissertations," recently from the pen of Joseph John Grurney, of the society of Friends in England. The epistle of James, being addressed to Jewish * Smucker's translation of Storr and Flatt's Bib. Theo. 102 M'ILVAINE"S EVIDENCES. believers, was for some time, to a considerable extent unknown to the gentile Christians. While this was the case, its authenticity was questioned, or rather was not certified among the Grentiles. As soon as this ceased to be the case, its authenticity was un- doubted. It is of great importance to the character of this epistle, that in the Syriao version, made at the end of the first or the beginning of the second cen- tury, while the second epistle of Peter, the second and third of John, and the Apocalypse, are omitted, the epistle of James, written particularly to the peo- ple for whom the version was made, is included and placed on an equality with all those books about which there was never a question in the church. In proportion as it became known among the gentile Christians, it passed through a severe and accurate scrutiny, till in a short time it was universally re- ceived, and has ever since' been universally honored as an authentic and inspired portion of the oracles of God. With regard to the remaining epistles, concerning the authenticity of which doubts were for a while entertained, it will suflSce to remark in this place, that the fact of their not having been immediately recognized throughout the church as the works of the apostles, only shows that the persons who were in doubt had not yet received sufficient information to make up their judgment ; and that the primitive Christians, so far from being so greedy after additions to the sacred canon as to be easily deceived by a plausible pretension to apostolic origin, were ex- AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 103 tremely deliberate and cautious in examining every candidate for admission into the catalogue of Scrij)- ture. Such being the case, the subsequent reception of these epistles, as soon as full time was given them to be universally circulated and known, is perfect proof that they were capable of enduring the most trying investigation of their inspired origin, and were honored with a unanimous verdict as the veritable writings of those to whom they were ascribed, and as part and parcel of the word of God. The reader may find abundant satisfaction with regard to them, in Dr. A. Alexander's excellent work on the canon of Scripture. It has been stated, that at one period doubts were entertained in the churches as to the authenticity of the book of Revelation. Those doubts imply no defi- ciency of testimony. Until the fourth century, the character of this book was undoubted, and its author- ity was universally acknowledged; only one writer questioning whether John the evangelist was its author, and even he admitting that it was written by inspiration of Grod. About the commencement of the fourth century, the Millenarian controversy hav- ing arisen and distracted the churches, and the mys- terious character of the book having been extensively employed in the support of new and extravagant doc- trines, its character declined ; and without any refer- ence to testimony in the case, its authenticity was by some, though by no means universally or for a long time, brought into question. Thus Eusebius, of that century, after having given a catalogue of the 104 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. books universally acknowledged, writes, ** After these, if it be thought fit, may be placed the Revelation of John, concerning which we shall observe the different opinions at a proper time." And in another place, ** There are, concerning this book, different opinions." *' This is the first doubt expressed by any respectable writer, concerning the canonical authority of this book ; and Eusebius did not reject it, but would have placed it next after those which were received with universal consent. And we find, at this very time, the most learned and judicious of the fathers received the Revelation without scrapie, and annexed it to their catalogues of the books of the New Testa- ment."* It is of no small importance that a book so fall of evidence against the heresies of the celebrated Dr. Priestley, should have received from his pen the following testimony: *' This book of Revelation, I have no doabt, was written by the apostle John. Sir Isaac Newton, 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. In- deed, I think it impossible for any intelligent and can- did 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 convinced that, considering the age in which it appeared, none but a person divinely inspired could have written it."^ It is true, and at first may seem surprising, that * Alexander on the Canon. t Priestley's Notes on Scripture. AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 105 while a majority of the ancient catalogues contain this book, there are many in which it is omitted; though it is known that the authors of some of these acknowledged its authenticity. The omissions are satisfactorily explained by the consideration that the object of these catalogues was the guidance of the people in reading the Scriptures ; and since the mys- teriousness of this book, and the use made of it on the side of the Millenarian errors when the catalogues were chiefly composed, seemed to render it inexpedient that it should be as generally read as the other scrip- tures, its name was excluded from several lists of books for universal use, without any intention of pro- nouncing upon its canonical character. Having now exhibited satisfactory evidence of the authenticity of all the books of the New Testament, be it remarked, that while every part of the sacred volume is of inspired authority, and therefore of such importance as that no man can take away from it or add unto it without heinous offence against God ; still, the argument for the divine mission of Jesus and for the divine origin of Christianity depends chiefly upon the historical portions^ and would ex- hibit no deficiency were no attention paid to the authenticity of the othera. In what remains to be said, by way of addition to the various and unequalled evidence already adduced, we shall have a view par^ ticularly to the gospels and Acts of the Apostles. The testimony of the adversaries of Chris- tianity. It may be said, with some appearance of a plan- 106 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. sible objection to the testimony hitherto produced, that it is all derived either from the devoted friends of the gospel, or else from those who professed to be its disciples. Is there no testimony from enemies ? The books of the New Testament were widely circu- lated ; Christian advocates, in their controversies with the heathen, freely appealed to them ; heathens, in their works of attack and defence, must have spoken of them. In what light did they regard them ? Did they ascribe them to their reputed authors ; or did they question their authenticity ? Now we do not grant that the testimony already produced is justly lia- ble to the least disparagement on account of its having been derived exclusively from the friends of Christ. That certain ancients believed the facts contained in Caesar's Commentaries, has never been supposed to diminish the value of their testimony to the authen- ticity of that work. We will take occasion, by and by, to show that the very fact that an early witness to the New Testament history was not an enemy, but a friend, of the gospel, and had become a friend from having been once an enemy, is just the ingre- dient in his testimony that gives it peculiar conclu- siveness. Still, however, we are under no temptation to undervalue the importance of an appeal to the opinions of adversaries. Let us inquire of enemies as well as friends — and first, of Julian. Julian the emperor united intelligence, learning, and power, with a persecuting zeal, in a resolute effort to root out Christianity. In the year 361, he composed a work against its claims. We may bo AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 107 well assured that if any thing could have been said against the authenticity of its books, he would have used it. His work is not extant ; but from long ex- tracts found in the answer by Cyril, a few years after, as well as from the statements of his opinions and arguments by this writer, it is unquestionable that Julian bore witness to the authenticity of the four gospels and of the Acts of the Apostles. He concedes, and argues from, their early date ; quotes them by name as the genuine works of their reputed authors ; proceeds upon the supposition, as a thing undeniable, that they were the only historical books which Christians received as canonical — the only authentic narratives of Christ and his apostles, and of the doctrine they delivered. He has also quoted, or plainly referred to, the epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, and Gralatians, and nowhere insinuates that the authenticity of any portion of the New Tes- tament could reasonably be questioned.* Let us ascend a little higher. Hierocles, president of Bithynia, and a learned man of about the year 303, united with a cruel persecution of Christians the publication of a book against Christianity, in which, instead of issuing even the least suspicion that the New Testament was not written by those to whom its several parts were ascribed, he confines his effort to the hunt of internal flaws and contradictions. Besides this tacit acknow- ledgment, his work, or the extracts of it that remain, refer to at least six out of the eight writers of the • Lardiier, vol. 4, p. 341. 108 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. books of the New Testament.* Let us ascend still higher. Porphyry, universally allowed to have been the most severe and formidable adversary in all primitive antiquity, wrote, about the year 270, a work against Christianity. It is evident that he was well ac- quainted with the New Testament. In the little that has been preserved of his w^ritings, there are plain references to the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John, the Acts of the Apostles, and the epistle to the Galatians.t Sj^aking of Christians, he calls Matthew their evangelist. '' He possessed every ad- vantage which natural abilities or political situation could afford, to discover whether the New Testament was a genuine work of the apostles and evangelists, or whether it was imposed upon the world after the decease of its pretended authors. But no trace of this suspicion is anywhere to be found ; nor did it ever occur to Porphyry to suppose that it was spuri- ous."^ How well this ingenious writer understood the value of an argument against the authenticity of a book of Scripture, and how greedily he would have enlisted it in his wat against Christianity, could he have found such a weapon, is evident from his well-known effort to escape the prophetic inspiration of the book of Daniel, by denying that it was written in the times of that prophet. We may ascend still higher. Celsus, esteemed a man of learning among the • Lardncr, vol. 4, p. 259. t Ibid. 4, 234. t Marsh's Michaelis, 1, 43. AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 109 ancients, and a wonderful philosopher among modern infidels, wrote a labored argument against the Chris- tians. He flourished in the year 176, or about seventy-six years after the death of St. John. None can accuse him of a want of zeal to ruin Christianity. None can complain against his testimony as deficient in antiquity. An industrious, ingenious, learned adversary of that age, must have known whatever was suspicious in the authorsliip of the New Testa- ment writings. His book entitled, ^' The True Word," is unhappily lost ; but in the answer composed by Origen, the extracts from it are so large, that it is difficult to find of any ancient book, not extant, more extensive remains. The author quotes from the gos- pels such a variety of particulars, even in these frag- ments, that the enumeration would prove almost an abridgment of the gospel narrative.* Origen has noticed in them about eighty quotations from the books of the New Testament, or references to them. Among these there is abundant evidence that Celsus was acquainted with the gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John. Several of Paul's epistles are alluded to. His whole argument proceeds upon the concession that the Christian Scriptures were the works of the authors to whom they were ascribed. Such a thing as a suspicion to the contrary is not breathed ; and yet no man ever wrote against Christianity with greater virulence. Hence it appears, '* by the tes- timony of one of the most malicious adversaries the Christian religion ever had, and who was also a man * Doddridge, in Lardiier, vol. 4, pp. 145, 147. 110 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. of considerable parts and learning, that the writings of the evangelists were extant in his time, which was the next century to that in which the apostles lived ; and that those accounts were written by Christ's own disciples, and consequently in the very age in which the facts there related were done, and when therefore it would have been the easiest thing in the world to have convicted them of false- hood, if they had not been true."* '^ Who can for- bear," says the devout Doddridge, '^ adoring the depth of divine wisdom, in laying up such a firm foundation of our faith in the gospel history, in the writings of one who was so inveterate an enemy to it, and so indefatigable in his attempts to overthrow it?"^ Who, I will add, can help the acknowledg- ment that in Celsus, Porphyry, Hierocles, and Jul- ian — all of them learned controversialists, as well as devoted opponents and persecutors of Christians, extending their testimony from the seventieth year after the last of the apostles, to the year of our Lord 361 — every reasonable demand for the testimony of enemies is fully met, and a gracious Providence has perfected the external evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament ? We proceed to confirm the abounding proof already adduced, by a brief reference to the lan- guage AND STYLE OF THE NeW TeSTAMENT. 1. The language and style are in perfect accord" * Answer to "Christianity as Old as the Creation," by Leland, vol. 2, chap. 5, pp. 150-154. t Doddridge, in Lardner, vol. 4, p. 147. AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. Ill ance with the local and other circumstances of the reputed writers. They were Jews by birth, Jews by education, Jews by numerous and strong attach- ments, Jews in all their associations of thought and feeling. Jews were, in great part, the persons to whom they wrote. Jewish prejudices, objections, and peculiarities were, to a great extent, the ob- stacles in . their way. The religious and political instituti(3ns of the Jewish nation, though perfectly exterminated in a few years after they wrote, were in full establishment till after the death of all of them except St. John. Hence it is reasonably expected that Jewish peculiarities should be found frequently and broadly stamped upon any writings truly pro- fessing to have proceeded from their pens. Such, notoriously, is the case with the writings of the New Testament. None but Jews could have composed them. None but Jews who lived before the destruc- tion of their temple and city and polity and nation could have cast them in their present mould, or marked them with all those indescribable and in- imitable touches of a Jewish hand which their style and language everywhere exhibit. The use of words and phrases which are known to have been peculiar to Judea in the times of the- apostles ; the continual, familiar, and natural allusions to the ceremonies and temple-service of the Jews, as then existing, and which soon passed away; the universal prevalence of a mode of thinking and of expression, which none but a Jew brought up under the Old Testa- ment, always accustomed to think of religion through 112 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. the types and shadows of the law, and reared amidst the usages, prejudices, associations, and errors of the Jewish people, as subsisting in the times of the apos- tles, could have introduced without awkwardness and obvious forgery — all bear decided witness not only that the writers of the New Testament were Jews originally in every sense, but that they must have formed their habits of thinking, feeling, and writing, before the destruction of the Jewish state ;. in other words, before the fortieth year after the death of Christ, From that time, so entirely was every ves- tige of the religion and polity of the Jews destroyed, that except among those whose minds had been moulded under preexisting circumstances, the writ- ing of a book in the language and style, and abound- ing in the peculiarities of the New Testament, would have been at least next to impossible. This conclusion will appear the more inevitable, when you consider the characteristic features by which the Greek of the New Testament is distin- guished. In the times of the apostles, Greek was almost a universal language. It was spread over all Palestine. The Jewish coast on the Mediterranean was occupied by cities either wholly or half Greek. On the eastern border of the land from the Arnon up- wards, towards the north the cities were Greek, and towards the south in possession of the Greeks. Sev- eral cities of Judea and Galilee were either entirely, or at least half, peopled by Greeks. " Being thus favored on all sides, this language- was spread, by means of traffic and intercourse, through all classes. AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 113 SO that the people, though with many exceptions, considered generally, understood it, although they adhered more to their own language."* But the ^ Greek thus spoken in Palestine was not like that of Attica, nor of the cities of Asia Minor ; but having become degenerated in consequence of its associations with people whose native tongue was Hebrew, by means of Chaldee and Syriao intermixtures, into Western Aramean, it contained a large $hare of the idioms and other peculiarities belonging to this heterogeneous neighbor. Such was the language in which the apostles must have written. Now, if the books of the New Testament be their writings, they must contain the characteristic features of that Pal- estine Grreek. Such is most manifestly the case. These books are in Greek, not pure and classic, such as a native and educated Grecian would have written, but in Hebraic Greek ; in a language mixed up with the words and idioms of that peculiar dialect of the Hebrew which constituted the vernacular tongue of the inhabitants of Judea and Galilee-in the age of the apostles. Had it been otherwise, were the language of the New Testament pure and classic, then the writers must have been either native and educated Grecians, or else Jews of much more Attic cultiva- tion than the apostles of Christ. In either case a suspicion would attach to the authenticity of our sacred books. Neither case being true, the evidence of authenticity is materially confirmed. * Hug on the Greek language in Palestine. — Bib. Reposi- tory, No. 3 114 M'lLVAlNE^S EVIDENCES. But we go further. The Greek of the New Tes- tament could not have been written by men who had learned their language after the age of the apostles. This mingling of Grecian and Aramean, as it is pre- served in the New Testament,^ ceased to be the fa- miliar tongue of Christians in Palestine before the death of St. John. When Jerusalem, with the whole civil and religious polity of the Jews, was, in the seventeenth year of the Christian era, entirely de- stroyed, and the descendants of Abraham were rooted out of the land, and foreigners came in from all quar- ters to take their places, the language of the country underwent such a change, that except with the scat- tered few who had survived the desolation of their country, the Greek of the New Testament was no more a living language. When St. John died, there was probably not a man alive who could speak or write precisely that tongue. In the second century, an attempt to compose a book in the name of the apostles, and in imitation of their Greek, would have been detected as easily as if a full-bred Frenchman, never out of France, should attempt to compose a volume in a dialect of English, and endeavor to pass it off as the work of a plain, sensible, but unpolished Yorkshireman. Hence, while doubts were enter- tained for a while, in some parts of the church, as to the authenticity of some portions of the New Testa- ment, it was never doubted whether they were writ- ten by men who had lived when the Greek of Pales- tine, as it had been in the apostolic age, was yet alive. AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 115 2. The language and style of the New Testa- ment are in perfect harmony with the known char- acters of the reputed writers. The apostles and evangelists were men of plain, sound understanding, but without any polish of education, and not likely to adorn their writings with much rhetorical dress. Paul, the only exception to this character, was well read in Jewish, and, we have reason to telieve, in Grecian literature. From other sources besides the New Testament, we are informed of certain peculi- arities of natural character, as having distinguished some of those to whom the books of the New Testa- ment are ascribed. John, for example, is always represented in ecclesiastical history as having been remarkable for meekness and gentleness, and a man- ner and spirit full of mild affection. Paul, we always read of as characterized by prompt, energetic zeal and animated boldness. If the books bearing their names were written by those apostles, we must ex- pect to find in them the distinctive stamp of their respective characters. So it is. In the historical books, none of which the educated Paul composed^ there is no ornament of style, but merely the sim- plicity and directness of plain sensible men, honestly relating what they familiarly knew, and disregard- ing style in their intentness upon truth. In the epistles of Paul, however, the case is entirely differ- ent. There we behold the style of a writer brought up in the schools, though obviously in the schools of Judea. Accustomed to writing and to argument, he reasons precisely as we should expect of Saul of 116 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. Tarsus, after having been educated at the feet of Gamaliel, and arrested by divine power and grace on the road to Damascus, and made to " count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ." Everywhere in the epistles bearing his name, are written the strong characters of the pe- culiar zeal and boldness, as well as education, that belonged to Paul; while throughout the writings ascribed to John, there breathes the sweet spirit of gentleness and tender affection, so characteristic of '' that disciple whom Jesus loved." Similar state- ments might be made with regard to other writers of the New Testament, in proportion as their peculi- arities of temperament are known and conspicuous. From all that has now been said, it may easily be made to appear, that if the historical books of the New Testament, the gospels and Acts of the Apostles, on which our subsequent argument will chiefly de- pend, be not authentic — in plainer terms, if they be forgeries, nothing less than a miracle can account for their early and universal currency. Remember that John lived to the end of the fast century. It cannot be supposed that books falsely pretending to have been written by those very evangelists with whom he had been so intimately associated, and one of them professing to have been written by himself, could have gained a reputable currency in the churches while he lived. He certainly knew what he and the other evangelists had published ; and no motive can be assigned that could have induced him to suffer a forgery to pass unexposed. We conclude, therefore, AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 117 that if these books be not authentic, they must have been palmed on the churches after the death of John ; that is, after the beginning of the second century. Suppose we descend to the third. Can it be im- agined that the deception was introduced after this century commenced? Impossible ; since by this time the books in question were read every Lord's day, in all the churches, quoted by writers of all countries, universally received as the oracles of God. If a de- ception was introduced at all, it was brought in somewhere between the death of John and the third century — somewhere in the course of the second. Now, to obtain a clearer view of the difficulties which such an attempt must have had to overcome, let it be supposed that during the present year, a volume containing a digest of laws, under the title of "Laws of the City of New York," should appear among us, pretending to be a code of municipal regulations, composed, about seventy years ago, by a few of the most distinguished inhabitants of that period, and to have been received by the citizens, and appealed to in their municipal courts ever since, as the book of the laws of this city ; claiming, moreover, to be ac- knowledged and obeyed by the present generation as the very code inherited from their fathers; what would be its chance ? A moral impossibility would prevent its success. Nothing but lunacy would undertake such a scheme. It would be enough for lawyers and judges and people to say, ** It was never heard of before. It has never been known in our courts." But this is odIv a feeble illustration of the 118 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. case before us. If the books in question were forged in the name of the evangelists, you must suppose that at some period within a hundred years of St. John, while many were living who had either known him personally or conversed with those who did enjoy that privilege, a volume appeared among the churches differing widely from those books which, as works of the evangelists, they had received and read from the beginning, and yet demanding to be con- sidered as nothing more nor less than those very works. You must suppose the abettors of the im- position to have said to the various nations of Chris- tians, '' These are the genuine gospels in which you were educated ; which your fathers died for ; which your persecutors endeavored to destroy, and your martyrs labored to save ; which have been daily read in your families, expounded in your churches, quoted in your writings, and appealed to in all your contro- versies with heretics and enemies." And yet it must be supposed that Christians, notwithstanding their notorious love for the writings of the evangelists, and their great care in preserving them, were so easily and universally imposed on, as never to perceive that these fraudulent works, instead of having been ex- pounded and read and quoted and appealed to in all their churches, had never been heard of before. You have to suppose, moreover, that while Christianity was surrounded on all sides and opposed at every step by keen-sighted and determined enemies — Jews, on the one hand, with all their cunning ; Greeks and Romans on the other, with all their skill and power, AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 119 ever watcliing, accusing, and persecuting — none of them ever pretended to the discovery that these books, so fraudulently introduced, were not those which the apostles wrote and Christians had always read ; hut all believed them to be the identical writ- ings to which the churches had invariably referred as the law and the testimony. You must go still further, and suppose that, not- withstanding the wide publicity which the genuine works of the apostles had obtained among the primi- tive churches, so immediately did these spurious pro- ductions expel them from the notice and recollection of all people, that no interval is known during which the question between the two conflicting volumes was so much as even debated. You must suppose that the spurious were instantly and everywhere treated with the reverence belonging to inspired books ; that though divers sects of heretics were starting up in various parts, all recognized their authority; that the churches of Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Colosse, Philippi, Gralatia, and Thessalonica, all believed that these several epistles, falsely pretending to have come to them from St. Paul, were those very ones the auto- graphs of which were then in their possession, and copies of which they had been continually reading in public from the time the originals were received from the apostle. Lastly, it must be supposed, that so perfect was the forgery, that although every weapon and artifice that wit and learning and power could contrive, has been employed during eighteen hundred years, for the single purpose of undermining the foun- 120 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. dations of Christianity, no one of its enemies has yet succeeded in picking a flaw in the authenticity of its books. He that can digest all this for the purpose of maintaining that our sacred writings are not authen- tic, can swallow the most abject absurdity. He sup- poses an endless succession of miracles wrought upon innumerable minds for the promotion of imposture. He believes the laws of nature to have been continu- ally violated, under the government of a holy Grod, to countenance unrighteousness. In sustaining this be- lief, he must adopt a principle, with regard to miracles^ the boldness and novelty of which even Hume would have been jealous of. He was so modest as only to maintain that no testimony can prove a miracle. Here, however, the sceptic must maintain that the most absurd miracle can be proved, not only without any testimony, but against all testimony. Enough has now been said to enable you to judge whether the learning or the honesty of the miserable Paine is most to be admired, when he says, "Those who are not much acquainted with ecclesiastical his- tory, may suppose that the book called the New Tes- tament has existed ever since the time of Jesus Christ; but the fact is historically otherwise. There was no such book as the Neic Testament till more than three hundred years after the time that Christ is said to have lived.^^ Whether we ought to save this poor sceptic from the charge of a gross and deliberate falsehood, by imputing to him disgraceful ignorance, I leave you to decide. And now, having maintained our cause, permit AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 121 me to say, that in argument with unbelievers, wo cannot in justice be required to present any of the evidence to which you have been Hstening. The whole burden of proof lies with the objector. Should the authenticity of Paradise Lost be called in ques- tion, no believer in its Miltonian origin would feel himself called upon to prove it. We should wait in calmness till the sceptic had sustained his objection. The book has lived long enough with a fair reputa- tion, to be considered authentic till proved to be spu- rious. So would common justice warrant us in say- ing with regard to the New Testament. Eighteen centuries of high and holy reputation are enough to sustain its authenticity, till sceptics, besides pro^ nouncing^ shall prove it a forgery. Let the objector be kind enough to state the proof of its spuriousness ; let him show the deficiencies in its evidence; let him establish objections to its legitimacy, which all the enemies that surrounded its birth were unable to venture; then will it be time for friends to stand on the defensive and prove its apostolic parentage. But this we know not that any opposer of Christianity ever pretended to have done. How these books were forced upon the world; when Christians were so asleep as not to perceive that they were not the books which they had always been reading, and consulting, and expounding, and loving, and suflering for; when the enemies of Christians were so miraculously blind- ed, and the den of lions in which the church for so many centuries existed was so miraculously hushed and overruled, that such an imposture could gain ad- 122 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. mission and dwell in universal quietness, without so much as one paw to pounce on the prey or one vigi- lant foe to discover its existence— z^/m^ is the evidence that such an event ever took place, I never heard of a human being undertaking to show. You might as well pretend to prove that our American Declaration of Independence, circulated in numberless copies through the country, is not authentic — that our revo- lutionary fathers published no such document, or else that ours is not the declaration which they published. The adversaries of Christianity are wary. It would require learning and time and talents to make even a plausible show of strength, in conflict with the testi- mony to the authenticity of the New Testament ; but it takes no time, requires no talent or knowledge, for such persons to insinuate that its books are forgeries — to put out a wise suspicion that they were not writ- ten by the original disciples. No argument can re- fute a sneer, nor any human skill prevent its mis- chief. They know that many a mind will catch the plague of infidelity by the touch of their insinuation, without ever finding, or caring to seek the antidote. Any body can soil the reputation of an individual, however pure and chaste, by uttering a suspicion, which his enemies will believe, and his friends never hear of. A puff of idle wind can take up a million of the seeds of the thistle, and do a work of mischief which the husbandman must labor long and hard to undo, the floating particles being too trifling to be seen, and too light to be stopped. Such are the seeds of infidelity, so easily sown, so difficult to be gathered INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 123 np, and yet so pernicious in their fruits. It is the Avork of God, much more than of man, that they do not spread more rapidly and widely. The hand of divine Providence interposes to arrest it, where the regular array of human reasoning would have no room to use its strength. Here we should leave the subject, were it not that one question of importance remains to bo answered. How do we know that the New Testament has pre- served its integrity? While it appears so conclu- sively that our present books are verily those which the evangelists and apostles wrote, and the primitive churches loved and read, how does it appear that they have undergone no material alteration since those times? On this head, the answer is complete. We may reason from the perfect impossibility of any material alteration. The Scriptures, as soon as written, were published. Christians eagerly sought for them, copies were multiplied, carried into distant countries, esteemed a sacred treasure, for which dis- ciples were willing to die. They were daily read in families and expounded in churches; writers quoted them; enemies attacked them; heretics endeavored to elude their decisions; and the orthodox were vigi- lant, lest the former in their efforts to escape the in- terpretation should change the text. In a short time, copies were scattered over the whole inhabited portion of the earth. Yersions were made into different lan- guages. Harmonies and collations and commentaries and catalogues were carefully made and published. Thus universal notoriety, among friends and enemies, 124: M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. was given to every book. How, in such circum- stances, could material alterations be made without exposure? If made in one copy, they must have been made universally ; or else some unaltered copies would have descended to us, or would have been noticed and quoted in ecclesiastical history and the writings of ancient times. If made universally, the work must have been done either by friends^ or by heretics^ or by open enemies. Is it supposable that open enemies^ unnoticed by Christians, could have altered all or a hundredth part of the copies, when they were so continually read and so affectionately protected? Could the sects of heretics have done such a work, when they were ever watching one an- other as jealously as all their doings were continually watched by the churches? Could true Christians have accomplished such a task, even if any motive could-, have led them to desire it, while heretics on one hand, and innumerable enemies on the other, were always awake, and watchful with the Scriptures in their hands to lay hold of the least pretext against defenders of the faith? It was at least as unUkely that material alterations in the New Testament should pass unnoticed, and become universal, in the early centuries and in all succeeding ones, as that an important change in a copy of the Constitution of the United States should creep into all the copies scat- tered over the country, and be handed down as part of the original document, unnoticed by the various parties and jealousies by which that instrument is so closely watohed and so constantly referred to. Such INTEaUlTY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 125^ was the precise assertion of a writer of the fourth century on this very subject. *'The integrity," says Augustine, *'of the books of any one bishop, however eminent, cannot be so completely kept as that of the canonical Scripture, translated into so many lan- guages, and kept by the people of every age; and yet, some there have been who have forged writings with the names of apostles. In vain indeed, because that Scripture has been so esteemed, so celebrated, so known."* Reasoning with a heretic, he says, ''If any one should charge you with having interpolated some texts alleged by you, would you not immediately answer that it is impossible for you to do such a thing in books read by all Christians ? And that if any such attempt had been made by you, it would have been presently discerned and defeated by comparing the ancient copies? Well, then, for the same reason that the Scriptures cannot be corrupted by you, neither could they be corrupted by any other peo- ple."t The agreement among the existing manuscripts of the New Testament proves that this holy volume has not been corrupted. Of no ancient classic are the extant manuscripts so numerous, as those of the New Testament. Griesbach in making his edition collated more than three hundred and fifty. These were writ- ten in different ages and countries. Some of them are as old as the fourth or fifth century. Some con- tain all, others only particular books or parts of books of the New Testament. Several contain detached * Lardner, vol. 2, p. 594. t Ibid. 9. 228. 126 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. portions or lessons, as appointed to be read on certain occasions in the churches. In none of them have we any thing differing in essential points from the text at present received. It is true, and it sounds to un- informed ears quite alarming, that in the manuscripts collated for Griesbach's edition of the New Testament, as many as one hundred and fifty thousand various readings are said to have been found. But all alarm will seem gratuitous, when it is known that not one in a thousand of these various readings makes any perceptible, or at most, any important variation of meaning; that they consist almost entirely in mani- fest mistakes of transcribers, such as the omission or transposition of letters, errors in pointing, in gram- mar, in the use of certain words instead of others of similar meaning, and in changing the position of words in a sentence. The very worst manuscript, were it our only copy of the New Testament, would not pervert one Christian doctrine or precept. By all the omissions and all the additions contained in all the manuscripts, no fact, no doctrine, no duty, presented in our authorized version, is rendered either obscure or doubtful. The diversity of readings is ample proof that our present manuscripts were made from various copies in ancient times; while the in- considerable importance of this diversity of readings shows how nearly those copies conformed to the origi- nal Scriptures, and how little difference would be seen between our present New Testament and the autographs of its writers, could they be now collated. No ancient book has preserved its text so uncorrupt INTEGRITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 127 as those of the New Testament. None is attended with so many means of detecting an inaccurate read- ing. A common reader, could he compare the various manuscripts, would be sensible of no more difference among them than among the several copies of his English Bible, which have been printed during the last two hundred years. The uncorrupt preservation of the text of the New Testament is also evident from its agreement with the numerous quotations in the works of early Christian writers^ and with those ancient transla- tions which are now extant. In the remaining books of the fathers of the first three centuries, quotations from the New Testament are so abundant, that almost the whole of the sacred text could be gathered from those sources. Excepting some six or seven verses, the genuineness of wliich is not perfectly set- tled, there is an exact agreement in all material respects, between those quotations and the corre- sponding parts of our New Testament. The same confirmation, though still more satisfactory, is de- rived from ancient versions. We possess, in various languages, versions of the New Testament, reaching as far back as the early part of the second century. The MaBSo-Gothic version, discovered by Mai in 1817, and made by Ulphilas, bishop of the MaBso-Groths, in the year 370, of which only fragments were possessed before, has the same text as ours. The old Syriac version, called Peshito, is considered by some of the best Syriac scholars to have been made before the close of the first century. It was certainly in exist- 128 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. ence and general use before the close of the second. Though never brought into contact with our copies of the New Testament, because not known in Europe till the sixteenth century; though handed down by a line of tradition perfectly independent of, and un- known to, that by which our Greek Testament was received ; yet when the two came to be compared, the text of the one was almost an exact version of the text of the other. The difference was altogether unimportant. So clearly and impressively has divine Providence attested the integrity of our beloved Scrip- tures. It is now high time we had relieved your atten- tion. You will allow me to proceed, in the subse- quent lectures, on the belief that the authenticity and integrity of the New Testament have been satis- factorily proved. But let us not separate without ackno.^ledging, in thankfulness of heart, our debt of gratitude to Him who, on a subject of such un- speakable importance, has given us such abundant reason for complete conviction. He has made the great truth for which we have been contending, like " the round world, so sure that it cannot be moved." CREDIBILITY OF THE OOSPELS. 129 LECTURE IV. ^ CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL HISTORY. In the last two lectures our attention was occupied with the authenticity and integrity of the New Testament. A body of proof was presented, of such variety and conclusiveness as should cause us to feel, that in taking these important points for granted in our subsequent course, we assume nothing which every candid mind should not acknowledge to have been satisfactorily established. You will allow me, therefore, to treat the books of the New Testament as needing no further argument to prove that they were written in the age to which they are ascribed, and by the authors whose names they bear. But it should be remembered, that a book may be authentic and yet not credible. It may have been written indeed by the reputed author, and yet its narrative may not be worthy of confidence. This, I say, is a possible case. Examples illustrating it are not numerous. So generally do authentic histo- ries prove to be true, that when we have ascertained a book to have been composed by the individual whose name is on it, we have a strong presumptive argument for the truth of all the conspicuous and important features in its narrative. But inasmuch as these two things are not always associated, an 6* 130 M'lLVAlJ^lES EVIDENCES. important question remains to be determined before we can open the New Testament as the book of the life and religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and wor- thy of entire reliance as an account of what was done and taught by himself and his apostles. Does the New Testament contain a true history of events connected with the ministry of Jesus and his primi- tive disciples, so that we may receive as historically accurate whatever is related therein? This refers to what is usually called the credibility of the gospel HISTORY, and expresses the subject of our present lecture. But lest the bearing of my remarks should not bo distinctly understood, I will endeavor to state the subject still more precisely. Observe, then, it is not the inspiration of the gospel history, or that it was written by holy men as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, that we are now to prove ; nor that it contains a revelation from God ; nor that its doctrines are true ; nor that any of its facts were miraculous : these are subjects which it would be premature to introduce at present. All at which we now aim, is to furnish conclusive evidence that the gospel history is true^ in the same sense as Marshall's Life of Washington is true — that what it relates, as matter of fact, is worthy of entire reliance as matter of fact, independently of all inferences or doctrines with which it may be connected. How do we prove the credibility of the gospel history? I answer, precisely as you would ascer- tain the credibility of any other history. Though, CREDIBILITY OF THE OOSPELS. 131 as ia the case of authenticity, we are ready to pro- duce a variety and an abundance of evidence far exceeding what the best established and the most unquestionable books of ancient profane history can pretend to, still, the nature of the evidence is the same in one case as in the other. The fact that one history is called sacred, and another profane; that in one book the actions of a holy and extraordinary philanthropist named Jesus are related, and in another the actions of a wicked and extraordinary man-slayer named Caesar, occasions not the least difference in the nature of the evidence by which the credibility of both must be ascertained. Here it would be perfectly safe and reasonable to rest the question of credibility uiK>n the proof arrived at in the last lecture. Although it does not follow, in all cases, that to prove a book authentic, is to prove it credible also with regard to its principal events ; yet, in the case before us, the fact that the books of the New Testament were written in the first century of Christianity, and by the apostles and original disciples of Christ, is complete evidence that in respect to the main events of the gospel history they are true. If one should write a romance, call- ing it the memoir of some well-known and distin- guished personage, and publish it, not as grave, cred- ible biography, but under the character of a novel, the authenticity of the work would have no connec- tion with its truth. But should he issue a book pro- fessing to be the true biography of Washington ; should he vouch in every way for its truth, and stake 132 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. his reputation upon its accuracy, in the midst of a generation familiar with the life of that noble man, and still containing some who were his companions and the eye-witnesses of many of his deeds, it would be reasonably inferred, that unless the author were an idiot or a madman, his work must be correct, at least in the great mass of its statements and in all its conspicuous events. He must be aware that, under such circumstances, no important narrative without truth could escape detection. The fact, therefore, that he has published, in the midst of this generation, what he expects to be received as a cor- rect biography of Washington, is sufficient warrant that, however inaccurate it may be in minute details, and however deficient in many respects of good writ- ing and useful history, we may safely receive its principal narratives. Such a thing cannot be pro- duced as a book published in the age in which its events are said to have occurred, and among the people to whose minds those events are said to have been familiar — a book which its author gravely avowed and defended as true and accurate, and yet which, in its principal narratives, in its prominent characters and occurrences, was not in accordance with fact. Men have too much sense, if not too much honesty, to attempt such a Quixotic adventure ; especially when character and worldly interests are committed by the falsehood. But there is no book to which this remark is so applicable as the New Testament. Not only was it published in the age in which the events related are asserted to have oc- CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPELS. 133 curred, and among the people to whom they are said to have been notorious, but in an age and among a people awake to the whole subject of its history, determined to sift its correctness to the uttermost, capable of the severest scrutiny, and anxious to take advantage of the smallest inaccuracy. This the writers were perfectly aware of. They must have known that in the brevity of the history^ in the few- ness of its principal facts, in the great prominence and notoriety of each, in the few persons to whom they belong as their leading agents, in the few places and the confined region in which they are said to have occurred, and in the brief space of time within which they were all embraced, their adversaries possessed advantages for investigation which nothing but bold and plain truth could confront, and no fic- tion could possibly elude. That in the face of all these advantages, they did publish, and stake their characters and lives upon the correctness of their narratives, is a full warrant that they published truth. This argument can only be escaped by charging the writers of the New Testament with a degree of idiocy or madness, which the eminent wisdom and excel- lence of their works prove to have been impossible. I venture to say, that should the same argument be alleged with equal force in behalf of any other ancient book of history, its credibility as to the main events related would be considered, independently of any other evidence, as placed beyond a reasonable sus- picion. Here, then, we might proceed to open the New 13i M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. Testament as a book of correct narrative ; certified that, because authentic, it is therefore, as to all im- portant matters of fact, credible. But we are not restricted to a single method of proof. The subject is compassed about with a cloud of witnesses. We take up another and broader plan of argument, the force of which none can mistake. Let me ask by what sort of evidence you would feel assured of the credibility of any history professing to relate events of a past age ? Suppose you should discover a volume hitherto concealed, professing to have been written by some well-known individual of the Augustan age, and to contain a narrative of events in the personal history and domestic life of Augustus CsBsar. You would first examine into its authenticity. That settled, you would inquire into the credibility of its narrative. The first ques- tion would be, did the writer possess every advantage of knowing the events in the personal history of Augustus ? May I depend on the sufficiency of his knowledge? Now, he may not have lived with Augustus, and yet his knowledge may have been perfectly adequate. But your mind would be fully satisfied on this head, should it appear that the writer was not only a contemporary, but that he was do- mesticated with Augustus — conversed familiarly with him, lived at his table, assisted at his councils, ac- companied him on his journeys. The question of adequate knowledge being thus at rest, another would remain : May I depend on the honesty of the writer ? In ordinary cases, you CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPELS. 135 would be satisfied if nothing appeared in the "book itself, or in the testimony of contemporaneous writ- ings, impeaching his honesty. But your satisfaction would be much increased should you discover, in the style and spirit of the narrative, in its simplicity, modesty, and freedom of manner, in the circum- stantial character of its details and the frequency of its allusions to time, place, and persons, those inter- nal features of honesty which it is so extremely diffi- cult, if not impossible, to counterfeit. Your confi- dence would grow exceedingly if, on a comparison of the book with other well-established histories of the same times, you should discover not only that there is no contradiction in any particular, but that all its allusions to the customs, institutions, prejudices, and poUtical events of the times, are abundantly con- firmed from other sources. This would set the honesty of the writer in a very favorable light. But suppose, that at this stage you should dis- cover three other books upon the same subject, each evidently written by a person in the family and confidence of Augustus, or else with equally favorable opportunities of knowing him — each evidently an independent work, and having all the inward and outward marks of truth before detailed. Suppose, that on comparing these four histories together, ypu find that while each contains some minor facts which the others do not, and relates in its own style and language what all contain in common, there is yet no disagreement among them ; but on the contrary, the most perfect confirmation one of another. Surely, 136 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. after this no farther evidence could be demanded of the veracity of all those historians. But still, though you would have no right to require, you might per- haps discover additional evidence. You might search collateral history for the private characters of those writers ; and how would it heighten your satisfaction to find that universally they were esteemed beyond reproach, even by their personal opponents. You might also inquire what motive they could have had for deception ; and how conclusive w^ould it seem in their favor to discover, that so far from any suspicion of such a motive attaching to them, they had under- taken to publish what they did with the certainty of sacrificing every thing earthly, and actually plunged themselves by it into poverty, contempt, and suffer- ing. One can hardly imagine stronger evidence of truth. None could, with any reason, require it. But yet there might be additional evidence. These historians perhaps had many and bitter per- sonal adversaries. How did they treat their books ? The books were published during the lifetime of many who had seen Augustus, and had witnessed the principal events described ; they were published in the very places where those events took place, and in the midst of thousands who knew all about them. How, then, did their enemies treat these histories? Now, should you discover that the personal adver- saries of these four writers, however disposed, were unable to deny, but on the contrary acknowledged, assumed, and reasoned upon their narratives as true ; and furthermore, that the thousands who had wit- CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPELS. 137 nessed the principal events recorded, never contra- dicted those narratives, but in numerous instances afforded all the confirmation they were capable of ; I am sure you would think the whole evidence for the credibility of those four histories not only conclusive, but singularly and wonderfully so. I have thus sketched a mass of evidence, and a variety of adequate evidence, which, were the half of it required for any book of ancient history but the Bible, would bring its credibility into utter condem- nation. If a book, with all this in its favor, ought not to be believed, historical truth, or the possibility of ascertaining it, must be given up. But who would think of resisting such evidence? What would be thought of the intellect, not to speak of the candor of the man who, with all this before him, should take up the memoir of the life of Augustus CsBsar, as above supposed, and not feel that it were the absurdest folly to question the accuracy of its statements? In laying out this sketch, I have ex- hibited a general view of the evidence for the credi- bility of the gospel history. In proceeding to more particular details, I hope to show you that every branch of the evidence I have glanced at, however vain to seek it in favor of any other ancient history, can be cited in attestation of the credibility of that in the New Testament. From the brief view we have taken of the evi- dence which may be brought for the credibility of any historical document, it appears that the great points to be made out in favor of the writer are these 138 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. two : compel e7it knowledge and trustworlhy honesly. Did he know enough to write a true account ? and then, was he honest enough to be unable to write any other than a true account? Establish these, and the book is established — the question is closed. Let us take this plan as to the history before us. We have several independent writings containing the gospel history. Let us select that of St. John, and try the question first upon it. We begin, then, with this most important inquiry : I. Had the writer of this book sufficient oppor- tunities OF POSSESSING ADEQUATE KNOWLEDGE AS TO THOSE MATTERS OF FACT WHICH HE HAS RELATED ? I do not suppose that much array of argument can be necessary to prove that he had every opportunity. It is to be first considered, that the amount of know- ledge required to enable John, or either of the other evangelists, to give an accurate account of so much of the life of Christ and of the transactions connected with his cause as he has embraced in his narrative, was not very considerable. The gospel history is contained in a small space. Thirty pages of a com- mon family Bible comprise the whole of what John has related. It is a plain, straightforward account of a very simple, intelligible train of events. There are no labyrinths of historical truth to trace out ; no perplexed involutions of circumstances to unravel. Consequently, when you consider that John, by the testimony of all tradition, as well as that of the gospel history, was a member of the household of Christ — admitted into his most unreserved and affec- CREDIBILITY OF THE aOSPELS. 139 tionate intercourse — the disciple whom he specially- loved, who accompanied him in all his journeyings, followed him into his retirements, stood beneath his cross, and w^as a constant companion of the other disciples, and a witness of their actions — -you will readily grant that John must have possessed all desirable opportunities of knowing, and must actually have known the gospel history so perfectly as to be fully competent to write an accurate account. I shall therefore refrain from any further remarks upon this branch of the argument, and shall pass to the second, in entire confidence that I leave no mind in any reasonable doubt of the adequateness of our his- toriari's knowledge. II. The second and the main question to be pur- sued is this : Have we reason to rely with implicit CONFIDENCE UPON THE HONESTY OF THIS HISTORIAN ? Believing him to have known enough to relate the truth, may we also believe that he w^as too honest to relate any thing but the truth ? This is a fair and plain question. Prove the negative, and John's his- tory must be given up. Prove the affirmative, and it is '* worthy of all acceptation.'* We begin the argument for the aflSrmative with the history itself. There are certain characteristic marks of historical honesty which can hardly be counterfeited to any extent, and always produce a favorable impression. Take up the history written by St. John. I call your attention to the obvious facts that, 1. Its narrative is in a very high degree circum^ stantiaL A false witness will not need to be cau- 140 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. tioned against the introduction of many minute circumstances into his statement. The more he connects it with the particulars of time and place and persons, so as to locate his facts, and bring in living men as associated with them, the more does he multiply the probabilities of detection. He gives the cross-examination every advantage. It would be impossible for a false statement abounding in such details, and at the same time exciting general interest in the neighborhood where, and soon after they are alleged to have occurred, to escape exposure. Conse- quently, when we take up a narrative thus minutely circumstantial, and which we are sure did excite among all classes where its events are located, the very highest and most scrutinizing interest, and that too within a short time after the period to which the events are referred, we always feel impressed with a strong persuasion that the writer had the conscious- ness of truth and the fearlessness of honesty. It is evident that he had no disposition, and therefore no cause, to shun the closest investigation. On the other hand, if you take up any books professing to be histories of events within the reach and investigation of those among whom they were first published, but yet in a great measure untrue, you will find a great deficiency of such minute details of time, place, and persons, as would serve to test their faithfulness. Compare them with the histories of the Peloponnesian and Gallic wars, by Thucydides and Julius Caesar, and you will see directly how strong a feature of true narrative, in distinction from whatever is in a great CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPELS. 141 degree invented, is a circumstantial detail of minute particulars. Generality is the cloak of fiction. Minuteness is the natural manner of truth, in proportion to the importance and interest of the subject. Such is the precise manner and continual evidence of the honesty of St. John. His history is full of the most minute circumstances of time, place, and persons. Does ho record, for example, the resuscitation of Lazarus? He tells the name of the village, and describes the particular spot where the event occurred. He gives the names of some of the principal individuals who were present, mentions many unbelieving Jews as eye-witnesses, states the precise object for which they had come to the place, what they did and said, the time the body had been buried, how the sepulchre was constructed and closed, the impression which the event made upon the Jews, how they were divided in opinion in consequence of it, the particular expres- sions of one of them whose name is given, and the subsequent conduct of the Jews in regard to Lazarus. This, you perceive, is being very circumstantial. It is only a specimen of the general character of St. John's gospel. It looks very much as if the writer were not afraid of any thing the people of Bethany, pr the survivors of those who had been present at the tomb of Lazarus, or the children of any of them, might have to say with regard to the resurrection. Now, when you consider that John's history was widely circulated while many were yet living in Bethany, who, had these events never occurred, must 142 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. have known it, and among a people who in addition to every facihty had every desire to find out the least departure from truth, I think you will acknowledge that the circumstantial character of this book is very strong evidence that the author must have written in the confidence of truth. 2. Another striking evidence to the same point is seen in this, that the author exhibits ?io conscious' ness of narrating' any thing ahotit ivhich,, as a mat- ter of notorious fact^ there was the smallest doubt. He takes no pains, evinces no thought of attempting to convince his reader of the truth of what he relates. On the contrary, the whole narrative is conducted with the manner and aspect of one who takes for granted the entire notoriety of his statements. He comes before the public as one familiarly known, needing no account of himself or of his pretensions to universal confidence. He goes straight forward with his story, delivering the least and the most wonderful relations in the same simple and unembarrassed man- ner of ease and confidence, which nothing but an assurance of unimpeachable consistency can explain. Nothing is said to account for what might seem inexplicable — to defend what would probably be cav- illed at — to anticipate objections which one feeling himself on questionable ground would naturally look for. The writer seems to be conscious, that with regard to those for whom especially he wrote, all this were needless. He is willing to commit his simple statement alone, undefended, unvarnished, into the liands of friend or foe. CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPELS. 143 Nothing is more remarkable in this connection, than that while he could not have been ignorant that he was relating many very extraordinary and won- derful events, he shows no wonder in his own mind, and seems to expect no wonder among his readers. This looks exceedingly like one who writes, not of extraordinary events just contrived in his own imagi- nation, but of extraordinary events which, whatever the wonder they excited when first known, are now perfectly familiar not only to himself, but to his read- ers. It is one thing to relate a series of astonishing occurrences which we feel are perfectly new to the readers, and a very different thing to relate the same to those who have long since been familiarly ac- quainted with their prominent particulars, and desire only a more circumstantial and confidential account. In the former case, the writer would naturally and almost necessarily betray in his style and the whole texture of his statement an expectation of the wonder and probable incredulity of his readers. In the lat- ter, ho would deliver his narrative as if he were think- ing only of an accurate detail of truth, without par- ticular reference to whether it were astonishinsr or the contrary. Thus it is with St. John. There is no appearance of his having felt as if any of his gospel would be new, or would excite any new emotions of wonder in his readers. The marvellous works of Christ were at that time notorious. When first heard of, they excited universal astonishment. ^' His fame went abroad, and all the people were amazed." But so much time had now elapsed, that emotions of 144 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. wonder had subsided, under the influence of repeti- tion and familiarity. In striking consistency with this is the whole aspect of St. John's narrative. He goes directly forward in the relation of events, in themselves exceedingly impressive and astonishing, exhibiting no sign of any astonishment in his own mind, anticipating none in his contemporaneous read- ers. How is this to be explained ? One can discover no plausible explanation but in the supposition that he was conscious of recording events with which, in their chief particulars, the public mind had been entirely familiarized. This may deservedly be con- sidered a strong indication of truth. 3. I see another plain evidence to the same point, in the minute accuracy which marks all the allu- sions of this narrative to the manners^ customs^ opin- ions^ political events^ and other circumstances of the times. The situation of Judea in the time of the Saviour, was such as to bring it frequently under the eye of the profane writers of that age. From them we derive a great many particulars, illustrating the several modifications effected in the civil and religious institutions of the Jews by their subjection to Rome. And thus we have a great many points of comparison between the gospel history and the other histories of the same times. The former contains innumerable references to the peculiarities then existing in the Jewish state — its laws, courts, punishments, as well as to the opinions, prejudices, and customs then pre- vailing. This was dangerous ground for the inventor of a story. The continual fluctuations in public CREDIBILITY OF THE aOSPELS. 145 affairs, the numerous and complex changes in the supreme officers of Judea and the neighboring prov- inces, as well as in the boundaries and character of their governments, within the period embraced in the gospel history, must have added greatly to the diffi- culty of an inventor of a narrative located in such circumstances, and filled with allusions to them. We have a Jewish historian of the same age, with which to confront the gospel history. Josephus has furnished us with a full and minute account of those internal affairs of the Jews, both civil and religious, to which allusions are made in the gospel history. It would be evidently very far beyond the limits of a lecture to attempt a proof that all the minutest allusiops in our sacred history are not only uncontradicted, but wherever the same things are spoken of, are posi- tively confirmed by the secular authority to wliich we have referred ; but we assert it as a fact well known to every student of the gospel history, and of which any who have the disposition to examine the question may easily be satisfied. NoWy it seems to me it would have been next to impossible for the inventor of a story exciting such general and intense interest, branching out into such circumstantial de- tails, and connected at so many points with the pecu- liarities of the times, to tread upon ground so covered with snares without being caught.* * For this description of evidence the reader will find much very instructive and useful matter in a recent work entitled, "Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings both of the Old and New Testaments, an Argument for their Veracity," by the Rev. J. J. Blunt, B. D., Prof, of Divinity, Cambridge, Eng. 146 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. 4. Let us next consider the concurring testimony/ of other witnesses. We have as yet directed your attention to the gospel narrative as furnished by a single contemporaneous historian and witness. But suppose you should unexpectedly discover in the ruins of Herculaneum three distinct writings heretofore entirely unknown, but containing the most satisfac- tory evidence of authenticity, and evidently written in \hQ first century of Christianity, by three several and independent authors, each possessed of the best opportunities of knowledge ; and suppose that in every one of them there should be found a history of Christ and his gospel ; what an uncommon oppor- tunity would it seem of trying the accuracy of this book of St. John. Even if these three newly dis- covered authors were bad men, yet, if their state- ments should agree with his, it would determine the accuracy of his history. But if it should appear that thoy were all good men, how much more complete would be their confirmation. Suppose, however, it should turn out that these three writers were not only good men, but, like St. John, disciples of Christ and ministers of his gospel, what effect would their concur- rent testimony then have upon his accuracy? Would it be diminished in conclusiveness by the discovery of their Christian character ? I believe that in the minds of multitudes it would, but most unjustly. Precisely the contrary should be the consequence. If four of The volume is reprinted in New York, in connection with the celehrated Horse Paulinae, by Paley, in which the same species of argument is carried on with reference to the epistles of St. Paul. CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPELS. 147 the chief officers in Napoleon's staff had published memoirs of his life, I venture to say that the con- currence of their several statements, instead of hav- ing its evidence weakened because they were all attached to Napoleon and admitted to his domestic circle, would be greatly strengthened in your estima- tion by that very circumstance, inasmuch as it would insure the accuracy of their knowledge without im- peaching their integrity. But some seem to suppose that the laws regulating the force of testimony are all changed, as soon as the matter of fact in question is removed from the department of profane to that of sacred history. How much has been made of the testimony of the Roman historian Tacitus to some of the chief facts of the gospel history. It is the testimony of a heathen, and therefore supposed to be incomparably valuable. Now, suppose Tacitus the heathen had not only been persuaded of the facts he has related, but had been so deeply impressed with the belief of them as to have renounced heathenism and embraced the Chris- tian faith, and then published the history we now possess ; who does not know, that with the infidel, and with many a believer, the force of his testimony would have been greatly diminished ? No reason for this can be given, except that we have a vague idea of some depreciating effect arising from the fact that a Christian in the cause of Christianity must be an interested witness. To be sure, he is interested ; but is his testimony the less valuable ? A scientific man bearing testimony to a phe- 148 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. nomenon in natural history is an interested witness, because he is devoted to science ; but his testimony is not the less valuable. A good man bearing testimony to the character of another good man is an interested witness, because he is the friend of virtue and of all good men ; but his testimony is not the less valuable. In this and no other sense were the original disciples interested witnesses. They were interested in Chris- tianity only so far as they believed it true. Suppose them to have known it to be untrue, and you cannot imagine the least jot or tittle of interest they could have had in it. In such a case, on the contrary, the current of all their interests and prepossessions would have run directly and powerfully in opposition to Christianity. This then being the only aspect in which they can be regarded as interested, the force of their testimony, so far from being in the least im- paired, is greatly enhanced by the consideration. Tho bare fact that any primitive writer bearing witness to events related by St. John, was not a heathen or a Jew, but a Christian, is the very thing that should be regarded as completing his testimony. Is the evi- dence of Tacitus, who relates such events, but re- mained a heathen, any thing like so strong, as if we could say. It is the evidence of Tacitus, who was a heathen, but believed those events so firmly that he became a Christian ? If a man speak well to me of the virtues of a certain medicine, but does not use it himself, is his opinion half so weighty as if he were to receive it into his own vitals, and administer it in his family ? Would it be reasonable, in this case, to CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPELS. 149 refuse his testimony because you might denominate him an interested witness ? I have thus enlarged upon this head, because I am going to present you with the concurrent testi- mony of seven ancient writers, in confirmation of the accuracy of the gospel history as given by St. Johp. They are writers whose testimony has this particular value, whereas once they were Jews and enemies to the gospel, they were afterwards converted to its belief and service, became Christians, and as Chris- tians wrote, and gave every practical evidence that what they wrote they believed. Of these, three composed regular histories of the life and labors of Christ, similar in object to that of John. One of them, besides a memoir of Christ, has carried on the subsequent history of Christianity, under the name of the Acts of the Apostles. Four others com- posed various letters to different individuals, or bodies of Christians, in which they allude continually to events related in the narratives of the former. Now all these several writings are perfectly independent, each of the rest. We have them bound up in one volume, and are apt to overlook the fact that they are as independent productions as if they had never been in contact with one another. Written by various authors in widely remote countries, in all parts of the first century from its forty-first to its ninety-seventh year, in as many different styles and methods as they had writers, these productions cannot, with the least reason, be suspected of having been composed in concert. Of the competency of the knowledge of 160" M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. each writer, we can have no more douht than in the case of St. John. In each of their histories we see the same circumstantiality^ the same striking inter- nal characteristics of honesty, as we have already- noticed in that of the other evangelist. Now, let us divest ourselves of the delusion so apt to arise out of the thought that they are Christian witnesses, and as if this were a question as to the truth of a history of Pythagoras by one of his disciples, and these other writers were also contemporaneous disciples of Py- thagoras, let us bring them face to face and see how they agree. Here, then, we have four independent • histories of the life of Christ, all of them by his con- temporaries, besides the other documents we have mentioned. Now, "it is an extraordinary and sin- gular fact, that no history since the commencement of the world has been written by so great a number of the^ companions and friends of an illustrious person as that of our Saviour. One contemporary history is a rarity; two is a coincidence scarcely known; four is, so far as appears, unparalleled."* We have there- fore an unequalled opportunity of coming at the truth. We compare our several histories. If we find them contradictory, our confidence declines. If they bear a systematic, particular, and yet com- prehensive resemblance, we must suspect collusion. But we perceive neither the contradiction nor the resemblance. We see great variety. What one re- lates, another sometimes leaves out. They differ in arrangement, in minuteness, and sometimes as to fact, * Wilson's Lectures. CREDIBILITY OF THE aOSPELS. 151 in such manner that the reader might be alarmed at first view, lest there should be found a contradiction ; while such is the actual agreement, that all difficul- ties vanish before a strict investigation, and, down to the utmost minuteness of statement, their mutual support is undiminished by a single opposing repre- sentation. The attempts of infidels to make out the appearance of a contradiction, show to what shifts they have been driven, and how accurate is the con- currence. Now this unfailing agreement of four several, independent, and contemporaneous historians, each so circumstantial, each so full of allusions to the events and institutions and customs of the times^ and none contradicted by any evidence whatever, is as convincing an evidence of the honest accuracy of all, as any mind should require. Were the gospel history untrue, such evidence would have been mor- ally impossible. It is peculiar to that history. No other can plead it to any similar extent. And here we feel that we might safely leave the question of credibility. But there are two or three points remain- ing, which must not be left unnoticed. Should I occupy enough of your time to take any thing like a full view of the whole of this argument, I should here introduce the uncontradicted acknow- ledgment of Jewish and heathen enemies of the gospel to the purity and integrity of the primitive disciples of Christ; the strong evidence of their having pos- sessed these virtues, which is exhibited in the pecul- iarly modest and humble manner of the evangelists in speaking of themselves, never concealing or excus- 152 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. ing what might make exceedingly against them, but always mentioning what might seem humiliating or honorable to themselves in the same plain, simple way as they relate any other matter of fact. We should also introduce the variety of incidental con- firmations obtained from profane writers, and from coins, of various particulars contained in the gospel history. We should cite especially the testimony of Tacitus to the time and the fact of the Saviour's crucifixion ; as well as the records called the Acts of Pilate, bearing witness to the same event, and appealed to by early Christian writers as notoriously laid up among the papers of the Roman senate. But since we have not room for every thing, we must dispense with these particulars.* Let it be remembered, that we are still employed upon the honesty of the writers of the gospel history. Suppose then, for a moment, that they were not honest in their statements — that they knew they were endeavoring to pass off a downright imposition upon the world. We will not speak of their intellect in such a case, but of their motive. Now, it would be difiicult to suppose that any man could devote him- self to the diligent promotion of such an imposture without some very particular motive; much more, that without such motive the eight various writers concerned in the New Testament should have united in the plan. What motive could they have had? If impostors, they were bad men ; their motive, there- fore, must have been bad. It must have been to ad- * See Home's Introduction, vol. 1. CREDIBILITY OF THE aOSPELS. 153 vance themselves either in wealth, honor, or power. Take either, or all of these objects, and here, then, is the case you have. Four historians, with four other writers of the New Testament — all but one of them poor, unlearned men — undertake to persuade the world that certain great events took place before the eyes of thousands in Judea and Galilee, which none in those regions ever saw or heard of, and which they know perfectly well did never occur. They see be-, forehand that the attempt to make Jews and heathens believe these things will occasion to themselves all manner of disgrace and persecution. Nevertheless, so fond are they of their contrivance, that though it is bitterly opposed by all the habits, prejudices, dis- positions, and philosophy — all the powers and insti- tutions of all people, they submit cheerfully to mis- ery and contempt; they take joyfully the spoiling of their goods ; they willingly endure to be counted fools and the offscouring of all things; yea, they march thankfully to death out of a mere desire to propagate a story which they all know is a downright fabrication ! At every step of their progress they see and feel, that instead of any worldly advantage, they are daily loading themselves with ruin. At any mo- ment they can turn about and renounce their effort, and retrieve their losses ; and yet, with perfect una- nimity, these eight, with thousands of others equally aware of the deception, persist most resolutely in their career of ignominy and suffering. Not the slightest confession, even under torture and the strong allurements of reward, escapes the lips of any. Not 154 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. the least hesitation is shown, when to each is offered the choice of recantation or death. He that can be- lieve such a case of fraud and folly as this, can be- lieve any thing. He believes a miracle infinitely more difficult of credit than any in the gospel history. I charge him with the most superstitious and besotted credulity. In getting to such a belief, he has to tram- ple over all the laws of nature and of reasoning. Then on what an unassailable rock does the honesty of the writers of the New Testament stand, if it can be attacked only at such sacrifices. How evident it is, not only that they could have had no motive to deceive, but that in all their self-devotion and sacri- fices they gave the strongest possible evidence of having published what they solemnly believed was true.* Now, if I have produced satisfactory proof from all the unquestionable marks of honesty in the gospel history — from the concurrence of profane historians with many of its facts — from their being contradicted by none — from the unprecedented harmony of eight independent writers in their minutest events and allu- sions — from the impossibility of supposing any mo- tive to deception, and from the sacrifices the apostles endured in the promotion of Christianity : if from these sources I have satisfactorily shown that the * "We cannot make use," says Hume, "of a more con- vincing argument," in proof of honesty, " than to prove that the actions ascribed to any persons are contrary to the course of nature, and that no human motives, in such circumstances, could ever induce them to such a conduct." Philosophical Essays. CREDIBILITY OF THE OOSPELS. 155 writers of the gospel liistory could not have intended to record any thing but truth, then, having previ- ously ascertained that they must have known whether what they wrote was true or false, we have those two requisites which insure the credibility of any history, knowledge and honesty. This shuts up the question. But it is not the whole strength of the argument. A question may be shut up and locked, but then it may have bolts and bars besides. The truth of the gospel history is not only sealed, but sealed seven- fold. 5. It has all the testimony that could possibly have been expected^ in the nature of things^ from the enemies of Christianity, It would have been unreasonable to expect that a heathen or Jew would come forward with a detailed statement to acknow- ledge the events narrated by the evangelists. We have not this, but we have much better: we have the confession of the whole nation of Jews and of all the Grreeks to the same point. None ever ventured in any publication to deny the statements of the evan- gelists. Unquestionably they would have done it everywhere, had they been able. When Luke pub- lished in Jerusalem that a man lame from his birth was healed by Peter and John, while sitting as a beggar at the gate of the temple, and that a great multitude came together on account of the wonderful deed, had the Jews of Jerusalem been able to deny it, would their persecuting enmity have permitted them to be silent ? Be it remembered that the gos- pel history was published in the places where its 166 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. events are said to have occurred, in the , lifetime of many enemies who are said to have seen them. Now it is certain that no adversaries, either in Judea, or Greece, or Rome, rested their opposition to the gospel, in any degree, on the denial of these events. "What is the consequence ? They could not deny them. What is the meaning of this silence ? Being inter- preted, it is nothing less than a universal testimony from all Jews and heathens who were capable of know- ing any thing of the matter, that these things were so. But they did not stop here. Tacitus the Roman historian positively asserts some of the chief events of the gosp.el.* Celsus, a bitter antagonist of Christian- ity, in the second century ;t Porphyry, a learned as well as earnest opposer, in the third ;^ and Julian, the apostate emperor, in the next century,^ all ac- knowledge not only the authenticity of the New Tes- tament books, but, so far as they refer to them, the historical correctness of their narratives, even as to the most extraordinary particulars, not excluding the miracles of Christ. But we have stronger witness still. About thirty-two years after the crucifixion, took place the first Roman persecution under Nero. The number of Christians discovered in the one city of Rome, and condemned, is called by Tacitus ''a vast multitude. ^^" Of course they must have been exceed- ingly numerous in all other places taken together. * Lardner, vol. 3, p. 611. t Ibid. 4, 121-130, 133, 134. t Ibid. 4, 234-238. 5 Ibid. 4, 341, 342. » Tac. Annal., lib. 15, ch. 44; Lardner 3, 610-614. CREDIBILITY OF THE OOSPELS. 157 These but a few years before were all either Jews or heathens. Many resided in Jerusalem, Capernaum, Antioch, Philippi, Ephesus, Corinth, etc. By the time of this persecution, all the gospels but one, as well as the Acts of the Apostles, had been published. The events recorded in these books are said to have taken place before the eyes of the people of the cities just mentioned. It was an easy thing for those peo- ple to ascertain whether they or their neighbors, or parents, had seen them. What did they do ? They came forward in great multitudes; they threw off Judaism; threw off paganism ; espoused the gospel, and sooner than renounce it, suffered unto death. This was but thirty-three years after the events record- ed of Christ ; it was in the lifetime of Paul. I say, therefore, that every Christian of those days was a witness, the strongest witness — far more impressive in his attestation than any enemy could have been to the shining, powerful truth of the gospel history. "We are compassed about, therefore, with a great "cloud of witnesses" — witnesses who did not just acknowledge these things and still remain what they were before^ but witnesses adding to their acknowledg- ment the testimony of their conversion, the evidence of their lives which were wholly devoted to these things, the seals of ten thousand martyrdoms en- dured solely on account of their perfect assurance of these things. Now, consider a moment the utter impossibility that the gospel history should have gained such cur- rency for a single year, had it not been notoriously 158 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. true. In about eight years after the crucifixion, Matthew publishes his gospel among the Jews. He tells the people of Jerusalem, that only eight years before that time, while a great multitude of them were witnessing the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus, there was darkness over the whole land from twelve to three o'clock in the afternoon, and ^'the veil of the temple was rent in twain, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent." Suppose all this to have been a fabrication, would Jerusalem have held her peace? Could a book of such barefaced untruth have lived an hour? The book of the Acts of the Apostles was pub- lished about thirty years after the ascension of Christ, and was immediately circulated among the churches, and open to the perusal of the enemies of Christian- ity. It is related in the second chapter of that work, that on the day of Pentecost soon after the death of Christ, when a great multitude collected from all parts of the earth were assembled at Jerusalem, a deep impression of astonishment was produced on the public mind by a rumor of certain miraculous events in the company of the apostles, so that **the multitude came together and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language." Parthians and Medes and Elamites and Cretes and Arabians, dwellers in all countries, men of every speech, were amazed at hearing those Galileans, who were well known to have learned no other tongue than that of Palestine, speaking in all varieties of foreign languages the wonderful works of God. Such is the CREDIBILITY OF THE OOSPELS. 159 relation in the Acts of the Apostles. How could a writer in his senses attempt to pass it upon his read- ers, had it not been notorious that such things had actually occurred? The lapse of thirty years could not have so obliterated every recollection of that feast, or so swept the world of surviving witnesses, as to prevent the cerfainty that wherever this book should circulate, it would meet with persons capable of re- membering or of ascertaining whether these things were so. Had not the fact of the apostles having spoken in the presence of thousands in various tongues been undeniable, witnesses innumerable would have arisen against the book that related it. Had no such event occurred, the Acts of the Apostles could have gone into no part of the world without finding those who would stand up and declare that they were at the feast referred to, and saw nothing and heard noth- ing of the marvellous things declared by its author. I say, therefore, the fact that the gospel history was received, loved, and read everywhere among Chris- tians — that it has outlived all the withering of time, and all the weapons of enemies — that Jews could not gainsay it, nor heathens resist it — that eighteen cen- turies of scrutiny and trial have only added new as- surance to its truth, is one which reduces the sup- position of imposture to a perfect and ridiculous ab- surdity. Therefore was it not in the power of such modern infidels as Hobbes and Chub and Bolingbroke to deny the point in question. The last, not to quote from the others, speaking of John and Matthew, ac- knowledges that "they recorded the doctrines of 160 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. Christ in the very words in which he taught them; and they were careful to mention the several oc- casions on which he delivered them to his disciples or others. If therefore Plato and Xenophon tell us, with a good deal of certainty, what Socrates taught, these two evangelists seem to tell us, with much more, what the Saviour taught and commanded them to teach." Here, I think, we may safely leave the question of credibility. So conclusive and certain have seemed to my mind the several consecutive arguments to which you have listened, that instead of feeling at each step as if any candid hearer would wait for additional proof, I have felt not unfrequently as if I were tiring your attention with an unnecessary accu- mulation. Why this heaping of argument upon argu- ment, one may say, when from the very outset of the question, from the certain authenticity of the gospels, united with their internal evidence, we have a proof of credibility with which any rational mind should bo perfectly satisfied? AYe acknowledge the reasonable- ness of the inquiry. If the history under considera- tion related to the life of Alexander the Great and his generals, instead of that of the meek and lowly Jesus and his apostles, who would think it necessary to go into all this detail of evidence to establish its truth? That it contained no internal marks of dishonesty — that it was uncontradicted by contemporaneous writ- ers and by other histories of the same times — that it had been received ever since as a true account, would be considered an ample warrant of its historical cor- CREDIBILITY OF THE OOSPELS. 161 rectness. Few, if any profane histories, can produce more positive proof of credibility than this. But try tliem by the scale on which the gospel history is measured; require them to present one half of the weight of evidence which infidels demand and Chris- trans bring, in support of the sacred narrative, and you must exclude them from all claim to the confi- dence of their readers. We might speak of the un- fairness of requiring so much more in proof of a his- tory, merely because its character is sacred, and its facts are connected with religion. Whether the con- sequences deducible from an alleged fact be in the region of science, of morals, or of religion, is a ques- tion which has no connection with that of the amount of evidence necessary to its proof. Whether an evangelist be worthy of dependence when he relates the works of Jesus, is a question of testimony to be determined by the same degree of proof that should satisfy us as to the accuracy and honesty of any other writer, on any other subject of history. But we have no disposition to complain that so much has been de- manded in evidence of the gospel narrative. It has only served to quicken the investigations of the friends of truth, and to exhibit with a more impressive as- surance those great events on which all that is pre- cious in a Christian's faith is founded. It has showed not only how amply, but how wonderfully the G-od of truth and grace has made the anchor of our hope to be sure and steadfast. It teaches how, in the hands of divine Wisdom, the wrath of man is made subsid- iary to the praise of God — how the fiery darts of the 162 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. wicked are not only broken against the shield of faith, but made the means of increasing the light by which the Christian is guided, and often of carrying back confusion into the ranks of the enemy. It should lead the believer to adore with admiring gratitude the goodness of Him who, for the sake of those that love him, causes all the schemes and assaults of •unbelievers to work together for good, making it more and more manifest, by the defeat of every new attack, that this is **the true light" — '*the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the per- fect day." Had we time, or were it needful to enter upon a particular view of the authenticity and credibility of the Old Testament volume, this would be the place for the argument; but we have room only to advert to it. The connection between the truth of the Christian Scriptures and that of the Jewish is so obvious and essential; the dispensation of Christ so continually assumes the divine authority of that of Moses, and is so evidently built on its foundations; the writings of the apostles so frequently quote and refer to the law and the prophets, as authentic, cred- ible, and inspired Scriptures; the argument for the books of the Old Testament is so parallel in its mode and means to that for the books of the New ; and the cavils of sceptics in relation to the former are so sim- ilar in objection, principle, and reasoning, to those with which they assail the latter, that in having es- tablished the authenticity and credibility of the one, we may be fairly said. to have equalJy established, in CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPELS. 103 outline, the character of the other. Certain we are, that a man who is intelligently convinced of the au- thenticity and credibility of the New Testament, will not halt between two opinions as to the writings of Moses and the prophets, but will read them as as- suredly the writings of those whose names they bear, and as deserving, in relation to all matters of fact, the character of credible Scriptures. )64 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. LECTURE V. MIRACLES. Our last lecture was on the credibility of the gospel history. In a previous one, we ascertained the authenticity of the books in which it is contained. If the evidence adduced in proof of both these funda- mental articles appeared as satisfactory to the hear- ers as to the speaker, we are then prepared to open the New Testament with the assurance that the books it contains were written by those original disciples whose names they bear, and, that we may confidently depend on the historical correctness of their state- ments. The seals therefore of the volume are now unloosed. Immediately on inspecting the contents, it appears that the grand and continual reference is to Jesus Christ, as a Teacher and Saviour sent from God, to communicate personally and by his apostles a revelation of truth and duty to man. This revela- tion the New Testament professes to contain. Now, the grand question is. What are the EvmENCES that THE RELIGION CONTAINED IN THE NeW TeSTAMENT IS A DIVINE REVELATION? When an ambassador from a foreign power pre- sents himself at our seat of government, charged with certain communications from his sovereign, he first exhibits his credentials of appointment. These being MIRACLES. 165 satisfactory, whatever he may communicate in his official character is received with as much reUance as if it were heard from the lips of his sovereign him- self. It is treated as a revelation of the mind or will of that sovereign. In the New Testament we read that our Lord Jesus Christ appeared among men as an ambassador from God, charged with certain im- portant communications to njankind. Before we can be justified in receiving those communications as a divine revelation, we must know the credentials of the ambassador — we must have sufficient evidence that he was sent of God. Furnish this, and we are bound to receive his communications as confidently as if they should be heard directly from the throne of the Most High. Thus the Jews said to him, "What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee ? What dost thou work ?" The Saviour, admit- ting the propriety of the demand, appealed to his works as his credentials. " The works that I do, they bear witness of me."* On another occasion he called up his miracles. "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up."^ As if he had said, "Such works can only be done by the direct and supernatu- ral interposition of the power of God. They are done at my word and will. They are therefore a perfect attestation that God is with me, and that my claim to your confidence as his ambassador is true." Nico- demus understood this, and expressed no other than the plain dictate of common-sense, when he said to * John 6 : 30 ; 10 : 25. t Matt. 11:5. 166 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. Jesus, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God ; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God he with him."* The credentials of the apostles, as subordinate agents of divine revelation, are expressed in like manner. ''God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost."^ None can question the absolute certainty of such creden- tials. This has been acknowledged even by the most famous advocates of infidelity. Woolston says, ''I believe it will be granted on all hands, that the re- storing a person indisputably dead to life is a stupen- dous miracle, and that two or three such miracles, well attested and credibly reported, are enough to conciliate the belief that the author of them was a divine agent, and invested with the power of God."* Make good therefore the evidence, that the Saviour and his apostles 'wrought miracles in attestation of their divine mission, and the Christian religion, as con- tained in the New Testament and taught by them, must be a divine revelation. Our way, therefore, is plain. We must inquire into the evidence on which it can be established, that THE Saviour and his apostles did work miracles. To this inquiry we should proceed immediately, were it not for the peculiar circumstances which meet us in the way. The adversaries of the gospel have had wit enough to see that either the evidence of miracles must be overthrown, or they must surrender the • John 3:2. t Heb. 2 : 4. t Scheme of Literal Prophecy, pp. 321, 322. MIRACLES. 167 contest. Unable to meet the direct and abound ins: testimony by which the wonderful works of Christ and his apostles are proved, they have taken position and entrenched themselves upon the advanced and des- perate ground of the insufficiency of any testimony to prove a miracle. Thus have we a redoubt in our way, commanding the whole field of controversy, which,' though easily carried when properly assailed, would be of great damage if left in our rear. The present lecture will be occupied, therefore, with the discus- sion of certain preliminary subjects, anticipating a direct application to the evidence of miracles in our next. We commence with the following proposition : 1. There is nothing unreasonable or improbable in the idea of a miracle being wrought in proof of a divine revelation, I know not but that all per- sons of ordinary information have a sufficiently cor- rect idea of what is meant by a miracle, without the aid of a definition. No one would mistake the res- toration of sight to the bUnd by the use of human skill, however wonderful it might be considered, for a miracle. No one could mistake the sudden com- munication of sight to one born blind, at the mere word of another without any intervening cause, for any thing else than a miracle. The former result, though astonishing, would be according to the com- mon course of nature^ or to what are called the laws of nature. The latter would be beyond^ or different from those laws. One would be a natural, the other a supernatural event, or a miracle.* • See Gregory's Letters, 1, p. 167. 168 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. Now the idea of a revelation from God, and the idea of a miracle to attest the divine commission of those who make it, are essentially connected. If one or more individuals be sent to communicate the revelation, they must prove their mission by some credentials. What can their credentials be but miracles ? The necessity of these will be evident from a little consideration. They can appeal to but three sorts of proof: the internal excellence and fitness of their communications, their own integrity and judgment, and the miraculous works attendant on their ministry. With regard to the two former, it is manifest that in the most favorable circum- stances, they would need too much time and evidence and discrimination for their establishment ; and that they would always remain of a character too uncer- tain to permit their being used with any effect in proof of a divine revelation. They would answer well as auxiliaries, but it would require something of a much more positive nature to sustain the chief burden of proof. The claim to be received as a messenger of God, for the purpose of making a reve- lation to the world, could never be substantiated on such grounds. Evidence is needed which all minds may appreciate. It must be something that has only to be seen to be understood and acknowledged. When a plenipotentiary presents himself at the seat of government, intrusted with certain communica- tions from a foreign power of great importance on both sides, and requiring to be immediately acted upon, it would not answer for him to plead in evi- MIRACLES. 169 dence of his delegated authority, that his personal integrity is unimpeached and his communications are such as might be expected from his government. The time for action would be lost while such proof was being proved. Ho must exhibit credentials which carry on their face the direct evidence of his commission. He must show the broad seal of liis sovereign stamped upon their handwriting. So must an ambassador from God. What then can he show but miracles ? What else can set to his communi- cations the seal of God ? "In fact, the very idea of a revelation includes that of miracles. A revelation cannot be made but by a miraculous interposition of Deity."* So that the idea of miracles can be unreasonable or improbable only so far as it is unreasonable or improbable that God should commission one or more persons to make a revelation of his truth and wilL That such a revelation was needed in the world at the time when Christ appeared, can be denied only by asserting that the additional hght now possessed, in consequence of the gospel, is superfluous and use- less. This denial can only be maintained by show- ing that the world, sunk in idolatry, vice, and dark- ness, as it was universally before the gospel came, had all the knowledge of God, and all the assurance of his will and of the retributions of a future state, that were important to its happiness. A matter of proof which 1 suppose no one here imagines to be possible. Then if it cannot 'be shown that a revela- * Gregory's Letters. J70 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. tion was not needed, it cannot be proved that the idea of a revelation from a God of infinite goodness and mercy, was either unreasonable or improbable. But a revelation can be attested only by miracles. They are inseparable. Consequently, in the idea of miracles being wrought in proof of divine revelation, it cannot be proved that there is any thing either unreasonable or improbable. It would not be difficult to show, that in the circumstances of the world at the Christian era, a revelation was not only probable, but necessary ; and by manifest consequence that miracles, as its neces- sary attestations, were also not only probable, but necessary. Having thus endeavored to show that there is no presumptive evidence against a miracle, except as it lies equally against a revelation, and that the one is probable in proportion as the other may be expected, let us proceed to our second proposition. 2. If miracles were lorought in attestation of the mission of Christ and his apostles^ they can be rendered credible to us by no other evidence than that of TESTIMONY. There are various descriptions of evidence, as the evidence of sense, the evidence of mathematical demonstration, and moral evidence including that of testimony. Each of these has its own department of subjects. A question of morals cannot be demonstrated by mathematics, or proved by the senses. A question of historical fact can be settled only by testimony. It might as well be put to the tests of chemistry, as to have applied to it MIRACLES. 17) cither the evidence of mathematical demonstration or of the senses. Not only is there a separate department for each of these species of evidence, but each is sufficient, in its appropriate place, for the complete establish- ment of truth. By this I mean, that when the quantity of an angle is proved by mathematical demonstration, we have a result of no more practical confidence than when the existence of this house is proved by the senses, or that of the city of London is proved by testimony. Proof in either case is the foundation of entire belief. We are just as certain that such a man as Napoleon once lived, as that any proposition in geometry is true, though one is a mat- ter of testimony, the other of demonstration. We are quite as sure that arsenic is poisonous as that food is nutritious, though one is, to most of us at least, a matter of testimony only, while the other is to all a matter of sense. We are perfectly certain of all these, things. It is likely that some minds are led into erroneous notions of the comparative conclusiveness of testi- mony on one side, and that of mathematical demon- stration and of the senses on the other, on account of the technical name by which the former is distin- guished in philosophical discussions.* It is called probable evidence. It would seem to some as if, because probable^ it must be less satisfactory, since in common speech what is merely probable is not certain. But in philosophical language, the word * Stewart's Phil. 2, p. 179. tit M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. probable is used, not in distinction from certain evi- dence, but simply from that which is sensible or demonstrative, without reference to the measure of certainty attached to it. Thus, our belief that the sun will rise to-morrow, or that we are all to die, or that London was once visited with a dreadful plague, is founded on what is called probable evidence, though we should be suspected of lunacy did we question the propriety of acting upon it with perfect assurance. Such, then, being the sufficiency of testimony to convey a perfect assurance of any thing in its appropriate sphere, however distant in point of time or place, I return to the proposition that if miracles were wrought by Christ and his apostles, they can be rendered credible to us of the nineteenth century by no other evidence than that of testimony. Mathematical evidence is evidently inapplicable to the question. It is a matter of fact belonging to another century, and therefore intangible by sense. Nothing remains but testimony. This kind of evi- dence is perfectly appropriate to the subject of proof If, therefore, the gospel miracles are true, they must be substantiated by testimony, or not at all. We proceed to the next proposition. 3. Miracles are capable of being proved by tes- timony. This I consider to be as true and obvious as that miracles are capable of being proved by the evidence of the senses. That a certain person was dead and buried yesterday, and that he is alive and walking the streets to-day, the senses are perfectly competent to decide. I never heard of this being MIRACLES. 173 questioned. But if I and twenty others saw these facts, is there no way of making them credible to my neighbor who did not see them? Will it be pretend- ed, that if twenty men of unquestionable honesty and intelligence should solemnly and by every means of conviction in their power assure me that they saw the man dead, buried, and in corruption, I would have no sufficient reason to believe their assertion ? Will it be pretended, that if the same men should in the same way assure me that subsequently they saw the same man alive and conversed with him, I should have no reason to believe their assertion? I think there are none among us who could avoid belief in such a case. It would evidently be a case of miracle, believed on testimony ; and to maintain that it would be believed without reason, and that no conceivable addition of honest testimony could furnish reason for the belief of those two simple facts, that the man was dead yesterday and is alive to-day, would seem an absurdity too gross to be touched by argument. Here I should leave the matter, confident in the common-sense of my hearers, were it not that the very absurdity in view has been so mystified with the drugs of false philosophy, so disguised under the dress of logical forms and ceremonies, and so followed in its circulation with the influence of one of the chief names in modern scepticism, as to perplex many minds unaccustomed to the entanglements of soph- istry. The principle that no conceivable amount of testimony can prove a miracle, with David Hume for its original champion, has been eagerly adopted by 174 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. the many whose convenience makes them unbeliev- ers, but whose convenience it would not suit to at- tempt an honest, manly answer to the abounding tes- timony by which the miracles of the gospel are proved, A labor-saving machine was wanted, by which the whole business of silencing the inconvenient variety and troublesome multitude of Christian evidences might be done at once, as well by the ignorant as the learned. Hume invented it. Any body can work it. It is not necessary any more that a man should study the Bible, to refute its claims. He may never have seen it; but if he can only retain in his memory these few talismanic words, '^ No testimony can prove a miracle^'^ it is enough. At the rubbing of this mar- vellous lamp, the fabric of Christianity passes away ; the terrible genii of the gospel mysteries dissolve in air. Like a similar assertion, and equally philosophi- cal doctrine of the same writer, that there is no ex- ternal world — that this house is nothing but an idea, built not of matter, but only of mind — this happy invention of sceptical ingenuity digs so far below the foundations of all truth and common-sense, that the man whose convenience bids him use it, may feel assured that not many advocates of Christianity will descend low enough to spoil him of his consolation ! A brief attention to this matter will not be out of place at present. The argument of the writer referred to is abridged in the Encyclopedia Britannica, as follows: ** Our belief of any fact from the testimony of eye-witnesses is derived from no other principle than our experience MIRACLES. 175 of the veracity of human testimony. If the fact at- tested be miraculous, 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 experience 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 imagined ; and if so, it is an undeniable consequence that it cannot be sur- mounted by any proof whatever^ derived from human testimony." Now, all this is very conclusive, provided we ad- mit its premises. The grand hinge of the whole is thisy that our belief in testimony is founded on no other principle than our experience of the veracity OF HUMAN testimony. Hcncc the reasoning is that a miracle, being in the author's estimation contrary to experience, opposes and contradicts the very founda- tion of its evidence, and therefore destroys itself. But iet me ask, admitting that a miracle is contrary to experience — which is not true — what experience is it contrary to? The argument requires that it should be contrary to our experience of the veracity of hu- man testimony. To say merely that it is contrary to experience of some sort, without specifying this par- ticular sort, does not touch the question. It is its contrariety to that particular kind of experience on which our faith in testimony, according to Hume, is built, that must destroy the credibility of a miracle, if it is to be destroyed at all. But this it would be ridiculous to assert. So far from miracles being in- 176 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. consistent with our experience of the veracity of hu- man testimony, the truth is directly on the other side. It is not the behef, but the denial that miracles have ever been wrought, by which your whole expe- rience of the veracity of human testimony is contra- ' dieted. But again, Is our belief in testimony founded on our experience of its veracity ? Prove that it is not, and the whole argument of our author is undermined. The proof is easy. None depend more absolutely upon testimony than those whose experience is almost a nullity. Children are perfect believers in its veracity. All writers on the philosophy of the mind but the one before us consider it an original principle of na- ture, that we should rely on testimony until there is proof either of suspicious competency to know, or of suspicious honesty to speak the truth. This prin- ciple is necessary to human nature long before any experience can be gathered up. Without it, how could children begin to learn? How could they avoid poison, or receive wholesome food, if they must wait for an experience of the veracity of their parents and nurses and teachers before they can believe what they testify ? The plain truth is, that instead of ex- perience being our whole dependence for the credibil- ity of testimony, it is just the school that makes us sometimes suspicious of that credibility. It teaches us that testimony may be false, and furnishes the characteristics by which we may distinguish between that which is suspicious and that which may be con- fidently relied on. We deny therefore, and with evi- MIRACLES. 177 dent reason, the whole foundation- of the argument we are considering. But again, another essential hinge in this argu- ment is the assertion that a miracle, being, as the author defines it, '^ di violation of the laws of nature," is contrary to experience. Here we might deny that a miracle is a violation of the laws of nature. It is only a deviation from those laws, or from the cus- tomary mode of the divine operations. But waving this, what is meant by a miracle being contrary to experience ? Have we or others ever experienced the opposite of any of the miracles of Christ ? I cannot conceive how this could be, unless we had been on the spot when the miracle is said to have taken place, as when Lazarus is said to have risen from the dead ; and instead of seeing him rise, had seen him continue dead. That is the only way in which I can conceive of opposition between experience and a miracle. The resurrection of Lazarus is not contrary to my expe- rience, any more than a volcano is contrary to it. All I can say of either is, that I have never experienced it. It is beyond^ not in opposition to my expe- rience. But when our author asserts that miracles are contrary to experience^ what are we to understand ? Does he mean one's own personal experience, or the experience of all mankind? If the former, then it would follow that testimony can render no event credible to us which we have not personally expe- rienced. But this would be too sweeping even for the most absolute scepticism. On this ground, a 8* 178 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. native of the torrid zone might refuse the testimony of the rest of the world, in evidence of the fact that water in winter is so congealed that we can drive our carriages upon its surface. He need only say, ^*It is contrary to my experience. I have never seen it, and therefore no testimony can make it credible."* But does our author mean to be understood as affirming that miracles are contrary to the experience of all mankind? His argument will then stand as fol- lows: *^ Belief in testimony is founded on experience. But miracles are contrary to the experience of all mankind. They contradict therefore the credibility of testimony, and cannot be proved by it." But this is a manifest assumption of the whole questiort Whether miracles are contrary to the experience of all mankind, is the precise point in debate. We as- sert that mankifid, in different ages and places, have experienced them. Our author is at liberty, if he pleases, to assert the contrary. But it is too much to. expect us to receive his assertion until it is proved. And if his argument cannot be sustained without thus taking for granted, in one of its premises, what it seeks to demonstrate in the conclusion, its correctness is certainly very suspicious. The admission of the principle on which the argu- ment under consideration is founded, would lead to perfect absurdity. *' There was a time when no one was acquainted with the laws of magnetism; these suspend in many instances the laws of gravity; nor * On Hume's argument, in general, see the references in Home's Introduction, vol. 1, p. 243. MIRACLES. 179 can I see, upon the principle in question, how the rest of mankind could have credited the testimony of their first discoverer; and yet to have rejected it, would have been to reject the truth. But that a piece ot iron should ascend gradually from the earth, and fly at last w^ith an increasing rapidity through the air, and attaching itself to another piece of iron ore, should remain suspended in opposition to the action of its gravity, is consonant to the laws of nature. I grant it; but there was a time when it was contrary, I say not to the laws of nature, but to the uniform experience of all preceding ages and countries; and at the particular point of time, the testimony of an individual, or of a dozen individuals, who should have reported themselves eye-witnesses of such a fact, ought, according to the argumentation " of Mr. Hume, *'to have been received as fabulous. And what arc those laws of nature which, according to this writer, can never be suspended? Are they not different to different men, according to the diversities of their comprehension and knowledge ? And if any one of them — that, for instance, which rules the operations of magnetism or electricity — should have been known to you or to me alone, while all the rest of the world were unacquainted with it, the effects of it would have been new and unheard-of in the annals and con- trary to the experience of mankind, and therefore ought not in your opinion to have been believed."* If this be the legitimate result of the principle in ques- tion — if no testimony could have rendered the phe- * Bishop Watson. 186 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. nomena of magnetism credible in the dawn of know- ledge on that subject, because they were contrary to experience, it is evident that a certain truth and Hume's principle would have been in that case di- rectly in opposition. But whether the experience of mankind be opposed by phenomena above the laws of nature — miracles — or by phenomena which, though in reality according to those laws, are perfectly new, and to all human view inconsistent with the estab- lished order of nature, is of no consequence to the argument. Experience is opposed in both cases alike. It cannot be less absurd in one than in the other to maintain, that because the phenomena have never been experienced, no testimony can make them cred- ible. But if the argument of Hume, with all its assump- tions and false statements and equivocal expressions, were true, it would prove not only that miracles can- not be proved by testimony, but that they cannot be proved at all. Now, that it is possible for God to work a miracle, none will deny. Consequently, that it is possible that the miracles related in the New Testament are true, none will deny. Suppose them to be true, how can they be proved to us ? If testi- mony will not do, what remains ? Mathematical evidence and the evidence of the senses are perfectly inapplicable. But there is no other description of evidence. If, therefore, those miracles are to be proved to us, it must be done by some species of evidence not now in existence, entirely foreign to the laws of nature. In other words, it must be miracu- MIRACLES. 181 lous. Miracle must be brought to prove miracle. And since no testimony, according to the principle we are considering, can prove a miracle, the very- miracle which is brought in proof of those in the New Testament, must itself be proved by another before it can be believed by any who did not see it. But what an absurdity is here. If Jesus did open the eyes of the blind, who can maintain that God has no way of giving all generations reason to believe it, without an unceasing series of miracles in all places for the purpose ? There is but one way of evading this extreme and absurd conclusion. It must be denied that we have any reason to believe that Grod can work a miracle. For as long as it is acknowledged to be possible that God by the apostles did work miracles, the possi- bility of his making them crexlible to us without other miracles to prove them, and by the natural means of human testimony, must also be acknow- ledged ; the latter, to say the least of it, being no greater effort of power than the former. To this necessity, the sagacity of our philosopher was not blind. Nor does he scruple at embracing it, rather than give up his favorite discovery. Speaking of some alleged miracles, he writes, '' What have we to oppose to such a cloud of witnesses, but the absolute impossibility or miraculous nature of the event ?" In this sentence, it is evident that " absolute impos- sibility," and '^ miraculous nature," are used as equiv- alent expressions. But elsewhere he endeavors to persuade us that there is no reason to suppose that a 182 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. miracle is possible with God. " Though the Being," he says, '^ to whom the miracle is ascribed, be in this case almighty, it does not on that account become a whit more probable ; since it is impossible for us to know the attributes or actions of such a Being, other- wise than from the experience which we have of his productions in the usual course of nature." This brings us directly to Atheism. The argument is thus: We know the attributes of God only by the experience of his works in the usual course of nature. But, according to our philosopher, we have no experi- ence of a miracle among those works. Consequently, we have no knowledge that there is any divine attri- bute by which God can produce a miracle. Now, besides the folly of denying the possibility of a mir- acle because nothing like it is found in the usual course of nature, when a miracle by its definition is out of the usual course of nature, we have here the plain denial of the omnipotence of God. For if we have no reason to believe that God can produce an event differing from and above the ordinary course of nature, we have no reason to suppose that he is almighty, or that he is the Sovereign of nature, or that he created and preserves and governs all things. The nature and majesty of God are denied by this argument. It is Atheism. There is no stopping- place for consistency between the first principle of the essay of Hume, and the last step in the denial of God with the abyss of darkness for ever. Hume, accordingly, had no belief in the being of God. If he did not positively deny it, he could not assert that MIRACLES. 183 he believed it. He was a poor, blind, groping com- pound of contradictions. He was literally " without God and without hope;" "doting about questions and strifes of words," and rejecting life and immor- tality out of deference to a paltry quibble which com- mon-sense is ashamed of. "An unfortunate dispo- sition to doubt every thing," said Lord Charlemont, one of his particular friends and admirers, " seemed interwoven with the nature of Hume, and never was there, I am convinced, a more thorough and sincere sceptic. He seemed not to be certain even of his own present existence, and could not, therefore, be ex- pected to entertain any settled opinion respecting his future state." But it was very needless for our author to give himself so much intellectual effort as must have been required for the invention of this short and easy method of undermining the evidences of Christianity, when he had previously produced a much sliortcr and easier plan. He had already proved, in his esti- mation, that there is no external world — nothing but ideas ; consequently there can be no external miracles — nothing but miraculous ideas. Why not hold to this ? It was certainly just as reasonable, just as consistent with philosophy and common-sense, as the idea that no testimony can prove a miracle. But our sweeping sceptic was not quite so well satisfied with his arguments against alL testimony and all sense, as would at first appear. Speaking of his speculations, he says, " They have so wrought upon me and heated my brain, that I am ready to 18* M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. reject all belief and reasoning, and can look upon no opinion even as more probable or likely than another. Where am I, or what? From what causes do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I return ? Whose favor shall I court, and whose anger must I dread ? What beings surround me, and on whom have I any influence, or who have any influ- ence on me ? I am confounded with all these ques- tions, and begin to fancy myself in the most deplor- able condition imaginable, environed with the deepest darkness, and utterly deprived of the use of every member and faculty." A sad confession this of the satisfaction of what he calls *'the calm, though ob- scure regions of philosophy." But he proceeds: ^'Most fortunately it happens that since reason is incapable of dispelling these clouds, nature herself suffices to that purpose, and cures me of this philosophical melancholy and delir- ium, either by relaxing this bent of mind, or by some avocation and lively impression of my senses, which obliterates all these chimeras. I dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse and am merry with my friends ; and when, after three or four hours' amusement, I would return to these speculations, they appear so cold and strained and ridiculous, that I cannot find in my heart to enter into them any fur- ther." A sad exhibition this of the dignity and con- solations of scepticism. But if Mr. Hume was some- times constrained to look upon his own speculations as strained and ridiculous, we may be pardoned if they appear to us in the same aspect. Indeed, it was MIRACLKs. 185 more than he could do, to write consistently with them for any length of time. His own common- sense insisted, sometimes, on the privilege of speech ; so that, after all the show of reasoning to which we have been attending, after having asserted that '^ a miracle, supported by any human testimony, is more properly a subject of derision than of argument," we fmd him apparently coming to himself, and making the following most singular acknowledgment: "I own there may possibly be miracles of such a kind as to admit of proof from human' testimony." Ho then states an imaginary case of miraculous occur- rence, attested by a measure of proof, which ho says philosophers ought to receive as certain testin:;ony. But how is this ? Has he entirely abandoned his ground ? One would think so. But mark his method of escape. We quote his words : ** But should this miracle be ascribed to a new system of religion, men in all ages have been so imposed on by ridiculous stories of that kind, that this very circumstance would bo a full proof of the cheat." Here, evidently, the whole ground is changed. Miracles are no more con- sidered as incapable of proof by testimony. They are no more set at naught, because contrary to 'Expe- rience. It is admitted that they may be proved by testimony, whether with object or without it, except when the object is religion. It is nothing, therefore, in the nature of a miracle, but only in its application, that renders it incredible. This is indeed a change. A miracle may be proved anywhere but in the service of a revelation from Grod. But why ? Because, 186 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. says our author, " men in all ages have been so im- posed on by ridiculous stories of that kind." Now, besides that it is untrue that any religion but that of the Bible ever attempted to set up its claims by the credentials of miracles, this is utter trifling. After all the metaphysical parade to which we have been attending, are we brought to this, that because some men have been knaves and fools, therefore all must be such ? Can we believe in the sincerity of none, because hypocrites have been many ? Must we refuse belief in any accounts of physical phenomena, be- cause men in all ages have been imposed on by ridic- ulous accounts of such things? Must we decline accepting any notes issued by our banks, because men have so often been imposed on by counterfeit currency ? On the contrary, counterfeit currency is positive proof that there is such a thing as a sound and honest currency. And in like manner, the fact of spurious pretensions to miracles, so far from being a reason for rejecting all accounts of miracles, is a strong presumptive proof that some of them are true. An argument which finds itself constrained to seek refuge under the shadow of such a position as this, must indeed have been reduced to an extremity. We have dwelt on this desperate eflbrt of the most noted and acute sceptic of modern times, much longer than was called for by any thing either diffi- cult or important in itself, because it affords a very strong presumptive proof of the impossibility, by any force of talent or skilfulness of manoeuvre, of break- ing the solid mass of testimony by which the miracles MIRACLES. 167 of the gospel are defended. Such a mind as that of the historian of England would never have descended to the absurdity of denying the credibility of all testi- mony in j)roof of a miracle, had it not been that all his efforts to pick a flaw in the testimony of those of Christianity had utterly failed. Show me a man endeavoring to pick his way through the stone wall of a prison, and I need not be told that he is shut up and has despaired of escape by the door. The pains which all sceptics have taken to escape from being shut up to the faith of Christ, adopting every other conceivable method than the one simple and equitable plan of refuting the direct evidences of Christianity, should be considered unequivocal proof that there is a force in those evidences which their enemies dare not encounter face to face — something that persuades the bold champion of infidelity that in this warfare ** discretion is the better part of valor." But we cannot relinquish this division of our lecture without pausing to draw a lesson from the scepticism of Hume. That he was a learned and very ingenious writer, none can deny. That he was much more amiable and less unexemplary in his temper and habits than infidel champions generally are, we have no disposition to question. But these commendations only render his case the more affect- ing, and his insidious sophistry the more dangerous. The pride of reason was his master. The praise of a philosopher was his idol ; to doubt what others be- lieved, his habitual tendency ; to maintain a paradox against the world, his prevailing ambition. Under 18d M'1LVA1NE\S EVlDExXCES. the influence of these dispositions, the very fact that the rehgion of Christ was a revelation requiring him to sit at its feet and learn, instead of a theory flat- tering the sufliciency of his own powers to discover truth, was its condemnation. The more it possessed the sanction of ages, and of the greatest minds, the more did it rouse him to its rejection. The imposing multitude and weight of its evidences were the strong- est stimulants of his unbelief. He first denied the miracles of the gospel, and then set his wits to con- trive some grand argument by which all the testi- mony in their favor might be undermined. He reas- oned himself almost out of his own existence, and surrounded himself with impenetrable darkness. The present was all contradiction, the future all <*an enig- ma," to his mind. Poor unhappy philosopher ! How little his learning could do in the search of truth, for want of humility^ How easily can all human know- ledge and all mortal wisdom become foolishness, when the wise man leans to his own understanding, instead of acknowledging and seeking God in all his ways! That Hume was accustomed to pray for guidance in his investigations of truth, it is impossible to suppose. The great fountain of light being thus denied, Grod gave him up to the devices and desires of his own heart. Yerily, '^ He taketh'the wise in their own craftiness." Thus, most justly, did our philosopher meet with darkness in the daytime, and was permitted to grope in the noonday as in the night. One just view of himself as a sinner would have refuted and broke up his whole system of proud MIRACLES. 189 unbelief. I have known a good deal, by experience, of the conflict which infidels maintain behind the intrenchments of Hume and other champions of their cause; I have known also something, personally, of conversions among such people ; and it has often aston- ished me to see how immediately a whole system of well-jointed infidelity tumbles to pieces — how entirely the most darling argument against the gospel is changed into folly, and given to the winds, as soon as one realizes that he is a sinner and must stand before God in judgment. 4. Let us pass to our fourth proposition. The testimony in proof of the miracles of the gospel has not diminished in force by the increase of age. It is not an uncommon idea that the transmission of remote events by successive testimony, from gener- ation to generation, weakens their evidence in pro- portion to the time. It is supposed, that had we lived in the fourth instead of the nineteenth century, we should have possessed the testimonial evidence of the Christian miracles in much greater force than it is now enjoyed. But we deny that there is any reason for this supposition. Mere oral tradition must weaken with age ; but written testimony can- not suffer loss as long as the genuineness of the docu- ment containing it is unimpaired, and the character of the witnesses is substantiated. For example, suppose it be recorded on the minutes of the Young Men's Society of New York, that on the 13th day of January, 1832, this lecture was delivered to its mem- bers, on the Evidences of Christianity, and those 190 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. minutes be laid up among its records ; and the society exist from generation to generation, keeping a regular account of its transactions, for four hundred years ; and at the end of that time some one, searching into its early papers, should read the minutes of the above event — the evidence of the fact would be con- sidered as conclusive as if, instead of four hundred years, only fifty had elapsed since its occurrence. The event would be as certain as the genuineness of the record, and would have no reference to the age of either. Let the society continue a thousand years, and its records being still preserved uncorrupted, the evidence will remain undiminished. "We rely upon the testimony in proof of the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar, or of Italy by Hannibal, with quite as much confidence as we read of the wars of Charles the First in England. And if our present accounts of those widely remote events shall be preserved to the end of the world, the confidence of our posterity at that time in their historical correctness, cceteris paribus^ will be as complete as ours. Indeed, it is only with regard to the facts related in the Bible that men ever talk of any diminution, by the lapse of years, in the credibility of testimony. But with how little reason is evident, when you remember that a matter of historical fact is of the same nature in regard to testimony, whether it be found between the covers of the Bible or those of a Roman historian. For precisely the same reason that the event of this lecture, recorded in the minutes of the Young Men's {j^ociety, would retain its evidence unimpaired as long MIRACLES. 191 as the society and its minutes should exist together, does the testimony to the great events of primitive Christianity continue to this day unabated.* The society denominated the church of Christ was in existence when the events recorded in its Scriptures occurred. Its principal institutions are founded upon them. Our New Testament books are the records of the constitution, origin, and early his- tory of that society, which, like those of any other institution of past ages, have been handed down from generation to generation. The members of the Chris- tian church have died from age to age, but the church, the society, the living keeper of these records, the Librarian of the Scriptures, has never died. The passing away of the several individuals who, since the commencement of Christianity, have belonged to this society, has no more to do with the permanence of the institution itself, than have the rapid changes in the particles of the human body with the perma- nence of the man. There is a personal identity in the midst of continual change. The man of seventy is the very identical man that he was at twenty, though many times have the particles composing his body been entirely changed. Thus the Christian church in her nineteenth century is the same iden- tical society that existed under that name in the days of the apostles, though so many generations of members have lived and died. She is as capable of remembering the events of her youth, as we are of remembering the events of ours. The records made * Gregory's Letters. 192 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. by her members in testimony of those events, and in the age of their occurrence, having been preserved in her possession with the greatest vigilance and the most zealous attachment, are as certain evidence at present, as when they were written, of the facts related therein. She has been reading those records in her places of worship, in all parts of the world, ever since they were written ; and she knows as well that they have preserved their personal identity, and in all important respects, their uncorrupt, unmuti- lated character, as any of us can know that our family Bibles are the same now as when they were purchased. Thus, I think we are warranted in con- sidering our propositions sustained, that the testi- mony in proof of the miracles of the gospel has not diminished in force by the increase of age.* 5. We proceed to our last proposition, that in being called to examine the credibility of the gospel miracles by the evidence of testimony^ ive are more favorably situated in regard to moral probation and discipline^ than if we had been enabled to judge of them by evidence addressed to our own senses. This will appear from the consideration, that evidence obtained by the investigation of testimony, and ap- preciated by reflection, is more consistent with the state of probation, and of moral discipline and respon- sibility in which we are placed, than evidence forced upon us by the involuntary agency of the senses. We are under trial and discipline, as well as to our understanding as our conduct. We are respon- * Wilson's Lectures. MIRACLES. 193 sible as well for what we believe, as for what wo do. Precisely the same causes that would persuade a man to immoral practice, may persuade him to im- moral principle. The same disposition that would induce him to disobey the precepts, may lead him to deny the doctrines and evidences of the gospel. It is therefore his trial, in part, whether in forming his opinion of religious truth he will so resist evil ex- ample and prejudice, and so deny himself the influ- ence of all sinful inclinations and partialities, as to enter with honest candor upon the investigation of what ho ought to believe and do, with a full deter- mination to embrace the truth wherever it may ap- pear. Now, with the nature and responsibility of this probationary condition, the evidence of testimony in pjoof of the Christian miracles is specially con- sistent. Did those miracles appear before us, as once for special reasons they did before multitudes, forcibly arresting our senses ; not only compelling attention, but almost compelling submission, by the palpable and amazing evidences attending them, it is evident that there would remain comparatively but little room for any freedom of mind or will, and consequently for any moral probation. Liberty of will and of decision would be suspended in proportion to the degree in which the senses should be directly and impressively addressed. But the miracles of the gospel address- ing, not our senses, but our minds, through the me- dium of testimony, possess a degree of evidence which, while amply sufficient to satisfy all who examine it with suitable impartialitv, is not so overcoming but 1.94 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. that one may reject it if he choose ; not so irresist- ible, but that persons of indolence and indifference, or of pride and prejudice — persons who examine to refute it, more than to ascertain its truth, or whose habits and dispositions set them in direct opposition to the holiness of the gospel, may receive their reward in being allowed to continue unconvinced. They are thus dealt with in a way peculiarly consistent with their character as moral and accountable agents. The exercise of an active solicitude for the dis- covery of truth thus presented, and of a fair, impar- tial consideration of its evidence before conviction, is as truly an exercise of morality, as much an act of moral discipline and of a correct temper of mind, as a correct religious practice would be in one already convinced. It is also as really an exhibition of im- morality and dissoluteness to manifest a spirit of indifference, or of prejudice or aversion, in relation to a matter of such infinite impbrtance, as if one should display the same spirit in regard to the most neces- sary duties of moral living. " Thus, that religion is not intuitively true, but a matter of deduction and inference — that a conviction of its truth is not forced upon every one, but is left to be by some collected with a heedful attention to premises — this as much constitutes religious probation, as much affords oppor- tunity for right and wrong behavior, as any thing whatever."* It tests the heart of the inquirer. But to illustrate our doctrine, take the case of one who is disposed to put religion away from him — * Butler's Analogy, part 2, ch. 6. MIRACLES. 195 who comes to its evidences with a decided wish that it may appear untrue, and examines them under strong aversions and prejudices. Suppose him sud- denly arrested by the sight of a miracle wrought in his presence, so that in spite of all his disUkes and evil dispositions, he cannot escape believing. Take then the case of another bearing a precisely similar character, who, having no evidence but that of testi- mony, is obliged either to discipline his mind into a frame for candid, honest investigation, or else hazard the consequences of an inquiry conducted under the influence of habits and tempers directly hostile to the clear view and impartial acknowledgment of truth. Suppose him to choose the latter alternative, and that he is permitted, in reward for this voluntary perver- sion of his judgment, to continue in unbelief. I ask, which of these individuals is treated in a way most consistent with his condition as a moral and account- able agent?* * " If," says Butler, " there are any persons who never set themselves heartily and in earnest to be informed in religion ; if there are any who secretly wish it may not prove true, and are less attentive to evidence than to difficulties, and more to objections than to what is said in answer to them — these per- sons will scarcely be thought in a likely way of seeing the evidence of religion, though it were most certainly true and capable of being ever so fully proved. If any accustom themselves to consider this subject usually in the way of mirth, or sport; if they attend to forms and representations, and inadequate manners of expression, instead of the real things intended by them— for signs often can be no more than inadequately expressive of the things signified — or if they substitute human errors in the room of divine truth, why may not all, or any of these things, hinder some men from 196 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. But besides the greater adaptation to a probation- ary state, there is greater spiritual profit in the way by which we of latter days must arrive at the truth of the miracles of the gospel. Take the case of two Christians; let one be a disciple of these days, and the other, Thomas, one of the apostles. They are equally convinced of the Saviour's resurrection, but by different means : Thomas, by the force of sight and touch; the other, by a careful, honest examination of the testimony we now possess. Which, in becoming a disciple, expressed the greater love of the truth? Which, the greater readiness to receive and submit to it? Thomas had only to open his eyes and reach forth his hand; the other pursued a course of candid, patient, serious reflection. Thomas required for his conviction that the Saviour should stand before him, and say, *'Be not faithless, but beheving." The seeing that evidence which really is seen by others, as a like turn of mind with respect to matters of common speculation and practice does, we find by experience, hinder them from attaining that knowledge and right understanding, in matters of common speculation and practice, which more fair and at- tentive minds can attain to 1 And in general, levity, careless- ness, passion, and prejudice, do hinder us from being rightly informed with respect to common things ; and they may in like manner, and perhaps in some further providential manner with respect to moral and religious subjects, hinder evidence from being laid before us, and from being seen when it is. The Scripture does declare that every one shall not under- stand. And it makes no difference by what providential con- duct this comes to pass ; whether the evidence of Christianity was originally and with design, put, and left, so that those who are desirous of evading moral obligations should not see it, and that honest-minded persons should ; or whether it comes to pass by any other means." Butler's Analogy, part 2, ch. 6. MIRACLES. 197 other went forth seeking "the truth as it is in Jesus," through all the reasoning and objections, all the pa- tient consideration and study which circumstances placed in his way, not demanding to be constrained by the arrest of his senses, but prepared to submit as soon as the testimony was sufficient. Now, it is plain that in this case there is a simplicity of heart, a love of truth, a candor in its pursuit, and a willing- ness to bow to it at all cost, such as are by no means implied in the conviction of Thomas. It is plain, also, that the moral discipline to which the former was subjected, and the state of mind involved in the mode by which he came at the truth, are far more condu- cive to his happiness, and afford a much higher promise of steadfast and elevated attachment to the service of the truth, than if, like Thomas, it could be said of him, ** Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed." So that we may now acknowledge the truth of those words, <* Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed ;" and may repeat our proposition, that in having to try the credibility of the gospel miracles by the evidence of testimony, we are more favorably situated, in a very important sense, than had we been present to judge them by the evidence of our senses.* From the whole truth exhibited in this lecture, we are called to adore the wisdom of God. "His ways are not as our ways, neither his thoughts as our thoughts." Why, in such a momentous business as that of religion, demands some weak mortal, was not * See Saurin on Obscure Faith. 198 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. truth rendered intuitively certain, so that the most careless could not mistake? Why, asks another, should such tremendous matters be necessarily settled by investigation and argument, by the weight of tes- timony and the records of distant ages, instead of bringing them at once to the test of every one's expe- rience? *^Show us a sign," is still the requisition of multitudes, who, if they must believe, desire to do it without trouble ; but would much rather be excused from both. Cfod is infinitely wiser. ''He knoweth whereof we are made." He has dignified us with reason, as well as sense; and made us capable of learning by reflection and study, as well as of know- ing by instinct and necessity. He deals with us as rational beings. He makes us responsible for the use of our minds, as well as of our limbs. He re- quires the obedience of the will, the labor of our thoughts, and the painstaking of all our intellectual and moral faculties, in order that we may know and serve him as becometh our natures. To this end, he has so constructed religion, and delivered to us its evidences, that whoever is sufficiently desirous of the knowledge of His will, to bestow his best thoughts and affections and efforts upon the work of its discovery, in order that he may embrace it, earnestly looking up 'to Grod for protection against prejudice and for guid- ance in the way of light, will certainly come to the knowledge of the truth, and will arrive at it by a way most wisely adapted to make him hold fast and obey it. On the other x hand, Grod has so framed the gos- pel and set before us its credentials, that whether MIRACLES. 199 one will believe or not is left to his free and volun- tary choice; his probationary character is inviolate; his reason and his will are perfectly responsible. If he desire not to believe; if his heart revolt against the gospel on account of the humility and repentance and holiness and self-denial it demands of him ; if ho study its nature and evidence carelessly, proudly, and partially; if he consult more the objector than the advocate, and try to invent reasons for unbeUef more than arguments for the contrary ; if he love vice, and would retain his sins, he may easily convince him- self against the claims of the gospel. God has left unclosed many avenues by which such a man may escape into infidelity. He is wisely punished by being permitted to go in thereat. God may justly take him at his word, and condemn him to the dark- ness and final misery of rejecting what he investi- gated so unjustly. It is the wisdom of God that his truth does not, in offering conviction to such examin- ers, afford at the same time encouragement to such un worthiness. 200 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. LECTURE VI. MIRACLES— CONTINUE D. Our last lecture was occupied in settling certain preliminaries, for the purpose of being enabled in this to enter directly upon the work of weighing the testimony to the miracles of Christ and his apostles The question to which we now proceed may be stated thus : The Lord Jesus Christ claimed to be received as a teacher come from God for the purpose of com- municating a divine revelation. His apostles claimed to be received as his inspired and divinely commis- sioned agents in publishing that revelation. All ap- pealed to miracles as the credentials of their embassy. None can deny that such credentials, plainly ascer- tained, are certain proof of the sanction of God. The appeal to them is therefore unquestionably fair. The point, then, which remains to be determined is. Have WE SATISFACTORY EVIDENCE THAT GENUINE MIRACLES WERE WROUGHT BY THE LoRD JeSUS ChRIST AND HIS APOSTLES? In answer to this question, we might proceed on a plan of argument which would occupy but a few moments. In the lecture preceding the last, we ascertained the credibility of the gospel history; in other words, that we have the strongest reason to rely implicitly on the narratives contained therein, as to all matters of fact. Now, it is there related, that MIRACLES. 201 on a certain occasion our Saviour was followed by five thousand men into a desert place, where they were in need of food ; that all the food at hand was five barley loaves and a few small fishes; that of these he commanded his disciples to distribute to the multitude; and after they had all eaten and were filled, the fragments remaining were much more in quantity than the original loaves and fishes. These are plain statements, related in the gospel as unques- tionable facts. The gospel history being credible, they must be true. To call that a credible history, and then suppose it unworthy of reliance in such prominent particulars, would be absurd. But these facts constitute a miracle. There must have been a miraculous multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Consequently, in having proved the credibility of the gospel history, we have proved that in this case a miracle was wrought. Thus might we proceed with regard to a great variety of other statements, as to the works of Christ and liis apostles; and I fully believe that, in strict justice, nothing more ought to be required in evidence of the gospel miracles, than what has been already adduced in proof of the credibility of the narratives contained in the New Testament. But inasmuch as our object is not merely to exhibit a sound and con- clusive argument, such as ought to satisfy every mind, but so to present the great variety and abun- dance of proof in support of Christianity, that no at- tentive, candid mind can help being satisfied, we will adopt a broader plan. 9* 202 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. Before proceeding any further, let it be remarked, that the religion of the Bible is the only one whieh^ in its first introduction^ appealed to miracles for evidence of the divine authority of its teachers. Under the religion of the Bible I include the dispen- sation of Moses and that of Christ, as exhibiting es- sentially the same religion, though more largely and clearly revealed under the latter than under the for- mer. Both dispensations were introduced and sanc- tioned by miracles. Now, I know it is a common supposition, that the same mode of attestation was resorted to by all the false religions that ever gained acceptance in the world, and that this was the chief cause of their ascendency in the public mind ; but the truth is, that no religion, except that of the Bible, was ever set up by appeal to miracles as the creden- tials of its founder. We speak of miracles which are capable of being witnessed and investigated by oth- ers. It is not asserted that many wonderful things of a miraculous nature have not been pretended to and boasted among the disciples of sundry false relig- ions. The annals of paganism abound with relations of auguries and oracles and apparitions. Many mi- raculous, not to say ridiculous marvels, are asserted of Mohammed. But the remark is applicable to all of these things, and is of great importance in connec- tion with our present object, that they were asserted not as proofs of religions appealing to them for creden- tials, but only as appendages of religions already set up, and previously received on considerations entirely independent of the truth or falsehood of such marvels. MIRACLES. 203 It was the credit and influence of a religion already established which gave them all their currency, and not their evidence which established the religion with which they were respectively connected. The prod- igies of heathenism, unaccompanied as they werd" by any pretence of proof, had no manner of reference to the setting up of a new system of faith, or of a teach- er pretending to a divine commission. Miraculous stories were published of Mohammed by writers of six and eight centuries after his death, but no such pretensions were made by himself. On the contrary, he expressly disclaimed miraculous powers. In the Koran it is written of him, *^ Nothing hindered us from sending thee with miracles, except that the for- mer nations have charged them with imposture." Again, " They say, unless a sign be sent down unto him from his Lord, we will not believe; answer, signs are in the power o( God alone, and I am no more than a public preacher. Is it not sufficient for them that we have sent down unto them the book of the Koran, to be read unto them?" We grant that Mohammed did give out to the credulity of his follow- ers a few marvellous doings; but they were such as cannot be included under the title of sensible miracles, inasmuch as he always took the discreet precaution of having no witness but himself, entirely avoiding the hazardous experiment of resting the evidence of his divine mission upon the testimony of any eyes more disinterested than his own. But how can it be accounted for that one of such high pretensions — aware, as he was, of the success 204 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. which miracles had obtained for the gospel in times past — should have neglected so powerful a means of proselyting the world ? It was not for want of im- portunity on the part of others; for his opposers were constantly teasing him with their demands on this head. It was not because he could anticipate no favorable influence from a well-sustained preten- sion to miracles ; for his adversaries assured him, even by oaths, that on the evidence of one such sign they would own his claims. Nor was it that Mo- hammed was too honest. The marvellous tales of the nocturnal visits of Grabriel, of his own night- journey, and of the transmission, from time to time, of parcels of the uncreated book from heaven, prove what this impostor was capable of attempting when allured by a prospect of success. Nor was it that this unequalled adventurer was deficient in an un- usual degree of craft and address for the manage- ment of bold imposture. His whole biography would refute such an opinion. Nor was it that he was sur- rounded with a people peculiarly prepared, by know- ledge and cultivated discernment, for the detection of such frauds. The age was one of the darkest in the annals of man, and his country one of the darkest of that age. Nor could it have been that his cause needed no such auxiliary, for the fruits of his labor, during the first three years, were only fourteen dis- ciples ; and in ten years his cause had not advanced beyond, and had made but little progress within, the walls of Mecca. Then if Mohammed was neither too honest to attempt the forgery of miracles, nor too MIRACLES. 205 unskilful to manage it with cunning and address; if his cause needed it, and his enemies demanded it, and the barbarity of the people and age favored it, no earthly reason can be given for his having dis- claimed the attempt, except that he considered it too difficult and hazardous, too certain of detection, even among a barbarous, credulous, and superstitious race. The religion of the Bible is the only one that ever ventured on such evidence in proof of divine original. This single fact, united with the well-known truth, that however her miracles may have been derided and suspected by enemies, none ever pretended to have discovered an imposition, is strong presumptive evidence that they had a reality which no human device could rival — a truth which no human scrutiny oould alarm. In coming, therefore, to our present examination, we should feel that the religion of the Bible stands alone, not only as to the wisdom and grandeur of her communications, but equally so as to the boldness of her evidence, the sublimity of her credentials, and the godlike dignity with which she cometh to the light, that her deeds *^ may be made manifest that they are wrought in God." We proceed to the testimony connected with the miracles of Christ. 1. We observe, in the first place, that supposing the works related of the Lord Jesus to have actually occurred, many of them must have been genuine miracles. They cannot be ascribed to natural causes. If five thousand men were fed, when all the food to feed 206 M'-ILVAINE'S EVIDENCES. them with, prior to the act of Jesus, was a few loaves and fishes ; if the centurion's servant was healed at the word of Jesus, while the latter was nowhere within the sight, or hearing, or knowledge of that servant ; if the man born blind was made to see by no other physical act than that of Jesus putting clay on his eyes, and his washing it off in the pool of Siloam ; if Lazarus, having been dead four days, did come forth from the sepulchre at the word of Jesus, then we have facts for which no natural causes can account. They are unquestionable miracles, and we are forced to the alternative of either denying, in the face of all evidence, the truth of the statements con- tained in the gospel history, or else acknowledging that miracles, in the fullest sense, were wrought at the word of Christ. 2. The miracles of Christ were such as could at once be brought to the test of the senses. It is essential to a rational belief in miraculous agency, that we be presented with facts of such a nature that the senses of those present could easily decide upon their reality and their supernatural character. Now, that the senses of the most ignorant were as competent as those of the most learned; that the senses of any man or woman in Judea were perfectly competent to decide whether the son of the widow of Nain, having been dead and carried out to be buried, did arise and sit up at the word of Christ, and continue there- after to reside, a living man, in Nain ; that any one's senses were perfectly competent to judge whether thousands of men were fed with a few loaves and MIRACLES. 207 fishes, or the blind received their sight, or the lepers were cleansed, or those notoriously lame from their birth were enabled to walk at the bidding of Christ, it would be folly to doubt. 3. The miracles of Christ were performed for the most part in the most public manner. It is the de- tracting circumstance of all the most plausible pre- tensions to miracles, exclusive of those of the Scrip- tures, that they were done in a corner, or in the pres- ence only of those already inclined to believe them, or under favor of circumstances calculated to prevent a free examination. Just the contrary, is the fact with regard to a great portion of the wonderful works of Christ. Not only were they accessible to the senses of witnesses, but to the senses of multitudes of wit- nesses, of witnesses with the most eager and violent enmity to the claims of Jesus; witnesses from all ranks and classes in society — the learned and mighty, as well as the ignorant and feeble — tlie scribes and Pharisees, the priest and the centurion, as well as the publicans and beggars. It was in the syna- gogues, in the streets, in the open fields surrounded by thousands, in the midst of Jerusalem, and at the time of the great annual festivals, when an inmiense concourse of Jews, from all parts of the world, crowded the holy city, that almost all of the mighty works of Jesus were performed. In this way, as in other ways, he could say to his persecutors, *'I spake openly to the world." His miracles were wrought upon subjects so nu- merous, in so many places, and in such circumstances, 208 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. that none could suspect the cases to have been previ- ously selected and prepared. What the condition of the subject had been before the miracle, thousands knew, and all could easily ascertain. "What it was, for a long time after the miracle, was equally noto- rious. Those who were cured of blindness, or leprosy, or lameness, or palsy, or who had been raised from the dead, did not die immediately after, nor hide themselves from public inspection ; but continued to go in and out among the people, as living examples of the power of Christ. The grave of Lazarus was surrounded with unbelieving Jews. They saw him come forth. They had as much opportunity as dis- position to find out whether it was Lazarus or some one else — whether the man was alive, or only pre- tending to be alive. Instead of being immediately snatched from their view, he was seated some time after as one of the guests at a supper in Bethany ; and so well known was the fact, that '' much people of the Jews" came to the place to have a sight of one who had been raised from the dead. '' The chief priests consulted that they might put him to death, because that, by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus." 4. The miracles of Christ and his apostles were very numerous^ and of great variety. It has been a characteristic of all cases of imposture, that the won- derful works pretended to were but few in number, and of great sameness. The sect of the Jansenists, in the church of Rome, pretended to miracles at the tomb, and by the posthumous intercessions of the MIRACLES. 209 Abbe Paris. But, besides the want of evidence that any of the facts recorded were miraculous, they were neither numerous nor various. Could this be s^id of the works of Christ, it would deprive them of one of the most palpable evidences of the fearless integrity in which they were wrought. But his history is full of miraculous works. Besides about forty that are related at large, we frequently meet with such ac- counts as this : ** His fame went throughout all Syria : and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them."* Similar declarations are made as to the miracles of the apostles. As, for example, in Acts 5:16: *' There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits ; and they were healed every one." But the miracles of the Saviour and his apostles were also of great variety. It was not disease of one or two classes only that Jesus removed, but dis- ease of all kinds. Not diseases only, but all kinds of human calamity, departed at his will Even death surrendered his captives at his command. The blind from their birth, the hopeless leper, those that were lame from the womb, those that had long been bowed down with infirmity, the withered, the palsied, the insane, all were alike delivered from their affliction. On two occasions thousands were fed with a mere • Matt. 4 : 24. 210 . M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. pittance of food. Thrice, besides the instance of his own resurrection, did Jesus raise the dead. A cor- responding variety characterizes the works of his apostles. 5. It is a matter of great importance to remark, that amidst all this variety, the success in every instance was instantaneous and complete. The sick were perfectly healed. The deaf and blind and lame were perfectly delivered from their infirmities ; the leper was entirely cleansed ; the dead arose, not merely to life, but to health and strength. These effects were as immediate as they were perfect. No sooner was the voice spoken, or the thing done, that was required of the applicant, than all was finished. Did Jesus say, '* Let there be light ?" there was light ; ** Let there be health?" there was health. He left no time for second causes to operate — no room for human means to intervene. " He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast." 6. There is no evidence of an attempt on the part of Christ or his apostles to perform a miracle, in which they were accused of having failed. It is notoriously true of the wonderful works' ascribed to the tomb of the Abbe Paris, for example, that the cases in which any beneficial effects resulted to the applicants were very inconsiderable in number, com- pared with those in which there was a manifest and total failure. But although the ministry of Christ lasted between three and four years, during which he was continually resorted to by multitudes, with a great variety of cases, seeking his miraculous aid ; HIRACLES. 211 and although the ministry of his apostles continued many years longer, during which time they are said to have been attested by ^' divers miracles," no case is mentioned in which an attempt was unsuccessful, or in which an applicant was denied. The language of the history in relation to the multitudes that ap- plied to Christ is continually, ** He healed them all." The enemies of the gospel, who were eye-witnesses of these applicants, did never maintain that the power of Christ or of his disciples was exerted unsuccess- fully in a single instance. Had such an event taken place, would they not have discovered it ? Had they discovered it, would they not have proclaimed it far and wide ? "Would any of the books written against Christianity in the first centuries have omitted so important a fact ? The total absence of all insinua- tion of such a thing in the whole controversy between the primitive Christians and their adversaries, is cer- tain evidence that an unsuccessful attempt was never made, and that an unsuccessful applicant was not known.* Now, on the supposition that the miraculous do- ings recorded in the gospel were all a cheat, what a miracle is here ! That all was contrivance and im- posture and accident, and yet not an enemy ever detected an instance of failure ; that the machinery was never out of place, out of time, or out of order ; * The case mentioned in Matthew 17 : 14-21, would have been an example of failure, had the narrative ended with the inability of the disciples. But the Master performed what they, being as yet in their noviciate, had attempted in vain. 212 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. that it was equally successful in all cases, equally- ready at all seasons, always invisible, yet always at hand, and always instantaneously effectual — what a miracle I Who is the man of weak credulity ? the believer, or the infidel ? 7. The length of time during which the Saviour and his apostles professed to perform miracles, should be specially considered. Seventy years elapsed be- tween the commencement of the ministry of Christ and the death of the last of the apostles. During all this interval the miraculous gifts in question were exercised. Now, as every repetition in case of im- posture multiplies the dangers of detection, and every extension hi time makes it the more difficult to keep up the confederated plan, it is no inconsiderable evi- dence of the genuineness of the miracles of the gospel, that they continued to be wrought and in- spected during a period of so many years, and yet so securely. This consideration is the more important when you reflect that the miracles were not confined to one or two places — were not wrought in little vil- lages, or among the poor and ignorant only, but that the scenes of most of them were in the chief cities of the Roman empire. Instead of remaining together in one place, or moving together wherever they de- sired to produce an impression, and then confining themselves to such places as might be most easily deceived, the apostles, with singular folly, on the supposition that they were confederated for an im- posture, separated to all parts of the world. They MIRACLES. 213 went alone to the most populous, polished, and en- lightened cities. They put themselves in the most public places of those cities ; thus making combina- tion impossible, and rendering their success, as mere counterfeiters, perfectly miraculous. 8. We have the most perfect certainty that the miracles of the gospel at the time they were wrought, and for a long time after, were subject to the most rigid examination from those who had every oppor- tunity of scrutinizing their character. Forged mir- acles may pass current where power and authority or the favorable dispositions of the people protect them from too close an inspection. But let the power of the magistrate, the authority of public opinion, and the partialities of those concerned, be once leagued in opposition, and the imposture cannot escape. Such was the league against the miracles in question. Never was the power of the state in more perfect alliance with public opinion, or more zealously supported by all the envy, hatred, and malice of which popular feeling is capable, than when it set its face against the gospel. Not only were these miracles exposed by their great publicity to univer- sal examination, but they were of such a nature that any mind was capable of examining them. Not only did they present themselves to the wise and the great, in the chief places of concourse, and in the great cities of the world, but they were such as necessarily provoked every description of scrutiny. Being per- formed in avowed support of a religion which could not be successful without destroying the whole 214 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. hierarchy of the Jews, and advancing its victories over the ruins of heathenism, they roused at once into united and stern opposition all the civil power of the governments, all the enmity of Jewish and pagan priesthoods, all the partialities and prejudices and national attachments of all people. The enmity of the scribes and Pharisees, of the doctors and lawyers and priests, of the Jews, must have been fired with peculiar indignation. As miracles multiplied and disciples increased, the deepest interest must have been awakened in relation to them among all classes of society. This we know to have been the case. Hence, it is certain that they did not escape the most thorough examination ; that all the ingenuity and diligence of contemporaries and eye-witnesses, ani- mated by the strongest motives, and favored by every conceivable advantage, were enlisted in the trial ; and this not for a day or a week or a month, but as long as miracles were professed and a hope of detec- tion remained. 9. It is a matter deserving of special remem- brance, that the adversaries of the gospel were placed in the most favorable circumstances for a thorough investigation of the reality of its miracles, by their being published and appealed to immediately after ^ and in the very places where they occurred. The miracles ascribed to the founder of the society of Jesuits are sufficiently answered by the fact, that during his life, and for many years after his death, nothing was heard of them. Those of Francis Xavier, one of the first disciples of Loyola, are deficient in MIRACLES. 215 evidence, because having been wrought, it is stated, in the far distant East, they were first published in the western world ; and the narratives, if they ever reached the places to which they relate, could not have been known there till long after the opportunity of a close investigation had passed away, and must have been published among a people too indifferent to be at the pains of inquiring into their truth or false- hood. But the miracles of the gospel were published immediately after, and in the very places of their occurrence. It is true, indeed, that the earliest gos- pel, that of St. Matthew, is not by any supposed fo have been published earlier than the seventh or eighth year after the death of Christ. Supposing this U have been the first publication of the miracles, it was sufficiently near their date to afford every reasonable opportunity of investigation. But we know from the gospel history, that during the three years of the Saviour's ministry, and all the while the apostles labored, their miracles were noto- rious. The scribes and Pharisees met in council on the subject. Many, unable to deny them, ascribed them to demoniacal power. Herod, when he heard of them, said, ^' This is John the Baptist ; he is risen from the dead ; and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him."* The fame of the miracles of Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry, " went throughout all Syria ;" so that multitudes, with all kinds of afflictions, flocked to him from all quarters to be healed, and when healed, returned to publish * Matt. 14:2. 216 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. still more widely the works of their deliverer.* The rising of Lazarus was so widely published in Bethany, where it took place, and in the region round about, that in a few days " much people of the Jews came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead."^ When, at the word of Peter and John, the impotent man at the gate of the temple had been made whole, they immediately published the miracle on the spot to the multitude of Jerusalem, appealing to it in evidence of the power of their Lord. " His name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know ; yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect sound- ness in the presence of you all."* Only about fifty days was Jesus risen from the dead when his dis- ciples began to proclaim everywhere, and first at Jerusalem, among those who slew him and had set the guard at the sepulchre, this greatest of miracles. They appealed to it in every discourse, challenged every examination, defied all contradiction. All the miracles of Christ they declared before the very people whom they asserted to have witnessed them. *' Ye men of Israel, hear these words," said Peter ; " Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know."* How eminently this bold and immediate publication must have aided as well as stimulated • Matt. 4 : 23-25. t John 12:9. t Acts 3: 16. * Acts 2: 22. MIRACLES. 217 the investigation of the enemies of the gospel, fur- nishing those who had every disposition, and all power, and all intelligence and cunning, with every opportunity to try the minutest circumstance, and ferret out every clue to the detection of imposture, I need not show. 10. Now, consider ivho the ageyits were, whose works were obliged to stand such trials. Had they been men of learning, of power, of wealth, accustomed to any thing that was calculated to furnish them for the work of imposing upon mankind, the case would not be quite so strong. But on the supposition that Christ was a mere man and pretender, what was he, or what were his apostles, by education or standing in society, that they should be qualified for such an unparalleled effort of ingenuity and concealment ? Is there any miracle more marvellous than that which is involved in the idea of a poor and, humanly speak- ing, unlearned individual of Nazareth, followed by twelve obscure, unlettered Jews, for the most part accustomed to nothing but their nets and fishing- boats, having practised such a system of imposture, under such circumstances of risk and exposure, with- out an individual among their numerous enemies being able to discover their secret, or detect the deceit ? 11. Consider, moreover, that notwithstanding all that was done to entice and intimidate the early Christians who were eye-witnesses of what Jesus or his apostles wrought, none loere induced to confess themselves deceived, or that they had seen any thing hut truth in those miraculous gifts by which EvidencM. 10 218 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. they had been persuaded to embrace the gospel. It is not asserted that none who professed to be con- verted from Judaism or paganism to Christianity, ever renounced the profession of Christianity. The perse- cution of enemies was sometimes successful in forc- ing their victims to forsake the gospel, and do sacri- fice to idols, rather than "be burned at the stake or thrown to wild beasts. But the case cannot be brought of one such unhappy deserter, whether man or woman, having been persuaded to bear witness against the Christian miracles. A convert, after having united himself to the apostles, been received to the fellowship of the church, and become an agent in advancing its cause, must have become acquainted with its secrets. He must have often looked behind the scenes, and had many opportunities of knowing the hidden machinery by which the imposition, if any existed, was carried on. Had the evidence of con- trivance and forgery been ever seen by the primitive Christians, those who deserted the cause had every motive to divulge it. Their own indignation at hav- ing been deceived, the rewards which they might have expected from the enemies of Christianity, would have been sufficiently persuasive. That none ever went a step further than simply to give up the profession of the gospel, through fear of torture ; that none ever turned round upon the apostles by whoso miracles they had been convinced, and charged them with fraud, is absolutely inexplicable on any other supposition than their thorough conviction that fraud did not exist. MIRACLES. 219 This evidence is especially strong in the case of Judas Iscariot. He was one of the twelve who always companied with Jesus. He was the treasurer of the family — admitted to every opportunity of know- ing whatever secrets may have belonged to the works of Christ. That he knew what and where the impo- sition was, if any existed in the gospel miracles, cannot be doubted. That he was treacherous enough to betray it, is manifest from his having betrayed the Master himself. That he had every inducement to do so, none can question who knows how precious the chief priests and Pharisees would have considered such a disclosure. Did he come forward with any such thing? He delivers up the person of Christ; does he accuse his character? deny his works? expose his cause? The Saviour is arraigned before his powerful enemies — witnesses are called. "Where is Judas? False witnesses are brought. Where is Judas ? Has he nothing to say against him whom he has already sold for thirty pieces of silver ? The enemies of Christ could not be ignorant of the impor- tance of such a witness ; nor could he be ignorant of the gain that would accrue from his delivering such testimony. But he was not there. The Jews never pretended to have obtained any accusation from that traitor. Not a word is spoken, in all the controversy with primitive adversaries, about the treachery of Judas as having turned to their advantage. On the contrary, it is written in the gospel history, and was never denied by those men, that he not only ab- stained from any accusation, but in the strongest 220 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. possible manner confessed the truth and excellence of Jesus and his cause. Under the stings of con- science, and in spite of the covctousness of his dispo- sition, he went and delivered up the money he had received for his iniquity into the hands of those who had paid it. Nor was this all. He was constrained to confess to the chief priests and elders, whose wrath he knew it would inflame to the uttermost, saying, " I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself."* Stronger evidence of truth and righteousness, it is impossible for any works or any cause to possess. 12. Having considered in another place the char- acter of the individuals by whom the miracles of the gospel were performed, it is important now to remark the character of the miracles themselves. Either they were real miracles, or false. If false, the indi- viduals who performed them could not, by any excess of infatuation, have supposed them true. They must, therefore, have been the deliberate asserters of a divine commission, which they knew had not been given them, and the persevering exhibiters of creden- tials which they knew were forgeries. Hence, it is not possible that they could have been honest men ; much less, good men. And inasmuch as they must have acted from some motive and with some object in view, and we cannot suppose that such impostors would be sacrificing themselves merely out of a be- nevolent disposition to promote the happiness of their * Matt. 27 : 4, 5. MIRACLES. 221 fellow-creatures and relieve their woes, it must have been some object of ambition or of gain which they were pursuing. We do not pause now to show what perfect idiots they must have been to select such a scheme out of ambitious or pecuniary motives. But since, on the supposition that their works were ficti- tious, we can imagine no other, the question arises. How do these miracles correspond with the idea that the agents were impostors, and their motives ambi- tious or covetous ? Now I maintain, that considering how many and various are the miracles recorded in the New Testa- ment, in what various circumstances and by what various agents they were performed — not for a month or year only, but many years, in full assemblages of enemies — it would have been quite miraculous, sup- posing them false, had they been in every instance garnished with a concealment so perfect that nothing low, or mean, or undignified, nothing betraying the spirit of designing, ambitious, or covetous men, should ever have been manifested. Take up the accounts of any confessedly fictitious miracles, in any age or country, and you will soon detect the handwriting of the spirit and motives that produced them. But most singularly, contrary to all experience and all law, on the assumption that the miracles of Christ and his apostles were fictitious, you discover nothing in them but what is entirely worthy of the majesty, holiness, justice, and goodness of that God by whose power they professed to be wrought. The most per- fect correspondence appears between the exalted and 222 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. holy character and office in which the Saviour and his apostles claimed to be received, and the works by which their claim was sustained. Propriety, dignity, disinterestedness, benevolence of the loveliest spirit, and compassion of the tenderest sensibility, distin- guished them. Not the least trace is marked on them of any ambitious or other suspicious motive. Though the Lord Jesus and his apostles were compassed about with reproachful and persecuting enemies, you discern nothing vindictive or resentful. Though al- ways in personal poverty, " despised and rejected of men^'^ their miracles discover notliing ostentatious, nothing to gratify curiosity, no anxiety for repute, no aim at wealth or temporal power. While feeding the hungry by thousands, Jesus continued in poverty. While, as the good shepherd, ever following the lost sheep through suffering and want, that he might ad- minister to their necessities, he showed no sign of any care for himself. Now, if Jesus and his apostles did not work miracles in truth— if their high claims were false, and they consequently were prosecuting a scheme of imposture with selfish purposes, either of ambition or gain, there is something in all this sin- gularly unaccountable — very unlike the laws of na- ture — exceedingly miraculous. 13. But that the miracles of the gospel were not fictitious, but genuine and undeniable, we have the plainest and strongest confession from the primitive adversaries of Christ and his cause. In the first place, we have a very conclusive and impressive con- fession, though silent, from the whole Jewish nation MIRACLES. 223 and the whole gentile world. It consists in this unquestionable fact, that no individual among them ever detected, or was supposed to have detected, an imposture. You are to remember that these miracles were addressed to the senses, performed in open day- light, with all possible publicity ; that they were exceedingly numerous and various, wrought by many different agents, in many and remote countries, before citizens of the most enlightened cities, and in the most enlightened age of the Roman . empire ; that those of the apostles did not cease until nearly sev- enty years from their commencement, during all which time they must have endured the very closest scrutiny thart the combined forces of learning, enmity, and political authority could institute. You are to remember, also, what kind of men were those who performed them, and that the accounts of them which we now possess were published far and wide in the very places where the works were done, and among the very people who are said to have witnessed them. You are to remember, for example, the miracle of the gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem ; how it was published abroad in Jerusalem and the whole empire, that on that day an immense multi- tude of people of all languages were amazed at hear- ing the twelve apostles, who were well known as unlettered Jews, preaching the gospel in so many different languages; that all, whether Cretes, Ara- bians, Mesopotamians, or of any other name, all heard in their respective tongues the wonderful works of God. You are to consider, that in publishing an 224 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. account of this astonishing transaction, as was done by the apostles in all their preaching, and a few years afterwards by Luke in the Acts of the Apos- tles, an open, honest appeal was made to all the hun- dreds of thousands who had been assembled on that day in Jerusalem, to come forth and deny that these things did then and there occur. Thus was every possible facility afforded for the detection of impos- ture. Without a miracle for its concealment it could not have escajjed. Had there been a detection with regard to but one of all the miracles, we should have heard of it. Judea and Grreece and Rome would have rung with the nejvs. The books of Jewish and heathen adversaries would have reiterated its publi- cation in illuminated pages and golden capitals. All the generations of succeeding adversaries would have quoted it as one of the dearest bequests of classic antiquity. Is there any such thing? I sound the inquiry through the whole region of Jewish and Grecian and Roman history, and I hear nothing in answer but the echo of my own voice, " Is there any such thing?" I must answer it myself. There is no such thing, in all that has come to us from anti- quity, as even a pretence to the detection of imposture in the gospel miracles. This I think you will join me in considering a very impressive and conclusive confession, though a silent one, from the whole Jewish nation and gentile world, to the undeniable reality of the miracles of Christ and his apostles. It is all the evidence we could with any reason expect from enemies. When MIRACLES. 225 Deists bid us produce the testimony of enemies as well as friends, it is perfectly unreasonable to require that we should find enemies, in those days of bitter hostility to Christianity, positively acknowledging that it was attested by miracles. That they did not deny it, that Jews and Grentiles, that the Mosaic and the Pagan priesthoods, that the Pharisees of Jerusa- lem, and the philosophers of Corinth and Ephesus and Rome were silent on this head, one would sup- pose, is a great deal to get from such adversaries. But we can go further. Unreasonable as it is to demand more positive testimony from enemies, we can meet the demand. Having in a previous lecture ascertained the credibility of the gospel history, we may now appeal to it for the acknowledgment of enemies. Peter on the day of Pentecost assumed the fact that the multitudes of Israel, to whom he was speaking, acknowledged that Jesus of Nazareth had approved himself among them by '' miracles, and won- ders, and signs."* " This man doeth many miracles,"^ was the confession of the chief priests and Pharisees, in council, relative to Jesus. *' What shall we do to these men?" said the Jewish rulers in relation to Peter and John. ** For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it."^ You know that the only way of escape the Jewish rulers could find, while they could not deny the miracles, was to ascribe them to magic, or the power of demons. ^^He casteth out devils by Beelzebub." But we ♦ Acts 2 : 22. t John 1 1 : 47. t Acts 4 16. 10* 226 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. have similar testimony without recourse to the Scrip- tures. The Jewish rabbies, in the Talmud, acknow- ledge these miracles, and pretend that they were wrought by magic, or by the power attendant upon a certain use of the name Jehovah, called tetragram- maton^ which, they pretend, Jesus stole out of the temple.* But we have positive testimony also from heathens. Celsus, who wrote in the latter part of the second century, not only allows the principal facts of the gospel history, but acknowledges that Christ wrought miracles, by which he engaged great multi- tudes to adhere to him as the Messiah. That these miracles were really performed, so far from denying, he tries to account for by ascribing them to magic, wliich he says Christ learned in Egypt.^ Hierocles, president of Bythinia, and a persecutor of Christians, in a work written against Christianity does not deny the miracles of Christ, but compares them with those which he pretended had been wrought a long time before by one ApoUonius of Tyanea, a heathen ; complaining at the same time that Chris- tians made so much ado about the works of Jesus as to worship him for Grod.* Julian the emperor, in the fourth century, ac- * Quod Christus per hoc nomen quoqiie miracula sua edi- derit, probavit ante multos annos Purchetus. Eju^ tamen fabula) illustrandsD causa, hoc addo, quod apud Talmudicos reperi. Ut Christus in ea historia refertur descriptum Shem- hamphorasch, (id est, nomen expositum, quod est ipsum nomen mn%) inclusisse in discissam cutem pedis, et ex templo edux- isse, ut sic per ejus vim miracula postmodum ediderit. Bux- torf. t Lardner, vol. 4, p. 120-130. t Ibid. 4, 254. MIRACLES. 227 knowledges the miracles of Christ, and contents him- self with trying to depreciate their importance. " Je- sus," he says, *^did nothing worthy of fame, unless any one can suppose that curing the lame and the blind, and exorcising demons in the villages of Beth- saida, are some of the greatest works." He acknow- ledges that Jesus had a sovereign power over impure spirits, and that he walked on the surface of the deep.* Now, it is a matter of no little wonder, to say the least of it, that in this nineteenth century men should be so sagacious as to discover that Christ and his apostles did not attest their claims and doctrines with miraculous powers, when learned, sagacious, and sufficiently hostile unbelievers of the earliest centu- ries of Christianity, having opportunities for discover- ing the state of the case such as none in modern times can pretend to, were constrained to acknow- ledge precisely the contrary. I marvel that Celsus and Porphyry, and Hierocles and Julian, and the scribes and Pharisees, can rest in their graves, when such reflections are cast upon the zeal and ability with which they searched for imposture in the works of Christ! 14. But we have even better testimony than that of enemies. Had Celsus found himself not only un- able to deny the miracles of Christ, but persuaded, by the mere force of their truth, to renounce heathenism, and consecrate his life, in the face of persecution and death, to the service of the gospel, would not his tes- timony have been greatly increased in importance? * Lardner, vol. 4, pp. 332-342. 228 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. Would not the very fact of his becoming a Christian, under the power of evidence, be tlie consideration which, instead of injuring his testimony as that of a friend, would have given it peculiar force as that of a friend who was once an enemy ? Then if I find cases precisely corresponding with this — if I present you with hundreds and thousands of such cases, and tens of thousands, will you not own that their positive testimony is far stronger than even that of the adver- saries whom we have cited, and the strongest of which in the nature of things we could be possessed ? I find precisely such cases in the apostles of Christ. They are regarded as interested witnesses, because they were friends. But what made them friends? Were they not men, like others ? Jews, like others ? Consider Paul, once a fierce persecutor of Chris- tians. What made him a friend ? Consider the three thousand converted from bitter, persecuting Juda- ism to the faith of Christ on the day of Pentecost. What made friends and disciples of them ? Was it that they expected any earthly honors or gains from taking up the cross of a crucified Master, in whose wonderful works they did not believe ? Was it that they coveted reproach, enjoyed suffering, and loved death; or because, by careful consideration, they were so convinced that the miracles of Christ, espe- cially that of his rising from the dead, were true, that no certainty of persecution, no sacrifices of property, character, friends, or life were sufficient to prevent them from confessing him before men? To these add the hundreds of thousands who, during the min- MIRACLES. 229 istry of the apostles, from having been Jews or hea- thens, and enemies of the gospel, became its devoted followers and heroic confessors. They bore witness, by word and deed, in torture and death, to the great fact that the miracles of Christ were true. And what is their testimony worth ? What possible motive can you assign for the total change which took place in all their habits, attachments, manners, and affections, when they became Christians, other than that of deep, solemn conviction ? To suppose they were not con- vinced, is to suppose that they made the most tre- mendous sacrifices not only without motive, but in direct opposition to the most powerful motives of the human breast. They well knew the poverty and persecution and martyrdom to which they exposed themselves. Why, then, did they become Christians? When afterwards pursued as the off-scouring of all things, and pests of the world; when no name was so odious as that of Christian; when to bring those who bore it to torture was universally accounted mer- itorious; when it was the study of magistrates and soldiers to invent new modes of tormenting them ; when thousands of all ranks and ages were daily slain for the testimony of Jesus, who, by the act of a mo- ment, could have stilled the storm to perfect peace, why did they persist and die? To pretend to explain their steadfastness, except on the supposition of their having firmly believed what they professed, were per- fectly absurd. But did they not know? Living in the same .age with the apostles — living in the very places where the miracles were performed, they, if 2a0 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. any on earth, must have possessed the opportunity of discovering the truth with regard to them. We have, then, the impressive facts of hundreds of thousands of the adversaries of the gospel, in the first century of Christianity^ Jews and Grreeks and Romans, many of whom had been persecutors of Christians, bearing the most positive testimony to what they had every opportunity of investigating, the reality of the mir- acles of Christ; and sealing their testimony by re- nouncing all that was dear to them by birth, habit, or education, and embracing Christianity at the ex- pense of the keenest reproach and the most painful death. Testimony stronger or more undeniable than this, I cannot imagine. If this be not sufficient to prove a plain matter of fact, such, for example, as that Lazarus was seen alive after he was known to have been dead, then farewell all history and all know- ledge. Nothing can be reasonably believed, except on evidence of sense, and hardly then, after rejecting this. We have now arrayed as many of the materials of the argument for the gospel miracles as our time would permit. It only remains that we put them together into one view, so as to enable you to appre- ciate their united strength. I know not how to do this in a better way, than to take the supposition that all the miracles of Christ and of his apostles were fictions, and consequently their authors deliberate deceivers; and then consider how far the supposition will carry us. Let us do so. You understand the supposition. What must be believed by one who will maintain it? MIRACLES. 231 He must believe that Jesus and his apostles, being obscure, unlettered Jews, without a single circum- stance to give them influence, were so perfectly silly and mad as to flatter themselves that they could set up a scheme of religion, which, though in utter con- tradiction to the habits, passions, prejudices, and in- stitutions of all ihe world, should succeed in overturn- ing the religious systems and institutions of the most enlightened nations; and yet that, with this unac- countable infatuation, they were so singularly wise as to maintain throughout all the miracles which they professed to work in proof of their system, the most perfect consistency with the dignity and diginterest- edness of the oiffice they assumed, and with the maj- esty, holiness, and goodness of that God in whoso name they professed to come. He must believe that Jesus and his apostles were 60 wicked as to attempt an imposture which involved not only continual dishonesty, but downright blas- phemy, and this from motives of mere ambition or avarice; and yet, that during the space of seventy years they kept up such an invariable show of emi- nent goodness and disinterestedness, as in all their works to manifest not the smallest appearance of self- ishness or any evil design; but, on the contrary, the utmost evidence of self-denial, of self-humiliation, of purity, of holiness, of the tenderest compassion, and the most laborious benevolence, so that even their enemies never brought inconsistency to their charge. He must believe the apostles to have been so strangely in love, either with wealth, or honor, or 232 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. power, or something else, as to be willing even out of their obscurity and weakness to seek it by such a desperate scheme as that of Christianity, and yet that, when honors were offered, they earnestly refused them ; when they saw the triumph of their enemies in the crucifixion of Christ, and that nothing awaited his followers but disgrace, poverty, and persecution, they persisted in advocating the cause of their fallen leader ; and when the storms of persecution grew darker and darker, and ruin and death were the cer- tain consequences of perseverance, and one word of confession would have saved them, such was their infatuated attachment to this scheme of imposture, such their singular devotion to self, to honor, or wealth, or power, or something else, that they drove on from suffering to suffering, from shame to shame, ending at last their pursuit in a bitter death, with the full belief, as Jews, that in eternity they should be condemned to an awful retribution for their whole career. He must believe, that while the apostles were so utterly destitute of common ingenuity that they se- lected precisely that kind of credential which it was the most difficult to forge, and instead of seeking, as other impostors would have done, private or confined or solitary places for their miracles, chose those of the greatest resort and publicity, and then placed and left their miracles directly under the senses of the multitude ; that while they had so little contrivance, that instead of selecting a few masked friends, or the most ignorant of the populace for witnesses, they MIRACLES. 233 seemed rather to prefer having hardly any witnesses but enemies, and those frequently of the highest, most literary, and powerful classes ; that while so utterly wanting in the common cunning of impostors, that instead of keeping their doings to one or a few places, they performed them anywhere, upon any subjects, however suddenly or confusedly presented, and instead of ceasing when they had done a few with success, continued the hazard for many years, in innumerable instances, and while they were widely separated from one another — I say it must be believed, that Christ and his apostles, with all these evidences of extraordinary idiocy or lunacy, were yet so won- derfully ingenious, wary, and wise, so singularly skilled in imposture, so learned in human nature and the world, such a marvellous match for the combined efforts of the wise and mighty and diligent of Judea and Greece and Rome, laid their plans so deeply, concerted their movements so skilfully, kept their secrets so closely, carried on the whole complicated plot for many years so consistently, that though ever watched while together and while separated, and con- tinually scrutinized by all sorts of witnesses and of enemies, none could ever detect the least flaw in their pretensions — none could discover that the blind did not see, that the lame did not walk, that the dead did not rise. On the contrary, the people of| Bethany were so deceived as actually to believe that they daily saw one of their townsmen, whom they knew to have died, living and eating among them. Wie people of Jerusalem were so deceived as to be- 234 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. lieve that they saw a man whom they knew to have been lame from his birth, daily walking among them perfectly well. The five thousand were fully per- suaded that they did all eat and were filled with a few loaves and fishes. The people of Syria were so tricked as really to believe that their multitudes of sick with divers diseases and torments, whom they had brought to Jesus, went home with them perfectly well, without an exception. Yea, the whole Jewish and heathen world was so imposed upon by these unlettered, simple, despised, persecuted Jews, as tacitly to confess the genuineness of their miracles. Philosophers and rabbies, when they attacked Chris- tianity, did not deny it ; several of them positively in their books acknowledged it; and hundreds of thou- sands in the age of the apostles, out of the most polished cities and most respectable classes, were so entirely taken captive and spellbound by the magic scheme of these weak men, that they forsook all, and took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and yielded them- selves to fire and sword and wild beasts, rather than not confess and follow Christ. Such are the wonderful things, such the violations of the laws of nature and of common-sense, such the wicked and contradictory miracles, which necessarily follow as true, as soon as the miracles of Christianity are rejected as false. Now, tell me on which side the charge of credulity lies with the greatest weight. Now, give the reason why our modern unbelievers, instead of meeting the testimony of the gospel mir- acles in front, are so conscientiously scrupulous never MIRACLES. 235 to know any thing about it, and always expend their ingenuity in ridiculing the dignity, or in picking out what they would represent as the inconsistencies of Scripture. Now explain the singular phenomenon that the grand high-priest of modern infidelity should have invented the convenient principle which scep- tical philosophy had ever before so painfully sighed after, that no testimony can prove a miracle. Ah, yes. It was his only hope. The testimony of the Christian miracles is perfect. It is so overwhelming, that if there be any difficulty about their miraculous character, it arises from the very brightness of their evidence itself. It is almost inconceivable that such works, wrought so publicly and frequently, and with such incontrovertible marks of a divine hand, should not have made more converts — ^that all who beheld them did not yield at once to the great Teacher whom they attested, and espouse his cause. But the ex- planation is not difficult. The human heart is de- praved enough for the most desperate rejection of such a master as the Lord Jesus. Men will go to the greatest lengths of folly and unbelief to gratify their passions, foster their pride, retain their prejudices, and escape the necessity of making sacrifices for con- science' sake. The truth that so many Jews and heathens, with this blaze of testimony before them, did not submit to the gospel, is not so astonishing as what is seen every day among ourselves : persons believing the New Testament, and that Christ is the only Saviour of sinners — that eternal blessedness awaits those who follow him, and eternal woe those 236 ■ M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. who neglect his salvation, and yet, for all practical ends, as unmoved by these truths as if they were fables — as little engaged in the service of Christ as if they had never heard his name. But we must conclude. I trust you will hence- forth allow me to consider the miracles of the gospel as proved to be genuine. If so, we must consider the credentials of Christ and his apostles as acknowledged. They were therefore what they professed to be, di- vinely commissioned and inspired teachers. Grod was with them. What they published as a revelation from God, we are consequently bound to receive as a revelation from God. That publication is contained in the New Testament. We have already ascertained the authenticity and credibility of the New Testa- ment. We now cease, therefore, with the conclusion that the religion published in the New Testament is a revelation from God. May the greatest and best of all the works of the Lord Jesus be wrought in all of us, even the blessed work of his grace, awakening the sinner from spirit- ual death; changing, exalting, purifying all the af- fections of his depraved nature ; opening the eyes of his understanding to behold the glory of God ; leading him in repentance and faith to the cross, for pardon and peace ; shedding abroad in his heart the spirit of divine love, and causing him to rejoice in the bless- ed assurance of a crown of glory that fadeth not away. PROPHECY. 237 LECTURE VII. PROPHECY. Having shown the genuineness of the miracles recorded in the New Testament in attestation of the divine mission of the Saviour and his apostles, we are now to take up the subject of prophecy. But while proceeding to this additional source of evidence, it is important to be observed that we do so, not be- cause we consider the reasoning in proof of Chris- tianity as a divine revelation, to which you have al- ready listened, in any sense incomplete. Had our course of lectures been terminated with the last, the argument would have been brought to an incontro- vertible issue. Having made out the great point, that genuine miracles were wrought by the Saviour and his apostles in attestation of the divine authority of what they did and taught, we have established, by necessary consequence, the great truth that Jesus Christ was a teacher come from Grod, and that the New Testament, as an authentic publication of the religion taught by him, is to be received as contain- ing a divine revelation of truth and duty. One line of evidence therefore, one road leading to the Scrip- tures as the great central fountain of divine truth, we have travelled over, and it has set us down beside the water of life. Now, if this were the only road, it would be amply sufficient. The loftiest intellect need 238 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. not be ashamed — the weakest need not fear to walk therein.* But God has not only furnished us with the plainest, but with the most various and abundant evidence. And since the object of these lectures is, not only to prove the divine authority of the gospel, but also to give you an idea of the diversified char- acter of the many ways by which the proof may be established, we propose now to return from the posi- tion we have reached by the argument of our last lecture, and endeavor to arrive at it again by a route entirely different. We take up the prophecies re- corded in the Scriptures, and shall endeavor to pro- duce from them satisfactory and impressive evidence that in the Bible we have divine inspiration, and in Jesus Christ a teacher sent of God. What is a prophecy^ according to the sense of Scripture, and as we are now about to consider it? It is a declaration of future events, such as no human wisdom or forecast is sufficient to make — depending on a knowledge of the innumerable contingencies of human affairs, which belongs exclusively to the omniscience of God; so that from its very nature, prophecy must be divine revelation. *^ The prophecy * A celebrated infidel once acknowledged that even Athe- ism would be refuted by the proof of a single miracle of the gospel. Spinoza declared that he would have broken his atheistic system to pieces, and embraced without repugnance the ordinary faith of Christians, could he have been persuaded of the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. Was it not a foresight of the inferences that would necessarily result from the proof of this miracle, that prevented him from being per- suaded of its truth ? PROPHECY. 239 came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." J A prophecy, considered in itself, separately from its fulfilment, is no evidence of revelation. But as soon as fulfilled, it is complete. The hand of God is then attested. The evidence that the person by whom it was uttered was under the influence of di- vine omniscience, is finished. Then prophecy takes the place of miracle, and becomes at once one of the highest and most unquestionable proofs, not only that the individual who declared it was the agent of com- municating, in that particular, a divine revelation, but also that a divine sanction is impressed upon that whole system of religion with which his prophecies may be connected.* '* Future 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 se- crets which it is evident no man or angel can pene- trate, their causes being indeterminate, their relations with other things fluctuating and unknown. It fol- lows therefore, that the prediction of such contingent events Cannot otherwise than proceed from God ; and further, since God cannot without a violation of his perfect holiness and rectitude visibly aid delusion and wickedness, the inference is equally cogent and nec- essary, that the accomplishment of predictions deliv- * *' All prophecies," says Hume, "arc real miracles, and as such only, can be admitted as proofs of any revelation." Phil- osophical Essays. 240 M'lLVAINE^S EVIDENCES. ered by those who profess 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 this can only be evaded by refusing to behold it, and only counterfeited by him who is ingenious enough to borrow omniscience in aid of imposture. ^* To declare a thing shall come to be, long before it is in being," says Justin Martyr, **and then to bring about the accomplishment of that very thing according to the same declaration, this, or nothing, is the work of God." There are considerations connected with this par- ticular source of evidence, which render it specially interesting and valuable. Prophecy furnishes an argument, the force of which is continually growing. The argument be- gan when first a single prophecy was fulfilled. It increased more and more, as predictions and fulfil- ments multiplied. In the age of the apostles, it was a powerful as well as favorite weapon in proof of the gospel. But during that period many new predic- tions were published, and many ancient ones remained to be accomplished. The argument consequently was not yet at its height. It has been growing ever since, as one century after another has exhibited an ad- ditional fulfilment, or completed and enlarged those already advanced. "We, in the present age, enjoy an expanse and variety and completeness of prophetic * Gregory's Letters. PROPHECY. 241 evidence far exceeding those which the chart of his- tory .presented to St. Paul. There is to us a voice from the silent solitudes where Babylon and Tyre once stood in pride and reigned in power ; from the modern history of the prostrate Egypt; from the won- derful annals and present condition of the Jewish race; from the desolate state of the Holy Land and adjoining countries; from the rise and present aspect of the mystic Babylon — which the primitive Chris- tians had not the privilege of hearing. The force of this argument is yet to grow more and more until the consummation of all things. A few years hence, in all probability, will exhibit it invented with a bright- ness and glory, compared with which all present evi- dence will seem but as morning twilight. At the end of the world will be its full maturity. Prophecy having begun with the history of sin, extends to the completion of its tragedy ; and not till the blazing of the great conflagration when "the earth and all that is therein shall be burned up," will its every predic- tion be fulfilled, or the fulness of glory with which it was designed to show the truth of God in the gospel of his Son, be made to appear. Now, it is this continual growing of prophetic evidence that makes it so peculiarly valuable. The argument derived from miracles, though it could never have been more conclusive than it is to us, was certainly more impressive to those who saw the mir- acles, or who lived in the age in which they were wrought. And it is very difficult for most persons to distinguish between the conclusiveness and the im- Evidences. 1 1 242 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. pressiveness of evidence. Because the lapse of cen- turies, by removing the Christian miracles far .from us, has diminished the sensible effect they would otherwise have had upon our minds, it is very gen- erally supposed that the same cause has enfeebled the evidence on which their genuineness is main- tained. This idea, though entirely unfounded, is too natural, to those whose thoughts reach not be- neath the surface of such subjects, to be easily re- moved. But with regard to the evidence -arising from prophecy, it cannot exist. Predictions, now in progress of fulfilment, are miracles which centuries can only render more certain and impressive. If there was a peculiar privilege conferred on those who saw in the miracles of Christ, manifest to sense, the wonderful works of God's omnipotence^ there is also a similar privilege conferred on us, who, in conse- quence of the ever-increasing fulfilment of prophecy, may see in the Scriptures, more brilliantly illuminated than ever, the handwriting of God's omniscience. There is another peculiarity in much of the evi- dence from prophecy, which renders it peculiarly valuable. It is evidence before our eyes addressed to our senses. By this we do not mean that the evi- dence arising from the miracles of Christ and his apostles would be any more conclusive, however much it would be increased in its impression on our minds, did we behold the miracles instead of reading of them in well-attested history. We believe, on the contrary, that this description of evidence, as ad- dressed to us, is perfect. But still there is, and per- PROPHECY. 243 haps ever will be, a class of persons who, like the disciple Thomas, will require to see before they will believe. Either their indifference or sluggishness prevents them from pursuing a line of argument that would carry them back amidst the testimonies of antiquity, or else their willing scepticism, by in- genious sophistry, would shield them from all the evidence derived from miraculous agency, by the assumption that no testimony can prove a miracle. The utter fallacy of this position, we trust, was satis- factorily shown in a preceding lecture. But here are evidences with which, were it true, it could have no connection. God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, has provided for all classes of minds, and all descrip- tions of infidelity, that all unbelievers may be with- out excuse. The argument from prophecy may be rendered brief enough for the most sluggish, tangible enough for the most obstinate opposers of historical testimony. They have only to read in the Bible the predictions with regard to the once proud cities of Babylon and Tyre, or the once powerful empire of Egypt, and then to open their ears to the accounts which almost every wind conveys, or go and see for themselves the obscure remnants of the ruins of those cities and of that once mighty empire ; they have only to read in the books of Moses what, thirty-three hun- dred years ago, was foretold of the history of the Jewish people, and then to lift up their eyes and behold the present condition and the notorious peculi- arities of that wonderful race, to see that the proph- ecies of the Bible have been plainly and most par- 244 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. tioularly fulfilled — fulfilled in a manner which no human sagacity could have foreseen, which no hu- man power could have brought to pass, and conse- quently that the authors of these prophecies were inspired men, and the reUgion they taught was the word of God. In these and various other examples which might be adduced, of the present and visible fulfilment of prophecy, the miracles of the Jewish and Christian dispensations are in fact continued among us. " Men are sometimes disposed to think that if they could see a miracle wrought in their own sight, they would believe the gospel without delay, and obey it unreservedly. They know not their own hearts. * If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.' But in the whole range of prophecy now fulfilling before their eyes, they have in fact a series of divine interpositions, not precisely of the nature of miracles, in the sense of brief and instant and visible suspensions of the laws of nature, but evidently so in the sense of supernatural interference : in the rise and fall of cities and nations and empires ; in the arrangement of times and circumstances ; in that wonderful display of infinite foreknowledge and in- finite power, apparent in the control of the wills of unnumbered free and accountable agents to a certain result."* In our last lecture we stated that the religion of the Bible is the only one which, on its first introduc- tion, appealed to miracles in evidence of the divine * Wilson's Lectures. PROPHECY. 245 authority of its teachers. We make a similar re- mark, with still more evident truth, in regard to prophecy. The sublimity of men professing to be the commissioned and inspired messengers of God, making their appeal to a series of future events for a thousand years as the sure attestation of the divine authority of their embassy ; the moral grandeur of that appeal, which, after having deposited in the hands of nations a prediction of minute transactionss which the innumerable contingencies of a long retinue of centuries are to bring out, stakes its whole cause upon a perfect fulfilment, thus resting itself singly upon the omniscience and omnipotence of God, and separating to an infinite distance all possibility of human support — this is a dignity to which nothing but the inspiration of the Scriptures can pretend, a noble daring on which nothing else was ever known to ven- ture. The corruptions of Christianity, as existing in the church of Rome, have attempted to prop up their feeble foundations on the credit of miracles, easily re- futed indeed, but widely boasted of. But prophecy, even the effrontery of that " man of sin," *' whose com- ing," saith St. Paul, ** is with all deceivableness of unrighteousness," has never pretended to. Although Mohammed did not profess to support his pretensions by miracles, and the Koran expressly concedes that miraculous power was not given him, yet his fol- lowers, hundreds of years after his death, related many miracles as having been performed under his hand. But that Mohammed, though styled the prophet of God, ever declared a prophecy^ on the ful- 246 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. filment of which he rested his claims to inspiration, none ever asserted. The history of pagan nations indeed abounds with stories of auguries and oracles and detached predictions ; but it was with no reference to the establishment of paganism that they were uttered. On the contrary, the fact that paganism was estab- lished already gave them all their reverence. But what an immeasurable distance separates all the pretended oracles of paganism from the dignity of the prophecies in the Bible. The avowed end of the former was to satisfy some trivial curiosity, or aid the designs of some military or political leader. The influence of intimidation or of bribery produced them. They were never spontaneous. The oracles were careful to take advantage of the security of silence, until obliged to speak in answer to a direct appeal. Then they never uttered a syllable without getting time for preparation. Inquiries were rendered as difficult and as expensive as possible, in order not only to enrich the oracles, but to diminish the occa- sions of exposure. Every inquiry must be attended with numerous and minute ceremonies on the part of the applicant as well as the prophet, in order that omissions or mismanagements might afford frequent excuses for the failure of the response, without im- plicating the inspiration of its author. The god was not always in a humor to be consulted. " Either he was talking, or he was pursuing, or he was in a journey, or peradventure he was sleeping, and must be awakened." This afforded a very convenient op- PROPHECY. 247 portunity of putting off a difficult case. '^ Omens were to be taken, and auguries examined, which, if unfavorable in any particular, either precluded the inquiry for the present, or required further lustrations, ceremonies, and sacrifices — to purify the person who had consulted, and render him fit to receive an answer from the gods, or to bring their wayward deities to a temper suitable to the inquiry."* When no means of evasion remained, the answers given were either so ambiguous as to suit any alternative, or so obscure as to require a second oracle to explain them. When the prediction failed there was no want of subterfuges by which to maintain the credit of the oracle. It was conveniently discovered, either that the gods were averse to the inquirer, or that he had not been in a proper state for the consultation, or that some indispensable ceremony had been omitted or mismanaged. But all these precautions and arti- fices were not sufficient to prevent those oracles from falling into utter contempt with the more enlightened heathens.^ Who could think of comparing such pitiful mockeries of divine omniscience with the dignified and sublime and holy prophecies which are spread out so openly and widely in the Scriptures? To point out the particulars in which the prophets of the Bible were distinguished above all the oracles of the pagans, were to suppose a measure of ignorance among my hearers, as to the most conspicuous fea- tures of the Scriptures, with which I cannot believe * Nare's View of Prophecy. t Slilliiigfleet's Orig. Sacrac, 1. 2, ch. 8, p. 221. 246 • M'lLVAINE^S EVIDENCES. them chargeable. But our assertion remams, and deserves to be repeated, that neither in the rise, nor in the progressive advancement of any rehgion but that of the Bible, have prophecies been professed or appealed to in evidence of its truth. This single i'act, that all other religions have shrunk from at- tempting such dangerous ground ; that notwithstand- ing the boldness with which other descriptions of evidence have been counterfeited among pagans and Mohammedans, and in support of the corruptions of popery, all have kept aloof from this ; and yet, that this vdry evidence, so extremely hazardous, so cer- tain of ultimate exposure in case of imposition, is everywhere professed in the Bible, and forms the golden chain that holds all its parts together, and by which it spans the world, touching at once its be- ginning and ending, the first and the last : this, I say, independently of the question of fulfilment, is a strong presumptive argument that the Bible contains something of great importance which no other religion possessed — something to warrant it in venturing where nothing but divine Omniscience is able to tread ; in other words, that its writers were holy men, who '* spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The overpowering weight of the evidence from prophecy, and the moral grandeur with which it attests the inspiration of God and the Messiahship of Christ, can only be appreciated by a full view of the immense scheme and the vast extent of the prophe- cies in the Bible. Their record occupies a large por- tion of the Scriptures. In the third chapter it begins ; PROPHECY. 249 in the last, it ends. Its spirit arose with the fall of man in Eden ; its predictions will end only with his per- fect recovery in heaven. During the progress of more than four thousand years the scheme of prophecy was continually opening, its predictions were continually multiplying, its grand object and purpose were be- coming more and more distinct and luminous. The spirit of prophecy first uttered its voice when as yet our fallen parents had not been expelled the garden of innocence. Cain heard in it the warning of his punishment. Enoch continued its declarations. Noah transmitted its strain. Abraham's whole life was guided and encouraged by its inspirations. Isaac was the child, as well as the instrument of prophetic communication. Jacob with his last breath foretold the future history of his twelve sons in their genera- tions, and the reign of a lawgiver in Judah till Shiloh should come. The harp of prophecy remained in silence while the posterity of Jacob remained in Egyptian bondage; but no sooner was Israel free, than the Spirit again breathed upon its strings, and in the hand of Moses it spoke of the great Prophet who was to come to the church, and sketched the Jewish history with wonderful minuteness, down even to the present and far future times. Between Mo- ses and David lived Samuel, a prophet of the Lord. Immediately after him began what may be styled, with emphatic distinction, "the age of prophecy.'' It opened with the elevated and sublime poetry of David. It advanced with the stern ministry of honored Elijah. As he went up in the flaming 11* 250 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. chariot, translated to heaven, his mantle descended upon the ^^ man of God" Elisha. Among the minor prophets who carried on the spirit of this age of seers, were Hosea, Amos, and Micah. Then followed Isaiah, as full of the spirit of the gospel as of the spirit of prophecy; and Jeremiah, overflowing as w^ell with ::ender lamentation for the aflliction of Israel, as with the sublimest predictions of the days when the Lord would heal and comfort them; then Ezekiel, with as many visions of the future as the eyes in his myste- rious wheels, prophesying *' in the midst of the valley which was filled with bones." Ezekiel connected in his person the age of prophecy with that of the captivity of Judah. Daniel succeeded him, and be- sides the prophetic interpretation of the handwriting on the wall, foretold the succession of the four pow- erful monarchies, and the feeble rising and ultimate dominion of the fifth, and determined the time when the daily sacrifice would cease, and Messiah be cut ofl' — not for himself. Haggai and Zechariah con- tinued the prophetic strain, after the return of Judah from captivity. Malachi terminated the line of Old Testament prophets and the canon of Old Testament scriptures, with the sublime annunciation of one who was to come, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare the way of the Lord. Again the harp of prophecy was silent, as during the bondage of Egypt, until '' that prophet" like unto, but infinitely greater than Moses arose. Jesus, the great object of proph- ecy from the beginning — himself ''the spirit of jji'ophccj/^^ — foretold, besides his own death and resur- TEOPHECY. 251 rection, the calamities that should befall Jerusalem, as well as the utter destruction of the Jewish state. Paul followed his Master's steps, as well in the walks of prophecy as of martyrdom, forewarning the church of *' that man of sin, the son of perdition, whose coin- ing is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders.'" John closed the succes- sion of prophecy and the canon of Scripture together, with predictions, the awful sublimity of which no pen can rival, and the wonderful expanse of which noth- ing but the events of all future time can measure. Thus have we a train of holy men, reaching from the earliest age of mankind, through a period of more than four thousand years, and extending their pre- dictions to the world's end. I see in them the utmost variety, as well in condition and character as in the ages in which they lived — princes, patriarchs, priests, legislators, shepherds, fishermen. Exceedingly vari- ous in natural qualifications, in education, habits, and employments, they wrote in various styles, but each as he was moved by the Holy Grhost. Now when, in connection with this variety in the prophets themselves, I consider the vast variety and extent of the subjects on which their predictions are employed, embracing not only the history of the Jews for many centuries, but that also of the minor nations imme- diately around, with that of the more remote empires of Egypt and Assyria, and Chaldea and Persia, and Macedon and Rome ; when I consider that in this im- mense vastness of extent, so great is their minuteness * 2 Thess. 2 : 3-9. 252 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. of detail, that sundry particular events and features in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, of Nineveh and Babylon and Tyre, are predicted with the most graphic and striking precision ; when, in the midst of such wonderful diversity of authors, ages, circum- stances, and of subjects, from the downfall of an empire to the tumbling of a wall, I perceive not the smallest inconsistency or collision, but on the con- trary the utmost harmony, as well of execution as of purpose and of spirit, the whole array of prophecy, from first to last, bearing down and concentrating upon one grand object, the testimony of Jesus — the rise, prog^ress, and eternal accomplishment of his plan of redeeming' love : in a word, when I behold a scheme so vast as to embrace all time, and yet so minute that it can detail the events of an hour; so general, that in a few lines it predicts the history of the four mightiest empires, and yet so particular that chapters are devoted to the history of one individual; so diversified in its materials as to be made up of contributions from men of all ages and minds, during a period of four thousand years, and yet so identical that one spirit and one grand, harmonious purpose animated the whole : when I compare all this, arrayed as it is in the richest poetry and loftiest eloquence that eye of man ever read, with whatever else in the world ever pretended to the praise of prophecy, I be- hold a grandeur of conception, a sublimity of design, an all-controlling power of execution, a unity and self-depending supremacy of mind which bespeak the omniscience and omnipotence of Him who ^^was, and PROPHECY. 253 is, and is to come, the Almighty." I say nothing yet of the fulfilment of any portion of this stupendous plan; I only say, look at the plan itself in all its comprehensiveness and minuteness, and tell me if it be not utterly at variance with all human experience, and in itself perfectly incredible, that imposture should have conceived such a scheme, or should ever have dared to commit its cause to a venture that could only succeed by a continuance of miraculous fortune through all ages of the world. Consider the plan itself, the various minds that carried on the succes- sion of its several predictions, forming a line of holy men from the earliest periods of antediluvian history down to the last of the apostles of Christ; see how they all agree in spirit and purpose, while yet so different in character and circumstances; see how they all unite in testifying to Christ, so that as the last of them said, *'The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy ;" then tell me how imposture can be supposed to have wrought unexposed for so many thousands of years, how it could have chosen its agents out of forty centuries, out of circumstances so disadvantageous, and bid them embrace such an im- mense range of subjects for their predictions, and yet without any inconsistency or want of harmony, or any thing incompatible with the idea of one all-per- vading mind having regulated the whole. I do not say that so much as one prophecy has been fulfilled. I only say, and I challenge all denial, that not a single prediction in the whole succession can be shown to have failed, or to have been contradicted by the 2M M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. times or events to which it referred. I only assert, that while many of the prophecies remain unfulfilled because the times they relate to have not arrived, a very great number must have either been fulfilled already, or have utterly failed ; and yet no unbe- liever could ever put his hand on that portion of his- tory which contradicted the truth of any. I ask you to remember this important and undeniable fact, and then say whether it is not most impressive evidence that another mind than that of man was the author of the prophecies of the Bible — whether it can be supposed possible in the nature of things that human ingenuity could have contrived a volume of predic- tions reaching so far, extending so widely, telling so much, assuming such particularity, without having been contradicted by a single event in the history of nearly six thousand years. We now enter upon the question of fulfilment. I undertake to show that the history of the world has wonderfully responded to the prophecies of the Bible, and echoed back to the holy men who uttered them, a complete assurance that they '' spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." But where shall I begin ? It were easier to write a volume on this one subject than to compress the matter within our necessary limits, so as to do it any tolerable justice. Selecting some insulated portions of the train of prophecy, we must content ourselves with exhibiting their accom- plishment as specimens of the whole. To this, the remainder of the present lecture, and the whole of the next, will be devoted. PROPHECY. 265 As an example of minute prediction and singular fulfilment, compare Jeremiah 34 : 2, 3, with Ezekiel 12 : 13. In the former scripture, it was foretold by one prophet, B. C. 590, that Zedekiah the king of Judah should be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and behold his eyes, and speak with him mouth to ^nouth, and go to Babylon, In the latter, it was foretold by another prophet, B. C. 594, that Zedekiah should not see Babylon^ though he should die there. But is there not a contradiction here? How could Zedekiah be taken to Babylon and behold her king and die there, and yet never see the city ? The history of the kings of Judah, written without any design of pointing out the fulfilment of prophecy, fully explains the difficulty. Zedekiah was delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, and beheld his eyes, and spoke with him mouth to mouth — not, however, at Babylon, but at Riblah. There his eyes were put out by command of his captor, B. C. 588. In this state he went to Babylon and died there, having never seen the city of his captivity. Another example of wonderful minuteness is found in the prophecies of the fall and destruction of Baby- Ion. We can notice only a small part of them. '* It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. Neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of dole- ful creatures ; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there, and the wild beasts of the islands 256 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces."* *' I will also make it a pos- session for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts." These words were uttered when Babylon was ^^the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldee's excellency," about one hundred and sixty years before she was brought down. " How hath the golden city ceased !" " Her pomp is brought down to the grave." Sixteen centuries have passed since her foundations were inhabited by a human being. Deterred by superstitious fears of evil spirits, which are said to haunt the place where she stood, and by the more rational dread of reptiles and wild beasts, the wandering Arab never pitches his tent there. In a plain once famous for the richness of its pasture, the shepherds make no fold. Reptiles, bats, and ''doleful creatures" — ^jackals, hyenas, and lions — inhabit the holes and caverns and marshes of the desolate city. In the fourth century, Babylon was a hunting-ground for the Persian monarchs. By the annual overflowing of the Euphrates, pools of stag- nant water are left in the hollow places of the ancient site, by which morasses have been formed, so that Babylon has indeed become a "possession for the bit- tern, and pools of water." It has been swept '* with the besom of destruction." The fertile plain of Shi- nar, renowned for its ancient abundance, is an unin- terrupted desert, strewed with the confused ruins of G-recian, Roman, and Arabian towns. A modern * Isa. 13:20, 21, 22. PROPHECY. 257 traveller, in his '* search after the walls of Babylon," describes '' a mass of solid wall, about thirty feet in length, by twelve or fifteen in thickness," as the only part of them that can now be discovered.* Thus, according to the words of the prophet, is she cast up as heaps, destroyed utterly ; nothing' of her is leflA Tyre was once the emporium of the world, ** the theatre of an immense commerce and navigation, the nursery of arts and science, and the city of perhaps the most industrious and active people ever known."* Situate at the entry of the sea, she was a merchant of the people for many isles. All nations were her merchants in all sorts of things. The ships of Tar- shish did sing of her in the market ; and she was replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.* It was of this mistress of princes that Ezekiel prophesied, in the name of the Lord, '' I will scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea."" How singularly par- ticular! She was not only to be utterly destroyed, but the use .that would be made of her site, and the kind of men who would inhabit it, were pointed out more than a thousand years before her complete de- struction. How precise the fulfilment ! Shaw, in his book of travels, describes the port of Tyre as so choked up that the boats of the fishermen, who now and then come to the place and dry their nets upon * Buckingham's Travels. t Jer. 1 : 26. t Volney's Travels. § Ezek. ch. 27. II Ezek. 26:4, 5. 258 M'lLVAlNES EVIDENCES. its rocks and ruins, can hardly enter.* Bruce de- scribes the site of Tyre as '* a rock whereon fishers dry their nets." But the testimony of the infidel Volney is more valuable. '' The whole village of Tyre contains only fifty or sixty poor families, who live obscurely on the produce of their little ground and a ftrifling fishery."^ E^ypi^ the most ancient, was also the most power- ful and wealthy of kingdoms. But a prophecy went forth against her while yet she was in all her pomp and pride, that the pride of her power should come down ; that her land and all that was therein should be made waste by the hand of strangers ; that there should be no more a prince of the land of Egypt, and the sceptre of Egypt should depart away.^ How uni- versally this once fertile country, the granary of the world, has been wasted, and her innumerable cities have been buried; how remarkably the hand of strangers has done it, and how deplorably the rem- nant of this populous nation is now, and has been for many centuries, under slavery and ignorance and poverty and rapine and every crime, I need not de- scribe. The most remarkable portion of the prophecy is that which declares that there shall be '* no more a prince of the land of Egypt." From the conquest of the Persians, about 350 years before Christ, to the present day, the sceptre of Egypt has been broken ; she has been governed by strangers ; every effort to raise an Egyptian to the throne has been defeated. • Shaw's Travels, ch. 2, p. 31. t Travels, ch. 2, p. 212. X Ezek. 30:6, 12, 13 3 Zech. 10: 11. PROPHECY. 259 Out of the mouth of Volney the Lord has caused to be declared the fulfilment of his word. Of Egypt, that most unwilling agent in establishing the truth of Scripture writes, " Deprived, twenty-three centuries ago, of her natural proprietors, she has seen her fer- tile fields successively a prey to the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Georgians, and at length the race of Tartars, dis- tinguished by the name of Ottoman Turks. The Mamelukes, purchased as slaves and introduced as soldiers, soon usurped the power, and elected a leader. If their first establishment was a singular event, their continuance is not less extraordinary. They are re- placed by slaves brought from their original country. The system of oppression is methodical. Every thing the traveller sees or hears reminds him he is in the country of slavery and tyranny."* Among the most interesting fulfilments of proph- ecy are those discovered in the present condition of the country and cities of Judea, For a very striking view of them the reader is referred to Keith on Prophecy, a valuable work lately republished in this country. But there is one prediction in this depart- ment which T cannot pass over. After describing the divine judgments upon the land, the prophet adds, *' The generation to come of your children, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sick- nesses which the Lord hath laid upon it. Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land ? What • Travels, ch. 2, p. 74. 103, 110, 198. 260 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. meaneth the heat of this great anger?"* About three thousand years after these words were written, a famous traveller, a scoffer at the Scriptures, walks through this smitten country. He is a stranger from a far land. Deeply impressed with the aspect of all things around him, and in all probability entirely ignorant of the prophecy he is about to fulfil, he exclaims, *' Good God ! from whence proceed such melancholy revolutions ? For what cause is the for- tune of these countries so strikingly changed ? Why are so many cities destroyed? Why is not thai ancient population reproduced and perpetuated?" '' ] wandered over the country. I traversed the prov- inces. I enumerated the kingdoms of Damascus and Idumea, of Jerusalem and Samaria. This Syria, said I to myself, now almost depopulated, then con- tained a hundred flourishing cities, and abounded with towns, villages, and hamlets. What are become of so many productions of the hands of man?"^ etc. No prophecies deserve more of the attention of the student of Scripture than those concerning the JewSy which are scattered from one end of the Bible to the other. Their wonderful accomplishment is in every one's view. We can only glance at some of the many particulars which they embrace. Three thousand two hundred years ago it was written by Moses, " The Lord shall scatter thee among all peo- ple from the one end of the earth even unto the other. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest ; and ♦ Dcut. 29 : 22, 24. t Volney's RuinSj ch, 2. p. 8. PROPHECY. 261 thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the nations whither the Lord shall lead thee ; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always ; and the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance."* But not- withstanding all this, the Jews were not to be de- stroyed without recovery. " Yet for all that," saith the prophecy, ** when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly."^ " I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not make a full end of thee."^ '' For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God and David their king ; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days."^ There is nothing in the history of nations so unaccountable on human principles, as the destruc- tion and the preservation of the Jews. *^ Scattered among all nations," where are they not ? Citizens of the world, and yet citizens of no country in the world, in what habitable part of the world is not the Jew familiarly known ? He has wandered every- where, and is still everywhere a wanderer. One characteristic of this wonderful race is written over * Deut. ch. 28. t Lev. 26 : 44. t Jer. 46 : 27, 28. § Hosca 3 : 4, 5. 262 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. all their history, from their dispersion to the present time. Among the nations they have found no ease, nor rest to the soles of their feet. Banished from city to city, and from country to country — always insecure in their dwelling-places, and liable to be suddenly driven away, whenever the bigotry or ava- rice or cruelty of rulers demanded a sacrifice, a late decree of the Russian empire has proclaimed to the world that their banishments have not yet ceased. Never certain of permission to remain, it is the noto- rious peculiarity of this people, as a body, that they live in habitual readiness to remove. In this con- dition of universal affliction, how singular it is that among all people the Jew is *'an astonishment, a proverb, a byword." Such is not the case with any other people. Among Christians, heathens, and Mo- hammedans, from England to China, and thence to America, the cunning, the avarice, the riches of the Jew, are proverbial. And how wonderful have been their plagues. The heart sickens at the history of their persecutions and massacres and imprisonments and slavery. All nations have united to oppress them. All means have been employed to extermi- nate them. Robbed of property, bereaved of children, buried in the dungeons of the inquisition, or burned at the stake of deplorable bigotry, no people ever suffered the hundredth part of their calamities, and still they live. It was prophesied that, as a nation, they should be restored ; consequently they were not only to be kept alive, but unmingled with the nations, everywhere a distinct race, and capable of being PROPHECY. 203 selected and gathered out of all the world, when the time for their restoration should arrive. The fulfil- ment of this forms the most astonishing part of the whole prophecy. For nearly eighteen hundred years they have heen scattered and mixed up among all people ; they have had no temple, no sacrifice, no prince, no genealogies, no certain dwelhng-places. Forbidden to be governed by their own laws to choose their own magistrates, to maintain any com mon policy, every ordinary bond of national union and preservation has been wanting ; whatever influ- ences, of local attachment, or of language, or man- ners, or government, have been found necessary to the preservation of other nations, have been denied to them ; all the influences of internal depression and outward violence which have ever destroyed and blotted out the nations of the earth, have been at work with unprecedented strength for nearly eighteen centuries upon the nation of Israel ; and still the Jews are a people, a distinct people, a numerous people, unassimilated with any nation, though mixed up with all nations. Their peculiarities are undi- minished. Their national identity is unbroken. Though scattered upon all winds, they are perfectly capable of being again gathered into one mass. Though divided into the smallest particles by nu-' merous solvents, they have resisted all affinities, and may be traced, unchanged, in the most confused mixtures of human beings. The laws of nature have been suspended in their case. It is not merely that a stream has held on its way through the waters of 264 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. a lake without losing the color and characteristic marks of its own current, but that a mighty river, having plunged from a mountain-height into the depth of the ocean, and been separated into its component drops, and thus scattered to the ends of the world, and blown about by all winds during almost eighteen centuries, is still capable of being disunited from the waters of the ocean ; its minutest drops, having never been assimilated to any other, are still dis- tinct, unchanged, and ready to be gathered, waiting the voice that shall call again the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah. Meanwhile, where are the nations among whom the Jews were scattered ? Has not the Lord, according to his word, made a full end of them ?* While Israel has stood unconsumed in the fiery furnace, where are the nations that kindled its flames? Where are the Assyrians and Chaldeans ? Their name is almost forgotten. Their existence is known only to history. Where is the empire of the Egyptians ? The Macedonians de- stroyed it, and a descendant of its ancient race can- not be distinguished among the strangers that have ever since possessed its territory. Where are they of Macedon ? The Roman sword subdued their king- dom, and their posterity are mingled inseparably among the confused population of Greece and Tur- key. Where is the nation of ancient Rome, the last conquerors of the Jews, and the proud destroyers of Jerusalem? The G-oths rolled their flood over its pride. Another nation inhabits the ancient city. » Jeremiah 46 : 28. PROPHECY. 265 Even the language of her former people is dead. The Goths, where are they? The Jews, w^here are they not ? They witnessed the glory of Egypt and of Babylon and of Nineveh ; they were in ma- ture age at the birth of Macedon and of Rome; mighty kingdoms have risen and perished since they began to be scattered and enslaved ; and now they traverse the ruins of all, the same people as when they left Judea, preserving in themselves a monu- ment of the days of Moses and the Pharaohs, as un- changed as the pyramids of Memphis which they are reputed to have built. You may call upon the ends of the earth, and will call in vain for one living repre- sentative of those powerful nations of antiquity by whom the people of Israel were successively op- pressed ; but should the voice to gather that people out of all lands, be now heard from mount Zion, call- ing for the children of Abraham, no less than four millions would instantly answer to the name, each bearing in himself unquestionable proofs of that noble lineage. What is this but miracle? Connected with the prophecy which it fulfils, it is a double miracle. Whether testimony can ever establish the credibility of a miracle, is of no importance here. This one is obvious to every man's senses. All nations are its eye-witnesses. Among the most striking and comprehensive, and yet particular prophecies, are those of Daniel. The history of the four great empires of Chaldea, Persia, Macedon, and Rome, is embraced in his predictions. EvideDcei. 1 2 266 MMLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. We mention these, not that we intend to trace out their fulfilment, but merely, in passing, to insert a remarkable testimony concerning them from one of the most learned expositors of the prophetic Scrip- tures, and another from the most learned and acute of the ancient opposers of Christianity. Bishop New- ton, speaking of that portion of Daniel's prophecies which relates to the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria, from the death of Alexander the Great to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, a period of one hundred and forty-eight years, remarks, *' There is not so complete and regular a series of their kings, there is not so concise and comprehensive an account of their af- fairs, to bo found in any author of those times. The prophecy is really more perfect than any history. No one historian hath related so many circumstances, and in such exact order of time, as the prophet hath foretold them; so that it was necessary to have re- course to several authors, Greek and Roman, Jewish and Christian, and to collect here something from one, and to collect there something from another, for the better explaining and illustrating the great variety of particulars contained in this prophecy."* Thus far, the testimony of a learned friend of Christianity. The corresponding testimony of a learned enemy we have in the celebrated Porphyry of the third century, to whom the exact correspondence between the predic- tions and the events was so convincing, that he could not pretend to deny it. He rather labored to confirm it; and from the very exactness of the fulfilment * Newton on Prophecy, ch. 2, p. 149^ PROPHECY. ' 267 forged his only weapon of defence, in the assertion that the prophecy could not have been written by Daniel, but must have been written by some one in Judea, in the time of Antiochus Epiphancs.* Others after him have asserted the same thing, not only without any proof, but contrary to all the proofs which can be had in cases of this nature. They pre- ferred the denial of the plainest historical evidence of the time when the prophecy was written, to the ac- knowledgment that its author must have written ''by inspiration of God." Paine, however, whose willing- ness to escape the argument from prophecy cannot be questioned, and who was probably ignorant of what Porphyry had acknowledged as to the corre- spondence between the words of this prophet and those of subsequent history, confessed the authenticity of the book of Daniel. Here, then, we have one famous infidel acknowledging that the prophecy was written at the time and by the man to whom it is ascribed, and another verifying the exactness of its fulfilment in the history of a subsequent age. Paine denied the fulfilment; Porphyry, the authenticity. Porphyry acknowledged the fulfilment ; Paine, the authenticity. *' He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." I now call your attention to the prophecies con- cerning our Lord Jesus Christ. They are scattered everywhere throughout the prophetic portions of the Bible. " To him bear all the prophets witness." None of them could lay down the pen of inspiration till they had written something, directly or indirectly, of Jesus. * Lardner, ch. 4, p. 215. 2G8 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. 1. The first class of these predictions consists of those which relate to the time and circumstances of the advent of Christ, Daniel, B. C. 6bQ^ determined the year of his coming, when four hundred and ninety years should be accomplished from the going forth of the command to rebuild Jerusalem. Jacob, more than a thousand years before Daniel, had said it would be when the sceptre was departing from Judah, and a lawgiver from between his feet.* Haggai and Isaiah declared that it would be before the destruction of Jerusalem, and during the existence of the second temple.^ Micah designated Bethlehem Ephratah as his birthplace.^ Many prophecies predicted that he should come, not only of the stock of Judah, but of the stem of Jesse.* Isaiah and Malachi spoke of the messenger who should go before him, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare his way." 2. The next class of predictions concerning our Lord contains those which speak of his life^ suffer- ings, death, resurrection, and the increase of his kingdom. These are so numerous and particular, and so familiar to most readers of the Bible, that we shall content ourselves with a rapid summary. They predicted that Christ, or Messiah, would be born of a virgin ;^[ that he should enter Jerusalem on the foal of an ass;** that in his manner of teaching he should be characterized by special gentleness and compas- sion;^^ that he would be distinguished as wise "to * Gen. 49:10. " Isa.40:3; Ma.l.3:l; 4:5. t Isa.40:9; 41 :27; Hag.2:6-8. IT Isa. 7: 14. X Micah 5: 2. ** Zech. 9:9. i Isa. 11 :1. tt Isa. 42: 1-3. ^ PROPHECY. 269 speak a word in season to him that is weary ;''^* that he should blind the eyes of the learned and proud, t and preach good tidings to the poor and despised; that under his ministry the lame should be made to walk, the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, the captive to be loosed, and the dead raised up;* that he should teach the perfect way, and be the instructor of the Gentiles;* that he should be a sacrifice for sin, be rejected of the Jews, who them- selves should be rejected of God;" '^that the kings of the earth and all people should worship him*;"1I but that the people who rejected him should continue a distinct people, and yet be scattered over all nations, and wander about without princes, without sacrifices, without an altar, without prophets, looking for deliv- erance and not finding it, till a very distant period.** The correspondence between the several particu- lars related of the death of Christ, and the predictions scattered through the Bible, is extremely striking. The evangelists in this respect are but echoes of the prophets. I can give but a rapid sketch. These pre- dictions include the treachery and awful end of Ju- das, ^^ the precise sum of money for which he betrayed his Master, and the use to which it was put.** They specify not only the sufferings of Christ, but of what . they should consist. That his back should be given to the smiters, his face to shame and spitting;** that * Isa. 50:4. 1 Isa. 60: 10-12, etc.; 53:12. t Isa. 5:15. *• Jer. 31:36; Hos. 3:4, 5. t Isa. 35:5, 6; 9:2. tt Psa. 41 :9; 55:12-15. 5 Isa. 42:6. « Zech. 11:12, 13. " Isa. ch. 53; 8:14, 15. H Isa. 50:6. 270 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. he should be put to death by a mode which would cause his hands and his feet to be pierced; that he should be wounded, bruised, and scourged;* that in. his death he should be numbered with transgressors, t and in his sufferings have gall and vinegar given him to drink;* that his persecutors should laugh him to scorn, and shake their heads, reviling him, arid say- ing, '*He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver* him; let him deliver him."^ Although it was the custom to break the bones of those who were cruci- fied, and although the bones of the thieves crucified with him were broken, yet it was predicted that '*not a bone of him should be broken;"" and moreover, that his garments should be divided, and lots cast for his vesture ;1[ that while he should *^make his graVe with the wicked," as he did in being buried like the wicked companions of his death, under the general leave for taking down their bodies from the cross, he should at the same time make his grave **with the rich," as was done when they buried him in the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea.** I might enumerate many more details of prophecy centering upon the life and death of Christ. What have been mentioned are abundantly sufficient for our present argument. I have only recited a concise list of the predictions. I * Zech. 12:10; Psa. 22:16. " Num. 9:12; Exod. 12:46; t Isa. 53 : 4, 5, 8, 1 2. Psa. 34 : 20. tPsa. 69:21. If Psa. 22:18. *Psa. 22:7, 8. •• Isaiah 53 : 9. The translation of this verse in Lowth's Isaiah is much more to the point than that of the common text: **' And his grave was appointed with the wicked; but with the rich man was his tomb." PROPHECY. 271 cannot suppose any of you so unacquainted with the history of Christ, as not to be able familiarly to refer to all those passages in his life and death by which they were minutely and wonderfully fulfilled. Now, consider that no question is raised by any one, wheth- er these predictions were made and published several centuries before the birth of Christ. The enemies of Christ, his crucifiers, have been the librarians of these writings.* The Jews preserved them for us, with sacred care, for many hundreds of years. They were trans- lated from Hebrew into Greek at least two hundred years before Christ. The Jews then understood them to refer to the Messiah, as we do now ; and it was on account of some of them that a general expectation of the speedy coming of Messiah prevailed so widely in Judea at the time of tlie public appearance of Christ. That all these particulars were most remarkably combined in the person, character, works, sufferings, and burial of ihe Lord Jesus, I need not say. If the predictions did not originally refer to him, and only happened to be accomplished in him, it would be reasonable to suppose that out of the innumerable millions of men that have lived since they were pub- * Augustine, in the fourth century, spoke very often of the great advantage which Christians had in their arguments for the truth of the gospel, from the subsistence and dispersion of the Jewish people, who everywhere bear testimony to the an- tiquity and genuineness of the books of the Old Testament; so that none could say they were afterwards forged by Christians. He therefore calls the Jews the librarians of the Christians; he compares them to servants that carry books for the use of chil- dren of noble families, or that carry a chest or bag of evidence for a disputant. Laidner, ch. 2, p. 698. 272 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. lished, some other individual, if not hundreds, would have appeared exhibiting the same correspondence. Where is the record of such an event? Can the per- son be mentioned in whom there was even an approx- imation to the fulfilment exhibited in the history of Jesus? I need not say, that no one ever pretended to be able to find such a person. These prophecies describe a combination of gentleness with power, merit with ignominy, benevolence with contempt — they bring together details of ancestry, of family, of birth, of time, of works, of sufferings, of death, which it were ridiculous to pretend have been united in any individual whose name is in the annals of man, except the Son of man, Christ Jesus. But it may be said, that among these predictions there are some which human design might have brought to pass. It may be suggested that a band of men undertaking to promote an imposture, and having these predictions before them, might have selected for their leader one who had been born at Bethlehem, of the lineage of David, and might have ordered his appearance at the precise time of the prophecy. Let this be supposed, and let us overlook the fact that no possible motive can be assigned that could induce a band of impostors to desire the setting up of such a cause as that of Christ; still, how would imposture contrive to unite in its leader the fulfil- ment of prophecies which on one hand foretold him as eminent for wisdom and benevolence, and on the other for shame and suffering? How, on this sup- jx)sition, could all those predictions have been accom- rROPHECY. 273 plished which relate to the agonies of the cross? Would a deceiver seek crucifixion for the sake of fulfilling prophecy ? How was it managed that one should betray him, and afterwards, out of remorse, hang himself? How was it contrived that the ene- mies of Christ should measure the price of his blood at the exact sum predicted ; and then, that the mer- cenary traitor should return it to them again, and they should use it in purchase of the predicted pot- ter's field ? How did imposture so artfully combine in its cause all the persecutors of Christ, that with- out any design to advance its interests they should have chosen precisely that mode of execution, those expressions of contempt, those instruments of tor- ture, those companions of his sufferings, that mixture for his drink, that severity to his body while he was alive, and that forbearance to it after he was dead, which, if they had been anxious to prove him the true Messiah foretold in the Scriptures, would have composed the most effectual means they could possi- bly employ ? Most evidently, the bitter adversaries of Christianity, not its friends, brought out the dem- onstration that Jesus was he to whom gave all the prophets witness. And now, is there any possible escape from the absolute necessity of acknowledging that the Spirit of God was in the writers of the Bible, and that his Spirit has testified of Jesus ? Will any one pretend that in the idea of chance there is any explanation of the coincidences which have been mentioned ? It will not be useless to spend a moment on this matter 12* 274 M'lLVAlNES EVIDENCES. of chance. It is conceivable that a prediction, uttered at a venture, confining its terms to but one event, and expressing that in a general way, may happen to result so plausibly as to seem like a genuine proph- ecy. But only let it descend to the minutiae of time, place, and incidents, and it is evident that the possi- bility of its success, by a fortuitous concurrence of events, will become extremely desperate. Hence, the oracles of heathen antiquity always took good care to confine their predictions to one or two particulars, and to express them in the most general and ambig- uous terms. Hence, in the whole range of history, except the prophecies of the Scriptures, there is not a single instance of a prediction, expressed in une- quivocal language and descending to any minuteness, which bears the slightest claim to the praise of fulfil- ment. But to set this in a more impressive light, I will quote a few sentences from one of the most sci- entific laymen of the present day. ** Suppose," says Olinthus Gregory, ''that instead of the? spirit of prophecy, breathing more or less in every book of Scripture, predicting events relative to a great variety of general topics, and delivering besides almost innu- merable characteristics 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 onlyj^t;^ 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 PROPHECr. 275 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 these fifty indepen- dent circumstances happening at all: assume that there is, according to the technical phrase, an equal chance for the happening or the failure of any one of the specified particulars ; then the probability against the occurrence of all the particulars in ariy way, is that of the fiftieth power of two to unity ; that is, the probability is greater than eleven hundred and twenty- five 7nillions of millions to one, that all these circum- stances do not turn up even at distinct periods."* But this calculation, you must observe, specifies no partic- ular period for these things to take place, but allows from the time of uttering the predictions to the end of the world for all the fifty particulars to occur. But if a time be fixed, at or near which they must happen, the immense improbability that they will take place exceeds all the power of numbers to express. This, moreover, is on the supposition of every thing being under the disposal of that fiction of unbelief, a blind chance. How infinite does the improbability appear when it is remembered thsit " 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." This is enough, one would think, to silence for ever all pleas of chance^ as fur- * Gregory's Letters. 276 MILVAINE'S EVIDENCES. nishing an unbeliever the least opportunity of escape from the evidence of prophecy. What then is the conckision to which, by the considerations presented in this lecture, we are authorized to come ? First, that in the Bible there is a great variety of jTrophecy relative to the Messiah, which has been so remarkably fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and so entirely unfulfilled in any other individual of whom we have any history, that the correspondence necessarily proves the predictions to have been given by inspiration of God, and Jesus Christ to be the person to whom that inspiration, in the uttering of those predictions, referred. Secondly, that "the Bible, in thus containing gen- " uine prophecies scattered through its several books, contains a revelation from God^ and exhibits numer- ous and wide-spread impressions of the seal of divine authority. Lastly, that Jesus Christ, being thus pointed out and honored by the Spirit of God breathing on the lips of holy men, who, in various centuries before his coming, concurred in rendering him their testimony as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, was and is to come, no other than what he said, the Son of God ; the Saviour of sinners ; *' King of kings, and Lord of lords." *' Behold," saith He, "I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." '' He that confesseth me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven." But *'how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation ?" PROPHECY. 277 LECTURE VIII. PROPHECY— CONTINUED. Our blessed Lord was a prophet, as well as the grand subject of prophecy. Not only did he possess omnipotence to call up the dead from the sepulchre, but omniscience also to bring forth from the darkness of the future what to uninspired man lies as secret as the mysteries of death. By prophecy, as well as miracles, he established the divinity of his mission. In the latter, his appeal was to the senses of eye-wit- nesses : ** The works that I do they bear witness of me." In the former, it was to the testimony of sub- sequent history : " Now I tell you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass ye may believe that I am he." He predicted not only his own suf- ferings and death and resurrection, but the manner and circumstances attending them ; the treachery of Judas; the denial of Peter; the particulars of his ignominious treatment in the council of the Jews, and under the hands of Pilate and his soldiers. He foretold the rapid spread of the gospel, the persecu- tions of his disciples, the precise manner of Peter's martyrdom, the continuance of John till after the destruction of Jerusalem, the rejection of the Jews, and the bringing of the Gentiles into the church of God 278 MILVAINE'S EVIDENCES. But none of our Saviour's prophecies are more impressive than those concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, contained in the gospels of Mark and Luke, but most at large in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. These we select as the subject of our consideration at present, believing we shall be enabled to show, by most impressive evidence, that Jesus did indeed possess the spirit of prophecy, and consequently was divinely commissioned in setting up the faith of the gospel. There is but one preliminary question to be an- swered at the commencement of this investigation, Is it well ascertained that these prophecies were pub- lished before the destruction of Jerusalem? This has been already settled in our lecture on the subject of authenticity ; in which it was shown that the several books of the New Testament were written in the age to which they are referred, and by the men whose names they bear. It will be sufficient to state in this place, that of the three evangelists who have related these prophecies, Matthew and Mark are well ascertained to have died, and there is good rea- son to suppose that Luke also was dead, before the destruction of Jerusalem. The gospel of Matthew, which contains the most complete account of the predictions in question, is commonly acknowledged to have been written first. Its date is about the eighth year after the death of Christ. The destruction of Jerusalem being in the seventieth year of the Christian era, the prophecies in relation to it were published by Matthew about thirty PROPHECY. 279 yearsj and were declared by our Saviour about thirty- seven years before their fulfihuent. Several years elapsed also between the publication of the same prophecies by Mark and Luke, and the events to which they relate. John, the only one of the four evange- lists that lived and wrote subsequently to the ruin of the holy city, is the only one that omits an account of the predictions concerning it. But we have the most satisfactory evidence that no suspicion of an ex post facto origin can justly attach to these prophecies, in the important fact, that although familiarly quoted by the early Christian writers as striking evidence of the prophetic character of Jesus, we read of no writer against Christianity in the primitive centuries having attempted to paralyze the argument by maintaining that they were not published till Jerusalem was de- stroyed. If enemies so near the events predicted had nothing to say, will any deny us the privilege of pro- ceeding in our present investigation unembarrassed by any question on this head?* There is a history of the destruction of Jerusalem, which, if it had been composed for the express pur- pose of attesting the complete accomplishment of our Lord's predictions, could have hardly been made more appropriate to our present object. It was written by an eye-witness of the tragedy, a learned witness — a witness who, having been first an eminent leader among the troops of Judea, and then a prisoner to the Roman commander, and continually kept about his * On this subject, see some excellent remarks in Paley's Evidences, part 2, ch. 1. 280 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. person for the sake of his services, cannot be accused of having written without accurate information. His book was composed at Rome ; and having been pre- sented by the author to the emperor Vespasian, and to his son Titus, who had commanded at the siege of Jerusalem, the latter not only desired its publication, but subscribed his own hand in confirmation of its correctness. It was also presented to and approved by several Jews who had been present at the scenes described.* We could not desire a more complete attestation of the fulfilment of our Saviour's prophe- cies than this book affords. And yet the writer was a Jew to the day of his death, and consequently an enemy of Christianity, and could have had no design in favor of the prophetic spirit of its founder. I speak ' of Josephus. It is remarkable that one of the most minute prophecies in the Bible should have from an enemy the most minute of histories to show its ful- filment. No great event in profane history is related with so much attention to all the particulars connected with it, as is the destruction of Jerusalem by this Jewish writer. When we consider these things, and remember the extraordinary manner in which Jose- phus was several times protected from almost inev- itable death, we may clearly discern the hand of a wise Providence preparing the way of the gospel. A witness was preserved and chosen of Grod, to write an account of the divine judgments upon Jerusalem, whose testimony neither Jews nor heathens could * Josephus' Life, sec. 65 j p. 23. Contr. Apion. book 1, sec. 9. PROPHECY. 281 deny or suspect. We proceed to compare his state- ments with the prophecies in question. 1. Let us begin with those events which the Sav- iour foretold as signs of approaching desolation. Thus it is written, **Take heed that no man deceive you; for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.""* Here are two distinct predictions — many pretenders to the charac- ter of the Messiah, and their success in deceiving many. As the prophecy draws nearer to the chief event, it enlarges on this particular sign: ^^ There shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders." Here it is intimated, that as the great catastrophe should approach, these deceivers would multiply ; and that they would pre- tend to signs and miracles. The very places where they would appear, and whither they would lead their followers, are also pointed out. ''If they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not."t Now, it is worthy of note, that until the day when these words were uttered, there had been no events in Jewish history in any manner correspond- ing with those which they describe. Two years, however, had not elapsed before their fulfilment be- gan. Simon Magus, very soon after the crucifixion, was heard boasting himself as the Son of Grod, de- ceiving the people of Samaria with sorceries ; to whom they all gave heed, saying. This man is the great * Matt. 24 : 4, 5. t Matt. 24 : 26. •I 282 M4LVAINE-S EVIDENCES. power of God.* Another, named Dositheus, a Samar- itan, pretended that he was the Christ foretold by Moses. In about the tenth year after the death of Christ, appeared one Theudas, who assured the peo- ple that he was a prophet, promising to show a mir- acle in dividing the waters of Jordan.^ ^'By such speeches," says Josephus, in the very words of the prophecy, ^'he deceived many.^''^ As we approach (nearer the final event, A. D. b^)^ these deceivers mul- tiply. ** The country was filled with impostors who 1^ deceived the people," and '* persuaded them to fol- low them into the wilderness; where, as they said, they should see manifest wonders and signs."^ Not only were the people thus seduced into the deserts^ ♦Acts 8:9, 10. t The impostor mentioned above must not be confounded with him of the same name, spoken of by Gamaliel, Acts 5:36. There were two noted characters of the name of Theudas. The one referred to by Gamaliel appeared about thirty years prior to the time of the council which that learned Pharisee addressed. But he was a mere insurrectionist, making no pre- tension to any of the honors of that great prophet whom the Jews were expecting. The person referred to in the text ap- peared in Judea in the time of Cuspius Fadus the governor, and professed to be inspired, to be a prophet, and to have the gift of miracles. Judas of Galilee, or the Gaulonite. mentioned also by Gamaliel, was a political partisan, in opposition to the en- rolment made by Cyrenius in Judea, whose doctrine was, that the Jews were free and should acknowledge no dominion but that of God. Neither he nor the elder Theudas can, with any propriety, be numbered among ^' false Christs" or "false proph- ets," such as the Saviour spoke of in the prophecy under con- sideration. See Lardner, vol. 1, pp. 221-225. t Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, b. 20, ch. 5, sec. 1 . PROPHECY. 283 but also into "the secret chambers.^^ The inner apartments of the temple were the secret chambers referred to in the prophecy. Josephus relates that a great multitude whom the Roman soldiers destroyed in the '^ cloister s^^ of the temple, had been led there by a false prophet, who had made a public proclama- tion that very day, that God commanded them to get upon the temple, and that there they would receive miraculous signs for their deliverance. At that crisis, there was a great number of false prophets."* Thus have we all the particulars of the prophecy, so far as it has been quoted : many false Christs and prophets, deceiving many, pretending to signs and wonders, leading their followers into the deserts and secret chambers, and multiplying as Ihe destruction drew near. 2. " Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled ; for all these tilings must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against king- dom."^ At this time, the Jews were at peace among themselves and with all nations. To human view, there was so little reason to expect a war, that even some years after, when the emperor Caligula ordered his statue to be set up in the temple, and there was danger of slaughter on account of the resistance of the Jews, Josephus remarks, that ** some of them could not believe the stories that spoke of a war."^ Never- theless, such became in a short time the rumor of * Josephus' Wars of the Jews, b. 6, ch. 5, sec. 2, 3. t Matt. 24 :6, 7. t Wars, etc., b. 2, c. 10, sec. 1. 284 M'ILVAINE"S EVIDENCES. war^ that the fields remained uncultivated on account of the public anxiety. The country was soon filled with violence. In Alexandria, Csesarea, Damascus, Ptolemais, Tyre, and almost every other city in which many Jews and heathens were mingled, fierce con- tentions arose, and dreadful slaughter ensued. In the words of the Jewish historian, ''The disorders all over Syria were terrible. For every city was divided into parties armed against each other ; and the safety of the one depended on the destruction of the other. The days were spent in slaughter, and the nights in terrors."* In addition to these calamities, the Jew- ish nation rebelled against the Romans; Italy was convulsed with contentions for the empire ; and as a proof of the troublous and warlike character of the period, within the brief space of two years four em- perors of Rome sufTered death.^ 3. Another class of signs was predicted, as follows : " There shall be famines and pestilences and earth- quakes in divers places.^^^ These, together with the signs previously mentioned, the Saviour said would be ''the beginning of sorrows." There came a fam- ine not long before the war, which extended all over the country of the Jews, and lasted with severity for several years.^ Both before and after this there were famines in Italy, which are mentioned by historians of those days." Pestilences raged in various places, as the full time for Jerusalem's cup of trembling drew nigh.lT * Wars,b. 2,ch. 18, sec. 1,2. » Ant. b. 3, ch. 15, sec. 3. t Keith on Prophecy. ^ Lardner, vol. 3, p. 499. t Matt. 24:7, 8. * Acts 1 1 : 27-30; Ant. b. 20, ch. 2, sec. 6 ; ch. 5, sec. 2. PROPHECY. 285 Josephus speaks of one at Babylon. Five years before the destruction of the holy city, there was a great mor- tality at Rome, while various parts of the empire were visited with similar calamities. Earthquakes were also among the signs of the times. Of these, the hea- then historians, Tacitus, Suetonius, Philostratus, etc., speak of many. Crete, Italy, Asia Minor, and Judea were visited at different times, and some of them repeatedly, with earthquakes.* Josephus describes one in Judea, as so extraordinary in its awfulness, that ** any one might easily conjecture that these won- ders foreshowed some grand calamities that were coming."^ 4. To the signs already mentioned, we find in Luke's account of these prophecies the addition of ^^ fearful sights, and great signs from heaven?^ These sights and signs Josephus sets himself to the work of narrating with as much particularity as if he had been specially bent upon making good the words of Christ. He relates that just before the desolating war, **a star resembling a sword stood over the city, and a comet that continued a whole year." At the feast of unleavened bread, and **at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright daytime ; which light lasted for half an hour." " The eastern gate of the inner court of the temple, which was of brass and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, was seen to be opened of its * Lardnei; vol. 3, p. 499. t Wars, etc., b. 4, c. 4^ sec. 5. 888 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. own accord about the sixth hour of the night." This the learned of Jerusalem understood as a signal of approaching desolation. Moreover, ''before sunset- ting, chariots, and troops of soldiers in their armor, were seen running about among the clouds, and sur- rounding cities." ''At the feast of Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard the sound as of a multitude, saying, ' Let us remove hence.' " But the sign which Josephus considered the most impressive, was that of a man named Jesus, who, four years before the war, at a time of entire peace, having come to the feast of tabernacles, began suddenly to cry aloud, "A voice from the east — a voice from the west — a voice from the four winds — a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house — a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides; and a voice against the whole people." With this cry he went through all the city day and night. No severity of punishment, no acts of kindness, could silence this voice. He spoke neither good nor ill to any, whether they gave him food or scourging. For seven years and five months his solemn cry contin- ued, until its warning was just about to be fulfilled. A little while before the city was taken, as he was going round upon the wall, he cried with his utmost force, "Woe, woe to the city again, and to the peo- ple, and to the holy house;" and just as he added, "woe to myself also," a stone firom one of the engines killed him immediately.* * Wars, etc., b. 6, ch. 5, sec. 3. PROPHECY. 287 However incredible the narrative of these signs may seem to some, it is not a little in its confirma- tion that the Roman historian Tacitus, speaking of the same time and place, says, '' There were many prodi- gies presignifying their ruin, which were not to be averted by all the sacrifices and vows of that people. Armies were seen fighting in the air with brandished weapons. A fire fell upon the temple from the clouds. The doors of the temple were suddenly opened. At the same time there was a loud voice, declaring that the gods were removing, which was accompanied with a sound as of a multitude going out. All which things were supposed by some to portend great calam- ities."* Whether all these things did really take place, or whether some or all of them were not the conceits of superstitious and excited minds, I shall not discuss, nor is the question at all material to our present ob- ject. Certain it is, that they were regarded as real- ities at the time, and consequently were in effect ''fearful sights and great signs from heaven" to the Jews, whatever they may have been in reality. It required as much of the spirit of prophecy to predict that the Jews should believe such things to have occurred, as to predict any thing else that did cer- tainly occur. Whatever we may conclude, therefore, concerning the singularly concurrent testimony of the Jewish and Roman historians, the prophecy of the Saviour was most impressively fulfilled. 5. From the calamities of the nation and city, our Lord continued his prophecy to those of his own • Lardner, ch. 3, p. 613; Tacit. Hist. b. 5, ch. 9-13. 288 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. followers: *' Before all these, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake."* '^ They shall kill you ; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake."t *' I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist."^ For the proof of the accomplishment of all this, the Acts of the Apostles afford abundant evidence. Remember how Saul made havoc of the church, entering into every house ; punishing the Christians in every synagogue, and persecuting them even unto strange cities. Peter and John were delivered to councils. Paul was brought before kings. The former were also impris- oned. Paul and Silas were not only imprisoned, but beaten.* There was given them indeed a wisdom which their adversaries were not able to gainsay nor resist. The very discourses of Peter that caused his persecution subdued thousands into obedience to the faith of Christ." The murderers of Stephen were not able to resist the wisdom with which he spoke.lT The jailer that incarcerated Paul and Silas in the even- ing, was their convert before the morning.** Felix trembled, and Agrippa was almost persuaded to be a Christian, under the speech of Paul. Stephen and James were put to death. There is reason to believe that none of the original apostles or evangelists, but ♦ Luke 21 : 12. t Matt. 24 : 9. % Luke 21 : 15. * Acts 8: 3; 26:10, 11; 4:5; 18:12; ch. 24, 25; 4:3. I Acts 2 : 41. IT Acts 6 : 10. ** Acts 16 : 32-34. PROPHECY. 289 John, died a natural death. Christians were counted as the filth of the world, being literally hated for the very name they bore. About six years before the destruction of Jerusalem, arose the tremendous perse- cution under Nero, when it was enough that any one was called by the name of Christian to lead him to torture." Tacitus bears witness not only to their exquisite sufferings, but also to the fact that they were held in universal hatred on account of their religion and name.* 6. *' Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another ; and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."^ The apostle of the Gentiles, in his epistles, complains of Demas and Phygellus and Hermogenes, and many others in Asia, who turned away from him ; and that when he first appeared at the bar of Nero, *'no man stood with him, but all forsook him."^ And Tacitus, speaking of the persecution by Nero, says, *'At first, those who were seized confessed their sect; and then, by their indication, a great multitude were convicted."^ 7. Immediately after the prediction of the out- ward persecutions and internal defections by which the servants of Christ were to be troubled, there fol- lows this remarkable prophecy: *' This gospel of the kingdom shall he preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end * Lardner, vol. 3, p. 498; Tac. An. book 15, chap. 44. t Mat. 24 : 10-12. t 2 Tim. 1:15; 4:16. * Tac. Ann. book 15. Evidences. 13 290 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. come?'^* The end referred to was that of the Jewish polity, which entirely ceased at the destruction of the Jewish metropolis and temple. Jesus prophesied that before this, that is, in forty years from the time when he uttered these words, the gospel would be preached in all the world. Of all that was then in futurity, what could have been more improbable, or to human view more impossible, than this ? The gospel was then received but by a handful of unlettered Jews. In a few days after, its Author was crucified as a malefactor, his disciples were scattered and dis- couraged, his enemies triumphant, and the gospel seemed at an end. When the infant church was gathered together in Jerusalem, immediately after the ascension of its Head, the number. of the disciples that could be collected was but one hundred and twenty. What but the omniscience of God could have foreseen that in less than forty years that church would be extended into all countries of the known world ? But thus it came to pass : ^' It appears from the writers of the history of the church, that before the destruction of Jerusalem the gospel was not only preached in the Lesser Asia and Greece and Italy, the great theatres of action then in the world, but was likewise propagated as far northward as Scythia, as far southward as Ethiopia, as far eastward as Par- thia and India, as far westward as Spain and Brit- ain."t The epistles of Paul, in the New Testament, were directed to churches then flourishing in Rome, Cprinth, Galatia, /Ephesus,] Philippi, Colosse, and • Matt, 24 : 14. t Newton, ch. 2, p. 257, 258. PROPHECY. 291 Thessalonica. In the epistle to the Romans, he asserts that the Christian faith was then, ten years before "the end," "spoken of throughout the whole world."* To the Colossi ans, about three years after, he asserts that the gospel had been "preached to every creature which is under heaven;"^ meaning, that to all nations, without distinction, it had been published. Tacitus bears witness, that in the sixth year before the destruction of Jerusalem, during Nero's persecution, the religion of Christ had not only extended over Judea, but through Rome also; and that its followers were therf so^ numerous, that "a vast multitude" were apprehended and condemned to martyrdom."^ Thus, impossible as such an event must have seemed at the time when this prophecy was uttered, the end did not come until the gospel of the kingdom of Christ was preached " in all the world." We know not which should be considered the most impressive evidence that God was with the gospel, this wonderful fact ^ brought to pass by such means, and in the face of such universal and deadly opposition, or the prophetic eye by which the Saviour predicted, in circumstances so unpromising, that thus it would be. 8. The next prophetic sign brings us almost to the awful catastrophe. "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies ;" or, as the expression is in Matthew, "When ye shall see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place," " then know that the desolation thereof is nigh." " Then let them • Rom. 1:8. + Colos. 1 : 23. t Tac. Ann. b. 15. 292 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. which be in Judea flee into the mountains ; let him which is on the house-top not come down to take any thing out of his house ; neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes."* By "the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place," Matthew expresses the same thing as when Luke speaks of Jerusalem being *' compassed with armies." The standards of the Roman armies had on them images to which idolatrous worship was paid, and which were therefore an abomination to the Jews. On this account, we read that a Roman gen- eral, when conducting his army through Judea tow- ards Arabia, was besought by the principal Jews to lead it another way.^ " Every idol and every image," says Chrysostom, **was called an abomination among the Jews." These idolatrous ensigns being connected with a desolating army, constituted them 'Hhe abom- ination of desolation ;" and when the Roman army planted its standards around the holy city, the abom- ination of desolation literally stood '' in the holy place," or on holy ground. This the Saviour predicted. It was to be the signal to Christians that the desolation of Jerusalem was nigh. Then they were to escape with haste to the mountains. The warning implied, that even after the city was encompassed with armies they would have an opportunity of escape ; but, at the same time, that the opportunity would be brief. All this came to pass. One would suppose that the Christians, in having delayed till the city was sur- rounded with a besieging host, would thus have * Luke 21 : 20 ; Mat. 24 : 15-18. t Ant. b. 18, ch. 6, sec. 3. PROPHECY. 293 waited till all escape was out off. But a remarkable providence took care that they should await the sign, and yet obey the admonition to flee. Cestius Gallus the Roman general, at the commencement of the war, besieged the city, took possession of the suburbs, encamped over against the royal* palace, and might easily, Josephus says, have got within the walls and won the city. Indeed, " many of the principal men were about to open the gates to him." But although the abomination of desolation was thus in the holy place, the followers of Christ were there also. The time of the end, therefore, was not yet come. An opportunity must be found for them to flee. The Lord sees to this. Just as the city was ready to open its gates to the Roman chief, *'he recalled his soldiers from the place without having received any disgrace, and retired from the city without any reason in the world?'^ This the Jewish historian expressly ascribes to a special interposition of Providence, though he knew not its object. It could be accounted for on no military or prudential considerations. Josephus re- lates that many principal men of Jerusalem embraced this opportunity to depart from the city as from a sinking ship.* A short time after, when the Roman armies were again approaching with the abomination of desolation towards the holy place, our historian states that a great multitude jied to the mountains.^ Among these were probably the disciples of Christ. But we learn more certainly from ecclesiastical his- torians of the early centuries, that at this crisis all * Wars, b. 2, ch. 20, sec. 1. t Ibid. b. 4, ch. 8, sec. 2. 8d4 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. the followers of Christ took refuge in the mountainous regions beyond Jordan, thus obeying the prophetic warning of their Lord ; so that there is nowhere any mention of a single Christian having perished in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.* But as the Saviour forewarned them, what they were to do they had to do quickly. For as soon as Jerusalem was again encompassed with armies, it was surrounded entirely with a wall, so that, in the words of the his- torian, *' all hope of escaping was now cut off from the Jews."^ Who the enemy would be, and what the power and fury and universal spread of his desolations, the Saviour foretold by the use of this proverbial expres- sion, '' Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together."* Prophecy often speaks a great deal in a few words. The carcass was the Jewish nation, given over, as thoroughly corrupt and forsaken of God, to be devoured as by birds of prey. An army is distinguished by its banners. They con- stitute its characteristic insignia. The banners of the Roman army were surmounted by eagles, em- blems of strength, of swiftness, and ferocity. By these the Saviour described it as that which would desolate Jerusalem. Literally, wherever the carcass was, these eagles were gathered. Josephus testifies that all parts of the land participated in the desola- tions of Jerusalem.^ The legions of Rome, like flocks * Lardner, vol. 3, p. 507 ; Newton, ch. 2, p. 266. t Wars, b. 5, ch. 12, sec. 2, 3. t Matl. 24 : 28. * Wars, b. 4, ch. 8, sec. 1 . PROPHECY. 295 of birds of prey, flew from city to city, spreading devastation and slaughter wherever they planted their standards. With eagle-swiftness they descended upon the unprepared population ; with eagle- strength they triuuiphed over every opposition; with eagle- fierceness they devoured and tore in pieces, sparing neither age nor sex, sending into hopeless slavery the few who escaped the sword. The melancholy record of Jotapata relates that all its population were slain, but infants and women. These were carried into bondage. The rest, forty thousand, were slaughtered. Joppa was demolished ; the neighboring villages were destroyed ; the whole region was laid waste. Of all the population of Gamala, two women alone escaped. Here, not even infants were spared the sword. Such was the extreme awfulness of the slaughter, that many Jews in preference threw their children, their wives, and themselves, from the hill on wliich the citadel was buiH, into the deep abyss below. The number that perished thus was computed at five thousand. These are but a few cases out of the many which illustrate the perfect accomphshment of the prediction before us.* 9. But our Lord foretold not only the enemy by whom Jerusalem would be destroyed, but the means * How minutely were the enemy and his desolations de- scribed by Moses as much as one thousand five hundred years bcfoVe the war. ''The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flioth ; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the i)erson of the old, nor show favor to the young : and he shall eat the fruit of tliy 296 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. by which it would be taken. " The days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side."* A trench and a wall or embankment always go together in military operations. Both were certainly intended here. But it was exceed- ingly improbable that such a measure would be resorted to in the siege of Jerusalem. The nature of the ground, and the great extent of the city, rendered it extremely difficult. It had never been attempted in the .previous sieges of the same place. It was not necessary, because, had the Roman general been con- tent to wait a little, the famine and the contending factions within the city would soon have delivered it into his possession. After all, it was contrary to the advice of his chief men, and was adopted only be- cause a more protracted siege would have been less glorious. The higher cause however was, that he was God's instrument unwittingly to fulfil the words of Christ. Titus must confirm the prophetic char- acter of Jesus. By building a wall about Jerusalem, he was to build up the defence of the gospel. The city was therefore literally compassed round, and its inhabitants were kept in on every side by a wall and cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed : which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land ; and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates through- out all thy land which the Lord thy God hath given thee.'' Dcut. 28 : 49-52. * Luke 19:43. PROPHECY. 297 trench put up by the troops of Titus, and measuring about five miles in circumference. Josephus is very- particular in stating precisely the direction of the wall in its whole circuit.* 10. " These be the days of vengeance ^''^ said the Lord ; ^^for then shall be great tribulation^ such as tvas not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, 7ior ever shall be.^^^ Days of vengeance indeed they were, when all that was written and threatened in Moses and the prophets was fulfilled. As if Josephus had written with the very words of the Saviour in view, he bears record that in his opinion ** no other city ever suffered such miseries ; nor was there ever a generation more fruitful in wickedness, from the beginning of the world." " It appears to me that the misfortunes of all men from the beginning of the world, if they be compared to these of the Jews, are not so considerable." ** For in reality it was God who. condemned the whole nation, and turned every course that was taken for their preservation to their destruction." It is impossible to describe the truth in this case. " The multitude of those who perished," says our historian, " exceeded all the destructions that man or God ever brought on, the world."* At the commencement of the siege, im- mense multitudes having come up from all parts of the country to the feast of the passover, the nation, * Wars, etc., b. 5, ch. 12, sec. 2. t Luke 21 :22; Matt. 24:21. t Wars, etc., b. 5, ch. 10, sec. 5; Preface to Wars, sec. 4; Wars, b. 6, ch. 13, sec. 4; b. 6, ch. 9, sec. 4. 13* 298 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. literally, was crowded into Jerusalem ; so that the city was supposed to have in it upwards of two million seven hundred thousand souls. The miseries endured by this imprisoned multitude are minutely detailed in the history of the siege. Famine com- menced, and numbered its thousands of unburied and loathsome victims. The destroyer raged so widely that the people devoured their shoes and girdles, the soldiers the leather on their shields. Wisps of old straw were turned into food. That which before they could not endure to see, they now consented to eat. United to these desolations were the remorseless cruelties of contending factions. The city was filled with robbers, who divided its popula- tion into parties more destructive than all the soldiery of the besiegers. Filled with rage and instigated by hunger, they alike refused to be at peace with each other, or to capitulate to the common enemy. They robbed the temple, slew the priests at the altar, and defiled the sanctuary with a sea of blood. To keep each other from food, they fired storehouses containing provisions for a siege of many years. Whenever any corn appeared, bands of robbers instantly seized it. They searched every house in which they suspected there was food. Parents snatched it from their chil- dren, children from the mouths of their parents. There was a lady of high birth and much wealth, who had come from the country, and was kept in Jerusalem by the siege. All her effects, and all the food she had saved for herself and children, had been taken by the prowling bands that continually ranged PROPHECY. 299 the streets for prey. By imprecations and reproaches she endeavored in vain to provoke them to take her life as well as bread. At last she prepared a feast. Keen hunger found out a lamb. A mother's despera- tion slew and served it. Having consumed a part, the rest was concealed. The smell of food soon brought in the wolves. They threatened instant death unless she discovered it. With bitter irony she assured them that a fine portion had been saved for them, and then uncovered what remained of the lamb. It was the half-eaten body of her infant son. Struck motionless with horror, they would not par- take of it. Then she upbraided them as pretending to more tenderness than a woman, and more com- passion than a mother. All the city, and the whole Roman camp, were filled with astonishment at this horrid evidence of the reigning wretchedness ; so that the dead were envied for having escaped the sight of such miseries.* But the woe went on. The prisoners taken in endeavoring to desert the city were nailed on crosses by the Roman soldiers, '*some one way, • How exactly did Moses, at least fifteen hundred years before, depict this very scene. He described even the rank, quality, and habits of the unhappy woman. " The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tender- ness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear : for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness where- with thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates." Deut. 28 : 56, 57. 300 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. some another, as it were in jest," around the outside of the walls, ^' till so great was the number, that room was wanting for crosses, and crosses were want- ing for bodies.''* Thus had the Jews, forty years before, crucified the Lord of glory without the walls, with cruel jesting and bitter mockery.^ Those who continued within the city took refuge in caverns, aqueducts, sewers, and other secret places, to escape from one another. Titus, as he beheld the dead bodies that had been thrown from the walls into the valleys, '' lifted up his hands to heaven, and called God to witness that this was not his doing."* The number of those who perished during these ** days of vengeance," is computed by Josephus at upwards of one million three hundred thousand ; and of these, one million one hundred and fifty thousand were of Je- rusalem, besides ninety-seven thousand carried into slavery, and an innumerable multitude who perished uncounted in various places, through famine, banish- ment, and other miseries.* Add to this destruction of life, the complete ruin of their holy city and mag- nificent temple, dearer to the Jews than life; add, moreover, the universal desolation and almost depop- ulation of Judea, and you will find no difficulty in interpreting the Saviour's prediction of ^* a txibulation such as was not from the beginning of the world." It was when our compassionate Redeemer had all this in full prospect, that "he beheld the city" from the * Wars, etc. b. 6, ch. 3, sec. 4; b. 5, ch. 11, sec. 1. t "His blood be on us, and on our children." t Wars, etc., b. 5, ch. 12, sec. 4. 5 Lardner, vol. 3, p. 529. i»Ku?Hh(Jir. 301 mount of Olives, '^ and wept over it, saying. If thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that make for thy peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes."* How did the anticipation of all this misery affect him, when, as he was going to his cross, he turned to the women who wept and wailed because of him, and said, ** Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children ; for behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us ; and to the hills. Cover us."^ Who can help reflecting here upon that solemn question, " What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God ?» 11. We come now to the work of destruction, which forms the most remarkable particular in this wonderful prophecy. The ruin of the city was fore- told in these words : ** They shall lay thee even with the ground^ and thy children within thee : and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, "^"^^ The ruin of the temple was foretold as follows. As the disciples were showing to Jesus the stupendous buildings of the temple, he answered, ** See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you^ there shall not be left here one stone upon another^ that shall not be thrown doicn^^ Most wonderfully was the spirit of prophecy manifested in these words. Every thing * Luke 19 : 42. t Luke 23 : 28-30. t Luke 19:44. ^ Matt. 24: 2. 302 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. conspired to make the events appear improbable, and to prevent their occurrence when the time predicted had arrived. Jerusalem v^as surrounded with three massive walls of immense strength, rendering its gar- rison almost unassailable except by famine, or pesti- lence, or internal discord.* Never were men more perfectly devoted to the defence of a city than those of Jerusalem. None cared for life at the expense of her ruin. The garrison was ten times the number of the besiegers. It was, therefore, exceedingly im- probable that the city would even be entered by the Romans. Such was the testimony of Titus as he looked round upon its towers. ^' We have certainly," said he, **had God for our helper in this war. It is God who has ejected the Jews out of these fortifica- tions. For what could the hands of men, or any machines, do towards throwing down such fortifica- tions ?"^ But it was equally improbable, even if the city were taken, that such complete destruction would be made of all therein. Think of the difficulty of completely destroying such an immense extent of triple wall, and of buildings within. Think of the temple: what a pile to be laid low! Its walls enclosed more than nineteen acres ; that of the east- ern front rose to a height of nearly eight hundred feet from its base in the valley beneath. In this and the other walls the stones were immense, the largest * Gibbon, speaking of the strength of Jerusalem at this time, says, '^ The craggy ground might supersede the necessity of fortificationSj and her walls and towers would have fortified the most accessible plain.'' Decline and Fall, vol. 8, ch. 58, p. 144. t Wars, b. 6, ch. 9, sec. 1. PROPHECY. 303 measuring sixty-five feet in length, eight in height, and ten in breadth. How great the difficulty of a thorough levelling of such a structure, even under the instigation of the strongest motive! But what motive was likely to excite the Romans to such de- struction? They prided themselves upon a venera- tion for the arts, and upon the sacred care with which, in all their conquests, the monuments of architectural taste were protected. The temple was emphatically such a monument. The immensity of its walls, its splendid gates and beautiful marble colonnades, the glory of its golden sanctuary, the grandeur of its whole appearance, and all its associa- tions of antiquity and of sacredness, constituted the temple of Jerusalem precisely such an object as Ro- man commanders had always gloried in preserving from the desolations of conquest. Even barbarians were used to spare such monuments in their march of devastation. Genseric, when, with his Moors and Vandals, he had sacked the city of Rome, spoiled her wealth, and carried away the ornaments of her tem- ples and capitol, but spared her noble structures ;* and to this day, after all the scenes of war that have raged through her streets, the pillar of Trajan, the triumphal arch of Titus, the unmutilat-ed Pantheon, and the noble Coliseum, with numerous other monu- ments of art, attest the ancient glory of the mistress of the world. How often have hostile armies filled the streets of Athens, and hordes of Gothic barbarians encamped amidst her sanctuaries ; and yet the beau- * Gibbon, vol. 5. 304 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. tiful temple of Theseus is scarcely injured as a model of architecture, and the Parthenon, though defaced and robbed, remains a noble example still of the grandeur and purity of Athenian taste in the age of Phidias and Pericles. How improbable then must it have seemed to one beholding the temple in the days of our Lord, that Romans should lay it even with the ground. Much more improbable, had the culti- vated taste, and the mild, amiable, and humane dis- position of Titus, their commander, been anticipated. Still more improbable, when it is remembered how strongly he was bent upon saving the city and temple from destruction ; how he employed all the means in his power to induce the Jews to surrender before such extremities were necessary.* When he had reached the temple, and saw the danger it was in of being sacrificed to the obstinacy of its defenders and the rage of his* own soldiers, he was "deeply affect- ed," and appealed to the gods, to his army, and to the Jews, that he did not force them to defile the holy house. '* If," said he, " you will change the place whereon you will fight, no Roman shall either come near your sanctuary, or offer any affront to it ; nay, I will endeavor to preserve your holy house, whet^her you will or not."t But the Lord of that temple had said, " Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." God would not suffer the prophetic words of his Son to return unto him void. Now, therefore, even the authority of Titus was of no avail with his troops. * Wars, etc., b. 5, ch.8, sec. 1 ; ch. 9, sec. 2; ch. 11, sec. 2; b. 6, ch. 2, sec. 1. t Ibid., b. 6, ch. 2, sec. 4. PROPHECY. 305 Now the discipline of the Roman legion was broken up, that all that was written might be fulfilled. When the fire first reached the temple, their com- mander dispatched a force to extinguish it. As it broke out again, he again used his authority to save the edifice. A soldier, disobeying the will of his gen- eral, threw fire into the golden window of the inner sanctuary. At this, Titus, followed by all his chief ofl[icers, rushed to the place, and by voice and gesture and force exerted himself most earnestly to prevail with his troops to spare the building. He ordered a centurion to punish the disobedient. But neither his threatenings nor persuasions could arrest their fury. At last a soldier, taking advantage of his ab- sence, when he had gone out of the sanctuary to restrain the others, *' threw fire upon the holy gate in the dark, whereby the flame burst out from within the holy house immediately."* And thus was it de- voured by the fire. And now orders were given to demolish to the foundation the whole city and temple. Nothing was spared of the former but three towers, and so much of the wall as was required for a shelter to the garrison to be stationed there. "As for all the rest of the whole circumference of the city, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground, by those who dug it up to the foundation, that there was nothing left to make those who came thither believe it had ever been inhabited."^ In quest of plunder, the soldiers literally turned up the ground on which the city and temple had stood, searching the sewers * Wars. b. 6, ch. 4, sec. 2-5, etc. t Ibid. b. 7, ch. 1; sec. 1. 306 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. and aqueducts. Last of all, it is related by the Jew- ish Talmud and Maimonides, that a captain of the army of Titus, Terentius Rufus, " did with a plough- share tear up the foundations of the temple."* "• A ploughshare," says Gibbon, " was drawn over the consecrated ground, as a sign of perpetual interdic- tion." Thus literally fulfilling that prophecy of Mi- cah, *' Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem become heaps, and the moun- tain of the house as the high places of the forest."^ How forcibly is the perfect fulfilment of the Saviour's prediction illustrated in the speech of Eleazer to a remnant of Jews in the city of Masada: "Where is now that great city, fortified by so many walls and fortresses and towers, which could hardly contain the instruments prepared for the war, and had so many ten thousands of men to defend it ? Demolished to the very foundations, and hath nothing left but the camp of the destroyers among its ruins ; some unfor- tunate old men also lie upon the ashes of the temple, and a few women are there preserved alive by the enemy for our bitter shame and reproach."* 12. But the prophecy of our Lord did not end with the destruction of the city and of the civil and eccle- siastical polity of the Jews. His omniscient eye folr lowed the unhappy race in their subsequent disper- sions and afflictions. " Thep shall fall by the edge of the sivord, and shall be led away captive into all nations!'''^ How many fell by the edge of the sword, * WTiitby on Matt. 24 : 2. t Micah 3:12. % Wars, b. 7, ch. 8, sec. 7. * Luke 21 : 24. PROPHECY. 307 in fulfilment of these words, I need not state. Blood flowed through the streets of Jerusalem like a river. But many who escaped the sword were led away captive into various parts of the earth. Before the city was taken, it is related that an *' immense num- ber " of deserters, having fallen into the hands of the besiegers, were sold, ''with their wives and children."* Besides ninety-seven thousand, who went into slavery from Jerusalem alone, there were sent from Tarichea to Nero six thousand choice young men, while thirty thousand, from the same place, were sold. Similar convoys of slaves were marched from many other desolated towns. Of the captives from Jerusalem, the tall and handsome were carried to Rome to grace the triumphal entry of Titus. Of the remainder, many were sent as slaves to the public works in Egypt ; but the greater number were distributed through the Roman provinces, literally ''into all na- tions," to be slain by gladiators, or exposed to wild beasts in the shows of the amphitheatre. From that time to the present, the history of all the nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa is filled with testimonies to the prophetic spirit of Him who, when Jerusalem was in peace and strength, predicted the approaching and yet existing calamities of her sons. In what country of the world, as then known, have they not been per- secuted and enslaved ? But in addition to the captivity of the people, y ''^Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles^ U^ until the times of the Gentiles he fulfilled^ It is * Wars, b. 6, ch. 8, sec. 2. 308 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. well ascertained, by corresponding passages of the Bible, that by this expression, the times of the Gen- tiles being fulfilled, was intended the universal in- gathering of the nations to the faith of Christ. This has not yet arrived. Jerusalem is therefore still trod- den down of the Grentiles, just as she has ever been since the ploughshare of the Roman desolation was first driven over the ruins of her temple. The hand of Providence, in the uninterrupted fulfilment of this prediction down to the present time, is wonderfully manifest. Two things are specially to be noted in the prophecy : first, that the Jews were never to he reestablished in Jerusalem ; and secondly, that it M'^as not only to be in possession of, but to be '^ trod- den down of the Gentiles^''^ until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. That the Jews have never been reestablished in Jerusalem since its de- struction, has not been owing to any want of desperate effort on their part, nor because the power of the Gentiles has not been vigorously employed in their behalf. In about sixty-four years after their almost total expulsion from Judea, under the conquest of Titus, Jerusalem was partially rebuilt by the emperor Adrian. A Roman colony was settled there, and all Jews were forbidden, on pain of death, to enter therein, or even to look at the city from a distance. Soon after this the Jews revolted with great fury, and made a powerful effort to recover their city from the heathen. They were not subdued again without great loss to the Romans, and immense slaughter among themselves. PROPHECY. 309 In the reign of Constantino the Great their effort was repeated, and terminated as before in perfect defeat, with increased massacre and oppression. But in the person of the nephew of Constantino, their zeal for the rebuilding of their temple was associated with the determination of the emperor JuHan to overthrow Christianity; and between the power of a Roman sovereign with a victorious army at his feet and the exulting enthusiasm of the whole remnant of the Jewish people, a union was formed for the single object of rearing up the temple with its ancient ritual and of planting around it a numerous colony of Jews, which, to all human judgment, bore the assurance of complete success. The grand object of Julian was to convert '*the success of his undertaking into a specious argument against the faith of prophecy, and the truth of revelation."* A decree was issued to his friend Alypius, that the temple of Jerusalem should be restored in its pristine beauty. To the energies of Alypius was joined the support of the governor of Palestine. At the call of the emperor, the Jews from all the provinces of the empire assem- bled in triumphant exultation on the hills of Zion. Their wealth, strength, time, even their most delicate females, were devoted with the utmost enthusiasm to the preparation of the ground, covered then with rubbish and ruins. But was the temple rebuilt? The foundations were not entirely laid. Why ? Was force deficient; or zeal, or wealth, or perseverance, when Roman power and Jewish desperation were * Gibbon. 310 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. associated? Nothing was lacking. ** Yet," says Gibbon, '^ the joint efforts of power and enthusiasm were unsuccessful, and the ground of the Jewish temple still continued to exhibit the same edifying spectacle of ruin and desolation." There was an unseen hand, which neither Jews nor emperors could overcome. The simple account of the defeat of this threatening enterprise of infidelity is thus given by a heathen historian of the day, a soldier in the service, and a philosopher in the principles of Julian. ^' While Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged with vigor and diligence the execution of the work, horrible balls of fire breaking out near the foundation, with frequent and reiterated attacks, ren- dered the place from time to time inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and the victorious element continuing in this manner obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, the undertaking was abandoned."* ** Such authority should satisfy a believing, and must astonish an in- credulous mind," acknowledges even the sceptical Gibbon. He cannot but own that " an earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fiery eruption, which overturned and scattered the new foundations of the temple, are attested with some variations, by contemporary and respectable evidence." One writer, who published an account of this wonderful catastrophe in the very year of its occurrence, boldly declared, says Gibbon, that its preternatural character was not disputed, even by the infidels of the day^ Another speaks of * Ammianus Marcellinus. t Gibbon, vol. 3. ch. 23. PROPHECY. ' 311 it thus: '*We are witnesses of it, for it happened in our time, not long ago. And now, if you should go to Jerusalem, you may see the foundations open ; and if you inquire the reason you will hear no other than that just mentioned."* Whether this attempt of Julian was defeated by miraculous interposition, is a question which our present object does not require us to argue.^ Two things are certain : first, that the pbwer and wealth of the Gentiles were united with the devoted en- thusiasm of the Jews, to defeat the prophecy of Christ, by rebuilding the temple, and by reestablish- ing its ritual, and by reorganizing a Jewish popula- tion as possessors of Jerusalem ; secondly, that con- trary to all expectation, when nothing was lacking for the work, and none in the world lifted a finger against it, it was suddenly abandoned on account of sundry alarming and singular phenomena bursting from the original site of the temple, by which even the fanaticism of the Jews was deterred, and the enmity of Julian to the gospel defeated. These un- deniable facts are sufficient to show, with impressive evidence, the hand of God protecting the prophetic character of our Lord. When, in connection withi these, you consider the great anxiety so universally felt among the Jews of all centuries, to enjoy the privilege of living and dying in Jerusalem ; that no risk of life, or sacrifice of property, would be thought * Chrysostom. See Lardner, ch. 4. p. 324. t See the miraculous character of this event very ably ad- vocated in Bishop Warburton's Julian. 312 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. too great for the purpose of once more setting up the gates and altars of the holy city ; that the nation is now as numerous as at any period of its ancient glory ; and yet, that during almost the whole period since the destruction of Jerusalem, so entirely have Jews been prevented from living on her foundations, that they have had to purchase dearly the pernjission to come within sight of her hills, and to this day are taxed and oppressed to the dust, as the cost of being allowed to walk her streets, and look at a distance upon her mount Moriah, you will acknowledge that the prediction of our Saviour in reference to their exclusion from Jerusalem, has been not only most strikingly fulfilled, but fulfilled in spite of the most powerful causes and efforts for its defeat. But it was predicted that Jerusalem should not only be possessed by the Gentiles, but ^' trodden down^^ by them till their times should be fulfilled. What the soldiers of Titus did has already been stated. From that time, during sixty-four years, a Roman garrison alone inhabited the ruins. At the end of these years the city was rebuilt by the em- peror Adrian, under the name of (Elia ; a Roman colony was planted there; all Jews were banished on pain of death ; every measure was used to de- stroy sacred recollections, and desecrate what were esteemed as holy places. The city was consecrated to Jupiter Capitolinus ; a temple was erected to the pagan god over the sepulchre of Jesus ; a statue of Venus was set up on mount Calvary, and the figure of a swine placed in marble on the gate that looked PROPHECY. 313 towards Bethlehem. Jerusalem continued in pos- session of the Roman emperors till subdued in the year 637 A. D. by the Saracens. The king of Persia had in the mean while besieged and plundered it, but his dominion was too short-lived to claim an excep- tion from this statement.* In the hands of Moham- medans, sometimes of Arabian, sometimes of Turk- ish, and sometimes of Egyptian origin, it continued to be literally trampled down and desecrated, during a period of more than four hundred years ; when having been taken by the crusaders, its government was assumed by one of their leaders, and Christians alone were allowed to dwell therein. Only about eighty-eight years elapsed, however, before the cres- cent of Mohammed was again planted upon the hill of Zion, where to this day it has remained, with a single trifling exception, undisturbed either by Jew or Christian. During the seven centuries of this uninterrupted dominion of Mohammedanism, Jerusa- lem has been captured and recaptured, again and again, by the various contending families and factions of the followers of the Arabian prophet. The desola- tions of war, the marges of contending hosts, have indeed ^'trodden doivn^^ her melancholy hills. In the sixteenth century, when Selim the ninth emperor of the Turks visited the city, it lay just as it had been seen by the famous Tamerlane more than one hundred years before, "miserably deformed and ruined," inhabited only by a few Christians, who paid a large tribute to the sultan of Egypt for the * Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. 6, ch. 46, p. 206. Evidences. 14 314 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. possession of the holy sepulchre."* Its condition still, is thus stated by a recent traveller. ^^At every step, coming out of the city, the heart is reminded of that prophecy, accomplished to the letter, * Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles.' All the streets are wretchedness ; and the houses of the Jews more especially, the people who once held a sceptre on this mountain of holiness, are as dunghills." '' No expression could have been invented more descriptive of the visible state of Jerusalem, than this single phrase, ' trodden down?^''^ '' Not a creature is to be seen in the streets," says another traveller, " not a creature at the gates, except now and then a peasant gliding through the gloom, concealing under his gar- ments the fruits of his labor, lest he should be robbed of his hard earnings by the rapacious soldier. The only noise heard from time to time in the city is the galloping of the steed of the desert."* " The Jerusa- lem of sacred history is in fact no more. Not a vestige remains of the capital of David and Solomon ; not a monument of Jewish times is standing. The very course of the walls is changed, and the boun- daries of the ancient city are iJecome doubtful."* Thus, during a period of seventeen hundred and sixty years have the captivities and dispersions and oppressions of the Jewish people, together with the desolate condition of their city and temple, most signally attested the prophetic character of our Lord. * Newton on Prophecy, vol. 2, p. 319-334. t Jowett's Researches, p. 200. i Chateaubriand. * Modern Traveller, Palestine, p. 75. PROPHECY. 316 And shall we not hence he confident that what re- mains of his prediction will he accomplished ? WilJ not the times of the Gentiles he fulfilled ? Will not Jerusalem continue, until then, to he trodden down of the Grentiles ? And then will it not cease to he subject to them ? And does not the expression of the prophecy imply that it will he again rebuilt and pos- sessed by the Jews in the day when " all Israel shall be saved ?" ** For what reason can we believe, that though they are dispersed among all nations, yet by a constant miracle they are kept distinct from all, but for the further manifestation of God's purposes towards them ? The prophecies have been accom- plished to the greatest exactness in the destruction of their city, and its continuing still subject to strangers ; in the dispersion of their people, and their living still separate from all people ; and why should not the remaining parts of the same prophe- cies be ,as fully accomplished in their restoration at the proper season, when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled ?"* 13. We have now exhibited the exact fulfilment of all the particulars of this remarkable prophecy, with one exception. The Lord specified the time of those great events which he so minutely foretold. '' This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Forty years had not elapsed from the date of this prediction, before all things referred to in it had taken place. And now let me add but a few words in conclusion. * Newton, vol. 2, p. 336. 316 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. No charge can be brought against the prophecy which we have been exhibiting, on the score of ob- scurity or ambiguousness of expression. It is ex- pressed in the plainest terms, and admits of but one interpretation. Nothing can be said in detraction from its claim to inspiration, on the ground of its being general in its expression. It is singularly par- ticular, as well as comprehensive. Nothing can be said in denial of the complete correspondence be- tween these various predictions and the history of the times and places to which they refer. We have drawn the evidence from sources which cannot be suspected of any partiality to the prophetic character of Jesus. The History of the Wars of the Jews, by Josephus the Jewish priest ; the Annals, by Tacitus a Roman consul ; and the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Gibbon the English sceptic, are all the vouchers we require. What then is the alternative to which the student of prophecy is reduced ? He must either acknowledge that Jesus was possessed of the spirit of genuine prophecy, or that he was so sagacious as to be able to foretell all these particulars when no one else could see any sign of them, or that the gospels containing these predictions were written after the events. The first the sceptic is resolved at all hazards to deny ; the second he cannot suppose ; the last he must assert, or give up his cause. For the same reason, therefoire, that the heathen Porphyry, when he could not deny the strict correspondence between the prophecies of Daniel and the subsequent history of Egypt and PROPHECY. 317 Syria, rather than confess that Daniel was a prophet, contradicted every principle of historical testimony for the sake of pretending that he must have written after the occurrence of what he foretold ; so have some modern Porphyries been driven to assert that the evangelists who relate this prophecy of Jerusalem, must have written after the city was destroyed.* I need not say that the only reason pretended to in support of this assertion, is the very thing we have been laboring to show : the strict agreement between the prophecy and the event. Their argument is nei- ther more nor less than the following : If these words were written before the destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus was a genuine prophet ; but we will not believe liim to have been a genuine prophet ; therefore these words were not written before the destruction of Jeru- salem. A conclusion as shameless as it is sense- less — as opposite to the faith of all history as to the rules of all sound criticism, and the opinion of the learned of all ages. It shows the strength of the argument from prophecy, as well as the infatuated obstinacy with which the human heart is capable of resisting whatever would bind it to the obedience of Christ. But let us not forget that the destruction of Je- rusalem, with its signs and tribulations, is set in the Scriptures as a type of an unspeakably more awful and momentous event — the end of the world. A day Cometh when " the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall * Voltaire. Watson's Ap. for Bible, p. 169. 318 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken : and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven ; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."* When that day shall arise on the world, knoweth no man. One thing we know, that it will find us just as death shall find us. Death, to each of us, will be virtually the coming of the Son of man. Then our eternal state will be sealed. There- fore doth wisdom utter her voice : ye sons of men, prepare to meet your God ; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh. Watch ; walk as children of light. Embrace the promises of the gospel, and live by faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. '* Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing." * Matt. 24:29-31. PROPAGATIOU OF CHRISTIANITY. 319 LECTURE IX. THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. There is a peculiarity in the argument for the divine authority^ of Christianity, which we cannot but notice in the commencement of this lecture. "While the several parts unite with the utmost harmony and prodigious strength in the construction of one grand system of evidence, each is a perfect argument in itself, and capable of furnishing, had vre no tiling else on which to depend, an ample support for the whole fabric of Christianity. We speak of the several parts composing that general division to which these lec- tures are restricted: the external evidence, such as the miracles, tJie prophecies, and that on which we are now about to enter, the propagation of Chris- tianity, The two former have been discussed. We praise the subject, not the lecturer, in saying that we have not only established on solid ground the genu- ineness of the miracles of the gospel, and the pro- phetic attestation to the divine mission of our Lord ; but that, in having done thus, we have twice finished the proof of Christianity as a divine revelation. Its was complete when w^e had shown that Jesus and his apostles were attended by the credentials of genuine miracles. It was commenced again, and completed a second time, by a course of argument entirely dif- 320 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. ferent, when we had shown that Jesus was a proph- et, as well as the great subject of prophecy. We are now to begin anew, hoping to prove a third time, and by a course of evidence entirely different from either of the preceding, that the gospel of Christ is none other than 'Hhe glorious gospel of the blessed God." Our argument will be drawn from the rapid propaga- tion of the gospel, in contrast with the difficulties it had to overcome. It was only forty days after the resurrection of Christ, that he delivered to his little band of apostles the parting charge, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." " Go, teach," or disciple, *'all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." In other words, Go, carry the war of the truth into the midst of its enemies ; think not your work com- pleted till you have planted the cross upon the high places of the heathen, and have gathered together my elect ** from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Such was the work intrusted to those few unlearned, despised disciples, who formed almost the whole strength of the Christian church in the day when their beloved Master was received out of their sight, and ascended into heaven. Now let us con- sider, in the first division of this lecture, I. The difficulties they had to surmount in exe- cuting^ this command. Be it remarked, 1. That the idea of propagating a netu religion^ to the exclusion of every other, was at that time a perfect novelty to all mankind, with the exception of PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 321 perhaps a few individuals of the Jews, specially en- lightened in the prophetic declarations of the Old Testament scriptures. The Jewish religion was in- deed sufficiently exclusive; but in its external organ- ization it was neither designed nor adapted for exten- sive promulgation. Nothing could have been more perfectly foreign to all the reigning opinions, preju- dices, and dispositions of that insulated nation, in the days of the apostles, than the thought of attempting to convert even a single city of the Grentiles to their system of religion. Their zeal was indeed extremely energetic in behalf of whatever involved the security and honor of their faith; but in regard to other na- tions, it was the zeal of jealousy to keep them at a great distance, rather than of invitation to bring them to a participation in their superior privileges. . The charge of the Saviour to his apostles was, if possible, still more novel to the Gentiles than the Jews. Heathenism had never been propagated from place to place. In its innumerable forms, it had grown up out of the depraved dispositions of human nature all over the world, as thorns and thistles, though never sown by the husbandman, are found everywhere on the face of the earth. "Without a creed, it was without principle ; and therefore it had nothing to contend for but the privilege of assuming any form, worshipping any idol, practising any ritual, and pursuing any absurdity, which the craft of the priesthood or the superstitions and vices of the peo- ple might select. It never was imagined by any de- scription of pagans, that all other forms of religion 11* 322 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. were not as good for the people observing them, as theirs were for them ; or that any dictate of kindness or common-sense should lead them to attempt the subversion of the gods of their neighbors, for the sake of establishing their own in their stead. So that nothing could have been more perfectly new, surpris- ing, or offensive to the whole gentile world, than the duty laid upon the first advocates of Christianity, to go into all nations, asserting the exclusive claims of the gospel, denouncing the validity of all other relig- ions, and laboring to bring over every creature to the single faith of Christ. Had Christianity been content to standi without urging its right to stand alone^ the heathen nations might have allowed it as much tol- eration as they were accustomed to yield to the various systems of idolatry among themselves. An altar would perhaps have been vouchsafed in many an idol- temple, to the Christian's God, and an image in honor of Christ might have been permitted a place among the divinities of the Pantheon. But its character being rigidly exclusive, and yet its spirit universally benevolent, the apostles must have seen at once that they were charged with a work not only perfectly new, but which would necessarily bring them into conflict with all the institutions, passions, customs, prejudices, and powers of all nations of the world.* 2. But the difficulties to be surmounted by the * A religion under which all men could unite with one an- other appeared to the ancients an impossibility. ^* A man must be very weak," said Celsus, " to imagine that Greeks and bar- barians, in Asia, Europe, and Lybia, can ever unite under the 8amc system of religion.'^ PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 323 apostles were not confined to the novelty of their en- terprise, and the exclusiveness of their faith. In the whole character of the gospel, as a system of relig- ious doctrine and a rule of heart and life^ there was a barrier in the way of its progress, which to human wisdom and power would have rendered their cause perfectly desperate. To propagate any religion at the expense of every other would have been to them, in their own strength, destitute as they were of all earthly auxiliaries, a hopeless task ; but to propagate the religion of the gospel was unspeakably more diffi- cult. A system of doctrine partaking in the least degree of any of its cliaracteristic qualities, was a thing entirely unimagined among the heathen, and scarcely thought of by one in ten thousand of the de- generate posterity of Abraham. Religion, among the Gentiles, was a creature of the state; it consisted exclusively in the outward circumstance of temples, and altars and images, and priests and sacrifices, and festivals and lustrations. It multiplied its objects of worship ^t the pleasure of the civil authorities ; taught no system of doctrine, recognized no system of moral- ity, required nothing of tlie heart, committed the life of man to unlimited discretion, and allowed any one to stand perfectly well with the gods, on the trifling condition of a Httle show of respect for their worship, to whatever extent he indulged in the worst passions and lowest propensities of his nature. Heathen relig- ion, in all its forms, was the most perfect contrast to every thing spiritual, holy, humbling, self-denying. Nothing could have been more foreign to every habit 324 Til'ILVAINE'S EVIDENCES. of thought, in the mind of a native of Greece or Rome, than the scripture doctrine of the nature and guilt of sin, of repentance, conversion, faith, love, meekness, and purity of heart. Their languages had scarcely expressions sufficiently approximated to these sub- jects to admit of their explanation, without the coin- age of new words for the purpose. And in many re- spects the whole race of the Jews, degenerate as they were in the time of the apostles, were as little pre- pared for a spiritual, heart-searching religion, as any people of the G entiles. Then imagine the incipient effort of the disciples of Christ to gain over the nations to the obedience of the gospel. "What could they say to them by way of conciliation, of all their systems of religion and habits of living, to which from time immemorial they had been accustomed? Nothing but unqualified, uncom- promising reprobation. What could they offer as a substitute, and with what recommendations could they propose it? The unity of God^ to the extermi- nation of all idolatry ; the fall of man and his entire ruin and condemnation by sin, to the utter subversion of all their proud conceit of their own merit, and of the dignity of their degraded nature ; the necessity of a new heart, including repentance and holiness and humility, and the diligent pursuit of all godliness of living, to the complete breaking up of all their philosophy, the mortification of all their pride, and the direct prohibition of all those unbridled passions and odious vices which then held such universal do- minion in the world. It was no aid to the work of PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 325 the apostles, that besides the above unwelcome truths and requisitions, the gospel stipulated for a habit of secret prayer, a life of faith, a heart animated with patience, gentleness, forgiveness, and benevolence to all mankind; and above all, a single reliance for peace with God upon the death and intercession of One who had been crucified as a malefactor, despised and rejected even by the despised nation of the Jews. It is easy to perceive from this brief sketch of some of the peculiarities of the gospel, in contrast with all that was loved and practised and gloried in by the nations of the earth, that while a new religion, willing to make terms with the habits and corruptions of men, might, if aided by the fascinations of elo- quence, the enticements of worldly interest, and the arm of secular power, have gained some advancement, Christianity, with its uncompromising spirit, its holy requirements, and its twelve unlettered and despised apostles for its whole earthly strength, must have perished in its infancy, had not the mighty- Ruler of the universe been its friend. 3. From what has been said, it is manifest that the enterprise of the apostles must have arrayed against it all the influence of every priesthood both among Jews and heathens. In the beginning of Christianity, the priests of the Jews were not only very numerous and degenerate, but exceedingly in- fluential in their nation. They were, in reality, the nobility of Judea. The power of the magistracy was in a great measure in their hands. The people were educated under their charge. They held the reins of 326 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. public opinion, and headed all the great public move- ments of the community. What tremendous resist- ance they were capable of making to the advance- ment of Christianity; how bitterly they replied to those claims which pronounced the dissolution of their priesthood and the termination of their authority ; and with what deadly concert they persecuted its blessed Author, thinking they had put also his gospel, when they had put his person to the cross, I need not re- mind you. We turn to the priests of the Gentiles, The en- terprise of the apostles was directly at war with their dignities, their influence, and their gains. What re- sistance they were capable of making, is obvious from a consideration of the extensive establishment, the high official dignity, the wealth, the political influence, and the superstitious veneration attached, in the first years of Christianity, to a heathen priesthood. '^ The reUgion of the nations," says Gribbon, ^^ was not mere- ly a speculative doctrine, professed in the schools or preached in the temples. The innumerable deities and rites of polytheism were closely interwoven with every circumstance of business or pleasure, of public or of private life ; and it seemed impossible to escape the observance of them, without at the same time renouncing the commerce of mankind. The impor- tant transactions of peace and war were prepared or concluded by solemn sacrifices, in which the magis- trate, the senator, and the soldier were obliged to par- ticipate." The Roman senate was always held in a temple or consecrated place. Before commencing PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 327 business, every senator performed an act of homage to the gods of the nation. The several colleges of the sacerdotal order in the single city of Rome ; the fif- teen pontiffs, the fifteen augurs, the fifteen keepers of the syhilline books, the six vestals, the seven epuH, the flamens, the confraternities of the Salians and Lupercalians, etc., furnish an idea of the strong establishment of the priesthood in an empire that embraced the known world. The dignity of their sacred character was protected as well by the laws as the manners of the country. ** Their robes of pur- ple, chariots of state, and sumptuous entertainments, attracted the admiration of the people ; and they re- ceived from the consecrated lands and public revenue an ample stipend, which liberally supported the splen- dor of the priesthood, and all the expenses of the religious worship of the state." The great men of Rome, after their consulships and military triumphs, aspired to the place of pontiff or of augur. Cicero confesses that the latter was the supreme object of his wishes. Pliny was animated with a similar am- bition. Tacitus the historian, after his prsetorship, was a member of the sacerdotal order. The fifteen priests, composing the college of pontiffs,, were distin- guished as the companions of their sovereign. And as an evidence of what accommodations paganism must have had in Rome in the days of her glory, the number of its temples and chapels remaining in the three hundred and eightieth year after the birth of Christ, when for more than three centuries Christian- ity had been thinning the ranks of its votaries, and 328 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. for sixty years had been the estabUshed religion of the empire, was four hundred and twenty-four.* In connection with all this organization and deep rooted power of heathenism, consider its various tribes of subordinate agents and interested allies — the diviners, augurs, and managers of oracles, with all the attend- ants and assistants belonging to the temples of a countless variety of idols ; the trades whose craft was sustained by the patronage of image-worship, such as statuaries, shrine-mongers, sacrifice-sellers, incense- merchants : consider the great festivals and games by which heathenism flattered the dispositions of the people, and enlisted all classes and all countries in its support — the Circensian and other grand exhibitions among the Romans, the Pythian, Nemean, Isthmian, and Olympic games, celebrated with great pomp and splendor in almost every Grecian city of Europe and Asia — the pride of the people, the delight of all the lovers of pleasure or of fame, intimately associated with and specially patronized by the religion of idols, and therefore djrectly attacked by all the efforts of Christianity: then say, what must have been the' immense force in which the several priesthoods of all heathen nations were capable of uniting among them- selves, and w*th the priests of the Jews, in the common cause of crushing a religion by whose doctrines none of them could be tolerated. That with all their va- rious contingents they did unite, consenting in this one object, if in little else, f f smothering Christianity in her cradle or of drowning her in the blood of her * Gibbon,- vol. 4, ch. 28. rilOPAOATlON OF CHRISTIANITY. 329 disciples, all history assures us. How she survived their efforts — how the fishermen of Galilee could have overcome their whole array without the help of God, is a problem which infidelity only shows its own weakness by attempting to solve. 4. But the authority of the magistrate was united with the influence of heathen and Jewish priesthoods in zealous hostility to the gospel. In all countries, the support of the religion of the state was the duty of the magistrate. Toleration, among the most civilized heathens, much as it has been eulogized by infidels, allowed of no religion that would not per- mit entire communion on the part of its followers in the worship appointed by the state. On this condition it countenanced the utmost latitude of belief and practice.* But to refuse conformity with the nation- al rites, and worship to the national gods, was an unpardonable offence not only to the gods, but to the civil authority. This it was that excited so much wonder among the Gentiles, and nerved the secular arm with such deadly offence against the disciples of Christ. *'Keep yourselves from idols," was a precept that met the pagan Greek and Roman, whenever he beheld a Christian. ''What can be the reason," said a Roman prefect to an Alexandrian bishop, "why * "The Athenian notion of toleration is well described by Socrates, and much resembles the opinion on that subject that many entertain even in our own times. *It appears to me,' says Socrates, 'that the Athenians do not greatly care what sentiments a man holds, provided he keeps them to himself; but if he attempts to instruct others, then they are indignant.'" Douglas on Errors, etc., p. 212. 330 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. you may not still adore that God of yours, supposing him to be a God, in conjunction with our gods?" "We worship no other God," was the Christian's answer;* a declaration which from the sword of a heathen magistrate could have no forbearance, and being everywhere received as a characteristic prin- ciple of the gospel, called out the whole power of the civil governments of the Gentiles to unite with their priesthoods in its destruction. 5. To these associated powers were added the prejudices and passions of all the people. These, among the Gentiles, were powerful, not only in favor of their own idolatries, but especially in aversion to a religion originating among Jews; still more to a religion advocated by Jews who were despised and persecuted by their own despised countrymen; and yet a great deal more to a religion so spiritual and holy, so utterly at war with vice and idolatry, as that of the gospel. See, in the epistle to the Romans, a picture from the pencil of a master, of the fierce passions, the vicious debasements, which universally characterized the gentile nations in the days of St. Paul. ''Filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without under- standing, covenant-breakers, without natural affec- tion, implacable, unmerciful : who, knowing the judg- * Euscb. Hist. Eccl. b. 7. cli. 11. PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 331 merit of Grod, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."* This description is borne out to the letter by the testimonies of hea- then writers. Paul has furnished a picture of the morals of his own nation corresponding with it in all essential features. What then could the gospel, with all its holy duties and spiritual doctrines, encounter in such a world, but a most violent opposition from the whole mass of the people? 6. But the wisdom and pride of the heathen philosophers were by no means the least formidable enemies with which the gospel had to contend. Their sects, though numerous and exceedingly various, were all agreed in proudly trusting in themselves that they were wise, and despising others. Their published opinions, their private speculations, their personal immorality, made them irreconcilable adversaries of Christianity. It went up into their schools, and called their wisdom foolishness, and rebuked their self-conceit. It ' ' came not with excellency of speech, " or 'Hhe enticing words of man's wisdom," '* doting about questions and strifes of words;" but, knoioing nothing among men^ save Jesus Christy and him crucified^ it just bade them repent, be converted, become as little children, and believe in a crucified Saviour -for peace with Grod. This was indeed, "to the Greek, foolishness." <«What will this babbler say?" "He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods," were the taunting words of certain of the Epi- * Rom. 1:29-32. 33S M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. cureans and Stoics, when they encountered St. Paul. Mockery was the natural expression of their minds, '•when they heard of the resurrection of the dead."* The apostles, therefore, in attempting to propagate the gospel among the Gentiles, were opposed by all the wit and learning and sophistry, all the pride and jealousy and malice, of every sect of philosophers. And how formidable was this hostility, is obvious from the great credit, superior even to that of the priests, among the higher classes of society, which those sects had obtained. "Whoever pretended to learning or virtue, was their disciple; the greatest magistrates, generals, kings, ranged themselves under their discipline, were trained up in their schools, and professed the opinions they taught."^ 7. In connection with these powerful adversaries, consider the character of the age in which the apos- tles undertook the propagation of Christianity, It was distinguished as one of profound peace among the nations, when the minds of men were peculiarly capable of deliberately investigating the claims of tho gospel; it was the Augustan age, when philosophy thronged the cities with her disciples, and every de- scription of polite literature was in the highest culti- vation. Its peculiar feature was directly the reverse of credulity. No age of the world, before or since, was so extensively characterized by scepticism. While the great mass of the plebeians were superstitiously given to idolatry, the patricians were no less corrupted with opinions which went to the denial of all religion. * Acts 17 : 18-32. t Lyttleton's Conversion of St. Paul. PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 333 Among the various schools which then divided the learned of the Roman empire, those which declared openly against the most fundamental truths of relig- ion were much the most numerous. Of this descrip- tion were the Epicureans* and Academics: the former maintaining that the soul was mortal, and that, if gods there were, they took no care of human affairs; the latter, that to arrive at truth was impossible — that "whether the gods existed or not, whether the soul was mortal or immortal, virtue preferable to vice, or vice to virtue," could not be ascertained. These two sects, the one atheist, the other too sceptical even to believe in atheism, were the most numerous of all in the age of the apostles, and were particularly encouraged by the liberality of the rich and the pro- tection of the powerful.^ From this prevalence of philosophy, ** falsely so called," the age was distin- guished for curious and bold inquiry; the learned everywhere, like those of Athens, spending their time in little else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.* It was also, for the same reason, an age of special contempt for whatever claimed to be received as supernatural. While every city, through the in- fluence of the priests and magistrates, was wholly given to idolatry, so far as the multitude and the ex- ternal aspect of all classes were concerned ; yet, in the inner schools of philosophy, and the private opinions * Cicero complains, that of all sects of philosophersj this made the most remarkable progress and gained the most adhe- rents. De Finibus. t Mosheim's Hist., part 1, sec. 21. * Acts, ch. 17. 334 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. of the educated, it was almost entirely pervaded with scepticism. Add to this its necessary companion, the universal prevalence of unprecedented luxury and dissoluteness of living, and you will have a true out- line of the character of the age in which the apostles, by *Hhe foolishness of preaching," knowing *^ nothing among men, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified," were to ** destroy the wisdom of the wise," and con- vert whole nations to Christianity. Most evidently was the age peculiarly and entirely unpropitious. Noj:hing, on human calculation, could have been more certain of utter rejection and con- tempt at such a time, than the simplicity, spiritual- ity, and holiness of the gospel; especially its two cardinal points, humble repentance and submissive faith, 8. Consider, next, to whom the propagation of the gospel ivas committed. Who were they that re- ceived the commission, '^ Go, preach the gospel to every creature," and ^^make disciples of all nations?" Men adapted to such a mighty work in no single qualifica- tion, except to show, in their weakness, that their suc- cess was altogether of G-od. They were neither phi- losophers, nor orators, nor educated men. They were from a class of mankind denominated by the ruHng nations, barbarians ; they were of that nation among the barbarians, whom all the rest of the world par- ticularly despised; they were of that portion of the nation which was least esteemed by its own mem- bers. They were poor, without the least worldly consideration or influence. They were acquainted PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 335 with no craft but that of publicans and fishermen. They had never learned any language but that of Galilee, and yet they were to preach to people of all languages. Such were the men whose work it was to assault the high and fenced walls of Judaism — to break the power of heathenism, though entrenched in the vices of the people, upheld by the craft of their priesthoods, defended by the power of all nations, and sanctioned by the traditions of immemorial ages. Such were the men who were to go into the proud schools of philosophy, show their wisdom to be fool- ishness, teach their teachers, bring out captives to the humble faith of the crucified Nazarene, and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. 9. Consider the circumstances of depression and discouragement in which they commenced this work. The enemies of their Master had just succeeded in putting him to the shame of the cross, under accusa- tion of capital guilt. Their taunting language to the agonizing victim, ** If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross," shows what a death-blow they supposed themselves to have given to his cause. All his disciples had forsaken him and fled. The stone upon the mouth of his sepulchre was not heavier than i the weight upon their hearts, when they beheld him dead and buried. After a few days they assembled together again in Jerusalem, when an upper room contained the whole congregation of those that be- lieved in Christ. Their cause was universally sup- posed to have died with its Master. The fact that "336 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. he had not "been saved by the power of G-od from the disgrace of crucifixiorij was regarded everywhere as a perfect answer to all his claims. Such was the be- ginning of the propagation of the gospel. These were the desperate circumstances in which the unfriended, unprotected, ridiculed apostles were to set up their banner. What could they do ? 10. Consider the mode they adopted. They sought no favor from worldly influence ; courted no human indulgence ; waited for no earthly approbation ; paid as little deference to rank, or wealth, or human learn- ing, as to poverty and meanness. They spoke as men having authority — as ambassadors commissioned from a throne, and sustained by a power before which they had a right to demand that priests and philosophers and kings should submit. " Not with enticing words of man's wisdom," did they seek to advance their cause, but in simple reliance upon *^the demonstra- tion of the Spirit." Instead of selecting such doctrines as would best conciliate their hearers, and concealing the rest, they fixed their preaching most emphatically on what they knew was the special topic of derision and mockery both to Jew and Greek, glorying in nothing save in the cross of Christ. Instead of seeking retired and ignorant people as the subjects of their efforts; instead ot a double doctrine, as the philosophers had — one thing for the world, another for their disciples, a part for the novice, the whole only for the initiated — they kept back nothing any- where, declaring boldly the w^hole gospel in the most public places and before the greatest enemies. PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 337 ** Jesus and the resurrection" were preached as freely to Epicureans and Stoics in Athens, as to publicans and sinners in Jerusalem. Instead of accommoilating rlieir declarations in any degree to the vainglorious and vicious characters of those whom 'they addressed, they declared the wrath of Grod to be *' revealed from heaven against all ungodlienss and unrighteousness of men." To every soul that would be a Christian, they issued the requirement, " depart from iniquity," *' crucify the flesh, with its aftections and lusts," and be willing to be esteemed a fool and persecuted to death for Christ's sake. Such was the mode selected by these powerless Galileans, by which to subdue the fierce opposition of the proud, self-righteous Jews, and to make Christians out of Greeks and Romans, alike devoted to degrading vices and puffed up with the conceit of superior wisdom. . 11. Now let us see in what manner the attempt to propagate Christianity was received. It was met everywhere by the most strenuous hostility, and the fiercest persecution. From the first discourse of the apostles, down to the three hundred and fifth year of the Christian era, persecution never entirely ceased, while its more pubho and general onsets followed one another in such close succession that the church had hardly time to bury her dead before she was called to prepare more candidates, by thousands at a time, for the tortures and triumphs of martyrdom. The preaching of the apostles began at Jerusalem, and there also persecution began. Saul hunted Christians with the appetite of a bloodhound. Stephen was the Fvidences. 1 5 338 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. first victim. Soon the brethren were scattered far and wide by the fury of the storm. James was slain with the sword ; Peter imprisoned for execution ; Paul scourged and stoned, and pursued so continually, that in every city bonds and afflictions awaited him. Whatever Jewish hate, goaded on by a jealous priest- hood, could do, was. put in requisition to crush the cause. All the devices that Roman governors, sec- onded by the superstitions and passions of the several nations of heathenism, could employ, were united in the one business of driving back the advancing cause of Christ. His disciples were calumniated as atheists, enemies of man, murderers and devourers of their own children, and as guilty of the most loathsome and horrible practices.* Instruments of torture were ex- hausted. Jews and Gentiles, soldiers, slaves, govern- ors, and emperors racked their ingenuity to find out new ways of tempting Christians to unfaithfulness ; and when they were steadfast, of increasing their ago- nies without hastening their death. Every province and city and village was a scene of martyrdom. The great principle of the ruling powers was, that this ''superstition," as they called it, must at all hazards be put down. " In a short time, the punishments by 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 edict of * "The Atheists/' was the universal name for Christians. To the charge of dire hostility to all religion, was added that of combined rebellion against all law and all mankind. '• Irre- ligiosi in Csesares; hostes Cccsarum; hostes populi Romani,'' was their universal character among their enemies. PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 339 Trajan, commanding the presidents to inflict capital punishment on all who would not renounce Christi- anity, was never abrogated while heathenism reigned in Rome.* What persecution was in the heart of the empire, it was also in Africa, Persia, Arabia, Capa- docia, Mesopotamia, Nicomedia, Phrygia, and in almost every place where the Christian name was known. " Those who suffered for the cause of Christ, men, women, youths of both sexes, were so numer- ous as to be estimated only in the mass." " In tor- ments they stood stronger than their tormentors ; their bruised and mangled limbs proving too hard for the instruments with wliich 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." Such is the description given by one of those who thus endured to the end.^ The strong language in the epistle to the Hebrews is eminently applicable. Some " were tortured, not accepting deliverance ; and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment : they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword : they wandered about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented: they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." ^ Christians were often the victims of popular fury, • Lardner, vol. 4, p. 300. t Heb. 11 : 35-38. t Cyprian. 340 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. as well as of public edicts and imperial authority. Every odious slander was propagated against them for the purpose of instigating the rage of the populace. The evidence of abject slaves or of persons forced by torture to testify as an incensed community desired, was used to justify the most dreadful explosions of vulgar hate. Did a drought occur? It was a pro- verbial explanation, that *'if God refused rain, the Christians were in fault." Did the Nile refuse its annual irrigation, or the Tiber overflow its banks? Did earthquake, or famine, or any other public ca- lamity excite the popular mind ? A ready cause was in every mouth — the anger of the gods on account -of the increase of Christianity ! A ready sacrifice to propitiate the offended deities was immediately re- sorted to — the slaughter of the Christians. How the better informed of society endeavored to stimulate the mob to these hecatombs of innocent victims, may be judged from the fact that *^ Porphyry,- a man who wished to be accounted a philosopher, found a cause for the inveteracy of an infectious and desolating sickness in this, that ^sculapius could not exert any effectual influence on the earth in consequence of the prevalence of Christianity !"* Such, then, were the obstacles which opposed the propagation of the gospel. Who, in anticipating them, must not have said, " If this cause be of man, it must come to naught ?" Either it must die a natural death in the obscurity of its birth, or be torn to pieces at the first onset of its foes ; or else * Neander^s Ch. Hist. PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 341 it must be of God, protected and advanced by his power. Before proceeding to speak of the success of the apostles, we may deduce from the premises we have established a conclusive proof of the power by which they acted. It is certain that they understood the difficulties^ and anticipated the dangers of their work. As men of ordinary understanding they must have fore- seen, while by the predictions of Christ they were distinctly apprized of the obstacles and perils they would encounter. Nevertheless, with a perfect know- ledge of their own weakness, they undertook to propa- gate the gospel among all nations. Why ? What was there in reproach and beggary, in racks and prisons, in wild beasts and flames, so inviting? Must they not have been sincere in their professions ? Could any thing short of a thorough belief that Jesus was risen, and had promised to be with them in all their labors, have induced them to undertake such an enterprise? It is impossible, without ridiculous absurdity, to question their entire persuasion of this. But is this a proof that Jesus was risen, and that, in divine power, he was with them ? We do not pre- tend that, in general, the fact of the advocates of a doctrine being convinced^ is valid evidence of its truth ; but in the case of the apostles it should be thus regarded, inasmuch as they could not have been deceived. Whether Jesus wrought genuine miracles or not ; whether he had appeared to them '' at sun- dry times and in divers manners " after his burial ; 342 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. whether he had eaten with them, conversed with them, journeyed with them during the space of forty days subsequent to his death; whether they heard and saw him, at the end of those days, solemnly give them their charge to propagate the gospel, and the promise of his presence and power wherever they should go, they must have known. Consequently, when with such undeniable knowledge and unques- tionable sincerity, they went into all the world preaching Jesus and the resurrection, neither deceived nor wishing to deceive, the evidence was perfect that they labored in the service of truth — that their faith stood not ^^in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." II. Let us now consider the success of the apostles in executing their Master^ s charge. On the fiftieth day after his death they commenced. Beginning in Jerusp-lem, the very furnace of persecution, they first set up their banner in the midst of those who had been first in the crucifixion of Jesus and were all elate with the triumph of that tragedy. No assem- blage could have been more possessed of dispositions perfectly at war with their message, than that to which they made their first address. And what was the tenor of the address ? '' Jesus of Nazareth, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknow- ledge of Grod, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain ; whom God hath raised up. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." One would have PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 343 supposed that the same hands that had rioted in the blood of his Master, would now have wreaked their enmity in that of this daring, and, to all human view, most impolitic apostle. But what ensued? Three thousand souls were that day added to the infant church.* In a few days the number was increased to five thousand ;^ and in the space of about a year and a half, though the gospel was preached only m Jerusalem and its vicinity, ** multitudes both of men and women," and *^a great company of the priests, were obedient to the faith."^ Now, the converts being driven by a fierce persecution from Jerusalem, " went everywhere preaching the word ;" and in less than three years churches were gathered ** through- out all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and were multi- plied."* About two years after this, or seven from the beginning of the work, the gospel was first preached to the Gentiles ; and such was the success, that before thirty years had elapsed from the death of Christ, his church had spread throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria ; through almost all the numer- ous districts of the lesser Asia; through Greece and the islands of the iEgean sea, the sea-coast of Africa, and even into Italy and Rome. The number of con- verts in the several cities respectively, is described by the expressions, ** a great number," ** great multi- tudes," " much people." What an extensive impres- sion had been made, is obvious from the outcry of the opposers at Thessalonica, that '' they who had turned • Acts 2:41. t Acts 5:14; 6:7. t Acts 4: 4. i Acts 8: 4; 9:31. 344 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. the world upside down^ were come hither also." De- metrius, an enemy, complained of Paul, that *^ not only at Ephesus, but also throughout all Asia," what is now called Asia Minor, "he had persuaded and turned away much people."* In the mean while Jerusalem, the chief seat of Jewish rancor, continued the metropolis of the gospel, having in it many tens of thousands of believers.^ These accounts are taken from the hook of the Acts of the Apostles ; hut as this hook is almost confined to the labors of Paul and his immediate companions, saying very little of the other apostles, it is very certain that the view we have given of the propagation of the gospel during the first thirty years is very incomplete. In the thirtieth year after the beginning of the work, the terrible persecution under Nero kindled its fires; then Christians had become so numerous at Rome, that, by the testimony of Tacitus, *' a great multu tude^^ were seized. In forty years more, as we are told in a celebrated letter from Pliny the Roman governor of Pontus and Bythinia, Christianity had long subsisted in these provinces, though so remote from Judea. *'Many of all ages, and of every rank, of both sexes likewise," were accused to Pliny of being Christians. What he calls, " the contagion of this superstition," thus forcibly describing the irre- sistible and rapid spread of Christianity, had " seized not cities only, but the less towns also, and the open country," so that the heathen temples " were almost forsaken," few victims were purchased for sacrifice, • See Paley's Evidences. ^ Acts 21 : 20. '•^Troaai fivpiadeg'* PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 345 and ** a long intermission of the sacred solemnities had taken place.* Justin Martyr, who wrote ahout thirty years after Pliny, and one hundred after the gospel was first preached to the Gentiles, thus do- scribes the extent of Christianity in his time : " There is not a nation, either Greek or barbarian, or of any other name, even of those who wander in tribes and live in tents, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and Creator of the uni- verse by the name of the crucified Jesus." Clemens Alexandrinus, a few years after, thus writes : *' The philosophers were confined to Greece and to their particular retainers, but the doctrine of the Master of Christianity did not remain in Judea, but is spread throughout the whole world, in every nation and village and city, converting both whole houses and separate individuals, having already brought over to the truth not a few of the philosophers themselves. If the Greek philosophy be prohibited, it immediately vanishes ; whereas, from the first preaching of our doctrine, kings and tyrants, governors and presidents, with their whole train and with the populace on their side, have endeavored with their whole might to ex- terminate it, yet doth it flourish more and more." There is no reason for diminishing the wonder which this rapid success of the gospel so necessarily excites, by the supposition that all these conversions, or the greater part of them, were little more than a change of profession and name — the substitution of a Christian church for a heathen temple — a mere tran- * Lardner, vol. 4, p. 13-15. 15* 346 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. sition from one system of religious ceremonial to an- other. In times of fierce persecution, the reality of a conversion is tried *' as by fire." There was little, during the first three hundred years of Christianity, to encourage a profession of its faith, except so far as the heart had become sufficiently devoted to its holy and self-denying duties, to be willing to suffer on their account the loss of all things. Mere cold assent and dead formality were not likely to put themselves in the way of being torn by wild beasts or buried in the mines. The change wrought in the converts was, for the most part and notoriously, a change of heart and of life, as well as an entire change of opinion. The striking alteration in those who em- braced the gospel, bore a powerful attestation to its divine authority. Philosophers complained that men improved but little in goodness under their instruc- tions ; while Paul could say to the Christians of Cor- inth, a city famous for the profligacy of its inhabi- tants, *' Such were some of you; but ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our Grod." '' The doctrine of Christ," says a writer of those times, ^*did convert the most wicked persons who embraced it from all their debaucheries to the practice of all vir- tues."* So remarkable was the difference between the Christians and those whom they had once resem- bled, that Origen, defending their faith against the attacks of Celsus, challenges a comparison between their moral character and that of any other societies * Origen coiit. Celsum. PROPAaATlON OF CHRISTIANITY. 347 in the world. Even the sceptic Gibbon unites in this testimony. Speaking of these early converts, he says, "As they emerged from sin and superstition to the glorious hope of immortaUty, they resolved to devote themselves to a life not only of virtue, but of penitence. The desire of perfection became the ruling passion of their soul.'^ " Their serious and seques- tered life, averse to the gay luxury of the age, inured them to chastity, temperance, economy, and all the sober and domestic virtues. The contempt of the world exercised them in the habits of humility, meekness, and patience. The more they "were per- secuted, the more closely they adhered to each other. Their mutual charity and unsuspecting confidence has been remarked by uifidels, and was too often abused by perfidious friends. Even their faults, or rather their errors, were derived from an excess of virtue."* From all these authorities it is evident that the propagation of the gospel was not only of great rapidity, but of great power in transforming the hearts and lives of the multitudes who em- braced it. In connection with the moral power and vast ex- tent of tliis work, it should be considered, that among those who were brought to the obedience of Christ were men of all classes, from the most obscure and ignorant to the most elevated and learned. In the New Testament we read of an eminent counsellor, and of a chief ruler, and of a great company of priests, and of two centurions of the Roman army, and of a * Gibbon, vol. 2, ch. 15, p. 138, 139. 348 AriLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. proconsul of Cyprus, and of a member of the Areop- agus at Athens, and even of certain of the household of the emperor Nero, as having been converted to the faith. Many of the converts were highly esteemed for talents and attainments. Such was Justin Mar- tyr, who while a heathen was conversant with all the schools of philosophy. Such was Pantsenus, who before his conversion was a philosopher of the school of the Stoics, and whose instructions in human learn- ing at Alexandria, after he became a Christian, were much frequented by students of various characters. Such also was Origen, whose reputation for learning was so great that not only Christians but philosophers flocked to his lectures upon mathematics and philos- ophy, as well as on the Scriptures. Even the noted Porphyry did not refrain from a high eulogium upon the learning of Origen.* It may help to convey some notion of the character and quality of many early Christians, of their learning and their labors, to notice the Christian writers who flourished in these ages. St. Jerome's catalogue contains one hundred and twenty writers previous to the year 360 from the death of Christ. The catalogue is thus introduced : ** Let those who say the church has had no philos- ophers, nor eloquent and learned men, observe who and what they were who founded, established, and adorned it."^ Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Tra- jan, written about sixty- three years after the gospel began to be preached to the Gentiles, expressly states, that in the provinces of Pontus and Bythinia many * Stillingfleet'& Orig. Sac. p. 273, 274. t See Paley, p. 346. PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 349 of all ranks were accused to him of the crime of being Christians.* We have now prepared the several facts that con- stitute the materials of our argument. Here is an unquestionable historical event — the rapid and exten- sive spread of Christianity over the whole Roman empire in less than seventy years from the outset of its preaching. Has any thing else of a like kind been * The early advocates of Christianity, in controversy with the heathen of Greece and Rome, were accustomed to dwell with great stress upon the argument from its propagation, (^'lirysostom, of the fourth century; writes, "The apostles of Christ were twelve, and they gained the whole world." '^ Zeno. PlatOj Socrates, and many others endeavored to intro- duce a new course of life, but in vain; whereas Jesus Christ not only taught, but settled a new polity, or way of living, all over the world. *^ " The doctrines and wtI tings of fishermen, who were beaten and driven from society, and always lived in the midst of dangers, have been readily embraced by learned and unlearned, bondmen and free, kings and soldiers, Greeks and barbarians." " Though kings and tyrants and people strove to extinguish the spark of faith, such a flanae of true religion arose as filled the whole world. If you go to India and Scythia, and the utmost ends of the earth, you will evei*y- where find the doctrine of Christ enlightening the souls of men." Augustine of the same century, speaking of the heathen philosophers, says, " If they were to live again, and should see the churches crowded, the temples forsaken, and men called from the love of temporal, fleeting things to the hope of eternal life and the possession of spiritual and heavenly blessings, and readily embracing them, provided they were really such as they are said to have been, perhaps they would say, 'These are things which we did not dare to say to the people; we rather gave way to their custom, than endeavored to draw them over to our best thoughts and apprehensions.' " Lardner, vol. 2, pp. 614, 597. 350 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. known in the world? Did the learning and popu- larity of the ancient philosophers, powerfully aided by the favor of the great and the peculiar character of the age, accomplish any thing in the least resem- bling the success of the apostles ? It is a notorious fact, that only one of them ^'ever dared to attack the base religion of the nation, and substitute better representations of Grod in its stead, although its ab- surdity was apparent to many of them. An attempt of this kind having cost the bold Socrates his life, no others had resolution enough to offer such a sacrifice for the general good. To excuse their timidity in this respect, and give it the appearance of profound wisdom, they called to their aid the general principle that it is imprudent and injurious to let the people see the whole truth at once ; that it is not only necessary to spare sacred prejudices, but, in partic- ular circumstances, an act of benevolence to deceive the great mass of the people. This was the unani- mous opinion of almost all the ancient philosophical schools."* No further proof is needed, that such men were incapable of effecting any thing approximating to the great moral revolution produced in the world by the power of the gospel. How different the apos- tles ! boldly attacking all vice, superstition, and error at all hazards, in all places, not counting their lives dear unto them, so that they might *' testify the gos- pel of the grace of God." But where else shall we turn for a parallel to the work we have described ? What efforts, independently of the gospel, were ever t Reinhard's Plan, p^i. 165, 166. PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 351 successful in the moral regeneration of whole com- munities of the superstitious and licentious ? The only event in the annals of time that has ever been supposed to bear any resemblance to the propa- gation of Christianity, is the rapid progress of Mo- hammedanism. But a little reflection will show you that the single fact of its rapid and extensive progress is the only point of resemblance, while in every thing else there is direct opposition. The Koran based its cause upon no profession of miracles, and therefore had no detection to fear. The gospel rested all upon its repeated miracles; and consequently, unless it had been true, would have been certain of detection. Mohammed was of the most powerful and honorable family in Mecca, the chief city of his nation, and though not rich by inheritance, became so by mar- riage. Jesus was of a family of poor and unknown inhabitants of an obscure village in Judea, and had not where to lay his head. Mohammed began his work among the rich and great. His first three years were consumed in attaching to his cause thirteen of the chief people of Mecca. Jesus commenced among the poor. During his three years of ministry on earth, twelve ' obscure Jews, many of them fishermen, all unlearned and powerless, were his chosen disciples. Of the first thirteen apostles of the Koran, all ulti- mately attained to riches and honors, to the com- mand of armies and the government of kingdoms. Of the twelve apostles who commenced the propaga- tion of the gospel, all attained to the utmost poverty, contempt, and ignominy, and all but one to a violent 352 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. death on account of their cause. The age, when Mohammed set up his banner, was eminently pro- pitious to his enterprise. "' Nothing can equal the ignorance and darkness that reigned in this century."* Science, philosophy, and theology had everywhere de- clined into almost nothingness. The age when the apostles of Christ began their work, was eminently unpropitious to any cause but that of Grod. It was the Augustan age. Mohammedanism took its rise in an interior town of Arabia, among a barbarous people, and its first conquests were among the rudest and least enlightened of the most ignorant regions of the world. Christianity arose in the splendid metropolis of a populous and intelligent nation, and achieved her earliest victories in some of the most polished and enlightened cities of the world. In the town of Mecca, where Mohammed opened his mission, there was no established religion to contend with. In the city of Jerusalem, where Jesus and his apostles began their work of love, an established religion was powerfully fortified within the triple wall of priest, magistrate, and people, and defended by all the powers and pas- sions of the nation. When the prophet of Arabia ap- . peared, his cause was favored by the feuds that pre- vailed among the Arab tribes around him, and by the bitter dissensions and cruel animosities then reign- ing among various sects of degenerate Christians — dissensions that filled the greater part of the East with such enormities as rendered the very name of Christianity odious to many. When the great Prophet * Mosheim. PROrAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 353 of Christianity appeared, the temple of Janus was shut, in token of universal peace, so that all the schools of philosophy, all sects of superstition, and all the powers and animosities of the nations were free to combine against his gospel. Mohammed attempted to conciliate the prevailing religion of the empire, by preaching to the ignorant generation of Christians that his religion was no other than what had been originally their own. The unity of God, the pro- phetic character of the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament, and the divine mission of Jesus, he carefully and artfully asserted, pretending to restore the purity, instead of attacking the foundations of the religion they had taught. This was politic. The apostles, on the other hand, attacked boldly and un- sparingly the religion of all the world. "While assert- ing the essential principles of the religion of Moses, they aimed directly at the subversion of its then degenerate institutions; and, as to all Gentile nations, they pretended to nothing but uncompromising oppo- sition. This certainly was any thing but politic. Mohammed, while he required nothing of his followers that called for self-denial,* expressly sanctioned and promoted their strongest passions. Impurity, revenge, ambition, pride, were his cardinal and honored indul- gences. Thus he enticed human nature. I need not say that the requisitions and allurements proclaimed * The prohibition of wine, the fast of Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to Mecca, were no part of Mohammedanism until Beveral years after its commencement, when military successes had completely established its authority. 354 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. by the apostles of Christ were precisely the contrary. But thus they repelled human nature. Even with all these advantages in his favor, Mo- hammed at the end of the first twelve years of his enterprise had not extended his cause beyond the walls of Mecca, and had gained but few disciples within them, because his efforts had been confined to persuasion. While Christianity with all its dis- advantages, in half the time from the beginning of the ministry of Christ, could number more than ten thousand disciples in Jerusalem, and churches through- out all Judea and Galilee and Samaria ; and yet her cflbrts were also confined to persuasion. But Mo- hammed, after twelve years experience, discovered that even with all his indulgence to passion and pride, some argument much more cogent than that of per- suasion was necessary to convince the nations. This was found at the edge of the sword. He sounded the trump of war, promised the spoils of nations, the fairest of the captives, and the most luxurious arbor in paradise, to those who would join his standard. Then proselytes were multiplied. The rovmg Arabs, converted to the faith for the sake of the plunder, flocked to his cause. Death or conversion was the only choice of the idolater. *' The Koran, the tribute, or the sword," was vouchsafed to Jews and Christians. Henceforward the demon of Mohammedanism was always seated on the hilt of the sword, and made its way by force and slaughter. How and why it pre- vailed both rapidly and extensively from this time, I am as little bound to explain as to account for the PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 355 martial prowess of Napoleon, or of the Goths and Vandals. It was the success of the warrior, not of the prophet. But I may not leave this subject without turning what to some may have seemed almost parallel to the success of the gospel, into an auxiliary illustra- tion of its superhuman power. It is a strong fact in evidence that Grod was on the side of the apostles, that when they had every thing on earth to contend with, they succeeded, by mere efforts of persuasion, in subduing kingdoms, and bringing innumerable multitudes to holiness of life ; while Mohammed and his apostles, in the most favorable circumstances, were confined, as long as they used no weapon but that of persuasion, to a few followers, and had they never taken the sword would probably never have been heard of beyond the sands of Arabia. But should it still be contended that the success of the apostles may be accounted for without refer- ence to supernatural aid, let the question be answered why, when the same human means have since been employed in so many instances, nothing even approxi- mating to the same results has ever ensued. Jews are found at present as numerous as ever. Some of the strongest obstacles which opposed the success of the gospel among them in the apostolic age, do not now exist. They have no religious establishment, no reg- ular priesthood, no power to persecute. Christianity, on the other hand, is established. Instead of appearing to the Jew as a thing of yesterday, advocated but by a few obscure men, as she did of old, she now presents 356 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. herself under the sanction of eighteen centuries, illus- trated by the learning of her disciples, professed by all civilized nations. It cannot be said that less hu- man effort in the aggregate has been employed for the conversion of the Jews, than was used by, the twelve apostles. Much more money has been expended ; much more learning has been devoted ; much more human power has been exerted ; many more individ- uals have been employed. The same gospel has been preached. The same arguments have been urged. And why should not corresponding effects appear? " There is reason to think that there were more Jews converted by the apostles in one day, than have since been won over in the last thousand years."* The simple explanation is and must be^ that the great power of Grod was with the apostles for the establish- ment of the truth, in a degree far greater than that in which it is now vouchsafed to his ministers in pro- moting the wide extension of truth. From the Jews turn to the heathens. There is no reason to believe that the heathenism of the pres- ent day is any more opposed to the propagation of Christianity, than that of the world in the age of the apostles. Instead of twelve, there are hundreds of laborers in this field — men of education, talent, inde- fatigable zeal, und-aunted devotion. The art of print- ing has furnished them with facilities of which the apostles, unless it be conceded that they possessed the miraculous gift of tongues, were entirely desti- tute. The Scriptures are now circulated in full; * Bryant on the Truth of Christianity. PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 357 while, in the days of St. Paul, the canon being incom- plete, they were circulated only in parts. In addition to all this, Christianity is recommended among many heathen nations by the political importance of the countries from which its preachers have gone, and in some by the actual cooperation of Christian powers rilling in the midst of pagan institutions. With these important advantages, what is the success of present efforts among the heathen? Enough, indeed, to re- ward all the zeal expended in their support — enough to show that still the power of God is with the gospel, and that ample encouragement is given for all the increase of effort which Christians can ever bestow on the heathen, but nothing comparable with the success of the apostles. Paul was instrumental in converting more heathens in thirty years, than all modern missionaries in the last five hundred. Ex- plain this fact. It is absurd to attempt it, in view of all the circumstances of the case, except you admit the solution given by Paul himself: '* I have planted, and ApoUos watered, but God gave the increase." "Without this grand truth, **Grod gave the increase," Christianity would have perished on the cross of its founder. I have now set before you a miracle, the evidence of which no eye can be too blind to see : Christian- ity universally propagated^ and yet propagated by no earthly influence but that of the apostles. This is the miracle. It is as directly contrary to the laws of nature and to universal experience, as if at the word of man the desert of Arabia should bud and 358 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. blossom like a fruitful garden, or the sepulchre give up its dead. As long as this one fact, the propaga- tion of Christianity, shall remain, the gospel will be supported by a weight of proof which infidels can remove only by taking away the foundation of all inductive evidence, and bringing down the whole tem- ple of human knowledge to their own destruction. Now, in conclusion, let us see what an unbe- liever must believe^ in consistency with his profession. He must believe that the apostles were either such weak-minded men as to imagine that their crucified Master had been with them from time to time during forty days after his burial, had conversed with them and eaten with them, and that they had every sensible evidence of his resurrection, while in truth he had not been near them, but was still in his sepulchre ; or else that they were so wicked and deceit- ful as to go all over the world preaching that he was risen from the dead, when they knew it was a gross fabrication. Suppose the unbeliever to choose the latter of these alternatives. Then he believes not only that those men were so singularly attached to this untruth as to give themselves up to all manner of disgrace and persecution and labor for the sake of making all the world believe it, knowing that their own destruction must be the consequence ; but also, what is still more singular, that when they plunged, immediately at the outset of their ministry, into an immense multitude of those who, having lately cru- cified the Saviour, were full of enmity to his disciples, they succeeded, without learning, eloquence, power, PROPAaATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 359 or a single conceivable motive, in making three thou- sand of them believe that he whom they had seen on the cross was indeed alive again; and believe it so fully, as to renounce every thing and be willing to suffer any thing for the sake of it, and this on the very spot where the guards that had kept the sepulchre were at hand to tell what was become of the body of Jesus. He must believe, moreover, that although, in attempt- ing to propagate a new religion to the exclusion of every other, they were undertaking what was entirely new, and opposed to the views of all nations ; although the doctrines they preached were resisted by all the influence of the several priesthoods, all the power of the several governments, all the passions, habits, and prejudices of the people, and all the wit and pride of the philosophers of all nations ; although the age was such as insured to their fabrications the most intelli- gent examination, with the strongest possible disposi- tion to detect them ; although, in themselves, these infatuated men were directly the reverse of what such resistance demanded, and when they commenced were surrounded by circumstances of the most de- pressing kind, and by opposers specially exulting in the confidence of their destruction ; although the mode they adopted was of all modes most calculated to expose ' their own weakness and dishonesty, and to imbitter the enmity and increase the contempt of their opposers, so that they encountered everywhere the most tremen- dous persecutions, till torture and death were almost synonymous with the name of Christian ; although they had nothing to propose, to Jew or Gentile, as a 360 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. matter of faith, but what the wisdom of the- world ridiculed, and the vice of the world hated,.and all men were united in despising; although they had nothing earthly with which to tempt any one to receive their fabrication, except the necessity of an entire change in all his habits and dispositions, and an assurance that tribulations and persecutions must be his portion ; yet, when philosophers, with all their learning and rank and subtlety and veneration, could produce no effect on the public mind, these obscure Galileans obtained such influence throughout the whole extent of the Roman empire, and especially in the most en- lightened cities, that in thirty years what they them- selves (by the supposition) did not believe, they made hundreds of thousands of all classes, philosophers, senators, governors, priests, soldiers, as well as ple- beians, believe and maintain unto death; yea, they planted this doctrine of their own invention so deeply, that all the persecutions of three hundred years could not root it up — they established the gospel so perma- nently, that in three hundred years it was the estab- lished religion of an empire coextensive with the known world, and continues still the religion of all civilized nations. This, says the unbeliever, they did simply by their own wit and industry ; and yet he well knows that preachers of the gospel with in- comparably more learning, with equal industry, in far greater numbers, and in circumstances immeas- urably more propitious, have attempted to do some- thing of the same kind among heathen nations, and could never even approximate to their success. Still PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 361 the apostles had no help hut that of their own inge- nuity and diligence! Such is the helief of the unbe- liever. To escape acknowledging that the apostles were aided by miraculous assistance, he makes them to have possessed in themselves miraculous ability. To get rid of one miracle in the work, he has to make twelve miracles out of the twelve agents of the work. Tha Christian takes a far different course. Paul })lanted, Apollos watered, but Grod gave the increase. The weapons of their Warfare were not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong- holds. To which solution genuine philosophy or com- mon-sense would award the prize of rational decision, it is easy to determine. The argument for the propagation of Christianity is not yet complete. Satisfactory already, it is yet to receive an immense accession of strength. *' The wilderness and the solitary place," the immense regions of pagan and Mohammedan desolation, shall yet be glad for the blessings of the gospel, and '^ the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose." Every na- tion and kindred shall be brought ** into captivity to the obedience of Christ ;" for the word hath gone forth out of the mouth of the Lord, *' I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." How should every heart respond, Amen ; and pray, *^ Thy king- dom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." 16 '6G2 M'lLVAlNES EVIDENCES. LECTURE X. THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. In our preceding lectures we have followed the currents of three independent arguments, each of which was found sufficient to conduct us to a com- plete proof of the divine authority of the gospel of Clirist. That to which we now. proceed is especially capable of being " known and read of all men," and deserves to be ranked in the highest class of the evi- dences of Christianity. Our blessed Lord, speaking of false pretenders to divine revelation, delivered the following rule by which they might be distinguished : '* Ye shall know them bi/ their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but a cor- rupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." This is a test universally approved of, and necessarily employed. Its influence on our judgment is unavoidable, and when properly applied, its results are certain. The goodness of a tree cannot be doubted while we know the excellence of its fruit. No more reason have we to question the holy character and divine origin of religion, while its legitimate effects on the lives and hearts of its genuine disciples are holy. We may come to an erroneous conclusion by judging erro- FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 3G3 neously of the fruit ; by ascribing effects to causes which did not produce them; by charging upon re- ligion a train of consequences of which it was only the incidental occasion, instead of the natural cause. But these are errors in the application, and independ- ent of the correctness of the test. Whenever you have ascertained the true results of any system of doctrine, you have found a plain and certain expres- sion of its intrinsic character. It is good in propor- tion as the fruit is good. If its fruit be godly, it must itself be of God. Let infidelity be always tried by this equitable rule, so as to receive the full credit of all the evils which may easily be found to have grown upon its branches — let it be stripped of all those adventitious circumstances of a favorable kind for which it is in- debted to the surrounding influence of Christianity, and few eyes will fail to see that the root is one of bitterness, and the tree fit only to be cut down as a cumberer of the ground. If'men would judge Chris- tianity also by the fair application of this rule, care- fully separating from her genuine productions all those of which, however enemies may love to lay them to her charge, she is only the innocent occasion, it would require but little discernment to be con- vinced of her heavenly origin, and of the duty of all to spread the knowledge and acceptance of her divine revelation. Such will be the object of the present lecture. Christianity may be known by its fruits. Christians are desirous that their faith should be judged by this test, as well as by every other that is 364 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. ^ just and equal. We set out, therefore, with this question: What are the fruits of Christianity ? In the examination of this subject we will consider, 1. The effects of Christianity on society in gen- eral, 2. Its effects on the character and happiness of genuine disciples. Reserving the latter of these divisions for another lecture, we devote our attention at present exclusively to the former. I. In proceeding to illustrate the beneficiai. EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY ON SOCIETY IN GENERAL, I know of no way so direct as to consider in what con- dition the countries now blessed with its influence would have remained, had they been left to the sev- eral forms of religion under which they had pre- viously subsisted. Let us take a brief survey of the moral state of the ancient world in the age when the preaching of the cross effected its wonderful revolution in the whole fabric of society. And that we may not be accused of unfairness, let us take into view, not the more distant and uncivilized provinces, but those chief central states where all the light and moral vigor of the heathen world were concentrated. Let our survey be confined to the society of Italy and Greece, where philosophy held her court, and literature and the arts were cultivated with the utmost devotion and suc- cess. Unfortunately for the interests of truth, the history of Greece and Eome has fallen for the most part into the hands of writers much more concerned with their intellectual and martial prowess, than their FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 365 moral attainments and social .virtues ; so that while the reader is occupied in admiring the acuteness of their schoolmen, the taste of their poets, the perfec- tion of their arts, and the warlike character of their soldiery, he is seldom called to look within the inclosures of society, and inquire how they lived, what manner of men they were in their families, in their social relations, in their moral principles, and their private habits. A certain eminent writer who lived in the ago to which we refer, addressing the people of Rome, describes the heathen population of the civilized world as given up to the vilest, most unnatural, and beastly affections; filled with all unrighteousness and degrading wickedness; full of envy, murder, deceit, malignity ; disobedient to parents ; covenant-break- ers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerci- ful ; not only committing such things as were worthy of death, but having pleasure in them that did them. Such, according to St. Paul, were the polished Grecians and the sterner Romans.* 1. Consider their religion. " Professing them- selves to be wise, they became fools ; and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four- footed beasts and creeping things."^ Deities were multiplied till there was a god for every thing, and any thing answered for a god. Athens was full of statues dedicated to different deities ; those of various countries being so crowded together, that it was said ♦ Rom. 1 : 29-32. t Rom. 1 : 22, 23. 866 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. to be *' easier to find a god than a man." There was the god Caius Caesar, and the god Augustus Caesar, and the god Lucius Caesar, and the goddess Julia, the profligate daughter of Augustus, to whom the rulers of Athens ascribed the title of Providence, The senate of the Areopagus, and that of the six hun- dred, erected her statue and enacted her divinity. An altar had there been consecrated many years before, to ''^ the Unknoivn Gody Rome exceeded Athens in the number of her gods, only by having, as the mistress of the world,, all nations to collect from and all forms of paganism to countenance. ** The deities of a thousand groves and a thousand streams possessed in peace their local and respective influence ; nor could the Roman who deprecated the wrath of the Tiber, deride the Egyptian who pre- sented his offering to the beneficent genius of the Nile. Every virtue and even vice acquired its divine representative, every art and profession its patron, whose attributes, in the most distant ages and coun- tries, were uniformly derived from the character of their peculiar votaries. It was the custom of the Romans to tempt the protectors of besieged cities by the promise of more distinguished honors than they possessed in their native country. Rome gradually became the common temple of her subjects, and the freedom of the city was bestowed on all the gods of mankind."* '^ In this mania for foreign gods, the nobles and the emperors themselves set the most cor- rupting examples. G-ermanicus and Agrippina devoted * Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. I, pp. 32, 35, 36. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 367 themselves especially to Egyptian gods. So also Vespasian. Nero served all gods with the exception of the Dea Syra. Marcus Aurelius caused the priests of all foreign gods and nations to be assembled, in order to implore aid for the Roman empire against the incursions of the Marcomanni. Commodus caused himself to be initiated into the mysteries of the Egyp- tian Isis and the Persian Mithras. Severus wor- shipped especially the Egyptian Seraphis ; Caracalla chiefly the Egyptian Isis; and Heliogabalus the Syrian deities, though he was desirous of becoming a priest of the Jewish, Samaritan, and Christian religions."* The traditions of the principal divinities of the ancient heathen are a true guide to the vices of their worship. What the gods were said to have been in their lives, their worshippers actually were in their service. ** It is a shame," said one who knew them well, ** even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret." The chief oracles of the heathens appointed human sacrifices, so that not only the bar- barians, but even the Athenians, Lacedsemonians, and Romans, were accustomed to worship idols with the blood of their fellow-creatures. What must have been the state of public morals when gods were patrons of vice, and their rites encouraged both cruelty and obsceneness, it is easier to imagine than describe. '*' Eusebius is compelled to use language when describino; the heiorht of wickedness and im- purity which the ivorship of the heathens attained, * Pi of. Tholuck oil Hcatliciiisni, Biblical Repository. 368 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. such as no virtuous man can read without shudder- ing." The gods were entreated, hy costly offerings on splendid altars, to favor the indulgence of un- natural lusts, the perpetration of murders, the rob- bery of the orphan and the widow. Seneca exclaims, " How great is now the madness of men. They lisp the most abominable prayers in the ears of the gods. And if a man is found listening, they are silent. What a man ought not to hoar, they do not blush to rehearse to God."* "Well might St. Paul describe them as *' given up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts."^ 2. Consider the spirit of cruelty that reigned among those people. It was not solely owing to the madness and depravity of a Tiberius, a Caligula, a Nero, or a Caracal la, that a cruel and sanguinary spirit in their day was so universal. Had not the whole mass, the peasant, the soldier, the citizen, and the senator, as well as the prince, been foully tainted, the monstrous enormities of those vicious tyrants could never have been perpetrated. Such was the cruelty of Romans to their slaves, that it was not unusual to put the aged and useless to perish on an island in the Tiber ; and some masters would even drown them, as food for the inhabitants of their fish- ponds.^ Scenes of blood and slaughter were the * Epist. 10. + See Potter's Antiquities, vol. 2, p. 301. t *' The custom of exposing old, useless, or sick slaves on an inland of the Tiber, there to starve, seems to have been pretty c;)mmon in Rome ; and whoever recovered after having been so exposed, had his liberty given him by an edict of the emperor Claudius." "The ergastiduy or dungeons, whcro FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 3G9 public diversions of the people. Witness the shows of gladiators in the crowde damphitheatre ; when, to celebrate a birthday or gratify a popular whim, crowds of captives were set to mutual slaughter, or else to contend with the fury of wild beasts. "What must have been the moral sensibility of those nations, of which the most refined females delighted in such revolting cruelties, criticising the skill of the ferocious swordsman, and exclaiming with enthusiasm at the graceful stroke that opened the heart of the van- quished, and poured out his lifeblood upon the arena?* St. Paul describes the heathen community as *' full of murder and malignity." Hume, speaking of ** the most illustrious period of Roman history," says, that slaves in chains were forced to work, were very common all over Italy.'' ^'A chained slave for a porter, was usual in Home, as appears from Ovid and other authors." The evidence of slaves *' was always extorted by the most exquisite torments." Hume on the Populousness of Ancient Nations. * '• Who," says Hume, *' can read the accounts of the amphitheatrical entertainments without liorror ? or who is sur- prised that the emperors should treat people in the same way the people treated their inferiors ? One's humanity is apt to renew the barbarous wish of Caligula, that the people had but one neck. A man could almost be pleased, by a single blow to put an end to such a race of monsters." Note to Essay on the Populousness of Ancient Nations. How Cicero, " the mildest of all pagan philosophers and orators," regarded with an inhuman approbation the cruelties above named, may be seen from his sayings, as quoted in Jor- tin's Discourses concerning the truth of the Christian Religion. He states that the supplications of a poor wretch begging his life on the arena, only made the spectators, as a matter of course, the more violent against him. and the more set upon his death. See the Oration for Milo. 16* 370 M'lLVAINES EVIDENCES. *^ at that time the horrid practice of poisoning was so common, that during part of a season a praetor pun- ished capitally for this crime ahove three thousand persons in a part of Italy, and found informations of this nature still multiplying upon him. So depraved in private life," adds the historian, " were that peo- ple whom in their history we so much admire."* Murder was in common practice among all classes. " Such," says Gibbon, " was the unhappy condition even of Roman emperors, that whatever might be their conduct their fate was commonly the same; almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder." Suicide was not only extensively practised, but advocated as a right, and commended as virtuous. Seneca pleaded for it. Cicero was its advocate. Brutus and Cassius, with many others, both defended and practised it. Cato is praised by Plutarch for having been his own mur- derer. These, in their day, were among the lights of the heathen world.. What then must have been the awful deeds of darkness among the more ignorant populace ? They were *' without natural affection." Nothing could exhibit in a more appalling light their utter annihilation of moral principle and natural affection, than the fact that '^the exposition, that is, the mur- der of new-born infants, was an allowed practice in almost all the states of Greece and Rome: even among the polite and civilized Athenians, the aban- doning of one's child to hunger or to wild beasts was * Essay on Politics. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 371 regarded without blame or censure."* '^This prac- tice," says Hume, "was very common; and is not spoken of by any author of those times with the hor- ror it deserves, or scarcely even with disapprobation. Plutarch, the humane, good-natured Plutarch, men- tions it as a merit in Attains king of Pergamus, that he murdered, or if you will exposed, all his own chil- dren, in order to leave his crown to the son of his brother Eumenes. It was Solon, the most celebrated of the sages of G-reece, that gave parents permission by law to kill their children."^ Philosophers sup- ported the custom by argument. Aristotle thought it should be encouraged by the magistrates. Plato maintained the same inhuman doctrine. It was complained of as a great singularity, that the laws of Thebes forbade the practice. In all the provinces, and especially in Italy, the crime was daily perpe- trated. From one end to the other, the Roman em- pire was stained with the blood of murdered infants. Think of the state of domestic virtue, when such was a prevailing inhumanity of parents — when the learned defended it as wise, the magistrate countenanced it as useful, and public sentiment regarded it as inno- cent. Such was the power of a father, by the Roman law, that his adult children might be sent to the mines, sold into slavery, or destroyed at his wall; his daughter could be compelled at his discretion, to for- sake a husband whom he himself had approved; while his wife could be dismissed at pleasure, and for cer- * Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments. t Hume on the Populousness of Ancient Nations. 872 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. tain crimes, some of them of a very trivial nature, she might be put to death. The authority of the father was that of a despot; the subjection of his family was that of slaves. 3. But the Greeks and Romans were as notorious for their departure from the lowest grade of decency, as for their savage disruption of all the ties of natural affection. Sallust, speaking of the Roman youth in the time of Cicero, says, " Luxury, avarice, and pride enslaved them; they wantoned in rapine and prodi- gality; undervalued their own, and coveted what belonged to others ; trampled on modesty, friendship, and continence ; confounded things divine and human, and threw off* all manner of consideration and re- straint." "Men and women laid aside all regard to chastity."* "We cannot name the degrading crimes which. in .Greece were sanctioned by the public laws, and at Rome were practised, in the time of Seneca, without shame. It was considered a singular exam- ple in Athens, that the most moral philosopher did not indulge in them. Even Cicero could speak, with- out any sign of disapprobation, of Cotta, an eminent Roman, as having owned an habitual addiction to the vileness we are alluding to, and as having quoted the authorities of ancient philosophers in its vindication. There was no species of degrading crime which had not its attempted justification in the written doctrines, and its shameless perpetration in the avowed prac- tices of the wise men, and such as are usually sup- posed to have been the good men, of the most civil- * Rose's Translation. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 373 ized nations of antiquity. Quinctilian, speaking of the philosophers of the first century of the Christian era, says, "The most notorious vices are screened under that name; and they do not labor to maintain the character of philosophers by virtue and study, but conceal the most vicious lives under an austere look and singularity of dress."* Such also is the acknow- ledgment of Plutarch, with regard to the ancient philosophers in general. Wliile he owns that they were generally noted for a certain infamous vice which we cannot name, he excuses them by the plea, that they improved their minds at the same time that they corrupted their bodies. Lucian and others unite in this representation. Neither Seneca, nor Xeno- phon, nor Plato, nor Aristotle, nor even Socrates, whose morals have been extolled by infidels as sur- passing any thing in the Bible, is excepted- from the revolting account of these writers. Granting that jealousy and calumny, among the ancients, included some of those illustrious names under a charge so degrading, what must have been the character of the great mass of the philosophers, when calumny durst venture so far?^ Such were the men whom our modern reformers w^ould hold up to the public as patterns of virtue. *'They opposed each other," says Voltaire, ** in their dogmas; but in morality they were all agreed." *' There has been no philosopher in all antiquity, who has not been desirous of making men better." To the truth of the first assertion, we have no reason to * Quinctilian, Inst. Orat. t See M'Knight on Rom. 1 : 26, 27. 374 M'lLVAINE^S EVIDENCES. object. In a sense directly opposite to that in which the writer intended it to be vmderstood, they were indeed in morality all agreed. As to their unani- mous desire of making men better, we can only say that they adopted the most singular means of effect- ing it. A Roman citizen, of the Augustan age, de- scribed them as those who, being past feeling, had given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.* We have now exhibited some of the prominent features in the moral character of the society of Greece and Rome, in their most enlightened ages. From what has been stated, we may form a concep- tion sufficiently accurate of the condition of things in * Among the philosophers of the time of Cicero, the Cynics were held in great repute, and were widely spread throughout the Roman empire. The wise man of this school '-gave up all human relations towards mankind, contemned his country, his kindred, and the joys of wedded love, and sought his consolation in a self-complacent beastliness. One might see these beastly men half-naked, moving about everywhere, with a great cudgel and a bread-bag, performing the animal necessities of their na- ture before the eyes of all; thrusting themselves with extreme rudeness among the multitudes, and there stepping forward as teachers of wisdom, not in a regular discourse, but with abrupt and broken language of vulgar sport and derision." And yet, even the new Platonic philosophers greatly revered Cynicism, and represented Diogenes its leader as a godlike man. Whoever may desire a more extended account of ancient, classic heathenism, in regard to its gross superstition, its dis- gusting sensuality, its obscene idols and ceremonies, its human sacrifices, its legalized cruelties, the odious vices of those who conformed to it, and its utter impotency for all purposes of moral improvement, is referred to an article, already quoted, on the Nature and Influence of Heathenism, by Prof. Tholuck of Halle, in Nos. 6 and 7 of the Biblical Repository. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 375 all those departments of morality on which depends whatever is important to personal, domestic, and pub- lic happiness. We have been speaking of the most cultivated people of the ancient world. Unspeakably darker and more appalling would have been the pic- ture, had we described the spirit, habits, and pervad- ing crimes of any other pagan nations. But we are content that a fair representation of the best, should also be received as a good likeness of the worst com- munities of ancient heathenism. We ask, what has become of all these deep-rooted deformities? Look around upon the countries over which the influence of Christianity has been exerted ; those especially where the religion of Jesus has been enjoyed in the greatest purity, and cultivated with the truest devotion. Where are the remains of the abominations we have described? Crime remains indeed, but only in hidden dens. It shuns the light. Laws do not afford it countenance. Public sentiment drives it into concealment. What would the feeling of society now say to a show of gladiators; to the legalized exposure of infants by the hands of mothers; to the public, deliberate murder of worn-out slaves ; to the justification of suicide and theft, and lying and assassination, and the acknowledged practice of the most odious sensuahty, by those who are looked up to as the moral teachers and examples of society? How would idolatry, with all its cruelties and ob- scenities, its profligate deities, its human sacrifices, its hidden mysteries of iniquity, and its public ritual of vice, affect the public mind, were its temples and 876 M'lLYAINE'S EVIDENCES. images and lascivious ceremonies now set up in our cities? It is not enough to say, that in countries where all these abominations once rioted without re- straint and in full sympathy with the public taste, they have long since been driven away with abhor- rence. Positive blessings, in every form and for every class of society, have risen up in their place. A meas- ure of virtue which would have singled out an ancient philosopher as a wonderful exception to the rest of the world, is absolutely necessary at present to a character of ordinary decency. Benevolence, such as was not known in Greece or Rome, and had it ap- peared, would not have been comprehended, is now a matter of common, daily intercourse between man and man. An incalculable improvement has been effected in all departments of human affairs, from the administration of national government down to the most retired relations of the family circle. What rulers would have been remarkable once for not doin<^, tlie people would now expel them for attempting. A spirit of equity, moderation, and respect for the inter- ests and happiness of the community, is required in the governments of countries under the influence of Christianity, which was hardly conceived of by the nations of antiquity, and if it ever appeared, was a marvellous exception to a general rule. Laws, re- generated in their principles, are enacted in wisdom, and executed with a faithfulness unknown to the heathen. Instead of the despotic harshness with which a father was once permitted to rule his chil- dren and his wife as his tools and slaves, universal FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 377 sentiment demands it, as necessary even to decency, that he shall be kind to them as his own flesh, and us the rightful sharers in all his comforts. Women have been elevated from the rank of beasts of burden, to an equal participation in all the refinements and blessings of society. The condition oif the dependent classes of the community has been raised from that of contempt and oppression and utter ignorance, to a level, in point of natural right, with all ; while edu- cation shines upon their dwellings, and religion seeks their souls, as worthy of all sacrifices which Chi'istian benevolence can make for their salvation. Efforts to provide for the sick, the destitute, the orphan, the widow, were unknown among the an- cients. Rome, Athens, Corinth, contained no hos- pitals, no asylums, no public charities, no systems of gratuitous education. Such deeds of benevolence were impossible among a people who were accus- tomed to look upon all forms of human suffering with indifference, and to derive enthusiastic amusement from their promotion. In vain are the writings of their moralists examined for exhortations to any thing like an active concern for the poor or the ignorant. An orphan child was no object of public compassion in countries where orphans were daily and deliber- ately made, and left to perish by cold-blooded aban- donment on the part of their parents. But what new sympathies sprung up immediately where the gospel prevailed. It was made the duty of the whole Christian community to provide for the stranger, the poor, the sick, the aged, the widow, and 378 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. the orphan. For this one object, public contributions at the time of divine service were established, and private donations were multiplied. How much such benevolence was. insisted on, may be judged from a passage of Tertullian, where, spealiing of the impedi- ments which aWJhristian woman would encounter by marriage with a heathen, he says, '' What heathen will suffer his wife, in visiting the brethren, to go from street to street, into strangers' and even into the most miserable cottages ? Who will suiSfer them to steal into prisons, to kiss the chains of martyrs ? If a stranger-brother comes, what reception will he find in a stranger's house ? If she has alms to bestow, the safe and the cellar are closed to her." What the gospel effected in promoting benevolence, and trampling down all the obstacles of selfishness and fear, when good was hardly to be done but at the cost of life, may be seen from the following represen- tation of Dyonisius bishop of Alexandria, who had an opportunity of observing the contrast between hea- thens and Christians when a terrible pestilence was raging in that city. *' That pestilence appeared to the heathen as the most dreadful of all things, as that which left them no hope ; not so, however, did it seem to us, but only a peculiar and practical trial. The greater part of our people, in the abundance of their brotherly love, did not spare themselves; and mutually attending to each other, they would visit the sick without fear, and ministering to them for the sake of Christ, they would cheerfully give up their life with thcin. Many died, after their care had FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 379 restored others from the disease to health. The best among our brethren, some priests and deacons, and some who were celebrated among the laity, died in this manner ; and such a death, the fruit of great piety and strong faith, is hardly inferior to martyr- dom. Many who took the bodies of their Christian brethren into their hands and bosoms, closed their mouth and eyes, and buried them with every atten- tion, soon followed them in death. But with the heathen, matters stood quite differently: at the first symptom of sickness, they drove a man from their society ; they tore themselves away from their dearest connections ; they threw the half dead into the streets, and left the dead unburied ; endeavoring by all the means in their power to escape contagion — which, notwithstanding all their contrivances, it was very difficult for them to accomplish." *' In the same manner," writes Neander, from whose Church History the above is taken, "the Chris- tians of Carthage let the light of their love and Chris- tian conduct shine before the heathen in a pestilence which visited North Africa a little before, in the reign of G alius. The heathen, out of cowardice, left the sick and the dying; the streets were full of corpses, which no man dared to bury; and avarice was the only passion which mastered the fear of death, for wicked men endeavored to make a gain out of the misfortunes of their neighbors; and the heathen ac- cused the Christians of being the cause of this calam- ity as enemies of the gods, instead of being brought by it to the consciousness of their own guilt and cor- 380 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. ruption. But Cyprian required of his church that they should behold, in this desolating pestilence, a trial of their dispositions. ' How necessary is it, my dearest brethren,' he says to them, < that this pesti- lence, which appears to bring horror and destruction, should prove the consciences of men. It will deter- mine whether the healthy will take care of the sick, whether relations bear tender love one to another, and whether masters care for their sick servants.' That the Christians should show a spirit of mutual love among themselves, was not sufficient to satisfy a bishop who formed his notions after the model of the great Shepherd. He therefore called his church together, and addressed them thus : ' If we do good only to our own people, we do no more than publicans and heathens. But if we are the children of God, who makes his sun shine and his rain tp descend upon the just and the unjust; who sheds abroad his blessings not on his own alone, but even upon those whose thoughts are far from him, we must show this by our actions, endeavoring to become perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, and blessing those who curse, and doing good to those who persecute us.' Encouraged by this paternal admonition, the members of the church addressed themselves to the work, the rich contributing money and the poor their labor ; so that in a short time the streets were cleared of the corpses who filled them, and the city saved from the dangers of a universal pestilence."* That the spirit of primitive Christians is still * Rose's translation of Neander's Church History FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 381 the characteristic spirit of Christianity, in regard to all works of charity, may easily he seen. Go where the gospel has attained the greatest supremacy, and hehold how every form of human misery is met hy the self-denying diligence, and comforted hy the mu- nificence of the benevolent. What conceivable method of removing distress, of preventing vice, and dissemi- nating happiness has not been put in operation ? The whole Roman empire had not one benevolent institution. The single city of London counts her more than three hundred. And why is so Httle said or thought of them, except that the public mind has become so accustomed to the noblest efforts of benev- olence, that they are now regarded almost as matters of course — the natural consequence of prevailing prin- ciples of brotherly kindness and charity? It is not my design to exhibit any thing like a full-length portrait of the contrast between the civil- ization of modern and that of ancient nations. It is seen in all the relations of life, in the whole fabric of society, from the government of the family to that of the state — from the tender cares of the cradle and the mother to the wide concerns of communities and rulers. Every thing has felt the change. Though not perfect, it is immense. Much remains to be done, but mighty improvements have been effected. Were the whole work undone — should the sun which now enlightens the moral world be commanded to go back, and suffer the classic paganism of Greece and Rome to resume its sway, every joint in the mechanism of society would groan with pain, every corner in the 382 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. household of civilized beings would be filled with darkness : the transition from the arts and literature of England to those of the Hottentots, would not be greater than such a change from the moral elevation of the present age, to the highest refinements of the purest nations of antiquity. Such is the fact. It remains to be accounted for. "What produced this change ? The religion of ancient heathens pleads '*not guilty" to the charge. It had no reference to morals. The vilest crimes and the highest repute for piety were perfectly consistent with each other among heathens of the Augustan age. It was no part of the business of their priests to teach men virtue. No religion but that of the Bible ever possessed or aimed at the power of reformation. Equally clear are the literature and philosophy and arts of antiquity from the imputation of this mighty revolution. Never did they prevail so extensively atnong the heathen as in the first century of Chris- tianity, and never were they accompanied with such moral degradation. Philosophy had as little disposi- tion as ability to reform. Whatever light it may have possessed it monopolized, holding its truth in unrighteousness, and studiously conforming its prac- tice to the worst abominations. '' Cicero declares that the ancient philosophers never reformed either themselves or their disciples ; and that he knew not a single instance in which either the teacher or the disciple was made virtuous by their principles."* * Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. " In their writings and conversation, the philosophers of an- - FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 383 But it may be supposed, that without any other cause than its own natural fluctuation, the moral condition of ancient nations may have taken a change, like the tides of the ocean, and begun to rise from the mere fact of being reduced to so low an ebb. Answer this by the present state of those nations that have continued under the native influence of pagan- ism. In which of them has such a thing ever been known as. a reformation of public morals? Their unvaried history from the days of Moses to the pres- ent settles the matter, that heathenism has no power but of progressive corruption ; and left to itself, can only reduce its votaries into deeper and deeper debase- ment. Then, if the vast improvement in question is neither the consequence of the religion, nor the phi- losophy, nor the arts, nor the literature, nor of any natural reaction in the moral state of the ancient heathen, to what other cause must it be assigned? tiquity asserted the independent dignity of reason, but they resigned their actions to the commands of law and custom. Viewing with a smile of pity and indulgence the various errors of the vulgar, they diligently practised the ceremonies of their fathers, devoutly frequented the temples of the gods ; and some- times condescending to act a part on the theatre of superstition, they concealed the sentiments of an Atheist under the sacer- dotal robes. It was indifferent to them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to assume, and they approached with the same inward contempt and the same external rever- ence the altars of the Lybian, the Olympian, or the Capitoline Jupiter.'^ Gibbon's History, vol. 1. p. 34. A sorry tribute, by a philosopher, to the benevolence and honesty of his ancient brethren. Paul would have drawn their picture with a darker pencil still. Paul's Ma.ster would have named them "hypocrites,'' "whited sepulchres." 384 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. History has but one answer. Reason has but one an- swer. Christianity alone — single-handed, persecuted Christianity, by the agency of twelve obscure Jews, began the wonderful change, and under the favor of God has accomplished its every step of advancement. Till such a thing as the religion of Christ appeared in the world, a reformation of heathen society was never dreamed of. Till Christians appeared among the Gen- tiles, none had ever adventured, none were ever dis- posed, to labor for the improvement of mankind. Chris- tian writers wore the first that dared to drag the abom- inations of classic antiquity to light, and brand them with the condemnation of truth and righteousness. The first Christian emperor issued the first prohibition of inhuman practices and amusements, which many centuries had sanctioned. Till the gospel set up its churches and gathered its disciples, the gentile world had never seen such a spectacle as that of a society united by bands of love, shining in the beauty of holi- ness, animated with zeal to do good at the expense of self-denial and sacrifice. How exclusively the happy effects of which we have been speaking are the fruit of Christianity, is evident from the fact, that when you take up a map of the world and mark out the boundaries of Christen- dom, you mark also the boundaries of all civilization and refinement; that as you approach the regions where the Bible is best known and most obeyed, you perceive a rapid increase of all the virtues and char- ities and blessings of which the society of man is ca- pable ; that the highest elevation of the human char- FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 385 acter is where Christianity reigns in her purest form, and the blackest page in the history of Christendom, the page most polluted with vice, and red with cruelty and murder, is the record of the people who trampled down the institutions of the gospel, decreed the living God out of existence, and attempted to raise the deities of ancient paganism from the dead. That many individuals who deny the truth, and profess to be free from the influence of Christianity, are decent men and far removed from the condition of the hea- then in point of moral precept, as well as practice, is no evidence against our position. The light of Chris- tianity is all about them, and they cannot help seeing by its aid. They have learned Christian truth from their childhood, and it cannot be unlearned. Do what they may, they cannot think or act without its influence. They may boast the sufficiency of their own reason, but they can no more exercise their rea- son without the aid of revelation, than they can breathe the air of spring without the fragrance of its flowers. " On all questions of morality and religion, the streams of thought have flowed through channels enriched with a celestial ore, whence they have de- rived the tincture to which they are indebted for their rarest and most salutary quaUties."* "What a com- munity of Deists w^ould be without Christianity, can only be known by remembering what Deists were before Christianity came into the world, and what they became when, in France, they supposed they had almost banished her from the earth. * Robert Hall. Evidences ] 7 386 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. How remarkable are the confessions of infidels to the excellent fruit and indispensable influence of the gospel. Bolingbroke acknowledges, that '' Constantino acted the part of a sound politician in protecting Christianity, as it tended to give firmness and solid- ity to his empire, softened the ferocity of the army, and reformed the licentiousness of the provinces, and by infusing a spirit of moderation and submission to government, tended to extinguish those principles of avarice and ambition, injustice and violence, by which so many factions were formed." *'No religion," says the same opposer of Christianity, '^ever appeared in the world, whose natural tendency was so much di- rected to promote the peace and happiness of mankind. It makes right reason a law in every possible definition of the word. And therefore, even supposing it to have been purely a human invention, it had been the most amiable and the most useful invention that was ever imposed on mankind for their good." Thus even Rousseau: *'If all were perfect Christians, individ- uals would do their duty ; the people would be obe- dient to the laws; the magistrates incorrupt; and there would be neither vanity nor luxury in such a state." Such are the confessions of many other writers of the same class. And yet, these men would run the ploughshare through the foundations of the church of Christ, so that one stone should not be left upon another. So much for the consistency, the vir- tue, and disinterested benevolence of infidelity ; or rather, so much for the contradiction between its head and its heart, its convictions and its vices. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 387 I know of nothing, in the way of fact, more strik- ingly illustrative of the legitimate fruits of Christian- ity, more completely in proof that all the social and moral blessings which civilized nations at present en- joy are to be ascribed to her influence, and that what she once was, as a tree of life to the nations, she is now, and ever will be, than the history of the mis- sions among the heathen which Protestant Christians are now sustaining. Here we have experiments of her power in all climates, over all habits and dispo- sitions, and with all classes of mind. She has gone in among the ice-bound inhabitants of G-reenland, whose intellect was as slow and sleepy and creeping as the seals they lived on, and whose hearts were as barren and cold as their perpetual snows. She has entered among the inhabitants of the southern ex- treme of Africa, the Hottentots, the very lowest grada- tion of human nature, whose souls were supposed to be as incapable of enlightening and enlargement as the instincts of the vermin that covered them. She has tried her powers among the ferocious tribes of American Indians — upon warriors nourished with blood, and breathing a spirit of slaughter which no sufferings nor dangers could ever tame. She has lifted up her voice in the islands of the Pacific, among savfiges, uniting with the most inhuman idolatry the most beastly vices and unnatural cruelties ; and from all this heterogeneous display of unshapen depravity, by the mere influence of her truth and love, she has led forth a multitude of disciples for the Lord Jesus, in whom are found precisely the same distinctive fea- 388 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. tares of meekness, humility, love, and holiness. Look at the Sandwich, or the Society Islands. Within our own times were they universally pagan, having no altars but those of demons ; no law but that of vio- lence; no morals but those of unbridled passion. Theft was the most national art. Polygamy, crimes against nature, the murder of prisoners taken in war, ihe destruction of infants, and the sacrificing of hu- man victims, prevailed throughout their population. What is the change? Where are now their idols? In the museums of our missionary societies, as trophies of the victories of the cross, or cast ^Ho the moles and the bats" by those who once adored them. The plan and mould of society have been recast. Laws, wisely enacted and well administered, keep the peace and promote improvements. Crimes of all kinds are obliged to cease, or go into concealment. Marriage has given parents new affection for their children, and their children new ties among each other. Benev- olence, unknown before, has awakened a desire to go about doing good. The Sabbath is reverenced and widely observed for rest and worship. The arts of peace are cultivated where formerly the only art de- sired was that of war. The march of civihzation is visible in all domestic comforts and private affairs; in agriculture, commerce, buildings, cleanliness, dress, manners, and government. Schools are spread through the islands, and education is eagerly sought by a large portion of the people of all ages and classes. Such are the fruits of Christianity in our day. Noth- ing else could have produced such fruits. Just after FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 389 infidelity had given the world a full-length portrait, in the French revolution, of her power to tear down, and tear in pieces, and drown in blood, whatever is lovely and of good report, then Christianity set out on the opposite side of the world to furnish a striking contrast, in the missions of the Pacific, of her benign influence to exterminate whatever is odious and de- praved.* • It is well known to the author, that travellers and voy- agers not unfrcquently bring back reports of the effects of mis- sionary labors in the regions they have visited, which stagger the minds of many sincere friends of foreign mij^sions. The accounts of what those honored and devoted servants of Christ called missionaries arc doing, and of the advances which the gospel is making under their influence, may all be true; much more than they relate may be true ; and yet it is very conceiv- able, yea, natural, that such men as our ordinary visitors of for- eign lands should return from those regions, having neither seen nor heard any thing of the matter. Suppose a missionary were accompli.shing, with his schools and his preaching, among a tribe of Indians in the centre of the state of New York, about as much as is reported of the American laborers in the island of Ceylon; how long might an intelligent traveller, with no interest in religion, no relish for its intelligence, no love for the society of its disciples, no knowledge of its journals — a man of fashion and gayety, mingling only with the literary and worldly-minded — how long might he reside in the fashionable circles of the city of New York, and sail up the Hudson, and stop at Saratoga, and visit Niagara, and yet know absolutely nothing of that diligent missionary and his usefulness? Men who have lived all their days in a city which abounds in religious institutions and Chris- tian labors, without having become suflficiently informed to give a stranger a correct account even of their respective characters, much less of their real usefulness, will touch at a port of an extensive pagan land, see the port population, go no further than the coast, inquire of none but the ungodly, and then come home and report that the missionaries have done nothing to civilize or 390 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. Not only has the religion of the gospel produced such fruits, but the experiment of eighteen hundred years is perfect proof, that in proportion as it shall ever be possessed in native soundness, and have room convert the people. How should such men know? On their principles of judging, it might be reported with equal reason, that Christianity has secured no influence and done no good in the city of New York. An anecdote will illustrate how such authorities deserve to be regarded. A gentleman not long since returned to his native city in England, after having ^pent some three or four years in India. The pious people of his acquaint- ance, not considering the extent of the Indies, and his indifference to the cause of Christ, supposed that of course he had seen the missionary stations, and knew by his own observation all about the reported progress of religion in that country. They inquired of him the state of things in this respect. He assured them that the accounts they had read of missionary doings and successes in the East had no foundation — were mere traps to get contri- butions. He had been in India, and travelled extensively, and had seen nothing of any inroads upon heathenism, nor any changes among the people — had scarcely heard of the existence of missionary stations. The people were amazed. Much harm was doing; w^hen a clergyman of the place, hearing of the mat- ter, took an opportunity to converse with the traveller. Before disclosing his object, he said to him, "You are probably familiar with the national school system of instruction in this country. What do you think of it?" *'Why, no," answered the travel- ler, ''I really am not acquainted with it.'^ "But you doubtless know that there is such a system, and have probably seen its establishments, and heard much of its usefulness?" "Why, no, I have never happened to do so, though I have an indistinct idea of the existence of such a system." " Well," said the cler- gyman, " I will tell you. The national school system has been established for several years in England. Its schools are all over the country; its pupils are many hundreds of thousands; its influence is universally felt. It maintains more than one school in your immediate neighborhood. Almost all your life has been spent in England, a small country, and yet you know FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 391 and freedom to spread its roots and extend its branches, it will continue to bear such fruit, more and more abundantly and perfectly, to the end of time. This tree of life was planted to live through all ages, and spread its shadow over all nations. The trials it stood in its infancy, the fierce assaults of every spe- cies of enmity, which in every age of its subsequent growth have endeavored in vain to destroy it, are evi- dences, that as no human power could have thus protected it, so no human opposition can hereafter prevent its increase — that it must grow and spread and blossom till time shall be no more. I am well aware, and I desire not to conceal, that it is very common with infidels to ascribe wars^ in- trigues^ bloodshed^ and persecutions to the influence of Christianity, and to assert that the world has been covered with slaughter by the hand of the gospel. The truth is, that whenever any evils such as wars or persecutions arise, though infidels by profession, oi mere nominal Christians, are at the bottom of them ; though they were originated and carried on out of direct enmity to the gospel, yet, because the Christian name is involved in the contest, infidels set down the whole to the account of a religion which, nevertheless, as nothing of these interesting facts. You have been a short time in the immense region of India, over which a few missionary stations are scattered, as drops upon a desert; and because, in visiting a few prominent places, you heard or saw nothing of their influence upon the millions of heathen, you would persuade us that what we have read is all untrue. How much more should we believe that the national school system is a fable!'' The traveller was silenced; the people were satisfied. 392 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. their chief men confess, has a direct tendency to make every body do his duty* and '^/o promote the peace and happiness of mankind!''''^ But on the other hand, whenever any good is done in society, such as the banishment of the crimes and vices of heathen- ism, the promotion of virtue, peace, good laws, good institutions, benevolence, domestic and public happi- ness, then infidels have great difficulty in seeing how these blessings are connected with Christianity, even though, by their own acknowledgment, the life of Jesus *^ showed at once what excellent creatures men would be, when under the influence and power of that gospel which he preached."* It is freely granted that in countries called Chris- tian, great evils remain to be cured ; their history abounds with wars, some of which have been on account of the Christian religion, and have been accompanied with great slaughter and lasting enmi- ties. But before these deplorable facts can justly be attributed to the influence of the peaceful and gentle religion of Jesus, a number of important questions, which we shall presently name, must be decided. By the confession of one of the most noted infidels, ^' we have in Christ an example of one who was just, honest, upright, and sincere, and above all, of a most gracious and benevolent temper and behavior : one who did no wrong, no injury to any man ; in whose mouth was no guile ; who went about doing good, not only by his ministry, but also in curing all manner * Rousseau. t Bolingbroke. i Clmbb's True Gospel, sec. 8, pp. ^^^ 56. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 393 of diseases among the people. His life showed what excellent creatures men would be when under the influence and power of that gospel which he preached unto them."* But hear on this head the eloquence of the profligate Rousseau, venturing for once to speak the truth : " I will confess that the majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel has its influence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers; with all their pomp of diction, how contemptible are they compared with the Scriptures ! Ts it possible that a book at once so simple and sublime should be merely the work of man ? Is it possible that the sacred personage whoso name it records, should be himself a mere man ? What sweetness, what purity in his manner ; what sublimity in his maxims ; what profound wisdom in his discourses. Where is the man, where the phi- -losopher, who could so live and so die without weak- ness and without ostentation ? If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus were those of a Grod." Such are the confes- sions of a man whose vice and vanity constrained him to say, " I cannot believe the gospel." No won- der, when at the same time he was saying in his heart, I will not renounce my debaucheries. But such confessions abound in the writings of infidels, so that " the whole Christian argument might be maintained on the admissions of one or other of the leading infidel writers ; and no contest remain, unless, if it could then be called one, with ♦ Chubb's True Gospel, sec. 8^ p. 56, 57. 17* 394 M'lLVAINE^S EVIDENCES. the miserable, ignorant ferocity of Paine and his as- sociates."* On the ground of such acknowledgments, and of the acquaintance which any who ever read the New Testament must have with its principles and ten- dency, let the following questions be answered : Is there any tendency in the principles of the gospel to the enkindling of strife, hatred, war, or bloodshed ? Was the character of its founder — were the char- acters of the apostles and primitive Christians, among whom the native influence of Christianity was most unequivocally exhibited, in any manner indicative of such a tendency in its principles ? Is not the whole history of the purest ages of the gospel, as well as every page in the New Testament, directly in proof of the very opposite effect ? Did not all the evils of war and national dissension prevail much more uni- versally before the establishment of Christianity, than^ they have done since ? Is not the influence of this religion plainly visible in mitigating those horrors of war which she has not exterminated ? And as to those which have continued to afflict mankind, are they in direct consequence, or in spite of her influ- ence — the fruit of the tree, or the poisonous weeds at its root, which oppose its growth ? Are the men who have been concerned in promoting these evils, and who are called Christians, believed to have been real Christians? Do not infidels discriminate sufficiently between genuine and nominal religion, to understand that in thus acting they were departing from the * Wilson's Lectures. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 395 principles of the gospel, and proving that they were Christians but in name ? *^ Have not the courts of princes, notwithstanding Christianity may have been the professed religion of the land, been generally attended by a far greater proportion of deists than of serious Christians ; and have not public measures been direct-ed by the counsels of the former, much more than by those of the latter ? It is well known that great numbers among the nobility and gentry of every nation consider religion as suited only to vulgar minds, and therefore either wholly absent themselves from public worship, or attend but seldom, and then only to save appearances towards a national estab- lishment. In other words, they are unbelievers. This is the description of men by which public affairs are commonly managed, and to which the good or the evil pertaining to them, so far as human agency is concerned, is to be attributed."* It is a favorite manoeuvre with infidels to charge Christianity with all the persecutions on account of religion, and at the same time to speak in high terms of ^'the mild tolerance of the ancient heathens;" of ^^ the universal toleration of polytheism ;^^ of "the Roman princes beholding without concern a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their gentle sway."^ Better information on this subject is greatly needed in the community. Heathen tolera- tion was any thing but virtuous, and much less uni- versal than its modern eulogists would represent. It allowed all nations to establish whatever description * Fuller's Gosj^l its own Witness. t Gibbon. 396 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. of religion they pleased, provided each would acknow- ledge that all in their several spheres were equally- good. But pagan nations required of every citizen conformity to the national idolatries. This yielded, he might believe and be whatever he pleased. This denied, immediately toleration ceased. Take a few examples. Stilpo was banished Athens for affirming that the statue of Minerva in the citadel was no divinity, but only the work of the chisel of Phidias. Protagoras received a similar punishment for this single sentence : '* Whether there be gods or not, I have nothing to offer.'' Prodicus and his pupil Socrates suffered death for opinions at variance with the established idolatry of Athens. Alcibiades and iEschylns narrowly escaped a like end for a similar cause. Plato dissembled his opinions, and Aristotle fled his country, under the lash of "the mild and universal toleration of the Grecian mythology." Cicero lays it down as a principle of legislation en- tirely conformable to the rights of the Roman state, that "no man shall have separate gods for himself; and no man shall worship "By himself new or foreign gods, unless they have been publicly acknowledged by the laws of the state."* The speech in Dion Cassius, which Msecenas is said to have made to Augustus, may be considered a fair index of the pre- vailing sentiment of that polished age. " Honor the gods," says MaDcenas, "by all means, according to the customs of your country, and force others so to honor them. But those who are for ever introducing * De Lcgibusj vol. 2, p. 8. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANItY. 397 something foreign in these matters, hate and punish, not only for the sake of the gods, but also because they who introduce new divinities mislead many others into receiving foreign laws also. Suffer no man either to deny the gods or to practise sorcery." .Tulius Paulus the Roman civilian gives the follow- ing as a leading feature of Roman law : ^' Those who introduce new religions, or such as were unknown in Iheir tendency and nature, by which the minds of men might be agitated, were degraded if they be- longed to the higher ranks, and if they w^ere in a lower state were punished with death." Under this legislation many of the governors endeavored to com- promise with Christians, by allowing them to believe and honor what they pleased in their hearts, provided they would observe outwardly the religious ceremo- nies ordained by the state.* Examples to the same effect might be greatly multiplied. I have furnished enough to show in what sense the heathen princes '' beheld without concern a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their gentle sway ;" and how far Vol- taire was accurately informed or honestly disposed, when boasting that the ancient Romans "never per- secuted a single philosopher for his opinions from the time of Romulus till the popes got possession of their power." It is willingly conceded that persecutions on account of religion were enormously increased im- mediately after the promulgation of Christianity, * See Neander's Chureh History. 398 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. inasmuch as notliing had ever before attacked the superstitions and vices of the heathen with her undaunted, uncompromising spirit. But did Chris- tianity persecute, or was she the object of persecu- tion ? Was Jesus the persecutor of Pilate ? Did Paul persecute the worshippers of the Ephesian Diana, or the heathen of Iconium, or those who stoned him at Lystra? By whose intolerance was it, that for three hundred years the Christian church was continually overflowed with the blood of her martyrs? Did the multitudes who perished for Christ's sake under the paw of the lion and the sword of the gladiator and the screws of the rack — did they persecute the heathen priests and people and magistrates, Nero and Trajan and Diocletian, with their proconsuls and governors and executioners ? I grant that in the lapse of centuries the guilt of perse- cution did attach to the church. Christian powers and ministers and people have in various ages been justly liable to this lamentable charge. But who does not know that the church, before ever she began to persecute, had manifestly degenerated from the purity of the gospel and become deeply perverted by the spirit of the world, having her chief places occu- pied by such men as infidels know were not influ- enced by vital Christianity?* Who is so blind as * The emperor Julian acknowledged that persecutions were the inventions of the later Christians ; that neither Jesus, nor Paul, nor any other of the first preachers of the gospel, had taught men to kill others for being of a different religion, or for differing about lesser matters among themselves. Lardncr, vol. 4j p. 337. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 399 not to see that wherever such evils have existed among any people called Christians, they have been because those people had so little of the spirit of the gospel, and not because they had any of it ? They have been directly the reverse of the religion pro- fessed by such persons ; the fruits of their own native disposition, combined with the character of the ages they lived in, assimilating them thus far to infidels, who have always been persecutors in proportion to their power. True Christianity desires but one favor — liberty to preach *' Jesus Christ and him crucified/' Her whole dependence is on ** the dem- onstration of the Spirit." ** God giveth the in- crease." "We have now applied to Christianity the test by which she claims to be proved — one universally employed as safe, and approved as just — the tree is known by its fruits. The religion of the gospel we have seen coming into the world at a period when every moral evil abounded. The grossest idolatry, attended with the most inhuman and indecent rites, prevailed among the most enlightened nations. Spec- tacles of slaughter and suffering constituted the pub- lic amusements. Parents without natural affection, children in slavery to their parents, and at the mercy of their displeasure, the female sex degraded to a rank of servile inferiority, murders and cruelties, characterized the age. Vices of the most beastly land were practised and avowed in the highest and most influential classes of society. What would now shame out of the world the most degraded of 400 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. mankind could then be acknowledged, even by a public teacher of morals, without reproach. Public opinion, the thermometer of public virtue, had no condemnation for habits not only against all the securities of domestic happiness and social welfare, but against every dictate of nature, and requiring for their permission the lowest debasement of the moral sense of the community. Among all the gentile nations, none possessed the benevolence to attempt, nothing had power to effect the reformation of a world thus sunk in wretchedness and paralyzed with vice. It was the era indeed of the world's wisdom, but of a wisdom by which the world knew not God. For centuries had the wise men after the flesh been teaching and writing and boasting, and as long had every woe been increasing, and every school becoming more perplexed in its doctrines and more abandoned in the practice of its disciples. No change for the better was hoped for from any human source. Then appeared "the wisdom of Grod." Christianity, un- invited, un welcomed, rejected — Christianity, perse- cuted as intrusive, despised as foolishness, ridiculed as weakness, commenced at this crisis the bold work of regenerating the world. Wherever she gained acceptation the face of society was renewed. Order, purity, benevolence, justice, mercy, every personal, domestic, and public virtue increased as her influ- ence extended. Under her charge extensive com- munities of men and women were formed, who soon became famous in the world for their earnest self- denying benevolence, and their devotion to holiness. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 401 No sooner was Christianity professed by the rulers of the Roman empire, than idolatry, with every un- natural crime and cruel amusement, was abolished from society, or compelled to deny its existence. In proportion as this religion has reigned in any age or country, there has been a manifest increase of all the blessings of civihzation, all the arts of peace, all the virtues of individual character, all the securities of a wise and equitable government. Nothing has re- tarded the growth of these benefits but what has alike retarded the progress of Christianity. No Chris- tian people have sufTered on account of any evil which Christianity has not directly opposed. Present efforts to spread this holy religion among the heathen demonstrate that her natural force is not abated, nor her influence changed. What she did among the j)agans of the first century, she is accomplishing, though as yet by slower steps, among those of the nineteenth. Such has been from the beirinnins:, such is now, and such, we have every reason to believe, ever will be the fruit of Christianity. By this she is known. By this let her claims to truth and a divine origin be judged. Every honest mind is capable of appreciating the evidence and of ap- plying the law. It is a case by itself. No party appears to claim the credit of what Christianity ascribes to herself. Philosophy and the light of nature are joined to their idols and vices, and cannot come to the trial, and must therefore be excused. Infidelity was tried during the " reign of terror" in France, and received its sentence at the guillotine, 402 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. and therefore cannot come. Either the blessings we have described must be adjudged, according to the plea, to the gospel orChrist, or pronounced to be effects without a cause. Do they belong to the gos- pel, or to nothing ? We speak the language of every conscience and of all common-sense when we say, the gospel alone produced them, and the gospel alone could produce them; and should the gospel be thoroughly conformed to in all the world, the whole world would be morally renovated, and all those physical evils which proceed from the vices of man- kind would pass away. What then is Christianity ? "Do men gather ^grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" " Can a cor- rupt tree bring forth good fruit?" This religion is either a truth or a fable ; the revelation of Grod, or the wicked and blasphemous contrivance of man. If it be the work of human contrivance, it must be un- speakably offensive to God, inasmuch as it ascribes all its doctrines directly to his teaching, exalts its Founder to the dignity of the divine nature, calling him the Son of God, and making him equal to the Father in power and glory. Between its entire truth as a divine revelation, and its unparalleled audacity and impiety as a human imposture, there can be no middle ground. The unbeliever, in rejecting the former, must resort, if consistent, to the latter. Then let us see how much he is bound to believe in main- taining his position. He must believe that since the truth, according to his views, does not reside in Christianity, it does reside in some or all of the sys- FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 403 terns of religion, or of philosophy, or of infidelity, to which Christianity is opposed. His creed, therefore, is substantially the following : *' I believe that in proportion as the world has ever been committed to the influence of those antichristian systems among which the truth is to be found, it has been continually increasing in all moral degeneracy, having in it no spirit nor power of reformation. I believe, also, that in proportion as Christianity, which should be re- garded only as a human contrivance of the grossest blasphemy and impiety, has reigned in the hearts and lives of men, the world has been morally reno- vated, society humanized, benevolence invigorated, personal and public happiness extended and purified. Consequently, I believe that a God infinitely wise, holy, and true, has so constituted mankind, that for the improvement and well-being of society we are under the necessity of believing and promoting what is not only false, but heinously offensive to himself; truth must be concealed because we learn by experi- ence that its currency can only be accompanied with the greatest evils to the morals, the peace, the whole interest of mankind ; teachers of error and darkness must be depended upon as instruments of human elevation, while teachers of the truth should be dis- countenanced as capable of nothing but the unhing- ing of the whole frame-work of private and public welfare." These, I say, are the articles of belief which, whether avowed or not, do lie wrapped up in the rejection of Christianity. The proof of this assertion is in the lecture we are now closing. I need not say 404 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. that it sets in strong and shining relief the truth of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as a revelation from Him who is the giver of every good and perfect gift. ** For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, foolishness ; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Where is the wise? 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. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom : but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."* ♦ 1 Corinthians, 1:18-24. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 405 LECTURE XL THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY— CONTINUED. The rule by which Christianity was tried in our last lecture, is as philosophical as it is scriptural. It is the rule of experiment, in distinction from all the whims of conjecture and ingenious theory, and has an application as legitimate and conclusive, to the character of Christianity, as to that of any tree, or food, or medicine. None can deny that the experiment of the religion of Christ has been varied sufficiently to put it to the fairest trial, and continued long enough to develope its most hidden qualities. Exposed to all extremes of physical and moral temperature, tried upon all descriptions of human beings, required to preserve its purity amidst all contagions, to display its energies under all conceivable burdens and bonds, to bear its fruit under the most blasting influences, and to stand against all possible combinations of en- mity — sometimes subjected to the action of the fire, then of the rack, and then of the knife of unrelenting persecutors — eighteen hundred years have measured out its trial, during which, whatever could be effected by science united with industry, malice united with power, or vigilance united with hypocrisy, has been done unceasingly to torture it into a confession or a display of something at variance with a divine origin. 406 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. The trial, therefore, is sufficient. The tree has had time and ample opportunity to be known by its fruits. If it may not be finally tried by this rule, in the nine- teenth century of its budding and bearing, the fault must be sought in the rule itself, not in the subject of inquiry. In our last lecture we confined our attention to the fruits of Christianity in regard to society in general. In the present we are to consider, II. Its fruits in regard to the character and HAPPINESS OP ITS GENUINE DISCIPLES. It is not without reflection that I introduce this subject into the department of external evidence. I am aware that it is generally considered as belonging exclusively to the class of arguments denominated internal^ but I see not with what propriety. So far as any eflects of Christianity on individual disciples are incapable of being brought under the observation of others, because confined to the inward experience of the true believer, they are unquestionably internal in their character, and do not belong to our present department. But if they be such effects as witnesses can take knowledge of, if the proof of them may be seen and appreciated by those that are without, I see not but that they belong as appropriately to the ex- ternal evidence as any of the effects of Christianity upon society at large. Without further vindication of a matter of mere classification, I proceed. 1. The moral transformations ivhich the gospel in all ages has notoriously wrought, and by unques- tionable proofs exhibited to the world, in the char- I FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 407 acter of those who have become its genuine disci- pies, cannot be accounted for, but on the supposition of a divine power accompanying its operation. To illustrate my meaning, let me describe what has been witnessed under the ministry of Christian- ity so repeatedly, that hardly any who have been in the way of such things can have failed to become acquainted with apposite examples. Persons of all grades of society and of intellect, and of all degrees of enmity to the religion of Jesus, in circumstances the most unpropitious to its influence on their hearts — even while they were filled with the spirit of malice and persecution against its truth and disciples — have had their minds suddenly arrested by some simple expression of the Bible, or some unpretending state- ment of Christian doctrine or experience : perhaps it dropped from the lips of a minister against whom, at that very time, they were nerved with anger ; or was read in a Bible, or a little despised tract, that seemed accidentally to lie in their way, and at which, as if by accident, they condescended to look. It told them nothing new — nothing but what they had often heard or read before without the smallest effect. And yet, without any argument to shake their ungodly principles, or special application, by any human being, of the word thus heard or read to their particular con- dition, they felt their minds seized upon by an influ- ence from which no effort of infidel argument, nor struggle of pride, nor drowning of thought, nor exer- tion of courage, nor devices of company and amuse- ment could enable them to escape. A hand seemed 408 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. to be upon them which all their efforts to shake it off only fastened with more painful power. They could get no peace of mind till they submitted to its arrest. They were induced to listen to the gospel of Christ, even while deeply conscious of a cordial opposition to its requirements. A conviction of sin and condem- nation, such as they had ever derided, soon brought them to a posture of body and a spirit of supplication before God, in which, a short time before, they would not have been seen for the world. Soon they sub- mitted tOf the claims of the gospel, became believers in Jesus, confessed him before men, and appeared to all that had known them before — in what aspect? As new creatures! Only a few days have elapsed since they were notorious scoffers, bold blasphemers, angry persecutors ; of profligate habits, impure con- versation, and hardened hearts, armed at all points against religion ; immovable, in their own estima- tion, by any thing Christians could say, and regarded by almost all that knew them as utterly beyond conversion. Now behold the change. It is a change not merely of belief, but of heart. Their whole moral nature has been recast; affections, desires, pleasures, tempers, conduct, have all become new. What each hated a few days since, he now affectionately loves. "What then he was devotedly fond of, he now sincerely de- tests. Prayer is his delight. Holiness he thirsts for. His old companions he pities and loves for their souls' sake; but their tastes, conversation, and habits are loathsome to his heart. Feelings recently obdurate FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 409 have become tender. A temper long habituated to anger and violence and resentment, is now gentle, peaceful, and forgiving. Christians, whose company and intercourse he lately could not abide, are now his dear and chosen companions, with whom he loves to think of dwelling for ever. The proud unbeliever is an humble disciple. The selfish profligate has be- come self-denying and exemplary, animated with a benevolent desire to do good. All these changes are so conspicuous to others — he has become, and con- tinues to be, so manifestly a new man in life and heart, that the ungodly are struck with the sudden- ness and extent of the transformation. This is a drawing from life. That such oases have frequently occurred, and have been followed by all the permanent blessings of a holy life, in thou- sands of places and before witnesses of all descrip- tions, it were a mockery of human testimony and of the faith of history to question. There is scarcely a faithful preacher of the gospel, whose ministry has not been blessed with such fruits. There is scarcely a village in this country, whose inhabitants cannot tell of many such examples. They began when Christianity began. They have been repeated as pure Christianity has been promoted and extended. Such a case was that of Saul of Tarsus. One mo- ment he was a furious enemy of Jesus ; learned, tal- ented, proud ; of high reputation, of brilliant pros- pects; the champion of Judea against the gospel of Christ; bearing the commission and full of the spirit of a persecutor: the next, he was on his face on the Evidence*. 18 410 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. gronnd, calling upon Jesus in the spirit of entire sub- mission and deep repentance. In a few days, he was preaching Christ in the synagogues, at the risk of life, having made a total sacrifice of all earthly pros- pects and possessions, and given himself up to re- proach, poverty, and universal hatred, for the sake of the gospel. All his dispositions, affections, and hab- its, had in that short space undergone so complete a change, without any human agency, that he had be- come, and continued to be, directly the opposite of his former character. Many similar examples must have been included in those three thousand converts of the day of Pentecost, who, although when the morning rose upon them they were filled with all the enmity of Jews and of crucifiers of Jesus, before the day was over were bowed at the feet of the same Jesus as his baptized disciples. So changed were they in every worldly disposition, that they ^^sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men as every man had need ;" and all this under no human influence but that of the preaching of men whom they began to hear with contempt, and of a doctrine to which they began to listen with the most rancorous aversion. How many thousand cases of the same kind would the domestic history of the first century of the gospel furnish. What volumes might be filled with similar examples, which the annals of Christianity in the nineteenth century, and especially in this country, would exhibit. Who has attended to the blessed effects with which the distribution of tracts and Bibles has been accompanied, and can- FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 411 not call to mind instances in which the wonderful changes that were wrought in the Earl of Rochester, in Colonel Gardiner, and in the once degraded and afterwards excellent John Newton, have in all impor- tant respects been equalled ? Since I commenced the preparation of this lecture, a case in point has come to my view. Called from my study to see a man who had come on business, I found in the parlor a well-dressed person, of respectable appearance, good manners, and sensible conversation — a stranger. After a little while he looked at me earnestly and said, " I think, sir, I have seen your face before." " Prob- ably," said I, supposing he had seen me in the pulpit. "Did you not once preach in the receiving-ship at the navy-yard, on the Prodigal Son, sir?" "Yes." " Did you not afterwards go to a sailor sitting on his chest, and take his hand and say, 'Friend, do you love to read your Bible V " " Yes." " I, sir, was that sailor ; but then I knew nothing about the Bible, or about God : I was a poor, ignorant, degraded sin- ner." I learned his history, in substance as follows : He had been twenty-five years a sailor, and nearly all that time in the service of the British navy, indulg- ing in all the extremes of a sailor's vices. Drunken- ness, debauchery, profaneness, made up his character. The fear of death, or hell, or God had not entered his mind. Such was he, a sink of depravity, when an humble preacher of the Methodist denomination one day assembled a little congregation of sailors in the ship to which he was attached, and spoke on the text, " Behold, now -is the accepted time ; behold. 412 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. now is the day of salvation." He listened, merely because the preacher was once a sailor. Soon it ap- peared to him that the latter saw and knew him, though he was sitting where he supposed himself concealed. Every word seemed to bo meant for a description of him. To avoid being seen and marked, he several times changed his place, carefully getting behind the others. But wherever he went the preacher seemed to follow him, and to describe his course of life as if he knew it all. At length the discourse was ended, and the poor sailor, assured that he had been the single object of the speaker's labors, went up and seized his hand, and said, " Sir, I am the very man. That 's just the life I have led. I am a poor, miser- able man ; but I feel a desire to be good, and will thank you for some of your advice upon the subject." The preacher bade him pray. He answered, '* I have never prayed in my life, but thafc I might be damned, as when I was swearing, and I don't know how to pray." He was instructed. It was a day or two after this, while his mind was anxious but unen- lightened, that Providence led me to him, sitting on his chest. He said I showed him a verse of the Bible, as one that would guide him. I asked him if he- remembered which it was. ** Yes; it was, *Him that Cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.' " Soon after this his mind was comforted with a hope of salvation through Jesus Christ. His vices were all abandoned. He became from that time a new crea- ture in all his dispositions and habits, took specia\ care to be scrupulously attentive to every duty of his FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 413 station, gained the confidence of his officers, and, having left the service, has continued ever since, more than three years, an exemplary member of society and of the church of Christ. He is so entirely renewed, that no one could imagine from his appear- ance or manners that he had been for twenty-five years a drunken, abandoned sailor. This case I have selected only because it was at hand. It is by no means a solitary case. Nor is it any the worse for being taken from among the poor and ignorant. I know not that beastly vice is more susceptible of removal, or that habits of drunkenness, debauchery, and profaneness are any more capable of being changed into those of soberness, purity, and prayer, for being seated in ignorance and poverty, than when associated with learning, rank, and opulence. Now, be it remarked, that the reality of such cases is a matter of fact, which one may question with about as much reason as he might deny the best established phenomena in natural history. Be it re- marked also, that in all such effects, the individuals concerned have ascribed, the total change in their hearts and lives to the direct influence of the word and Spirit of God, as set forth in the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have generally been able to tell the particular truth, or combination of scriptural truths, that awakened them from the death of sin, and led them to embrace the hope of Christ and the life of righteousness. Be it remarked also, that among all the cases of such conversions, in all ages and regions and circumstances, and with all varieties of charac- 414 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. ter, there has been a wonderful identity. The same effects, essentially, have ensued under the application of the same gospel in the present century, as in the time of St. Paul ; in modern Europe, as in ancient Greece and Rome ; in Hindostan, as in North Amer- ica ; among Hottentots and the islanders of the South Sea ahd savages of our western borders, as among the polished inhabitants of New York or London. While all these varieties of age, climate, customs, and cultivation, give a natural and pleasing variety to what may be called the complexion and costume in which the conversion appears, the great change itself exhibits, under all circumstances, the same charac- teristic and inimitable features ; insomiich that if you draw the likeness of a genuine convert to Christ in his chief peculiarities as manifested in this country, and send it to Burmah, or to the Sandwich Islands, or to Caffre-land, or to Whampoa in China, or to Green- land, it will be considered a good likeness in main points of the dispositions, affections, tempers, habits, and life, produced by the converting power of the gospel in any of those widely differing regions. A genuine convert to Christ in China or in Africa, may come to this country, and find among genuine Chris- tians precisely his own feelings, tastes, sympathies, and labors, though he never saw an American or European before ; and he will be more at home among their Christian feelings, than he can be among the manners and dispositions of the people among whom he grew up and has always lived. Thus it is evident, that whatever be the cause of these uni- FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 415 versally similar effects, it must be the same cause universally — the same in all ages, and in all parts of the world. Now, whether the gospel of Jesus Christ produced these great and invariably corresponding effects, or whether they proceeded from some other universal cause, of which none of the subjects were ever con- scious, and which was never known where the gospel was not known, and never operates but under the name and by means of the gospel, no man of any philosophical pretensions is at liberty to doubt. He has precisely the same reason to be assured that the gospel, and nothing else on earth, is the cause of these admirable fruits, as that any medicine is the cause of a sick man's recovery to health, or that any vine, rather than a thorn-tree, produced the grapes obtained from its branches. Then, since these effects unquestionably belong to the gospel, how are they to be accounted for? It will not do to put them aside under the unceremonious imputation of fanaticism or enthusiastic excitoment. "Words are not reasons. Infidel cant is not philo- sophical argument. If the gospel be untrue, then not only must these most excellent fruits be attributed to a corrupt tree, and these wholesome streams to a poisoned fountain, but it must be supposed that such sudden and entire transformations of human charac- ter, from the lowest debasement of nature to the highest principles of virtue and purity, are nothing more than the results of human agency and natural means. But if this be the case, if a system of un- 416 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. truth in the hand of man has done all this, we have reason to expect that some other systems of doctrine, with the same agency, would be productive of equal effects. How then can it be accounted for that noth- ing has ever been invented or heard of, in all the earth, to which any results of a like kind could be ascribed ? Other causes have produced strong ex- citements, but no transformation of heart and life from sin to holiness. Other means have improved the morals of men by slow and in small degrees, but none ever took hold of a human wreck, and lifted him up out of the mire and dirt of his profligacy and carried him at once across the wide gulf that separated him from pureness, and in a few days placed him in a new moral region, with a new heart, and in all things a new creature. How can this be explained, if the gospel be a human invention and its eflects of human production ? Why should not infidels be capable, with all their wisdom and eloquence, of getting up a set of influences to rival these gospel wonders, and deprive Christians of this monopoly of the work of new creation and of holiness ? How is it, that in pro- portion as any church degenerates from the simplicity and purity of the gospel, it ceases to witness such changes in the people attendant on its preaching? It is nothing to say that many things called con- versions eventuate in no good fruits, and are nothing more than the natural consequences of temporary ex- citement. This is freely granted. But you do not condemn a whole orchard because some of the trees were not successfully grafted ; nor all virtuous men, FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 417 because some, under the profession of virtue, are mere pretenders. It is sufficient that thousands and thousands of these effects have been of the most radical and permanently beneficial character. Were they of human production, something of a correspond- ing kind would have appeared from other sources ; by other hands than those of Christians ; in other countries and ages than those enlightened by the Bible. Inasmuch as this has never occurred, we are fully warranted in concluding that it could not; con- sequently, that these effects are above the reach ol human power. To lohom then shall we go but unto thee^ O Lord? who hast committed this treasure of the gospel to earthen vessels, to feeble men, to dispense it, ** that the excellency of the power might be of God, and not of us." That we cannot comprehend in what manner the power of Grod operates in the hearts of men, to work such wonderful revolutions in their characters, is no valid objection to the mat- ter of fact. " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth." The phenomena of the winds are incomprehensible, and yet believed. "So is every one that is born of the Spirit." Now, I think we may be content to pass from the position with which we began, that the moral trans- formations which the gospel in all ages has notoriously wrought, and by unquestionable proofs exhibited to the world in the character of those who have become its genuine disciples, cannot be accounted for but on 18* 418 M'lLYAlNE'S EVIDENCES. the supposition of a divine power accompanying its operations. 2. We proceed to speak of the fruits of Christian- ity, as displayed in the lives of its genuine disciples, m contrast with those which notoriously character- ize the lives of its opposers. The virtues of true Christians have been the same in all ages of Chris- tianity. It was ** with well-doing" that, in the days of St. Paul, they were accustomed to silence their enemies. Having, become freed from sin, they be- came servants of righteousness, and had their fruit unto holiness. *' Such were some of you," said St. Paul to Christians of that famous brothel of all Greece, the city of Corinth — "such were some of you," partakers in all vice; "but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." The apostles could appeal to whole commu- nities for evidence of their blameless character. "Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you." Even by the testimony of the ancient and deadly enemies of the gospel, the lives of Christians had no parallel among any other people. The early defenders of the faith pubhcly challenged a scrutiny of their virtue. It was their remarkable steadfastness in resisting the allurements of vice, and their heroic pa- tience under all the tortures employed to break their attachment -to holiness, that often excited the bitter- est hatred of their enemies. Compare the purity, benevolence, and humility of the apostles with those FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 419 of any philosophers of antiquity, or any leaders in modern infidelity. Pliny the Roman governor, in the first century, having investigated extensively, and even by torture, the moral character of the Chris- tians who filled the province over which he presided, declares, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, that he could discover nothing more against them than that *' they were accustomed, on a stated day, to meet before daylight, and to repeat among themselves a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by an oath not to commit any wickedness, but on the contrary, to abstain from thefts, robberies, and adulteries ; also not to violate their promise, or deny a pledge ; after which it was their custom to separate, and to meet again at a ' promiscuous, harmless meal." Gibbon fully sustains this testimony. By his description alone, the primitive Christians were lights of une- qualled excellence in the midst of heathen darkness and depravity. What Christians were in primitive ages they still remain, exactly in proportion as you have reason to believe their hearts to be engaged in their faith. To say in this country that any one is a true Christian, is at once to give a certificate that he is worthy of all confidence, and more than usually virtuous. We could not desire a more complete proof of public opinion than this, as to the personal fruits of the gospel. The bare fact that there are hypocrit- ical professors of the Christian character, that bad men will put themselves to the self-denial of endeav- oring to act and seem like Christians, for the pur- pose of gaining confidence in their integrity, is a 42(1 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. strong proof of the public estimation in which Chris- tian virtue is held, and of the genuine gold of which the character of a real disciple of Christ is composed. Men never counterfeit a spurious currency. Copper coin is too cheap to tempt a forgery. We never hear of the wicked putting on the mask of infidelity to secure a character for honesty, soberness, chastity, faithfulness, and benevolence. If Christian virtue were not in high repute, and much more current in society than any other, hypocrites would take care to choose a mask that would sit more pleasantly upon their vicious propensities ; they would select a cloak that would less confine and smother their sinful hab- its. It is notorious among us, that no sooner do we hear of an individual that he has become a communi- cant in the church, than the presumption is that he is not only sober, honest, and of pure morality, but that he has • adopted principles of a very elevated virtue and purity, and is more than ordinarily benev- olent. Whence this, but from the general experience of what communicants are ? What is it that makes a breach of truth and honesty, or an act of cruelty, or a violation of justice, or a departure from chastity or temperance, in a person professing to be a genuine Christian, so immediately and generally a matter of particular notice and surprise among all classes ? Js it not because such occurrences are singular, and little expected? But they excite no surprise, and but little attention, when attached to those who reject Christianity, because among such people they are neither sin^lar nor unexpected. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 421 Why is it that parents so universally prefer to have genuine Christians intrusted with the education of their children? that when places of trust and temptation are to be filled, when men have property to invest, or agents to engage in a business requiring special inflexibility of uprightness, they feel it to bo at once a heavy weight in the scale of a candidate that he is a sincere and devoted Christian ?* Who are the benevolent, disinterested, self-denying laborers in all good works ? Where do the poor and hungry and outcast apply for assistance with the most confi- * The lecturer was once particularly struck with the evi- dence of this. He was officially connected with the military academy at West Point. Two offices of great importance to the discipline of the corps of cadets were to be filled from its own ranks. The order of the academy had suffered materially for want of officers in those places who would not swerve from the duty out of deference to public opinion, the persuasions or threatenings of their fellows. Two cadets were selected who had recently become professors of religion. They were assailed with all manner of influence to induce them to relax in favor of certain indulgences to whicii a portion of the corps had been accustomed at the hands of their predecessors. I need not say they mildly but firmly held to their duty. One day, as they were leading out the companies to which they were attached for evening parade, I said to an officer of the institution Avho had been chiefly instrumental in their selection, "Why have you chosen these cadets for such places ? One of them, indeed, has a. fine soldierly appearance, but the other is just the con- trary, and has nothing of the soldier about him." "Why," said he, "the truth is, we required those who would do their duty without regard to the wishes and expectations of others, or to the custom that has been prevalent in the corps; and as they had recently become professors of religion, we expected they would be firm." I never heard of this confidence being disappointed. 422 M'lLVAINL^S EVIDENCES. dence of finding a sympathizing heart and a ready hand ? Go around to all the noble institutions of charity — to the asylums for orphans, for widows, for the blind, for the deaf and dumb, for juvenile crimi- nals ; to the schools of gratuitous instruction : take a list of those who give money and time and toil for their support : what would become of them were it not for the Christians associated in all their concerns? Who are they that tread the loathsome alleys and dive into the wretched habitations of vice and poverty in crowded cities, in cold winter, hunting up the wretch- ed subjects of disease and pollution for the purpose of relieving and reclaiming them? Who put themselves to the pamful work of begging for the poor, and after bearing all the extreme unpleasantness of such a task, finish their labor in the careful distribution of their hard-earned alms, asking no recompense but that of doing good ? From Christians in general, turn your attention to their leaders. Is it not well known that when a minister of the gospel can be commended for nothing more than a moral life and unblemished honesty, it is considered a positive condemnation ? To give him the highest praise that a Deist can pretend to, and then to say no more, is to leave his character under a taint. It is expected that he will be more than moral and honest and friendly. You look that he shall be holy ; eminently pure ; full of active benev- olence, going about doing good. Prove that he is destitute of these distinguished virtues, and public opinion will adjudge him unworthy of his name and FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 423 profession. That all ministers are not exemplary and devotedly holy men, only proves that the sacred office, like all others, is liable to be intruded on by the un- worthy. Everybody knows that such cases, instead of being favored by the influence of Christianity, are directly opposed to it. But subtract from the number of the Protestant ministers of the gospel, every one on whom the least suspicion of a want of virtue ever rested ; leave none but those who at any moment can obtain from all that know them the praise of being the excellent of the earth, and what a host will remain of men whose lives are conspicuous examples of inflex- ible integrity and of exalted principles of purity and holiness — whose daily strength is laid out in eflbrts to benefit their fellow-creatures,' and around whom, at the bare mention of a charge implicating their char- acter, will be collected the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, with those who have been lifted up out of ignorance, or reclaimed from profligacy, or delivered from wretchedness, in grateful defence of their best earthly benefactors. Now, for the sake of a contrast, let us turn to the lives of infidels, I do not deny that there are in- stances of such men who have led what passes for a good moral life ; men of fair dealing in business, and of sober, decent habits ; whom public opinion, the customs of society, intellectual occupations, and prosperous circumstances, have preserved from the slavery of low propensities and criminal deeds. But what is there in such virtue beyond a fair outside ? Is it formed upon any foundation more meritorious 42i M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. than that of reputation, interest, and the expectation of society ? Could you trust its purity in the pres- ence of strong temptation ? What would become of it, should interest, reputation, and human customs withdraw their countenance and preach a contrary practice ? But we speak of infidels as a body. The fact that a few are singled out and marked as sober, honest, moral men, only proves that such cases are exceptions to the character of the heterogeneous body with which they are associated. It is a general rule, 4;hat when you say of a man, ** he is an infidel," it is to say that he is not a moral man, not a benevo- lent man, not a person to engage in any self-denying labors for the purpose of doing good. This is public opinion, the result of a long experiment of infidelity. Its foundation may be seen in the whole history of criminal jurisprudence ; in the records of our courts ; the annals of our penitentiaries ; the police of large cities ; the inner chambers of the gambling-house and the brothel. Cases of seduction, adultery, and suicide, are the authorities to which reference should be made for the fruits of infidelity as generally ex- hibited. A French writer, addressing Voltaire, asks him, "Will you dare assert that it is in philosophic families we are to look for models of filial respect, conjugal love, sincerity in friendship, or fidelity among domestics? Were you disposed to do so, would not your own conscience, your own experi- ence, suppress the falsehood, even before your lips could utter it ?" An anecdote in point is related by FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 425 Fuller. A man of literary eminence, but an infidel, was accustomed to converse with a brother sceptic where they were necessarily heard by a pious but uneducated countryman. Afterwards it came to pass that the educated infidel became an humble Chris- tian. Feeling now a serious concern lest his con- versation should have poisoned the mind of the countryman, he inquired if such was the fact. ** By no means," answered the other ; *' it never made the least impression." " No impression ! Why, you must have known that we had read and thought on these things much more than you had any opportunity of doing." " yes," said the other ; " but I knew also your manner of living. I knew that to maintain such a course of conduct, you found it necessary to renounce Christianity."* It is well known how very seldom such a thing has occurred as the detection, in any penitentiary crime, of one who had enjoyed the benefit for a considerable period of a Sunday-school education, although during tlie last twenty years millions in Great Britain and the United States have had that privilege. What if all these had been trained with equal diligence in schools of infidelity ; how differ- ently would the effects of the system have been marked upon the records of crime, and upon the peace, purity, and order of society. The precise difference between the fruits of Chris- tianity and of infidelity, as exhibited in the general assembly of their respective professors, consists in * The Gospel its own Witness. 45^6 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. this : There are those who profess to be Christians, and yet are wicked men ; but they are wicked in direct opposition to the influence of Christianity, as well as to the character and influence of those with whom they are connected. There are also those who profess to be infidels, and yet are men of sobriety and amiableness and moral deportment; but they are such in direct opposition to the influence of infi- delity, as well as to the character and influence ot those with whom, as infidels, they are associated. The former and the latter are alike exceptions to the general rule. But let us turn from infidels in general to their teachers and leaders. A stream is seldom purer than its fountain. A river rises no higher than its source. We may consider the chief priests and scribes, the ciders and rulers and champions of infidelity, who have constructed its various creeds and composed its books of scripture — its Humes and Tindals and Bolingbrokes and Paines and Yoltaires and Rous- seaus — as affording in the average of their character a fair standard for the measurement of the moral stature of infidels in general. What then was the moral worth of those renowned leaders in the war against Christianity ? Let us look at their prin- ciples. Herbert maintained that the indulgence of lust and anger is no more to be blamed than the thirst of a fever, or the drowsiness of a lethargy. Thus every vicious propensity was licensed. Hobbes, that every man has a right to all things, and may lawfully get FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 427 them if he can. Thus, all theft was licensed. Again, that a subject may lawfully deny Christ before a magistrate, although he believes in Christ in his heart. Thus, all hypocrisy was licensed. Again, that a ruler is not bound by any obligation of truth or justice, and can do no wrong to his subjects. Thus, all tyrannical oppression and cruelty were licensed. Again, that the civil law is the sole foun- dation of good and evil, of right and wrong. Thus, moral principle is as various as climate and country, and vice in one place may be exalted virtue in an- other. Hume maintained that self-denial, self-morti- fication, and humility, are not virtuous, but useless and mischievous ; that pride and self- valuation, inge- nuity, eloquence, strength of body, etc., are virtues ; that suicide is lawful and commendable ; that adul- tery must be parctised, if we would obtain all the advantages of life; that female infidelity, when known, is a small thing ; when unknown, nothing. Bolingbroke, that ambition, the lust of power, ava- rice, and sensuality, may *be ' lawfully gratified, if they can be safely gratified ; that modesty is inspired by mere prejudice, and has its sole foundation in vanity ; that man's chief end is to gratify the appe- tites and inclinations of the flesh ; that *' adultery Ls no violation of the law, or religion of nature ; that there is no wrong in lewdness, except in the highest incest."* These principles will suffice as specimens of in- fidel writers in regard to moral obligation. It is fair ♦ See Dwight on Infidel PhiloEophy. 428 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. to judge men by their professions. Few rise above their opinions in practice, none in heart. When one contends that he may innocently indulge his vicious propensities, we need not doubt that he does indulge them. These writers either believed what they professed, or they did not. If the latter, they were gross hypocrites, endeavoring to spread what they knew was deadly poison. If the former, then tell me what kind of practice — what veracity, what honesty, what chastity, or any other virtue, can be supposed to have dwelt in men who in grave, philo- sophical discussions could publish such sentiments to the world? Had we no other evidence of the lives they led, we might conclude with certainty, from these professed opinions, that while one here and there may not have carried them out to their full extent, none could have been in any sense good men ; while the mass of them must have been without any regard to truth, guilty of gross hypocrisy and dissimulation, willing to offer any sacrifice at the shrine of ambition and human praise, unbridled in temper and passion ; seducers, adulterers, and corrupters of their fellow- creatures. Such is the description which, so far as any accounts of their private character have been received, is fully sustained by facts. Hume pretended to a great diligence in search of truth, and spent all his powers against the gospel; and yet, says Dr. Johnson, *' confessed that he had never read the New Testament with attention." His friend in scepticism, Adam Smith, considered him '* as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 429 wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of hu- man frailty will permit." But since, in his estima- tion, female infidelity when unknown was nothing, one needs pretty positive evidence to believe that he was specially pure.* Gibbon's moral character is seen in his history of the Roman empire — a work full of hypocrisy, per- version, and impurity ; the production of a mind as unchaste as it was insidious. When he could not find an occasion to insult Christianity, he made it by false glosses or dishonest colorings. ** A rage for • That Hume was virtuous without chastity, is evident from his essays. They contain passages by way of wit or illustra- tion, not only gratuitously introduced, but forced in by a mere amateur taste of the writer, which a chaste mind would not have thought of, and a man of chaste habits and principles would have rejected, as both polluting to his pages and dis- graceful to his character. I cannot believe that one who could venture on such sentences before the public eye, and show such jpleasure and evident facility in grovelling indecencies of writ- ing, was free from unclean practice where no public eye was to be encountered. And still, in Adam Smith's opinion, ho may have been "as perfectly virtuous as the nature of human frailty would permit." What exceptions are included under this last clause, who can say? In an infidel's creed,^virtuc has no more quarrel with unchasteness, than, in the creed of the Spartans, it had with theft. ' Among the latter, nothing was required to make stealing virtuous, but concealment. Among the virtuosi of infidelity, what more is required to establish the innocence of impurity ? The person who put out an edition of Hume's Essays in this country, dedicating it to the president of the United States, and lauding Hume and his principles to the skies, gliowcd very plainly how he had profited by his favorite volume, at le^^t by the essay in defence of suicide. He killed himself by drunkenness. 430 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. indecency pervades the whole work, but especially the last volumes. If the history were anonymous, I should guess that these disgraceful obscenities were written by some debauchee, who having from age, or accident, or excess, survived the practice of lust, still indulged himself in its speculations, and exposed the impotent imbecility after he had lost the vigor of the passions."* This was no " arrow shot at a venture." What gross hypocrisy and lying pervade the writings of Herbert, Hobbes, Shaftesbury, Woolston, Tindal, Collins, Blount, Chubb, and Bolingbroke. One while they are praising Christianity, exalting Jesus, professing to have the sincerest desire that the gospel may be promoted. At another time they are scoffing at its essential doctrines, charging its founder with imposture, and diligently laboring to destroy it. Hobbes affirms that the Scriptures are the voice of God, and the foundation of all obliga- tion, and yet, that all religion is ridiculous. Shaftes- bury says, that it is censurable to represent the gospel as a fraud ; that he hopes its enemies will be recon- ciled*to it, and its friends prize it more highly ; and yet he represents salvation as ridiculous, insinuates that the designs of Christ were those of deep am- bition, and his zeal and spirit savage and perse- cuting ; that the Scriptures were an artful invention for mercenary purposes. Collins protests that none are further than he from being engaged in the cause of infidelity ; that he writes for the honor of Jesus, * Person. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 431 and the defence of Christianity ; to advance the Mes- siaship and truth of the holy Jesus, ^'to whom," he says, ^^be glory for ever and ever, amen:" and yet he casts the most scurrilous reflections on this holy One, compares the gospels to GuUiverian tales, says they are full of absurdities, and must be rejected, and the authority of Jesus along with them.* ^ Such are a few examples of the honesty of such men. What if Christians should thus flatter infi- delity, and next revile it ? When would their oppo- nents cease exposing their hypocrisy ? The best of infidel writers cannot be trusted on the score of ve- racity when Christianity is in question. The corrup- tion of the texts of books, the misrepresentation of facts, the grossest unfairness in citations, are ac- counted lawful by their Humes and Gibbons in this controversy. One of their own fraternity may here be allowed to testify. ** If," says Rousseau, " our phi- losophers were able to discover truth, which of them would interest himself about it? There is not one among them who would not prefer his own error to the truth discovered by another. A^ere is the phi- losopher who, for his own glory, would not willingly deceive the whole human race ?" I need not spend time, after all that has been exhibited, in showing that such leaders in infidelity have evinced no spirits of benevolence, no disposition to labor for the benefit of their fellow-creatures ; but on the contrary have lived unto themselves, and almost without exception cultivated the coldest selfishness. * Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. 432 IC'ILVAINE'S EVIDENCES. But to speak more directly of the morals of lead- ing inBdels. Bolingbroke was a libertine of intem- perate habits and unrestrained lust. Temple was a corrupter of all that came near him, given up to ease and pleasure. Emerson, an eminent mathematician, was *' rude, vulgar, and frequently immoral." ** In- toxication and profane language were familiar to him. Towards the close of life, being afflicted with the stone, he would crawl about the floor on his hands and knees, sometimes praying, sometime3 swearing." The morals of the Earl of Rochester are well known. Q-odwin was a lewd man by his own confession, as well as the unblushing advocate of lewdness. Shaftes- bury and Collins, while endeavoring to destroy the gospel, partook of the Lord's supper, thus professing Christian faith for admission to oflice. " WooJston was a gross blasphemer. Blount solicited his sister- in-law to marry him, and being refused shot himself. Tindal was originally a Protestant, then turned Papist, then Protestant again, merely to suit the times ; and was at the same time infamous for vice in general, and the total want of principle. He is said to have died with this prayer in his mouth : ' If there is a God, I desire that he may have mercy on me.' Hobbes wrote his Leviathan to serve the cause of Charles I.; but finding him fail of success, he turned it to the defence of Cromwell, and made a merit of this fact to the usurper, as Hobbes himself unblush- ingly declared to Lord Clarendon."* Need I describe Voltaire ? — prince of scoffers, as Hume was prince of * Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 433 sceptics — in childhood, initiated into infidelity ; in boy- hood, famous for daring blasphemy; in manhood, dis- tinguished for a malignant, violent temper, for cold- blooded disruptions of all the ties and decencies of the family circle, for the ridicule of whatever was affect- ing, and the violation of whatever was confidential. Ever increasing in duplicity and hypocritical man- agement with age and practice, those whom his wit attracted and his buffoonery amused, were either dis- gusted or polluted by his loathsome vices. Lies and oaths in their support, were nothing to his maw. Those whom he openly called his friends, he took pains secretly to calumniate ; flattering them to their faces, ridiculing and reviling them behind their backs. Years only added stiffness to the disgusting features of his impiety, coldness to his dark malignity, and fury to his impetuous temper. Throughout life he was given up " to work all uncleanness with greedi- ness." Such was the witty Voltaire, who, in the midst of his levity, had feehng and seriousness enough to wish he had never been born. What shall we say of J. J. Rousseau ? A thief and liar and debauched profligate by his own ^* Con- fession." Educated a Protestant, he turned Papist for "subsistence;" and afterwards professed Protes- tantism again at Geneva, that he might enjoy the rights of citizenship, while all the while he was a foul- mouthed infidel. He began life as an apprentice. Having robbed his master and others, he fled and became a footman; in which capacity, having again acted the thief, he tried to swear the crime on a maid- Fvidences. 1 9 434 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. servant, who lost her place by his villany. Stealing he never abandoned, however abandoned himself. Late in life he said, " I have been a rogue, and am so still, for trifles which I had rather take than ask for." Of his intercourse with vile women ; how he tix)k advantage of the hospitality of friends to ruin the character of those who received him kindly ; how he coldly committed, one by one, the offspring of his base connections to the charity of the public, that he might be spared their trouble and have room for more ; how utterly devoid he was of all natural affection, as well as all decency, my lecture is too modest to relate. To use his own language, guilty without remorse^ he soon became so without measure. Such was the man whom infidels have delighted to honor. The friends of Christ have reason to thank him for saying, " I cannot believe the gospel." " For what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial ?" Nothing but the circulation attempted of late to be given to the scurrilous writings of Paine, induces me to descend low enough amidst *' the offscouring of all things," to speak of the life of that miserable man. His first wife is said to have died by ill usage. His second was rendered so miserable by neglect and nnkindness, that they separated by mutual agree- ment. His third companion^ not his wife, was the victim of his seduction while he lived upon the hos- pitality of her husband. Holding a place in the excise of England, he was dismissed for irregularity; re- stored, and dismissed again for fraud, without recovery. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 435 UnaLle to get employment where he was known, he came to this country, commenced poHtician, and pre- tended to some faith in Christianity. Congress gave him an office, from which, being soon found guilty of a breach of trust, he resigned in disgrace.* The * He resigned his office to escape being expelled from it. The author is much indebted to the Hon. William Jay for the following valuable extract from a document found among the papers of his father, the Hon. John Jay. The document was written while Mr. Jay was minister to Spain, about the year 1780, and was an introduction to an intended history of his Spanish negotiations. The annexed extract would make a val- uable page in a history of Paine. " It is proper to observe tlrat Mr. Deane, in consequence of his recall, returned to America in 1778 ; and that on his arrival Congress went into an inquiry into his conduct. Mr. Deano published a paper in the Philadelphia Gazette, containing stric- tures on the delays of Congress respecting his affairs, and heavy accusations against Mr. Arthur Lee, to whose machinations he attributed the conduct of Congress towards him. This publica- tion caused a ferment throughout America, and very great heats in Congress. The public papers teemed with publications for and against Mr. Deane and Mr. Lee. Among the writers for the latter was a Thomas Paine, an Englishman, who had been a hack- ney writer in London, and on his arrival in America was employ- ed by Aikin in compiling and correcting papers for his magazine. In this capacity his attachment to the American cause became suspected. He struck out several passages in papers composed by Dr. Witherspoon, as being too free. He afterwards became attached to some leading men who were most zealous for Amer- ican independence. He published a pamphlet on that subject, called Common Sense, and obtained much credit with the people for it. He was afterwards made Secretary to the Committee for Foreign Affairs; and when General Washington was retreating before the enemy in Jersey, and the minds of many were filled with apprehensions, he was again so suspected, as that Con- gress became uneasy lest the committee's papers in his cus- tody should fall into the enemy's hands, and took their measures 436 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. French revolution allured him to France. Habits of intoxication made him a disagreeable inmate in the house of the American minister, where out of com- passion he had been received as a guest. During all accordingly. The success at Trenton gave things a new aspect, and new courage to Paine. ^* On the present occasion, his zeal for his employers carried him too far. The official papers had brought him acquainted with the state of American affairs at VersailleSj and in his paper of the 2d of January he very imprudently inserted the follow- ing paragrapli : ' If Mr. Dcane, or any other gentleman will procure an order from Congress to inspect an account in my office, or any of Mr. Deane's friends in Congress will take the trouble of coming themselves, I will give him or them my attendance, and show Ihem in a handwriting which Mr. Deane is well acquainted with, that the supplies he so pompously pli^mcs himself upon, were promised and engaged, and that as a presentj before he even arrived in France,' etc. "The minister of France, Mr. Gerard, being aware of the consequences which would result from these assertions, and feeling very sensibly how much the honor of France was wounded by a supposition of her having given gratuitous aid to America, contrary to her assurances to Britain, did on the 5th of January, 1779, present a memorial to Congress referring to this publication, denying the assertions they contained, and representing the propriety of their being disowned by Congress. The day following, the memorial was considered, and various debates not proper to be specified here, ensued. Paine and the printer were ordered to attend at the bar of the House. The former confessed himself the author, and the latter the publisher, of the paper in question. Many motions were made, debated, and rejected, before the House adopted the resolutions which finally took place. The subject was interesting to the public to the House, and particularly to the friends of the parties in difference, as well as Mr. Paine's patrons, and, as is always the ca.se on such occasions, more warmth than prudence took place. The majority, however, were of opinion that Paine had pros- tituted his office to party purposes, and therefore ought to ba FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 437 this time, his life was a compound of ingratitude and perfidy, of hypocrisy and avarice, of lewdness and adultery. In June, 1809, the poor creature died in this country. The lady in whose house he lived re- lates that ''he was daily drunk, and in his few mo- ments of soberness was always quarrelling with her, and disturbing the peace of the family." At that time *' he was deliberately and disgustingly filthy." He had an old black woman for his servant, as drunken as her master. He accused her of stealing his rum ; she retaliated by accusing him of being an old drunkard. They would lie on the same floor, sprawling and swearing and threatening to fight, but too intoxicated to engage in battle. He removed afterwards to vari- ous families, continuing his habits, and paying for his board only when compelled. In his drunken fits, he was accustomed to talk about the immortality of the soul.* Probably much of his book against the inspiration of the Scriptures was inspired by his cups. Such was the author of "the Age of Reason;" such ' the apostle of mob-infidelity. Unhappy man ! Nei- ther he, nor Rousseau, nor Yoltaire is dead, except in the flesh. Their immortal souls are thinking as actively at least as ever. We and they will stand, on the same great day, before the bar of God. How awful, in reference to such despisers and scoffers, is that description, "Behold, he cometh with clouds; discharged. This did not long remain a secret to him. and to avoid that disgrace he resigned." P. S. Mr. Jay was a member of Congress at the time of the above occurrences. * Cheetham's Life of Paine. 438 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him." 3. We proceed to speak, in the last place, of the fruits of Christianity, as displayed in the deaths of its genuine disciples^ in contrast with those con- nected with infidelity. There is no question to which the testimony of the death-hed is so legitimately applicable, as that between Infidelity and Christianity ; not only because the hour of death is specially to be relied on, as an hour of dispassionate and conscientious judgment, but particularly because it is one of the precious promises of the gospel, that true believers shall find the sting of death taken away, and experience rich con- solation and support when heart and flesh are failing. Infidelity, also, has published her promises in relation to the trial of death, and her disciples are not a little disposed to boast how confidently and fearlessly they could meet the king of terrors. Let us consult expe- rience on this head. Have Christians experienced the fulfilment of the promises on which they trusted ? Have infidels made good their boasts? With regard to Christians, it is a most impressive fact that such a thing has never been known as any one being sorry, in the hour of death, that he had embraced the gospel of Christ. We have often seen and heard of persons who had spent their days in the careless neglect of religion, most bitterly lamenting, when they found themselves near to eternity, that they had not been devoted Christians. It is invariably the case that genuine FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 439 Christians, when they look back on their lives from the verge of the grave, are sorry that all their days had not been spent in a much more zealous consecra- lion to the service of Christ. Professors of religion are not unfrequently unhappy, when they come to die, not because they are or have been Christians, but only because they see reason to fear that they have not been real Christians. This unhappiness arises from the consciousness of being too much like those who reject the gospel — too little under the influence of its Spirit — too much under the influence of a prac- tical unbelie£ And they seek consolation, not by endeavoring to banish the gospel from their minds, but by pressing to the feet of Jesus and seeking to have their hearts filled by his Spirit. But among all that ever named the name of Jesus, from the death of the martyred Stephen to the present hour, the mill- ions upon millions of Christians who have died under all manner of tortures, and in all manner of circum- stances calculated to try the strength of their faith, not a philosopher or peasant, not a noble or a beggar, not a man, woman, or child, was ever known to repent that his preparation to die was that of the faith of Christ. On the contrary, it has been the invariable eflect of the religion of Christ, that those who in the days of health were evidently devoted to its spirit and duties, when death approached have been enabled to await the event with an humble, submissive, and cheerful mind, keeping a confident eye '' unto Jesus," as the finisher as well as author of their faith, ^hey 440 I1'1LVAINE»S EVIDENCES. have felt it to be their most precious, their unspeak- able consolation that they had been persuaded to be Christians. Nothing did they look back to with such thankfulness as, that instead of having lived in in- difference or infidelity, they had lived a life of faith upon the Son of God. They have felt that however solemn, and to the flesh painful was death, to them it was not gloomy nor appalling, nor any thing to be lamented, but only a short valley in the way to their everlasting and blissful rest with God on high. The most timid by nature have stepped down without fear or doubt, believing in Jesus, and walking by faith. The affectionate parent has found such an accession of strength in the moment of separation from a beloved and helpless family, as to be enabled cheerfully to take the last look and leave his fatherless children with God. The young man in the prime and promise of his years, with every thing that earth could give to make life desirable, has had the prospect of a better inheritance presented to liis mind with such assurance, that he had a strong desire '* to depart, and be with Christ." The nearer Christians have come to eter- nity, and the sharper the trial of their faith, the nearer have they drawn to Christ, the more closely have they embraced his cross, the more necessary has seemed his death for their sins, the more precious and full of glory the whole plan of redemption. Such is an average testimony in point of consolation fur- nished by the death-beds of the disciples of Christ, when disease or the suddenness of departure has not prevented them from all testimony whatever. FRUITS OF CKRlSTIANlir. 441 But in innumerable instances the facts are much more positive. It is frequently the case that dying Christians, as they draw near to eternity, seem to catch the song and share the bliss of heaven. Their faith not only delivers them from gloom and fear, but fills them with joy and triumph. They are not only supported, but exalted ; unspeakably happier in the agonies of death, than ever they were in the vigor of health. As the body sinks, the spirit rises in strength of faith and confidence of approaching glory. A smile of joy plays upon the death-struck counte- nance. The tenderest affection and the most benevo- lent interest for all around them, with earnest prayer that sinners may come to Jesus, and that his gospel may be embraced in all the world, occupy their latest moments. They die, thanking God who giveth them the victory through Jesus Christ. This is no picture of imagination. It is drawn from facts which the lecturer has frequently had the privilege of witnessing — facts such as have been often repeated in the observation of all whose duty has led them often to visit and converse with the dying on the subject of religion — facts of which the domestic history of the gospel in all ages is full, and of which no effrontery can attempt a denial. Paul, in the near view of a painful death, exclaimed, " I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that 19* 442 H'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. (lay ; and not to me only, but nnto all them also that love his appearing."* Poly carp, when they would have nailed him to the stake, said, ** Let me remain as I am ; for He who giveth me strength to sustain the fire, will enable me also, without your securing me with nails, to remain unmoved in the fire." Then being bound for a burnt-offering, he exclaimed, '^ Father, I bless thee that thou hast counted me worthy of this day and this hour to receive my por- tion in the cup of Christ." Bilney, putting his finger into the flame of a candle on the night before he was burned, repeated that promise, "When thou walkest through the fire, it shall not burn thee ;" and said, '^ I constantly believe that howsoever the stubble of this body shall be wasted by it, yet my soul shall be purged thereby — a pain for the time, whereon, not- withstanding, followeth joy unspeakable." Hooper, going to the stake, being addressed by a papist in the language of condolence, answered, '* Be sorry for thyself, and lament thine own wickedness ; for I am well, I thank God, and death to me for Christ's sake is welcome." Bishop Bedell, apprehending a speedy dissolution, assembled his family, and with many other words, declared, ** Knowing that I must shortly l)ut off this my tabernacle, I know also that I have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Therefore, to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain ; which increases my de- sire even now to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. I ascend to my Father and your Father, • 2 Tim. 4 : 6-8. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 443 to my God and your God, through the all-sufficient merits of Jesus Christ my Redeemer, who ever lives to make intercession for me." Fletcher's continual exclamation while dying was, '' God is love ; God is love." He panted for words to express what he felt in the utterance of that precious truth. Finley, in the act of departing, used such language as this : ** A Christian's death is the best part of his exist- ence." " Blessed be God, eternal rest is at hand." " The Lord hath given me the victory. I exult ; I triumph. Now I know that it is impossible that faith should not triumph over earth and hell." ** Lord Jesus, into thy hands I commit my spirit ; I do it witli confidence ; I do it with full assurance. I know that thou wilt keep that which I have com- mitted to thee."* Said the dying Payson, ^* While my body is thus tortured, the soul is perfectly, per- fectly happy and peaceful, more than I can possibly express to you. I lie here and feel these convulsions extending higher and higher, without the least un- easiness ; but my soul is filled with joy unspeakable. I seem to swim in a flood of glory which God pours down upon me. And I know, I know that my happi- ness is but begun. I cannot doubt that it will last for ever." And what shall I say more? For the time would fail to tell of Latimer and Ridley and Hooker, of Romaine and Newton and Scott, of Swartz and Buchanan and Martyn, of Oberlin and Rich- mond, of Evarts and Cornelius, leaders in the faith, * See "Deaths of Hume and Finley Compared," by Dr. Mason, in the tract No. 190, of the American Tract Society. 444 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. " of whom the world was not worthy." But should we go into the more retired walks of Christian life, and consult tlie annals of every village church, and gather out the examples of holy patience in suffer- ing, and sublime faith and deep humility, and joy unspeakable in dying, which the eye of God has seen among the poor of this world in every age since the death of Christ, what a cloud of witnesses would compass us about, uniting their joyful testimony to Jesus as '' ihe resurrection and the life" — to the gos- pel, as in all its promises faithful and " worthy of all acceptation."* • A beautiful exhibition of the effects of the gospel is found in the narrative of the loss of the Kent, East Indiamau, in 1825. The account is given by Major M'Gregor, who was not rendered the less capable of calmly observing the events he has recorded, or of firmly bearing his part in the dangers of that awful crisis, in consequence of having his soul kept in peace by the precious hopes of a disciple of Christ. While the ship was burning below, and the magazine was every moment expected to blow up, and not a soul out of more than six hundred had a thought but of perishing either by fire or the tempest; while some were standing in silent resignation, or stupid insensibility, and others were given up to the most frantic despair; while "some on their knees were earnestly imploring with significant gesticulations, and in noisy supplica- tions, the mercy of Him whose arm, they exclaimed, was at length outstretched to smite them;" and others had sullenly seated themselves directly over the magazine, that by means of the expected explosion a speedier termination might be put to their sufferings ; " several of the soldiers' wives and children, who had fled for temporary shelter into the after-cabins on the upper decks, were engaged in prayer, and in reading the Scrip- tures with the ladies, some of whom were enabled, with wonder- ful self-possession, to offer to others those spiritual consolations which a firm and intelligent trust in the Redeemer of the world FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 445 Now let us turn to infidelity. What confirmation has resulted from the death-beds of infidels, to the truth of their faith, and its ability to support and comfort the souls of its dying disciples? Ah, the change is Uke being translated from the beauty and fragrance and joyful promise of spring, into the cold-' ness and barrenness and gloominess of winter. Has infidelity ever exhibited a solitary example of that high and delightful consolation, that trium- phant, unspeakable joy on the brink of the grave, of which Christianity can cite innumerable instances? It seems almost ridiculous to be at pains enough to answer such a question. Infidelity has no doctrine, no promise, out of which such a delightful frame of mind could grow. Infidels feel themselves so infinitely removed from it, that it seems to them, in the dis- tance, as something incomprehensible, or visionary, or fanatical. But are there not examples of such per- sons dying without fear ? Unquestionably there are ; but how few of them have any application to the appeared at this a'W'ful hour to impart to their own breasts. The dignified deportment of two young ladies in particular formed a specimen of natural strength of mind, finely modified by Christian feeling, that failed not to attract the notice and admiration of every one who had an opportunity of witnessing it. One young gentleman having calmly asked my opinion of the state of the ship, I told him that I thought we should be pre- pared to sleep that night in eternity; and I shall never forget the peculiar fervor with which he replied, as he pressed my hand in his, ^ My heart is filled with the peace of God.^ '' Comment would only mar such a beautiful testimony to the blessedness of a gospel faith. " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee ; because he trusteth in thee." Isa. 26 : 3. 446 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. present argument. The great majority of them have been cases in which the lethargy or delirium occa- sioned by disease prevented the patient from being sensible of his condition ; or his death succeeded so immediately after the symptoms of his danger, as to allow no time for the consideration of his eternal interests ; or his friends took care that he should be kept in ignorance of the fatal character of his dis- order until it was too late for any thing but insensi- bility and dissolution ; or else the unhappy infidel, suspicious of his steadfastness when the trial should arrive, surrounded himself with such companions as would guard his bedside from the approach of any minister of better consolations, and keep his mind amused with trifles and his pride stimulated with the ambition of holding out to the last. Undoubtedly there have been cases to which none of these specifi- cations are applicable — cases of infidels who, in quiet- ness, with their intellects in sound and wakeful exercise, and with a knowledge of their nearness to eternity, have died without the manifestation of alarm. But this has nothing to do with our point. We could speak of multitudes who believed Chris- tianity, and had no idea that they were prepared to meet their God, but nevertheless died without alarm. The question is, does infidelity sustain and comfort its disciples in the hour of death ? It can hardly be necessary to assert, that whatever calmness any of them may have manifested, had no manner of con- nection with their infidel principles. They might have had the same as well without infidelity as with FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 447 it. They did not pretend to draw strength and peaco from its barren breasts. "What was called in their case resignation^ was not the offspring of their prin- ciples as infidels, but of their doom as mortals. They had to die, and there was no use in complaining; this is about the amount of all their consolation. Most gladly would they have entreated to live, could they have supposed that entreaty would have suc- ceeded. Death has never been regarded by such men, except as a necessary evil in every respect, only to be submitted to because irrevocably appointed. Such is the very best account we can give of the tes- timony of the death-beds of infidels. It is dreary, desolate, cold. It whispers something that should go to the heart of a sceptic. Its dismal negativeness is positive condemnation. Where, in all this region of emptiness, is the sweet serenity, the cheerful resigna- tion, the positive pleasure and happiness in prospect of death, which so generally attend the dying Christian ? Where is your parallel in a single infidel, to the joy- ful welcome which death has received in a million cases at the lips of the followers of Christ, when they have felt themselves almost at home, and in view of heaven have longed to depart and be with Christ ? No case of a dying unbeliever has been made so much of, by way of a set-off to the testimony of Christians, as that of David Hume. The evident object of Adam Smith, the narrator, is to put up his friend for a comparison with believers. G ibbon says, *•' He died the death of a philosopher." Nothing can be more affected, more evidently contrived for stage 448 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. effect, or, even on infidel principles, more disgraceful to such a mind as Hume's, than the- manner of his death according to the account given by his friend. He knew his end was near. Whether he was to be annihilated, or to be for ever happy or for ever miser- able, was a question involved on his own principles in impenetrable darkness. It was the tremendous question to be then decided. Reason and decency demanded that it should be seriously contemplated. How does he await the approach of eternity ? Said Chesterfield, an infidel also, **When one does see death near, let the best or the worst people say what they please, it is a serious consideration." Does Hume treat it as a serious consideration? He is diverting himself. With what ? With preparing his essay in defence of suicide for a new edition, reading books of amusement, and sometimes with a game at cards. He is diverting himself again. With what next ? With talking silly stuff about Charon and his boat and the river Styx. Such are a philosopher's diversions, where common-sense teaches other people to be at least grave and thoughtful. But why divert himself? Why turn off his mind from death ? What the need of his writings and his cards, and his books of amusement, and his trifling conversation ? Was he afraid to let his mind settle down quietly and alone to the contemplation of all that was at stake in the crisis before him ? Whatever the explanation of his levity, it was ill-timed, out of taste, badly got up ; an affected piece of over-acting, intended for posthu- mous fame, to say the best of it. He died ^^as a foo FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 449 dieth." Take his own views, as thus expressed at the end of his Natural History of Religion : " The comfortable views exhibited by the belief of futurity are ravishing and delightful. But how quickly they vanish on the appearance of its terrors, which keep a more firm and durable possession of the human mind. The whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspense of judgment, appear the only result of our most accurate scrutiny concerning this subject." In his own estimation, then, futurity has its terrors. Doubt, inexplicable mystery, hung over his future destiny. Whether he was not to be a child of hell for ever, his most accu- rate scrutiny could only suspend his judgment. In this tremendous suspense he plays cards, as it were, on his coffin-lid ; jests about ridiculous fables as he steps down to the momentous uncertainties, but eter- nal realities, of the future. If a finger had been about to receive its sentence whether to be amputated or not, he would at the least have been more grave. How far such a death-bed scene is honorable to philosophy or infidelity, or fit to be compared with that of mill- ions of Christians, I need not say. But this is tlie fairest aspect of the matter on the side of infidelity.* * There is reason to believe, that however unconcerned Hume may have seemed in the presence of his infidel friends, there were times when, being diverted neither by companions, nor cards, nor his works, nor books of amusement, but left to himself, and the contemplation of eternity, he was any thing but composed and satisfied. The following account was published many years ago in Edinburgh, where he died. It is not known to have been ever contradicted. '' About the end of 1776, a few months after the 450 ll'lLVAINES EVIDENCES. We said, the case could not be mentioned of any one having regretted, on his death-bed, that he had lived a Christian. We now say, that cases innumer- able have occurred of persons bitterly lamenting, historian^s death, a respectable looking woman, dressed in black, came into the Haddington stage-coach, while passiAg through Edinburgh. The conversation among the passengers, which had been interrupted for a few minutes, was speedily resumed, which the lady soon found to be regarding the state of mind persons were in at the prospect of death. An appeal was made, in defence of infidelity, to the death of Hume, as not only happy and tranquil, but mingled even with gayety and humor. To this the lady said, ^ Sir, this is all you know about it ', I could tell you another talc.' ' Madam,' replied the gentleman, ' I presume I have as good information as you can have on this subject, and I belieye that what I have asserted regarding Mr. Hame has never been called in question.' The lady continued, * Sir, I was Mr. Hume's housekeeper for many years, and was with him in his last moments; and the mourning I now wear was a present from his relatives for my attention to him on his death-bed ; and happy would I have been if I could have borne my testimony to the mistaken opinion that has gone abroad of his peaceful and composed end. I have, sir, never till this hour opened my mouth on this subject, but I think it a pity the world should be kept in the dark on so interesting a topic. It is true, sir, that when Mr. Hume's friends were with him he was cheer- ful, and seemed quite unconcerned about his approaching fate; nay, frequently spoke of it to them in a jocular and playful way ; but when he was alone, the scene was very different : he was any thing but composed ; his mental agitation was so great at times as to occasion his whole bed to shake. He would not allow the candles to be put out during the night, nor would he be left alone for a minute. I had always to ring the bell for one of the servants to be in the room, before he would allow me to leave it. He struggled hatrd to appear composed, even before me. But to one who attended his bedside for so many days and nights, and witnessed his disturbed sleeps and still more disturbed wak- ings — ^who frequently heard his involuntary breathings of re- morse and frightful startings, it was no difficult matter to deter- FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY-. 451 when dying, that they had lived in infidelity. Every- where such instances have occurred. They are tco notorious to need citation. The boldest unbelievers have furnished the most numerous examples. They have felt every foundation removed when heart and flesh began to fail. What they had boasted in life, they found a miserable comforter in death. The Earl of Rochester, a scholar and a blasphemer, as mine that all was not right within. This continued and increased until he became insensible. I hope in God I shall never witness a similar scene.' ''"* Christian Observer, vol. 31, p. 665. There is internal evidence of truth attached to the above. Hume had no opinions with regard to God, or the future, except that all was doubtful. Whether there was a God, a future state, a hell, or annihilation, he did not profess to know. The future had its terrors, he acknowledged. To him they were terrors of darkness and uncertainty. He spoke of "the calm, though obscure regions of philosophy." He called the whole question as to man's future destiny, ^* a riddlcj an enigma^ an inexplicable mystery J^ All he could arrive at was, " doubt, vn- certainty, suspense of judgment P In this state of mind, nothing could have been more forced or unnatural than the levity de- scribed by Smith. That was his stage-dress. If a man lay a hundred pounds upon a game, he is anxious till the uncertainty as to its fate be removed. But Hume knew that his all, for EVER, was at stake, and that he was unconcerned, unanxious, when not diverted^ is incredible. On the other hand, the account presented above is exactly what nature and reason would expect from the state of mind in which the philosopher described him- self, as to all that awaited him. Not to be penetrated with anxiety of the most painful kind, when a few hours were to decide whether he was to be annihilated, or to be carried to the judgment-seat of God, and find all that he had ridiculed in the gospel true, and be condemned to eternal misery — a destiny which, on his own principles, was as likely as any thing else — could only be accounted for on the supposition that disease, or friends^ diverted his attention from the decision approaching. 462 M'lLVAINES EVIDENCES. deep in vice as in infidelity, when he approached the end of life, became a thorough penitent, and to one of his former companions said, from his death-bed, '* remember, that you contemn God no longer. He is an avenging God, and will visit you for your sins ; and will, I hope, in mercy touch your conscience, sooner or later, as he has done mine. You and I have been friends and sinners together a great while. We have been all mistaken in our conceits and opinions ; our persuasions have been false and groundless ; there- fore I pray God grant you repentance." To those who had been drawn into sin by his example and encouragement, he said, " I warn them no more to make a mock of sin, or contemn the pure and excel- lent religion of my ever blessed Redeemer, through whose merits alone, I, one of the greatest of sinners, do yet hope for mercy and forgiveness." Hobbes could never bear to talk of death. His mind was haunted with tormenting reflections. If liis candle went out in the night, while he was in bed, lie was in misery. As he descended to the grave, ho said, " he was about to take a leap in the dark." Struenzee, prime minister of Denmark, and Brandt the companion of his disgrace and imprisonment, had both been poisoned by the writings and society of Voltaire; and both, in prospect of death, renounced infidelity with detestation, and embraced the gospel as all their hope. Shall I lead you to the horrible spectacle of Vol- taire in the arms of death, and expecting in a few moments to stand at the bar of God. He has just FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 453 returned from a feast of applause in the theatre, to be laid on a bed of death in the agonies of an upbraiding conscience. The physician enters. " Doctor," said the apostle of infidelity, with the utmost consterna- tion, '* I am abandoned by Grod and man. I will give you half of what I am worth, if you will give me six months' life." The physician told him he could not live six weeks. ** Then," said he, ** I shall go to hell." His companions in guilt, D'Alembert, Diderot, and Marmontel, hasten to keep up his cour- age, but meet nothing but reproach and horror. In spite of the guard of infidels about him, he sends for the Abbe Gautier to come as soon as possible. In his presence and that of other witnesses, he signs a recantation of infidelity, and professes to die in the church. It is sent to the rector of St. Sulpice and the archbishop of Paris for approval. The Abbe Grautier returns with it, but cannot enter. Every ayenue to the dying infidel is defended by those who had shared in his conspiracy against Christianity. They want to hide his terrors and their own shame. Now it is that D'Alembert, Diderot, and about twenty others of like character who beset his apartment, never approach him but to hear their condemnation. "Retire!" he often exclaims with execrations ; **it is you that 'have brought me to my present state. Be- gone! I could have done without you all, but you could not exist without me. And what a wretched glory have you produced me !" Then his conspiracy comes before him, and alternately supplicating and blaspheming, he complains that he is abandoned by 454 IC'ILYAINE'S EVIDENCES. God and man, and often cries out, **0 Christ! Je- sus Christ !" He is looking on Him whom he pierced. He is drinking the cup of trembling, the foretaste of the second death. The Mareschal de Richelieu flies from the scene, declaring it " too terrible to be sus- tained." The physicians, thunderstruck, retire, de- claring ** the death of the impious man to be terrible indeed." One of them pronounces that "the furies of Orestes could give but a faint idea of those of Voltaire."* We shall close these awful scenes with a few glances at the dying Paine. Once it was his boast, that during a dangerous illness he thought with new satisfaction of having written the Age of Reason, and found by experiment that his principles were suffi- cient to sustain him in expectation of death. It was an empty boast. Let us see him when really dying. He would not be left alone night or day. If he could not see that some one was with him, he would scream till a person appeared. A female attendant more than once found him in the attitude of prayer. Having asked her what she thought of his Age of • " The nurse who attended him being, many years after- wards, requested to wait on a siek Protestant gentleman, refused till she was assured he was not a philosopher ; declaring, if he were, she would on no account incur the danger of witnessing such a scene as she had been compelled to do at the death of M. Voltaire. I received this account," adds the Right Rev. Daniel Wilson, " from the son of the gentleman to whose dying- bed the woman was invited, by a letter now in my possession.' The above account is abridged from the " History of Jaco- binism," by the Abbe Barucl, and has been denied by no one of the many witnesses to the death of Voltaire. FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 455 Reason, and being answered, that from a conviction of its evil tendency she had burnt it, he wished all its readers had been as wise, and added, *^If ever the devil had an agent on earth, I have been one." An infidel visitor said to him, "You have lived like a man, I hope you will die like one." He turned to others in the room and said, *' You see what miser-' able comforters I have." The woman whom he had enticed from her husband, lamented to a neighbor her sad condition. '* For this man," she said, *' I have given up my family and friends, my property and my religion ; judge then of my distress, when he tells mo that the principles he has taught me will not bear me out." Well might she be distressed when she heard his exclamations. *' He would call out, during his paroxysms of distress, without intermission, ' Lord, help me ; God help me ; Jesus Christ help me ; O Lord, help me;' repeating the same expressions with- out any the least variation, in a tone of voice that would alarm the house."* And now, what need be said in conclusion ? You have seen the fruit of the trees. One produces cor- ruption, the other holiness of life. One roots up, the other nourishes and cherishes whatever is good around it. The spread of infidelity is that of vice and dis- order and all confusion. The spread of Christianity is that of purity, peace, and all the virtues of the social state. The more thoroughly an individual embraces infidelity, the more entirely does he become the slave of sin. . The more perfectly he embraces * Cheetham's Life of Paine. 456 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. the gospel, the more perfectly does he become the example of whatever is lovely and of good report. No infidel ever rose higher than the chili composure of a Stoic's firmness, in the trial of death. Multitudes and the chief of infidels have, in that honest hour, abandoned their sentiments with horror. On tho (jther hand, no Christian ever regretted, when dying, that he had believed the gospel; all have only wished they had followed it more diligently; and in cases innumerable, disciples of Christ have risen to the most triumphant emotions of joy and praise, and the most exulting assurance of eternal life and glory, in the very act of departing for eternity. Is a tree known by its fruits? Then which of these is the tree of life? Which looks like truth? Which is to be cut down, and cast into the everlast- ing burning? The whole argument of this and the preceding lecture may be well concluded with an applicable and true saying of Hume. Being asked by a friend, to whom he used to refer his essays previously to publi- cation, whether he thought that if his opinions were imiversally prevalent, mankind would not be rendered more unhappy than they were; and whether he did not suppose that the curb of religion was necessary to human nature : '* The objections,'' answered he, '^are not without weight, but error never can pro- duce GOOD." Such is precisely the text of this and the preceding lecture. **Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" *' The tree is known by its fruits," said the Saviour. ** Error never can pro- FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY. 4,'ii7 duce good," said the man who denied him. By this let the comparative merits of Christianity and infidel- ity stand or fall. How imperative, then, is the exhortation to all pro- fessors of the religion of Jesus, ** Let your light shine before men." **Be careful to maintain good works." "Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ." To you is committed the honor of Christian- ity among the unbelieving and disobedient. Its most legible and universally imposing evidences are found in the living epistles of those who, under the influ- ence of its saving truth, are seen devotedly "follow- ing after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness ;" " using the world as not abusing it ;" look- ing for death as not fearing it; cheerful in all duty while they remain on earth; happy when the time comes for them to depart out of it unto the Father. Ah, if all that are numbered among Christians were thus radiant in the beauty of holiness, how soon would the whole earth be filled with the praise of the Lord ! Then indeed would the church put on strength. Then would the Gentiles come to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising: all they that despise her should bow themselves down at the soles of her feet ; and they should call her, " The city of the Lord ; the Zion of the holy One of Israel."* * Isaiah, ch. 60. 20 458 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. LECTURE XII. SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT, AND APPLICATION TO OBJECTIONS. In the course of the preceding lectures, I have been enabled by a kind Providence to spread before you a comprehensive view of the external evidences of Christianity. Although one whole .division of our forces, and one of no secondary consequence, has not been brought into the field, and of that which has been employed several important subdivisions have been held in the background for want of room to display them, enough, I trust, has been done to give you an impressive idea of what the strength of the cause must be, when all the immense variety of auxiliaries composing its host are arranged together under command of a mind capable of using them to the best advantage. It would stand like the massive squares of British infantry at Waterloo, to which the boasting enemy rode up again and again, in the full confidence of sweeping them before the impetuosity of their charge. But ''their onset and reception was that of a furious ocean pouring itself against a chain of insulated rocks."* Before relinquishing our course, it is important to take a brief retrospect of the ground we have been • Scott^s Napoleon. SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 459 over, that we may gather into united and cooperating force the several lines of argument which as yet have been employed only in their separate efficiency. After having divided the whole field of evidence into the two general departments of external and internal^ and separated the former, as that to which our course would be confined, we proceeded to lay the foundation of all our subsequent reasonings by mak- ing good the AUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOKS OF THE NeW Testament, and the credibility of the history con- tained therein. In reference to the question of authen- ticity, we instituted an inquiry whether there is suf- ficient evidence that the several scriptures composing the New Testament were written by the men whose names they bear, the original apostles and disciples of Christ. For an answer to this, we pursued pre- cisely the same method as in determining the authen- ticity of any other writings. The evidence required in such investigations was shown to be so unaffected by time, that whether a book be ascribed to the Christian era, or to five centuries earlier or later, a similar description of proof would possess a similar conclusiveness. That for the authenticity of the books of the New Testament was presented under the following heads: They are quoted or alluded to by a series of writers extending in unbroken succession from the present to the apostolic age. In the earliest writers of this series, as well as the later, they are treated with peculiar respect, as possessing an author- ity belonging to no other books, and as conclusive in all questions of religion ; they were collected at a very 460 MULVAINE'S EVIDENCES. early period into a distinct volume; were putlicly read and expounded in the assemblies of the primi- tive Christians ; commentaries were written upon them; harmonies were formed out of them; different copies were carefully compared, and versions were made into different languages, in the first centuries of Christianity. Hence, it appeared that the agreement of the ancient church, as to what were the authentic books of the New Testament, was complete, and was no more imperfect among the various sects of heretics than among the orthodox fathers. None of these sev- eral heads of evidenoe attach to any of those spurious writings commonly called apocryphal scriptures, while the marks of the spuriousness of these can be asserted with regard to none of those which are esteemed as authentic. In confirmation of the mass of testimony adduced in support of these propositions, we exhibited a most important collection of proofs from the writ- ings of the early adversaries of Christianity. The style and language of the New Testament were spoken of, as in perfect agreement with the local and other circumstances of its reputed writers; as in perfect harmony with their known character, and with the age and country in which they Uved; and such as 3ould not have been produced in any age subsequent to theirs. In conclusion of the whole argument, we endeavored to show that such was the necessity of detection in case of a forgery, during the primitive centuries, that had the books in question been deficient in the evidence of apostolic origin, nothing less than a miracle could account for their early and universal SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 46] currency. The whole train of evidence concluded with this result: that to suppose the New Testament unauthentic or even questionable in this particular, is to resign the authenticity of every other book of the least antiquity; yea, and to deny the sufficiency of human testimony, in its most conclusive form, to establish the authenticity of any such work. Having come to this, it seemed no presumption to proceed, in our subsequent lectures, as if the question of authen* ticity were answered in the affirmative with entire satisfaction. But in connection with the apostolic origin, it was important to look into the integrity of the New Testament scriptures, for the purpose of ascertaining to what extent they have been preserved without mutilation or corruption. That they have undergone no material alteration since they were first published, was inferred from the perfect impossibility of such a change ; from obvious agreement among the existing manuscripts of the New Testament; and from the harmony of our present text with the numerous quo- tations in the works of early Christian writers, as well as with those ancient translations which are still extant. But in laying the foundation of our subsequent argument, another question remained: Is the history contained in these authentic writings credible? In answer to this, we assumed that the credibility of the gospel history is to be ascertained precisely like that of any other history. It appeared that, in questions of this kind, the two great points to be proved are, 462 MULVAINE'S EVIDENCES. a competency of knowledge^ and trustworthy honesty^ on the part of the historian: Did he know enough to "Nvrite a true account, and was he too honest to write any other account than such as he believed to be true ? These points established, the credibility of any history is settled. The first was easily determined by the consideration that the amount of knowledge required Tor the writing of the gospel history was by no means great; that the narrative is extremely simple and unambitious; and that those who penned it were per- sonal companions of Christ, and eye-witnesses of al- most all they related. In reference to the second point to be made out, we took the position that there is abundant evidence that the writers of the gospel his- tory were too honest to relate any thing but what they believed to be truth. Taking the history as written by St. John for a specimen, we discovered a strong internal evidence of the honesty of the writer in the fact, that it is in a high degree circumstantial ; and another in the incidental characteristic of the writer, that he takes no pains to convince us of his honesty, and makes no parade about it as if it were possible to be suspected ; and another in the circum- stance, that while he could not have been ignorant that he was relating many extraordinary and wonder- ful events, he betrays no appearance of wonder in himself, nor any expectation of wonder from his read- ers, thus evincing that he was conscious of narrating events of universal notoriety. In addition to these striking imprints of honesty, we perceived another in the minute accuracy which distinguishes all the allu- SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 463 sioiis of this narrative to the manners, customs, opin- ions, political events, and circumstances of the times. Having thus exhibited satisfactory evidence of the honesty of one of the writers of the gospel narra- tive, we produced seven other writers, each entirely independent of the rest, and possessing all the inter- nal marks of honesty discovered in St. John; all con- curring in their statements so entirely that no con- tradiction can be detected, and yet with so much incidental variety, that the suspicion of a concerted scheme for mutual support is as unreasonable as if they had lived in different centuries. The fact that they were heartUy interested in the gospel — that they so firmly believed what they wrote, as to have lived in zealous devotion to Christ, even to the sacrifice of life, was shown to be the strongest confirmation, in- stead of the least abridgment, of their united testi- mony. In their cooperating evidence, we have a proof of the honesty of each writer, and of the credibility of the whole body of facts contained in their pages, such as no history of any individual of the world can equal. Such a thing as four histories of any ancient series of events^ written by persons contemporaneous with the subject^ and handed down to us, is found only in the case before us. When it is considered that the authors were not only contemporaries, but companions of the personage whose history is given, their mutual support and internal evidences of hon- esty afford a body of proof which, were their narra- tives untrue, would be morally impossible. Here we might have left the question of credibil- 464 K'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. ity. But we proceeded to show, that to suppose these writers to have published what they did not believe, is to suppose tliat they acted not only with- out any conceivable motive, but in direct opposition to all the motives by which the minds oi men are ever influenced. And finally, it was made to appear that the gospel history has in its support not only all the testimony that could fairly have been expected from its enemies — all of them yielding at least the evidence of silence^ when, had they been able, they would assuredly have published a denial — but much stronger testimony than could fairly have been ex- pected from enemies, since several of their most hos- tile writers positively acknowledge all the facts that are necessary to establish the divine authority of Jesus. But this was not our highest reach of testi- mony. We found a great cloud of witnesses to the truth of this history in the multitudes converted to the gospel under the preaching of the apostles — wit- nesses who have this peculiar excellence, that from having once been enemies, they became devoted friends by the mere force of their conviction of the facts in question. The whole argument for credibil- ity was finished by showing, from the very nature and circumstances of the history, that had it not been true, its currency for a single year would have been quite as miraculous, and more unaccountable, than any thing related therein. Having thus cleared our way to the New Testa- ment, by ascertaining the authenticity of its books and the credibility of its history, we were prepared to SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 465 open the volume and investigate its contents. It pro- fesses to contain a revelation from God, communicated to mankind by the Lord Jesus and his apostles, as invested with a divine commission for this very pur- pose. We asked for their credentials. They referred us to their miraculous works. The appeal was con- fessedly fair. Miracles perfectly proved, are perfect evidence of divine attestation. But before proceeding to a direct investigation of the testimony in favor of the miracles of the gospel, we found it necessary, on account of the desperate efforts which enemies of Christianity have made to escape this argument, to illustrate the following preliminary truths : that there is nothing unreasonable or improbable in the idea of a miracle in proof of divine revelation ; that the mir- acles wrought for this purpose in the first century can be rendered credible to us of the nineteenth, by no other evidence than that of testimony ; that such evi- dence is perfectly sufficient to prove a miracle; that the testimony to the gospel miracles has suH'ered no diminution of force by increase of age ; and that we, who are restricted to such means of conviction, are situated, in regard to our state of probation and moral discipline, more consistently than if we had been present when the miracles were wrought, and could have proved their reality by the test of our senses. From these important propositions, we proceeded to the testimony in regard to the ^^RACLES op the GOSPEL. Here we might have stood upon the equita- ble assumption, that in having established the truth of the narratives, we had proved also the reality of 20* 466 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. the miracles of the New Testament; inasmuch as miraculous events are so essentially interwoven with many of them, that to question the latter is necessarily an impeachment of the former. But as our object was not merely proof, but variety and fulness of proof, we proceeded to the fact that the religion of the Bible, having been established by direct appeal to miracle in evidence of the divine authority of its teachers, stands alone in this respect among the various relig- ions of mankind; after which wo laid out the mate- rials of our argument under the following propositions. Supposing the wonderful works ascribed to our Lord to have really occurred, they cannot be ascribed to second causes, but must have been genuine miracles. They were of such a nature as admitted of their being brought at once to the test of the senses. They were performed, for the most part, in the most public man- ner. They were exceedingly numerous, and of great variety. The success in every case was instanta- neous and complete. There is no evidence of such a thing as an attempt on the part of Christ or his apos- tles to perform a miracle in which they were accused of a failure. For seventy years, the miraculous gifts in question continued to be exercised, and to be sub- mitted to the inspection of mankind. During all this time, it is a matter of certainty that they underwent the most rigid examination from those who had every opportunity and every disposition to detect imposition. Every advantage was afforded the adversary by their being published and appealed to immediately after, and in the very places where they occurred. The SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 467 persons who performed them were of all men the least qualified and the least likely either to attempt a series of counterfeit miracles, or to succeed in passing them upon the Jewish and heathen world. Notwith- standing all that was done to break the constancy and extort the confessions of those early Christians who were eye-witnesses of the deeds of Jesus and his apos- tles, none were ever known to acknowledge they had been deceived, or had found any thing but truth in the miracles by which they were led to embrace the gospel. The benevolent character and holy effects of the miracles, the humble, self-denying, unambitious spirit of those who performed them, are irreconcilable with the supposition of any thing selfish or deceitful. That they were genuine, and to the people of that century undeniable, we have the plainest and strong- est confession from the primitive adversaries of Christ and his cause. But confessions unspeakably stronger are found in the history of great multitudes in Judea and every country of heathenism, who beheld in the miracles such incontrovertible certainty as induced them to lay aside the bitterest enmity to the gospel, and make the most painful sacrifices of which human nature is capable, for the sake of embracing the ser- vice of Jesus. If with all this evidence there is not reason to rely implicitly upon the reality of the gos- pel miracles, we are driven to believe in the most unaccountable violations of the laws of nature, of truth, and of common-sense, as necessary to account for the singular events connected with their perform- ance, and for their universal acknowledgment in the 468 XULYAINK'S EVIDENCES. era of their first publication. Hence, it was concluded that the credentials of Jesus and his apostles were given from heaven; and consequently, that the New Testament, as an authentic record of what they de- livered, is the book of the revelation of God. Here, with perfect safety, might the cause have been considered as determined. But unwilling to content ourselves with once establishing the divine authority of the gospel, the argument was commenced anew, substituting prophecy for miracle as the source of evidence. Considerations were stated which ren« der the argument from prophecy specially valuable; such as the continual increase of its strength, and the important characteristic of many predictions, that their fulfilment, being a matter of present existence, is evidence before our eyes, addressed to our senses. Before proceeding to the proof of fulfilment, the fact that all other religions but that of the Bible have shrunk from such dangerous ground as the publica- tion of prophecy in the establishment of their preten- sions, and yet, that however certain of exposure in case of imposition, prophecy is everywhere appealed to and rested upon in the Bible, was treated as a strong presumptive argument that in the Bible is found what no false religion can possess — something to warrant it in venturing where divine omniscience alone is able to tread — inspiration of God. We then glanced at the immense extent and vast embrace and wonderful minuteness which characterize the scheme of scripture prophecy, the many ages in- cluded, the variety of agents employed, the numerous SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 469 particulars predicted, and the harmony of all the details. The undeniable fact was asserted, that be- tween the least prediction of the Bible and any event of history, there is not the smallest evidence of con- tradiction. We then demanded whether it were credible that imposture would ever have dared io commit its cause to a venture which could terminate successfully only by such a hopeless series of miracu- lous coincidences. With all this presumptive evidence on our side, we took up a brief selection of important prophecies, and showed their minute and wonderful fulfilment from sources of testimony to which there could be no exception. Your attention was specially directed to a great variety of predictions, by dift'erent writers and in all ages of Bible history, all centring in Jesus, and determining the time and circumstances of his advent, the character of his hfe, the particulars of his sufferings and death; foretelling his resurrection, and the increase of his kingdom. After having thus showed the fulfilment of prophecies of which Jesus was the subject, we proceeded to others of which Jesus was the author. In the destruction of Jerusalem, and its subse- quent history, we had, prepared to our hands by the writings of unbelievers, a most impressive accom- plishment of a series of predictions on the part of our Lord, in which the utmost plainness of meaning is united with singular minuteness of detail. The agreement between the predictions and the events admitted of no denial. The supposition of chance 470 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. was the only explanation to which unbelief could flee. But it was stated, on the authority of strict arithmetical calculation, that according to the prin- ciples employed in the computation of what are called chances, the probability against the occurrence, at the predicted time, of all the particulars embraced in the prophecies of which we had spoken, exceeded the power of numbers to express, even without the con- sideration of the providence of One who hateth ini- quity, and especially when it is practised under pre- tence of his authority. The conclusion was inevi- table, that the Bible, in thus containing so many genuine prophecies scattered through its several books, contains a revelation from God, and exhibits satis- factory evidences of divine authority ; and that Jesus Christ, being in his character and office as the Sav- iour of sinners, the great theme of this system of prophecy, and being himself endued with the spirit of prophecy, was, and is to come, no other than' what he claimed to be considered, the Son of God, the Redeemer of men. King of kings, and Lord of lords. Here, again, we might have rested our cause. But unwilling to withhold the interesting evidence re- maining, we commenced the main question anew, and set out to prove the divine origin from the his- tory of THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTfANITY. The diffi- culties in the way of its extensive progress were man- ifest from considering that the enterprise of propagat- ing a new religion, to the exclusion of every other, was perfectly novel, and universally offensive; that the whole character of the gospel, as a system of doc- SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 471 trine and a rule of life, erected a barrier against its progress, which to human force would have proved insurmountable; that it necessarily arrayed against itself all the influence of every priesthood, all the powers of every government, all the prejudices, hab- its, and passions of every people, and all the pride, wit, and influence of every school of philosophy in the world. Add to this, that the character of the age was peculiarly adapted to increase the difl^culties above- mentioned, and to put the truth of such a religion as that of the gospel to the very closest and strongest trial. The agents intrusted with the propagation of Christianity were of all men the most unfitted for their work, on the supposition that it was one of imposture. They set up their banner when every thing visible on their side only tended to inspire them with despair, and every thing on the side of their enemies was considered as triumphant. The mode they adopted was directly calculated, on human principles, to in- crease and multiply all their difficulties. They were encountered everywhere by the fiercest persecution that the malignant ingenuity of enemies could invent, and the principalities and powers of the earth could execute. In spite of all these enormous combinations of resistance, such was the rapid and mighty progress of the gospel, that in thirty years the Roman empire was everywhere pervaded with its influence, and even haughty Rome could yield a great multitude as her first-fruits for the fires of persecution. The conver- sions which ensued in such numbers, were changes not merely of opinion, but of heart and Ufe ; they in- 472 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. volved individuals of all classes of mind, of learning, of rank, and of opulence. Nothing in any degree corresponding to this work had ever been known bo fore, or has ever been witnessed since; even though efforts have frequently been made, in circumstances and with means much more advantageous than theirs, on the supposition that the apostles were not specially favored of God. All these particulars combined demonstrate, that in the labors of the apostles, none but **God gave the increase," because none but God could give such increase. They present a miracle as unquestionable as if, at the bidding of man, a rock should become a fountain of water. Thus, a third time did we finish our proof. Here again might the argument have been safely terminated. But the FRUITS OF Christianity presented a source of additional evidence too important to be omitted. We began, in this department, with the effects of Chris- lianity on society in general. We surveyed the moral condition of mankind when- the gospel era com- menced. The most polished, literary, and admired nations of the ancient world were selected, as at least favorable specimens of all others. Their personal, domestic, and social virtues were placed in compari- son with those of civilized nations of the present age, and especially with those which Christian influence has most thoroughly pervaded. The contrast was exceedingly impressive. The moral improvements effected in society have been immense and inesti- mable. We found nothing in the philosophy, or the leligion, or the fluctuations, or any other ingredient of SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 473 the heathen or infidel world, to effect such a change. No heathen nation left to itself has ever reformed. The history of the world demonstrates that the whole work must be charged to Christianity. And the his- tory of Christian effort among heathen nations of the present age, demonstrates that Christianity was capa- ble, and ever will be capable of accomplishing such blessed results. From the fruits of Christianity on society in gen- eral, we turned to those exhibited in the character and happiness of its genuine disciples. Undeniable and innumerable transformations in moral character and habits were pointed out, which are utterly in- capable of explanation but on the supposition of a divine power accompanying the gospel. A compari- son was drawn between the lives of genuine dis- ciples of Christ, and those for which unbelievers are notorious. Another was instituted between the death- bed scenes and testimonies of real Christians, and such as have been witnessed in connection with infi- delity. It appeared, that with a few exceptions, indi- viduals are the slaves of sin in proportion as they are devoted to infidelity ; while it was equally evident, that without any exception, they become servants of righteousness in proportion as their hearts are sur-. rendered to the influence of the gospel. It appeared that while no unbeliever, under the trial of death, ever advanced beyond the negative and comfortless com- posure of a Stoic, and multitudes, and the very chief of their profession, have in that extremity abandoned their sentiments with horror ; it was never heard, on 474 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. the other hand, that a Christian regretted in his death having believed and obeyed the gospel, while innumerable disciples of that blessed faith, in the very act of dissolution, have risen to the most tri- umphant assurance of eternal life and glory. Such are the legitimate fruits of the gospel of Christ. On the wise principle, therefore, that ** a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit," we must pro- nounce Christianity good ; and since no religion can be good without being true, or as Hume expressed it, "error never can produce good," we must conclude that her assertion of divine authority is worthy of all acceptation. Thus terminated the argument of the last lecture. And now, while the retrospect we have been taking is fresh in your memories, consider, 1. The plainness and simplicity which charac- terize the evidences of Christianity. To understand the meaning and appreciate the force of any or all of them, so far as is necessary to a clear, intelligent, and impressive conviction of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, and the divine nature and mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a work to which the mind of any thoughtful individual of ordinary information . is competent. Willingness to read, readiness to learn, humility to submit to conviction, and an ordinary knowledge of the meaning of words, are the only requisites for a satisfactory investigation of the whole argument. How different in this respect is the gos- pel of Christ from all the speculating and metaphysi- cal systems of infidel philosophy. What would plain SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 475 cx>mmon-sense people do, did their understanding of the grounds of faith and duty depend upon such dark questions, as the sufficiency of the light of nature, the origin of evil, the metaphysical relations of cause and effect, the foundation of virtue, the elements of accountability, the freedom of the will, etc. ? — ques- tions which must be settled in our own minds, and by our own reason, before we can consistently em- brace any other religion than that of revelation, but about which all the philosophy on earth, if it reject the Scriptures, may speculate to the end of time, without arriving at sufficient certainty to satisfy a single conscience. The gospel requires no abstract theories to explain its way of salvation, its principles of obligation, or its rule of duty. It simply presents the evidence that Jesus Christ, the Son and the sent of God, came into the world to teach and to save sinners, and then to every sinner publishes this plain direction: what Jesus in his word has taught, be- lieve ; what he has there commanded, follow ; in his merits alone put your trust for peace with God, and through his righteousness thou shalt be saved. 2. Consider the great variety and accumulation of the evidences of Christianity. In the lectures to which you have listened, were presented no less than four independent and complete methods of proof, each of which is amply sufficient to bear the whole weight of the gospel. The argument from miracles is con- clusive without the argument from prophecy. The latter is in no wise dependent upon the former, or any other evidence. The argument from the propagation 476 M'lLVAlNE'S EVIDENCES. is complete in itself, and so is that from the fruits of Christianity. But under each of these general heads what a boundless variety of auxiliary evidences' might have been adduced. Every single miracle, every fulfilled prophecy, a thousand separate facts in the spread of the gospel, and innumerable examples of its holy fruits in the hearts and lives of believers, would have furnished us with so many effulgent centres, from all of which rays of brilliant evidence are continually meeting and harmonizing in a shining testimony to Jesus as the resurrection and the life. But remember that one whole division, out of the two which embrace the great field of Christian evi- dence, has been left untouched. We have found an astonishing variety and accumulation of proof; and yet the whole department of internal evidence, that which arises from tlie search of the New Testament itself — its spirit, manner, dress, and beauty, the simplicity of its character, the benevolence of its temper, its power over the conscience, the suitable- ness of its contents to the wants of man, the ex- cellence of its doctrines, the purity and elevation of its morals, the character and conduct of Jesus, and the happy tendency of all his instructions: this im- mense field of diversified evidence, secondary to none in its influence upon the mind, and superior to all in its direct appeal to the heart, we have not so much as entered. Could we but see all the separate streams united in one ; could we measure at once the force of that majestic tide which collects its innumerable tributaries from all ages and all nations SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 477 and all hearts ; could we appreciate its strength by an accurate estimate of all the obstructions with which earth and hell, *^ the prince of the power of the air," and " the rulers of the darkness of this world," have endeavored to resist its course — the mountains of difficulty which in every century it has rent asunder or rolled away to clear its course — we should wonder, indeed, at what divine goodness has done to make us believers, and at what human obduracy has been able to withstand for the purpose of continuing in unbelief. But this astonishing flood of evidence is per- petually increasing. Every additional benefit which Christianity bestows upon any portion of mankind, every additional conversion of a sinner to God, every holy life that is added to the shining ranks of the followers of Christ, every new triumph of Christian faith over the trials of life and the terrors of death, every increase in the fulfilment of prophecy, every advance in the conquest of the gospel over the dark- ness of paganism, every new year of victory over all the resistance of pretended friends and unfaithful professors, of internal divisions and infidel enmity, is a new stream to swell the many waters which one day, like the deluge of old, will drown unbelief in its last refuge, and make all nations and kindreds know how precious, as an ark of safety, is He who '^ came into the world to save sinners." But who can ask for additional evidence ? Did not the question affect the darling idols of the heart ; were it one of property, or of science, or of human 478 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. life ; were it some new medicine to heal the maladies of the body, that laid before us this immense mass of credentials from all generations ; or were it a scheme for the acquisition of earthly gain, that came to us accompanied with such voluminous evidence of its unfailing truth and wisdom, no man of common sense could hesitate a moment to give it his unquali- fied belief. All men are continually committing their dearest interests to evidence unspeakably inferior. We intrust our lives to the care of physicians, of whose skill and wisdom and carefulness and honesty we have no assurance comparable to our proof of Jesus, as the only physician to save our souls, and as that all-sufficient One in whoso hands none can perish. We believe, without a question, in all the great events of history ; and yet their evidence is so incon- siderable in comparison with the proof of the gospel, that if you take away as unestablished the great ])illars of the argument of Christianity, you pro- nounce the whole foundation of historical knowledge unestablished ; yea, you rob mankind of the whole fruit of human testimony, and write terra incognita over almost the whole map of the generations and things of the universe. 3. How impressive to the mind of every human being should the evidence of Christianity appear. If he take up any system of faith which men have ever attempted to substitute for the gospel, and com- pare its evidences, how immediately is it confounded by the contrast. If he attempt to set aside any one of the great proofs on which the noble fabric of Chris- SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 479 tianity is supported, how immediately are his efforts defeated and his weapons broken? He may invent difficulties, but the arguments of the gospel he cannot answer. What then is the condition of the inquirer ? The religion of Christ thus solemnly and impressively attested, declares him a sinner before a just and holy God, condemned under sentence of the divine law to eternal retribution and woe. It tells him, that except he repent he must perish ; except he believe in and follow Jesus, as his master and only hope, he cannot be delivered from condemna- tion. It declares, on the other hand, that if he repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he shall be saved ; the sting of death will be taken away ; an inheritance will be given him " that is incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." All this comes to him under the sanction of evidences innu- merable, for none of which hath a refutation ever been invented. History informs him that the best and wisest men of all ages have considered those evidences incontrovertible. Immense multitudes as- sure him, that in embracing the gospel they have experienced the truth of its promises, and realized the holy and happy influence of its doctrines. The probability, to say the very least, must seem im- mense even to a sceptic, that should he reject Chris- tianity, he would reject the truth of Grod and incur eternal ruin. While, on the other hand, the certainty is evident, that should he embrace it, not only would he suffer no loss in case it should prove untrue, but he would gain many precious consolations in this 480 " M^ILVAINE'S EVIDENCES. life, of which infidelity is entirely barren. In thes3 circumstances, how serious is the crisis when he is making the choice whether to he an infidel or a Christian. Does he decide for infidelity ? he can gain nothing ; he certainly loses much ; and if the gospel be true, he loses all for ever. Does he decide for Christianity ? he can lose nothing ; he certainly gains a great deal ; and if even then infidelity should prove to be true, he has nothing to regret but that truth and happiness should be so directly at war. Then what a step does he take, who, notwith- standing all the evidences of the religion of Jesus, determines upon its denial ! What solemnity and carefulness of investigation, what candor and impar- tiality of judgment, what jealousy over one's own inclinations and prejudices, what long and patient consideration, what earnest prayer for divine guid- ance and help should precede such a decision. One would suppose that at least the maturest knowledge, and the coolest temperament, and the most sober hours, would be waited for before coming to a point on which such tremendous consequences are sus- pended. What then is our amazement to see the stupid ignorance, or the senseless levity, or the lazy thoughtlessness, or the intemperate enmity, with which this momentous decision is almost always made! How many become infidels, not only with- out candid investigation, but without any serious thinking — without so much as an inquiry — without even a decent sobriety of mind. To such persons, I know not a more alarming occupation than that of SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 481 reading a well-ordered exhibition of the evidences of Christianity. Have the evidences of the Christian religion been ever answered? Infidels have attacked Christianity; but any thing may be attacked. They have slan- dered her doctrines, ridiculed her word, reviled her precepts, hated her hoUness, and influenced many to go and do likewise ; but neither hatred, nor reviling, nor ridicule, nor slander is the test of truth. Have infidels ever resorted to the one only fair and honest mode of meeting, face to face, the whole array of testimony which Christianity advances, and endeav- oring coolly to prove, as a matter of historical evi- dence, that the authenticity of the New Testament and the credibility of its history are not sustained ; that the miracles of Jesus have not been supported with adequate testimony; that the prophecies of the Scriptures have met their attestation in no accurate histories ; that Christianity was propagated by human force alone, and its fruits are those of a corrupt and deceitful tree ? I answer, No. There is no such effort in the books of infidelity. I read of speculations, op- posed to our facts; insinuations, in answer to our • testimonies ; sneers, in reply to our solemn reason- ings ; assertions, where we demanded arguments ; levity and presumption, where an advocate of truth would have been serious and humble. But I know of no such thing as a book of infidelity in any sense corresponding in the nature, or grounds, or spirit of its reasoning, with such arguments for Christianity as those of Paley, or Lardner, or Gregory, or Wilson, Evidences. 2 1 482 M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. and a thousand others, to which no man ever dared lo attempt an answer. Infidelity, like an insect on ihc pillar of some stupendous temple, that can see no further than the microscopic irregularities of the pol- islied marble beneath its feet, may busy itself in hunting for little specks in the surface of the stately edifice of Christianity, but has no such eye, and takes no such elevated stand, as would enable it to survey the whole plan, and judge of its pretensions by the mutual adaptation of its parts, the harmony and grandeur of its proportions. 4. But there is a most important feature in all the evidence we have been considering, to which I now direct your special attention. It is strictly phil- osophicaL By this I . mean, that the process by which we have arrived at the truth of Christianity is ))recisely similar to that by wliich the astronomer arrives at the most certain trutlis of the celestial bodies, or the chemist determines the most funda- mental doctrines of his important science. The grand characteristic of the philosophy that Bacon illustrated and Newton so nobly applied, and to which all sci- ence is so deeply indebted, is, that it discards specu- lation, places no dependence upon theory, demands fact for every thing, and in every thing submits im- plicitly to the decision of fact, no matter how incom- prehensible, or how opposed by all the speculations of the world. This is called inductive philosophy, in distinction from that of theory and conjecture. It collects its facts by personal experiments and obser- vation, or by the testimony of those whose experi- SUMMARY AND OBJECTIONS. 483 ments and observations, and whose fidelity in record- ing them, are worthy of reliance. From these it makes its careful inductions, and determines the laws of science, with a degree of plain, unpresuming authority to which every enlightened mind feels it ought to bow. The great principle of all Newton's Principia, and that on which he set the ladder that raised him to the stars, was this simple axiom : " What- ever is collected from this induction ought to be re- ceived, notwithstanding any conjectural hypothesis to the contrary, till such time as it shall be contradicted or limited by further observations." But why is not this self-evident truth as fundamental in religion as in astronomy ? If Reid and Stewart have been per- mitted, with universal consent and approbation, to apply the simple principles of induction to the phi- losophy of the mind, on what possible ground can they be excluded from the philosophy of the soul — the religion of the heart? We beg as a favor, what is also demanded as a right, that Christianity may bo tried by the strictest application of these principles. You are called upon for no greater effort of credulity, no more implicit reliance on testimony, in order to receive the whole system of Christianity as a divine revelation, than you are obliged daily to exercise in believing those innumerable facts in natural science which you have not the opportunity of testing by your own experiments. In regard to these, you sim- ply ask, What is the statement ? Is it accurate ? Is it honest ? However it may contradict your previous ideas, or spem at variance with previous phenomena, 4M M'lLVAINE'S EVIDENCES. or even with well-established laws, you only investi- gate the testimony with the more carefulness. This confirmed, you receive the facts, and instead of squar- ing them by any of your old theories or speculations, you proceed to measure .the latter by their line, with as much submission as if every mystery involved in them were perfectly explained. Only behave thus reasonably in the investigation of the great question we have been considering. Apply to it the measur- ing rod of sound philosophy. Let every speculation as to its truth be blotted out. Let all conjectural hypotheses, for and against it, be set aside. Let the infidel and the Christian sit together in the chairs of Hacon and Newton, and with that stern rejection of mere theory and that lowly deference to fact which so eminently distinguished those venerable patriarchs of modern science, let the New Testament be brought to the bar. It professes to be the authentic and cred- ible record of the life and doctrine of Christ. In it, Christ professes to have been sent of God. Let the question be put — not, is this religion consistent with our notions of what man wanted, and God might have been expected to reveal? not, does it contain any thing strange, or mysterious, or apparently con- tradictory to what we have been accustomed to be- lieve? but let it be a plain question of inductive philosophy. Is Christianity supported by a compe- tent number of well-certified facts ? Is there so much credible testimony that we are warranted in deter- mining that the New Testament is authentic ; that if<; ]ii