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Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/counselstoyoungmOOmoririch
COUNSELS
YOUNG MEN,
MODERN INFIDELITY
THE EVIDENcIs OF CHEISTIANITT.
BY JOHN MORISON, D.D.
1
The Bible is indeed ajnong books, -what the diamond is among precious
stones. — RoBBRT Botlb
PUBLISHED BY THE
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
160 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK.
^^£^
Of TBK
TJHirBRSITT
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CONTENTS.
PART I.
A PORTRAITURE OF MODERN SCEPTICISM.
PAGE
Introductory Remarks 9
Chap . I. The views of Sceptics respecting ttie moral character
of God .16
Chap II. Infidels profess to hold the doctrine of the Divine Ex
istence, but neglect all religious worship . . 19
Chap. III. Brief survey of the morality which Infidelity inculcates
and displays 23
Chap. IV. The practical effects of Infidelity 27
Chap. V. A contrasted view of Infidelity and Christianity . . 30
Chap. VI. An affectionate appeal to those who have beer^ntan-
gled in the snares of Infidelity ... 3G
PART II.
THE TRUTH AND EXCELLENCE OP CHRISTIANITY.
Chap. I. The comparative credit due to the conclusions of Scep-
tics and Christians .... . . 42
Chap. II. The Evidence of Christianity admits of being brought
home individually, with convincing power, to every
man's heart . . 51
Chap. III. Brief survey of the branches of evidence which may be
urged upon those who have not yielded up their
minds to the divine authority of tlie Gospel . , 57
4 CONTENTS.
SECTION FIRST.
PAGE
The Internal Evidence of Christianity . . 58
1. The moral character of its great Founder ... 58
2. The sublimity of its diction 64
3. The high standard of its morality .... 69
i. The coincidence of Christianity with the character of
God and the actual condition of man . 60
SECTION SECOND.
The External Evidence of Christianity . 89
1. Miracles ...» 90
2. The Resurrection of Christ 112
3. Prophecy . . . • 122
4. The early success of Christianity .... 137
5. The moral and social benefits conferred on mankind by
Christianity 153
Chap. IV. On the uncorrupted transmission of the Sacred Books 162
Chap. V. On the Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures . . .174
Chap. VI. Popular objections to the full Inspiration of the Holy
Scriptures 194
CoNCLunoxi . 201
'^> or
PREFACE.
As the forms of infidelity are constantly chang-
ing, it becomes the duty of all good men to watch
its versatile movements, and to endeavor, according
to their several abilities, to counteract its subtle and
pernicious influence. Standing, as we do, in the
full blaze of secular knowledge, there is the utmost
danger, through the depravity of our fallen nature,
of our preferring the wisdom of man to the wisdom
of God ; and if the advocates of revealed truth do
not rush into the field of conflict with the enemies
of human happiness, there is reason to fear that
scepticism will obtain a partial and momentary tri-
umph — I say partial and momentary/, for the truth
of Heaven must ultimately prevail, and every power
that would silence the voice of "the living ora-
cles" must at last be crushed by the omnipotent
1*
PREFACE.
energy of the Son of God. I am not afraid for the
ark of the Lord ; but I regard it as a solemn duty
to contribute my aid, however humble, to the defence
of revealed truth; and particularly to make my ap-
peal to that portion of my fellow-men who, either
from mental tendency or association in life, are pe-
culiarly exposed to the desolating and pernicious
onset of sceptical opinions.
I am aware there is nothing novel or peculiar in
the treatise which I now place on the altar of the
public ; but I am fully satisfied that the position I
have taken is sure, and that the sternest or the most
insidious infidelity has no honest argument to op-
pose to the conclusions I have ventured, with un-
hesitating confidence, to draw. I have written with
the decision which becomes him who feels he has
truth, and the truth of Heaven, on his side ; and I
beseech no man who deigns to examine what I have
said to indulge a sneer, while conscience tells him
that he should offer up a prayer to " the Father of
lights" for wisdom to guide his devious course, and
above all, to rectify his wayward and erring heart.
If there be any thing requiring distinct specifica-
PREFACE. 7
tion in the plan of the following work, it is the order
pursued in laying down the series of evidence in
support of the claims of revelation. Whether right
or wrong, I have wrought my way from the inte-
rior to the outworks ; and have made my first attack
on the citadel of the heart, by endeavoring to point
out the adaptations of Christianity to the known and
admitted condition of human nature. In doing so,
I flatter myself that I have pursued a simpler and
more natural course than those writers upon the
same important subject who have placed an almost
exclusive dependence upon external evidence. At
the same time, I have not dared to overlook any part
of that proof which shows the Bible to be the word
of God.
r #
PART FIRST.
A PORTRAITURE OF MODERN INFIDELITY
introductory remarks.
*' There is no fear of God before their
EYES." Such is the concluding- sentence of a de-
scription which strips fallen humanity of all its boast-
ed excellence ; which shows, by a most convincing
train of reasoning", that Jews and Gentiles are alike
guilty before God ; and which pictures, in vivid co-
lors, the awful depravity into which men sink with-
out the intervention and the vital reception of the
Gospel of peace. As the whole race is involved in
one common apostacy, there is only one remedy that
meets their case, and that remedy is Christianity.
Wherever this divine catholicon is embraced, it ul-
timately effects the cure of man's moral distempers ;
it purifies his conscience from guilt, by an applica-
tion of " the blood of sprinkling ;" it purifies his
heart by the operation of a living faith ; and it puri-
fies his life by the all-subduing influence of motives
which animate him with the love of God, and with
the quenchless desire of being conformed to his moral
10 MODERN INFIDELITY.
image. Wherever Christianity is rejected, man re-
mains the victim of apostacy, the child of wrath, the
sport of evil passions, and, in the truest sense, " with-
out God, and without hope in the world." Wheth-
er we survey a state of pure heathenism,* or contem-
plate a condition of society in which Christianity is
rejected as a fable, we behold, in either case, a soil
fertile in every species of wickedness that can insult
the divine Majesty, or that can degrade and brutal-
ize the human race. Could we conceive of a com-
munity wholly made up of men denying revelation,
and wholly imbued with the principles and feelings
of modern deism, we should have presented before
our minds a scene of moral turpitude and guilt too
fearful to admit of minute examination. In such a
community we should see every social tie dissolved,
every virtuous obligation trampled upon, and all the
savage passions of the human heart brought into re-
sistless and destructive play. In the creed of an in-
fidel there is nothing whatever to deter him from
the basest actions, provided he can screen himself
from the eye of public justice, and from the scorn
and derision of his fellow-men. He is a man alto-
gether without principle, who denies the legitimate
distinction between virtue and vice, who resolves all
♦ It may be fairly questioned, from the practices of all pa^
gan countries, whether there be any people in a state of pure
heathenism. Tradition seems every where to have spread
some faini glimmerings of celestial light.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 11
human motive into a principle of self-love, and who
is an equal foe to the laws of Heaven, and to the
wise and benevolent institutions of men. A powerful
writer, and an acute observer of mankind, (Rev.
Andrew Fuller,) has said that " modern unbeliev-
ers are Deists in theory, Pagans in inclination, and
Atheists in practice." They profess, indeed, to
believe in one supreme and uncreated intelligence,
infinitely benevolent, and infinitely holy ; but they
neither cultivate his benevolence nor imitate his pu-
rity ; and as it respects prayer, and praise, and the
homage of devout worship, they are as scornfully
neglectful of them as if there were no God, and are
practically in that state of total irreligion which
shows that verily " there is no fear of God before
their eyes." Though they talk loudly of one God,
and profess to pay him homage in the temple of na-
ture, it is most clear, that in escaping from the folly
and absurdity of the " gods many and lords many "
of the heathen, they have plunged themselves into a
state of reckless scepticism and doubt, which leaves
every perfection of the Deity undefined, which ut-
terly extinguishes his moral government, and which
renders even the belief of his very existence a pow-
erless and uninfluential admission.
By the aid of revelation, indeed, they have
wrought their w^ay out of the Pantheon ; but standing
in the full blaze of celestial discovery, they have set
themselves to blaspheme "the only living and true
.^^■^J^
12 MODERN INFIDELITY.
God." Ungrateful return for that light which the
God of mercy has shed upon their path, and which
was never surely intended to heighten their guilt or
to accelerate their condemnation !
What, then, are we to understand by modern infi-
delity ? Not surely that infidelity is a new thing ;
for since man lost the image of his God, he has, in
all the periods of his eventful history, evinced a ten-
dency to discredit his Maker, and even " when he
knew him, not to glorify him as God." To provide
in some degree against this tendency, and to pre-
serve the successive revelations of heaven from be-
ing utterly lost, the Most High selected one family as
the depositaries of his truth, and as the ministers of
his mercy to the rest of mankind.
It would be easy to show, by an induction of facts,
that it was infidelity, in days of old, which paved the
way for the abominations of polytheism. Men first
discredited and opposed the true oracles of Heaven,
and then set themselves to serve God in their own
way, and to prescribe a religion and a worship for
themselves ; and because " they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a
reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
convenient; being 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, disobe-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 13
dient to parents ; without understanding, covenant
breakers, without natural affection, implacable, un-
merciful ; who knowing the judgment of God, that
they which commit such things are worthy of death,
not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that
do them." It was such infidelity as this, my esteem-
ed reader, which prepared the minds of mankind for
all the grossness and all the absurdity of heathenism ;
it was such infidelity as this which obtained in Phi-
listia, and Egypt, and Canaan ; it was such infidel-
ity as this which called forth the stupendous energy
of Omnipotence, in confounding and terrifying those
evil powers who contemned the name of Israel's God
and oppressed the chosen tribes ; yea, it was such
infidelity as this which prompted all the idolatries
of the ancient church, who no sooner forgot the Lord
their God, than they set themselves to worship the
gods of the nations among whom they sojourned.
Infidelity is no new thing. It is a plant indige-
nous to the sinful heart of man ; it has sprung up in
every age ; it has more or less prevailed in every na-
tion under the whole face of heaven ; it is the pal-
pable exhibition of that secret and deep-rooted unbe-
lief which is unwilling to accredit any communica-
tion as divine that does not picture the Most High
as a being altogether answering to the sinful ima-
ginings of a depraved and apostate heart.
By modern infidelity, then, we are simply to un-
derstand those new forms and that new energy which
Counsels to Y. Men. 2
?14 MODERN INFIDELITY.
scepticism has put on in modern times, and more
particularly since the era of the French Revolution ;
by which it has mightily diffused itself among all
ranks of society, and has produced a class of writers
capable of making their appeal to each separate
branch of the community. It is modern, because
those who are yet in middle life can remember the
baneful period when it began to exert its giant
strength, and when, with a fiend-like daring, it aim-
ed a deadly blow at the foundations of civil govern-
ment and at the altars of religion. We can remem-
ber all this, and we can trace in the bloody, and im-
pure, and ruthless steps of infidelity, the odious cha-
racter which belongs to it. It is modern, for it has
decked itself forth in a thousand novel aspects ; at
one time assuming the air of reason and philosophy ;
at another, appealing to the most vulgar prejudices
of the human mind ; now weaving itself into the tex-
ture of history, and then clothing itself in the max-
ims of political wisdom ; in some instances conceal-
ing itself beneath the witchery of a well-imagined
tale ; and, in others, polluting even the very streams of
salvation, by infusing a portion of its deadly viru-
lence into the theology of the age.*
It is modern, for where, at any former period in
the history of the world, did a thing so worthless and
* In proof of this, see Professor Milman's History of the
Jews, and many other productions savoring of the Neolo-
gical school
MODERN INFIDELITY. 15
abominable put on such an imposing air, and give
itself forth as an angel of mercy to the afflicted race ?
Though it has taught men that " adultery must be
practiced if we would obtain the advantages of life ;
that female infidelity, when known, is a small thing ;
and, when unknown, nothing;"* that "there is no
merit or crime in intention;"! that "the civil law is
the sole foundation of right and wrong, and that re-
ligion has no obligation but as enjoined by the ma-
gistrate ;" J that " all the morality of our actions lies
in the judgment we ourselves form of them ;"^ " that
lewdness," in certain cases only, " resembles thirst
in a dropsy, and inactivity in a lethargy ;"|| that vir-
tue is "only the love of ourselves :"•][ though these
are the scandalous lessons which it has unblushing-
ly taught mankind, yet is it loudly proclaimed as
the only system calculated to model and perfect hu-
manity ; as the last and only refuge for the sorrow-
ing, suffering, and unhappy children of men ! This
it is which is to rescue them from all unworthy pre-
judices, which is to dissipate the mists of ages, which
is to bring back the golden period of wisdom and
reason, which is to convert the whole earth into a
paradise, and which is to make men happy as angels
under its mild and benignant sway ! There is no
cant so disgusting as that of infidelity. Though
♦ Hume. tVolney's Law of Nature. tHobbes.
§ Rousseau. II Lord Herbert, the father of English Deists.
f Lord Bolingbroke.
16 MODERN INFIDELITY.
most of its advocates have been libertines, though its
footsteps may be traced in the blood which it has
spilt, though it has trampled on all the laws of per-
sonal property and of individual right, though it pol-
lutes and degrades wherever it touches, yet are its ad-
vocates ever and anon boasting of its sublime virtues
and its blessed achievements. One thing we may
be quite sure of, that no one will listen to their vain
and empty declamations till he has lost a certain por-
tion of self-esteem, and till he wants to find an excuse
for his conduct in the laxness and uncertainty of his
belief Looking at both the literary and vulgar part
of modern infidels, we are constrained to say of them,
in the words of the great apostle, " There is no fear
of God before their eyes."
CHAPTER I.
TVte views of Infidels respectvng the morai charader of God,
God cannot be duly feared as the proper object of
religious homage, where his moral attributes and
perfections are lost sight of If we disconnect his
wisdom and power from his holiness, and goodness,
and justice, it is impossible to conceive of him with
MODERN INFIDELITY* 17
reverence, or to think of him with complacency. In
the Christian Scriptures, God's natural attributes are
invariably represented as the ministers of his bene-
volence, integrity and faithfulness. They declare
him, to be " a God of truth and without iniquity ; just
and right " in all his ways. They proclaim him to
be " the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and in
truth ; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving ini-
quity, transgression and sin, and yet by no means
clearing the guilty." They describe him as "of
purer eyes than to behold evil," and tell us that " he
cannot look upon iniquity." They exhibit him as
*' righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his
works." They teach us that he is " not a God that
hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell
with him." Such is the God of revelation; a Being
infinitely wise and powerful indeed, but one, at the
same time, " glorious in holiness, and fearful in
praises," and ever " doing wonders ;" a Being before
whom the highest orders of created intelligences
prostrate themselves and exclaim, " Holy, holy, ho-
ly is the Lord of hosts ; the whole earth is full of
his glory."
How unlike are these descriptions of the eternal
and immutable God, to the vague, contradictory and
even wicked representations of infidelity ! " We can-
not," says Lord Bolingbroke, " ascribe goodness and
justice to God, according to our ideas of them, nor
2*
1® MODERN INFIDELITY.
argue with any certainty about them ;" and again,
"it is absurd to deduce moral obligations from the
moral attributes of God, or to pretend to imitate
him in those attributes." The language held by
Bolingbroke is common to the infidel school. The
entire moral character of God is overlooked by
them, unless when they talk of his mercy, which
they always do in a manner totally inconsistent with
the existence of any such thing as a moral governr
ment. Mercy displayed at the awful risk of pros-
trating the claims of immutable holiness, can only
be another name for injustice ; and can therefore
have no affinity to that infinitely benevolent Being
who, in all the distributions both of his goodness
and mercy, acts in a manner worthy of himself, the
source and pattern of all the rectitude and purity
which exist throughout the universe.
" The object," says Andrew Fuller, " of the
Christian adoration, is Jehovah, the God of Israel ;
whose character for holiness, justice and goodness,
is displayed in the doctrines and precepts of the Gos-
pel, in a more affecting light than by any of the pre-
ceding dispensations. But who or what is the god
of deists ? It is true they have been shamed out of
the polytheism of the heathens. They have reduced
their thirty thousand deities into one ; but what is his
character ? what attributes do they ascribe to him ?
For any thing that appears in their writings, he is
as far from the holy, the just, and the good, as those
MODERN INFIDELITY. 19
of their heathen predecessors. They enjoy a plea-
sure, it is allowed in contemplating the productions
of wisdom and power ; but as to holiness, it is foreign
from their inquiries : a holy God does not appear
to be suited to their wishes.
After tracing the conflicting views of modern in-
fidels, in reference to the proper standard of mo-
rality, the same powerful writer adds — '• It is wor-
thy of notice, that, amidst all the discordance of
these writers, they agree in excluding the Divine
Being from the theory of morals. They think af-
ter their manner ; but " God is not in all their
thoughts." In comparing the Christian doctrine of
morality, the sum of w^hich is love, with their athe-
istical jargon, one seems to hear the voice of the Al-
mighty, saying, " Who is this that darkeneth coun-
sel with words without knowledge ? Fear God, and
keep his commandments ; for this is the whole duty
ot man."
CHAPTER II.
Though Infidels profess to hold the doctrine of the Divine eX"
Istencej yet they refuse or neglect all religious worship.
In this feature of their character they are more
inconsistent, and more irreligious too, than even pa-
20 JttODERN INFIDELITY.
gan idolaters themselves, who evince great zeal and
make many sacrifices in the service of their dumb
idols. One would imagine, that if there be one great
first cause, the Creator and upholder of all things,
the benignant source of all the happiness which
creatures in any part of the universe enjoy — one
would imagine, I say, that if such a Being exist, he
is entitled to the devout and spiritual worship of all
his intelligent creatures. Such is the dictate even of
unassisted reason, as has been demonstrated by a
reference even to the rudest and most brutalized
portions of the human race. How astounding then
is the fact, that only in Christian countries can men
be found denying the validity of stated worship to
the Deity ; as if the only use to be made of revela-
tion were to employ it for the horrid purpose of ob-
literating all our natural feelings of reverence for
his awful perfections! In the inspired volume we
learn that " God is a spirit, and that they who wor-
ship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth."
This supposes the duty of worship, and prescribes
the qualities by which it is to be distinguished. The
language of those who know the divine character,
and who possess a right spirit, will ever be, *' O
come, let us sing unto the Lord ; let us make a joy-
ful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come
before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a
joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is
a great God, and a great King above all gods. O
MODERN INFIDELITY. 21
come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel be-
fore the Lord our Maker ; for he is our God, and
we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of
his hand." Men may boast as they please of their
belief in one God, but if they do him no actual hom-
age, if they have no stated seasons and places of de-
votion, they are in a far worse condition than were
those benighted Athenians whom Paul beheld pros-
trate at an altar dedicated to '* the unknown God." It
is the temper, the disposition of infidelity, no less
than its preposterous creed, which distances it from
the spirit of true worship. Devotion cannot grow in
a soil on which the inexpressible levity of scepticism
has cast its withering blight. Religious awe cannot
be felt in a mind that has no sensible hold of God's
moral perfections. Love to God, drawing the soul
forth in repeated and habitual acts of grateful adora-
tion, cannot dwell in a heart where worldly lusts
and enmity against the moral government of the
Most High are struggling for the mastery.
The very same thing which led men of old to for-
sake the worship of the only living and true God,
and to betake themselves to the abominations of idol-
atry, is that which banishes from every circle of in-
fidels every thing like the semblance of religious
homage to the Deity. Is it demanded what this said
thing is ? I reply in the language of the apostle, " they
did not like to retain God in their knowledge." They
lost all delight in his holy character, and hence they
22 MODERN INFIDELITY*
sought relief for their guiky feelings in the exercises
of a religion which corresponded with the dictates of
their own impure hearts.
Deists are placed somewhat peculiarly. As they
are found only where revelation has either complete-
ly banished the grossness of idolatry, or where, at
least, it has shed its benignant rays, they cannot for'
shame revel in the impurities of heathenism ; but as
they take no delight whatever in the character of
that one God whom they profess to adore, they live
in the habitual and avowed neglect of his worship.
The ancestors of paganism forsook his worship,
•• because they did not like to retain him in their
thoughts ;" and for the same reason precisely, infi-
delity has no temple, no altar, no sacrifice, no avow-
ed, habitual, and well defined worship to that glori-
ous Being, from the near contemplation of whose
character it shrinks with instinctive dislike and dread.
Could w^e see infidelity cultivating the spirit of
prayer, laying aside its extreme and disgusting levi-
ty, and evincing an anxiety to arrive at the true know-
ledge of God, we should begin to hope on behalf of
its unhappy victims ; but reckless as its advocates are
of all devotion, and leaning as they do to their own
understanding, and evincing an utter contempt for
every thing sacred, we are compelled to look on them
as in a condition peculiarly hopeless, and must say
respecting them, " There is no fear of God befor?.
their eyes."
MODERN INFIDELITY. 23
CHAPTER III. ^
Brief survey of the Morality which Infidelity inctUeates and
All who read the Bible attentively, whatever they
may think of its divine origin, must be struck with
the perfection of its moral precepts, and especially
with the sublime and cogent reasons which it assigns
for the performance of every duty which we owe
both to God and man.
That monster of wickedness, Thomas Paine, has
said respecting the Bible, ** I feel for the honor of my
Creator in having such a book called after his name."
He must surely have meant, that he felt for himself,
when he discovered in the Bible, if he ever read it,
such an array of holy and benevolent precepts upon
which it had been his habitual practice, during a long
life, to trample with proud disdain !
The morality of the Bible is not the morality of mere
decorum, the garnishing of the outward man, the
" making clean the outside of the cup and platter ; "
it is the morality of principle ; it is the morality of
right disposition ; it is the morality of love to God
and love to man. Infidelity says, " there is no merit
or crime in intention ;" but Christianity says, that
hatred is murder,* that secret lust is adultery,t and
♦ I John, 3 : 14, 15. t Matt. 27 : 28.
24 MODERN INFIDELITY.
thai we must " love the Lord our God with all our
heart, and strength, and mind, and our neighbor as
ourselves." It prohibits the resentment of injuries,
and urges the forgiveness of enemies.* It tells us " to
weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them
that rejoice." It enforces every relative duty by an
appeal to motives equally tender and sublime,! and
it demands a personal sanctity of manners, which ad-
mits of no reserve, and leaves room for the indul-
gence of no single habit of transgression .J
If infidelity were from above, it would bear the
marks of its celestial origin. God must be holy ;
and a religion suited to his intelligent creatures
ought to carry with it some resemblance to his mo-
ral nature. Infidelity has no such resemblance in ei-
ther theory or practice. In theory it is an apology
for almost every crime that disgraces human nature ;
and in the diflferent codes of its advocates every spe.
cies of transgression is either defended or palliated.
And what it is in theory, it is yet more abundantly in
practice. Its leading characters have oeen worthless
beyond expression. What were Herbert, and Hobbes,
and Shaftesbury, and Woolston, and Tindal, and
Bolingbroke, but so many notorious hypocrites, who,
for a piece of paltry self-interest, professed to love and
reverence Christianity, while they were all the while
insidiously endeavoring to lower its credit in the
• Rom. 12 : 19-21. t Eph. 5 : 26. 6 : 1 , 5-9. t Heb. 12 : 14.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 25
world ? In the long and gloomy catalogue of human
delinquents, where shall we find two miscreants such
as Rochester and Wharton ? They were indeed a
reproach to our common nature. Morgan's dishon-
est quotation of Scripture to serve a purpose, and his
miserable cant in professing himself to be a Chris-
tian, notwithstanding his amazing zeal to subvert all
the peculiarities of revealed religion, speak volumes
as to his notions of morality. Hume, the most dis-
honest and prejudiced of all historians,* died as a
fool dieth, cracking vulgar jokes with some of his
unhappy companions. Voltaire so little regarded
truth, that, in speaking in his " Ignorant Philoso-
pher " of the tolerative spirit of the ancient Romans,
he observes, " they never persecuted a single philo-
sopher for his opinions, from the time of Romulus till
the popes got possession of their power.*' In this pas-
sage a veil is drawn over the massacre of thousands
and tens of thousands of unoffending Christians. In
like manner this boasted friend of liberty and reason,
when he describes the expatriation or cruel death of
one million of Frehch Protestants, speaks of them
as " weak and obstinate menP As these Protestants
not being infidels, were stripped of all claim to phi-
losophy, we suppose it was a small matter to mur-
der such vulgar persons in cold blood ! We find this
* How can the guardians of the rising generation still
leave them to the guidance of such a sycophant in politics,
and such a sceptic in religion !
Counsels to Y. Men. 3
26 MODERN INFIDELITY.
same champion of infidelity requesting his friend
D'Alembert to tell for him a direct lie, by denying
that he was the author of the " Philosophical Dic-
tionary." His friend told the lie for him ; and he has
himself well described his own character in the fol-
lowing words : " Monsieur Abb6, I must be read, no
matter whether lam believed or not." Voltaire, af-
ter all his infidelity, being threatened by the autho-
rities, died professedly a Catholic.
Rousseau was profligate and immoral from his
youth up. " I have been a rogue," says he, " and
am so still sometimes, for trifles which I had rather
take than ask for." He abjured Protestantism, and
became a Catholic ; "for which," says he, " in re-
turn, I was to receive subsistence ; but," he adds,
" from this interested conversion nothing remained
but the remembrance of my having been both a dupe
and an apostate." After this, settling at Geneva, and
finding that there he was denied the rights of Chris-
tian citizens, he renounced popery and conformed to
the religion of the state. The life of this wretched
man was one continued and uninterrupted scene of
hypocrisy, fornication, seduction, base intrigue, and
withal, constant violation of the rules of honesty.
What he said of one of the events of horror which
marked his career may be applied, with too much
truth, to his whole history — " Guilty without re-
morse, I soon became so without measure."
MODERN INFIDELITY. 27
CHAPTER IV.
The Practical effects of Infidelity.
It is no wonder surely that such a race of men
should have prepared the minds of their disciples for
deeds of unusual atrocity. In France a fit theatre
presented itself for the exhibition of infidelity in its
own native colors. There gross superstition on the
one hand, and arbitrary government on the other,
led thousands virtuously to sigh for national deliver-
ance. With loud professions of love of liberty and
self-devoted patriotism, infidelity rushed into the field
of conflict ; but though she professed to be an angel
of mercy, she soon proved herself to be but a fiend of
perdition. There was no deed of horror which she
did not perpetrate. Within her destructive sphere
life and property ceased to have any value attached
to them. The most virtuous citizens fell victims to
her insatiable cruelty. Personal aggrandizement
became the sole object of her ambition ; and, under
the fair pretence of philosophy, of enlightened policy,
and of regard to the public weal, a whole nation
was laid in ruins, every public institution was plun-
dered, the state was sunk in anarchy and confusion,
deeds of blood too shocking to describe were perpe-
trated, and the church herself, already sufficiently
degraded, was made the organ of propagating blas-
phemies the most hideous against the God of hea-
28 MODERN INFIDELITY.
ven. " Infidelity," observes a spirited and able chron
icier of these events, (Judge Rush,) " having got pos-
session of the power of the state, every nerve was
exerted to efface from the mind all ideas of religion
and morality. The doctrine of the immortality of
the soul, or a future state of rewards and punish-
ments, so essential to the preservation of order in so-
ciety, and to the prevention of crimes, was publicly
ridiculed, and the people were taught to believe that
death was an everlasting sleep,
" They ordered the words ' Temple of Reason '
to be inscribed on the churches, in contempt of the
doctrine of revelation. Atheistical and licentious ho-
milies were published in the churches, instead of the
old service ; and a ludicrous imitation of the Greek
mythology exhibited under the title of ' The Reli-
gion of Reason.' Nay, they went so far as to dress
up, with the most fantastic decorations, a common
strumpet, w^hom they blasphemously styled ' The
Goddess of Reason,' and who was carried to church
on the shoulders of some jacobins selected for the
purpose, escorted by the national guards and the con-
stituted authorities. When they got to the church, the
strumpet was placed on the altar erected for the pur-
pose, and harangued the people, who, in return, pro-
fessed the deepest adoration of her, and sung the Car-
magnole and other songs by way of worshiping her.
This horrid scene (almost too horrible to relate) was
concluded by burning the prayer-book, confessional.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 29
and every thing appropriated to the use of public
worship ; numbers, in the meantime, danced round
the flames with every appearance of frantic and in-
fernal mirth." I might also notice the fiend-like ma-
lignity which was directed against the institution of
the Sabbath, during the reign of terror in France, as
if the sole design of that desperate faction was not
only to efface all reverence for the Deity from the
public mind, but also to destroy every memorial of an
intelligent creature's obligation to him, and every
symbol of the existence of a moral government.
Let revolutionary and infidel France teach man-
kind, by one great and affecting lesson, what the en-
emies of revelation can do to heighten the standard
of national morals, and to render inviolable the per-
sons and properties of men. With the page of their '
own infamous history before them, let sceptics of
every school blush to talk of the benefits which their
system is fitted to confer on the human race. And
let them remember, that the grand reason why the
prevalence of their principles has ever issued in the
disruption of every social and moral tie, has been be-
cause there was " no fear of God before their eyes."
30 MODERN INFIDELITY.
CHAPTER V.
A coTUrasted view of Infidelity and Christianity*
From such scenes as these, how delightful to turn
to the pure, and mild, and benignant genius of Chris-
tianity ! Were her golden rule, "as ye would that
* The Bishop of Calcutta, in his twenty-second lecture on
the " Evidences of Christianity)" has finely contrasted the
character of Voltaire with that of the Hon. Robeit Boyle,
** Now contrast," says he, " with this character, any of the
eminent Christians that adorned their own country and Eu-
rope about the same period. Take the Hon. Robert Boyle,
of whom it is difficult to say whether his piety as a Christian,
or his fame as a philosopher, was most remarkable. Consider
'the compass of his mind, the solidity of his judgment, the
fertility of his pen, the purity of his morals, the amiableness
of his temper, his beneficence to the poor and distressed, his
uniform friendships, his conscientious aim at truth in all his
pursuits and determinations. At an early age he examined
the question of the Christian religion to the bottom, on occa-
sion of some distracting doubts which assaulted his mind.
Confirmed in the truth of Christianity, his whole life was a
comment on his sincerity. He was admitted to certain se*
cret meetings before he had reached mature years ; but they
^\ere graced and enlightened associations for canvassing
subjects of natural philosophy, at a time when the civil war
suspended all academical studies, and they led to the forma-
tion of the Royal Society, one of the noblest establishments
of his country. His disinterestedness and humility were such
that he refused the provostship of Eaton and the honors of
a peerage, that he might devote his talents, and time, and no-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 31
men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them,"
the universal law of all the families and nations un-
der heaven, how would it change the face of society <
ble fortune to works of public utility and benevolence. Hi3
uniform regard to truth made him the example and admira-
tion of his age. His tenderness of conscience led him to de-
cline the most honorable office in the scientific world, be-
cause he doubted about the oaths prescribed, and his reve-
rence for the glorious Creator induced him to pause when-
ever he pronounced his name. From such a student we may
expect truth. From such a philosopher we receive, with un-
mixed pleasure, A Treatise of the high veneration which merits
intellect owes to God ;" or a discourse " On greatness of mind
promoted by Christianity J"
The same excellent author furnishes the following admi-
rable contrasts :
"Contrast, in point of mere benevolence, the lives and de-
portment of such an infidel as Rousseau, and such a Christian
as Doddridge ; the one all pride, selfishness, fury, caprice,
rage, gross sensuality ; casting about firebrands and death;
professing no rule of morals but his feelings, abusing the
finest powers to the dissemination, not merely of objections
against Christianity, but of the most licentious and profligate
principles ; — Doddridge, all purity, mildness, meekness, and
love, ardent in his good will to man, the friend and counsel-
lor of the sorrowful ; regular, calm, consistent ; dispensing
peace and truth by his labors and by his writings: living, not
for himself, but for the common good, to which he sacrificed
his health, and even life.
" Or contrast such a man as Volney with Swartz. They
both visit distant lands ; they are active and indefatigable in
their pursuits ; thy acquire celebrity, and communicate re-
spectively a certain impulse to their widened circles ; but the
32 MODERN INFIDELITY.
how would it stem the torrent of pride, ambition, and
vain glory ! how would it cause wars and rumors of
wars to cease to the very ends of the earth ! how
would It unite the whole family of man in one com-
mon bond of brotherhood ! how would it banish in-
justice, cruelty, oppression, and licentiousness from
the earth ! In proportion as Christian principles have
triumphedjin that same proportion immorality has dis-
appeared, and all social virtues have been practiced ;
and when it is universal, which we are assured it will
be, it will bring moral health along with it to all the
dwellers upon earth.
'• Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to
political prosperity," said the immortal Washing-
ton, " religion and morality are indispensable sup-
one, jaundiced by infidelity, the sport of passion and caprice,
lost to all argument and right feeling, comes home to diffuse
the poison of unbelief, to be a misery to himself, the plague
and disturber of his country, the dark calumniator of the
Christian faith. The other remains far from his native land
to preach the peaceful doctrine of the Gospel on the shores of
India; he becomes the friend and brother of those whom he
had never seen, and only heard of as fellow-creatures ; he
diffuses blessings for half a century ; he insures the admira-
tion of the heathen prince near whom he resides ; he be-
comes the mediator between contending tribes and nations ;
he establishes a repditation for purity, integrity, disinte-
restedness, meekness, which compel all around to respect
and love him ; he forms churches ; he instructs children ; he
disperses the seeds of charity and truth ; he is the model of
all the virtues he enjoins."
MODERN INFIDELITY. 33
ports In vain would that man claim the tribute of
patriotism who should labor to subvert the great
pillars of human happiness, those firmest props of
men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with
the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them.
A volume could not trace all their connections with
private and public felicity. Let it be simply asked,
where is the security for property, for reputation,
for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the
oaths which are the instruments of investigation in
the courts of justice ? And let us with caution in-
dulge the supposition that morality can be maintain-
ed without religion. Whatever may be conceded to
the influence of refined education on minds of a pe-
culiar structure, reason and experience both forbid
us to expect that national morality can prevail in
exclusion of religious principle."
In a happier age, fast approaching, Christianity
will dictate rules of right government ; it will estab-
lish equitable principles of national commerce; it
will teach kings and senates how to rule in wusdom
and love ; it will remove the great barriers to na-
tional tranquillity and national prosperity out of the
way, by constituting the " people all righteous," and
setting up the authority of God as the best possible
support of laws which accord with his word.
Infidelity can dream of no such renovation. Its
past steps may be traced in blood and anarchy ; and
the prospect which stretches before it is scarcely
34 MODERN INFIDELITY.
less appalling. It has no link whereby to bind man
to man, because it severs man from his Maker. It is
essentially heartless and cruel. It rules without
God, and would exclude him from his own world,
and notning awaits it but the exposure and in-
famy which must sooner or later overtake all sys-
tems of evil.
O what a world were this, if all men were infi-
dels ! Then, indeed, would they soon destroy them-
selves. Their vices would be such as to annihilate
all the social sympathies, and to cause the various
elements of society to rush together in wild confu-
sion and ruin.
What cause of congratulation is it, that infidelity,
in its more direct forms, has so little power in this
country to mould our national institutions ! No one
who marks the zeal and malignity of our infidel
press, can doubt, for a moment, what would be the
fate of every honest and virtuous family, if infidels
could, by any means, acquire ascendancy. There is
a great deal of secret and avowed infidelity in the
land ; but, blessed be God, our property, our do-
mestic peace, our national security are not as yet
menaced by the impugners of revelation.
It is at the same time a mournful consideration,
that so many of the laboring classes of the commu-
nity are vitiated by the wretched dogmas of this
school. It is a distinct characteristic of modern in-
fidelity, that it aims to subvert the hopes of the poor.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 35
The writings of Mr. Paine, combined with other
circumstances, have led to this feature in its malig-
nant history. The libertinism of sceptics, till of late
years, was regarded as the exclusive privilege ot
the educated, the intellectual, and the distinguished
portion of mankind. Now it is far otherwise; the
pestilence has spread itself, and operatives, in every
department of trade, are plied by the apostles of in-
fidelity, who, not content with destroying the poor
man's hopes of immortality, set themselves to lower
all his notions of moral obligation, to vitiate all his
social habits, to foster in him the spirit of rebellion
against all constituted authority, and thus, as it
were, to deck their victim for the day of sacrifice.
I firmly believe that in London alone, to say nothing
of other large populations, there are thousands and
tens of thousands lost to industry, to health, to re-
putation, and to peace, outcasts from society, and
terrors to the community, who might trace th^ utter
wreck of their character to their association with
companions of infidel sentiments, and to their fami-
liarity with the infidel press. It has been my lot as
a Christian minister, more than once to confirm
these affecting statements by the unequivocal avow-
als of infidels themselves, in the last periods of hu-
man existence, and also by witnessing in some, once
promising characters, the baneful effects arising
from the adoption of infidel opinions.
86 MODERN INFIDELITY.
CHAPTER VI.
An affectionate appeal to those who have been enta/nglcd in th/i
snares of Infidelity.
When I reflect how many there are whose faith
in Christianity has heen shaken, and whose minds
have fallen a prey to the wiles of scepticism ; and,
moreover, when I call to remembrance that so many
of the young and promising rank among the victims
of this moral contagion, I cannot but feel an earnest
desire to become an instrument of good to a portion
of my fellow-creatures, at once so interesting and so
much exposed. O that God would strengthen me to
speak a word to unhappy and deluded sceptics 1
With all the zeal for their salvation to which I can
possibly give utterance, would I make my appeal to
their judgments and consciences. Let me bespeak
their candor. I am conscious of no motive but a
desire to honor God, and to save their souls. Re-
garding them as the victims of fatal error, I am de-
voutly anxious to see them extricated from it. Their
creed I hold to be alike gloomy and pernicious, and
I would show them a more excellent way, and
would introduce them, with a bounding heart, into
the light and liberty of Christianity.
What, then, let me ask, has led you to reject
Christianity ? Have you carefully examined it, and
MODERN INFIDELITY. 37
found its evidence defective ? If so, where does the
difficulty press ? If you are really perplexed, ask
counsel of some enlightened Christian, and he will
leadily aid you in disposing of the doubts and mis-
givings of a mind really sincere. I believe a doubt-
ing man may be sincere. There are many volumes
suited to you^ state, and which you might read with
the greatest possible advantage. Let me particularly
recommend to your attentive perusal, " The Gospel
its own Witness," by the late Rev. Andrew Fuller ;
" The Evidences of Christianity," by Dr. Paley ;
"A Short Method with Deists," by Leslie; Dr.
Chalmers' work on " The Christian Revelation,"
and a work entitled " A Treatise on the Nature and
Causes of Doubt in Religious Questions."
But let me deal honestly with you, as your friend.
Have you all this supposed difficulty about the evi-
dence and the truth of Christianity? Or is your
hesitancy of a very different order ? Do you feel a
repugnance to the holy requirements of Christianity,
and a consequent dread of the judgments which it
threatens ? And does this prompt in you the bane-
ful wish, " O that it might not be true ?" Remember
what Rochester said, " A bad life is the only grand
objection to this book ;" laying his hand'emphatical-
ly on the Bible. Has not this been very much the
case with you? You have fallen into sinful courses j
you have yielded to the ways of the world ; you
have gone with a multitude to do evil ; you have
CouDsels to Y. Men. ^
3o MODERN INFIDELITY.
forsaken your better fellowships ; you have learned
to spend your Sabbaths in pleasure, and you have
gradually become more and more careless. In this
state you have been very unhappy at times ; you
have thought, well, " What if, after all, the Bible be
true ! What if, after all, the wicked shall be turned
into hell !" At this juncture, some one further ad-
vanced in scepticism than yourself has aided you in
shaking off the galling yoke of conscience. He has
put some infidel publication into your hand; you
have read it; it has fallen in with your previous
wishes and habits ; you have said, "This is the very
thing I wanted ;" and you have, at last, learned to
revile the Bible, to set light by its hopes, and to
talk slanderously of its professors.
Come now, my friend, and let us reason together.
Look back on the process. Why did you so readily
drink in the poison contained in the infidel volume ?
Why ? Because you were in a state of mind very
much the opposite of that which the Bible demands.
But what have you found, my friend, in the regions
of scepticism ? You have relinquished the hopes of
Christianity by Christ Jesus. What have you ob*
tained in their place ? Amidst all your acquirements,
have you found peace of mind ? Will your present
character and your present religion sustain you in
a dying hour? Multitudes of infidels have found
their creed, at death, insufficient to meet the awful
catastrophe. Not a single instance can be produced,
MODERN INFIDELITY. 39
in which a believer in revelation was terrified or
dismayed because he had been a Christian, Many-
have been distressed on account of the defective evi-
dence of their Christianity, but none on account of
their being Christians. Does it never occur to you,
that if Christianity be true, you are undone ? — that
if it be false, he who believes it can suffer no in-
jury?* Who, let me ask you, are your compa-
nions ? What are your pursuits ? and what your
hopes ? I deeply feel for you, while I greatly blame
you. You may have been inadequately instructed ;
you may have seen bad examples ; you may have
witnessed great inconsistencies in some of the pro-
fessors of religion. Granting, however, that all this
may have been the case, still the interests of the
soul are a personal concern. No man can stand in
your place when you die. I beseech you, then, to
arouse yourself from that lethargy into which sin
and unbelief, acting and reacting, have conjointly
sunk you.
Ask yourself this question, " What makes me a
* " Indisputably," said Lord Byron, in a letter sent by him
to the late Mrs. Sheppard, " the firm believers in the Gos-
pel have a great advantage over all others, for this simple
reason — that if true, they will have their reward hereafter ;
and if there be no hereafter, they can be but with the infidel
in his eternal sleep, having had the assistance of an exalted
hope through life, without subsequent disappointment, since
(at the worst, for them) ' out of nothing, nothing can arise/
— ^not even sorrow. "
40 MODERN INFIDELITY.
sceptic ? Is it because I have examined for myself,
and know the Gospel to be a fable ? or is it because
I desire that it may be one T' And why should you
desire this ? If Christianity does not meet your case,
no other system can. Infidelity has not met your
case ; it has not awakened hope ; it has not allayed
despair ; it has not ministered peace. No : it has
only stupified a conscience which must yet awake ;
it has only taught you to put the evil day far away ;
it has only blinded you for a time to the dread pros-
pects of a future and impending eternity.
Why, I ask again, should you wish that Christi-
anity may not be true ? Is it because you feel your-
self guilty, and shrink from the condemnation which
it threatens ? Well might you thus shrink if it did
not reveal a remedy, as well as disclose a disease,
and point out its consequences. You are guilty, yea,
ten thousand times more guilty than you ever ima-
gined yourself to be ; but what I maintain is, that if
you turn aw^ay the eye of faith from that great sa-
crifice which Christianity reveals, you must sink for
ever beneath the pressure of your guilt, and with
this superadded horror, that you perish at the thresh-
hold of mercy.
Is it because you do not love the pure and holy
demands of Christianity, that you turn away from
it? Well; but is not this, its pure character, the
proof of its celestial origin ? and if so, will it avail
you to reject it ? Will the holy life it requires be less
MODERN INFIDELITY. 41
obligatory because you determine not to pursue it ?
Will the great Judge excuse you at last because you
loved your sins more than his revealed will ?
Besides, what is to root out unholy inclinations, to
correct depraved habits, to superinduce devotion, and
to raise the soul to God ? Is it not divine meditor
tion on the blessed word ? Here is that consecrated
fountain which, by the grace of God, shall quench
your thirst for sin. Here you may read of " the new.
heart" till you know, by experience, what it is.
Here is a divine Deliverer, whose " name is called
Jesus, because he saves his people from their sins."
Here is a divine Sanctifier, who can " create within
you a clean heart, and renew within you a right
spirit." One word more, and I have done. Ask God
to teach you. Ask him, if the Bible be from him, to
enable you to come to the belief of it. Ask him to re-
move your blindness, to allay your prejudices, and,
above all, to prevent any sinful habit from giving a
bias to your decision. Make no delay in this work.
If you die a stranger to the hopes of Christianity, it
had been better for you that you had never been born !
4*
PART SECOND.
THE TRUTH AND EXCELLENCE OF
CHRISTIANITY.
CHAPTER I.
TVte coTTvparative credit due to the conclusions of Sceptics and
Christians,
*'F0R WE HAVE NOT BELIEVED CUNNINGLY DE-
VISED FABLES." Such, at least, is the Christian's
estimate of the stability of his own hopes ; and such
is the settled conviction of every sincere friend of re-
vealed truth. When the moral character and habits
of those who profess their belief in Christianity is ta-
ken into account, there can be no hesitation in ad-
mitting that they are strictly honest in the avowal of
their faith, and that they do not affect to repose on
the truth of a system which, after all, they secretly
disbelieve. That there are many false pretenders to
the iaith of Christ is readily conceded ; but after the
names of all such have been struck off from the list
of its genuine friends, there will yet remain a multi-
tude of honest men, far above all suspicion, who, hi
MODERN INFIDELITY. 43
life, and at death, have professed their sincere and
heart-felt belief in the religion of Jesus of Nazareth.
To impugn their integrity, as men of veracity, would
be alike absurd and unjust. They are, beyond doubt,
entitled to all credit for sincerity, when, with the Bi-
ble in their hands, they exclaim, " We have not fol-
lowed cunningly devised fables."
The great question then is, are they mistaken in
the estimate which they have formed of the Bible ?
Are they under the influence of delusion, though
they fondly believe that^they have embraced the
truth of God ? In deciding such inquiries as these,
several considerations naturally occur to the mind,
irrespective even of the direct evidences of the Chris-
tian revelation.
What, then, has been the amount of intellectual
qualification possessed by Christians for investiga-
ting the truth or falsehood of their hopes ? It may
be true, indeed, that the mass of those who have em-
braced the Gospel have been little elevated, in point
of mind, above any other equal portion of the hu-
man race ; although it cannot be denied, that in
Christian countries the common people are much
superior to their fellows in heathen lands. But be
this as it may, can any one affirm that among
the list of Christian advocates there are not to be
found multitudes of men in the highest degree qua.-
lified to decide upon any question of evidence submit-
ted to their notice ? Will it be pretended that imbe-
44 MODERN INFIDELITY.
cility of intellect produced the faith of such men as
Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, Sir Matthew Hale,
the Hon. Robert Boyle, Bishop Butler, Dr. Watts,
Mr. Wilberforce, Dr. Paley, Dr. Beattie, Dr. Chal-
mers, and Robert Hall. Such a pretence on the part
of any infidel would be equally fatal to his sense and
candor. In grasp of mind, in depth of erudition, in
diversity and extent of science, the pledged advocates
of the Gospel have had no rivals in the republic of
letters, or in the ranks of scepticism.* All who know
* The following eloquent passage, from a speech of the
late Lord Erskine, delivered by him in the Court of King's
Bench, on occasion of a prosecution for the publication of
Pains's '*Age of Reason," may not be unacceptable, as
tending to illustrate the position, that superiority of intellect
has been enlisted on the side of Christianity.
" It seems, gentlemen," said his lordship, " this is an age
of reason ; and the time and the person are at last arrived,
that are to dissipate the errors which have overspread the
past generation of ignorance. The believers in Christianity
are many, but it belongs to the few that are wise to correct
their credulity. Belief is an act of reason, and superior rea-
son may, therefore, dictate to the weak.
" In running the mind along the list of sincere and de-
vout Christians, I cannot help lamenting that Newton had
not lived to this day, to have had his shallowness filled up
with the new flood of light.
" But the subject is too awful for irony ; I will speak plains
ly and directly. Newton was a Christian ! Newton, whose
mind burst forth from the fetters cast by Nature upon our
finite conceptions. Newton ! whose science was truth, and
the foundation of whose knowledge of it was philosophy j
MODERN INFIDELITY 45
any thing of the state of facts must concede this point,
that the sublimest exercise of reason is not incom-
not those visionary and arrogant presumptions which too of-
ten usurp its name, but philosophy, resting upon the basis of
mathematics, which, like figures, cannot lie. Neioton, who
carried the line and rule to the utmost barriers o^the crea-
tion, and explored the principles by which, no doubt, all
created matter is held together and exists.
" But this extraordinary man, in the mighty reach of his
mind, overlooked, perhaps, the errors which a minuter in-
vestigation of the created things on this earth might have
taught him of the essence of his Creator.
" What, then, shall be said of the great Mr. Boyle, who
looked into the organic structure of all matter, even to
the brute inanimate substances which the foot treads on 1
Such a man may be supposed to have been equally qualified
with Mr. Paine to ' look through Nature up to Nature'?
God.' Yet, the result of all his contemplation was, the mos*
confirmed and devout belief of all which the other held ir
contempt, as despicable and driveling superstition.
" But this error might, perhaps, arise from a want of due
attention to the foundations of human judgment, and the
structure of that understanding which God has given us for
the investigation of truth.
" Let that question be answered by Mr. Locke, who was,
to the highest pitch of devotion and adoration, a Christian.
Mr. Locke, whose ofiice was to detect the errors of thinking,
by going up to the fountains of thought, and to direct into
the proper track of reasoning the devious mind of man, by
showing him its whole process, from the first perceptions of
sense to the last conclusions of ratiocination ; putting a rein,
besides, upon false opinion, by practical rules for the con-
duct of human judgment.
"But these men were only deep thinkers, and lived in
46 MODERN INFIDELITY.
patible with the most profound deference to the truth
and excellence of revelation. It is easy for some in-
their closets, unaccustomed to the traffic of the world, and to
the laws which practically regulate mankind !
"Gentlemen ! in the place where we now sit to adminis-
ter the justice of this great country, above a century ago, the
never-to-be-forgotten Sir Matthew Hale presided ; whose
faith in Christianity is an exalted commentary upon its
truth and reeison, and whose life was a glorious example of
its fruits in man — administering human justice with a wis-
dom and purity drawn from the pure fountain of Christian
dispensation, which has been, and will be in all ages, a sub-
ject of the highest reverence and admiration.
* ' But it is said by the author, that the Christian fable is
but the tale of the more ancient superstitions of the world^
and may easily be detected by a proper understanding of the
mythologies of the heathen.
" Did Milton understand those mythologies! was he less
versed than Mr. Paine in the superstitions of the world 1
No ; they were the subject of his immortal song ; and though
shut out from all recurrence to them, he poured them forth
from the stores of memory, rich with all that man ever
knew, and laid them in their order, as the illustration of that
exalted faith, the unquestionable source of that fervid geni-
us, which cast a sort of shade upon all the other works of
man. The mysterious incarnation of our blessed Savior
(which this work blasphemes in words so wholly unfit for
the mouth of a Christian, or for the ear of a court of justice,
that I dare not, and will not, give them utterance) Milton
made the grand conclusion of the ' Paradise Lost,' the rest
from his finished labors, and the ultimate hope, expectation^
and glory of the world.
* A virgin is His mother, but his eire .
* The Power of the Most High ; he shall asceiid
'The tbroue hereditary, and bound Hisreigu
* With earth's wide bounds, His glory with the heavens ' "
MODERN INFIDELITY. 47
fidel demagogue to vaunt himself of his great wis-
dom and learning before an ignorant and vicious as-
sembly ; but let the entire history of the Christian
era be appealed to as the proof, that the choicest
spirits in each age, since the days of the apostles,
have been the professed adherents of the Gospel.
Christianity, then, has not been subjected to the
humiliation of being only embraced by the weak
and ignorant of mankind; it has called forth the
plaudits of the greatest men that ever lived, and has
done more by its own simple energy to augment
the genius and to multiply the acquirements of the
race, than all other systems of religion and all other
causes combined.
But I ask again, what have been the moral quali-
fications possessed by Christians to enable them to
decide upon the validity of their own hopes ? Have
they been men in genera] whose perceptions have
been blunted and vitiated by an irregular and profli-
gate life? or has not the very reverse of this been
the case? If two persons of equal intellect, but of
extremely different moral habits, — the one devout,
consistent, benevolent ; and the other proud, self-im-
portant, devoted to pleasure, — should set themselves
to ascertain the truth or falsehood of any system as-
suming to be a revelation from God — which of the
two parties might be expected to be the more suc-
cessful in the investigation, provided that the assumed
revelation were genuine ? It cannot surely be denied
48 MODERN INFIDELITY.
that the advantages in favor of the man of correct
moral feeling and habit would be immense. Nor can
it be maintained by any one in possession of sound
reason, that a wrong state of mind and character will
not materially influence the decision of the under-
standing, in reference to moral truth. Upon this prin-
ciple it is that we enter our earnest protest against
the flimsy dogma of modern infidelity, that belief is,
in all cases, a thing strictly involuntary. On the con-
trary, we submit, that in no case where belief is
claimed on behalf of moral truth, can it be yielded
in a state of mind fairly entitled to the appellation
involuntary. That can never be involuntary which
may either be prompted or retarded by the state of
disposition. Nothing is more obvious than that men
may blind themselves to the light of truth, and stum-
ble, as in the dark at noon day. But who would say
that that blindness is involuntary Avhich is the resuh
of man's loving darkness rather than light, because
his deeds are evil ?
Upon a fuU and impartial view of the moral cha-
racter and habits of those who have truly embraced
Christianity, we are disposed to abide by the conclu-
sion, that their advantages for reaching truth have
been astonishingly great. Compared with the lead-
ing advocates of Deism, they stand on a lofty emi-
nence, from which, with a vision unclouded by the
mists of prejudice and crime, they can discern the
moral beauty and loveliness of that fair land which
MODERN INFIDELITY. 49
opens to their view in the territory of revealed truth.*
If, then, the intellectual advantages of the Chris-
tian are fully equal to those of the infidel, and if his
moral advantages are far superior, to what conclusion
must such a fact conduct us 1 Why, to this, that the
Christian is much more likely to be right in embrac-
ing the Gospel, than the sceptic is in rejecting it.
His judgment is not less to be respected, and his dis-
positions and habits are more in accordance with the
dictates of what even natural conscience and pure
deism would pronounce to be right. And do we on
this account urge men to receive Christianity? By
no means. All we demand is, that they will give it
a fair hearing, and that they will look on it with that
respect which will dispose them to weigh well its
divine evidence, and not rashly to dash from their
parched lips the cup of salvation. We ask not that
men should believe because others have believed ;
but that they would honestly inquire whether believ-
ers or sceptics are most worthy of imitation. The
careful investigation of this question Avill generate a
state of mind favorable to the claims of revelation, and
will prompt the reasonable desire that the Gospel
may be true.
I may here premise, that no man was ever in ear-
♦ *' Religion cannot exist," said Sir Walter Scott, " where
immorality prevails, anymore than a light can burn where
the air is corrupted."— Z^i/e of Napoleon, vol. i. p. 54.
Counsels to Y. Men. 5
50 MODERN INFIDELITY.
nest to find out the truth of Christianity, who did not
make conscience of imploring God's direction and
assistance in an inquiry upon which so much de-
pends. If Christianity he not a. revelation from God,
then has none ever been vouchsafed to the children
of men ; and if none has ever been vouchsafed, then
are the whole race sunk in gross darkness as to the
character of God and the destinies of futurity. If
Christianity be a revelation from God, then is it trea-
son against Heaven to reject its evidence, or to set
light by thB remedy which it prescribes for our fal-
len and guilty nature. Under these circumstances,
how necessary is it to ask of God that he would lead
us, his erring children, into all truth, and that he
would so far banish every unholy prejudice that our
minds may be open to receive whatever bears upon
it the stamp of a celestial origin. It is a mournful fact,
that this spirit of devotion seems an utter stranger to
almost all writers of the sceptical class. They boast
of their deism, and neglect one of its first and simplest
lessons, viz. the duty of an intelligent, but feeble and
dependent creature, seeking counsel of the great and
merciful Being who formed him.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 51
CHAPTER II.
ne Evidence of Christianity admits of being brought home
individually, with convincing power , to every man^s bosom.
It is never to be forgotten that those who are
called to examine the divine pretensions of Chris-
tianity are the very persons interested in its com-
munications. To man it distinctly makes its appeal,
and in him it proposes to effect that mighty renova-
tion of v^^hich it speaks. Should it be true, then, to
its own assumed character, it will undoubtedly ve-
rify its several claims in the personal consciousness
of all its recipients. I choose to begin here, because
I am satisfied that no man can sit down to investi-
gate the truth of his Bible, who does not stand in
need of light on the subjects of which it treats. Every
man's conscience may suggest to him that he has
offended against God, that he has violated, in innu-
merable instances, his own sense of right and wrong,
and that there may be some fearful retribution
awaiting transgressors in another and unknown state
of existence. But whatever reason may surmise on
these subjects, she has no balm with which to soothe
an anguished conscience, no system of propitiation
by which to relieve a guilty and foreboding mind,
no mediator between the offended Majesty of Heaven
and his erring creatures. It is Christianity alone
d2 MODERN INFIDELITY.
which opens up a door of hope to an apostate race ;
every thing besides is utter conjecture. Infidels may
boast of the composure and satisfaction they feel in
contemplating the issues of the present life; but
their exemption from anxious dread is but one in-
stance out of many in which the voice of conscience
is silenced by that spirit of utter and reckless scep-
ticism, which on the one hand rejects a mass of
well-authenticated evidence, and on the other pro-
fesses firm belief and unshaken confidence in its
own dogmas, without so much as a tittle of proof to
support them.
The man, then, who examines Christianity in a
right spirit, may expect to perceive, in its intimate
bearing on his own case, that it is of God. U he is
in that state of mind which is suitable to a rational
creature anxious to know the will of God, he will
find in Christianity what he can discover no where
else. Is he conscious of sin ? It reveals to him its
true character, traces it to its source, and points to
its consequences. Is he tlie subject of legitimate
dread and apprehension in prospect of standing be-
fore an offended God ? It tells him how his guilt
may be efTectually removed, and how the peace of
an accusing conscience may be restored. Is he op-
pressed whenever he thinks of the divine purity,
and contrasts it with a nature ever prone to evil ? It
proposes to subject him to a healing and remedial
process, by which moral health is to be restored to
MODERN INFIDELITY. 63-
his diseased soul, and by which he is to be taught
to delight in God, and to aspijre after his likeness.
Is he mournfully sensible of the fact, that " all is
vanity and vexation of spirit," and that nothing un-
der the sun can satisfy the desire of a mind panting
after immortality ? It opens up to his view sources
of never-ending delight, it brings him to the very
fountain of all happiness, it shows him how his
fondest expectations may be realized, it tells him how
to delight in God, and how to draw near in accept-
able worship to him whom angels adore, and before
whom the spirits of darkness flee in terror and
dismay.
It becomes every man who sets himself to the
task of examining Christianity, to fix his attention
on the following momentous inquiry : — " Is this
professed revelation adapted to my actual necessi-
ties ? to my fear and hopes ? to the circumstances
by which I am surrounded ? and to the prospects
which stretch before me^" If, upon minute inquiry,
it is found to be thus adapted to our fallen state, it
will surely carry along with it a striking demonstra-
tion of its divine origin ; and if, upon actual experi-
ment, we find that the reception of Christianity al-
lays our guilty fears, gives peace to our troubled
consciences, quenches the thirst of sin, inspires the
hope of immortality, supplies motives for patient
endurance, and sheds the lustre of moral loveliness
and purity over the character in whom it dwells,
5*
64 MODERN INFIDELITY.
then may we assure ourselves of the source whence
It sprung, and then may we enter, with a full heart,
into the meaning of the beloved disciple v/hen he
says, *' He that believeth on the Son of God hath
the witness in himself"
*• I think," said the good and great Richard Bax-
ter, " that in the hearing and reading of the Bible,
God's Spirit often so concurreth, as that the will it-
self should be touched with an internal gust and sa-
vor of the goodness contained in the doctrine, and at
the same time the understanding with an internal
irradiation, which breeds such a certain apprehen-
sion of the verity of it, as nature gives men of na-
tural principles. And I am persuaded that this, in-
creased by more experience and love, doth hold
most Christians faster to Christ than naked reason-
ings could do. And were it not for this, unlearned,
ignorant persons were still in danger of apostacy by
every subtle caviller that assaults them. And I be-
lieve that all true Christians have this kind of inter-
nal knowledge from a suitableness of the truth and
goodness of the Gospel to their now quickened, il-
luminated, and sanctified souls."
. Let no one venture to reject Christianity, then,
who has never made it the subject of his intense re-
gard, in connection with the exigencies which press
upon his own condition and prospects. It can be but
ill understood by the man who has never looked at
it in its adaptation to his own case. It is an indivi-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 55
dual, as well as a general remedy ; and the true
study of Christianity is the examination of its coin-
cidence with the wants and wishes, the hopes and
fears, which press upon every son and daughter of
Adam. For the want of this close inspection of the
individual aim of Christianity, it is to be feared that
thousands either reject it, or are utterly indifferent
to it. But how contrary is all this to the spirit of
true science, which rejects nothing, and admits no-
thing, but upon actual experiment.
Let Christianity be fairly put to the test ; let it be
taken home with unhesitating confidence to the
heart ; let its divine remedies be applied to the dis-
tempered mind ; let its proffered influence be im-
plored ; let its true character as a restorative system
be fully and impartially tried, and then, should it
after all fail to impart peace, to heal the malady of
the soul, to answer its own professed designs, let it
be held up to that obloquy which it deserves.
But where is the man who ever betook himself
to Christianity without finding it to be the refuge of
his weary mind ? Who could ever, upon actual
trial, charge it with a lack of faithfulness to its own
pretensions? Who ever embraced its animating
hopes without finding them productive of peace, and
purity, and joy ? Who ever became a true Chris-
tian without feeling the self-evidencing power of the
Gospel ? Who ever believed on the Son of God
without having proof, in his own mind, that the
56 MODERN INFIDELITY.
Bible is true ? Who ever made actual trial of
Christianity without finding it to be the " wisdom
of God/ and the power of God," to the salvation of
his soul ? Who ever knew the truth as it is in
Jesus without being made free by it from the thral-
dom of sin and the bondage of corruption? The
man who is a genuine believer, is as fully conscious
as he is of existence, that Christianity is no cunning-
ly devised fable. It has established its throne in the
deep-seated convictions of his heart. He has felt the
transformation it has wrought: "old things are
passed away ; behold, all things are become new."
His entire character has been favorably affected by
it. Upon his once gloomy path it has shed the light
of immortality ; it has taught him to " rejoice even
in tribulation ;" it has changed all the aspects of life,
by throwing over them the hues of eternity ; it has
conferred on him a reality of happiness which the
whole creation had no power of imparting. In his
own person he beholds a monument of the truth and
excellence of Christianity, which forbids him for ever
to doubt. By other evidences, indeed, his faith is
confirmed ; but in his peace of mind, in that " hope
which is full of immortality," and in the heavenward
bearing of his once earthly character, he is enabled
to feel that Christianity is no " cunningly devised
fable."
Having briefly looked at what may be regarded
as the experimental evidence which Christianity is
MODERN INFIDELITY. W
capable of planting in every man's bosom, we may
now advance to other parts ot this momentous
subject.
CHAPTER III.
Brief survey of the branches of Evidence which may be urged
upon those who have not yielded their minds to tJie divine
authority aJhd transforming power of the Gospel.
Some of those evidences may be traced in the in-
ternal character of Christianity itself, and others in
those outward attestations by which Divine Provi-
dence has demonstrated the fact of its celestial ori-
gin. As I am fully convinced of the self-verifying
power of the religion of Jesus Christ, I think it
well to begin with the first of these branches of
evidence, that no one may, with truth, imagine that
we shrink from a thorough investigation of the in-
ternal structure and actual tendencies of our Holy
Faith.*
* I do not think, judging from the manner in which infi-
dels themselves have written, that the most successful me-
thod of assailing them is to begin with a discussion of the
externul evidence of the Gospel. From their general igno-
rance of the character of revelation itself, and from its
marked adaptation, when examined, to produce conviction
of its divine origin, I rather hesitate as to the propriety of
68 ittODKRN INFIDELITY.
SECTION I.
The l7Uernal Evidence of Christianity.
When the su{)ject of internal evidence has at any
time deeply engaged my thoughts, I have proposed
to myself the following question : — " What is the
most wonderful, and at the same time the most un-
accountable, object which presents itself to our no-
tice in a careful perusal of the New Testament
Scriptures ?" This question has always drawn forth
one simple answer — the character of Jesus of Na-
zareth. In examining the internal evidence of
Christianity, look —
1. At the moral character of its Great Founder.
Let that character be fairly investigated, and I am
greatly mist'aken if it will not breed a conviction
that Christianity must be from heaven. That such a
person lived, and suffered, and died in the land of
Judea, is admitted equally by heathen and Jewish
demanding the belief of a sceptic upon the mere presentation
of its external credentials. Besides, there is scarcely any ob-
ject to be achieved by this mode of procedure, which is net
•equally well answered by the method of arguing the truth
of Scripture from an examination of its own contents. As-
suredly the divine authority of the heavenly messengers
may be verified as much by what they say, as by any other
circumstance whatsoever ; and if the real power of convic-
tion lies in their message, it seems but right to try its
- efficacy.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 59
writers, and requires no formal proof, therefore, to
establish the fact. Josephus, Suetonius, Tacitus, and
Pliny the Younger, place beyond all reasonable
doubt the fact of his existence, and the period of his
life, ministry, and death.
But what an object of astonishment and wonder
do we behold in " the man Christ Jesus !" Trace
the son of Mary and Joseph from the manger at
Bethlehem to the cross on Calvary, and what a
combination do you witness of all that is innocent,
and pure, and benevolent ! Here is wisdom the most
profound, in the absence of all the ordinary means
of acquiring it. Here is a Being in whom all the
social and relative affections are not only seen to
advantage, but in absolute perfection. Here are hu-
mility and dignity perfectly combined — ^the lofti-
ness of moral excellence, without a single approxi-
mation to the feeling of contempt for others. Here
is a sanctity of character which never yielded to a
single temptation, and never deviated from the path
of rectitude in a single instance, combined at the
same time with a condescension and mercy which
never spurned the miserable, and never frowned on
the trembling penitent conscious of his guilt and
pleading for forgiveness. Here is one who never
resented an injury, and never forgot a kindness:
who never thought of an enemy, but to bless him,
or of a faithless friend, but to pity and forgive him.
Here is one whose days were devoted to the exer-
60 MODERN INFIDELITY.
cises of active benevolence, and whose nights were
spent in communion. with his God; who sought no
reward of all his generosity ; who wept tears oi
anguish over the approaching fate of those who
persecuted him at every step of his existence with
unabating cruelty ; and who spent his last breath
in praying for his guilty and relentless murderers.
Whence such a character as this ? Was it from
earth or heaven ? If from earth, then where can we
look for its great archeiyjje? Not surely in the
Gentile world ; for it infinitely surpassed even the
ideal models which were laid down by the purest
and most enlightened of its philosophers. Not in the
Jewish world ; for even its most cherished patriarchs
were chargeable with innumerable imperfections;
and in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, the great body
of the nation were peculiarly degraded, both as it
respected the acquirements of the understanding
and the habits of the life and conduct. Whence,
then, this mysterious and wonderful personage —
this Being so unlike all the generations of men who
had preceded him, or who have followed after him,
yet clothed in a human form, possessed of human
sympathies, and subject to human woes ? No won
der that Rousseau, in his exquisite and well-known
contrast between Socrates and Christ, should feel
himself constrained to remark, that " the inventor of
such a personage would be a more astonishing cha-
racter than the hero." Works, vol. v. pp. 215-218.
MODERxX INFIDELITY. Gl
" Is it possible," said he, speaking of the Bible and
of the character of Christ, "is it possible that a
book, at once so simple and sublime, should be
merely the work of man ? Is it possible that the sa-
cred personage, whose history it contains, should
himself be a mere man ? Do we find that he as-
sumed the tone of an enthusiast or ambitious sec-
tary ? What sweetness, what purity in his manner !
What an affecting gracefulness in his delivery !
What sublimity in his maxims ! What profound
wisdom in his discourses ! What presence of mind,
what sublimity, what truth in his replies ! How
great the command over his passions ! Where is
the man, where is the philosopher, w^ho could so
live and so die without weakness and w^ithout os-
tentation ? When Plato described his imaginary
good man, loaded with all the shame of guilt, yet
meriting the highest rewards of virtue, he described
exactly the character of Jesus Christ: the resem-
blance was so striking that all the fathers perceived
it." Yet this was the strange and unhappy man
•?V'ho, through the wickedness and pride of his heart,
declared, " I cannot believe the Gospel."
Upon no correct or reasonable supposition what-
ever but that the Lord Jesus was the very person he
assumed to be, the person whom the Christian Scrip-
tures describe him to be, viz. the Messiah of the
Church, and " God manifest in the flesh," can we
Counsels to Y. Men. (} ••
62 MODERN INFIDELITY.
account for the solitary and awful grandeur* of a
character *' holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners, and made higher than the heavens," "who
did no sin," and "who knew no sin."
The Rev. Charles Bridges, in his excellent
* Bishop Sherlock, in contrasting the character of Jesuis
Christ with that of Mohammed, has, in one of the most beau-
tiful personifications in our language, finely touched the ar-
gument for the truth of Christianity here contended for.
"Go," says he, " to your Natural Religion ; lay before her
Mohammed and his disciples arrayed in armor and in blood,
riding in triumph over the spoils of thousands and tens of
thousands who fell by his victorious sword ; show her the
cities which he set in flames, the countries which he rav-
aged and destroyed, and the miserable distress of all the in*
habitants of the earth. When she has viewed him in this
scene, carr}^ him into his retirements. Show her the pro-
phet's chamber, his concubines and wives ; let her see his
adultery, and hear him alledge revelation and his divine
commission to justify his lust and his oppression.
" When she is tired with this prospect, then show her the
blessed Jesus, humble and meek, doing good to all the sons
of men, patiently instructing both the ignorant and per-
verse ; let her see him in his most retired privacy ; let her
follow him to the mountain, and hear his devotions and
supplications to God. Carry her to his table to see his poor
fare, and hear his heavenly discourse. Let her see him in-
jured but not provoked ; let her attend him to the tribunals,
and consider the patience with which he endured the scoffs
and reproaches of his enemies. Lead her to his cross, and
let her view him in the agony of death, and hear his last
prayer for his persecutors, * Father, forgive them, for they
kno^ not what they do.'
MODERN INFIDELITY. 63
Memoir of Miss M. I. Graham, (and which I take
the liberty of strongly recommending to the notice
of the young,) who had been considerably tinctured
with infidelity, states that the character of Christ, as
a proof of the credibility of the Christian revelation,
arrested her peculiar attention. A minute scrutiny
of his spotless life was most satisfactory in its result.
*' The more," said she, " I studied this divine charac-
ter, the more I grew up as it were into its simplici-
ty and holiness, the more my understanding was en-
abled to shake off those slavish and sinful prejudices
which had hindered me from appreciating its excel-
lence. Truly, his words were dearer to me than my
necessary food. He was my * All in All.'. I did not
want to have any knowledge, goodness, or strength,
independently of him. I had rather be ' accepted in
the Beloved,' than received (had that been possible)
upon the score of my own merits. I had rather walk
leaning upon his arm, than have a stock of strength
given me to perform the journey alone. To learn, as
a fool, of Christ, this was better to me than to have
the knowledge of an angel to find out things myself.
" From that moment," she adds, " I ceased to
stumble at the doctrines of the cross. The doctrines
" When Natural Religion has viewed both, ask — which
is the prophet of God? Bather answer we have already
had when she saw part of this scene through the eyes of the
centurion who attended at the cross; by him she spake and
said, * Truly this man was the Son of God.' "
64 MODERN INFIDELITY.
of Scripture, which had before appeared,to mean in-
explicable mass of confusion and contradictions, were
now written on my understanding with the clearness
of a sun-beam. Above all, that once abhored doctrine
of the Divinity of Christ was become exceeding pre-
cious to me. The external evidences of Christianity,
though I now perceived all their force, were no lon-
ger necessary to my conviction. From that time,''
she concludes, " I have continued to * sit at the feet
of Jesus, and to hear his word,' taking him for my
teacher and guide in things temporal as well as spi-
ritual. He has found in me a disciple so slow in com-
prehension, so prone to forget his lessons, and to act
in opposition to his commands, that were he not in-
finitely * meek and lowly in heart,' he would long
ago have cast me off in anger ; but he still continues
to bear with me, and to give me ' line upon line, and
precept upon precept ,' and I am certain that he ' will
never leave me nor forsake me,' for though I am va-
riable and inconsistent, 'with him there is no varia-
bleness, neither shadow of turning.' "
Such was the effect produced upon this intelligent
lady's mind by an examination of the moral charac-
ter of the Lord Jesus, and I am satisfied that a simi-
lar result will follow in every instance the adoption
of the same course. At least we do claim from infi-
dels, if they will still continue to reject the truth, that
they furnish us, upon their own principles, with some
reasonable account of the source whence sprung the
MODERN INFIDELITY. 65
ineffable purity and benevolence of the Son of God.
Till they have accounted for his unequalled charac-
ter they are chargeable with the utmost levity and
irrationality in persisting in their unbelief
2. Contemplate, as another internal evidence of
the divine origin of Christianity, the unrivaled sub-
limity of its diction. Compared with the rich
treasures of the Old and New Testament Scriptures,
all other compositions must retire into the shade.
Rousseau must have felt this conviction most pow-
erfully when he made the following reluctant but im-
portant concession : " I will confess," said he, " that
the majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admi-
ration, as the purity of the Gospel hath its influence
upon my heart. Peruse the works of our philoso- ^
phers with all their pomp of diction ; how mean, how
contemptible are they, compared with the Scriptures !"
The opinion of Rousseau is confirmed by that of
men vastly his superiors in learning and virtue. Sir
William Jones, than whom few of the human race
have been distinguished by a more laudable thirst
after knowledge, has penned the following striking,
but just eulogium, on the style and manner of the sa-
cred writers : *' The collection of tracts, which we
call, from their excellence, the Scriptures, contain,
independently of a divine origin, more true subli-
mity, more exquisite beauty, purer morality, more
important history, and finer strains of poetry and
eloquence, than could be collected within the same
6*
66 MODERN INFIDELITY.
compass from all other books that were ever com-
posed in any age or in any idiom. The two parts of
which the Scriptures consist, are connected by a
chain of compositions which bear no resemblance
in form or style to any that can be produced from the
stores of Grecian, Indian, Persian, or even Arabian
learning. The antiquity of those compositions no
man doubts, and the unstrained application of them
to events long subsequent to their publication, is a
solid ground of belief that they are genuine predic-
tions, and consequently inspired."
The celebrated Mr. Addison, in discoursing on
the same subject, says, " After perusing the book of
Psalms, let a judge of the beauties of poetry read a
literal translation of Horace or Pindar, and he will
find in these two last such an absurdity and confu-
sion of style, with such a comparative poverty of ima-
gination, as will make him sensible of the vast su-
periority of the Scripture style."
If we examine carefully the pathetic story of Jo-
seph and his brethren ; the songs of Moses at the
Red Sea, and on the borders of the promised land ;
the sublime narrative of the giving of the law from
Mount Sinai ; the celebrated prophecy of Balaam ;
the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the tem-
ple ; the visions of the Jewish prophets, particularly
those of Isaiah; the odes of Jesse's son ; the match-
less Sermon on the Mount ; the public appeals of the
apostles before heathen tribunals ; and the mystic
MODERN INFIDELITY. 67
symbols of the Apocalypse, we cannot but be struck
and awed with the unrivaled diction, the surpass-
ing imagery, and the lofty conceptions of the inspir-
ed writers. Let all the other books of antiquity be
produced ; let the classic page disclose its richest
stores , let the entire mass of apocryphal writings
undergo the strictest scrutiny ; let Egypt, and
Greece, and Arabia bring forth the proudest mo-
numents of their genius ; let the most dazzling pas-
sages of the Koran be separated from the mass of
its absurdities ; let all ages and all nations vie with
the writers of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures,
and it will be seen, by a judge of the most inferior
grade, that no argument can be held for a single
moment as to the comparative grandeur of the book
commonly called the Bible, that it throws the whole
round of other productions into the shade, and that
it is written altogether in a style and manner which
admits of no successful rival or counterfeit.
Now, what is the force of this particular argu-
ment ? Why, the Bible was written by the posterity
of Abraham — a people proverbial for their destitu-
tion of all mental refinement, and who, in their se-
cular history, have displayed a marked inferiority
to all the other nations of antiquity. The conclusion
then is, if the wonderful volume known by the name
of the Bible was verily the production of several
Jews who lived in the different ages of the world,
they must have written under a direction and an im-
68 MODERN INFIDELITY.
pulse more than human ; they must have written
under the guidance of that Spirit to whom they
themselves trace their loftiest and humblest inspi-
rations. I feel that this conclusion is sound and ra-
tional. Try the Bible by any other Jewish produc-
tion of any age whatsoever, try it by any work that
has ever emanated from the pen or the genius of man,
and the feeling must resistlessly take possession of
the mind, that the words which God speaks, " they
are spirit, and they are life." Unlike every other
document that has been handed down from a remote
antiquity, the volume of inspiration carries along
with it, in the unutterable dignity and sublimity
which pervades all its parts, an evidence of the
source whence it sprung, an evidence which could
not fail to strike the mind even of an untutored sav-
age who might meet with it accidentally in some vast
desert, and who had no living teacher to unfold to
him the character or merciful designs of the God
whom it reveals. How can men of taste, and genius,
and literature, remain blind to this argument ! The
very poetry, the lofty and well sustained imagery,
the unparalleled diction of the sacred volume, will
rise up in judgment against them, inasmuch as their
dislike to the truths of revelation has led many of
them to overlook qualities which would have com-
manded their profoundest veneration had they been
able to discern them in a single uninspired produc-
tion. It may be added here, that the few infidels
^ MODERN INFIDELITY. 69
who have written in commendation of the style of
the inspired writers, have totally neglected to ac-
count for the commanding and indubitable superio-
rity of the Scriptures to all other compositions. Upon
any hypothesis but that of their divine origin, the at-
tempt must utterly fail. My only wish is, that intel-
ligent men would make the honest effort to satisfy
their own convictions that the Bible might have been
written by such persons as the Jewish patriarchs
and the fishermen of Galilee, without any divine
afflatus. When such an attempt has been made by
them, I am satisfied that, whether they are led to
embrace the Holy Scriptures as the word of God or
not, they will be compelled to admit the fact that,
upon all the canons of literary criticism ever admit-
ted, there is nothing whatever to warrant the idea
that the Bible has been furnished to mankind in the
same way, and on the same principles, as other docu-
ments of a remote antiquity. When men are brought
thus far, there is great reason to hope that they will
look with some measure of devoutness and integrity
at the whole question of Christian evidence.
3. Let the high standard of the morality of Chris-
tianity be examined with impartiality, and it cannot
fail to arouse attention to its extraordinary claims.
For though the uncompromising sanctity of revealed
truth is among the chief reasons which induce men
to cavil at its evidence, and secretly to reject its au-
thority, it is, nevertheless, one of the most powerful
70 MODERN INFIDELITY.
and indubitable proofs of its proceeding from the
fountain of infinite purity and benevolence.*
On this subject the celebrated John Locke has
said, *' The morality of the Gospel doth so far excel
that of all other books, that to give a man full know-
ledge of true morality, I would send him to no other
book than the New Testament." And verily, if we
examine all the writings of the most enlightened and
virtuous of the heathen world, and compare, or ra-
ther contrast them with the writings of inspiration,
we shall be fully satisfied of the accuracy of this
great man's opinion. That there are fine passages
on certain branches of morals, in some of the wri-
tings of pagan philosophers and poets, w^e do not at-
tempt to deny ; but the great question is, what were
their writings as a whole, and what were the views
of morality generally entertained and acted upon
among their disciples ? Is it not notorious that self-
murder,! that crimes which admit of no descrip-
* Lord Bolingbroke himself has said, that " the Gospel is
in all cases one continued lesson of the strictest morality, of
justice, of benevolence, and of universal charity." — Works,
vol.5, p. 138.
t Seneca thus pleads for self-murder : *' If thy mind be
melancholy and in misery, thou mayest put a period to this
wretched condition ; wherever thou lookest, there is an end
to it. See that precipice ! there thou mayest have liberty.
Seest thou that sea, that river, that well 1 liberty is at the
bottom of it ; that little tree 1 freedom hangs upon it. Thy
own neck, thy own throat, may be a refuge to thee fromsuch
MODERN INFIDELITY. 71
lion,* that theft, that sacrilege, that fornication, that
adultery, that revenge, that pride, that dissimulation
in the worship of the gods, that habitual disregard
of the duty of prayer, and that awful irreverence for
the name of the Great Supreme, are taught, with an
unblushing effrontery, by some of the chief patrons
and guardians of pagan morality? Who does not
know that some of the most brilliant passages both
of the Greek and Latin classics, cannot be read by
ingenuous youth without involving the risk of a total
downfall of their morals ? We shall find no counter-
part, indeed, to the writings of heathen antiquity,
unless we turn to the licentious and utterly reckless
^productions of modern infidelity, in which every
thing like disguise is laid aside, and men are taught
to do, without restraint, whatever their own vile in-
clinations may dictate.
How unlike the imperfect and often polluted
writings of men, is the system of morality laid down
and detailed in the several books of the Old and
New Testament ! Let any man devote a reasonable
period to the examination of the spirit and moral
precepts of Christianity, and he will he compelled
servitude ; yea, every vein of thy body." Deira, lib. 3, cap.
15, p. m. 319. Plutarch, and Cato, and Brutus, and Cas-
sius, and Cicero, all agree to justify the crime of self-de-
struction. See Plutarch's Life of Cato.
* Juvenal, Satire 2, ver. 10. Diog. Laertius,vol. 1, pp. m.
165, 166.
72 moderK infidelity.
to admit its unsullied purity, its coincidence with alJ
our natural notions of right and wrong, and its in-
dubitable tendency to improve human intercourse,
and to constitute mankind a community of brothers.
Did all men believe and obey the dictates of reve-
lation, what a mighty and favorable revolution
would be wrought in the entire frame-work of so-
ciety ! What habit of known evil does it not pro-
scribe ? What irregular passion does it not forbid ?
What acknowledged virtue does it not enforce ?
What kindly or generous affection does it not incul-
cate ? How lofty is its standard of action ! Though
self-interest is not and cannot be excluded from a
system so adapted to the nature of man, yet it is
only permitted to occupy a subordinate place in the
morality of the Gospel. There men are urged to
endure and act " as seeing Him who is invisible ;"
there we are commanded to do no act of beneficence
to be seen of men ; there the honor of God and the
good of others are the objects at which they are
called habitually to aim ; there the surface morality
of the world is treated with scorn, and a right state.
of the thoughts and affections is imperatively de-
manded; there meekness, and humility, and con-
descension are represented as the true path to
greatness ; there haughtiness and pride are associat-
ed with all that is mean and worthless ; there an
assuming and lofty air is forbidden even in the or-
dinary intercourses of social life; there covetous-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 73
ness is branded as idolatry, hatred as murder, and
hidden lust as adultery ; there every species of re-
sentment is absolutely prohibited ; there the refusa
to forgive an injury is described as an effectual bar-
rier in the way of the exercise of divine mercy;
there all detraction, all backbiting, all evil speaking,
all envy, all malice, all circumvention, are shown to
be inconsistent with the hope of eternal life and the
state of acceptance through a Redeemer.
There is indeed one grand peculiarity belonging
to the morality of Christianity, which distinguishes
it from that of every other system, viz : the sublime
and all-subduing character of its motives. Many
useful virtues were enjoined by the Gentile philoso-
phers, but they had no paramount considerations by
which to insure obedience to their own precepts ;
they had no moral engine of sufficient power to
urge a sinful race onward in the path of obedience.
Hence their code of morals was almost a dead letter,
little regarded by themselves, and totally overlook-
ed by the mass. But who can glance for a moment
at the morality of the Bible without coming into
contact with those mighty and heart-stirring consi-
derations which are fitted to rouse all the sensibili-
ties of human nature, and to subdue into willing
and grateful obedience the most stubborn and rebel-
lious of the race? Let the following examples of
the class of motives referred to suffice : '* Herein
lb love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us^
C*>i.n8el8 to Y. Men. 7
74 MODERN INFIDELITY.
and sent his Son tol)e the propitiation for our sins."
" Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and cla-
mor, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with
all malice : and be ye kind one to another, tender-
hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Chrisfs sake hath forgiven you." *' Come out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing ; and I will receive
you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be
my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
" God so loved the world, that he gave his only be-
gotten Son, that whosoever believetii in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life." " Beloved, if
God so loved us, we ought to love one another."
" Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory ;
but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other bet-
ter than themselves." " Ye are bought with a price,
therefore glorify God in your body and in your
spirit, which are his." " The love of Christ con-
straineth us; because we thus judge, that if one
died for all, then were all dead : and that he died
for all, that they which live should not henceforth
live unto themselves, but unto him that died for
them and rose again."
How mean and povertj^-stricken are the motives
of all other systems when compared with the reli-
gion of Christ Jesus ! A book which founds its
code of morals upon such considerations can never
surely be the production of man. In the wide rango
, MODERN INFIDELITY. 75
of his efforts there is nothing analogous. The fair
inference, therefore, is, that a greater than man
speaks to us in the living oracles.
It may be safely affirmed, that if Christianity
were cordially embraced as the religion of mankind,
it would renovate the entire fabric of society. It is
impossible for any one to say advisedly, or with
truth, that one immoral habit, or one irregular
thought or desire, receives a sanction from the writ-
ings of Christ and his apostles. The Christian may
often have reason, through the infirmity and corrup-
tion of his fallen nature, to blush on account of the
very imperfect manner in which he acts, out his
great principles; he may often have occasion to
mourn that in him the religion of Jesus has such
an unworthy representative ; but he can at all times
refer with exultation and triumph to the glorious
charter of his hopes ; and while he sees that " the
wickedness of man upon earth is great," he may
unhesitatingly assure himself that the total neglect,
or but partial reception of Christianity, is the sole
cause of the crime and wretchedness which abound.
The enemies of revelation themselves being judges,
what can they predicate of its probable tendency on
the race but unmixed good? Must they not own
that all the moral evil which abounds in the earth
is in direct violation of the doctrines and precepts
of revealed truth ? Must they not, however reluc-
tantly, concede that the principles of deism are
76 MODERN INFIDELITY.
feeble and powerless as a system of moral renova-
tion, compared with the high and holy dictates of
the Gospel ? Who does not perceive that if a time
should ever arrive when all men shall give heed to
the words of Christ, that that will be the precise pe-
riod of the world's deliverance from the cruel vas-
salage of sin ? " Men would then," to use the words
of an eminent divine, "universally do justice, speak
truth, show mercy, exercise mutual forgiveness, fol-
low after peace, bridle their appetites and passions,
and lead sober, righteous, and godly lives. Mur-
ders, wars, bitter contentions, cruel oppressions, and
unrestrained licentiousness, would no more desolate
the world, and fill it with misery ; but righteousness,
goodness, and truth would bless the earth with a
felicity exceeding all our present conceptions." This
is, no doubt, the direct tendency of the scriptural
doctrines, precepts, motives, and promises: nothing
is wanting to remedy the state of the world, and to
fit men for the worship and felicity of heaven, but
that they should believe and obey the Bible. And
if4nany enormous crimes have been committed un-
der the color of zeal for Christianity, this only proves
the depravity of man's heart ; for the Scripture, so-
berly understood, most expressly forbids such prac-
tices ; and men do not act thus because they duly
regard the Bible, but because they will not believe
and obey it.
Now the argument for the divine origin of Chris-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 77
tianity arising from its transcendent morality, may
be viewed in various lights. In the first place, hovir
comes it to pass, that of all the religions which have
sought to obtain the suffrages of mankind, that of
Jesus of Nazareth is incomparably the most pure
and benevolent in its tendency? How comes it to
pass, moreover, that among a rude people, such as
were the Jews, there should have arisen a system of
faith and worship, which, for grandeur of conception
and sanctity of character, outstrips all the other re-
cords of time? Is there not in this very circum-
stance a presumption of the highest order in favor
of the divine origin of Christianity?
But supposing, in the second place, that the apos-
tles of our Lord were chargeable with the crime of
dexterously imposing a false religion upon mankind,
how happens it that they set themselves with such
zeal and ardor to oppose the prejudices and precon-
ceived notions of their countrymen ? How happens
it that they took the very method the least likely to
conciliate their good opinion and to secure their
hearty approval ? How happens it that in their sys-
tem of morality they not only struck a death blow
at the pride and hypocrisy of their own nation, but
insisted on a purity of heart and life which they
knew must expose them to the hatred and derision
of all mankind ? Upon a mere human calculation,
they adopted a method which could only issue in a
perfect failure. Had they flattered the depravity of
78 * / MODERN INFIDELITY.
man ; had they introduced a scheme which winked
at any of his corruptions ; had they imitated the
subsequent conduct of the False Prophet ; had they
promised to their disciples a life of ease and sensual
indulgence ; had they exhibited in their own histo-
ry an exemption from poverty, reproach, persecu-
tion, and death ; in a word, had there been any one
thing in the scheme of doctrine they taught to secure
the esteem and to call forth the approbation of a cor-
rupt and vitiated state of society, we might then have
been left to suspect that they had artfully construct-
ed a system to suit the depraved taste of mankind,
and to raise themselves to notoriety by pandering to
the vices of human nature. But when the very re-
verse of this is the case; when the morality of the
Gospel is so lofty and unbending as to surrender none
of its claims to meet the prejudices either of Jews or
Gentiles ; when it is so pre-eminent as to stand forth,
in solitary grandeur, amidst the religions of all ages
and all nations ; when it is found to embody every
quality which is fitted to diffuse peace, and justice,
and benevolence among mankind ; when it is im-
possible to detect in it a single precept which would
not elevate the character of man and augment all
his personal and relative enjoyments, what ought
any thoughtful and considerate mind to conclude re-
specting it, but that it is the offspring of the Foun-
tain of all Purity, and that it has been vouchsafed by
Him, in mercy, to heal the distempers and redress the
miseries of our fallen race?
MODERN INFIDELITY. 79
I conclude the consideration of this topic in the
words of one who cannot be suspected of any undue
partiality to the Christian faith ; of one who, unhap-
pily for himself, did not allow the convictions of his
judgment to rule his decisions or to form his cha-
racter :
" The Gospel, that divine book, the only one ne-
cessary to a Christian, and the most useful of all to
the man who may not be one, only requires reflection
upon it to impress the mind with love for its author,
and resolution to fulfill its precepts. Virtue never
spoke in gentler terms ; the profoundest wisdom was
never uttered with greater energy or more simplici-
ty. It is impossible to rise from the reading of it
without a feeling of moral improvement. Look at
the books of the philosophers, with all their pomp,
how little they are, compared Avith this ! Shall we
say that the history of the Gospel is a pure fiction ?
This is not the style of fiction ; and the history of
Socrates, which nobody doubts, rests upon less evi-
dence than that of Jesus Christ. After all, this is but
shifting the difficulty, not answering it. The suppo-
sition that several persons had united to fabricate this
book, is more inconceivable than that one person
should have supplied the subject of it. The spirit
which it breathes, the morality which it inculcates,
could never have been the invention of Jewish au-
thors ; and the Gospel possesses characters of truth
so striking, so perfectly inimitable, that the inventor
80 MODERN INFIDELITY.
would be a more astonishing object than the hero."
J. J. Rousseau, works, vol. 36, p. 36, Ed. Paris,
1788-'1793.
4. Let attention be devoted to the coincidence of
Christianity with the character of God and the ac-
tual condition of man. There is a marked tendency
in the human mind to trace results to some adequate
cause. Hence our dissatisfaction in the mere percep-
tion of facts which, in our present state of know-
ledge, we cannot account for ; and hence also the
restless effort made by us to discover some princi-
ple of causation sufficient to produce the phenomena
beheld. The revolutions of the heavenly bodies must
impress every one endowed with reason, that there
is some mighty impulse to which they are all obe-
dient ; and the feeling we have of the existence of
such an impulse has aroused that inquiry into the
laws of the material universe, which has led to all
the discoveries of modern science, and which has
enabled us to trace, in the one pervading law of gra-
vitation, the reason ef certain revolutions and appear-
ances, which, without such an application of the hu-
man faculties, must have been hid in perpetual ob-
scurity.
Nor is the tendency in man to reason from effects
to causes the only one discoverable in the examination
of what may be called his mental instincts. It is
obvious that he is equally prone to reason from
cause§ to effects ; so that virhen he has satisfied him<
MODERN INFIDELITY. 81
self as to the existence of a particular cause, and has
acquired some knowledge of the mode in which it
operates, he is prepared to concede that other effects
may be attributed to it besides those which he has
already discovered, provided they are in no vyay in^
consistent with the facts and relations now perceived.
Now, the tendencies thus described will be found
equally to manifest themselves in reference to mental
and moral science, as in reference to the phenomena
of the material universe. It is to the^e laws of our
nature that we are indebted for many of those in-
ductions by which we are enabled to judge of the
characters and actions of men, and to predicate what
may or may not be reasonable to anticipate in certain
given circumstances.
Apply these general principles to the investiga-
tion of the subject in hand. The Bible is a book
professing to come from heaven. Is it then a com-
munication possessing any thing in common with our
ordinary associations ? or is it a book so entirely new
as to furnish us with no means of judging of it by
the exercise of that ordinary tendency of our nature
which leads us to judge of causes by their effects,
and of effects by their causes ? The slightest ex-
amination of the Christian scheme will convince any
impartial mind that the view of the divine character
and government which it presents is in strictest
harmony with what may be deduced from the survey
of nature, the phenomena of divine providence, and
8^ MODERN INFIDELITY.
the dictates ot natural conscience. The particular
modifications of divine perfection which are seen
displayed in the pages of revelation may be to a
great extent new, but the great question is, — Are
not these modifications such as to fall in and harmo-
nize with all that the reason of man would suggest to
him as suited to the character of God and the con-
dition of human nature ? I am satisfied that the dis-
coveries of the Bible, though so transcendently glo-
rious, are, in their great outline, answerable to all
our natural conceptions of the Most High, as the
supreme moral governor.
Two things seem necessary to authenticate a
religion as coming from Godi— first, that the facts
and representations which it contains should be such
as to exhibit all that is lofty in wisdom, mighty in
power, awful in purity, and subduing in kindness;
and, second, that the representation thus afibrded of
the divine character should, when contemplated and
believed by man, be fitted, by the laws of his being,
to transform him into the divine image, and to make
him a partaker of the divine happiness. The very
first showing of Christianity is to this eflfect. It pro-
poses, by an overwhelming manifestation of the cha-
racter of God in the great scheme of redemption, to
raise man from his present state of sin and rebellion,
and to confer on him that elevated species of bless-
edness which arises from conformity to the will of
an infinitely perfect Being.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 83
" When," says an eloquent writer, " we read a
history which authoritatively claims to be an exhibi-
tion of the character of God in his dealings with men,
if we find in it that which fills and overflows our
most dilated conceptions of moral worth and loveli-
ness in the Supreme Being, and at the same time
feel that it is triumphant in every appeal that it
makes to our consciences in its statements of the ob-
liquity and corruption of our o\^ai hearts ; and if our
reason farther discovers a system of powerful moral
stimulants, embodied in the facts of this history,
which necessarily tend to produce in the mind a re-
semblance to that high character which is there por-
trayed : if Ave discern that the spirit of this history
gives peace to the conscience by the very exhibition
which quickens its sensibility ; that it dispels the ter-
rors of guilt by the very fact which associates sin
with the full loathing of the heart ; that it combines
in one wondrous and consistent whole our most fear-
ful forebodings and our most splendid anticipations
for futurity ; that it inspires a pure, and elevated, and
joyful hope for eternity, by those very declarations
which attach a deeper and more interesting obliga-
tion to the discharge of the minutest part of human
duty ; if we see that the object of all its tendencies is
the perfection of moral happiness, and that these ten-
dencies are naturally connected with thebelief of its
narration ; if we see all this in the Gospel, we may
then say that our own eyes have seen its truth, and
84 MODERN INFIDELITY.
that we need no other testimony. We may then well
believe that God has been pleased, in pity to our
wretchedness, and in condescension to our feebleness,
to clothe the eternal laws which regulate his spiritual
government in such form as maybe palpable to our
conceptions, and adapted to the urgency of our ne-
cessities." Erskine on Internal Evidence, to which
the author is much indebted in this part of his essay.
Such an interposition has the eternal Majesty of
heaven vouchsafed in the revelation of mercy by
Christ Jesus, — a revelation which abounds in all
that is awful and all that is tender ; which de-
scribes God as the avenger of sin and the Savior of
the guilty ; which exhibits the loftiest claims of the
lawgiver and the tenderest attributes of compassion ;
which makes moral impurity infinitely odious and
detestable by the very means whereby it is forgiven ;
which points to a guilty race reclaimed and saved,
wliile the Glorious Projector of the scheme stands
forth before the intelligent universe in the inefl^able
majesty of spotless and unchangeable purity.
Does reason tell us, that as God has seen fit to
create various orders of intelligent creatures, to him
they must all be accountable, and over them all he
must exercise the right and control of a moral go-
vernor ? Revelation comes in with its direct and ab-
solute assurance upon this point, resolving all the
doubts which sin had fostered in the human mind,
and proclaiming God's right to rule, his title to obedi-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 85
ence, and his determination to punish every infringe-
ment of his righteous government. Had the Bible
said less on this head, or spoken a language quite
different, it would have been at variance with the
simplest dictates of sound reason. If there be one
God, the creator and upholder of the universe, the
fountain of all being and of all happiness, it follows,
by resistless consequence, that he is the governor of
the world he has made, and that the laws by which
he governs must be in accordance with the dictates
of his own pure and benevolent nature. The Scrip-
tures teach us distinctly what those principles are ;
but in doing so, they do not violate one of all our
natural conclusions.
Does the reason of man whisper to him that the
Being who made him is the constant inspector of
his actions, and that a period may arrive when . an
account will be required of the manner in which he
has passed the few short years of his transitory ex-
istence ? Revelation does not proffer its aid to re-
press this natural and almost universal feeling ; but
to place it upon the sure basis of a divine communi-
cation, to impart to it the character of an incontrover-
tible truth, and to raise it to the potency of an all-
pervading and all-subduing motive.
Does a secret monitor disturb man's inward re-
pose, and tell him that he has sinned against his
own acknowledged standard of duty, and fill him
with awful forebodings of judgment to come, and
Counsels to Y. Men. 8
86 MODERN INFIDELITY.
urge him to many a vain expedient for the settlement
of that score of guilt which he knows he has been
contracting from the earliest dawnings of reason ?
Revelation does not lift up its voice to repress the
natural testimony of conscience, but to cause it to be
heard in yet louder strains of condemnation ; to strip
man of all vain conceit of excellence which, in his
fallen state, he does not possess ; to show, by the
pure standard of the written law, how far he has de-
parted from his original integrity ; to present such
an image of his moral defection as shall cause him
to loathe and abhor himself in dust and in ashes be-
fore God ; and to teach him the utter insufficiency of
all human aid to extricate him from that state of con-
demnation and sin into which, by rebellion against
the righteous Lawgiver of the universe, he has sunk.
Does the mind of man, conscious of its own evil
desert, and no less conscious of the blight which
sin has spread over all the sources of human enjoy-
ment, sigh after some hidden well-spring of life;
some new manifestation of the character of God,
which shall dart a ray of mercy and hope across
the gloom of his apostacy ; some divine balm that
shall heal those wounds which have been inflicted
in his lacerated spirit 1 Yes, my beloved reader,
such have been, and such are the wishes and aspira-
tions of the guilty spirit of man. He has departed
from ** the fountain of living waters," and the entire
range of creature enjoyment has proved but a bro-
^ MODERN INFIDELITY. 87
ken cistern to him. He is not, indeed, rightly affect-
ed with the true nature of his malady, nor does he
properly appreciate the means by which his peace
and happiness may be restored ; but he is in that
precise state in which, if he will open the revelation
of God, and prayerfully examine its contents, he
will find the very blessings after which he sighs,
and in the application of them will perceive that the
Author of his being is also the God of his salvation.
In the promise of a Savior, divinely accomplished
in the fullness of time, and in the propitiatory sacri-
fice of the cross, we behold a scheme w^hich bears
along with it indubitable proofs of its conformity
to the character of God, and of its adaptation to the
guilt and necessity of man. It is so far, indeed, above
all his natural conceptions of a divine interposition,
that it may well be styled " the wisdom of God in a
mystery ;" but it is at the same time so exquisitely
adjusted to his moral relations, and to the moral ca-
tastrophe in which he is involved, that he has only
to open his eyes that he may see, and his heart that
he may feel. The problem of his salvation is here
solved, while the claims of the moral governor re-
main unimpaired. His conscience tells him that he
is a transgressor ; but it suggests no effectual method
of escape from merited condemnation. But Chris-
tianity points him to " the blood of the Lamb," to the
" one offering" of Jesus Christ "for the sins of the
people." He feels that he is at a fearful moral dis-
88 MODERN INFIDELITY.
taniee from God ; but he sees in the method of his re-
conciliation the means whereby his nature may be re-
claimed ; and learns that a heart all rebellion may be
drawn by the mighty attractions of divine love into
the habit of cheerful, unreserved, and filial obedience.
To doubt that such a scheme — so perfect in its con-
formity to all that we connect with the infinitely pure
Spirit, and so admirably adapted to the nature, con-
dition, and prospects of man — to doubt that such a
scheme is from heaven, is to do violence to the surest
inductions of enlightened reason, to turn a deaf ear
to the voice of conscience, and obstinately to lose
sight of a coincidence which distinctly shows that
the nature of man and the means of his redemption
lay claim to a common origin.
Without the provisions of the Bible, man is a wan-
derer and an outcast. He beholds, in some mea
sure, his responsibility and his guilt ; but he has no
well-defined prospect as to how it may fare with him
when his body goes down to the dust. He feels that
this world is a wilderness, and all its inhabitants
mourners ; but he is unable to solace himself in the
prospect of ablessed immortality. He finds himself the
subject of indefinite forebodings, and discovers no
thing in the wide range of created nature that can fill
up the desires of a mind distanced from its native
element ; but how to impart a fixed character to his
hopes, and how to satisfy his enlarged desires, he
knows not. Let him turn, then, to the well-springs
MODERN INFIDELITY. 89
of salvation, let him view the character of God as
set forth in the doctrine of the Gospel, let him exa-
mine for himself the great mystery of godliness, let
him yield up his w^hole soul to the impression of
redeeming love, let him implore the Spirit of Christ
to unfold the infinite grace and loveliness of his
character, let him bov^ down his reason to the veri-
ties of the cross, — then will his guilt subside, his
fears vanish, his prospects brighten ; then will his
soul glow with ardent love to God ; then will the
darkness which broods over the scenes of earth be
scattered ; then will the truth of revelation be felt ;
then will the self-evidencing power of the Gospel
be verified; and then will the proud objector be
converted into a *' little child," and the vain disputer
into a meek and humble disciple of the Son of God.
SECTION II.
The External Evidence of Christianity,
By the external evidences of Christianity we are
to understand those attestations to its divine origin
which have been either directly vouchsafed from
heaven, or which may be infallibly traced in its
early success and in its great moral results. And if,
by an impartial survey of the various topics connect-
ed with internal evidence, we are compelled to ad-
aiit the presumptuous boldness of those who can dis-
burden their minds of all apprehension in rejecting
8*
90 MOBERN INFIDELITY.
a 'scheme distinguished alike by its grandeur and
adaptation, — by a careful examination of external
evidence, we are driven to the conclusion, that the
rejector of revelation is at war with Omnipotence,
and that he is standing out against a species of proof
which demands of every intelligent and accountable
creature the most prompt and unhesitating submis-
sion. Such is the nature and such the variety of ex-
ternal evidence, that it leaves every man inexcusable
who remains in secret or avowed opposition to the
claims of the Gospel. In treating of the subject of
external evidence, I begin,
1. With Miracles. If the Bible be from God, it
must be true in itself, irrespective of all miraculous
attestation; and if it be not from God, it is equally
clear that no miracle can have been vouchsafed on
its behalf A miracle is an act of omnipo-
tence, WHICH deviates FROM, OR SUSPENDS THE
ORDINARY COURSE OF NATURE, and which is fitted
to produce an impression upon rational beings by
the very circumstance of its singularity and its un-
accountableness. Such an interposition we may as-
sure ourselves would not be granted in support of
any messenger not from God, or of any doctrine
containing in it the slightest shade of imposture.
The most inveterate enemies of revelation have
been compelled to admit that a miracle, wrought by
any being professing to act under the authority of
God, would be a sufficient evidence of the divinity
MODERN INFIDELITY. 9t
of his mission. " We know," said a Jewish ruler to
Christ, " that thou art a teacher come from God ;
for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him." A principle is here ad-
mitted which it is impossible, consistently with
sound reason, to deny: it is this — that a teacher
working miracles furnishes indubitable evidence
that his mission is from God. To test with utmost
severity the evidence of miraculous interposition in
any given instance must be an imperative duty, but
to withhold our assent to any doctrine after the
finger of Omnipotence has inscribed over it its ce-
lestial origin, is to trample reason in the dust, and
to set up in its place the most inveterate and stupid
prejudice.
The question then is, did Christ and his apostles
perform the miracles attributed to them in the books
of the New Testament ? and did they appeal to
those miracles in confirmation of the message they
delivered ? In reading the inimitable discourses of
Christ, no one can hesitate for a moment as to the
nature of the appeal made by him to miracles.
" The works," said he, " which the Father hath
given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear
witness of me that the Father hath sent me." " The
works that I do in my Father's name, they bear
witness of me." " If I do not the works of my Fa-
ther, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe
not me, believe the works ; that ye may know and
92 MODERN INFIDELITY.
believe that the Father is in me, and I in him."
" Believe me that I am in the Father and the Fa-
ther in me ; or else believe me for the very works'
sake." Here miracles are assumed, upon the ordi-
nary principles of reason, to be a sufficient evidence
of Christ's mission from the Father to every impar-
tial and unbiased mind. So unhesitatingly did Jesus
of Nazareth use this argument, that when the dis-
ciples of John came to him to inquire whether he
was indeed the Christ, his only reply was, " Go and
show John again those things which ye do hear
and see : the blind receive their sight, and the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel
preached to them." And when the apostles of our
Lord allude at any time to the power by which
they perform their several miracles, they invariably
refer to the all-potent charm of " that name which is
above every name ;" as when the helpless paralytic
was healed at the beautiful gate of the temple —
*• If we this day," said Peter, " be examined of the
good deed done to the impotent man, by what means
he is made whole ; be it known unto you ali, and to
all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, even by him doth this man
stand here before you whole."
The whole question of miracles, theti, must re-
solve itself into a matter of fact. And the attempt of
MODERN INFIDELITY. 93
Hume and others to blink the fact, by assuming the
insufficiency of any testimony to transmit the know-
ledge of a miraculous occurrence, is neither more
nor less than to affirm that if God should at any
time see fit to perform a miracle, in attestation of
some message of mercy to a ruined race, he could
not adopt any method by which the certain evidence
of its occurrence could be preserved from age to
age.* It is not, surely, the spirit of sound philoso-
phy in which any man asserts that a miracle is con-
trary to experience. It may not, indeed, come under
the head of the ordinary experience of mankind ;
but that it is contrary to it cannot be shown. Accord-
ing to our ordinary experience, bodily disease, when
successfully removed, is subdued by the influence
of certain human remedies which God is pleased to
bless. According to the wonderful history of the
Gospel, disease is often rebuked by a word, a look,
an exercise of the secret will of the miraculous agent.
But what is there, we ask, in these two distinct
classes of facts opposed to each other ? They may
each, indeed, belong to a distinct chain of causation ;
they may be totally independent events ; they may
admit and require various kinds of proof; but he
who says that they are contrary the one to the other,
utters a sentiment opposed to true philosophy, and
* See " A Dissertation on Miracles," &c. by George
Campbell, D. D.
94 MODERN INFIDELITY.
commits his good sense in his zeal to overturn the
evidence of the Gospel. " To pronounce a miracle
to be false," says a distinguished writer, " because
it is different from experience, is only to conclude
against its general existence from the very circum-
stance which constitutes its particular nature ; for if
it were not different from experience, where would
be its singularity? Or what particular proof could
be drawn from it if it happened according to the or-
dinary train of human events, or was included in
the operation of the general laws of nature ? We
grant that it does differ from experience; but we do
not presume to make our experience the standard of
the divine conduct."
We hear much among infidel writers of the im-
mutability of the laws of nature; but whence do
they learn that these laws are never to be infringed
by the omnipotent will of the Infinite Mind ? It is
surely no proof that the Almighty is a changeable
being, because he either creates a world, or acts ac-
cording to his own infinite perfections in governing
it. There is often a great deal of assumption in the
use of the terms " laws of nature," " course of na-
ture," &c. as employed by writers of a sceptical
turn. If in the use of such terms it were only in-
tended to assert that the Most High has subjected
the material universe to the government of certain
great laws, which act uniformly, except when he is
pleased to suspend or to counteract them, there
MODERN INFIDELITY. 95
could be no objection whatever to the phraseology
employed ; but when they are spoken of as a kind
of intelligent and independent power ; when they
are described as something almost distinct from the
continued exercise of the divine behest ; when they
are regarded as an imperative control, binding even
the will of Deity itself, they are placed in an impos-
ing light, to which they have no conceivable title.
" Our knowledge of the ordinary course of things,
though limited, is yet real ; and therefore it is es-
sential to a miracle, both that it differ from that
course, and be accompanied with peculiar and une-
quivocal signs of such difference. We have been
told that the course of nature is fixed and unalter-
able, and therefore it is not consistent with the im-
mutability of God to perform miracles. But, surely,
they who reason in this manner beg the point in
question. We have no right to assume that the Deity
has ordained such general laws as will exclude his
interposition ; and we cannot suppose that he would
forbear to interfere where any important end could
be answered. This interposition, though it controls,
in particular cases, the energy, does not diminish
the utility of those laws : it leaves them to fulfill
their own proper purposes, and effects only a dis-
tinct purpose, for which they were not calculated.
If the course of nature implies the laws of matter
and motion, into which the most opposite pheno-
mena may be resolved, it is certain that we do not
96 MODERN INFIDELITY.
yet know them in their full extent ; and therefore
that events which are related by judicious and dis-
interested persons, and at the same time imply no
gross contradictions, are possible in themselves, and
capable of a certain degree of proof If the course of
nature implies the whole order of events which God
has ordained for the government of the world, it
includes both his ordinary and extraordinary dis-
pensations, and among them miracles may have
their place as a part of the universal plan. It is, in-
deed, consistent with sound philosophy, and not in-
consistent with pure religion, to acknowledge that
they might be disposed by the Supreme Being at
the same time with the more ordinary effects of his
power ; that their causes and occasions might be
arranged with the same regularity ; and that in re-
ference chiefly to their concomitant circumstances
of persons and time, to the specific ends for which
they were employed, and to our idea of the imme-
diate necessity there is for a divine agent, miracles
would differ from common events, in which the
hand of God acts as efficaciously, though less vis-
ibly. On this consideration of the subject, miracles,
instead of contradicting nature, might form a part ol
it. But what our limited reason and scanty expe-
rience may comprehend, should never be represent-
ed as a full and exact view of the possible or actual
varieties which exist in the works of God." See
Watson^s Theol. Dictionary, article " Miracles."
MODERN INFIDELITY. 97
It is daring and presumptuous in the extreme to
attempt, by reasonings a ^priori, to set aside the phy-
sical possibility of a miracle, or to assume that hu-
man testimony is inadequate to the task of rendering'
it available to the conviction of mankind. If the ar^
gument a priori is at all to be admitted in a ques-
tion of mere fact, where the senses were originally
appealed to, it were easy to show that the miracu-
lous attestations of the Gospel are entitled to all the
benefits which it can possibly yield. No one can
prove that it is contrary to the determined arrange-
ments of Divine Providence that miracles should be
wrought ; no one can assert, in the spirit of true sci-
ence, that it may not have been a part of the great
scheme of God's moral government thus to step aside
from the rule of his ordinary procedure ; no one can
advisedly say that if an occasion worthy of miracu-
lous interposition should present itself to the divine
omniscience, God would fail to grant such interpo-
sition ; no one can seriously contemplate the pro-
fessed objects of Christianity, or examine in detail
its wondrous provisions, without being constrained
to admit that it furnishes an occasion worthy of
some unusual effort of Omnipotence ; and no one
can calmly survey the miraculous facts recorded in
the Gospel history without feeling that they are ad-
mirably adapted to attest as divine the several com-
munications to which they belong. A priori, I
should say that nothing is more reasonable than to
Counsels to Y. Men. 9
98 MODERN INFIDELITY.
suppose, first, that God would furnish his erring and
sorrowful children with a revelation of hi$ merciful
designs ; and, second, that he would so attest that
revelation with the finger of omnipotence as to leave
all without excuse who did not embrace its inestima-
ble provisions. If any one is bold enough to affirm
that testimony is an insufficient medium for the con-
veyance of a miraculous history, he should be pre-
pared to go the whole length of his extravagant as-
sumption, and to maintain that no revelation could
at any time be imparted by God to his creatures, be-
cause human testimony, the only method of trans-
mitting historic facts, was insufficient to the task of
conveying to the next, and to succeeding generations,
the evidence of such revelation having been impart-
ed. There is no end to vague conjecture, if it is al-
lowed to usurp the province of sound reason, and to
dictate, beforehand, what may and what may not be
proper in the Almighty to do. There is no sure
way of knowing what God may do, but by ascer-
taining what he has done; and this can only be
known through the medium of that testimony, the
accuracy of which admits of being tested by rules
which cannot deceive.
I would state the argument, then, on behalf of the
miracles of the New Testament, in some such way
as the following : — The Gospel history informs us
that both Christ and his apostles wrought miracles ;
it shows us that those miracles were appealed to as
MODERN INFIDELITY. 99
I
evidences of their divine mission, and it presents
every direct and collateral mark of authenticity and
truth which can possibly belong to any document of
antiquity. It is admitted on all hands, that Jesus of
Nazareth actually lived and died in Judea ; that his
followers became zealous and successful in the pro-
pagation of his cause after his death ; and that they
were surrounded by many inveterate enemies, both
among their own countrymen and the Gentiles. In
the midst of danger, and in opposition to all their
own worldly interests, they persevered even unto
death. The cause they espoused was at all times
open to the gaze of subtle and fierce enemies, who
would have been more than happy to detect any im-
posture, and who would have been eagle-eyed to dis-
cover any pretension to the exercise of the mighty
power of God which was not actually possessed.
The persecutors of Jesus of Nazareth had their at-
tention drawn to his miracles, which could no longer
be hid in a corner ; and, unable to account for them,
and anxious to prevent their mighty effect, they at-
tributed them to Satanic power. The cause, however,
spread with amazing rapidity, and the death of the
Master but added fresh energy to the cause of his
disciples. For a time, indeed, through the weakness
of their faith, they were filled with gloomy forebo-
dings ; but, according to his own prediction, their
divine Leader rose from the dead ; with powers of
tongues and gifts of healing they went forth in his
iOO MODERN INFIDELITY.
name ; his resurrection they openly proclaimed in
the city of Jerusalem ; thousands of impenitent Jews
laid down the weapons of their hostility ; the mira-
cles of Christ and his apostles were acknowledged
by multitudes as indubitable matters of £act, and
their fame spread throughout the whole world. Had
they been mere impostures, they would have been
speedily detected ; but, on the contrary, they drew
down the peculiar notice of heathen writers, and Cel-
sus himself finds no better method of disposing of
them than by absurdly attributing them to a skil-
ful use of the arts of magic on the part of Christ's
disciples.
The following things are clear respecting Christ's
miracles : They were of such a nature as to surpass
all efforts of human power or skill. By them, and
without the intervention of second causes, the blind
received their sight, the paralytic instantly walked,
the lepers were cleansed. By them five loaves and
two small fishes were multiplied so as to become
food for thousands ; by them simple water was con-
verted into wine ; by them the stormy tempest was
hushed into an immediate calm ; by them the spirits
of darkness were compelled to depart from those un-
happy victims w^om they had been suffered to pos-
sess ; and by them, once and again, the dead were
restored to life, and became the resistless witnesses
of a supernatural interposition. Now, in all these
cases, every human being was an equally sufficient
MODERN INFIDELITY. lOl
judge : from the very nature of the facts it was im-
possible that any one could be deceived ; the finger
of God was so distinctly palpable, that both sense
and reason combined to verify the true nature of
the events.
Again, the miracles of Christ were done in fuh-
lie, at the doors of the Jewish temple, in the places
of public resort, when he had been preaching to
thousands, and when thousands were the actual
subjects of them.
They were, moreover, of such a nature that no
collusion, no magical art, no legerdemain, no kind
of deception could have been practiced.
They were wrought in the presence of persons
full of enmity and cruel hatred, who would not have
failed to lay open the entire imposture, had any
existed; but so confounded were the Scribes and
Pharisees at the sight of them, that they sought re-
lief from their unhappy impressions by representing
Jesus of Nazareth as in league with the great spirit
of darkness.
The accounts of these miracles were, soon after
their occurrence, published to the world in the very
places where they happened ; yet no evidence can
be adduced to show that a single contemporary of
the Savior was found bold enough to deny the fact
of their occurrence ; nor indeed can it be shown
that any attempt of this kind was made* till long
♦ The fable that the disciples stole the body of Jesus, will
9*
102 MODERN INFIDELITY.
after Christ had ascended to heaven. " Here," says
Mr. Scott, it may be demanded, " when could the
belief of such transactions have been obtruded on
mankind, if they had never happened? Surely not
in the age when they were said to have been wit-
nessed by tens of thousands, who were publicly
challenged to deny them if they could ! Not in any
subsequent age ; for the origin of Christianity was
ascribed to them, and millions must have been per-
suaded that they had always believed those things
of which they had never till that time so much as
heard."
Having offered the preceding remarks on the
miracles of Christ, I would just observe that the
miracles recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures
belong to the same great system of truth, and are
supported by similar evidence. Infidels have spoken
of the Patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations as if
altogether distinct from the religion of Christ ; but
this is a gross mistake, as Christianity is the con-
summation of all those institutions which are em-
bodied in the Jewish Scriptures. The miraculous
fact of a universal deluge is abundantly confirmed
by all the researches of geologists, and the organic
remains of a former world must leave those inex-
bc dealt with in its own proper place. It is evident, how-
ever, that no use was made of it by the Jews where it could
have been most available : in fact, it was too absurd to be
gravely referred lo.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 103
cusable who reject the data of revelation. And with
regard to the miraculous history of the Israelites in
Egypt, at the Red Sea, in the wilderness, and in
Canaan, the facts of that history, and the national mo-
numents which, from the earliest ages, were fixed
on to perpetuate it, combine to relieve the mind from
the slightest suspicion as to its genuineness. " Can
any man of common sense," says Mr. Scott, "think
that Moses and Aaron could possibly have persuad- ^
ed the whole nation of Israel that they had witness-
ed all the plagues of Egypt, passed through the Red
Sea with the waters piled on each side of them,
gathered the manna every morning, and seen all
the wonders recorded in their history, had no such
events taken place ? If, then, that generation could
not be imposed on, when could the belief of these
extraordinary transactions be palmed upon the na-
tion ? Surely it would have been impossible in the
next age to persuade them that their fathers had
seen and experienced such wonderful things when
they had never before heard a single word about
them in all their lives, and when an appeal must
have been made to them that these were things well
known among them ! What credit could have been
obtained to such a forgery at any subsequent period ?
It would have been absolutely necessary, in making
the attempt, to persuade the people that such tradi-
tions had always been current among them ; that
the memory of them had for ages been perpetuated
104 MODERN INFIDELITY.
by days and ordinances observed by all the nation ;
and that their whole civil and religious establish-
ment had thence originated ; and could this possibly
have been effected if they all knew that no such me-
morials and traditions had ever been heard of among
them?"
I cannot deny myself the pleasure of furnishing
ray readers with a remarkably clear and beautiful
account of the miracles of the Mosaic dispensation
furnished by the ingenious author of " Theological
Institutes," w^ho has already been referred to.
" Out of the numerous miracles," says he,
" wrought by the agency of Moses, we select, in
addition to those mentioned in chap. 9, the plague
<?/ DARKNESS. Two circumstanccs are to be noted
in the relation given of the event. Exod. 10: It
continued three days, and it afflicted the 'Egyptians
only, for * all the children of Israel had light in
their dwellings.'' The fact here mentioned was of
the most public kind ; and had it not taken place,
every Egyptian and every Israelite could have con-
tradicted the account. The phenomenon was not
produced by any eclipse of the sun, for no eclipse
of that luminary can endure so long. Some of the
Roman writers mention a darkness by day, so great
that persons were unable to know each other ; but
we have no historical account of any other darkness
so long continued as this, and so intense that the
Egyptians * rose not up from their places for three
MODERN INFIDELITY. 105
days.^ But if any such circumstance had occurred,
and a natural cause could have been assigned for it,
yet even then the miraculous character of this event
would remain unshaken ; for to what but to a super-
natural cause could the distinction made between the
Israelites and the Egyptians be attributed, when
they inhabited a portion of the same country, and '
when their neighborhoods were immediately adjoin-
ing? Here then are the characters of a miracle.
The established course of natural causes and effects
is interrupted by an operation upon that mighty
element, the atmosphere. That it was not a chance
irregularity in nature, is made apparent from the ef-
fect following the volition of a man acting in the
name of the Lord of Nature, and from its being res-
trained by that to a certain part of the same country
— • Moses stretched out his hand,^ and the darkness
prevailed every where but in the dwellings of his
own people. The fact has been established by for-
mer arguments ; and the fact being allowed, the
miracle follows of necessity.
" The destruction of the first-born of the
Egyptians may be next considered. Here, too, are
several circumstances to be carefully noted. This
judgment was threatened in the presence of Pharaoh,
before any of the other plagues were brought upon
him and his people. The Israelites also were fore-
warned of it : they were directed to slay a lamb,
sprinkle the blood upon their door-posts, and pre-
106 MODERN INFIDELITY.
pare for their departure that same night. The stroke
was inflicted upon the first-born of the Egyptians
only, and not upon any other part of the family—
it occurred in the same house — the first-born of the
Israelites escaped without exception, and the festi-
val of ' the passover ' was from that night instituted
in remembrance of the event. Such a festival could
not in the nature of the thing be established in any
subsequent age, in commemoration of an event
which never occurred ; and if instituted at the time,
the event must have taken place, for by no means
could this large body of men have been persuaded
that their first-born had been saved, and those of the
Egyptians destroyed, if the facts had not been before
their eyes. The history, therefore, being established,
the miracle follows ; for the order of nature is suffi-
ciently known to warrant the conclusion, that, if a
pestilence were to be assumed as the agent of this
calamity, an epidemic disease, however rapid and
destructive, comes not upon the threat of a mortal,
and makes no such selection as the first-born of every
family.
" The miracle of dividing the waters of the Red
Sea has already been mentioned, but merits more
particular consideration. In this event we observe,
as in others, circumstances which exclude all pos-
sibility of mistake or collusion. The subject of the
miracle ; the witnesses of it, the host of Israel, who
passed through on foot, and the Egyptian nation,
MODERN INFIDELITY. 107
who lost their king and his whole army. The mi-
raculous characters of the event are : the waters
are divided, and stand up on each side ; the instru-
ment is a strong east wind, which begins its opera-
tion upon the water at the stretching out of the hand
of Moses, and ceases at the same signal, and that at
the precise moment when the return of the waters
would be most fatal to the Egyptian pursuing army.
" It has, indeed, been asked whether there were
not some ledges of rocks where the water was shal-
low, so that an army, at particular times, might pass
over ; and whether the Etesian winds, which blow
strongly all summer from the north-west, might not
blow so violently against the sea as to keep it back
' on a heap.' But if there Avere any force in these
questions, it is plain that such suppositions would
leave the destruction of the Egyptians unaccounted
for. To'show that there is no weight in them at all,
let the place where the passage of the Red Sea was
effected be first noted. Some ^x it near Suez^ at
the head of the gulf; but if there was satisfactory
evidence of this, it ought also to be taken into the
account, that formerly the gulf extended at least
twenty-five miles north of Suez, the place where it
terminates at present. But the names of places, as
well as tradition, fix the passage about ten hours*
journey lower down, at Clysma, or the valley of Be-
aea. The name given by Moses to the place where
the Israelites encamped before the sea was divided,
108 MODERN INFIDELITY.
was Piha-hiroth, which signifies * the mouth of the
ridge,' or of that chain of mountains which h'ne the
western coast of the Red Sea ; and as there is but
one mouth of that chain through which an immense
multitude of men, women, and children could pos-
sibly pass when flying from their enemies, there
can be no doubt whatever respecting the situation of
Piha-hiroth ; and the modern names of conspicuous
places in its neighborhood prove that those by whom
such names were given believed that this was the
place at which the Israelites passed the sea in safety,
and where Pharaoh was drowned. Thus we have
close by Piha-hiroth, on the western side of the
gulf, a mountain called Attaka, which signifies de-
liverance. On the eastern coast opposite is a head-
land called Ras Musa, or * the Cape of Moses ;' some-
what lower, Harnan Faraun, ' Pharaoh's Springs ;'
whilst, at these places, the general name of the gulf
itself is Bahr-al-Kolsum, ' the Bay of Submersion,'
in which there is a whirlpool called Birket Faraun,
* the Pool of Pharaoh.' This, then, was the passage
of the Israelites ; and the depth of the sea here is
stated by Bruce, who may be consulted as to these
localities, at about fourteen fathoms, and the breadth
at between three and four leagues. But there is no
• ledge of rocks ;' and, as to the ' Etesian wind,' the
same traveler observes, • If the Etesian, blowing
from the north-west in summer, could keep the sea
as a wall, on the right, of fifty feet high, still the dif-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 109
ficulty would remain of building the wall to the
left, or to the north. If the Etesian winds had done
this once, they must have repeated it many a time
before or since, from the same causes. The wind
which actually did blow, according to histor}^ either
as an instrument of dividing the waters, or, which
is more probable, as the instrument of drying the
ground, after the waters were divided by the imme-
diate energy of the Divine power, was not a north
wind, but an * east wind ;' and, as Dr. Hales ob-
serves, ' seems to be introduced by way of anticipa-
tion, to exclude the natural agency which might be
afterwards resorted to for solving the miracle ; for
4t is remarkable that the monsoon in the Red Sea
blows the summer-half of the year from the north,
and the winter-half from the south, neither of which
could produce the miracle in question.'
" The miraculous character of this event is there-
fore most strongly marked. An expanse of water, and
that water a sea, of from nine to twelve miles broad,
known to be exceedingly subject to agitations, is
divided, and a wall of water is formed on each hand,
affording a passage on dry land for the Israelites.
The phenomenon occurs, too, just as the Egyptian
host are on the point of overtaking the fugitives, and
ceases at the moment when the latter reach the oppo-
site shore in safety, and when their enemies are in
the midst of the passage, in the only position m which
the closing of the wall of waters on each side could
Counsels to Y Men. \Q
ilO MODERN INFIDELITY.
insure the entire destruction of so large a force!
"The falling of the manna in the wilderness for
forty years, is another unquestionable miracle, and
one in which there could be neither mistake on the
part of those who were sustained by it, nor fraud on
the part of Moses. That this event was not produced
by the ordinary course of nature, is rendered certain
by the fact, that the same wilderness has been traveled
by individuals, and by large bodies of men, from the
earliest ages to the present, but no such supply of
food was ever met with, except on this occasion ; and
its miraculous character is further marked by the
following circumstances: — 1. That it fell but six
days in the week. 2. That it fell in such prodigious
quantities as sustained three millions of souls. 3. That
there fell a double quantity every Friday, to serve the
Israelites for the next day, which was their Sabbath.
4. That what was gathered on the first five days of
the week stank and bred worms if kept above one
day, but that which was gathered on Friday kept
sweet for two days ; and 5. That it continued falling
while the Israelites remained in the wilderness, but
ceased as soon as they came out of it, and got corn to
eat in the land of Canaan. 6. Let these very extra-
ordinary particulars be considered, and they at once
confirm the fact, whilst they unequivocally establish
the miracle. No people could be deceived in these
circumstances ; no person could persuade them of
their truth if they had not occurred ; and the whole
MODERN INFIDELITY. Ill
was so clearly out of the regular course of nature
as to mark unequivocally the interposition of God.
To the majority of the numerous miracles recorded
in the Old Testament, the same remarks apply, and
upon them the same miraculous characters are as
indubitably impressed."
To these remarks I may just add, that the fact of
the antiquity, genuineness, and uncorrupted trans-
mission of the books both of the Old and New Tes-
tament Scriptures, is sustained by an uninterrupted
chain of evidence, which could be adduced in favor
of no other document of a remote antiquity, and which
ought to have shamed and for ever silenced the oppo-
nents of revelation. Even enemies themselves have
unwittingly served the cause of truth by adding to this
testimony. The Jews are to this day, and have been
through every past age, the effective and unanswera-
ble defenders of their own canon ; and the enemies of
Christianity who arose in the second century and
downwards, were valuable coadjutors of the Chris-
tian apologists, in alluding to the alleged facts of
Christianity, though with a view to refute them. It
would be easy to show, not only that the Christian
fathers, notwithstanding their many errors and absur-
dities, served the cause of revelation, by proving the
antiquity, genuineness, and uncorrupted character of
the sacred text ; but that Celsus, and Porphyry, and
Julian, to say nothing of the Roman historians, Ta-
citus and Suetonius, did an immense service, though
112 MODERN INFIDELITY.
they intended it not, in endeavoring to refute facts
which, if they had never existed, could not have ob-
tained currency in the world.
It is unreasonable, then, in the extreme, to refuse
credit to the facts of Christianity, standing as they do
upon such an irrefragable basis. God has spread
over them the shield of omnipotence, and he who
will not be convinced by a well authenticated testi-
mony of miracles, would not be persuaded though
one actually rose from the dead.
As the resurrection of Christ is a fact of such
vital moment in the argument connected with mira-
cles, I shall devote to it the notice of a distinct dis-
cussion, hoping thereby to condense into very nar-
row limits the amount of proof arising to Christianity
from the survey of its miraculous character.
2. The argument derived from the Resurrectioji
of Ciirist. It must have been remarked by every
careful observer, that there are two distinct classes
of miracles recorded in the gospel history — ^those
which the facts of Christianity themselves involve,
and those which were wrought by our Lord and his
apostles in confirmation of the message they deliver-
ed. The necessity, perhaps, of the latter class of mir-
acles chiefly originates in the first. A revelation of
facts and doctrines altogether supernatural seemed
to demand an attestation corresponding to its own
nature. It is difficult, indeed, to conceive of the
idea of an express and direct revelation from the
MODERN INFIDELITY. 11$
Infinite Mind without instantly associating it with
what is miraculous, and without feeling a sort of
intuitive conviction that it will be supported with a
species of evidence answering to the wondrous facts
which it professes to disclose. Most of the doctrines
of revelation far transcend the puny conceptions of
finite minds, and some of them are of such a sublime
nature that they are to be regarded rather as sub-
jects of humble belief than as topics of querulous
dispute.
The resurrection of Christ, in common with his
incarnation, his temptation, his transfiguration, and
his ascension to the right hand of power, is a fact of
a distinctly miraculous character. It is, moreover,
a fact which was divinely attested on the day of
Pentecost, and subsequently by indubitable marks
of a supernatural interposition.
For a person to rise from the dead is an indisput-
able manifestation of the mighty power of God ; and
if it can be shown that Christ actually rose from the
dead, according to his own predictions, it must of
necessity follow that both the prescience and the
omnipotence of Deity were associated with the won-
drous event. Many sceptics have been ready to ad-
mit, that if the resurrection of Christ could be fully
established, their opposition to Christianity must
cease. It was impossible for them to concede less
than this; and the zealous efibrts they have made to
repudiate the evidence of our Lord's resurrection
10*
114 MODERN INFIDELITY.
sufficiently prove their anxiety to get rid of a fact
which, if properly established, must, as by some
mighty convulsion, shiver infidelity to atoms.
As the doctrine contended for is of such vast
importance to the full developement of the truth of
Christianity, it is a peculiarly happy circumstance
that the evidence upon which it stands is of such
a diversified and powerful kind, bearing, as it were,
an exact proportion to the commanding position
which it occupies in the christian scheme. With
the fact of Christ's resurrection from the dead the
whole system of Christianity must stand or fall ;
(1 Cor. 15 : 14-19 ;) to bear witness to this fact the
office of apostles was mainly established ;* upon its
reception our salvation vitally depends ;t and by its
all-powerful influence believers are inspired by the
animating hope of eternal life.J
By this event, also, Christ was '* declared to be
the Son of God with power ;"§ by it the perfection
of his atonement was fully announced ; || and by it
the evidence, pattern, and earnest of the resurrec-
tion of all his followers were strikingly displayed.*?
How momentous, then, upon the showing of Chris-
tianity itself, is the doctrine of Chr'ist's resurrection !
How firm ought faith to be in the evidence by
which it is supported ! And how cautious and
♦ Acts, 1 : 22; 4 : 33 ; 10 : 40, 41. t Rom. 10 : 9. tl Pet.
1:3,4. § Rom. 1:4. 11 1 Cor. 15 : 17. Rom. 4 : 25. IT 1 Cor.
15 : 21, 22, 20, 23. Rom. 8 : 11.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 115
thoughtful ought he to be who ventures to treat it
«s an imposture of human device !
In briefly surveying the evidence upon which the
doctrine of Christ's resurrection rests, we are natu-
rally led to inquire whether his death actually took
place. Here no conceivable difficulty can arise.
The fact is admitted both by friends and enemies ;
and as the Jew^s procured his crucifixion and thirst-
ed for his blood, there can be no reason to doubt
that they would carry the infamous sentence of the
law into complete execution. Fully aware of his
own predictions that he would rise again, they did
not suffer his body to be removed from the cross till
every symptom of life was extinct ; and so decisive
were the marks of dissolution, that the soldiers, per-
ceiving that he was already dead, did not break his
legs, according to ordinary custom, when they wish-
ed to hasten the death of a particular culprit ; but
one of their number *' pierced his side with a spear,
and forthwith came thereout blood and water." Nor
did Pilate deliver up his body to be buried till he
received direct assurance from the officers in com-
mand that the victim of Calvary had actually expired.
Nor was the place of Christ's burial less manifest
than the fact of his death. No secrecy was attempt-
ed to be practiced in this matter by Joseph of Ari-
mathea, or any of the rest of Christ's disciples. The
request, indeed, that they might be put in possession
of the body of Jesus was complied with ; but all
116 MODERN INFIDELITY.
their movements were watched with nicest scrutinyi
and a Roman watch of sixty soldiers was instantly
set over the place of the sepulture.
That Christ died, then, and was buried, no one
can doubt. Jews and heathens confirm the facts.
Yet in a period short of three full days, notwith-
standing the strict watch of a Roman guard, the
body of Christ, by the admission of the disciples
and Pharisees, is removed from the tomb. A rumor
of the fact instantly spreads, and enemies and friends
have each their particular mode of accounting for
it. Which account, then, bears upon it the signature
of truth — the disciples' or the Jews' ? They cannot
be both true, for they are contradictory. The dis-
ciples say that two women, Mary Magdalene and
Mary the mother of James and Salome, Mark,
16:1-8. Luke, 24:1-12, had repaired to the
sepulchre for the purpose of perfuming the body of
Christ with eastern spices, and that an angel ap-
peared to them, and having rolled away the stone
from the door of the sepulchre, invited them, in the
language of condescension, to look into the now
empty tomb, where their Lord had been placed on
the evening of the crucifixion, but from whence he
had now risen in the exercise of an omnipotent
power. It is moreover stated by the disciples, that
the women received commission from the angel to
announce the fact of Christ's resurrection to the rest
of bis followers. From the same source we learn
MODERN INFIDELITY. 117
that others subsequently repaired to the tomb and
found the body of Christ removed, and only the
linen in which it was wrapped left behind ; that the
fact of an actual resurrection was demonstrated by
the appearance of Christ to several of his disciples,
both alone and in full assembly ; that the eye saw
him, that the hand touched him, that the mind en-
tered into fellowship with him ; that some enjoyed
the benefit of his conversation, partook of food with
him, listened to his instructions, received his com-
mands, and for the space of more than five weeks
had more or less intercourse with him ; when, at
the end of this period, and after he had given com-
njission to his apostles, he finally conducted his dis-
ciples to the Mount of Olives, and rose to his na-
tive heavens in their admiring presence.
Such is the account of Christ's resurrection as
furnished by his friends. And what is there in the
opposite scale? Nothing whatever. It is said, in-
deed, by the Sanhedrim, that the disciples stole the
body of Jesus while the watch slept ! This is verily
all, in the shape of fact, that the Jews ever attempt-
ed to oppose to the combined testimony of the dis-
ciples ; and it is so utterly absurd, that nothing but
the consternation occasioned by the astounding fact
of the resurrection could have tempted them to in-
duce the watch, by an act of bribery, to make such
e statement. Either the watch were asleep or awake :
if awake, how could an armed body of sixty men
118 MODERN INFIDELITY.
have allowed the disciples to rob the tomb of its
sacred inhabitant? and if asleep, how could they
bear testimony to the fact of the disciples' theft 1
This wild and extravagant fabrication, however, was
speedily abandoned. Not once is it adverted to on
those trials of the apostles which soon took place at
Jerusalem, on account of their bold and open pro-
clamation of their Master's resurrection. Though
the apostles were cited before that very body who
had given currency to the report of the disciples'
theft, they are not even once taxed with the crime ;
not a whisper escapes the lips of the Sanhedrim on
the subject ; not one of all the watch is brought for-
ward to confront the apostles, and to shame them
out of their adherence to the imposture of the resur-
rection ; on the contrary, an influential member of
the Jewish council advises forbearance to the wit-
nesses of the resurrection, and intimates even the
possibility of the event itself. Acts, 5 : 33-40. If
the Sanhedrim had had the slightest belief of the
wicked story invented, would they have adopted
such a course ? Undoubtedly not. Now was the time
to muster all their strong evidence against the facts
of the resurrection, and to prevent its further cur-
rency among the people ; but nothing whatever of
this kind is resorted to ; persecution and threats are
the only weapons employed to check the rising doc-
trine ; and a whole assembly of men, deeply involv-
ed in the consequences of the resurrection, not only
MODERN INFIDELITY. 119
succumb to the counsel of an individual, but appa-
rently acquiesce in the hypothetical admission that
the entire doctrine of the apostles may yet prove it-
self to be of God.
There is not, then, an atom of contradictory testi-
mony to the fact of the resurrection as stated by the
apostles. If we reject their account, we are left in
a state of the wildest conjecture as to w^hat became
of the body of Jesus. Look, then, at their testimony,
and see if it bears along with it the credentials of
truth. Upon a review of the gospel history itself,
was there any thing improbable in the occurrence
of Christ's resurrection? Did he not again and
again, in the presence of friends and enemies, pre-
dict the event, and point to it as the great seal of his
mission ? and did he not furnish examples of the
same mighty power in the resurrection of Lazarus,
and of the widow's son, as well as in many other
demonstrations of his eternal power and Godhead ?
Before any one can show that the event of Christ's
resurrection was by no means to be anticipated, he
must disprove the entire facts of our Lord's history,
and thereby subvert the testimony of Heathens,
Jews, and Christians. The question is, were the
apostles deceived, or did they attempt to deceive
others ? The former of these could not have been
the case ; for they had every opportunity of identi-
fying their Lord's person which could possibly be
furnished, or which could ever be regarded, by the
120 MODERN INFIDELITY.
most scrupulous, as necessary. The very doubts of
their own minds contributed to add strength to the
conviction w^hich they acquired of their Lord's iden
tity ; and for the space of full forty days they were
enabled, in a succession of interviews, to correct any
sudden or erroneous impression, and to settle them-
selves in the triumphant belief that Christ was risen
indeed.
Nor vtras there one sign of an impostor or deceiver
attaching to these simple-hearted witnesses of the
resurrection. There is no attempt to furnish one
uniform record of the transaction. On the contrary,
we have four different accounts of the resurrection,
so distinct as to show that each writer aimed at
truth, and was under no apprehension of discre-
pancy in his statements ; and yet so entirely harmo-
nious that the apparent contradictions only tend to
establish the validity and perfect consistency of the
history.
It may be asked, moreo^^pr, when and where did
the apostles of our Lord begin to proclaim the fact
of the resurrection ? Why, at the very period of its
alleged occurrence, and in the very city of the
crucifixion. When they were once convinced of the
glorious event themselves, they were bold as lions
in its defence, and were not afraid to give utterance
to their convictions in the presence of those who
must have possessed the best means of detecting the
imposture, if any such had been practiced. The
MODERN INFIDELITY. 121
most subtle and disputatious of the Jewish nation
heard their testimony ; malice, and wit, and power,
were all enlisted against them ; but the new doctrine
prevailed, and fresh instances of miraculous power,
in the gift of tongues, and in the ability to heal all
manner of diseases, accredited the apostles as the
commissioned servants of the Most High.
" In all other things," observes the late Mr. Scott,
" they appeared simple, upright, holy men ; but if in
this they deceived, the world never yet produced a
company of such artful and wicked impostors, whose
schemes were so deeply laid, so admirably conduct-
ed, and so extensively and permanently successful.
For they spent all the rest of their lives in promot-
ing the religion of Jesus, renouncing every earthly
interest, facing all kinds of opposition and persecu-
tion, bearing contempt and ignominy, prepared ha-
bitually to seal their testimony with their blood,
and most of them actually dying martyrs in the
cause, recommending it with their latest breath as
worthy of universal acceptation. It is likewise ob-
servable, that, when they went forth to preach Christ
as risen from the dead, they were manifestly chang-
ed, in almost every respect, from what they before
had been, — their timidity gave place to the most
undaunted courage ; their carnal prejudices vanish-
ed ; their ambitious contests ceased ; their narrow
views were immensely expanded ; and zeal for the
honor of the Lord, with love to the souls of men,
Couusels to Y. Men. | X
122 MODERN INFIDELITY.
seems to have engrossed and elevated all the powers
of their minds. A more complete human testimony
to any event cannot be imagined ; for if our Lord
had shown himself * openly to all the people' of
the Jews, and their rulers had still persisted in re-
jecting him, it would have rather weakened than
confirmed the evidence ; and, if they had unanimous-
ly received him as Messiah, it might have excited
in others a suspicion that if was a plan concerted
for aggrandizing the nation."
3. The argument derived from prophecy. This
is a branch of Christian evidence possessing extra
ordinary power, and capable of very extensive ap-
plication. The proper idea of prophecy is the fore-
telling of such future events as no human skill or
sagacity could afiticipate, and as nothing but the
prescience of the Eternal could either know or re-
veal. This is the test applied of old to the false gods
of the heathen : *' Show us," said Jehovah to their
votaries, " what shall happen ; declare us things for
to come ; show the things that are to come here-
after, that we may know that ye are gods." If it
can be shown that the leading facts recorded in Scrip-
ture were foretold by Omniscience long ere they
occurred, it will follow of necessity that a revelation
thus accredited is from God. Prophecy is, indeed,
a species of miraculous attestation, challenging the
investigation of men in every age, and accumulating
new materials of proof as the revolutions of Divine
MODERN INFIDELITY. 123
Providence disclose and illustrate the events em-
bodied in the prophetic testimony.
The great object and end of the prophetic dispen-
sation Avas. evidently to testify " beforehand, the suf-
ferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow,"
and to this object and end all the predictions of Scrip-
ture might be shown more or less to contribute.
I shall begin, therefore, with those prophecies
which relate more immediately to the Messiah ; and
if it should appear, from a survey of facts, that there
were many prophecies uttered concerning him which
no human skill or forethought could have ventured
to announce, and which have realized a minute and
circumstantial accomplishment — it will then follow,
that they furnish a convincing testimony to his cha-
racter as the Son of God, and to his mission as the
Savior of the world. We shall first make the in-
duction of the prophetic testimony, and then inquire
how far it is probable that the prophecies of the
Jewish Scriptures could have induced the followers
of Jesus of Nazareth to endeavor, by their own
means, to bring about the events predicted ; in other
words, to produce a coincidence in the life of Jesus
to the anticipations of the prophets.
The minuteness both of the predictions and the
fulfillments will, perhaps, surprise those who havs
not closely examined this most interesting topic. In
the texts referred to in the notes, the prophecy and
its accomplishment will be placed in immediate con-
124 MODERN INFIDELITY.
tact, so that those who wish to examine this subject
for themselves may see how utterly impossible it
was for any thing like chance or human imposture
to have furnished such an exquisite harmony.*
When we look at the very first page of man's
apostacy, we find the Great Deliverer promised, as
that seed of the woman who was to bruise the head
of the serpent, t This mysterious personage was to
be of the seed of Abraham. J He was to belong to
the tribe of Judah.^ He was to be a member of the
royal house of David. || He was to be born at Beth-
lehem- J udah, the city of David. 1^ He was to be mi-
raculously conceived and born of a virgin.** He
was to be carried into Egypt, and called out of it.ft
He was to have Elias, or John the Baptist as his
forerunner. J{ He was to confirm his mission and
* See a very able discourse on " the Object and End of
the Prophetic Dispensation," by the late Archibald M'Lean.
Works, vol. iv. 12mo. p. 283.
t Compare Gen. 3 : 15, with Luke, 1 : 29-36, and Gal. 4 : 4.
t Com. Gen. 22 : 18, with Gal. 3:16, 17, and Heb. 2 : 16.
§ Com. Gen. 49 : 10, with Heb. 7 : 14.
II Com. 1 Sam. 7: 12-17, Isa. 11 : 1-6, Jer. 23 : 5, 6, with
Luke, 1 : 32, 69, Rom. 1 : 3.
IT Com. Micah, 5 : 2, with Matt. 2:1,5, 6, and Luke, 2 :
4, ii;
♦* Com. Isa. 7 : 14, with Matt. 1 : 20-24.
+t Com. Hos. 11 : 1, with Matt. 2 : 13-16.
U Com. Isa. 40 : 3, 4, Mai. 3 : 1, and 4 : 5, with Matt. 3 :
1-4, 17 : 10-14, Luke. 1 : 17, 7 : 27.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 125
doctrine by miracles.* He was to make a public
though lowly entrance into Jerusalem, riding upon
a colt, the foal of an ass.f He was to be rejected
of his own countrymen the Jews.J He was to be
betrayed by one of his disciples.^ He was to be
sold for thirty pieces of silver. || He was to be
scourged, mocked, and spit upon.l He was to be
nailed to the cross, by his hands and his feet.** He
was to be numbered with the transgressors.ft He
was to be mocked and reviled while on the cross.:|:J
He was to have gall and vinegar to drink. §§ His
garments were to be parted, and upon his vesture
lots were to be cast.|||| He was to be cut off from
the land of the living by a violent death.l^T He
was to be pierced, but not a bone of him to be
* Com. Isa. 35 : 5, 6, with Matt. 11 : 3-7, John, 5 : 36, and
Acts, 2 : 22.
t Com. Zech. 9 : 9, and Psalms, 118 : 25, 26, with Matt.
21 : 2-12, and John, 12 : 12-19.
t Com. Isa. 8 ; 14, 15. 18 : 16, 53 : 3, and Ps. 118 : 22, with
Malt. 21 : 42-45, John, 1 : 10, 11. 12 : 37-40, and 15 : 22-26.
§ Com. Ps. 41 : 9, with John, 13 : 18.
II Com. Zech. II : 12, with Matt. 26 : 14, 15, and 27 : 3-11.
TCom. Isa. 50 : 6, with Matt. 26 ; 67, 68, and 27 : 26-32,
** Com. Ps. 22 : 16, with Luke, 23 : 33, and John, 19
17, 18.
tt Com. Isa. 53 : 12, with Luke, 22 : 37, and 23 : 33
n Com. Ps. 22 : 7, 8, with Matt. 27 : 34, 35
§§ Com. Ps. 69 : 21, with Matt. 27 : 34, 48.
III! Com. Ps. 22 : 18, with Matt. 27 : 35, and John, 19 : 23, 24.
irir Com. Isa. 53, Dan. 9 : 26, with John, 19 : 30, Acts, 2 : 23.
11*
126 MODERN INFIDELITY.
broken.* He was to make his grave .with the
rich.t He was not to see corruption.^ He was to
xise from the dead.§ He was to ascend into heaven,
sit at the right hand of God, and pour out the Hoi/
Spirit in his various gifts upon men.jl
His divine dignity was also distinctly marked in
the prophetic testimony. According to the flesh, he
was to be of the seed of David ; but beyond this
there was a view of his character which exhibited
him in all the glory of essential and uncreated God-
head. He was to be called Immanuel.lT He was
described as the mighty God.** He was spoken of
as Jehovah our righteousness. ft He was portrayed
as the Son of God. J J He was declared to be
David's Lord.^§
Nor were the offices which Messiah was to sus-
* Com. Zech. 12 : 10, Exod. 12 : 46, Ps. 34 : 20, with John,
19 : 33-38.
t Com. Isa. 53 : 9, with Matt. 27 : 57-61.
t Com. Ps. 16 : 10, with Acts, 2 : 25-32, 13 : 34-3S.
§ Com. Ps. 2 : 7. 16 : 11, and Isa. 53 : 8, with Acts, 2 : 30,
31. 13 : 33, 34. -
II Com. Ps. 68 : 18, and 110 : 1, Joel, 2 : 28, with Eph.
4 : 8-13, Mark, 16 : 19, Acts, 2 : 33.
If Com. Isa. 7 : 14, with Mark, 1 : 23.
** Com. Isa. 9 : 6, with Tit. 2 : 13.
tt Com. Jer. 33 : 5, 6, with 1 Cor. 1 : 30, 31.
tt Com. 2 Sam. 7 : 14, Ps. 2 : 7, 12, with Rom. 1:8,'!,
Ileb. 1 : 5.
§§ Com. Ps. 110 : 1, with Matt. 22 : 42-46.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 127
tain overlooked by the omniscient Spirit of the pro-
phetic dispensation. He was to be a prophet like
unto Moses.* He was to be a priest for ever, after
the order of Melchisedec.f He was to be an anoint-
ed King, on Zion's holy hill — that is, the Messiah
and Sovereign of his church.J
In like manner the spiritual empire of the Son of
God is portrayed in the prophetic page. Its na-
ture, its extent, its duration, its blessedness, its hap-
py subjects, are all described.^ And though many
of the predictions which relate to that empire are
not yet fulfilled, and though some of them will not
realize their accomplishment till the consummation
of all things ; yet enough has been fulfilled to show
that Christ and his kingdom are the distinct objects
of reference, and that what is yet unaccomplished
shall ere long have the light of Divine Providence
shed upon it.
When I look at the number, minuteness, and
singular character of the prophetic testimonies of
the Jewish Scriptures to Messiah, and compare
them with their exact and circumstantial accom-
* Com. Deut. 18 : 18, with Acts, 3 : 22-24.
. t Com. Ps. 110 : 4, with Heb. 5 : 5, 6, and chap. 7, 8, 9, 10.
t Com. Ps. 2 : 6, Ps. 2 : 2, Dan. 9 : 26, with John, 20 : 30,
31, Acts, 2 : 36.
§Com. Ps.45 : 6, 7, Isa. 9 ♦. 6-8, 11 : 1-11. 49 : 6, with
Gal. 3 : 8, Heb. 1 : 8, 9, Luke, 1 : 30-34, Rom. 14 : 12, Acts,
13 : 47.
128 MODERN INFIDELITY.
plishment in the person, office, and empire of Jesus
of Nazareth, I am equally astounded at the unbelief
of Jews and Infidels. How can they resist such a
flood of light? Upon any conceivable scheme of
adjustment, how can they, in their present state of
mind, account for the predictions and their fulfill-
ment ? Let it be remembered that Christians did not
construct the prophecies ; they formed part of a do-
cument in the hands of their bitterest enemies ; and
let it be equally remembered, that the principal facts
in the history of the Son of God which verify the
prophecies, were realities which the most inveterate
infidels have been compelled to admit. Let the
wondrous coincidence, then, be accounted for on
any other principle but the admission of a great
scheme of prophecy originating in the divine pre-
science, and intended to vindicate the claims of a
revelation which has been vouchsafed by God to his
bewildered and erring children.
I know of no method of evading the force of the
argument derived from prophecy, but by the suppo-
sition that the apostles of our Lord, finding in the
Jewish Scriptures a vast number of predictive state-
ments concerning an illustrious personage who was
to rise up in the nation of Israel, accommodated,
themselves, with their leader, to the scheme thus
perceived by them. But the entire character and
conduct of the men, their benevolence, their con-
tempt for every thing like human ambition and ap-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 129
plause the purity and integrity of their manners,
their fearless exposure of themselves to persecution
and death, the total absence of any thing" like in-
ferior motive to sustain them, forbids us, upon all
the ordinary calculations of human nature, to con-
ceive of them as heartless deceivers and villains. If
they were so, it may be safely affirmed that they
acted a part the very opposite of all the other im-
posters that ever lived.
But supposing they were deceivers, and that they
made themselves agents to the fulfillment of the
Jewish prophecies ; let us see how this can be borne
out by the facts of the case. This inquiry is so well
met by the present Bishop of Chester, that I cannot
do a greater service to my readers than to quote his
own words on the subject.
" It may be thought," says he, "that a design like
that attributed to the followers of Jesus would be
greatly assisted by the prophecies recorded in their
national Scriptures, and pointing to some remark-
able personage who was expected to appear.
" I. For example : the time of this appearance
was fixed by the prophet Daniel at about four hun-
dred and ninety years from his own days ; which so
closely corresponded with the birth of Jesus, that
such an event was looked for, by ' devout persons,'
at the very period when it occurred. Dan. 9 : 24 ;
Luke, 2 : 25. This would be, as was before ob-
served, a circumstance greatly in their favor.
130 MODERN INFIDELITY.
" 2. The next thing to be considered by the
framer of this deceit, would be the place of their
leader's birth. Jesus was born at Bethlehem. Upon
consulting" their Scriptures, they would find this
passage respecting Bethlehem : " Thou, Bethlehem
Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands
of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
me that is to be the Ruler in Israel ; whose goings
forth have been from of old, from everlasting.' This
would prove, beyond what could be anticipated, an
assistance of their design.
* 3. It seemed to be intimated in the prophecies,
that the Deliverer who was to come should be pre-
ceded by a forerunner, who might awaken the at-
tention of the people to him. For it was written,
* The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in
the desert a highway for our God.' And again,
' Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before me ; and the Lord, whom
ye seek, shall suddenly come into his temple.' Now
it was notorious that a singular character, John,
called • the Baptist,' had appeared a short time be-
fore Jesus began his ministry, pretending to be this
messenger, and nothing more, and directing his fol-
lowers to one who was to ' come after him.' This
was another coincidence equally wonderful and fa-
vorable.
** 4. Further, as to the most important parts — the
MODERN INFIDELITY. 131
way in which Jesus had lived, and had been receiv-
ed, and died. His character, as represented in the
Gospels, had been peculiar in every respect, but
especially remarkable for the union of meekness
and constancy which it displayed.
" Of unknown origin and humble parentage, he
had attracted considerable notice and many follow-
ers ; yet he had not been generally acknowledged
among his countrymen, and those who adhered to
him were not the great and powerful. His life,
upon the whole, was one of trial and hardship, not
one of triumph and exaltation. In the end, he was
sentenced to death with the notoriously wicked, and
suffered a punishment which even his judge con-
fessed that his conduct had not deserved. Yet,
though dying with malefactors, he was laid in a
rich and honorable tomb.
" A character answering this description was
portrayed by that prophet who had always been
considered as most particular in what respected the
future Messiah. Isa. 53 : 1-9.
" It cannot be denied that the existence of these
ancient prophecies would be very advantageous to
men setting out with the purpose in question. But
it is time to ask in our turn, how they came to find
these prophecies ready to their hand ? — prophecies
of such a nature, that no man could have contrived
a scheme dependent upon them, because they could
not command the fact by which they were to be
132 MODERN INFIDELITY.
fulfilled. With respect to the birth-place, for ex-
ample : in order that it might happen to be Bethle-
hem, it was requisite that a general census should
be held, convening all the inhabitants of the country
to their chief town ; by which means alone the
mother of Jesus was called away from her usual ■
residence, and her infant born at Bethlehem, instead
of Nazareth. The preparatory ministry of the Bap-
tist was equally beyond the control of the disciples.
So were the minute details of incidents which agree
in a wonderful manner with the circumstantial nar-
rative. The entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, at
once humble and triumphant.* The manner of his
death, and his own countrymen the cause. t The
peculiar indignities which he underwent : the very
words of mockery used against him.| The price
which Judas received for his treachery. The pur-
pose to which that money was applied. §
" Passages of this nature could not have been in-
troduced by the apostles into the existing Scriptures,
because, as their countrymen were generally hostile
to the design, such an attempt must have proved
fatal to their pretensions. And further, because the
books among which these scattered sentences are
found, had now been extensively diffused during a
period of three hundred years in a foreign language,
♦ Com. Matt. 21 : 1, &c. with Zech. 9:9. t Zech. 13 : 6.
t Com. Isa. 50 : 6, Ps. 22. 69 : 20, with Matt. 27.
§ Com. Zech. 11 : 12, with Matt. 26 : 15. 27 : 3, &c.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 133
defying the imposture of the whole nation, if the
whole nation had concurred in the design.
" We are reduced, then, to the necessity of sup-
posing that the followers of Jesus, desiring to deify
their teacher, selected from their national Scriptures
these pointed allusions to circumstances like his,
which happened to be written there, and brought
them forward to confirm his pretensions.
" But surely to ascribe coincidences like these to
chance, to allege that all these passages were thrown
out at random in the Jewish Scriptures, and that
the circumstances of the birth, and life, and charac-
ter, and death of Jesus, turned out so as to agree
with them, is to attribute to chance what never did
or could take place by chance ; and is in itself far
more improbable than the event which such a solu-
tion is intended to disprove. For, allow to Jesus
the authority which he claims, and every difficulty
vanishes. We should then expect to find prophetic
intimations of his great purpose, and of the way in
which it was to be effected. We should expect to
find them, too, just what they are : not united and
brought together in a way of formal description,
which could only be a provision for imposture ; but
such scattered hints and allusions as, after the event
has occurred, serve to show that it was predicted,
by a comparison of the event and the prophecy.
" It ought to be observed, in addition, that if the
disciples of Jesus had framed their story and their
Couusels to Y. Meo. 12
134 MODERN INFIDELITY.
representation of facts, with a view of obtaining this
collateral support, they would have been more dili-
gent and ostentatious in pointing out the circum-
stances of resemblance. They would have antici-
pated the labors of those writers who have made it
their business to show the completion of prophecy in
the events related in the Gospels. But, on the con-
trary, they bring these things forward in an histori-
cal rather than an argumentative way, and com-
monly leave the deductions which may be drawn
from them to the discernment of after times."*
I must be allowed to remark, before dismissing
this branch of evidence, that though the prophecies
of the Old and New Testaments chiefly relate to the
Messiah, and are all so constructed as, in their ac-
complishment, to add strength to the evidence which
confirms the Christian revelation, they are by no
means confined to the delineation of his character
and claims. They occupy a range most extensive,
and carry the mind over the eventful history of the
Jewish nation, and of almost all the nations of heathen
antiquity. Let it never be forgotten, that Nineveh's
predicted ruin has come upon it; Nahum, 1, 2, 3;
that Babylon, in all its boasted splendor, has been
" swept with the besom of threatened destruction ;"
that Tyre, the great port of the ancient world, has
become, according to the warnings of Ezekiel, a
♦ " The Evidence of Christianity derived from its Na-
ture and Reception.*' By John Bird Sumner, D. D.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 135
place only for the drying of fishermen's nets ; Ezek.
26 : 4, 5 ; that Egypt, the mother of arts, has be-
come " the basest of kingdoms," and has never since
been able " to exalt herself among the nations," as if
to show that all the events of futurity are naked and
open to that omniscient Spirit who foretold her
doom, and predicted her permanent humiliation.
Ezek. 29: 14, 15.
Nor, in contemplating the great scheme of pro-
phecy, and the support which it yields to the truth
of Revelation, must we lose sight of the destinies of
the Jewish nation.* In the fearful destruction of
* " The great lawgiver of the Jews," observes Mr. Home,
(in his Introduction, vol. i. p. 327,) " foretold that they
should be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, —
scattered among all people, from one end of the earth even un-
to the other,— find no ease or rest, — he oppressed and crushed
always, — he left few in number among the heathen, — pine away
in their iniquity in their enemies^ land, — and become an
astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word unto all nations.
These predictions were literally fulfilled during their sub-
jection to the Chaldeans and Romans ; and, in later times,
in all the nations where they have been dispersed. Moses
foretold that their enemies would besiege and take their
cities; and this prophecy was fulfilled by Shishak, king
of Egypt ; Shalmaneser, king of Assyria ; Nebuchadnez-
zar, Antiochus Epiphanes, and Herod ; and finally by Ti-
tus. Moses foretold that such grievous famines should pre-
vail during those sieges, that they should eat the flesh of
their sons and daughters. This prediction was fulfilled
about six hundred years after the time of Moses, when Sa-
maria was besieged by the King of Syria ; aliso, about nine
136 MODERN INFIDELITY.
Jerusalem by the Roman army, — in the dispersion
and long-continued peculiarity of the seed of Abra-
huudred years after that time, among the Jews, during the
siege of Jerusalem, before the Babylonish captivity; and
finally, fifteen hundred years after, at the siege of Jeru-
salem by the Romans. Though the Hebrews were to be as
the stars of heaven for multitude, Moses predicted that they
should be few in number, and his prophecy was fulfilled ;
for, in the last siege of Jerusalem, Josephus tells us that
vast multitudes perished by famine ; and he computes the
total number who perished by it, and by the war in Jeru-
salem and other parts of Judea, at one million two hundred
and forty thousand four hundred and ninety ^ besides ninety-
nine thousand two hundred who were made prisoners, and
sold unto their enemies for bondmen and bondwomen; and
after their last overthrow by Hadrian, many thousands of
them were sold ; and those for whom purchasers could not
be found (Moses foretold that no mmi would buy them) were
transported into Egypt, where they perished by shipwreck
or famine, or were massacred by the inhabitants. Since the
destruction of Jerusalem, they have been scattered among
all nations ; among whom they have found no ease^ nor have
the soles of their feet had rest ; they have been oppressed and
spoiled evermore^ especially in the east, where the tyranny
exercised over them is so severe as to afford a literal fulfill-
ment of the prediction of Moses, — Thy life shall hang in
doubt before thee^ and thou shaltfear day and nighty and shall
have no assurance of thy life. Yet, notwithstanding all their
oppressions, they have still continued a separate people,
without incorporating with the nations ; and they have be-
come an astonishment and a by-word among all the nations
whither they have been carried since their punishment has
been inflicted. The very name of a Jew has been used as
a term of peculiar reproach and infamy. Finally, it was
MODERN INFIDELITY. 137
ham, — -in the contempt, persecution, and infamy
which they have so long endured, — in the promul-
gation of the Gospel among the Gentile tribes, — in
the many and hateful corruptions of the religion of
Jesus which have been introduced through the me-
dium of Anti- Christian powers, — and in the pre-
servation and growing triumphs of the Christian
faith, we have such indubitable fulfillments of the
prophetic record, that he who refuses to embrace, as
divine, the wondrous volume of which it forms such
a distinguished part, sins against all the laws of
mo.al evidence, and at the same time risks his
eternal salvation by rejecting the counsel of God
against himself
4. The Evidence of Christianity derived from a
correct estimate of its early success. It would be
most inconclusive to infer the supernatural origin of
foretold that their plagues should he wonderful^ even great
plagues, and of long continuance. And have not their plagues
continued more than seventeen hundred years 1 In com-
parison of them, their former captivities were very short ;
during their captivity in Chaldea, Ezekiel and Daniel pro-
phesied ; but now they have no true prophet to foretell the
end of their calamities. What nation has suiFered so much,
and yet endured so long 1 What nation has subsisted, as a
distinct people, in their own country, so long as the Jews
have done in their dispersion into all countries 1 And what
a STANDING MIRACLE is thus exhibited to the world in the ful-
fillment, at this very time, of prophecies delivered considera-
bly more than three thousand years ago ! What a perma-
nent attestation is it to the divine legation of Moses !*'
12*
138 MODERN INFIDELITY.
Christianity from the mere fact of its success ; inas-
much as some of the greatest impostures the world
ever knew have obtained, for many ages, a most
powerful and extensive dominion over the human
mind. The early prevalence of the Gospel is, in
itself, no decisive proof of its divine origin. Ere it
can be regarded as such, a number of circumstances
must combine with the fact of its success, which ad-
mit of no just or rational solution but the admission
of the finger of God. The question then is. Did
such circumstances evince themselves in the early
triumphs of Christianity ? And, if they did, where-
in did they consist ? and how do they admit of be-
ing exhibited in the shape of a conclusive argument
for the truth and divinity of the Gospel ?
It is then a fact that Jesus of Nazareth was put
to death in the reign of Tiberius, by the order of
Pontius Pilate, his procurator.* It is a fact, that as
early as the time of Claudius, who died within
twenty years of the crucifixion, the religious assem-
blies of the Christians were proscribed, under open
pretext that they were withdrawing men from the
worship of the gods.f It is a fact, that in the reign
of Nero the followers of Christ endured persecu-
tions of the most fearful kmd, and that this wicked
despot endeavored to fix upon them the stigma of
burning Rome, though it was justly and loudly
* See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 44.
t See Suetonius in Claud. 25.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 139
charged on himself.* It is a fact that Pliny the
younger, a proconsul under the Emperor Trajan,
* See Tacitus, as above. I give Paley's translation. " But
neither these exertions, nor his largesses to the people, nor
his oflferings to the gods, did away the infamous imputation
under which Nero lay, of having ordered the city to be set
on fire. To put an end therefore to this report, he laid the
guilt and inflicted the most cruel punishments upon a set of
people who were held in abhorrence for their crimes, and
called by the vulgar. Christians. The founder of that name
was Christ, who suffered death in the reign of Tiberius, un-
der his procurator, Pontius Pilate. The pernicious super-
stition, thus checked for awhile, broke out again, and spread
not only over Judea, where the evil originated, but through
Rome also, whither every thing bad upon earth finds its
way, and is practiced. Some who confessed their sect were
first seized ; and afterwards, by their information, a vast
multitude were apprehended, who were convicted, not so
much of the crime of burning Rome, as of hatred to man-
kind. Their sufferings and their execution were aggravat-
ed by insult and mockery, for some were disguised in the
skins of wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, some
were crucified, and others were wrapped in pitched shirts
and set on fire when the days closed, that they might serve
as lights to illuminate the night. Nero lent his own gardens
for these executions ; and exhibited at the same time a
mock Circensian entertainment, being a spectator of the
whole in the dress of a charioteer, sometimes mingling with
the crowd on foot, and sometimes viewing the spectacle
from his car. This conduct made the sufierers pitied ; and
though they were criminals, and deserving the severest
punishments, yet they were considered as sacrificed, not so
much out of regard to the public good, as to gratify the
cruelty of one man."
140 MODERN INFIDELITY.
who was contemporary with Ignatius, and who
flourished about seventy-five years after the death
of Christ, describes the Christian assemblies in
Bithynia and Pontus as consisting of " a vast mul-
titude"* of all ages and sexes, and speaks of Chris-
* " Ingens multitudo,'' a vast multitude, is the historian's
expression. I insert the whole letter according to Milner's
translation, though he has not preserved the full force of
the original in his rendering of this expression.
" C. Pliny to Trajan, Emperor.
" Health. — It is my usual custom, Sir, to refer all things
of which I harbor any doubts, to you. For who can better
direct my judgment in its hesitation, or instruct my under-
standing in its ignorance ? I never had the fortune to be
present at any examination of Christians before I came into
this province. I am, therefore, at a loss to determine what
is the usual object either of inquiry or of punishment, and
to what length either of them is to be carried. It has also
been with me a question very problematical, whether any
distinction should be made between the ycung and the old,
the tender and the robust ; — whether any room should be
given for repentance,for the guilt of Christianity once in-
curred is not to be expiated by the most unequivocal retrac-
tion ; — whether the name itself, abstracted from any flagi-
tiousness of conduct, or the crimes connected with the
name, be the object of punishment. In the meantime, this
has been my method with respect to those who were
brought before me as Christians. I asked them whether
they were Christians: if they pleaded guilty, I interrogated
them twice afresh, with a menace of capital punishment
In case of obstinate perseverance, I ordered them to be exe-
cuted. For of this I had no doubt, whatever was the nature
crf their religion, that a sullen and obstinate inflexibility
MODERN INFIDELITY. Ill
tianity as an inveterate superstition which had spread
itself, not only through cities, but over villages and
called for the vengeance of the magistrate. Some were in-
fected with the same madness whom, on account of their
privilege of citizenship, I reserved to be sent to Rome to be
referred to your tribunal. In the course of this business, in-
formations pouring in, as is usual when they are encourag-
ed, more cases occurred. An anonymous libel was exhibit-
ed, with a catalogue of names of persons, who yet declared
that they were not Christians then, nor ever had been ; and
they repeated after me an invoca|^on of the gods and of
your image, which, for this purpose, I had ordered to be
brought with the images of the deities; — they performed
sacred rites with wine ^d frankincense, and execrated
Christ ; none of which things, I am told, a real Christian
can ever be compelled to do. On this account I dismissed
them. Others, named by an informer, first afiirmed, and
then denied the charge of Christianity ; declaring that they
had been Christians, but had ceased to be so ; some three
years ago, others still longer, some even twenty years ago.
All of them worshiped your image and the statues of the
gods, and also execrated Christ. And this was the account
which they gave of the nature of the religion they once had
professed, whether it deserves the name of crime or erron^
— namely, that they were accustomed, on a stated day, to
meet before day-light, and to repeat among themselves an
hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by an
oath, with an obligation of not committing any wickedness,
but, on the contrary, of abstaining from thefts, robberies,
and adulteries; — also, of not violating their promise, or
denying a pledge ; — after which, it was their custom to se-
parate, and meet again at a promiscuous harmless meal,
from which last practice they however desisted after the
publication of my edict, in which, agreeably to your orders
142 MODERN INFIDELITY.
the whole country.* It is a fact, that Christian
I forbade any societies of that sort; on which account, I
judged it the more necessary to inquire, by torture, from
two females, who were said to be deaconesses, what is the
real truth. But nothing could I collect, except a depraved
and excessive superstition. Deferring, therefore, any fur-
ther investigation, I determined to consult you ; for the
number of culpriis is so great as to call for serious consulta-
tion. Many persons are informed against, of every age,
and both sexes ; and more still will be in the same situation.
The contagion of the superstition hath spread, not only
through cities, but even villages and the country. Not that
I think it impossible to check and to correct it ; the success
of my endeavors hitherto forbids such desponding thoughts ;
for the temples, once almost desolate, begin to be frequented,
and the sacred solemnities, which had long been intermit-
ted, are now attended afresh ; and the sacrificial victims are
now sold everywhere, which once could scarce find a pur-
chaser. Whence I conclude that many might be reclaimed,
were the hope of impunity, on repentance, absolutely con-
firmed."
The Emperor Trajan^s reply to Pliny.
" You have done perfectly right, my dear Pliny, in the
inquiry which you have made concerning Christians. For
truly no one general rule can be laid down which will ap-
ply itself to all cases. These people must not be sought
after ; if they are brought before you and convicted, let
them be capitally punished, yet with this restriction, that if
any renounce Christianity and evidence his sincerity by
supplicating our gods, however suspected he may be for the
past, he shall obtain pardon for the future, on his repent-
ance. But anonymous libels in no case ought to be attend-
ed to ; for the precedent would be of the worst sort, and per-
fectly incongruous to the maxims of my government."
* See Plin. Epist. Lib. x. Ep. 91.
MODERN INriDELlTY. 143
churches were established in every province of the
Roman Empire within a very brief period of the
death of Christ,* and that thousands and tens of
thousands of new converts maintained, with un-
shaken confidence, their adherence to the facts and
promises of the Gospel amidst the heaviest persecu-
tions and calamities that ever befell mortals in this
vale of tears. It is a fact, that the first propagators
of Christianity were only fishermen of Galilee, and
that they sought and obtained no aid from human
power in the prosecution of their extraordinary un-
* " The rapidity and extent of the propagation of the
Gospel were such as to prove its divine origin. On the very
first day of its promulgation three thousand were convert-
ed ; these soon increased to five thousand. Multitudes, both
of men and women, were afterwards daily added to the new
religion. Before the end of thirty years the Gospel had
spread through Judsea, Galilee, Samaria, almost all the nu-
merous districts of Lesser Asia; through Greece, and the
Islands of the jEgean Sea, and the sea- coast of Africa, and
had passed on lo the capital of Italy. Great multitudes be-
lieved at Antioch in Syria, at Joppa, Ephesus, Corinth,
Thessalonica, Berea, Iconium, Derbe, Antioch in Pisidia,
at Lydda and Saron. Converts, also, are mentioned at
Tyre, Ceesarea, Troas, Athens, Philippi, Lystra, Damascus.
Thus far the sacred narrative conducts us. The religion
being thus widely difiused, the New Testament carries us
no further. But all ecclesiastical and profane history con-
curs in describing the rapid progress of the new doctrine.
Tacitus, Suetonius, Juvenal, Pliny, Martial, Marcus Aure-
hus, sufficiently testify the propagation of Christianity."—
See Bishop Wilson's Evidences, vol. i. p. 260, 12mo.
144 MODERN INFIDELITY.
dertaking. It is a fact, that the experiment of Chris-
tianity was made in one of the most enlightened and
refined periods in the history of the world, and on
a theatre which laid it open to the scrutiny and de-
tection of all Greece and Rome. It is a fact, that
the first messengers of the cross entered into nc
compromise with the vices and corruptions of man-
kind, but that they denounced every system of evil,
and sought only to win men's applause by bringing
them to perceive and acknowledge the exquisite
loveliness of truth, and by teaching them to submit
to a course of religious and moral discipline which
made them kind and forgiving, peaceful and holy.
It is a fact, that the doctrine taught by the apostles
of Jesus of Nazareth was, in many respects, new ;
that it proclaimed facts of a strictly miraculous na-
ture ; that it sternly opposed every existing system
of religion; that it rebuked and condemned those
vices and depraved habits which universally pre-
vailed ; that, nevertheless, it rapidly spread, and that
in less than three centuries it subverted the religion
of pagan Rome, and established itself on the throne
of the Caesars.
Had Christianity been adapted to the depraved
inclinations of the human heart; had it flattered
men's pride, ambition, and vain-glory ; had it pro-
mised or secured worldly honor and prosperity ; had
it been hailed by the great and noble of mankind ;
had it been supported by human power, and de-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 145
fended by the swords and shields of the earth ; had
conquering armies been its heralds, and the spoils of
enemies its rewards ; its success would then have
been no mystery, and its triumphs would then have
afforded no proof of supernatural interference. But
if the reverse of all this was the case ; if Christianity
had nothing in it to pamper human corruption ; no-
thing to minister to the pride of the human heart ;
nothing to present to its disciples in the shape of
worldly allurement; nothing to draw around it men
of high renown ; nothing of power to terrify or sub-
due ; nothing to support the courage of its professors
but the testimony of a good conscience and the hopes
of a better life ; what shall be said if, after all, it tri-
umphed ? Yes, if while it opposes itself to all the
world it prevail, what shall be said? if in the ab-
sence of all the ordinary causes and weapons of suc-
cess it prevail, what shall be said ? Let us look at
the facts of this case, and impartially determine if
there was any thing merely human in the original
agencies of Christianity to account for the results
which followed their employment. The results are
these : the whole Roman empire, in a few short
years, was pervaded by the Gospel ; multitudes of
Jews and Pagans were won over to the sincere be-
lief of the facts of Christianity ; the very aspects and
institutions of society were completely changed and
remodeled by the new doctrine ; the flames of per-
secution were home with exemplary fortitude, pa-
Counsels to Y. Mea 13
146 MODERN INFIDELITY.
tience, and forgiveness; the cause triumphed by
means of its very disasters ; and the power which
attempted to crush it, at last yielded to its mysterious
influence.
Such are the results ; and what are the apparent
agencies by which they were effected? The doc-
trine of ONE who was crucified at Jerusalem be-
tween two thieves ; the preaching of a few illiterate
fishermen of Galilee; and the exemplary zeal and
consistency of those who ranked themselves as the
disciples of the cross.
If, then, the agencies of Christianity were merely
human, or if they were nothing more than a system
of deliberately adjusted imposture, how comes it to
pass that there was so little in the apparent process
to account for the effect produced ? If all was of
man, how did it happen that he constructed a scheme
in the very teeth of human prejudice? and, more
than this, how did it happen that a scheme so con-
structed obtained a footing among mankind ? Was
it so easy a thing to subvert Jewish prejudice in
the very city of Jerusalem, and to silence the oracles
of heathenism where they had ruled with despotic
sway, that twelve fishermen, just quitting their nets,
and determining to become the founders of a new
religion, should be deemed equal to the task ? Let
such a case be imagined to lake place in our own
age and nation. For if Christianity be not from hea-
ven, nothing forbids the success of such another ex-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 147
periment on the credulity of mankind now any more
than formerly. But does any one in his sober senses
believe that it would succeed, or that it would pro-
duce even any considerable impression? We have
had, it is true, occasional excitement produced by
certain extravagant persons, but their partial suc-
cess has mainly depended upon their appeal to the
general data of Christianity, and upon their profes-
sed adherence to its cardinal doctrines. We might
challenge all the philosophers who ever lived to in-
vent or to propagate any imposture answering to
the character of Christianity. The thing is impos-
sible. Its facts and its success are solitary examples
in the history of our world. Paganism and the reli-
gion of the false ptophet have nothing in common
with them.* The former accumulated its materials
* " No religion, purely as a religion," observes Dr. Wil-
son, the present Bishop of Calcutta, " was ever propagated
but the Christian. Heathenism was never a matter of dis-
semination or conversion. It had no creed, no origin dis-
tinct from the corrupt traces of a remote fabulous antiquity.
It was a creature of human mould, contrived for the sake of
human legislation. The Greeks and Romans imposed it not
on their subject nations. Mahommedanism was the triumph
of the sword. Conquest, not religious faith, was its mani-
fest object ; ra,pine, violence, and bloodshed were its cre-
dentials.
'* No religion was ever attempted to be spread through
the world by the means of instruction and persuasion, with
an authority of its own, but Christianity. The idea never
came into the mind of man to propagate a religion having
148 MODERN INFIDELITY.
by a progressive departure from all right notions of
the moral character of God, and by its marked co-
incidence with every thing base and polluted in hu-
man nature ; and the latter was propagated at the
edge of the sword, and amidst all those promises of
sensual indulgence which are so grateful to a nature
prone to the love of sin. But Christianity stood forth
in the spotless purity of its divine Author, and re-
fused to own any as its true disciples who remained
under the dominion of their crimes. It assailed men
with none of the weapons of human power, but made
its triumphant appeal to the understanding and the
heart. It boasted of no earthly patronage ; but went
forth in a secret and hidden power, which was
•* mighty to the pulling down of strong holds." All
weakness in its exterior agencies, it became " the
wisdom of God, and the power of God, to the salva-
tion" of thousands and tens of thousands who em-
braced its merciful provisions. It changed the very
face of society, and effected revolutions in the man-
ners, customs, and laws of mankind, which all other
systems had failed to achieve. It is unphilosophical
in the highest degree to trace its early prevalence to
for its set design and exclusive object the enlightening of
mankind with a doctrine professedly divine, till Christian-
ity said to her disciples, ' Go ye into all the world, and
preach the Grospel to every creature.' "—See " The Eviden-
ces of Christianity stated, &c." in two vols. 13mo. Second
edition, pp. 259, 26a
MODERN INFIDELITY. 149
the mere influence of ordinary and secondary causes.
There is no problem of the world's history bearmg
the least resemblance to it. The experience of man-
kind supplies no illustration of any thing like the
successes of Christianity springing from mere hu-
man instrumentality, whether well or ill directed.
Must men then acknowledge a miracle in their zeal
to get rid of a miraculous history ? This is indeed
very preposterous ; but it is nevertheless the condi-
tion to which those reduce themselves who would
attempt to account for the mighty revolution pro-
duced by Christianity upon mere natural principles.
They discard the doctrine of miracles, they repu-
diate the testimony by which the miraculous facts
of the Gospel are handed down to mankind ; but
they call upon their disciples to believe, without a
tittle of evidence, that the fishermen of Galilee could
Jiave done all that they did, and that Christianity
could have gained all its conquests, without the
slightest aid from heaven — nay, though imposture
and deception were written on the entire underta-
king. We demand of them an illustrative example,
and we are sure that they cannot produce it. In the
absence, then, of all experience to guide our course,
and in opposition to all enlightened calculations of
what human agency can effect, in certain given in-
stances, we are called upon by infidels to believe
that the early successes of Christianity might be
M. I. 13*
150 MODERN INFIDELITY.
traced to the operation of secondary causes.* To the
mmd of any unprejudiced person this will present
all the startling difficulty of a miracle, without any
of that credible testimony by which alone a miracle
can be shown to have taken place.
It is nothing short of an insult offered to my un-
derstanding, first to point me to the great moral and
intellectual revolution which was produced by Chris-
tianity, within a very short period of the death of its
Founder, and then to assign as its sole cause, the zeal,
energy, and talent of the fishermen of Galilee ; and
the credulity, love of novelty, and versatility which
obtain among mankind.
Upon every sceptical theory, the early triumphs
of the Gospel are not only unaccounted for, but to-
tally unaccountable. Such a change was never
wrought by mere human means. The entire expe-
rience of the race, and all the great facts of history,
combine to show the utter irrationality of supposing
* The reader will perceive that the author has not taken
any distinct notice of Gibbon's attempt to trace the success
of Christianity to the influence of second causes. The
reason is simply this, that he deemed it better to pursue the
argument without encumbering it by any specific reference
to the special pleadings and inconclusive reasonings of that
great but unhappy man. The objections, however, have
been met, though they have not been alluded to ; and, in-
deed, it is matter of just surprise that arguments so weak
and futile should have ever been raised to the notoriety of a
grave refutation.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 151
that a few obscure fishermen and mechanics could
have baffled all the wisdom of the wise, brought to
nothing the counsel of the prudent, and leveled in
the dust the mightiest fabrics of superstition and vice«
But when we admit the doctrine of a supernatu-
ral influence, according to the distinct announce-
ments of Christianity itself, we are reminded of a
cause adequate to produce the effects witnessed.
Then we wonder not that the weakest instruments
should prevail, that disaster should lead to triumph,
and that the blood of the martyrs should be the seed
of the church. If the mighty power of God was with
Ihe apostles, no wonder that thousands and tens of
thousands should become obedient to their message.
If the quickening energy of the living Spirit was
seen, on the one hand, in external signs and won-
ders, rendering all gainsayers inexcusable ; and, on
the other, in inward, powerful, and all-subduing
movements of the heart and conscience, what won-
der was it if the congregated multitudes of Pente-
cost trembled, repented, and turned to God ; and if the
pagan world responded to the mighty and gracious
impulse ? By the nature of the facts to be accounted
for, then, no less than by the actual data of Chris*
tianity, are we driven to the conclusion, that there
was an interior and hidden, but all-controlling power,
which accompanied and rendered eflfectual the first
propagation of Christianity, which has watched over
it from age to age, and which occasions all its sue-
152 MODERN INFIDELITY.
cess and all its blessed influence in the day in which
we live. I conclude this branch of evidence in the
language of an eloquent living author : " Here is a
religious system, denominated Christian, which en-
ters the world at a most inauspicious period, sup-
posing it to be an imposture. It has not one princi-
ple in common with the religions which then pre-
vailed. It is attempted to be propagated by a few
persons who are signally disqualified for the under-
taking, and are hated of all nations. It is opposed,
from the very first, by Jew and Gentile, and chiefly
by those who had most power and influence in their
hands. Moreover, this religion is hostile to human
opinion, human prejudice, human interest, human
nature ; and this is apparent from the admitted na-
ture of man and the avowed principles of the Gospel,
as well as from the facts, that when men have been
induced to adopt the christian name, they have re-
mained at enmity to the christian faith, and that
there has been, in every age, a predominant disposi-
tion to misunderstand and misrepresent, to pervert
and degrade it. Yet has this religion been propa-
gated over the earth with a facility altogether un-
paralleled by any art or science. Yet has it found a
place for itself in many a mind and country, to which
the simplest mathematical demonstrations are at this
moment unsolved problems.
" What is the conclusion ? It is, it must be this :
that the religion of Christ could not have been pro-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 153
pagated by any earthly power; that it could not
nave been propagated by any mere external agency
of Providence; that it could have been propagated
only by a spiritual and supernatural influence ad-
dressed to the perceptions and affections of men ;
and therefore that the religion of Christ is divine,
and its propagation through all ages is a distinct,
independent, and speaking evidence of its di-
vinity."*
5. The evidence derived from a survey of the
moral and social benefits conferred on mankind by
Christianity. This branch of evidence may be treat-
ed, like the preceding one, as a question simply of
fact. For if it can be shown that Christianity has
done more than all other causes combined to aug-
ment the resources of man's present enjoyment; if it
can be shown that it has heightened, to an almost in-
conceivable degree, all the social virtues ; if it can
be shown that human nature has risen to an un-
heard-of elevation under its benign auspices, it will
follow, as by resistless consequence, after all the
fruitless experiments of Greece and Rome, that it
owes its origin to the Fountain of all wisdom and
benevolence.
♦ See a Discourse by the Rev. A. Reed, on " The Evidence
of Revelation derived from the success of the Gospel," in a
volume entitled " Lectures on some of the Prmcipal Evi-
dences of Revelation, delivered at the Monthly Meetings,
&c." pp. 225, 226.
154 MODERN INFIDELITY.
It is a fact, then, that " the world by wisdom" ne
ver reformed itself For the space of four thousand
years effort after effort was made, but without avail,
to reduce mankind to some standard of obedience,
and to rescue them from the dominion of selfishness
and crime. This process of renovation was attempted
in the fairest portions of the globe, and amidst all the
advantages of the highest intellectual cultivation. It
was tried in the heart of Europe and Asia, when
philosophy and arts had reached their greatest emi-
nence, and when the human mind had been nurtured
in the schools to prodigious greatness. In a thou-
sand forms the task of bettering man's moral condi-
tion had been tried, but without even the shadow of
success. Many of the precepts, indeed, of the hea-
then philosophers were good ; but the motives urged
by them were sometimes absurd, often vicious, and
always powerless upon the great mass of the people.
Their own standard of morals, in not a few instances,
was glaringly defective ; and as it respected the com-
munity at large, the theories of the schools did not
so much as reach even the outward ear.
In all their pomp and magnificence, when poetry,
and painting, and statuary, and arms, and empire
had reached the very zenith of their glory, Greece
and Rome were as little purged from crime and mo-
ral degradation as were the savage hordes of the
north, who, in wild fury, broke in upon the empress
of the world's destiny. The extreme of refinement,
MODERN INFIDELITY. 155
and the extreme of moral turpitude, met on the same
theatre, and in the same actors. A base and mon-
strous idolatry every where prevailed, and every
where associated itself with crimes which are re-
served in christian countries for the worst of men,
and for the most hidden recesses of the basest and
most degraded of mankind. " It is a shame even to
speak of those things which were done of them in
secret." The very temples of the gods were the
dwelling-places of sin. There virgin innocence was
sacrificed at the shrine of the most scandalous lusts ;
there human victims were immolated upon the blood-
stained altars of a vile and unmeaning idolatry ; and
there every species of impurity and heartless cruelty
received the sanction of a priesthood whose hands
reeked with blood, and whose hearts were steeped
in impenitence and covetous desire.
It is a fact, too, that all other nations have shown
the same propensities, and have been distinguished
by the same moral habits as Greece and Rome. It
might have been supposed, indeed, that they would
have been much more vicious ; and that in propor-
tion as they receded from the schools of philosophy,
and from the sphere of the arts, they would put on
a hue of pollution far deeper and more hideous.
This is by no means the case The crimes of classic
antiquity have never been exceeded in the African
horde, or in the Polynesian wild. Idolatry, human
sacrifice, polygamy, female degradation, have every
156 MODERN INFIDELITY.
where abounded in heathen lands ; while there stands
not upon the record of this world's history one so-
litary instance of a nation rising, by its own energy,
from the worship of false gods, or from the moral
debasement and crimes which it uniformly involves.
It is a fact, too, that Christianity did operate, and
still continues to operate, a wondrous change upon
the state of society. This change it produced, at
first, by means the most unlikely. By preaching
salvation through the cross of Christ, the first her-
alds of Messiah's kingdom, though individuals com-
paratively obscure, brought about a revolution of
public opinion and of outward manners such as had
never been the result of any preceding attempt to
enlighten and to purify mankind. In all the heathen
provinces of the Roman empire, and in the very
capital itself, idolatry was every where laid aside or
proscribed. The oracles of paganism were silenced
by the living oracles of God ; and the horrid prac
tices of the temples and the groves were exchanged
for the decent solemnities of christian worship, and
for the sober and virtuous habits of christian citi-
zens. At Athens, and Corinth, and Ephesus, and,
indeed, all the chief cities of heathen antiquity, the
doctrine of Christ was the instrument of changing
and remodeling the whole frame-work of society.
Wherever it reached, it meliorated human life ; and
wherever it was actually embraced, it ennobled and
purified individual character. The limits of Chris-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 157
tianity have been, from its first propagation to the
present moment, the boundary wall beyond which
idolatry has not dared, in its direct forms, to pass.
It has raised the standard of public morals above the
most favored models of .pagan antiquity, not except-
ing those even of the far-famed kingdoms of Sparta
and Syracuse. Where Christianity has waved her
triumphant banner, she has given birth to a state of
things altogether new. The worship of dumb idols,*
in every palpable shape, she has utterly abolished ;
the cruel and bloody rites which were practiced for
ages and generations under the auspices of the gods
of heathenism, have been laid aside at her enlight-
ened and benevolent call ; the shameless, and even
murderous, sports of the Colisseum she has frowned
into total annihilation; the destruction of slaves and
of female children finds no sanction where her voice
of mercy is distinctly heard ; the depreciation of the
rights which belong to woman is no where coun-
tenanced beneath the mild sway of the Gospel ; the
abominations of polygamy and capricious divorce
are but little felt in any christian state ; the vassa-
lage of domestic slavery has ceased to foster tyranny
on the one hand, and ignoble baseness on the other ;
the direful practice of private assassination,! by the
* The idolatry of the church of Rome, though practiced
under the Christian name, is of common origin with that of
the Pantheon, and can be no less hateful in the sight of God.
t It was no uncommon thing for a Roman praetor to con-
Counsels 10 Y. Men. 14
158 MODERN INFIDELITY.
dagger or by the poisoned bowl, finds no advocates
in countries upon which the religion of Christ has
exerted its beneficial tendency ; the horrors of war,
great as they must ever be, are mitigated in a ten-
fold degree under the generous dictation of the Gos-
pel ; the poor, the aged, and the afflicted are treated
with a degree of consideration in christian coun.
tries altogether unknown in pagan lands ; and all
the rights of property and of personal safety are
guaranteed with a degree of precision, in nations
blessed with the light of revealed truth, to which
Rome, in all the glory of empire, never attained.
All this is matter of fact, which no one who
wishes his understanding to be respected will ven-
ture for a moment to deny. So palpably, indeed, is
it such, that the traveler, blind-folded, may be able
to tell when he passes from christian territories in-
to pagan lands. The heathen world was one vast
theatre of crime, relieved, indeed, by here and there
some heroic example of virtuous conduct, but sunk,
as a whole, into the abyss of moral putridity and
vice. But when Christianity arose in the east, like
some bright and glorious luminary, it dispelled the
vict, in one short season, in Italy, three or four thousand
individuals for the crime of private assassination; and
among: these, husbands were often condemned for the secret
murder of their wives in order to obtain their dowry j and
wives for the murder of their husbands, in order to secure a
union to the miscreants who had seduced them from the
paths of virtue.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 159
darkness of the pagan world, and, in little more
than two centuries from the time of its first publica-
tion, it shivered to atoms the whole system of idol
worship, reconstructed the entire fabric of society,
introduced new maxims of government and of per-
sonal conduct, changed the manners and habits of
mankind, drove vice from its ancient lurking places,
shut the temples of the gods, abolished the sacrifices
of an idolatrous priesthood, and made the hopes and
fears of immortality the governing principles of
thousands and tens of thousands of the human race.
Whence, then, sprung the power of a triumph so
great, so speedy, and so benignant — a triumph
which proclaimed peace on earth, and good will to
men ; a triumph bloodless and serene ; a triumph
which delivered such a large portion of the human
race from the vassalage of the most cruel and abo-
minable idolatries; a triumph which issued in a
melioration, in all the social relations of man, which
the wisdom of this world could never produce?
Whence, I ask, sprung the power of such a triumph ?
Not from man assuredly ; for it was unlike all the
other manifestations of his mental character ; and it
was followed by such benign and holy results, that
it stood solitary and alone upon the page of this
world's history. Nor was there any thing whatever
in its origin to indicate the wisdom of man. Had
man constructed a scheme of moral renovation, it
would have been introduced to the notice of his feL
160 MODERN INFIDELITY.
low-creatures in a way very different from that in
which Christianity began its auspicious career.
Let two considerations then fully possess the mind,
and it will be impossible to resist the conclusion,
that Christianity is from heaven. In the first place,
recollect that of all agencies that could be contem-
plated, the first heralds of the cross were the least
likely to succeed in the proposed undertaking of
converting the world ; and, in the second place, bear
in mind, as a matter of fact, that, in spite of preju-
dice, in spite of a huge system of idolatry, in spite
of all interest and power and terror, they did suc-
ceed in such manner as never before had been
known ; and in doing so, changed the whole face
of society, purified all the springs of human action,
established the reign of peace and happiness, drove
idolatry from the high places of the earth, and, to
the full extent of their triumph, paved the way for
the realization of another paradise.
The power which scattered so much darkness,
and which spread so much light ; which wrought a
change on mankind so pure and beneficial ; which
diffused such a mass of happiness, and checked such
a mighty current of misery ; which, like an electric
shock, blasted and withered all the ancient fabrics of
idolatry, and on their ruins erected a system of doc-
trine and a form of worship which promised and
yielded peace, and joy, and happiness to all the dwell-
ers upon earth — such a power as this could only
MODERN INFIDELITY. 161
have emanated from that throne from which issued
originally the high behests of creation.
And» O ! if a triumph which can yet only be re-
garded as partial affords such intimation of the bene-
volsnt interposition of the Infinite Mind, what an
evidence of the divine origin of Christianity will be
supplied to mankind when its moral transformations
are complete, when all nations are subjected to its
righteous sway, when its disciples shall drink more
deeply into its pure and benignant spirit, when that
blessed influence which is now partial shall be uni-
versal, and when the church of the living God, vocal
with his praise, shall reflect with sweetest lustre the
radiance of his moral image.
Great as were the first triumphs of the Gospel,
there can be no doubt but that greater triumphs yet
await its peaceful heralds. In the morning of its
strength it subdued the Roman empire, and stood
confessed the prevailing religion of the civilized
world ; but the time is fast approaching when it shall
be proclaimed the religion of the whole earth, and
when the mighty changes it shall work in the opi-
nions, manners, and hopes of mankind, shall com-
pel the most thoughtless of a rebellious race to ex-
claim, " This is the finger of God!" Then when
** the people shall be all righteous," and when the
Spirit of God shall be " poured out upon all flesh,"
shall it be seen that Christianity is the balm of bleed-
ing hearts, the parent of peace and good will, and
14*
1G2 MODERN INFIDELITY.
the angel of God's mercy to heal all the miseries
and vices of an apostate race.
CHAPTER IV.
On the Transmission of the Sacred Books.
Though Christianity be a divine religion, it may
be possible, in the lapse of ages, that the record
which discloses its leading doctrines and facts has
undergone some serious mutilation. Is this or is it
not the case ? This is an important inquiry, and it
admits of an easy and satisfactory reply — a reply
which must carry conviction to every candid mind
as to the genuineness, authenticity, and incorrupt-
ness 'of the sacred books.
That they v/ere written by the men whose names
they bear, is a thing quite as well established as that
the ^neid was composed by Virgil, the Iliad by
Homer, and the CyropaBdia by Xenophon. The very
literary character of the Old and New Testament
Scriptures would go far to prove that they are genu-
ine productions. They exhibit a diversity of style,
which shows that they were written by various au-
thors, and they display an idiomatic peculiarity cor-
responding to the ages and circumstances in which
they were written. Thus, in the Pentateuch, we
MODERN INFIDELITY. 163
meet with a slight mixture of Egyptian words, as
might be expected if Moses was the writer ; while
in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, there
is a considerable infusion of Chaldee and Persian,
connecting them, beyond all reasonable doubt, with a
period in Jewish history subsequent to the Babylo-
nish captivity. If, moreover, we turn to the New
Testament, we find its several parts written in a
species of Greek partaking largely of Hebrew, Chal-
dee, Syriac, and Latin words and phrases — a cir-
cumstance exactly answering to all that might have
been anticipated upon the supposition that men in
the precise condition of the evangelists and apostles
had furnished their contents.
Nor is it within the range of probability to ima-
gine for a moment that the sacred books are forge-
ries. If they are, then they must have been palmed
upon the world by persons whose imposture could
not be detected. But how could this occur in the
matter of giving currency to the records of a public
faith? Take, for instance, the books of the Old Tes-
tament Scriptures. If they are not genuine produc-
tions, I ask who were the parties concerned in the
iniquitous forgery ? It could not be the men of hea-
then antiquity, for they were imperfectly acquainted
with the national peculiarities and rites of the He-
brews ; and were not likely, moreover, to stamp the
seal of their approbation upon records which accre-
dited the posterity of Abraham as God's peculiar
164 MODERN INFIDELITY.
people, and condemned the whole Gentile world as
sunk in a state of idolatry and crime. It could not
be the followers of Christ, for it is matter of un-
doubted historical certainty that the Scriptures of the
Jews existed many centuries before the Christian
name was ever heard of. It could not be the Jews
themselves, for never was there a more uncompro-
mising exposure of the crimes, idolatries, and righ-
teous chastisements of a rebellious and guilty nation
than that which they contain.
If we look at the New Testament, it is equally
unreasonable to suppose that it is not a genuine pro-
duction, and that it was not actually written by the
men to whom it is attributed. Unbelieving Jews
and Gentiles were happily, in this instance, the
guardians of revelation ; for as they were equally
opposed to the doctrine of him whom they had com-
bined to crucify, and as they were both zealous in
persecuting all who ranked themselves as his hum-
ble and devoted followers, it stands to reason, that if
the records of the Christian faith had not been ge-
nuine narratives of facts, furnished by the very men
who assume to be the writers, the dishonest effort
would have been detected and exposed, and the whole
world, and all succeeding generations, would have
been warned against the iniquitous attempt to origi-
nate a history not founded in fact.
The genuineness of the books of Scripture was
never called in question by friends or enemies. From
MODERN INFIDELITY. 165
the earliest periods of the Jewish history downwards,
the Hebrews regarded their sacred books as their
peculiar treasure, and associated them all with their
several authors and ages ; and in like manner the
Christians, from the apostolic age to the present mo-
ment, have had a regular succession of writers, who
have quoted and authenticated, in various ways, the
books which compose the New Testament canon.
It is an interesting fact that Celsus, and Porphyry,
and Julian, and an endless race of heretics, combine
with the apostolic and christian fathers, Barnabas,
Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Tertul-
lian, Origen, and Eusebius, in accrediting the books
of Scripture as genuine productions. The most in-
veterate opponents of revelation have been compelled
to admit the fact that the Bible is no forgery.
Nor is there the slightest reason to suspect that
the Scriptures have undergone any material altera-
tion, or that they are not now in the same condition
in which they were when they came from Moses
and the prophets, the, evangelists and apostles. To
say that the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts
of the Bible, or that the ancient versions and trans-
lations had not been deviated from in a single par-
ticular, would be to assume a position too lofty. In
the process of transcribing some thousands of copies,
before the art of printing was discovered, letters and
syllables, and even words, without the intervention
of a miracle, must have been left out. But that there
■V4£
ZttMvai^'
166 MODERN INFIDELITY.
has been any serious or fraudulent omission or in
terpolation, or that any one doctrine has been added
or subtracted, cannot be shoAvn by any enemy of re-
velation, and need not be apprehended by any hum-
ble-minded or unlettered Christian.
As it respects the Old Testament Scriptures, it is
a well-established fact that the Jews were their faith-
ful guardians. They were often employed, indeed, in
the act of transcribing them, but so strict were they
in comparing the copies with the originals, that they
numbered both the words and the letters. That the
Jews never altered their sacred books is triumph-
antly proved by the fact that neither their own pro-
phets nor Jesus Christ, though they laid many a heavy
charge at their door, ever once intimated that they
were guilty of such mutilation. The Great Teacher,
indeed, told them, with the utmost fidelity, that they
had made void *'the commandment of God by their
traditions," but he never insinuates that they had cor-
rupted the sacred books. " It is one of the wonders
of providence, that God, for the preservation of these
books, should make use of that scrupulous, and 1
might say, almost superstitious care that was among
those Jews whose office it was to keep the books of
the Old Testament."* Among the one thousand one
* See John Howe's Lectures on the Oracles of God.
Works, one vol. imperial octavo, just published, p. 1075.
The whole passage referred to is as follows : — " It was
known they used to count all the letters of the Old Testa-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 167
hundred and fifty manuscripts and versions of the
Old Testament which are still extant, there is an es-
ment, that they might be sure never to miss a letter. Again,
in transcribing copies, (which was frequent,) every copy
was always examined by an appointed number of their wise
men, as they termed them. Further, if any copy should have
been found, upon examination, to have four or five faults in
it, in one copy of the whole Old Testament, that book was
presently adjudged to be buried in the grave of one or other
of their wise men. And, lastly, for those books that, upon
examination, were found to be punctually true, it was very
plain from the history of those times that there was the
greatest reverence paid to them imaginable. They never
used to touch those perfect copies (taking them into their
hands) without kissing them solemnly, nor to lay them down
again without solemn kissing of them. They were never
used to sit upon the place where one of those books was
wont to be laid. If one of them by casualty fell to the
ground, they appointed a solemn fast to be kept for it, as an
ill-boding thing, that such a thing should happen. So that
it is most plain that these keepers of the books of the Old
Testament could never have it in design to corrupt any of
Ihem ; but it was that which they did abhor above all things.
And it was a principle (as Philo tells us, and Josephus much
to the same purpose) instilled into the youth of that nation,
and even those of the best quality, that they should run the
utmost hazard and incur a thousand deaths, rather than they
should suffer any alteration or diminution of those books, or
that any of them should be lost in any other way. And then,
besides all this scrupulous care of the keepers of the books
of the Old Testament, (with which a design of corrupting
would no way consist,) we may add, that the thing itself
was afterwards impossible. If they would before, when it
was in their own hands, they could ; but afterwards, if they
168 MODERN INFIDELITY.
sential agreement, an agreement most wonderful and
striking, showing, beyond all conjecture or doubts,
would, they could not; because that in Christ and his apos-
tles' days a great number of them were converted to the
Christian faith, who knew all the books of the Old Testa-
ment as well as themselves. Therefore, it was impossible
now for the infidel Jews, those that were not converted, to
make any alteration, but it must be presently spied and ex-
claimed against; therefore it was a vain thing for any to
attempt it, after so many were converted to the Christian re-
ligion. And thereupon we may further add, that the testi-
monies that were contained in these books against them-
selves, and with which contained in them they are transmit-
ted to us, do show that they never went about to corrupt
them. The many testimonies against idolatry contained in
these books, whereby their forefathers from age to age, for
many ages, were witnessed against, would have induced
them to expunge all things that were therein contained
against idolatry, (so tender were they of their reputation,)
if there had not been a great awe upon their minds never to
attempt the corrupting or the alteration of any thing in
those books. The wickedness of their forefathers was, in
these books, so highly remonstrated against, in respect of
the testimonies they so often gave against their idolatry, and
yet these books we find in their own hands, with these testi-
monies in them, against the Jews and their forefathers, for
many foregoing ages, through sundry times and divers in-
tervals, though we do not find after the second temple that
people relapsed into that crime. And then there is the fullest
testimony against their infidelity in these books that can be.
"Who would not wonder that these books should come out of
the hands of the Jews, with these testimonies, in the great
controversy between the Christians and them 1 that is, of
Christ being the Messiah, in which you have so distinct as-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 169
the uncorrupted preservation of these precious re-
cords.
Nor is the protection less manifest which has been
spread over the books of the New Testament. The
early multiplication of copies, together with the seve-
ral translations into foreign tongues, rendered any-
serious deviation from the original manuscripts ut-
terly impossible. Besides, in the course of one cen-
tury from the period of Christ's resurrection, the
Gospel was spread over the greater part of the Lesser
Asia, and over many portions of Africa and Europe:
so that if any of the early Christians, in any particu-
lar district of the world, had attempted to alter or
mutilate the sacred books, it would have been im-
possible that they should have escaped detection
among the many disciples of Christ spread over other
sections of the globe.
sertions against them that nothing can be more. Those
many testimonies that do concern the Messiah, particularly
that famous prophecy, that the scepter should not depart
from Judah till Shiloh should come, and those numerous
presages in many of the latter prophets, (Isaiah especially,
and sundry others,) make it one of the greatest wonders of
Providence that such a book should come, with these things
in it, out of men's hands, against whom they are a con-
tinual remonstrance. But, however, this proves that they
did never design any alteration ; or they saw it impossible
for one while, and before that, they had no inclination
or inducement that would be prevailing with them to go
about it."
Counsels lo Y. Men. 15
170 MODERN INFIDELITY.
The early heresies, too, which sprung up among
the professed followers of Jesus, rendered the corrup-
tion of the sacred books next to an impossibility.
" That passage of the apostle," observes the immortal
Howe, " is not enough pondered according to the
weightiness of the expression, that there must be here-
sies. This great use that hath been of the divisions
in Christian churches is not, it may be, considered
as it should be by many. But nothing can carry a
clearer evidence and demonstration with it than that,
because of those divisions, any depravation of the
said records (that is, any material, general, success-
ful, continued depravation) is altogether impossible;
because the one party would be continually declaim-
ing and crying out against the other ; and then how
would it be espied ?"
Indeed it may be safely affirmed, that the Chris-
tians were never charged by their bitterest enemies
with the crime of mutilating their Scriptures, and
that these sacred records have suffered less from
transcribers, copyists, and translators, than any other
documents of a remote antiquity.
" It is true," continues Howe, " that in translations,
persons have labored to serve their own purposes, by
translating this way and that, as they thought fit
But for alteration of copies, that is what never en-
tered into the mind of any body to attempt ; which
is a thing so easily spied out, that nothing is more
so ; and so must needs blast and dissever the cause
MODERN INFIDELITY. 171
and interest of that party it was designed to serve,
and therefore could never be. And the impossibility
of any such alteration it is easy for any man that
useth his understanding to apprehend from a simi-
lar instance. Do but take any one people that are
under the same government, and that have their laws,
by which they are governed, digested into some sys-
tem or other; as, for instance, our statute-book : sup-
pose ill-minded men in the nation should have a de-
sign to corrupt and alter the statute-book, every one
would seo^it to be impossible. Which way would they
go to work to impose a false statute-book upon a na-
tion, wherein every man's right and property is con-
cerned ? And if any should have such a design, they
would soon give it up, as finding it impossible, and
a thing not to be done, and therefore a vain thing to
attempt. But the difficulty is a thousand times
greater of making designed alteration of those sacred
books and records that are spread so unspeakably
further than a nation, and wherein the concernments
of all that have them in their hands are recorded,
not temporal only, but eternal. Here is their all for
eternity, another world! So that it must be alto-
gether impossible that there could have been such a
thing effected ; and therefore it is the most unlikely
thing that such a matter should ever be attempted.
And then, I say, if there be that plain evidence, that
for that reason these books must be the same, that
they cannot have been altered with design, and con-
172 MODERN INFIDELITY.
sequent! y not materially, then it were the most un-
reasonable thing in all the world to expect that God
could confirm it to us otherwise than he hath done,
or that the nature of the thing doth admit of it ; be-
cause, otherwise, there must have been miracles
wrought for every one to see and take notice of, nay,
that would altogether destroy the usefulness and sig-
nificancy of miracles themselves, because it would
make miracles so common. If every man must
have a miracle to prove to him this is God's word,
miracles would be so common that they would
cease to be miracles. It might as well be expected
that every man should have a Bible reached him
down by an invisible hand from heaven, as that
there should be a miracle wrought to pro\e to him
that this was the same book that was so and so con-
firmed and sealed in our Savior's and his apostles'
time. And therefore I reckon that, upon the grounds
that have been laid, it is very plain both that these
books that were extant under the name of Scrip-
tures in our Savior's and his apostles' time, were of
divine authority ; and that the books that we now
have in our hands are the same with those books,
and therefore are of divine authority.
It is, then, a most animating consideration, that,
by a variety of striking providences, it hath pleased
Almighty God to preserve to us unmutilated and
uncorrupted the very records which the first Chris-
tians held to be divine, and upon the doctrines and
MODERN INFIDELITY. 173
principles of which they were ready, in the midst
of the greatest dangers, to repose their eternal all.
It is highly consolatory to those who have but little
time and few advantages for research, to be inform-
ed, upon the most indubitable evidence, that in their
English Bibles they have the same precious docu-
ment which was read in the first assemblies of the
Christian church ; and that in the multiplication of
manuscripts and translations, no serious or impor-
tant alteration has been obtruded into the sacred
text. For this fact let the humble and devout Chris-
tian bless God ; and, in the contemplation of it, let
the rejector of revelation pause and tremble, lest
peradventure he should be found fighting against
God.
Let this chapter be fairly weighed in connection
with what has been previously advanced on the
subject of the evidences of our holy faith, and let
him who still doubts, say within himself, " Where-
fore do I doubt?" To such a solemn interrogatory,
conscience may perhaps supply the ready and faith-
ful response, " How can you but doubt while sin
is blinding your perceptions, and hardening your
heart ?"
15*
174 MODERN INFIDELITY.
CHAPTER V.
On the Inspiration of the Holy ScrtpPures,
Having glanced at the evidence which supports
the conclusion that the Bible is a revelation from
God, and having, moreover, ascertained that the
books of Scripture have been transmitted to us in a
pure and unadulterated form, it may now be proper
to inquire into the true nature of inspiration, and to
endeavor to determine to what extent the sacred vo-
lume is entitled to the high and distinctive appella-
tion of^=— " THE Word of God."
The importance of this question is very great, for
upon its answer must depend the degree of defer-
ence which is due to the Scriptures as an authori-
tative communication from heaven. It is a question
which cannot be decided, I presume, by any argu-
ment a priori, but by a direct appeal to the testi-
mony of the infallible word. The real nature of in-
spiration, as belonging to the writers of Scripture,
is a doctrine purely of revelation ; and the only
duty of a sincere inquirer in reference to it must
be simply this, to ascertain for himself what is
predicated or announced concerning it in the word
of God.
With this conviction on my mind, I shall not
trouble my readers with any lengthened details of
what others have advanced on the subject of inspira-
MODERN INFIDELITY. 175
tion, but shall come almost immediately to the point
in hand, viz. the doctrine of Scripture, as to the
manner in which it was imparted,
I must just be allowed, however, to premise, that
writers of the Socinian creed have so relaxed their
notions of inspiration as to talk even of the incon-
clusive reasonings of apostles ; and that others, not
of this pernicious creed, have spoken and written
about degrees and kinds of inspiration until they
have inadvertently weakened, on their own minds,
and on the minds of others, the authority of God in
the Scriptures. I would have all such writers re*
member, that these modified views of inspiration
are of modern date, and that for full sixteen hundred
years they were unknown in the church of Christ.
" Many considerable writers on the evidences of
Christianity, of late," says Bishop Wilson, " have sa-
tisfied themselves with proving its divine authority
generally, but have tacitly, and most inconsistently,
given up or denied the infallibility of the books in
which it is recorded. They speak of authenticity,
veracity, credibility ; but not inspiration. Some have
limited the assistance of the Spirit to the prophetical
parts. Others have extended it to the doctrinal, but
excluded the historical. Whilst many have lower-
ed the whole notion of inspiration to a mere aid oc-
casionally afforded to the sacred penmen. Thus the
impression left on the minds of their readers has
been, that the Bible is authentic indeed, and cred-
176 MODERN INFIDELITY.
ible, and contains a revelation from God ; but that
it W£LS indited by good and pious men only, with
little more of accuracy than would belong to them
as faithful historians. An intermixture of human
infirmity and error is thus by no means excluded ;
and the Scriptures are considered as the work of
fallible writers, doing their best, and entitled in all
their main statements to full belief, but not under
that immediate and plenary influence of the Holy
Spirit which renders all they say concerning reli
gion the unerring word of God."
Most ruinous to the souls of men must be such
views of the blessed word of God, and most dero-
gatory are they to that Spirit, who has not given so
much as a shadow of countenance, in the sacred
books, to such vague and sceptical notions. We
ought to be jealous, not only of such latitudinarian
views of inspiration, but also of every approach to
them. For my own part, after much deliberation,
and I trust careful and unprejudiced examination of
the arguments of opponents, I have come to the
conclusion, not only that the ideas contained in
Scripture were conveyed by the Spirit to the minds
of inspired men, but that they were superhaturally
guided in their diction and in their writings. I
shall not, however, bring this theory to the word of
God, to seek countenance for it there; but shall
rather call the attention of my readers to the word
of God itself, that they may thence gather the true
notion of inspiration.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 177
I begin, then, with that part of Scripture which
was included in the Jewish canon, and which is
known by the name of the Old Testament. And if
it can be shown that the infallible Teacher, whose
divine mission has already been clearly established,
fully accredits the divine authority and the inM-
lible character of that document, considered as a
whole, and without a single recognised exception,
an important step will have been gained towards
ascertaining the perfection of the Jewish canon,
and also the real nature and extent of inspiration.
At an early stage in his public ministry the Mes-
siah announced, to an immense assembly of his
countrymen, his views and determinations respect-
ing their ancient Scriptures — " Think not," said he,
"that I am come to destroy the law and the pro-
phets : 1 am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For
verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the
law, till all be fulfilled." Every attentive reader of
the New Testament must have discovered that the
phrase " the law and the prophets " denotes the sa-
cred books of the Jews ; and every unprejudiced
reader must perceive that the Savior in this declara-
tion recognises them as an infallible standard, by
which he was willing that his own pretensions
should be rigidly tried.
On another occasion he charges those who reject
him with not having the word of God abiding in
178 MODERN INFIDELITY.
them, because they believe not in him whom God
the Father had sent to them ; and then he imme-
diately adds — " Search the Scriptures ; for in them
ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they
which testify of me." " Do not think that I will
accuse you to the Father : there is one that accuseth
you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye
believed Moses, ye would have believed me : for he
wrote of me." Here are several things to be no-
ticed. In the first place, the Scriptures of the Jews,
which did not abide in them through their unbelief,
are distinctly recognised as the word of God. In
the second place, they are appealed to as a testimony
from God concerning Christ, rendering all those
Jews inexcusable who rejected him. And, in the
third place, they are spoken of emphatically as the
writings, evidently including them all, and leaving
no room to dispute the divine origin of their diction
any more than the doctrines they contained.
On many occasions Jesus spake of the sacred
books of the Jews as divinely authoritative writings.
•' He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water." " If he called them gods, unto whom the
word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be
broken ; say ye of him whom the Father hath
sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphem-
est ; because I said, I am the Son of God ?" " Jesus
saith unto them, did ye never read in the Scriptures,
MODERN INFIDELITY. 179
the stone which the builders rejected, the same is
become the head of the corner : this is the Lord's
doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes ?" " Jesus
answered and said unto them, ye do err, not know-
ing the Scriptures^ " Thinkest thou that I cannot
now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give
me more than twelve legions of angels ? But how
then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it
must be ?" "I was daily with you in the temple
teaching, and ye took me not: but the Scripture
must be fulfilled." Now what are we to gather
from this species of reference ? Why, two things —
first, that there is not the shadow of a doubt upon
the inspiration of any part of a document to which
the infallible Teacher made such implicit and autho-
ritative allusion ; and, second, that, simply considered
as writings, the books thus referred to are the pro-
duct of God's immediate inspiration. Where is
there any thing like a surmise that there is not as
much authority in the writings as in the thoughts
and ideas which they convey ?
To the testimony of our Lord may be added that
of his apostles, who bore his commission, and who
wrought stupendous miracles in his name. " All
Scripture," said Paul to Timothy, *'is given by in-
spiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous-
ness," &c. Now, granting that the rendering of
Grotius, " all divinely inspired Scripture is even
180 MODERN INFIDELITY.
'profitable, ^c." is the correct one, it is perfectly
clear that the context mainly, if not exclusively, re-
stricts the apostle's declaration to the Old Testament
Scriptures, those sacred writings which Timothy
had known from his infancy. The whole Scripture,
in the knowledge of which this young evangelist had
been trained, is here said to be given by inspiration
of God ; that is, breathed by him into the minds of
those holy men who were divinely and infallibly
gifted to hand it forth to the church.
The apostle Peter, when speaking of the office
and end of prophecy, as " a light that shineth in a
dark place," asserts that " no prophecy of the Scrip-
ture is of any private interpretation. For the pro-
phecy came not in old time by the will of man ; but
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost." I cannot help thinking that an un-
prejudiced expositor would regard this as a distinct
affirmation of the inspiration of the prophecies, both
as it respects their matter and manner. As to their
matter, they were not the result of any private im-
'pulse ;* and as to their manner, " holy men spake
* Dr. Doddridge's paraphrase is as follows ; — " Knowing
this first, as a matter of chief importance, that no prophecy
of Scripture is of private impulse" or original: "/or pro-
phecy was not brought of old to the minds of those that utter-
ed it by the will of man ; they could not work themselves up
to the attainment of this extraordinary gift, nor divinely
foretell what they themselves desired, and whenever they
MODERN INFIDELITY. 181
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." The
prophets are also represented, by the same apostle,
as " searching what, or what manner of time the
Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify,
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ,
and the glory that should follow." From this pas-
sage it is plain that the prophets did not always, nor
even frequently, understand the import of their own
predictions ; from which it may be inferred, with
indubitable certainty, that the words in which they
were couched, no less than the thoughts which they
contained, were imparted by the Spirit of God ; for
surely they could not have been trusted with the
diction and verbiage of a communication which
confessedly they did not understand.
It is upon this same principle that we find the
Old Testament Scriptures styled " the oracles of
God," and *' the lively oracles ;" to indicate, doubt-
less, that they were given forth by God himself
Hence the following expressions — *' Now all this
was done, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken of the Lord, by the prophet." •' How then
doth David, in spirit, call him Lord*?" •* For David
himself saith hy the Holy Ghost" " As he spake by
the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been
pleased ; but holy men of God, whom he honored with that
important work, spakej [as they were] borne on by the Holy
Spirit ; and they were only his organs in declaring to the
people what he was disposed to suggest to them.''
Counsels to Y. Men. J(j
IB2 MODERN INFIDELITY.
since the world began.'* •' Which the Holy Ghost
spake by the mouth of David." He saith [that is
God] also in another Psalm, thou shalt not suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption." . " Well s'paht
the Holy Ghost, by Esaias the prophet, unto our fa-
thers." "Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, H^o-
day if you will hear his voice."
Now all this corresponds with what we find in
the Old Testament Scriptures themselves. Take
the case of Moses, the great prophet and lawgiver
of Israel, and the inspired author of the Pentateuch.
When he was commanded to go to Pharaoh, and to
lead forth the people of Israel, he entreated that he
might be excused from the performance of a task for
which he deemed himself so utterly unqualified.
His sense of weakness was, in a high degree, pro-
per ; but his refusal to go, when God had assured
him that he would be " with him," evinced great
want of faith. God reproved him for his sinful
timidity, and said to him, ** Who hath made man's
mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the
seeing, or the blind % have not I the Lord ? Now,
therefore, go, and I will he with thy mouth, and
teach thee what thou shalt sayP The leader of Is-
rael again repeats his difficulty, and again receives
a similar reply. At last his scruples are overcome
by the feeling of supernatural aid, and ever afler his
addresses to the chosen tribes are couched in terms
indicative of their immediate divine origin — " Thus
MODERN INFIDELITY. 183
saith the Lord," — " These are the words which the
Lord hath commanded, that ye should do them."
Had he not been conscious that the inspiration un-
der which he wrote extended to his words as well
as thoughts, would he have adopted the phraseology
attributed to him in the following passages ? — " Ye
shall not add unto the word which I command you,
neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may
keep these commandments of the Lord your God
which I command you." " And these words which
I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and
thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children."
'' Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your
heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign up-
on your head, that they may be as frontlets between
your eyes. And ye shall teach them to your chil-
dren, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine
house, and when thou walkest by the way, when
thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And
thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine
house, and upon thy gates."
In like manner all the prophets represent their
entire communications as from God; they all ad-
dress themselves to the people, " Thus saith the
Lord." and some of them, as in the case of Elijah to
Ahab, personate the Deity, and utter his threaten -
ings as if they were their own : " Behold, I will
bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy poste-
rity ;" this was the voice, indeed, of Elijah, but the
184 MODERN INFIDELITY.
speaker was God. Hence the word of the Lord is
said again and again to come to the prophets, and
the sweet Psalmist of Israel says, " The Spirit of
the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my
tongue."
It may, indeed, be said, that though in the pro-
phetical and doctrinal parts of the Old Testament
Scriptures the sacred writers were under the influ-
ence of a full and verbal inspiration, this could not
be necessary in furnishing the historical parts of the
word of God. Now, this is a distinction which is
never once made, to the best of my recollection, in
the inspired volume itself; and when the vast im-
portance of the chronological and historical details
of Scripture is taken into account, in the relations
which they bear to the transcendent scheme of hu-
man redemption, I thijak it will be regarded as futile
and dangerous. Upon the whole, I am satisfied that
there is no solid foundation for any theory of the in-
spiration of the Old Testament Scriptures which
does not consider all their several parts as written
under the immediate teaching of the Holy Ghost,
both as to sentiment and diction.
Nor is the complete inspiration of the apostles
and writers of the New Testament less satisfactorily
demonstrated than is that of Moses and the prophets.
Such full inspiration they eminently needed, in order
to the faithful execution of their responsible task.
They were to be employed in raising up disciples
MODERN INFIDELITY. 185
to their risen Lord, and as the historians of his life
and death ; and as the authoritative counsellors of
his church in all ages, they needed *' an unction
from the Holy One." We find, accordingly, that
such unction and such infallible guidance as were
necessary were distinctly promised to them. Twelve
men were selected as the heralds of his kingdom,
who enjoyed his familiar intercourse, and Avere in
every way qualified for bearing witness to his doc-
trine, miracles, sufferings, death, and resurrection.
" Go ye,-' said Christ to his chosen band, " and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Fa-
ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teach-
ing them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you ; and, lo, lam with you alway, even
unto the end, of the world.^^ When, during his own
personal ministry, he sent them forth to visit the
cities of Israel, he gave them this miraculous assur-
ance : " But when they deliver you up, take no
thought how or what ye shall speak ; for it shall be
given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your
Father which speaketh in you." And when our
blessed Lord was about to ascend up on high, and to
leave his apostles and disciples, he delivered to them
the following animating promises : " And I will pray
the Father, and he will give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit
of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
16*
186 MODERN INFIDELITY.
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But ye know
him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you
all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you. I have yet memy
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them
now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is
come, he will guide you into all truth ; for he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear
that shall he speak ; and he will show you things to
come." " Here," observes an eminent writer, "are
all the degrees of inspiration which we have seen to
be necessary for the apostles ; the Spirit was to bring
to their remembrance what they had heard ; to guide
them into the truth, which they were not then able
to bear ; and to show them things to come ; and all
this they were to derive, not from occasional illapses,
but from the perpetual inhabitation of the Spirit."*
Hence we find that the apostles laid claim to that
inspiration which their divine Master had so dis-
tinctly promised. *' We shall not find," as the above
writer well observes, *' that claim formally advanced
in the Gospels. This omission has sometimes been
regarded by those superficial critics, whose preju-
dices seem to account for their haste, as an objection
against the existence of inspiration. But if you at
♦ See the Rev. Richard Watson's Theological Dictiona-
ry, under the article " Inspiration."
MODERN INFIDELITY. 187
tend to the reason of the omission, you will perceive
that it is only an instance of that delicate propriety
which pervades all the New Testament. The Gos-
pels are the record of the great facts which vouch
the truth of Christianity. These facts are to be re-
ceived upon the testimony of men who had been
eye-witnesses of them. The foundation of the Chris-
tian faith being laid in an assent to these facts, it
would have been preposterous to have introduced in
support of them that influence of the Spirit which
preserved the minds of the apostles from error. For
there can be no proof of the inspiration of the apoe
ties unless the truth of the facts be previously ad-
mitted. The apostles, therefore, bring forward the
evidence of Christianity in its natural order when
they speak in the Gospels as the companions and
eye-witnesses of Jesus, claiming that credit which is
due to honest men who had the best opportunities
of knowing what they declared. This is the lan-
guage of St. John, " Many other signs did Jesus in
the presence of his disciples. But these are written
that ye may believe; and this is the disciple which
testifieth these things."
When the following circumstances, then, are
taken into account, the absence of any formal an-
nouncement of inspiration in the Gospels is no bar-
rier in the way of admitting their full claim to this
high distinction. In the^r^^ place, there was an as-
sistance promised by oiir Lord, ere he left his disci-
188 MODERN INFIDELITY.
pies, which, from its very form, must have been
partly at least intended to qualify his disciples foi
the task of recording the history of his earthly so^
journ. By that assistance they were to have " all
things whatsoever the Lord said to them brought to
their remembrance ;" they were to be conducted " into
all truth ;" they were to be shown the " things to
come ;" and Christ was to be with them always.
In the second 'place, we find that no distinction
whatever is made, by Christ, between the authority
of those whom he accredited and his own. " He
that heareth you, heareth me: and he that despiseth
you, despiseth me ; and he that despiseth me, despi-
seth him that sent me." This is language which
equally accredits the Gospels* and the Epistles, and
♦ It may be said, indeed, that Mark and Luke were not
apostles, and that, therefore, the infallible assistance pro-
raised to such distinguished servants of the church did not
belong to them. Jn reply to this, it may be stated, that early
general tradition places Mark among those seventy disci-
ples whom Christ sent out through the land of Israel with
miraculous endowments and a promise of supernatural aid;
and awards to his Gospel a place among the canonical books
of the New Testament ; and that Luke, who appears to have
written his Gospel first, (though several uninspired accounts
of the history of Christ obtained before, Luke, 1 : 1,) was
the contemporary and intimate companion of Paul, (Col. 4 :
14,) who, it is universally conceded, examined and approved
his Gospel, stamping it with apostolic authority, and thereby
ushering it into the church of Christ with the full creden-
tials of canonical and inspired Scripture.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 189
which renders it a high affront to the Son of God to
cavil at any thing contained in the one or the other.
In the third place, we find the apostles placing
their own communications on a level with those of
prophets and inspired men of old. " That ye may
be mmdful," said the apostle Peter, " of the words
which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and
of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord
and Savior." Hence the language of the great apos-
tle of the Gentiles : '* Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will "or " commandment of j3rod :" " Paul,
an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus
Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from
the dead. I neither received the Gospel of man,
neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. When it pleased God, who separated me
from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace
to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him
among the heathen ; immediately I conferred not with
flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to
them which were apostles before, but I went into
Arabia." Gal. 1 : 1, 12, 15-17, compared with Acts,
26 : 12-18.
In the most unequivocal forms that can be adopted,
the apostles assert their inspiration in their episto-
lary correspondence. " Now," said Paul, " we have
received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God ; that we might know the things
which are freely given us of God, which things also
190 MODERN INFIDELITY.
we speak, not in the words which man^s wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." " If
any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual,
let him acknowledge that the things that I write
imto you are the commandments of the Lord." " For
this cause, also, thank we God without ceasing, be-
cause when ye received the word of God which ye
heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men,
but, as it is in truth, the word of God." " We are
of God," said the apostle John ; " he that knoweth
God, heareth us : he that is not of God, heareth not
us." And, speaking of the New Testament Church,
Paul declares that it is " built upon the foundation
of the apostles and j^rophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief corner-stone." Such a form of ex-
pression must have been blasphemous in the ex-
treme, if the writings and the authority of the apos-
tles did not stand upon an equal footing with the
writings and the authority of the prophets. In all
the passages which demonstrate the inspiration of
the word of God, there is not one, as far as I remem-
ber, that limits the divine afflatus to the sentiments
conveyed ; and, on the other hand, there are several
texts which extend it, beyond all reasonable doubt,
to the words which the speakers employ :* the con-
* Take all those parts of the Prophets and of the Penta-
teuch which begin with, " Thus saith the Lord ;" and also
such parts of the prophetic announcements as were unintel-
ligible to the prophets themselves. Dan. 12 : 7-9. In the
MODERN INFIDELITY. 191
elusion I draw from this is, that the distinction be-
tween mental and verbal inspiration is ahog-ether of
man's devising, and that the only safe way of re-
ceiving the entire Scriptures is to regard both their
sentiment and their language as " the word of
God."
There may be difficulties to some minds in this
view. But what view of truth is without di/ficulty?
If we believe nothing till we get rid of all difficulty,
we shall verily soon be in the condition of believing
nothing.
Some have said, if inspiration be plenary and ver-
bal, how can the difference of style among the seve-
ral writers of Scripture be accounted for ? My reply
is, that the Spirit of God was as capable of influen-
cing the mind of a prophet or an apostle in coinci-
dence with his own tastes, predilections, and educa-
tion, as in opposition to them. If the inspiration is
admitted at all, there need, therefore, be no doubt or
perplexity here. I may just add, however, that though
there is a striking variety in the diction of the in-
spired writers, there is, at the same time, an inex-
pressible peculiarity attaching to the books of Scrip-
ture at large, which distinguishes them from all
apocryphal and uninspired productions in the seve-
ral ages to which they belong. The individuality
New Testament, see also John, 14 : 16, 17, 26; 16 : 12, 13.
Luke, 21 : 15. Matt. 10 : 19, 20 i Cor. 2.13. 2 Pet. 1 : 21,
192 MODERN INFIDELITY.
of the writers is indeed preserved ; but the indivi-
duality of the divine agency is not less conspicuous.
*' Is it not evident," observes an eminent divine, *' that
God may exercise a perfect superintendency over in-
spired writers as to the language they shall use, and
yet that each one of them shall write in his own
style, and in all respects according to his own taste ?
May not God gXYQ such aid to his servants, that,
while using their own style, they will certainly be
secured against all mistakes, and exhibit the truth
with perfect propriety? It is unquestionable that
Isaiah, and St. Paul, and St. John, might be under
the entire direction of the Holy Spirit, even as to
language ; and, at the same time, that each one of
them might write in his own manner ; and that the
peculiar manner of each might be adapted to an-
swer an important end ; and that the variety of style
thus introduced into the sacred volume might be
suited to excite a livelier interest in the minds of
men, and to secure to them a far greater amount of
good than could ever have been derived from any
one mode of writing.
" If we should admit that the divine superinten-
dence and guidance afforded to the inspired writers
had had no relation at all to the manner in which
they exhibited either doctrines or facts, how easily
might we be disturbed with doubts in regard to the
propriety of some of their representations? We
should most certainly consider them as liable to all
MODERN INFIDELITY. 193
the inadvertencies and mistakes to which uninspir-
ed men are commonly liable ; and we should think
ourselves perfectly justified in undertaking to charge
them with real errors and faults as to style, and to
show how their language might have been improv-
ed ; and, in short, to treat their writings just as we
treat the writings of Shakspeare and Addison.
" Here," we might say, " Paul was ui^fortunate in
the choice of words ; and here his language does
not express the ideas which he must have intended
to convey." " Here the style of St. John Avas inad-
vertent ; and here it was faulty ; and here it would
have been more agreeable to the nature of the sub-
ject, and would have more accurately expressed the
truth, had it been altered thus." If the language of
the sacred writers did not in any way come under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and if they were
left, just as other writers are, to their own unaided
faculties in regard to every thing which pertained
to the manner of writing, then, evidently, we might
use the same freedom in animadverting upon their
style as upon the style of other writers. But who
could treat the volume of inspiration in this manner
without impiety and profaneness ? And rather than
make any approach to this, who would not choose
to go to an excess, if there could be an excess, in re-
verence for the word of God?"*
♦ Dr. Woods, on Inspiration.
Counsels to Y. Men. 17
194 MODERN INFIDELITY.
To these excellent remarks I would add, that he
who objects to the doctrine of verbal inspiration on
account of the variety of style which obtains among"
the sacred writers, might, on the same principle,
object to mental inspiration on account of the variety
of thought by which they are equally distinguished.
It is in receiving '' all Scripture as given by in-
spiration of Qfod " that the mind finds repose from
those endless suspicions \vhich must assail those
wlio regard the Bible as the word of God as to doc-
trine, but the word of man as to the channel of con-
veyance.
CHAPTER VI.
Some popular objections to the full inspiration oj the Holy
Scriptures*
1. It has been objected, that if the inspiration of
the Scriptures be plenary and verbal, it will then
follow, that the improper and wicked sayings of bad
* I cannot but strongly recommend to my readers a work
which I have found of great use to myself on this subject,
by Robert Haldane, Esq. entitled, " The Books of the Old
and New Testaments proved to be canonical, and their ver-
bal inspiration maintained and established, &c." 12mo,
MODERN INFIDELITY. 195
men, and even devils, which are introduced in Scrip-
ture, must lay claim to an immediate inspiration.
The answer to this very flimsy difficulty is simply
this ; that though, in such cases, the Holy Spirit,
dictated to inspired men the very words which were
uttered hy the sinful agents referred to, he dictated
them not as his, but theirs,
2. It has been objected, that as the inspired
writers were thoroughly acquainted with many
things of which they wrote, they could not in such
matters require any immediate afflatus from the
Holy Spirit, and that therefore such a redundant in-
fluence would not have been vouchsafed by that in-
finitely wise Being who never lavishes his super-
natural bestowments. — To this I reply, that the au-
thority of a messenger must cease when he acts
merely in his own name, and gives forth that only
which comes within the range of his own personal
knowledge, without reference to the express dicta-
tion of the power by which he is delegated. On
this principle, a writer of Scripture recording that
which was simply the result of his own knowledge, is
a contradiction in terms ; inasmuch as he must cease
to be the medium of an infallible record the moment
that he is thrown, in a single instance, on his own
unaided resources : that is not Holy Scripture w^hich
is not given by inspiration of God.
3. To the full view of inspiration here contend-
ed for, it has been objected that some things are
196 MODERN INFIDELITY.
introduced by the inspired writers of too trifling a
nature to be the subject of a direct communication
from God. As, for instance, when Paul saj^s to his
son Timothy, " Drink no longer water, but use a lit-
tle wine for thy stomach's sake, and thine often in-
firmities ;" or as elsewhere, when the same apostle
says, " The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus,
when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books,
but especially the parchments." It is assumed, by
objectors to the full inspiration of such texts, that
they are below the standard of a divine communica-
tion, and that therefore they were the simple un-
aided dictates of the apostle's own mind. Could we
see no design couched in them worthy of God, this
would be a most irreverent way of dealing with any
part of a book which gives no countenance to the
idea of one part being more inspired than another.
" The question is not at all," says Mr. Carew,
" whether the apostle Paul needed inspiration to en-
able him to give such directions, but whether it was
without inspiration that these doctrines form a part
of a book, all of which comes to us as the word of
God, and inspired by him. There are many parts
of Scripture that might have been written without
inspiration ; but the question is, were the sacred wri-
ters left without inspiration to select what they would
put into this book, and what they would keep out of
it ? If so, then the book is theirs, not God's. Be-
sides, if it be thought absurd to suppose that there
MODERN INFIDELITY. 197
is any inspiration in the direction which the apostle
gave about his cloke and his books, it may very
naturally be thought that as little inspiration vi^as
necessary to tell us how often he had received forty
stripes save one ; that he had fought with wild beasts
at Ephesus ; that he had undergone an endless va-
riety of perils ; that he had been let down over the
w^all of Damascus in a basket, and put into the stocks
at Philippi. Of all these, and many other similar
instances, it may be said, that these are cases in
which, as it would be absurd to suppose any inspi-
ration, so it was unnecessary to disavow it. We
shall thus get quit of the whole account of the suf-
ferings of the apostles. The apostle says, that " all
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable," &c. If there be many passages, or any
passages, in which it woijld be absurd to suppose
any inspiration, or which is not profitable, then he
is guilty of stating what is not true."
Besides this general defence of the full inspira-
tion of the passages in question, they admit of a more
specific support. Take the first of them, viz. Paul's
counsel to Timothy respecting the use of wine.
Does not the exhortation in question stand in the
midst of a group of precepts, the most solemn and
weighty that can be conceived of ? Who, then, can
prove to me, that the apostle was under inspiration
in delivering them, if not in delivering it? And was
it altogether unworthy of the Holy Spirit to dictate
17*
198 MODERN INFIDELITY.
to Paul such an injunction for the use of Timothy,
when the preservation of his health, and his conti-
nued labors and usefulness in the church might
depend upon it ? Besides, does not the very permis
sion to Timothy of a " little wine " inculcate the
doctrine of temperance, especially upon all the min-
isters of Jesus Christ?
As to the second passage, we may fairly assume,
with Grotius and Erasmus, the poverty of Paul,
but not surely the absence of inspiration. " See,"
said Grotius, •' the poverty of so great an apostle,
who considered so small a matter, left at such a
distance, to be a loss to him !" " Behold," said Eras-
mus, "the apostle's household furniture, a cloke to
defend him from the rain, and a few books !" With
regard to the "books or parchments," unless we
knew what they were, it '\jrould be the height of pre-
sumption to affirm that the request which relates to
them was uninspired.
4. I shall only notice one supposition more, viz.
that the writers of Scripture sometimes intimate
themselves that they are not speaking by inspiration
of God. Now, before referring to the instances in
question, J would here take leave to observe, that
should it even appear, in certain given cases, that
inspired men do disavow the immediate dictation of
the Holy Spirit, all that can be fairly gathered from
this fact will be, that on all other occasions, not thus
limited, they spake under his immediate guidance.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 199
In reference to certain delicacies belonging to the
marriage compact, the apostle thus expresses himself
m his First Epistle to the Corinthians : " I speak this
by permission, and not of command." Now, who
permitted Paul to lay down the rules referred to 1
Why, unquestionably, the Spirit of God. What is
meant, then, that Paul spake by inspiration, but that
there was no express command from the Lord on the
subject ? As at the 10th verse of the same chap-
ter, " Unto the married," said Paul, " I command,
yet not I, but the Lord; let not the wife depart from
her husband." The meaning is, that upon this parti-
cular Christ had issued his own mandate ; neverthe-
less Paul gave command by the Spirit of Christ.
"To the rest," said he, " speak I, not the Lord." That
is, the remaining counsels of the apostle were such
as the great Master had left no express injunction
about, but which were nevertheless intrusted to him
by the Spirit. At the 25th verse of the same chap-
ter, the apostle has the following expression: —
*' Now, concerning virgins, I have no commandment
of the Lord ; yet I give my judgment as one that
hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful." The
thought is the same here as in the former instances.
Though no express command had been given by
Christ on the subject treated of, yet the apostle, as
one of his inspired servants, had received that grace
which qualified him for a full developement of the
b
200 MODERN INFIDELITY.
divine will in all those things to which the personal
ministry of Christ had not been directed.
In the last verse of the chapter the apostle adds^
**And I think also that I have the mind of Christ;"
an expression which some of the most eminent critics
have shown not to indicate an uncertain opinion, bu
full conviction and unhesitating knowledge, as in
John, 5: 39.
But supposing all the above passages, and some
others which might be quoted, to be instances in
which the apostle spake without the immediate
guidance of inspiration, — a thing which I cannot
admit for a moment, — it is clear that he must have
acted under inspiration in apprising the church that
the Spirit did not influence him in such communica-
tions ; so that nothing can be derived from the ob-
jection against the immediate and full inspiration of
other parts of the word of God ; but on the contrary^
it would rather go to the conclusion, that nothing
short of an apostolical denial of such inspiration can
justify any man in hesitating about the immediate
divine authority of a single portion of the word of
God.
MODERN INFIDELITY. 201
CONCLUSION.
From the whole of the preceding remarks, we
may infer the paramount duty of entire and unre-
served submission to the authority of God in the
written word. Our reason, our conscience, our af-
fections, are all called to surrender themselves to
the heavenly vision. In this inestimable volume
God speaks to us upon subjects of the highest in-
terest ; and, refusing to listen to his voice, we seal
our own unhappy doom. ** Hear ye the word of
the Lord," is the message addressed to all who pos-
sess the sacred boon ; and he who, by prejudice or
sin, excludes himself from the benefits of this mes-
sage, which reveals the only method of salvation, is
chargeable with a degree of rashness and folly
which eternity itself will but fully disclose. Let the
prayer of each one who reads this little treatise be —
" Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wonder-
ful things contained in thy law !"
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