Iiiiisiiiiil 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THK 
 
 University of California. 
 
 GIFT Ot^ 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 Received October, i8g4. 
 ^Accessions No . SJo ST / - Class No . 
 
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 J.C.IVIS0N<SrC^2 
 
 IJOOKStLLliKS 
 
 AUBURN N.V 
 
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LOWELL LECTURES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
LECTURES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 BEFORE 
 
 THE LOWELll'INSTITUTE, 
 
 JANUARY, 1844. 
 
 BY 
 
 MARK HOPKINS, D. D 
 
 PRESIDENT OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY T. R. MARVIN 
 
 1846. 
 
Sl9*J/ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, 
 
 By John Amory Lowell, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
BT//0/ 
 
 TO 
 
 JOHN AMORY LOWELL, ESQ. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 That these Lectures were written is owing 
 
 to you. Having had no personal acquaintance with you, 
 nothing could have been more unexpected than your in- 
 vitation to lecture before the Lowell Institute ; and at 
 that time nothing could have been farther from my 
 thoughts than the preparation of a volume on the Evi- 
 dences of Christianity. To you, also, it is owing that 
 the Lectures are published. For these reasons it would 
 seem fit that they should be inscribed to you ; but my 
 chief reason for wishing this, is the opportunity it gives 
 me to express the sense I entertain, not only of the lib- 
 eral spirit which prompted the appointment, but of the 
 candor and kindness by which your whole course re- 
 specting them has been characterized. 
 
 With sincere sentiments of respect and esteem, 
 
 I am yours, 
 
 MARK HOPKINS. 
 Williams College, April, 184G. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following Lectures are published as they were 
 delivered. Perhaps nothing would be gained on the 
 whole, by recasting them ; but they must be expected to 
 have the defects incident to compositions prepared under 
 the pressure of other duties, and required to be com- 
 pleted within a limited time. 
 
 When I entered upon the subject, 1 supposed it had 
 been exhausted ; but, on looking at it more nearly, I was 
 led to see that Christianity has such relations to nature 
 and to man, that the evidence resulting from a compari- 
 son of it with them may be almost said to be exhaustless. 
 To the evidence from this source I have given greater 
 prominence than is common, both because it has been 
 comparatively neglected, and because I judged it better 
 adapted than the historical proof to interest a promiscu- 
 ous audience. It was with reference to both these points, 
 that, in the arrangement and grouping of these Lectures, 
 I have departed from the ordinary course ; and if they 
 shall be found in any degree peculiarly adapted to the 
 present state of the public mind, I think it will be from 
 the prominence given to the Internal Evidence, while, at 
 the same time, the chief topics of argument are presented 
 within a moderate space. 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 The method of proof of which I have just spoken has 
 one disadvantage which I found embarrassing. If Chris- 
 tianity is compared with nature or with man, it must be 
 assumed that it is some specific thing ; and hence there 
 will be danger, either of being so general and indefinite 
 as to be without interest, or of getting upon controversial 
 ground. Each of these extremes it was my wish to 
 avoid. That I succeeded in doing this perfectly, I cannot 
 suppose. Probably it would be impossible for any one to 
 do so in the judgment of all. My wish was to present 
 the argument. This I could not do without indicating 
 my sentiments on some of the leading doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity up to a certain point ; and if any think that I went 
 too far, I can only say that it was difficult to know 
 where to stop, and that, if I had given the argument pre- 
 cisely as it lay in my own mind, I should have gone 
 much farther. It is from the adaptation of Christianity as 
 providing an atonement, and consequently a divine Re- 
 deemer, to the condition and wants of man, that the 
 chief force of such works as that of Erskine, and "The 
 Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation,". is derived; and I 
 should be unwilling to have it supposed that I presented 
 any thing which I regarded as a complete system of the 
 Evidences of Christianity, from which that argument was 
 excluded. 
 
 But if, in some of its aspects, the evidence for Chris- 
 tianity may be said to be exhaustless, it may also be said 
 that several of the leading topics of argument have prob- 
 ably been presented as ably as they ever will be. Those 
 topics I thought it my duty to present, and in doing so 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 I had no wish to sacrifice force to originahty, and did 
 not hesitate to avail myself freely of such labors of others 
 as were within my reach. If I had had time to do this 
 more fully, no doubt the Lectures would hav^e been im- 
 proved. 
 
 For much recurrence to oriarinal authorities in the his- 
 
 O 
 
 torical part, I had not time. The quotations in that part 
 are generally taken from Paley or Home, or from some 
 source equally common. Those quotations, however, are 
 of unquestioned authority ; they are to the point, and 
 perhaps nothing could have more usefully occupied the 
 same space. 
 
 The importance of the object intended to be accom- 
 plished by the founder of the Lowell Institute, in this 
 course of Lectures, cannot be over-estimated. Let there be 
 in the minds of the people generally a settled and rational 
 conviction of the truth of Christianity, such as a fair pres- 
 entation of the evidence could not fail to produce, and 
 there will be the best and the only true foundation laid 
 for a rational piety, and for the practice of every social 
 and civil virtue. That these Lectures were useful, to some 
 extent, when they were delivered, m producing such a 
 conviction, I had the great satisfaction of knowing ; and 
 I now commit them to the blessing of God, with the hope, 
 though there are so many and so able treatises on this 
 subject already before the public, that they will have a 
 degree of usefulness that will justify their publication. 
 
 Williams College, April, 1846. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Object of the Course, — Responsibility of Men for their Opinions. 
 — Christianity capable of certain Proof. — This shown from a 
 Comparison of matliematical and moral Evidence, and from an 
 Analysis of the Argument of Hume 13 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 Preliminary Observations. — Probability of a Revelation ; first, from 
 the Nature of tlie Case ; secondly, from Facts. — Probability of 
 Miracles, aside from their Effect in sustaining any particular 
 Revelation. — Connection between the Miracle and tlie Doctrine. 
 — The Christian Religion, or none 41 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 Internal and external Evidence. — Vagueness of the Division be- 
 tween them. — Reasons for considering the internal Evidences 
 first. — The Argument from Analogy 72 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Coincidence of Christianity with Natural Religion. — Its Adaptation 
 to the Conscience as a perceiving Power. — Peculiar Difficulties 
 in the Way of establishing and maintaining a perfect Standard. 
 — Christian Morality inseparable from the Christian Religion.. 104 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 Adaptation of Christianity to the Conscience, considered as a 
 Power capable of Improvement. — Its Adaptation to the Intel- 
 lect, the Affections, the Imagination, and tlie Will 135 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Christianity as a restraining Power. — The experimental Evidence 
 of Christianity. — Its Fitness and Tendency to become univer- 
 sal. — It has always been in the World 167 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Christianity could not have been originated by Man 197 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 The Condition, Character, and Claims of Christ. 227 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 The external Evidence. — General Grounds on which this is to be 
 put. — Authenticity and Integrity of the Writings of the New 
 Testament 258 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 
 Credibility of the Books of the New Testament 290 
 
 LECTURE XI. 
 
 Prophecy. — Nature of this Evidence. — The general Object of 
 Prophecy. — The Fulfilment of Prophecy 322 
 
 LECTURE XII. 
 
 Objections. — The Propagation of Christianity. — Its Effects and 
 Tendencies. — Summary and Conclusion 353 
 
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 OBJECT OF THE COURSE. — RESPONSIBILITY OF MEN FOR 
 THEIR OPINIONS. — CHRISTIANITY CAPABLE OF CERTAIN 
 PROOF. — THIS SHOWN FROM A COMPARISON OF MATHE- 
 MATICAL AND MORAL EVIDENCE, AND FROM AN ANALYSIS 
 OF THE ARGUMENT OF HUME. 
 
 In entering upon this course of lectures, there is 
 one impression against which I wish to guard at the 
 outset. It is, that I come here to defend Christianity, 
 as if its truth were a matter of doubt. Not so. I 
 come, not to dispute, but to exhibit truth ; to do my 
 part in a great work, which must be done for every 
 generation, by showing them, so that they shall see 
 for themselves, the grounds on which their belief in 
 the Christian religion rests. I come to stand at the 
 door of the temple of Truth, and ask you to go in with 
 me, and see for yourselves the foundation and the 
 shafts of those pillars upon which its dome is reared. 
 I ask you, in the words of one of old, to walk with me 
 about our Zion, and go round about her, to tell the 
 towers thereof, to mark well her bulwarks, to consider 
 her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation 
 following.* 
 
 * Psalm xlviii. 12, 13. 
 
14 LECTURE I. 
 
 In doing this, I shall hope to be useful to three 
 classes of persons. 
 
 To the first belong those who have received Chris- 
 tianity by acquiescence ; who have, perhaps, never 
 questioned its truth, but who have never examined 
 its evidence. This class is large, — it is to be feared 
 increasingly so, — and it does not seem to me that 
 the position of mind in which they are placed, and 
 its consequences, are sufficiently regarded. 
 
 The claims of the Christian religion present them- 
 selves to those who enter upon life in a Christian 
 country, in an attitude entirely different from that in 
 which they were presented at their first announce- 
 ment, when they made such rapid progress, and when 
 their dominion over the mind of man was so efficient.* 
 Then, no man was born a Christian. If he became 
 one, it was in opposition to the prejudices of educa- 
 tion, to ties of kindred, to motives of interest, and 
 often at the sacrifice of reputation and of life. This 
 no man would do except on the ground of the strongest 
 reasons, perceived and assented to by his own mind. 
 Christianity was an aggressive and an uncompromising 
 religion. It attacked every other form of religion, 
 whether Jewish or pagan, and sought to destroy it. 
 It " turned the world upside down " wherever it came ; 
 and the first question which any man would natural- 
 ly ask was, "What are its claims? What are the 
 reasons why I should receive it ? " And these claims 
 and reasons would be examined with all the attention 
 that could be produced by the stimulus of novelty, and 
 by the deepest personal interest. 
 
 * See Whately's Logic, Appendix, p. 325. 
 
LECTURE I. 15 
 
 Now, however, all this is changed. Men arc born 
 nominally Christians. The truth of the religion is 
 taken for granted ; nothing leads them to question it, 
 nothing to examine it. In this position the mind may 
 open itself to the reception of the religion from a per- 
 ception of its intrinsic excellence, and its adaptation 
 to the deep wants of man ; but the probability is that 
 doubts will arise. The occasions of these are abundant 
 on every hand ; the strange state in which the world 
 is ; the number of sects ; the conduct of Christians ; 
 a companion that ridicules religion ; an infidel book. 
 One objection or doubt makes way for another. The 
 objections come first, and, ere the individual is aware, 
 his respect for religion, and his confidence in it, are 
 undermined. Especially will this be so if a young 
 man travels much, and sees different forms of religion. 
 He will see the Hindoo bowing before his idol, the 
 Turk praying towards Mecca, the Papist kneeling be- 
 fore his saint, and the Protestant attending his church ; 
 and, as each seems equally sincere, and equally certain 
 he is right, he will acquire, insensibly perhaps, a gen- 
 eral impression that all religions are equally true, or, 
 which is much the same thing, that they are equally 
 false, and any exclusive attachment to the Christian 
 religion will be regarded as bigotry. The religion 
 itself will come to be disliked as a restraint, and de- 
 spised as a form. It is chiefly from this class that the 
 ranks of fanaticism, on the one hand, and of infidelity, 
 on the other, are filled ; and it will often depend on 
 constitutional temperament, or accidental temptation, 
 whether such a one shall become a fanatic or an 
 infidel. 
 
 At this point, there is doubtless a fault both in 
 
IG LECTURE I. 
 
 Christian parents and in Christian ministers. Where 
 there is a proper course of training, this class can 
 never become numerous; but it is numerous in all our 
 congregations now. Needless doubts are not to be 
 awakened, but it is no honor to the Christian re- 
 ligion to receive it by prescription. It is no fault to 
 have those questionings, that desire for insight, — call 
 them doubts if jou will, — which always spring up 
 in strong minds, and which will not be quieted till 
 the ground and evidence of those things which they 
 receive are distinctly seen. Are there such among 
 my hearers ? Them I hope to benefit. I hope to do 
 for them what Luke did for the most excellent The- 
 ophilus — to show thenl the " certainty " of those things 
 in which they have been instructed ; to refer them, as 
 he does again the same person in the Acts, to those 
 "infallible proofs" on which the religion rests. 
 
 To the second class whom I hope to benefit belong 
 those who have gradually passed from the preceding 
 class into doubt and infidelity. For such, I think, 
 there is hope. They are not unwilling to see evi- 
 dence. Their position has led them to look at 
 objections first, and they have, perhaps, never had 
 time or opportunity to look at the embodied evidence 
 for Christianity. They have fallen into infidelity from 
 association, from vanity, from fashion ; they have not 
 found in it the satisfaction they expected, and they 
 are willing to review the ground, or rather to look 
 candidly, for the first time, at the evidences for this 
 religion. 
 
 Besides this class of infidels, there are, however, 
 two others whom I have very little hope of benefiting. 
 One is of those who are made so by their passions, 
 
LECTURE I. 17 
 
 and are under the control of appetite, or ambition, or 
 avarice, or revenjjc. As these were not made infidels 
 by argument, argiunent will not be likely to reclaim 
 them. " They never think of religion but witli a 
 feeling of enmity, and never speak of it but in the 
 language of sneer or abuse." Another class is of 
 those who have been well characterized as " a cold, 
 speculative, subtle set of skeptics, who attack first 
 principles and confound their readers or hearers with 
 paradoxes." Apparently influenced by vanity, they 
 adopt principles which would render all argument 
 impossible or nugatory, and which would lead to fun- 
 damental and universal skepticism. This class seems 
 not to be as numerous or as dangerous at present as at 
 some former times.* 
 
 The third class whom I hope to benefit consists of 
 Christians themselves. It is one of the conditions 
 of Christian character and efficiency, that, on some 
 ground, there should be such a conviction of the truth 
 of Christianity as to form a basis of action and of 
 self-sacrifice, which, if it should be required, would be 
 carried even to martyrdom. The grounds of such a 
 conviction cannot be too well examined. There is no 
 man, who finds himself called to act upon any con- 
 viction, who does not feel his self-respect increased, 
 and his peace of mind enhanced, and his strength for 
 action augmented, when he has a clear perception ot 
 the ground of the conviction upon which he acts. 
 And even though he may once have seen the Christian 
 evidences in all their force, and been astonished at the 
 mass of proof, and have been perfectly convinced, yet, 
 
 * Alexander's Evidences, p, 9. 
 
18 LECTURE I. 
 
 after a time, these impressions fade away, and it is 
 good for him to have them renewed. It is as when 
 one has looked at the Falls of Niagara, and stood upon 
 the tower, and gone round upon Table rock, and 
 been rowed in the little boat up towards the great fall, 
 and had his mind filled with the scene, but has again 
 been occupied in the business of life till the impres- 
 sion has become indistinct on his mind. He would 
 then gladly return, and have it renewed and deepened. 
 This feeling of certainty seems to have been one of 
 the elements of the vigorous piety of ancient times. 
 They believed ; therefore they spoke. They knew 
 whom they believed ; therefore they were ready to 
 be offered. They spoke of " certainty," of " infallible 
 proofs," of being " eye-witnesses," of the " more sure 
 word of prophecy." Their tread was not that of men 
 who were feeling their way in the twilight of doubtful 
 evidence, but that of men who saw every thing in the 
 light of clear and perfect vision. I would not, indeed, 
 limit the amount of knowledge and conviction with 
 which piety may exist. If it can spring up in the 
 twilight, and grow where doubts overshadow it, and 
 where it never feels the direct rays of truth, we ought 
 to rejoice ; but, at the same time, we ought to know 
 that the growth will be feeble, and that the plant must 
 be despoiled of the beauty and fragrance which it will 
 have when it grows as in the light of the open dav. 
 To produce this feeling of certainty in one already a 
 Christian, was the avowed object for which the Gos- 
 pel of Luke was written ; and it is this feehng, con- 
 taining the elements both of peace and of strength, 
 that I hope to produce and to deepen in the minds 
 of Christians. 
 
LECTURE I. 19 
 
 But if I am to be useful to either of these classes, it 
 must be with their own cooperation. The principle 
 involved in this assertion, in reference to all moral 
 truth, and, indeed, to all truth the acquisition of which 
 requires attention, is as obvious to philosophy and 
 common sense as it is plainly announced in the Bible. 
 Nothing is more common, in reference to their present, 
 as well as their future interests, than for men "to 
 have eyes and see not." 
 
 Here, however, I am met by the objection that the 
 belief of a man is not within his own power, but that 
 he is compelled to believe according to certain laws of 
 evidence. This objection I do not apprehend to be 
 of very wide influence ; but I have met with a few 
 men of intelligence who have held to it, and it has 
 been sustained by some names of high authority. I 
 am therefore bound to notice it. 
 
 In this case, as in most others of a similar kind, the 
 objection involves a partial truth, from which its })lausi- 
 bility is derived. It is true, within certain limitations, 
 and under certain conditions, and with respect to 
 certain kinds of truth, that we are not voluntary in our 
 belief; but then these conditions and limitations are 
 such as entirely to sever from this truth any conse- 
 quence that we are not perfectly ready to admit. 
 
 We admit that belief is in no case directly depend- 
 ent on the will ; that in some cases it is entirely inde- 
 pendent of it; but he must be exceedingly bigoted, or 
 unobservant of what passes around him, who should 
 affirm that the will has no influence. The influence of 
 the will here is analogous to its influence in many other 
 cases. It is as great as it is over the objects which 
 we see. It does not depend upon the will of any man, 
 
20 LECTURE I. 
 
 if he turns his eyes in a particular direction, whether 
 he shall see a tree there. If the tree be there, he 
 must see it, and is compelled to believe in its exist- 
 ence ; but it was entirely within his power not to turn 
 his eyes in that direction, and thus to remain uncon- 
 vinced, on the highest of all evidence, of the existence 
 of the tree, and unimpressed by its beauty and pro- 
 portion. It is not by his will directly that man has 
 any control over his thoughts. It is not by willing a 
 thought into the mind that he can call it there ; and 
 yet we all know that through attention and habits of 
 association the subjects of our thoughts are, to a great 
 extent, directed by the will. 
 
 It is precisely so in respect to belief; and he who 
 denies this, denies the value of candor, and the influ- 
 ence of party spirit, and prejudice, and interest, on the 
 mind. So great is this influence, however, that a 
 keen observer of human nature, and one who will not 
 be suspected of leaning unduly to the doctrine I now 
 advocate, has supposed it to extend even to our belief 
 of mathematical truth. " Men," says Hobbes, " appeal 
 from custom to reason, and from reason to custom, as 
 it serves their turn, receding from custom when their 
 interest requires it, and setting themselves against 
 reason as oft as reason is against them ; which is 
 the cause that the doctrine of right and wrong is per- 
 petually disputed both by the pen and the sword ; 
 whereas the doctrine of lines and figures is not so, 
 because men care not, in that subject, what is truth, 
 as it is a thing that crosses no man's ambition, 
 or profit, or lust. For, I doubt not, if it had been a 
 thing contrary to any man's right of dominion, or to 
 the interest of men that have dominion, that tiie three 
 
LECTURE I. 21 
 
 angles of a triangle should be equal to two angles of a 
 square, that doctrine should have been, if not disputed, 
 jet by the burning of all books of geometry, sup- 
 pressed, as far as he whom it concerned was able." 
 "This," says Hallam, from whose work I make the 
 quotation, " does not exaggerate the pertinacity of 
 mankind in resisting the evidence of truth when it 
 thwarts the interests or passions of any particular 
 sect or community."* Let a man who hears the forty- 
 seventh proposition of Euclid announced for the first 
 time, trace the steps of the demonstration, and he must 
 believe it to be true ; but let him know that, as soon 
 as he does perceive the evidence of that proposition so 
 as to believe it on that ground, he shall lose his right 
 eye, and he will never trace the evidence, or come to 
 that belief which results from the force of the only 
 proper evidence. You may tell him it is true, but he 
 will reply that he does not know, he does not see it 
 to be so. 
 
 So far, then, from finding in this law of belief — the 
 law by which it is necessitated on condition of a cer- 
 tain amount of evidence perceived by the mind — an 
 excuse for any who do not receive the evidence of the 
 Christian religion, it is in this very law that I find the 
 ground of their condemnation. Certainly, if God has 
 provided evidence as convincing as that for the forty- 
 seventh of Euclid, so that all men have to do is to exam- 
 ine it with candor, then they must be without excuse if 
 they do not believe. This, I suppose, God has done. 
 He asks no one to believe except on the ground of evi- 
 dence, and such evidence as ought to command assent. 
 
 * literature of Europe, vol. iii. 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 Let a man examine this evidence with entire candor, 
 laying aside all regard for consequences or results, 
 simply according to the laws of evidence, and then, if 
 he is not convinced, I believe God will, so far forth, 
 acquit him in the great day of account. But if God 
 has given men such evidence that a fair, and full, 
 and perfectly candid examination is all that is needed 
 to necessitate belief, then, if men do not believe, it 
 will be in this very law that we shall find the ground 
 of their condemnation. The difficulty will not lie in 
 their mental constitution as related to evidence, nor 
 in the want of evidence, but in that moral condition, 
 that state of the heart, or the will, which prevented a 
 proper examination. "There seems," says Butler, 
 " no possible reason to be given why we may not be 
 in a state of moral probation with regard to the exer- 
 cise of our understanding upon the subject of religion, 
 as we are with regard to our behavior in common 
 affairs. The former is a thing as much within our 
 power and choice as the latter." 
 
 And here, I remark incidentally, we see what it is 
 for truth to have a fair chance. There are many who 
 think it has this when it is left free to combat error 
 without the intervention of external force ; and they 
 seem to suppose it will, of necessity, prevail. But the 
 fact is, that the truth almost never has a fair chance 
 with such a being as man, when the reception of it 
 involves self-denial, or the recognition of duties to 
 which he is indisposed. Let " the mists that steam 
 up before the intellect from a corrupt heart be dis- 
 persed," and truths, before obscure, shine out as the 
 noondav. Before the mind of one with the intellect 
 of a man, but with the purity and unselfishness of an 
 
LECTURE I. 23 
 
 angel, the evidence of such a system as the gospel 
 would have a fair chancre. 
 
 Is it true, then, that, if a perfectly candid attention 
 be given to its evidences, a certainty of the truth of 
 Christianity will be produced in the mind at this late 
 day, and in these ends of the earth ? I say. Yes ; and 
 I say it in full view of the kind of evidence by which 
 Christianity is supported, and which, by some, is sup- 
 posed incapable of producing certainty. Let us look 
 at this point. 
 
 What, then, is the kind of evidence by which Cluis- 
 tianity is supported ? And here I am ready to say, it 
 is moral evidence, as opposed to mathematical, and 
 what is called probable evidence, as opposed to demon- 
 strative. Is, then, mathematical evidence a better 
 ground of certainty than moral evidence ? On this 
 point, and also respecting the subjects to which mathe- 
 matical evidence can properly be applied, there is a 
 wrong impression extensively prevalent, not only in 
 the community at large, but among educated men. 
 Figures, it is said, cannot lie, and there seems to be 
 an impression that where they are used, the result 
 must be certain. But when a surveyor measures the 
 sides and angles of a field, and ascertains the contents 
 by calculation, is he certain he has the exact contents 
 of that field ? He may be so if no mistake has been 
 made in measuring the sides and angles. But of that 
 he never can be certain ; or, if he is, it cannot be by 
 mathematical evidence. His accuracy will depend 
 upon the perfection of his instruments, of which he 
 never can be certain. So it will be found in all cases 
 of what are called mixed mathematics. There are 
 elements entering into the result that do not depend 
 
24 LECTURE I. 
 
 on mathematical evidence, and therefore the evidence 
 for that result is not demonstrative. Even in those 
 results in which the greatest confidence is felt, and in 
 which there seems to be, and perhaps is, an entire co- 
 incidence with fact, the certainty that is felt does not 
 result from mathematical evidence. No man, who 
 understands the nature of the evidence on which he 
 proceeds, would say he had demonstrated that there 
 would be an eclipse next year. His expectation of it 
 would depend, not on mathematical evidence, but 
 upon his belief in the stability of the law^s of nature. 
 And even in accordance with those laws, it is not im- 
 possible that some new comet may come in athwart 
 the orbit of the earth or the moon, and disturb their 
 relative position. 
 
 But, says the objector, I speak oi pure mathematics, 
 and of the certainty of their evidence. I say, then, 
 with regard to pure mathematics, that it has no ap- 
 plication to facts. No fact can be demonstrated. 
 Nothing whatever, no assertion about any thing that 
 ever did exist, or ever can exist, can be demonstrated, 
 that is, proved, by evidence purely mathematical. This 
 will be assented to by all who understand the nature 
 of mathematical evidence, and it can be easily shown. 
 It can be demonstrated that the two acute angles in 
 every right-angled triangle are equal to the right angle; 
 but can this be demonstrated of any actually existing 
 triangle ? Draw w^hat you call a right-angled triangle, 
 and can you demonstrate it about that ? No. You 
 cannot demonstrate that your given triangle is right- 
 angled. Whether it is or not will depend upon the 
 perfection of your instruments and the perfection of the 
 senses. Accordingly, demonstration never asserts, and 
 
LECTURE I. 25 
 
 never can assert, of any triangle, that it is right-angled ; 
 but its language is. Let it be a right-angled triangle, 
 suppose it to be, and then the two acute angles will be 
 equal to that right angle. It asserts nothing whatever 
 about any thing that actually exists, but only the con- 
 nection between a certain supposition and a certain 
 conclusion.* Whatever certainty we have, therefore, 
 about any thing that actually exists, or has existed, or 
 can exist, is derived, not from mathematical, but from 
 what is called moral or })robable evidence. 
 
 Nay, I go farther, and assert that the certainty of 
 the connection between the supposition or hypothesis 
 and the conclusion — that is, of that kind of hypothet- 
 ical truth which alone can be demonstrated — is itself 
 dependent upon evidence that is not mathematical. 
 Two things are requisite to a demonstration. The 
 first is, that it should start from an hypothesis or suppo- 
 sition for its first principle. If it starts from a fact, it 
 will not be a demonstration. And the second is, that 
 there should be intuitive evidence at every step. But 
 when a man has started from his hypothesis, and gone 
 on, step by step, to his conclusion, how does he know 
 that he has had intuitive evidence at every step ? He 
 knows it, and he knows it only, by the evidence of 
 memory, which certainly is not mathematical or de- 
 monstrative evidence. Without this, his whole demon- 
 stration would be a rope of sand. 
 
 What, then, shall we say of the reasonableness, or 
 rather of the folly, of those who ask for mathematical 
 evidence to prove the truth of the Christian religion, 
 when that evidence cannot be applied to prove any 
 one fact whatever ? And what shall we say of the 
 
 * Stewart's Elements, vol. ii. chap. ii. sec. 3. 
 4 
 
26 LECTURE 1. 
 
 boasted superiority of mathematical evidence, when the 
 certainty which any man feels even for such a hypothet- 
 ical conclusion as can be demonstrated is, after all, 
 dependent upon evidence that is not mathematical ? 
 
 I would by no means disparage mathematics. I ac- 
 knowledge their extensive utility and application, I 
 am surprised at that skill in the construction of in- 
 struments by which truths demonstrated concerning 
 supposed lines and figures can be so correctly and 
 generally applied to the purposes of practical life. I 
 look with wonder upon tliat structure of the universe, 
 by which truths demonstrated concerning these same 
 abstract propositions are found to apply with so much 
 exactness to its forms, and forces, and movements ; but 
 still, I would have this science keep within its own 
 sphere, and not arrogate to itself a certainty which 
 does not belong to it in virtue of its own authority, 
 and which operates practically to throw distrust upon 
 our conclusions in other departments. 
 
 Either, then, there is certainty on other ground than 
 mathematical evidence, or there is no certainty con- 
 cerning any fact or existing thing whatever, and there 
 will be no stopping short of that fundamental skepti- 
 cism which denies the authority of the human faculties, 
 and doubts of every thing, and finally doubts whether 
 it doubts. 
 
 If, then, such certainty may be attained, our next 
 inquiry will be. What are the grounds of it? And of 
 these there are no less than six. 
 
 The first is that which is now commonlv called 
 Reason, in man, or by some the Reason, by which he 
 perceives directly, intuitively, necessarily, and believes, 
 
LECTURE I. 27 
 
 with a conviction from wliicli he cannot free himself, 
 certain fundamental truths, u})on which all other truths, 
 and all reasoning, properly so called, or deduction, are 
 conditioned. It is by this that we believe in our own 
 existence and personal identity, and in the maxim 
 that every event must have an adequate cause. This 
 belongs equally to all men, and, within its own prov- 
 ince, its authority is perfect. No authority can be 
 higher, no certainty more full and absolute, than that 
 which it gives. No man can believe any thing with a 
 certainty greater than that with which he believes in 
 his own existence ; and, if we may suppose such a 
 case, he who should doubt of his own existence 
 would, in that single doubt, necessarily involve the 
 doubt of every thing else. 
 
 The second ground of certainty is consciousness. 
 By this we are informed of what is passing within our 
 own minds. We are certain that we think and feel. 
 
 The third ground of certainty is the evidence of the 
 senses. I do not deny that the senses may deceive 
 us — that they sometimes do; but I affirm that gen- 
 erally the evidence of the senses is the ground of entire 
 certainty to the mass of mankind. To them " seeing 
 is believing," and they can conceive of no greater 
 certainty than that which results from this evidence. 
 Whatever doubt some may attempt to cast over this 
 subject, it is obvious that no event whatever — not the 
 flowing; of water towards its source — can be a greater 
 violation of the laws of nature, more in opposition to 
 its ordinary sequences, than would be a deception 
 upon the senses of men with respect to certain things 
 and under certain circumstances. It would be as 
 great a miracle to make three millions of people 
 
28 LECTURE I. 
 
 believe that they went out and gathered manna — that 
 they saw, and felt, and tasted it — when they really 
 did not, as it would if water should flow back towards 
 its source, or should divide and stand up in heaps. 
 
 The fourth ground of certainty is the evidence of 
 memory. It is on the validity of this, as I have 
 already said, that the certainty of a mathematical 
 demonstration depends. Without entire confidence in 
 this, no testimony could be taken in a court of justice, 
 no criminal could be convicted. When its testimony 
 is perfectly clear and distinct, it leaves no doubt on 
 the mind. 
 
 The fifth ground of certainty is testimony. With 
 respect to this, I would say substantially the same that 
 I have said of the senses. No doubt, as has been said 
 by Hume, and as every body knows, testimony some- 
 times deceives us; but it has not been enough in- 
 sisted on, that testimony may be given by such men, 
 and so many, and under such circumstances, as to form 
 a ground of certainty as valid as any other can possi- 
 bly be. I do not now say that the testimony for the 
 Christian religion is of this character ; but I say, if it 
 is not, the difficulty lies, not in the kind of evidence, as 
 distinguished from mathematical, but in the degree of 
 it in this particular case. 
 
 The sixth ground of certainty is reasoning. That 
 this is so in mathematics, all will admit. On other 
 subjects, the certainty may be equally full and absolute. 
 When Robinson Crusoe saw the track of a man's foot 
 upon the shore of his island, he was as certain there 
 had been a man there as if he had seen him. It was 
 reasoning ; it was inferring, from a fact which he knew 
 by sensation, another fact which he did not thus know ; 
 
LECTURE I. 29 
 
 but how perfectly conclusive ! The skeptic never 
 lived who would have doubted it. This kind of evi- 
 dence is capable of every degree of probability, from 
 the slightest shade of it upwards. It often requires 
 that a large number of circumstances should be taken 
 into the account, and, in many cases, does not amount 
 to positive proof. In many others, however, it does ; 
 and the circumstance on which I wish to fix attention 
 is, that it may be the ground of a belief as fixed and 
 certain as any other. 
 
 These, then, are the grounds of certainty, and each 
 has its peculiar province. Of these, each of the first 
 three — reason, consciousness, and the senses — is en- 
 tirely competent within its own sphere, and, indeed, 
 scarcely admits of collateral support. Not so the last 
 three. The evidence of memory, of testimony, and of 
 reasoning, may mutually assist and confirm each other. 
 It is upon the last two, the evidence of testimony and 
 of reasoning, that we rely for the support of what are 
 called the external proofs of Christianity ; and if one of 
 these is capable of producing certainty, much more, if 
 certainty admitted of degrees, would they both when 
 conspiring together. 
 
 I have dwelt on this subject because it seems to me 
 that many persons indulge themselves in a sickly and 
 effeminate habit of doubt on all subjects without the 
 pale of mathematics and physics, and more especially 
 on the subject of religion. So much has been said, 
 there are so many opinions and so much doubt re- 
 specting different points of the reli«iion itself, that this 
 feeline; of doubt has been transferred to the evidence 
 by which the religion is sustained. I wish, therefore, 
 to have it distinctly felt that the kind of evidence by 
 
30 LECTURE 1. 
 
 which Christianity is sustained is capable of producing 
 certainty, and I claim that the evidences are such that, 
 when fully and fairly examined, they will produce it. 
 They amount to what is meant by a moral demonstra- 
 tion. There are many subjects on which, from want 
 of evidence, or because they are beyond the reach of 
 our faculties, it is wise, and the mark of a strong mind, 
 to doubt ; and there are also subjects on which it is 
 equally the mark of a weak mind to doubt, and of a 
 strong one to give a full assent. The day, I trust, has 
 gone by when a habit of doubt and of skepticism is to 
 be regarded as a mark of superior intellect. 
 
 But, though testimony and reasoning may produce 
 the certainty of mathematical demonstration in some 
 circumstances, yet is it not possible that one of these 
 sources of evidence may so come in conflict with the 
 other as to leave the mind in entire suspense ? Is it 
 not possible that an amount of , testimony which, 
 when we look at it by itself, seems perfectly conclu- 
 sive, may yet be opposed by an argument which, 
 when taken by itself, seems perfectly conclusive, and 
 thus the mind be left in a state of hopeless perplexity.^ 
 This may be conceived ; and, putting the testimony for 
 Christianity in the most favorable light, it is precisely 
 the condition in which it is claimed, by Hume and his 
 followers, that the mind of a reasonable person must 
 be thrown, by his argument on miracles. Shall I, 
 then, go on to state and answer that argument ? I 
 am not unwilling to do so ; because it will, I presume, 
 be expected ; and because it is still the custom of 
 those who defend Christianity to do so, just as it was 
 the custom of British ships to fire a gun on passing the 
 
LECTURE I. 31 
 
 port of Copenhagen, long after its power had been 
 prostrated, and its influence had ceased to be felt. 
 
 "Experience," says Hume, "is our only guide con- 
 cerning matters of fact. Oar belief or assurance of 
 any fact from the report of eye-witnesses is derived 
 from no other principle than experience ; that is, our 
 observation of the veracity of human testimony. Now, 
 if the fact attested partakes of the marvellous, if it is 
 such as has seldom fallen under our observation, here 
 is a contest of two opposite experiences, of which the 
 one destroys the other, as far as its force goes, and the 
 superior can only operate on the mind by the force 
 which remains. Further, if the fact affirmed by eye- 
 witnesses, instead of being only marvellous, is really 
 miraculous ; if, besides, the testimony, considered 
 apart and in itself, amounts to an entire proof; in 
 that case, there is proof against proof, of which the 
 strongest must prevail, but still with a diminution of 
 force in proportion to that of its antagonist. A miracle 
 is a violation of the laws of nature ; and as a firm and 
 unalterable experience has established these laws, the 
 proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the 
 fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can 
 possibly be imagined. And if so, it is an undeniable 
 consequence, that it cannot be surmounted by any- 
 proof whatever from testimony." 
 
 And here I observe that Hume takes it for granted, 
 that what we call a miracle is contrary to the uni- 
 formity of nature. Indeed, his own definition of a 
 miracle is, that it is a violation of the laws of nature. 
 But how can we know that what we call a miracle is 
 not, in the highest and most proper sense, as natural 
 as any other event ? By the term natural, we mean 
 
32 LECTURE I. 
 
 Stated, fixed, uniform. Whatever happens statedly in 
 given circumstances, we call natural. If men rose 
 from the dead as statedly, after a year, as they now 
 do from sleep in the morning, one would be as natural 
 as the other, and would occasion no more surprise. In 
 accordance with this definition, we call an event natu- 
 ral, though it happen but once in a thousand years, 
 provided it come round statedly at the end of that time. 
 The appearance of a comet having the periodical time 
 of a thousand years, would be just as natural as the 
 rising of the sun. But if we suppose such a comet to 
 appear for the first time, and that were the only one 
 in the system, it is plain no man could tell whether it 
 was natural or not. When it should come round again 
 and again, it would be considered natural. 
 
 But who can tell whether, in the vast cycles of 
 God's moral government, miracles may not have been 
 provided for, and come in, at certain distant points, as 
 statedly and uniformly, and therefore as naturally, as 
 any thing else ? Who can tell whether a miracle may 
 not be, to the ordinary course of events, as the occa- 
 sional and momentary reversing of the engine that is 
 bearing the cars onward ? A man gets into a railroad 
 car for the first time, and moves uniformly forward, 
 perhaps for the course of a day, and he may suppose 
 the engine capable of no other motion. He has gone 
 a whole day, and has had no experience of any other. 
 But an emergency occurs, and the motion of the engine 
 is reversed. He now perceives that it is capable of an 
 adjustment and a movement required only on particu- 
 lar occasions, of which he was before wholly ignorant. 
 But a thousand years are with God as one day; and 
 it may be, it is not altogether improbable, that as the 
 
LECTURE I. 33 
 
 engine, and the cars, and whole material apparatus are 
 made for the convenience and benefit of the passen- 
 gers, so the mighty train of the universe, with its 
 countless hosts of suns and stars, was made for the ac- 
 commodation of the passengers that are in it; and 
 though God may roll it forward with an uninterrupted 
 motion for a thousand years, yet that then the emer- 
 gency may occur, and that he may for a moment 
 reverse the motion, and say, " Sun, stand thou still 
 upon Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon." 
 What should prevent it ? What do we know of the 
 plans and jiurposes of God to enable us to say that 
 this is improbable, especially if we suppose it demanded 
 by the exigencies of his moral government, and the 
 good of his sensitive and rational creation ? 
 
 But the truth is, Hume does not take the moral 
 government of God into his account at all. This is 
 his great mistake. It is like the mistake of the as- 
 tronomer who should carefully notice the circular 
 movement of the planets around their primaries, but 
 should fail to notice that mightier movement by which, 
 as we are told, planets and suns are all borne onward 
 towards some unknown point in infinite space. Expe- 
 rience may enable him to determine, and to calculate, 
 the movements of the first order ; but if he would 
 know those of the second, he must inquire of Him who 
 carries it forward. The moral government of God is a 
 movement in a line onwards towards some grand con- 
 summation, in which the principles, indeed, are ever 
 the same, but the developments are always new, — in 
 which, therefore, no experience of the past can indicate 
 with certainty what new openings of truth, what new 
 manifestations of goodness, what new phases of the 
 moral heavens, may appear. 
 
34 LECTURE I. 
 
 The difficulty with the most of those who have op- 
 posed Hume has been that they have permitted him, 
 while arguing the question ostensibly on the ground of 
 theism, to involve positions that are really atheistic. 
 They have permitted him to give, surreptitiously, to 
 the mere physical laws of nature a sacredness and a 
 permanence which put them in the place of God. Let 
 the question be fairly stated, and it would seem impos- 
 sible there should be any difficulty respecting it. Do 
 we believe in the existence of a personal God, intelli- 
 gent and free ? — not a God who is a part of nature, or 
 a mere personification of the powers of nature, but one 
 who is as distinct from nature as the builder of the 
 house is from the house ? Do we either believe, with 
 our best philosophers, that the laws of nature are only 
 the stated mode in which this God operates, or that 
 all nature, with all its laws, are perfectly under his 
 control? Then we can find no difficulty in believing 
 that such a God may, at any time when the good of 
 his creatures requires it, change the mode of his opera- 
 tion, and suspend those laws. Would Hume accept 
 this statement of the question ? If so, the dispute is 
 at an end, for this relation of God to nature involves 
 the possibility both of a miracle and of its proof. It is 
 incompatible with this relation, that experience should 
 ever attain that character of absolute and necessary 
 uniformity in virtue of which alone its evidence can be 
 set in opposition to that of testimony. If he would not 
 accept this statement, he is an atheist or a pantheist ; 
 and we are not yet prepared to argue the question of 
 miracles, for that cannot be argued until it is fully 
 conceded that a personal God exists. 
 
 The above seems to me a sufficient answer to the 
 
LECTURE I. 35 
 
 argument of Hume. It is, however, by no means the 
 only one ; and as a full discussion of it involves some 
 collateral points that do not seem to be fully settled, 
 I will pursue it a little farther. 
 
 If we use the phrase " course of nature " in its more 
 restricted and usual sense, then the only possible way 
 in which a miracle can be a violation of that course, or 
 contrary to experience, is, that it never happened, and 
 was never observed ; for if it had haj)pened, and had 
 been observed, then it would constitute a part of uni- 
 versal experience. But to say that a violation, or, 
 more properly, a suspension, of the laws of nature 
 never ha})pened because those laws are uniform, is 
 taking for granted the very point in dispute. It is as 
 bald and barefaced a begging of the question as can 
 well be imagined. Suppose the question to be whether 
 a dead man has been raised. " No," says Hume, " be- 
 cause " — these are his own words — "it has never 
 been witnessed in any age or country that a dead man 
 should come to life." Is this reasoning ? 
 
 Grant to Hume that the laws of nature are abso- 
 lutely uniform, and you preclude, of course, all proof 
 for a miracle. This is the fundamental premise by 
 which he attempts to show that a miracle cannot be 
 proved by testimony; and whoever grants him this 
 grants the very point in dispute. The laws of nature, 
 when it is once conceded that they are laws, are of 
 equal authority ; and it is in vain to attempt to in- 
 validate the authority of one by bringing against it 
 that of another, by whatever amount of induction it 
 may have been established. This does not seem to 
 have been perceived by Dr. Chalmers, in his very 
 elaborate attempt to refute the argument of Hume, or 
 
36 LECTURE I. 
 
 rather in his attempt, while he allows that argument 
 to have force, to overbalance it by a greater force. 
 But the argument of Hume is either conclusive or it 
 is of no force whatever. How, then, does Chalmers 
 meet it ? He grants that the laws of nature are uni- 
 form, and says that there are laws of testimony, which 
 are a part of the laws of nature, as uniform as any 
 other, and that there are certain kinds of testimony in 
 regard to which the uniform experience is, that they do 
 not deceive us ; and then he goes on to show, with 
 great power, how the force of testimony may be accu- 
 mulated so as to overbalance any improbability what- 
 ever, I admit fully all that he says on the force of 
 testimony. But let its force be ever so great, if it 
 were a fact that no testimony was ever known to 
 deceive us, yet even then, if we admit the premise of 
 Hume, we only balance uniform experience against 
 uniform experience, and thus produce the very case 
 of perplexity spoken of by him. Chalmers saw, with 
 great clearness, the amazing force of testimony as proof. 
 He says, in opposition to Campbell and others, that 
 our belief in testimony is founded solely on experience, 
 and that there are certain kinds of testimony of which 
 we have uniform experience that they do not deceive 
 us. But he failed to see that no uniform experience 
 of the truth of testimony could prove a fact that had 
 been already admitted to be contrary to " a firm and 
 unalterable experience." " A firm and unalterable 
 experience" of the truth of testimony can never prove 
 a fact which can be fairly shown to be contrary to 
 another firm and unalterable experience. 
 
 The argument of Hume implies, and Chalmers ad- 
 mits, this opposition of the evidence of testimony and 
 
LECTURE I. 37 
 
 of experience in the proof of a miracle. I, however, 
 admit of no such opposition, and think it easy to show 
 that there is none. Had Hume been asked why he 
 believed the course of nature to be absolutely uniform, 
 he must have answered, that he believed it on the 
 ground of experience. And then, if asked how he 
 knew what that experience had been, he must have re- 
 plied, by testimony, for there is no other possible way. 
 And thus it would appear that, while he seems to op- 
 pose the evidence of experience to that of testimony, 
 he is only opposing the evidence of testimony to that 
 of testimony. And what would the testimony on the 
 side of Hume amount to, in such a case ? Why, abso- 
 lutely nothing, because it is merely negative. Let a 
 thousand men swear, in a court of justice, that they did 
 not see a murder committed, and it will not diminish in 
 the least the force of the testimony of one man who 
 swears that he did see it, unless the thousand pre- 
 tend to have been on the spot, and to have had oppor- 
 tunity to witness it. In this case, the experience of 
 the thousand men would be properly said to be con- 
 trary to that of the one. But in no such sense can 
 experience be said to be contrary to the testimony 
 for miracles. If any number of men, — if the whole 
 race, — with the exception of those who had an oppor- 
 tunity to see, and who did see, a miracle, should testi- 
 fy that they did not see it, that would not invalidate, 
 in the least, the testimony of those who did see it. We 
 should judge of that testimony on its own proper merits. 
 Thus stands the argument, if, with Hume, we place 
 our belief in the uniformity of nature on the ground 
 of experience. But is this really the ground of that 
 belief? I think not. Nor can I agree with Stewart 
 
38 LECTURE I. 
 
 and other metaphysicians, who place " the expectation 
 of the continued uniformity of the laws of nature" 
 among what they call the fundamental laws of belief, 
 which we believe in necessarily and without reference 
 to experience. This is not the place for the full dis- 
 cussion of this point. I merely observe that, so far is 
 this from being to the mind a law of belief, to the 
 exclusion of supernatural agency, that narrations of 
 such agency have been received in all ages upon the 
 slightest evidence ; and that, if this were the law, then 
 no man ought to believe, or could believe, in the resur- 
 rection of the dead, or a future judgment, or in the 
 destruction or change of the present order of nature in 
 any way whatever. The difficulty lies in an incautious 
 and narrow statement of the true law. The true law 
 of belief is, that the same causes will, in the same 
 circumstances, produce the same effects. This is the 
 law ; and when applied to the permanence or uni- 
 formity of the course of nature, it will stand thus : The 
 present course of nature will be uniform and perma- 
 nent unless other causes than those now in operation 
 shall intervene to interrupt or destroy it. The proba- 
 bility of the intervention of such causes is a point on 
 which every man must decide for himself. To me it 
 seems probable — to you, perhaps, improbable; but 
 there is nothing in the nature of the case to prevent it 
 from being proved like any other fact. 
 
 Having thus put this question upon its true basis, it 
 will be necessary to say very little of the particular 
 fallacies and consequences connected with the argument 
 of Hume. I will simply add, that, 
 
 1. This argument proceeds on a principle which 
 would make it unreasonable to believe a miracle on 
 
LECTURE I. 39 
 
 the testimony of the senses. There is precisely the 
 same reason for opposing the evidence of experience to 
 that of the senses, as for opposing it to that of testimony. 
 }f the argument would overthrow a full proof from tes- 
 timony, the senses certainly could give nothing more. 
 
 2. Hume uses the term experience in two senses. 
 Personal experience is the knowledge we have ac- 
 quired by our own senses. General experience is that 
 knowledge of facts which has been acquired by the 
 race. If, therefore, Hume says a miracle is contrary 
 to his personal experience, that proves nothing; but 
 if he says it is opposed to universal experience, that, as 
 has already been said, is begging the question. 
 
 3. He opposes the evidence of experience to that 
 of testimony, evidently with the intention of opposing 
 to testimony the high authority that belongs to personal 
 experience; whereas, in the sense in which he must 
 use the term " experience," since, as has been said, 
 we can know what general experience is only by testi- 
 monv, he is only opposing testimony to testimony, 
 
 4. If the argument of Hume be correct, then no 
 evidence would be sufficient to prove a new fact in 
 natural science, since it would be as much contrary to 
 universal experience as a miracle. 
 
 And, finally, Hume has himself renounced the prin- 
 ciple of his own argument. He seems, after having 
 written the essay, to have had a perception of some 
 of the absurd consequences to which it must lead, and 
 therefore adds, in a note, — " I own there may possibly 
 be miracles of such a kind as to admit of proof from 
 human testimony." This single admission destroys at 
 once the whole force of his argument. As an exam- 
 ple, he says, — " Suppose all authors, in all languages, 
 
40 LECTURE I. 
 
 agree that, from the first of January, 1600, there was a 
 total darkness over all the earth for eight days; sup- 
 pose the tradition of this event is still strong and 
 lively among the people; that all travellers bring us 
 accounts of the same tradition ; it is evident that our 
 philosophers ought to receive it for certain." " But," 
 he adds, "should this miracle be ascribed to any new 
 system of religion, men in all ages have been so im- 
 posed upon by ridiculous stories of that kind, that the 
 very circumstance would be full proof of a cheat, and 
 sufficient, with all men of sense, not only to make them 
 reject the fact, but to reject it without further exam- 
 ination." On the consistency and candor of this 
 passage 1 make no comment. Who, after reading it, 
 can fail to feel that Hume was guilty of a heartless, 
 if not a malignant trifling with the best interests of his 
 fellow-men ? 
 
 Thus, after mentioning the classes of persons whom 
 I shall hope to benefit, I have endeavored to show, first, 
 that you, my hearers, are responsible for the manner in 
 which you use your understandings, and for the opin- 
 ions you form on this great subject. And, second, that 
 there is nothing in the nature or kind of evidence by 
 which Christianity is sustained, nor in any conflict of the 
 evidence of experience and of testimony, to prevent us 
 from attaining that certainty upon which we may rest as 
 upon the rock ; and which shall constitute, if not " the 
 assurance of faith," yet the assurance of understanding. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. — PROBABILITY OF A REVE 
 LATION; FIRST, FROM THE NATURE OF THE CASE; SEC- 
 ONDLY, FROM FACTS. — PROBABILITY OF MIRACLES, ASIDE 
 FROM THEIR EFFECT IN SUSTAINING ANY PARTICULAR 
 REVELATION. — CONNECTION BETWEEN THE MIRACLE AND 
 THE DOCTRINE.— THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, OR NONE. 
 
 The Christian religion admits of certain proof; and 
 to show this was one object of the last lecture. But, 
 in searching for that proof, we may proceed in two 
 different methods. We may either try the facts in 
 question by the laws of evidence, precisely as we 
 would any other facts, or we may Judge beforehand of 
 their probability or improbability. In the first case, 
 we should allow nothing for what we might suppose 
 previous probability or improbability, nothing for the 
 nature of the facts as miraculous or common. We 
 should hold ourselves in the position of an impartial 
 jury, bound to decide solely according to the evidence. 
 This course alone is in accordance with the spirit of 
 the inductive philosophy, which decides nothing on the 
 ground of previous hypothesis, but yields itself entirely 
 to the guidance of facts properly authenticated, and 
 refuses no conclusion which the existence of those 
 facts necessarily involves. Let those who are to judge 
 of Christianity approach it in this spirit, and we are 
 content. 
 
42 LECTURE II. 
 
 And surely, if this spirit was demanded when the 
 processes of nature only were in question, — and the 
 whole history of human conjecture there is but the 
 history of weakness and folly, so that science made no 
 progress till facts, established by proper evidence, were 
 received without reference to hypothesis, — much more 
 must this same spirit be demanded when the procedure 
 of God in his moral government is concerned. On 
 such a subject, nothing can be more contrary to that 
 wise caution which adheres to facts, and balances 
 evidence, and keeps the mind open to conviction, than 
 to come to a decision under the influence of a prejudi- 
 cation of the case on the ground of any antecedent 
 improbability. 
 
 But, unphilosophical as such a course plainly is, it 
 springs directly from the spirit of the age. The hu- 
 man mind, in its constant oscillations between the 
 extremes of credulity and skepticism, is now ranging 
 somewhere on the side of skepticism. There was a 
 time, both before and after the revival of letters, when 
 a belief in frequent supernatural agency was common. 
 But when many things, supposed to be owing to su- 
 pernatural influence, were referred, by the light of 
 science, to natural causes, and a large class of super- 
 stitions was thus expelled, then men passed to the 
 other extreme, and it became weak and superstitious 
 to believe even in the possibility of any other causes 
 than those that were natural. It was the progress of 
 this feeling towards the utmost limits of skepticism, 
 that was called by many the progress of light in the 
 world, and it was taken advantage of, and urged on, 
 by skeptics, in every possible way. But a general 
 tendency of the human mind is never altogether decep- 
 
LECTURE II. 43 
 
 tive. It is the indication of some great trutli. This is 
 so with the tendency of man, admitted even by Hume, 
 to believe in supernatural agency. And when tlie re- 
 action is over, and men settle down in the light of a 
 large experience, it will be generally conceded, f doubt 
 not, that, while the general course of nature is uniform, 
 so as to lay a foundation for experience, and give it 
 value, there is also something in the system to meet 
 our tendency to believe in that which is supernatural ; 
 that there are powers, higher than those of nature, con- 
 nected with the natural and moral administration of 
 the universe, that may interfere for the welfare of man. 
 But, however this may be hereafter, it is not so 
 now. The legitimate force of the evidence for Chris- 
 tianity is constantly neutralized by assertions, purely 
 hypothetical, of the improbability of the facts. Now, 
 we admit of no such improbability. We hold that no 
 man has a right to construct a metaphysical balance 
 in which he shall place an hypothesis of his own as a 
 counterpoise for one particle of valid evidence. To do 
 it, is to go back into the dark ages. It is to apply, 
 in religion, maxims long since discarded in physics. 
 It is, therefore, out of a regard to the exigencies of the 
 time, and not because I think it essential to the Chris- 
 tian argument, that I proceed to adduce some considera- 
 tions to show the antecedent probability of a revelation 
 from God. 
 
 To judge of the probabihty of any event, we must 
 know something of its causes, or of the intentions of 
 the agent who may produce it. If we know nothing 
 of these, we have no right to say, of any event, that it 
 is probable or improbable. If we know all the causes 
 
44 LECTURE II. 
 
 that are at work, or all the intentions of the agents 
 employed, we can foretell with certahity what will 
 take place. It is obvious, therefore, that an event 
 which may seem highly probable to one man, or, per- 
 haps, nearly certain, may seem to another altogether 
 improbable. So sensible, however, are most persons 
 of their ignorance of the causes, and agents, and pur- 
 poses, that may exist in this complex and wonderful 
 universe, that it requires but a slight amount of 
 evidence to substantiate events of which we should 
 have said, beforehand, that the chances against them 
 were as a million to one. Especially is this the case 
 when the actions of a free agent are concerned, and 
 when we are but slightly acquainted with his character 
 and purposes. 
 
 But this is precisely the case before us. The ques- 
 tion is, whether it was probable, beforehand, that God 
 would give a revelation to man. Of this we can judge 
 only as we are acquainted with the character of God, 
 and the emergency requiring his special interposition. 
 That he could give such a revelation, and confirm it 
 by miracles, every theist must admit ; and the simple 
 question is whether, as a free Agent and a moral 
 Governor, (for I acknowledge no man as a theist who 
 does not admit these two characters of God,) he would 
 think it best to give a revelation. 
 
 I know it is said, by some, that this is ground on 
 which we ought not to tread. God, they say, is an 
 infinite Being, and the complexity of his plans, and 
 the range of his operations, must be so great that it 
 would be presumption in creatures like us, creatures of 
 a day, dwelling in this remote corner of the universe, 
 to judge what would, or would not, be probable under 
 
LECTURE II. 45 
 
 his government. Far better miglit the little child, 
 yet learning its alphabet, Judge of the probabilities 
 respecting the purposes and actions of the goveriniicnt 
 of these United States. 
 
 That this is sometimes said sincerely I am not dis- 
 posed to deny ; but there is often connected with it a 
 fallacy which is by no means harmless. Admit, then, 
 the justice of it all ; and what will follow ? An argu- 
 ment against the probability of a revelation ? Certainly 
 not. It will simply follow that we cannot tell whether 
 a revelation would be probable or improbable ; and 
 then a candid man will judge of the evidence for a 
 revelation just as he would of that for any other event. 
 And this is all we desire. Let no antecedent improb- 
 ability be assumed, and we are willing to go at once 
 to the evidence and the facts. 
 
 But is this the state of mind of those who speak of 
 man as thus ignorant ? Is it their object to produce 
 such a state of mind ? I think not, but rather to bring 
 doubt and uncertainty over the whole subject. It is 
 assumed that we are ignorant of the purposes of God, 
 and then, from that ignorance, the improbability of a 
 revelation is argued. But it seems to be forgotten 
 that we need previous knowledge, to judge of the im- 
 probability, no less than of the probability, of events ; 
 and while these persons shrink back with a pious hor- 
 ror from the presumption of judging what God might 
 or might not do, they covertly assume a knowledge of 
 his purposes, or at least of what he probably will not 
 do in a given case. We say, that whoever affirms it is 
 improbable that God would give a revelation, assumes, 
 in proportion to his confidence, a knowledge of the 
 previous plans and purposes of God ; and then we ask 
 
46 LECTURE II. 
 
 him where he obtamed that knowledge. God has not 
 told him so, for that would be a revelation. He cannot 
 know it from experience, for the case stands bj itself. 
 We have no experience of what God does with his 
 creatures, if such there are, similarly situated in other 
 worlds. The uniform course of nature can be no ob- 
 jection, for the very question at issue is, whether that 
 course shall be suspended. It is admitted that God 
 can do it with perfect ease ; and how can such a man 
 know that the exigencies of his moral government 
 may not require it ? 
 
 I am, however, far from assenting to what is thus 
 
 said of our ignorance on this subject. If we use the 
 
 term " beforehand " in the strictest and highest sense, 
 
 perhaps it w^ould be presumption in us to judge what 
 
 God would do. But, in all our arguments respecting 
 
 Christianity, we take for granted the great truths of 
 
 natural religion. We have some knowledge of God, 
 
 and of his providential dealings with the race ; and it 
 
 is not presumption in us to say whether it would be 
 
 in accordance with that character, so far as known, 
 
 and analogous with his dealings in other respects, if 
 
 he should give to man a revelation. This is the true 
 
 , question. Is there any thing in what we know posi- 
 
 [ tively of the character of God, in connection with the 
 
 [ condition of man, that would render it probable or im- 
 
 ! probable that he would give a revelation? 
 
 And why should he not ? I know not why it should 
 be considered so strange a thing; that God should 
 make a revelation to man. If I mistake not, it would 
 , have been much stranger if he had not. It may be 
 strange that he should have created the world at all, 
 or put such a being as man upon it ; but if we believe 
 
LECTURE II. 47 
 
 that God made him with a rational and a religious 
 nature — a child — capable of communion with him, 
 and of finding in him only the highest source of ha])pi- 
 ness and means of moral perfection, — then it would 
 be exceedingly strange if God should not reveal him- 
 self to him. Shall not a father speak to his own child ? 
 It is demonstrable, on the principles of reason, that^ 
 if man had continued in a state of innocence, the 
 highest progress, and expansion, and felicity of his 
 nature could not have been attained except by com- 
 munion with God. Man becomes assimilated to that 
 ivitli which he voluntarily holds communion. And 
 since God is the fountain of all excellence, why should 
 he not communicate himself to an innocent creature 
 whom he had made with faculties to know, and love, 
 and enjoy him ? In the original and highest sense of 
 the word, a state of nature is a state of direct intercoursej 
 with God. Accordingly, the Bible, instead of regard- 
 ing it, as infidels and, I must say, many divines do, as 
 a strange thins; that God should hold communion with 
 men, speaks of it as a matter of course ; and the tra- 
 ditions of all nations have connected with an age of 
 innocence the frequent intercourse of man with the 
 gods. There is nothing, either in the nature of the 
 case or in the instincts of humanity, to give rise to 
 that strangeness with which infidels have invested a 
 revelation from God ; but the reverse. It is strange 
 that man is at all. It is strange that God is. In one 
 sense, every thing is strange, and equally so. But sup-; 
 posing God to be, and to make such a creature as 
 man, it is not strange that he should make a revelation 
 to him. Indeed, to suppose God to make man a being 
 capable of religion, requiring it in order to the devel- 
 
48 LECTURE II. 
 
 opment of the highest part of his nature, and then 
 not to communicate with him, as a father, in those 
 revelations which alone could perfect that nature, 
 would be a reproach upon God, and a contradiction. 
 
 Nor, even in a state of innocence, would the reve- 
 lation of God in his works have been sufficient, since 
 in them he reveals chiefly his natural attributes, and 
 not that holiness and perfection of moral character 
 from which the great obligations, and interests, and 
 duties, and the high delights of his service, are derived. 
 Even now we sometimes find a man groping about 
 this rigid framework of general laws, and exclaiming, 
 " O that 1 knew where I might find him ! that I 
 might come even to his seat ! " and how much less 
 would man in a state of innocence have been sat- 
 isfied without direct communion with God ! The 
 highest and most natural conception of the universe 
 is that which makes God the Father of his rational 
 and spiritual creatures, which constitutes them a fam- 
 ily, and which implies communication between him 
 and them as personal beings, he making known his 
 will and character, and they obeying and adoring 
 him. 
 
 If, indeed, an innocent being should sin, we could 
 not say beforehand what w^ould be done. We should 
 naturally expect that justice would have its course. 
 But, looking at the race as it is, evidently favored by 
 God to some extent, visited by his rain and sunshine 
 and by fruitful seasons, we should have as much 
 reason to think, from the nature and position of man, 
 that there would be such a thing as true religion on 
 the earth, as that there would be such a thing as true 
 science upon the earth. For that man has a moral 
 
LECTURE II. 49 
 
 and a reliirious nature is as evident as that lie has an 
 intellectual nature. Wherever he is found he makes 
 the distinction between right and wrong, and worships 
 some superior being. If there have been a few who 
 have professed themselves atheists, and we were to 
 give them that credit for entire sincerity, which many 
 facts would lead us to withhold, this would no more 
 prove that man has not a religious nature, than the 
 iact that a tew men have overcome tlie social instinct, 
 and withdrawn from society, proves that he has not a 
 social nature. 
 
 Nor are these principles, which thus lead man to 
 anticipate future retribution, and to recognize superior 
 powers, merely secondary, or subordinate to others. 
 They are peculiarly those by which man is distin- 
 guished from the brute. They are those, as shown by 
 all history, in connection with the cultivation and full 
 development of which all the other powers of man 
 reach their highest perfection, in connection with the 
 perversion and debasement of which all the other 
 powers are ill regulated and dwarfed. So effec- 
 tive, indeed, has the influence of these powers been 
 felt to be, that all former governments have sought 
 their aid, and have endeavored to associate the power 
 of religion with that of the temporal arm. It has 
 been from these principles, rather than from any 
 others, that motives to high resolve, and long endur- 
 ance, and voluntary poverty, and a martyr's sufferings, 
 have been drawn. Remove from the history of the 
 past all those actions which have either sprung directly 
 from the religious nature of man, or been modified by 
 it, and you have the history of another world and 
 of another race. 
 
 7 
 
50 LECTURE II. 
 
 I know the manifestations of this principle have 
 been exceedingly various, and sometimes as whimsical 
 and debasing as can well be conceived. There is no 
 absurdity which men have not received, no austerity 
 which they have not practised, no earthly good, and 
 no natural affection, which they have not sacrificed, in 
 the name of religion ; and the very variety and ab- 
 surdity of religious rites, with the sincerity of men in 
 them all, has been made, and still is, a capital argu- 
 ment of infidels to show that there is nothing in any 
 religion. But it has been well replied, that " the more 
 strange the contradictions, and the more ludicrous the 
 ceremonies, to which the pride of human reason has 
 been reconciled, the stronger is our evidence that 
 religion has a foundation in the nature of man."* 
 Indeed, no fact can be better established, both by 
 philosophy and by history, than that mankind are so 
 constituted that they must have some religion. Man 
 has a religious nature, which is a fundamental and 
 elementary constituent of his being. This nature will 
 manifest itself. Let the true religion be removed, and 
 a false one will come in its place. This is a truth, the 
 clear perception of which by the public mind I deem 
 of great importance ; for if society is to make progress, 
 it must be by cultivating the faculties that belong to 
 human nature, and not by attempting to eradicate 
 them ; and hence all indiscriminate attacks upon re- 
 ligion, as such, must retard that progress. 
 
 Man, then, has a religious nature ; and what purpose 
 could a wise and good Being have, in sustaining the 
 race, which would not involve the right exercise of this 
 
 * Stewart. 
 
LECTURE II. 51 
 
 nature, in view of its ai)pio])riate objects ? And to 
 suppose tliat God has furnished man with no such 
 object to draw that nature out, is like supposing that 
 ne would create the eye without \i^A\t or the ear 
 without sound, or that he would place man, as an 
 intellectual being, in a world of such disorder that 
 no arrangement or classification, and consequently 
 no science, would be possible. The whole analogy 
 of God's works, and of his dealings with men, shows 
 that, if man has a religious nature, we might expect 
 to find the right exercise of that nature possible, 
 and that there would be such a thing as true religion 
 in the world. 
 
 But if a rational being, capable of religion, had lost 
 the moral image, and consequently the true knowledge 
 of God, and it should be the object of God to restore 
 him, it could be done in no other way than by a direct 
 revelation. This is obvious from two reasons. First, 
 there would be some things which it would be indis- 
 pensable for such a being to know, and which he could 
 not know except by a direct communication. They 
 are of such a kind that nature can have no voice, no 
 utterance, no ichisper, respecting them. Such would be 
 an answ^er to the inquiry, whether God would pardon 
 sin at all, and, if so, upon what conditions. And^ 
 secondly, it is not possible that a sinful being should 
 be restored to God, to purity and love, except by some 
 manifestation to him of the pjirity and love of God such 
 as nature does not give. So far as we can see, there 
 must be brought into operation that great principle of 
 moral assimilation mentioned by the apostle when he 
 says, "We all, beholding, as in a glass, the glory 
 of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from 
 
52 LECTURE II. 
 
 glory to glory." If, then, it was probable that God 
 would do any thing to restore a race of transgress- 
 ors to himself, it was in the same degree probable, 
 that he would give a revelation different from any tliat \ 
 nature can possibly give. So far as we can see, it J 
 would be impossible for him to do it in any other way. 
 And what we might thus infer, from the nature of 
 the case, is amply confirmed by an appeal to facts. 
 An impartial survey of the condition of those ]iortions 
 of the earth that have been without the light of revela- 
 tion shows conclusively that the reformation of man 
 was hopeless without it. A full and fair experiment 
 has been made. It has extended through thousands 
 of years, and ample time has been given to test every 
 principle, to follow out every tendency to its results, to 
 call forth every inherent energy of man. It has been 
 made in every climate, under every form of govern- 
 ment, in all circumstances of barbarism and refinement, 
 bv individuals who, for intellectual endowments, have 
 been the pride of the race, and by nations who have 
 made the greatest advancement in literature, in sci- 
 ence, and in the arts. What unassisted man has done, 
 therefore, to disperse the religious darkness, and to 
 remedy the moral maladies of the world, may be re- 
 garded as a fair exemplification of what he would do. 
 To show that the race has been, and would continue 
 to be, hopelessly benighted and degraded without a 
 revelation, has been the chief object of those who have 
 attempted to show its probability. This they have 
 done with much erudition and research, and this 
 ground is so familiar that I shall not go over it at 
 large, but content myself with a brief statement of 
 some of the more important points. 
 
LECTURE II. 53 
 
 And, first, the great doctrine of the divine unity 
 has been practically lost without a revelation. Every 
 where the mass of men have been worshippers of nat- 
 ural objects, or of the powers of nature personified, or 
 of idols, or of deified men; and if a few philosophers 
 have seen the folly of this, and really held to the di- 
 vine unity, it was rather to ridicule and despise, than 
 to benefit, the multitude. It does not appear, how- 
 ever, that they held to the doctrine except as a matter 
 of speculation, or that they had any habit of worshij)- 
 ping the one infinite God, or taught that he ought to 
 be worshipped. What must have been the practical 
 blindness and uncertainty, on this cardinal point, of 
 that philosopher who, among his last requests, could 
 ask a friend not to forget to sacrifice a cock for him to 
 Esculapius ? And yet this did Socrates. What must 
 have been the state of the public mind among the 
 most enlightened people on earth, and in the Augus- 
 tan age, who could erect a statue to a woman, infa- 
 mous for her profligacy, with the following inscription, 
 makino- her no less a deity than Providence itself? 
 " The Senate of the Areopagus, and tlie Senate of 
 the Five Hundred, to the goddess Julia Augusta Provi- 
 dence ! " 
 
 I remark, secondly, that the heathen nations havA 
 been entirely destitute of the knowledge of God as a\ 
 holy God, as having a perfect moral character, and as 
 exercising a moral government, the principles of which 
 reach the thoughts of the heart. Whether there were 
 data for the knowledge of this in nature, perhaps we 
 need not decide ; but, without this knowledge of God, 
 it is evident there can be no pure and spiritual religion. 
 Generally, the moral character of God has been con- 
 
54 LECTURE II. 
 
 ceived of by transferring to him the moral cliaracter, \ 
 the affections, the passions, and even the lusts, of men. 
 No religion based on such a conception of the object 
 of worship can benefit man. He must become de- 
 based under its influence. 
 
 " Unless above himself he can 
 Erect himself, how mean a thing is man ! " 
 
 But, thirdly, this ignorance of the moral character of 
 God has led, as it naturally must, to the introduction 
 of forms of worship that cannot be acceptable to him, 
 and to that separation of religion from morality which 
 has been so universal, and, in most instances, so entire, 
 among heathen nations. What Bishop Heber said of 
 the Hindoos may, with some modifications, be said of 
 all heathen nations : " The good qualities that are 
 among them are in no instance, that I am aware of, 
 connected with, or arising out of, their religion, since 
 it is in no instance to good deeds, or virtuous habits of 
 life, that the future rewards in which they believe are 
 proposed. Accordingly," he says, " I really have never 
 met with a race of men whose standard of morality is 
 so low — who feel so little apparent shame in being 
 detected in a falsehood, or so little interest in the suf- 
 ferings of a neighbor not being of their own caste or 
 family, — whose ordinary and familiar conversation is 
 so licentious, or, in the wilder and more lawless dis- 
 tricts, who shed blood with so little reiDugnance." 
 The tendency to this separation of religion and morals 
 is strong every where, and nothing can be more de- 
 structive both of true religion and of morality, or more 
 fatal to every interest of man. Let men think to please 
 God by gifts, by forms, by bodily sufferings, without 
 regard to justice, and benevolence, and purity, and all 
 
LECTURE II. 55 
 
 the foundations of individual happiness and social 
 order must be out of course. And how much more 
 must this be the case, when the character of the object 
 worshipped is such as to excite and to encourage every 
 form of iniquity, and when, as is often the case, 
 unnatural cruelty, and drunkenness, and obseenit}^, in- 
 stead of being forbidden, become a part of the religious 
 rites ! " When the light that is in men becomes dark- 
 ness, how great is that darkness ! " This is a point 
 of the greatest moment, since no false religion ever 
 did, or ever can, teach, and adequately sanction, any 
 thing like a perfect system of morality, and since mo- 
 rality, unsustained by religion, can never furnish an 
 adequate basis of either individual or general progress. 
 
 I remark, fourthly, that, without revelation, men have\ 
 had very obscure and doubtful notions respecting the 
 immortality of the soul, and, so far as this fundamental 
 doctrine has been received, it has been made use of 
 rather to control men in their conduct here, than to fit 
 them for another state. A great part of the philoso- 
 phers regarded ""this belief as a vulgar prejudice, and 
 those who received it held it as doubtful. Even Cicero, 
 who had carefully studied the arguments of Socrates, 
 and added others of his own, says, ^' Which of these is 
 true God alone knows, and which is most probable a 
 very great question." And very many, too, who held 
 the doctrine, held it in such connection as to destroy 
 its practical influence for good. Some held it in con- 
 nection with the doctrine of fate or necessity ; some, 
 as Plato, in connection with the doctrine of the trans- 
 migration of souls ; and some, like the present Hindoos 
 just noticed, severed all connection between the moral 
 character here and the state of the soul hereafter. As 
 
56 LECTURE II. 
 
 a practical doctrine, therefore, "life and immortality 
 were brought to light by the gospel." This alone has 
 revealed it, with such authority and certainty, and in 
 such connections, as to give it all its efficiency as a 
 motive of action. Nothing can be more beautiful or 
 philosophical than the manner in which Christianity 
 extends the same moral laws and fundamental con- 
 ditions of happiness over the present and the future 
 life, so that the life of heaven is made to be nothing 
 but the brightening and expansion of the life that is 
 commenced here. In this respect, the coming in of 
 Christianity was like the coming in of the Newtonian 
 system ; for as that shows, contrary to the doctrine of 
 the ancients, that the same laws apply to things earth- 
 ly and to things heavenly, to the floating particle of 
 dust and to the planet in its orbit, so Christianity in- 
 troduces unity and simplicity into the moral system, 
 and shows that the humblest child, that is a moral 
 agent, and the highest archangel, are subject to the 
 same moral law. 
 
 In these four points, — the unity of God, his moral 
 character, the kind of worship that would be accepta- 
 ble to him, and the immortality of the soul, — it may be 
 thought that the materials of knowledge were within 
 the reach of man. But if this is true for any, it is not 
 for the mass of men. The elements of the highest 
 mathematical truths are within the reach of all, and 
 those truths may be said to be discoverable ; but we 
 have no reason to think they ever would or could have 
 been discovered by the great mass of men. 
 
 But there is, as already suggested, another class of 
 truths, some of them fundamental and indispensable to 
 be known, which, are not, and could not, be suggested 
 
LECTURE II. 57 
 
 by nature. Such, particuhuiy, first, is the truth that 
 God can pardon sin on any terms. If there is any one 
 fundamental doctrine of natural religion, it is, that God 
 is just. This was so strongly felt by Socrates that he 
 doubted whetiier God could pardon sin. To a sinner, 
 as man is, it was indispensable that this fact should be 
 known before any rational system of religion could be 
 framed, and, though some things in nature might lead 
 to the hope that a remedy would be found for moral 
 evil, as for so many others, yet these are too obscure 
 to produce any practical results, and there seems 
 every reason to believe that the general conviction 
 that has prevailed on this subject has originated in 
 revelation. 
 
 But, secondly, if we were assured that God would 
 pardon sin, it would be impossible for us to know on 
 what conditions. Nothing can be more contrary to the 
 history of all the past, than what is asserted by some 
 modern deists, especially by Lord Herbert, that it is a 
 dictate of natural reason that God will pardon sin on 
 repentance. If it had been asserted that it is a dictate 
 of natural reason that penance, and costly sacrifices, 
 and self-torture, were the conditions of pardon, there 
 would have been much in history to support it. But 
 the deist may be challenged to show any heathen 
 creed in which this was an article, or to bring forward 
 any devotee of any other religion than the Christian, 
 who holds to that doctrine now^ Having the light of 
 the Bible, we see distinctly that God cannot properly 
 pardon the guilty without repentance as a condition, 
 meaning by re))entance a thorough reformation, not 
 only of the life, but of the principles of conduct, — of 
 the motives and secret feelings of the heart. But 
 
58 LECTURE II. 
 
 who ever heard of such a repentance as this, as an ar- 
 ticle m the creed of oilier religions ? And who, I may 
 ask, ever heard of a deist as exercising such a repent- 
 ance and continuing a deist ? Instances are adduced, 
 under other systems, of great natural goodness, in 
 which it is supposed that no repentance was needed ; 
 but I know of none in which it has been supposed 
 that a really vicious and abandoned man has repented 
 in the high and only true sense of that term, except in 
 connection with the motives of the gospel. Repent- 
 ance, even as a condition of pardon, is peculiar to the 
 gospel system ; and as an historical fact, it is produced 
 only by gospel motives. The truth is, deists have 
 borrowed this partial truth from the Bible, and then 
 used it to show that we do not need the very book 
 from which they borrowed it. The question of the 
 method or possibility of pardon, b}' a perfectly just 
 God, involves the highest problem of moral govern- 
 ment ; and there is no analogy of the operation of 
 human laws, and certainlv nothino; which we see of 
 the inflexibility and severity with which the natural 
 laws of God are administered, which could lead us to 
 believe in the efficacy of repentance alone for the par- 
 don of moral transgressions. 
 
 And, thirdly, if man should endeavor to reclaim him- 
 self from the dominion of vice, he cannot know whether 
 God will regard him with favor, and will assist him, or 
 whether he shall be left to struggle with the current 
 by his own unassisted efforts. Grace, favor, the great 
 doctrine of divine aid to the sinful and the tempted, 
 so sustaining to the weakness, and so consohng to the 
 wretchedness, of man, coming directly from God as a 
 personal Being, it was impossible that nature should 
 
LECTURE J I. 59 
 
 give any intimcatioa of it. It is God's own Iiand 
 stretched out to guide and sustain his benighted and 
 feeble creatures. 
 
 Again, without revehition man could know nothing 
 of the origin or end of the present state of things. 
 Nearly all the ancient philosophers believed that mat- 
 ter was eternal ; but of its forms, as indicating intelli- 
 gence, and of the races of animals and of man, they 
 could give no satisfactory account. And it is obvious, 
 that a course of nature established, if it is ever to ter- 
 minate, can, of itself, give no indication of that ter- 
 mination, either in respect to time or mode. Such 
 knowledge would be highly satisfactory to man, and 
 w^ould alone enable him to direct his course in accord- 
 ance with the purposes of God. 
 
 Now, when we consider the passions of men, the 
 collisions of interest, the obtrusiveness of the objects of 
 sense, the pressure of animal wants, the vices of so- 
 ciety, and the shortness of life, who can believe, with 
 this obscurity hanging over some points, and this 
 total darkness resting upon others, that one in a mil- 
 lion would sit down calmly to solve these great ques- 
 tions respecting God and his government, and human 
 destiny ? Who can believe that any speculative and 
 problematical solution of one or all of them could in- 
 troduce a religion that would effectually control the 
 passions, and predominate over the senses, of men ? 
 No; it is exceedingly clear that, if any thing was to 
 be done to enlighten man, it must be by a voice from 
 heaven — a voice that should speak with " authority, 
 and not as the scribes." 
 
 Andif mankind were thus benighted w^ithout revela- 
 tion, it will follow, of course, that they wxre degraded. 
 
60 LECTURE II. 
 
 Moral darkness, voluntarily incurred, necessarily in- 
 volves practical wickedness. Without an authoritative 
 standard of morals, like the law of God, Avithout a 
 general system of moral instruction, without the mo- 
 tives drawn from the moral government of God and a 
 future retribution, with a religion whose doctrines and 
 rites were often at war with the dictates of the moral 
 nature, we cannot wonder at the tendency to deterio- 
 ration that was every where manifest, nor at the 
 general prevalence of falsehood, and cruelty, and 
 nameless licentiousness. If some public and social 
 virtues were cultivated, it was chiefly during certain 
 periods of the rise of states, in the earlier and less 
 corrupt stages of society, and never in connection with 
 the worship of a spiritual and holy God, or with the 
 cultivation of purity of heart and of life. Philosophy 
 enabled its votaries rather to see and discourse about 
 difficulties than to remove them. It did not even re- 
 form the lives of the philosophers themselves, and made 
 no attempts either to instruct or reform the mass of 
 the people. Quintilian says of the philosophers of his 
 time, " The most notorious vices are screened under 
 that name ; and they do not labor to maintain the 
 character of philosophers by virtue and study, but con- 
 ceal the most vicious lives under an austere look and 
 a singularity of dress." And when this could be said 
 of the philosophers, we might believe, of the mass of 
 the people, on less authority than that of inspiration, 
 that they were " filled with all unrighteousness, forni- 
 cation, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full 
 of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, 
 backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, 
 inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without 
 
LECTURE II. 61 
 
 understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural af- 
 fection, implacable, unmerciful."* 
 
 Here, then, we have a case, the most melancholy 
 of which we can conceive, in which the noblest facul- 
 ties of a creature of God, those through which his 
 highest perfection and happiness should be attained, 
 have become the means of sinking him into the lowest 
 forms of immorality, and of filthy, and cruel, and 
 costly, and hideous superstition. The true God, the 
 only object corresponding to the religious nature of 
 man, being withdrawn, the facuhics of man are not 
 annihilated; he cannot throw off his nature; he must 
 have some religion ; and superstition, and enthusiasm, 
 and fanaticism come in, and every form of iniquity is 
 perpetrated in the name of God, and the religious 
 nature is used as an engine to crush human liberty 
 and rivet the bonds of oppression. There is nothing 
 that can adequately represent this dreadful mental and 
 moral perversion but those forms of bodily disease in 
 which the processes of life, that ought to build up a 
 beautiful and perfect body, go on only to stimulate the 
 activity of the fatal leprosy, only to minister to de- 
 formity, and make it more hideous. Here, then, the 
 question is brought to an issue. In such a state of 
 things, when it is obvious that nothing but a voice from 
 heaven can bring deliverance, will that voice be 
 uttered ? Surely, if a case can occur in which, from 
 the benevolence of God, we might hope for a special 
 interposition, this is that case. On the question of 
 such an interposition hung the destiny of the race ; 
 and to one who could bring his mind to the high con- 
 
 * Rom. i. 29—31. 
 
62 LECTURE II. 
 
 ception of the possibility of mercy in God, it could not 
 appear improbable that that interposition would be 
 vouchsafed. 
 
 From what has been said, it appears that, if we 
 regard man as in a state of innocence, we should nat- 
 urally expect God would hold communications with 
 him ; that, if we regard him as guilty, and having lost 
 the knowledge and moral image of God, such a com- 
 munication would be absolutely necessary, if man was 
 to be restored. We have, therefore, the same ante- 
 cedent probability of a revelation as we have that God 
 would interpose at all in behalf of the guilty, or that 
 there would be any true religion upon earth. This 
 probability, moreover, is strengthened by the general 
 expectation of the race, shown by the readiness with 
 which they have received accounts of supposed revela- 
 tions, and by the natural tendency of man to crave aid 
 directly from God. 
 
 But, whatever probability there was that there would 
 be a revelation, the same was there that there would 
 be miracles ; because miracles, so far as we can see, 
 are the only means by which it would be possible for 
 God to authenticate a communication to man. It is 
 true, he might make a special revelation to each indi- 
 vidual, and certify him that it was a revelation, but that 
 would not be analogous to his mode of proceeding in 
 other things ; and if his purpose was to make known 
 his will to certain individuals, to be by them communi- 
 cated to the rest of the race, it would seem impossible 
 that they should exhibit any other seal of their com- 
 mission than miracles. This is the simple, natural, 
 majestic seal which we should expect God would affix 
 to a communication from himself; and when this seal 
 
LECTURE II. 63 
 
 is presented by men whose lives and works correspond 
 with what we niight expect from messengers of God, 
 it is felt to be decisive. 
 
 But though miracles are thus just as probable as 
 a revelation, even though we should not choose to 
 say that revelation itself is a miracle, and though the 
 chief object of them is to give authority to a reve- 
 lation, yet, as the chief objections against revelation 
 are made against it as miraculous, I wish to adduce 
 here an additional consideration or two to show the 
 probability that miracles would occur in a system 
 like ours. 
 
 The first consideration will be found in the effect 
 miracles would have in producing a conviction of the 
 being of a personal God. This is of the utmost im- 
 portance. Let us suppose there had been no miracle, 
 nor any supposition of one, as far back as history 
 goes ; that the uniform course of nature had moved 
 on without any supposed intervention of a superior 
 personal Power ; that, in the language of the scoffer, 
 all things had continued as they were from the begin- 
 ning of the creation ; that no flood had swept the 
 earth, and no law had been given in the midst of 
 thunderings and earthquakes, and no messenger from 
 above, whose form was "like the Son of God," had 
 walked with good men in the fire, and no other in- 
 dications of a righteous administration and of future 
 retribution had appeared than are connected with 
 those unswerving laws that bring all things alike to 
 all, — and who can estimate the tendency to practical, 
 if not to speculative atheism, of such a state of things ? 
 It may even be questioned whether the common argu- 
 ment from contrivance, for the being of a personal God, 
 
64 LECTURE II. 
 
 when that stands alone, and is connected with such a 
 uniform course of things, would be valid. If this rigid 
 order could once be infringed for a good and manifest 
 reason, it would obviously change the whole face of 
 the argument. Could we once see gravitation sus- 
 pended when the good man is thrown by his persecu- 
 tors from the top of the rock, — could we see a char- 
 iot and horses of fire descend and deliver the righteous 
 from the universal law of death, — could ^we see the 
 sun stand still in heaven that the wicked might be 
 overthrown, — then should we be assured of the exist- 
 ence of a personal Power, with a distinct will, whose 
 agents and ministers these laws were. Such attesta- 
 tions of his being we might expect God would give, 
 not merely to confirm a particular revelation, but with 
 reference to this feeling of indefiniteness, of generality, 
 of a want of personality in the supreme Power, which 
 the operation of general laws, necessarily confounding 
 all moral distinctions, has a tendency to produce. 
 
 The second collateral effect of miracles which 1 
 would adduce is, that they show that the laws of na- 
 ture are subordinate to the higher laws of God's moral 
 kingdom, and are controlled and suspended with ref- 
 erence to that. This supposes, of course, that the 
 miracles are neither capricious nor frivolous, but arc 
 so wrought as to show this truth. The man, who has 
 not yet seen that the moral government of God is that 
 with reference to which the universe is constructed 
 and sustained, is as far from the true system of God's 
 administration as he would be from the true system of 
 astronomy who should place the earth in the centre. 
 This sentiment is involved in those extraordinary 
 words of Christ, " It is easier for heaven and earth to 
 
LECTURE II. 65 
 
 pass, than one tittle of the hiw to fail," and might, 
 indeed, be inferred from the nature of the case. What 
 man of honor regards property at all, when his moral 
 character is concerned ? What wise man does not 
 sacrifice property for the true good of rational and in- 
 telligent beings ? So, if God has a moral character, 
 and a moral government, then what we call nature 
 and its laws, must hold the same relation to him that 
 property does to the moral character of man. The 
 power and wisdom of God may be seen in nature ; but 
 his justice, and truth, and mercy, in which his highest 
 glory consists, can be seen only in his dealings with 
 his moral creatures. If a law of nature were de- 
 stroyed, it could be reestablished ; if a system of suns 
 and planets were annihilated, another might be pro- 
 duced in its room ; if heaven and earth were to pass 
 away, they might be created again ; but if the bright- 
 ness of the moral character of God should be tarnished, 
 that character would be lost forever. This distinction 
 between mere nature and moral government is funda- 
 mental ; and nothing could have a greater tendency 
 to wake men up to a perception of it than to see 
 God, as he moves on to the accomplishment of his 
 moral purposes, setting aside those laws of nature 
 which we had supposed were established like the 
 everlastins: hills — than to see the whole of visible na- 
 ture, with all its laws, standing ready to pay its obei- 
 sance to the true ambassadors of his moral kingdom. 
 How else could God express to us the true relations 
 to each other of his natural and moral government ? 
 If, then, miracles were necessary to give authority 
 to revelation, to give a practical impression of the ex- 
 istence of a personal God, and to indicate the true 
 
66 LECTURE II. 
 
 position of his moral government, who will say, on the 
 supposition that he has a moral government, that they 
 are improbable ? 
 
 There has, indeed, been a question raised, — and it 
 is one of so much importance that it may be well to 
 notice it here, — how far we are bound to receive any 
 doctrine or command that may be confirmed by a 
 miracle. But this depends on the further question, 
 whether a miracle can be wrought by any being but 
 God. If God, and God only, can work a miracle, 
 then we are bound, both by reason and conscience, to 
 believe and to do every thing taught or commanded 
 with that sanction. When God told Abraham to sac- 
 rifice his son Isaac, he was to do it though it might 
 seem to contradict the dictates of natural affectior, 
 and what, without the command, would have been 
 the dictates of conscience, and to be in direct opposi- 
 tion to the promises of God himself; and in doing it 
 he honored God, and acted in accordance with the 
 dictates of natural religion, and of the reason that God 
 had given him. Not to believe and obey the direct 
 word of God, whatever impressions and feelings it 
 may oppose, or whatever contradictions it may seem 
 to involve, w^ould lead at once to absurdity and con- 
 tradiction. It would involve the charge of falsehood 
 and tyranny against God. But the moment you 
 charge God with falsehood, there is an end to all 
 ground of fluth in any tiling. If I cannot believe God, 
 I cannot believe the faculties that come from God. 
 By charging Him wiio gave me my moral nature with 
 being false, I involve the probability that all the no- 
 tices and indications of that nature are false, and all 
 its distinctions baseless. Nothing could then save me 
 from universal skepticism. Certainly natural religion, 
 
 f 
 
LECTURE II. 67 
 
 and reason itself, if it ^^ould not lose from under it the 
 very ground on which it stands, \vould lead me to this. 
 When God speaks, it is sufficient. His reason is the 
 infinite reason, his authority is absolute authority, and 
 nothing more dreadful, or more opposed to our most 
 intimate convictions, could possibly occur than would 
 be involved in disbelieving and disobeying him. Nor 
 can I doubt that it is in the power of God so to au- 
 thenticate his word to the soul of man as thus to set 
 it in opposition to the utterances and promptings of 
 every natural faculty ; nor that it is only, as in the 
 case of Abraham, when such an opposition occurs, that 
 the most implicit confidence in God, and the highest 
 grandeur of faith, can be seen. 
 
 If, then, we suppose that God only can perform a 
 miracle, its authority will be absolute. But may there 
 not be a suspension or a reversal of the laws of nature 
 caused by other beings than God ? May not some 
 malignant agent do that which, if it is not, must ap- 
 pear to us to be a real miracle ? This is a question 
 which I cannot answer. It may be so. I know not 
 what intermediate powers and agencies there may be 
 between the infinite God and man. I know not but 
 there may be created beings of such might that one of 
 them might seize upon the earth, and hurl it from its 
 orbit, or control its elements ; nor do I know what 
 range God may give to the agency of such, or of any 
 other intermediate beings. I do not myself believe 
 that any being but God can work a real miracle. 
 Miracles are his great seal. This may be counter- 
 feited ; but if he should suffer it to be stolen, I see no 
 possible way in which he could authenticate a com- 
 munication to his creatures. A real miracle is to be 
 
68 LECTURE II. 
 
 distinguished from those feats and appearances which 
 may be produced by sleight of hand, and by collusion 
 when once a religion is established ; and also from 
 any effects of merely natural agents, however occult, 
 under the control of science, but working according 
 to their own laws. These, especially if science and 
 deception are combined, and in an age of popular 
 ignorance, may go very far ; probably far enough to 
 account for every thing in the Bible, seemingly mirac- 
 ulous, which we should not be willing to attribute to 
 God. They may account for appearances and coin- 
 cidences which, to the ignorant, must have seemed 
 like miracles, and for extraordinary cures of a certain 
 class, while the principle of life remained ; but they 
 cannot account for a reversal of a law of nature, as 
 when an axe is made to swim, or the shadow to go 
 back on the dial ; nor for an operation where the pow- 
 ers of nature have nothing to work upon, as when one 
 really dead is raised to life. However, something like 
 that of which I have spoken above is implied in the 
 Bible, and provision is made for the state of mind 
 which it must induce. This speaks of " signs and 
 lying wonders." It was said to the Israehtes of old, 
 " If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of 
 dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the 
 sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake 
 unto thee, saying. Let us go after other gods, which 
 thou hast not known, and let us serve them ; thou 
 shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or 
 that dreamer of dreams ; for the Lord your God 
 proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your 
 God with all your heart and with all your soul." 
 
 I would say, then, that an apparent miracle, per- 
 
LECTURE II. G9 
 
 formed by a creature of God, would not authorize me 
 to receive what seemed to me to be contradictory to 
 my natural faculties ; and the voice of God himself 
 would lay me under obligation to do this simply be- 
 cause the highest reason demands faith in him as the 
 only ground of faith in any thing else. It is, indeed, 
 a contradiction to say that a man can believe what he 
 knows to be absurdity, or can be under obligation to 
 do what is wrong ; and, in general, I would say that 
 no man is under obligation to believe what it is not 
 more reasonable for him to believe than to disbelieve ; 
 but it may be reasonable to believe, on the authority of 
 God, that that is not an absurdity which might other- 
 wise seem to be so, and that the command of God 
 would make certain actions right for us, which would 
 otherwise not be so. If God should wish to make 
 a communication to an individual that would seem in 
 opposition to the dictates of his natural faculties, we 
 might expect that he would,- as in the case of Abra- 
 ham, speak himself, and cause it to be known that the 
 voice was certainly his ; but when a creature of God 
 appears as his messenger, then his character and the 
 object of his mission must correspond with what we 
 have a right to expect of a messenger from God ; and 
 no prodigy, no apparent miracle, ought to be received 
 as a sufficient sanction for that which, without such 
 sanction, would appear to be either absurd or vicious. 
 
 But, however we may decide this question on the sup- 
 position of a conflict between the message confirmed 
 by a miracle, and the intellectual, or the moral nature 
 of man, there is no practical difficulty on this point, 
 when we speak of the Christian miracles. These are 
 all worthy of God. They were wrought by men of 
 
70 LECTURE II. 
 
 pure and benevolent lives, and for the avowed purpose 
 of confirming a message of the highest importance to 
 man, and in entire conformity to his nature. And 
 such miracles, wrought by such men, are, as I have 
 said, the seal which we should naturally expect God 
 would affix to their message. They are an adequate 
 seal, and every fair-minded man responds to the senti- 
 ment uttered by Nicodemus, " No man can do these 
 miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." 
 
 I will simply say, in closing this lecture, that what- 
 ever probability there is that God has given a revela- 
 tion at all, there is the same that Christianity is that 
 revelation. We have now come to that point in the 
 history of the world, in which the question among all 
 well-informed men must be between the truth of 
 Christianity and no religion. No man, surely, would 
 advocate any form of idolatry or of polytheism, and 
 there remain only the religion of Mohammed, and 
 Deism, to be compared with Christianity. But I need 
 not spend time in comparing, or rather contrasting, the 
 religion of Mohammed, unsustained by miracles or by 
 prophecies, propagated by the sword, encouraging 
 fatalism, and pride, and intolerance, sanctioning polyg- 
 amy, offering a sensual heaven, — a religion whose 
 force is already spent, which has no sympathy or 
 congruity with the enlarged views and onward move- 
 ments of these days, and which is fast passing into a 
 hopeless imbecility, — with the pure, and humble, and 
 beneficent religion of Christ, heralded by prophecy, 
 sealed by miracles, and now, after eighteen hundred 
 years, going forth, with all its pristine vigor, to bless 
 the nations. 
 
LECTURE II. 71 
 
 Of Deism it may b(3 doubted whether it shoukl be 
 calh'd a religion. It has never had a priesthood, nor a 
 creed, nor any book professing to contain tlie truths it 
 teaches, nor a temple, nor, with the exception of a 
 short period during the French revolution, an assembly 
 for worship. If we mean, then, by religion, any such 
 acknowledgment of God as recognizes our social 
 nature, and binds mankind in one brotherhood of 
 equality, while it presents them together before the 
 throne of a common Father, Deism is not a religion. 
 Those who profess to teach it have no agreement in 
 their doctrines, and the doctrines themselves are, sev- 
 eral of them, borrowed from Christianity, and then 
 inculcated as the teachings of reason. 
 
 No ; there is nothing on the face of the earth that 
 can, for a moment, bear a comparison with Chris- 
 tianity as a religion for man. Upon this the hope 
 of the race hangs. From the very first, it took its 
 position, as the pillar of fire, to lead the race onward. 
 The patriarchal, and Jewish, and Christian dispen- 
 sations, all finding their identity in the true import 
 of sacrifices, and in the inculcation of righteousness, 
 have been one religion. The intelligence and power 
 of the race are with those who have embraced it; 
 and now, if this, instead of proving indeed a pillar of 
 fire from God, should be found but a delusive meteor, 
 then nothing will be left to the race but to go back to 
 a darkness that may be felt, and to a worse than 
 Egyptian bondage. 
 
LECTUEE III. 
 
 INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. — VAGUENESS OF THE 
 DIVISION BETWEEN THEM. — REASONS FOR CONSIDERING 
 THE INTERNAL EVIDENCES FIRST. — THE ARGUMENT FROM 
 ANALOGY. 
 
 In mj first lecture, I attempted to show that, if God 
 has given a revelation, we may certainly know it ; 
 and in the second, that there is no such antecedent 
 improbability against a revelation, as to justify us in 
 requiring proof different from that which we require 
 for other events. There are laws of evidence accord- 
 ing to which we judge in other cases, and I only ask 
 that these same laws may be applied here. 
 
 If these points are established, we are ready to in- 
 quire whether God has in fact given a revelation. 
 
 On coming into life, we find Christianity existing, 
 and claiming to be such a revelation. We wish to 
 satisfy ourselves of the validity of that claim. How 
 shall we proceed ? The evidence by which its claims 
 are sustained is commonly divided into two kinds, the 
 external and the internal. This division is simple, and 
 of long standing ; but by it heads of evidence are 
 classed together, having so little affinity for each other, 
 and, in regard to some of them, it is so difficult to see 
 on what principle they are classed under one rather 
 
LECTURE III. 73 
 
 than the other, that its utihty may be doubted. Thus 
 the evidence from testimony, from prophecy, from the 
 mode in which the gospel was propagated, and from 
 its effects, — topics resembling each other scarcely at 
 all, — are classed under the head of the external evi- 
 dences ; while the various marks of honesty found in 
 the New Testament, the agreement of the parts with 
 each other, its peculiar doctrines, its pure morality, its 
 representation of the character of Christ, its analogy 
 to nature, its adaptation to the situation and wants 
 of man, — topics still more diverse, — are classed un- 
 der its internal evidences. 
 
 I notice the vagueness of this arrangement, because 
 these two classes of evidence have often been opposed 
 to each other, and the superiority of one over the other 
 contended for ; and because great and good men, as 
 Chalmers formerly, have in some instances regarded 
 it as presumptuous to study the internal evidences at 
 all, as if it would be a sitting in judgment beforehand 
 on the kind of revelation God ought to give ; and 
 others, as Wilson, have thought it arrogance to study 
 the internal evidences first, as if the capacity to judge 
 of a revelation after it was given implied an amount 
 of knowledge that would preclude the necessity of any 
 revelation at all. 
 
 But of which of the internal evidences mentioned 
 above can it be said to be presumptuous for man to 
 judge without reference to external testimony ? Cer- 
 tainly not of those natural and incidental evidences of 
 truth spread every where over the pages of the New 
 Testament ; nor of the agreement of the several books 
 with each other ; nor of the morality of the gospel ; nor 
 of its tendency to promote human happiness in this 
 
 10 
 
74 LECTURE III. 
 
 life ; and if there be some of the doctrines, of the prob- 
 ability of which we could not judge beforehand, that 
 is no reason why we should be excluded from an im- 
 mediate and free range in every other part of this field. 
 There is what has been called, by Verplanck, a critical, 
 as well as a moral internal evidence. Of the first we 
 are competent to judge, and, in determining the ques- 
 tion of our competency to judge of the second, we are 
 not to overlook a distinction made by the same able 
 writer. It is that " between the power of discovering 
 truth, and that of examining and deciding upon it 
 when offered to our judgment." " In matters of hu- 
 man science," he goes on to say, "to how few is the 
 one given, and how common is the other ! Look at 
 that vast mass of mathematical invention and demon- 
 stration which has been carried on by gifted minds, in 
 every age, in continued progress, from the days of the 
 learned priesthood of ancient Egypt to those of the 
 discoveries of La Place and La Grange. Who is there 
 of the mathematicians of this generation w^ho could be 
 selected as capable of alone discovering all this pro- 
 longed and continuous chain of demonstration ? If left 
 to their own unaided researches, how^ far would the 
 original and inventive genius of a Newton or a Pascal 
 have carried them ? Yet we know that all this body 
 of science, this magnificent accumulation of the patient 
 labors of so many intellects, may be examined and rig- 
 orously scrutinized in every step, and finally completely 
 mastered and familiarized to the understanding, in a 
 few years' study, by a student who, trusting solely to 
 his own mind, could never have advanced beyond the 
 simple elements of geometry. 
 
 " This reasoning may be apphed, either directly or 
 
LECTURE III. 75 
 
 by fair analogy, to every }3art of our knowledge of the 
 laws of nature and of mind ; and it therefore seems to 
 be neither presumptuous nor unphilosophical, but, on 
 the contrary, in strict accordance with the soundest 
 reasoning, to maintain that though 'the world by wis- 
 dom knew not God,' yet, so far forth as he reveals 
 himself to men, and calls upon them to receive and 
 obey that revealed will, he has given to them faculties, 
 by no means compelling, but yet enabling them to 
 understand his revelation ; to perceive its truth, excel- 
 lence, and beauty; and to become sensible of their own 
 want of its instruction, as well as to estimate that ex- 
 trinsic human testimony by which it may be supported 
 or attended." * 
 
 Certainly, there are many things in which we per- 
 ceive a fitness and an excellence, when they are made 
 known, of which we should never, of ourselves, have 
 formed any conception. Thus the Newtonian system 
 comes before the eye of the mind as a great mountain 
 does before that of the body, and we see at once that 
 it is worthy of God. No timid disclaimer of our right 
 to judge of the works of God can prevent this effect. 
 Its simplicity, and beauty, and majesty, speak with a 
 voice more pleasing, and scarcely less satisfactory, than 
 that of mathematical demonstration. I will not say- 
 how much of this perceived excellence, or whether any, 
 must belono; to a revelation which we are under obli- 
 gation to receive. Certainly, that of the Jews had to 
 them far less of this than ours to us. But I will say 
 that it is the natural impulse of the mind to examine 
 any thing claiming to be a revelation by such tests ; and 
 
 * Verplanck's Evidences of Revealed Religion. 
 
76 LECTURE III. 
 
 if it is done in a proper spirit, and with those limita- 
 tions which good sense must always put to human 
 inquiries, it is neither presumptuous nor dangerous. It 
 is not judging beforehand of what God ought to do; it 
 is judging of what it is claimed that he has done; and 
 the same spirit that would prevent us from doing this 
 would debar us from any study of final causes in the 
 works of God. If the gospel is to act upon character, 
 it must be received with an intelligent perception of its 
 adaptation to our wants, and of its excellence. The 
 message, not less than the minister of God, might 
 be expected to commend itself " to every man's con- 
 science in the sight of God." 
 
 I would not claim for reason a place which does not 
 belong to it. So far as the Christian religion rests on 
 facts, it must rest on historical evidence ; but so far as 
 it is a system of truth and of motives, intended to bear 
 on human character and well-being, it must be judged 
 of by that reason and conscience which God has given 
 us. There are in the mind, as God made it, standards 
 and tests which must ultimately be applied to it. 
 Men may be uncandid or irreverent in applying these 
 tests, and so they may be in examining historical proof; 
 and I have no more fear in one case than in the other. 
 In arguing for or against such a system as Christianity, 
 we of course take for granted the being and perfections 
 of God ; we have a previous knowledge of his works, 
 of his providence, of the difference between right and 
 wrong, and of the beings for whom the system is in- 
 tended. Let, now, a candid man find in the system 
 nothing absurd or immoral, but many things that seem 
 to him strange, and little accordant with what he 
 would have expected, and he will be still in doubt. He 
 
LECTURE III. 77 
 
 will make due allowance for the imperfection of his 
 knowledge, and the limitation of his faculties, and he 
 will hold his mind open to the full force of historical 
 proof. But let him be shown a system which, though 
 he could not have discovered it, he can see, when dis- 
 covered, to be worthy of a God of infinite wisdom and 
 goodness, — let him find it congruous with all he knows 
 of him from his works, coincident with natural re- 
 ligion, so far as that goes, containing a perfect moral- 
 ity, harmonizing with the highest sentiments of man, 
 and adapted to his wants as a weak and guilty being, — 
 and he may find in all this a ground of rational convic- 
 tion that such a system must have come from God, 
 and so, that those facts which are inseparably con- 
 nected with it must be true. The historical testimony 
 may then be to him much as the testimony of the 
 woman of Samaria was to her countrymen after they 
 had seen and heard the Saviour for themselves. And 
 this is the natural course when any system on any 
 subject is presented to us. We inquire what it is, and 
 how far it agrees with our previous knowledge ; we 
 come up to it, and examine it, and then, if necessary, 
 we investigate the history of its origin. 
 
 Nor is this proof from internal evidence, as some 
 seem to suppose, merely the result of feeling. If God 
 has given us a religion which we are to receive in the 
 exercise of our reason, and which is to act on us 
 through our affections and in harmony with our natu- 
 ral faculties, I cannot conceive that there should not be 
 found in it such congruities and adaptations to man, — 
 such a fitness to promote his individual and social well- 
 being, — as to show that it came from Him who made 
 man ; and the proof arising from a perception of this 
 
78 LECTURE III. 
 
 congruity is as purely intellectual, as strictly argu- 
 mentative, as that from historical evidence. In such a 
 case, we do not believe the religion to be true because 
 we feel it to be so, but because we see in it a divine 
 wisdom, and the adaptation of means to an end. 
 
 It has been some feeling of the kind, mentioned 
 above as manifested by Chalmers and Wilson, that 
 has determined the arrangement of every treatise 
 I know of, published either in England or this coun- 
 try, in which the external and internal evidences are 
 considered together. The external are treated of 
 first, are regarded as settling the question, and then 
 the internal are brought in as confirmatory. Certainly, 
 I think the historical evidence conclusive, and it is 
 indispensable, because the Christian religion is not a 
 mere set of dogmas, or of speculative opinions, but has 
 its foundation in facts. It is, indeed, a manifestation 
 of principles, but not by verbal statement and injunc- 
 tion merely : those principles are imbodied in acts, 
 and it is only as thus imbodied that they have their 
 effective power. That Jesus Christ lived, and was 
 crucified, and rose from the dead, are facts as neces- 
 sary to the Christian religion as the foundation to a 
 buildinof : and no one but a German neoloirist could 
 possibly think otherwise. But if the external evi- 
 dences are thus indispensable and conclusive, so also 
 are the internal. What would have been the effect 
 and force of Christ's miracles, without his spotless and 
 transcendent character? If I am to say which would 
 most deeply impress me with the fact that he was from 
 God, the testimony respecting his miracles, or the exhi- 
 bition of such a character, I think I should say the latter; 
 and I think myself as well qualified to judge in the one 
 
LECTURE III. 79 
 
 case as in ihc other ; and, as I have said, I think this 
 is the evid(uice which now first presents itself. 
 
 At first, when the religion was every where called 
 in question, when miracles were wrought to sustain it, 
 before it had had time to show fully its adaptation to 
 the wants of the individual man and of societv, it was 
 natural to refer first to miracles and to testimony for 
 its divine authority ; but now, when the religion is 
 established, it is quite as natural to pass, without any 
 particular attention to the historical evidence, to the 
 consideration of the religion itself, its suitableness to 
 what we know of God, and to our own wants. It is, 
 in fact, in this way that most men who embrace Chris- 
 tianity are led to do it, and I do not think it either 
 " presumptuous or unphilosophical " to follow, in pre- 
 senting the evidence, the course which has been fol- 
 lowed by most Christians in attaining that ground of 
 faith on which they now rest. 
 
 Let us, then, instead of going first through a long 
 line of historical testimony, come directly to the Chris- 
 tian religion itself. Let us examine it, with candor 
 indeed, but with perfect freedom. Let us compare it 
 ^\ ith, and test it by, whatever w^e know of God or his 
 works, or of man. It courts such an examination. It 
 is because it is not thus examined, that it is so little 
 regarded. We know that any system that comes from 
 God must be worthy of him ; that it must be in har- 
 mony with all his other works and with all other truth ; 
 that the ends proposed by it must be good, and that it 
 must be adapted in the best manner to accomplish 
 those ends. We know, I say, that such a system must 
 really he all this ; and, in proportion to our knowledge, 
 we shall ^ee it to be so. If we cannot understand it 
 
80 LECTURE III. 
 
 fully, as indeed, if it be what it claims to be, we ought 
 not to expect to do, we may yet know^ in part. We 
 live in an age of light. The religion has been long in 
 the world, and has come in contact with God's natu- 
 ral providence, and with human institutions, at many 
 points. It was intended to act upon us ; and, if it be 
 really from God, it would be strange if we could not 
 find upon it some impression of his hand. 
 
 We say, then, first, that we find evidence of the 
 divine origin of the Christian religion in its analogy 
 to the works and natural government of God. There 
 is a harmony of adaptation, and also of analogy. The 
 key is adapted to the lock ; the fin of the fish is analo- 
 gous to the wing of the bird. Christianity, as I hope 
 to show, is adapted to man ; it is analogous to the 
 other manifestations w^hich God has made of himself. 
 
 The works of God are divided into different depart- 
 ments, each of which has its laws, which are in some 
 sense independent of the others ; yet there is such a 
 correspondence manifest between them, that w^e rec- 
 ognize them, at once, as having proceeded from the 
 same hand. Scientific research impresses upon us the 
 conviction that God is one, and that he is uniform and 
 consistent in all his works; and leads us to expect, if 
 he should introduce a new dispensation, that there 
 would be, between it and those which had preceded 
 it, an analogy similar to that which had been found to 
 exist between the other departments. Now^, we affirm 
 that the gospel contains that code of laws which God 
 has given for the regulation of the moral and spiritual 
 department of his creation in this w^orld, and that 
 there is between it and the other works of God the 
 
LECTURE III. 81 
 
 analogy and coricspondcncc wliich were to have been 
 expected. 
 
 1. I observe, that the Bible is coincident with na 
 ture as now known, in its teachings respecting the 
 natural attributes of God. The New Testament sel- 
 dom dwells upon the natural attributes of God ; but 
 when it does to any extent, as in the ascription of 
 Paul, " To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the 
 only wise God," it plainly recogjiizes and adopts the 
 doctrines of the Old, and they may, therefore, for this 
 purpose, be fairly taken together. Let us go back, 
 then, to those ancient prophets. If we exclude the 
 idea of revelation, nothing can be more surprising than 
 the ideas of God expressed by them. These ideas, of 
 themselves, are sufficient to give the stamp of divinity 
 to their writings. Surrounded by polytheists, they 
 proclaimed his unity. Living in a period of great 
 ignorance in regard to physical science, they ascribed 
 to God absolute eternity, and that unchangeableness 
 w^hich is essential to a perfect Being, and they repre- 
 sented all his natural attributes as infinite. Accord- 
 ingly, it is when these attributes are their theme, that 
 their poetry rises to its unparalleled sublimity. " Who," 
 says Isaiah, " hath measured the waters in the hollow 
 of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and 
 comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and 
 weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a bal- 
 ance ? " Even now, when Science has brought her 
 report from the depths of infinite space, and told us 
 of the suns and systems that glow and circle there, 
 how can we better express our emotions than to 
 adopt his language, and say, " Lift up your eyes on 
 high and behold who hath created these things, that 
 11 
 
82 LECTURE III. 
 
 bringeth out their host by number : He calleth them 
 all bj names, by the greatness of his might, for that 
 he is strong in power ; not one faileth." And when 
 Science has turned her glass in another direction, and 
 discovered in the teeming drop wonders scarcely less 
 than those in the heavens ; when she has analyzed 
 matter ; when she has disentangled the rays of light, 
 and shown the colors of which its white web is wo- 
 ven ; when the amazing structure of vegetable and 
 animal bodies is laid open; what can we say of Him 
 w ho worketh all this, but that he is " wonderful in 
 counsel, and excellent in working ! " " There is no 
 searching of his understanding." And when, again, 
 we can look back over near three thousand years more, 
 in which the earth has rolled on in its appointed way, 
 and the mighty energies by which all things are moved 
 have been sustained, what can we do but to ask, 
 " Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that 
 the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends 
 of the earth, fainteth not, neither is w-eary ? " With 
 them we find no tendency, as among the ancient phi- 
 losophers, to ascribe eternity to matter ; they every 
 where speak of it as created ; nor, with the pantheists, 
 to identify matter with God ; nor, with the idolater, to 
 be affected with its magnitude, or forms, or order, or 
 brightness, or whatever may strike the senses. But, 
 with them, all matter is perfectly subordinate and 
 paltry when compared with God. They represent 
 him as sustaining it for a time in its present order, 
 and then as folding up these visible heavens as a vest- 
 ure is folded, and laying them aside. Nothing could 
 more perfectly express the absolute infinity of the nat- 
 ural attributes of God, or the entire separation and 
 
LECTURE III. 83 
 
 disparity between him and every thing that is called 
 the universe, or its complete subjection to his will. 
 
 Now, that men, undistinguished from others around 
 them by learning, in an age of prevalent polytheism 
 and idolatry, and of great ignorance of physical science, 
 should adopt such doctrines respecting the natural at- 
 tributes of God, as to require no modification when 
 science has been revolutionized and expanded as it 
 were into a new universe, does seem to me no slight 
 evidence that they were inspired by that God whose 
 attributes they set forth. 
 
 2. 1 observe, that there is an analogy between the 
 laws of nature, as discovered by induction, and the 
 moral laws contained in the New Testament, not only 
 as implying the same natural attributes in God, but as 
 they are carried out to the same perfection. It is the 
 great and sublime characteristic of natural law, espe- 
 cially of the law of gravitation, that, while it controls so 
 perfectly such vast masses, and at such amazing dis- 
 tances, it yet also controls equally the minutest particle 
 that floats in the sunbeam ; and that, however wildly 
 that particle may be driven, — wherever it may float in 
 the infinity of space, — it never, for one moment, escapes 
 the cognizance and supervision of this law. It never 
 can. This implies a minuteness and perfection of 
 natural government, of which science, as known in the 
 time of Christ, could have given no intimation. But 
 now, how natural does it seem that the same God, who, 
 in the universal control of his natural law, no more 
 neglects the minutest particle than the largest planet, 
 should also, in his moral law, take cognizance of every 
 idle word, and of the thoughts and intents of the heart ! 
 Yes ; I find, in the particle of dust, shown by the great- 
 
84 LECTURE III. 
 
 est expounder of God's natural law to be constantly re- 
 garded by him, and in the idle word declared by Christ 
 to come under the notice and condemnation of his 
 moral law, — I find, in the minuteness and com])leteness 
 of the government of matter, as revealed by modern 
 science, and even shown to the eye by the microscope, 
 and in that interpretation of the moral law which makes 
 it spiritual, causing it to reach every thought and intent 
 of the heart, — a conception of the same absolute per- 
 fection of government, both in the natural and moral 
 world ; and I find the same infinite natural attributes 
 implied as the sole conditions on which such a govern- 
 ment in either of these departments can be carried on. 
 
 This idea of the absolute universality and perfection 
 of government in any department — the only one, how- 
 ever, worthy of a perfect God — is not an idea, espe- 
 cially in its moral applications, which I should think 
 likely to have originated with man. In the depart- 
 ment of nature we know that he did not originate or 
 suspect it till it was forced on his observation. And 
 how comes it to pass that this absolute perfection of 
 moral government, this notice of the particle of dust 
 there, this judgment of every idle word, of every secret 
 thing, of the minutest moral act of the most inconsid- 
 erable moral being that ever lived, should have been 
 discovered and announced thousands of years before 
 its more obvious counterpart in the natural world was 
 even suspected ? 
 
 And here I cannot but notice, though I will not put 
 it under a separate head, how coincident all that sci- 
 ence has discovered is with the Scripture doctrine of 
 the universal and particular providential government 
 of God. We all know how slow men have been to 
 
LECTURE III. 85 
 
 receive this; and yet it would seem that no theist, 
 with a clear perception of the mode in which natural 
 law operates, could doubt it. Does God control con- 
 stantly immense masses of matter through natural 
 law ? How ? Why, by causing the law to operate, 
 not upon the mass as a whole, but upon every individ- 
 ual particle composing that mass; that is, he governs 
 the vast through his government of the minute. And 
 if he does this in matter, who will deny the probability 
 of a providential care, proceeding on jnecisely the 
 same princi[)les, which numbers the hairs of our heads, 
 and watches the fall of the sparrow ? Shall God care 
 for the less and not for the greater ? " If he so clothe 
 the grass of the field, shall he not much more clothe 
 you, O ye of little faith ? " 
 
 3. I observe, that there is an analogy, both in their 
 kind and in their limit, between the knowledge com- 
 municated by nature and that by Christianity. Nature 
 is full and explicit in her communication of necessary 
 practical facts, but is at no pains to explain the reasons 
 and methods of those facts. She gives us the air to 
 breathe, and we are invigorated ; but she does not 
 teach us that it is composed of oxygen and nitrogen, 
 and that our vigor comes from the oxygen alone. She 
 gives us the light, and we see ; but how long did the 
 world stand before she whispered to any one that 
 that light was composed of the seven primary colors ? 
 She instructs us in the uses of fire ; but she does not 
 teach us how the process of combustion is carried on. 
 Men have boiled water equally well from the begin- 
 ning ; but it was left to this age, and to Faraday, to 
 discover that flame is the product of electrical agency. 
 She teaches us the facts; she enables us to go through 
 
86 LECTURE III. 
 
 the practical processes ; and then she leaves us to find 
 our way as we best may through the philosophy of 
 those facts. 
 
 And so it is with the knowledge communicated by 
 Christianity. There is not a great practical fact which 
 a moral being can ask to know, concerning which it 
 does not speak with perfect distinctness. The fact of 
 a full and a perfect accountability, and of a future retri- 
 bution, — the fact of immortality, of the resurrection 
 of the dead, of a particular providence, of the freedom 
 of man, of his dependence upon God, and of the mercy 
 of God to returning penitents, — each of these is made 
 known with entire fulness and explicitness ; but very 
 little is said respecting the philosophy of these facts, 
 or the mode in which they may be reconciled to each 
 other. The Bible gives the information that is needed, 
 and there it stops. It communicates practical, and 
 never speculative knowledge as such. 
 
 Now, when we consider that Christianity solves, in 
 its own way, all the great questions relating to human 
 destiny, it must be regarded as remarkable, that, in 
 communicating this information, it should thus stop 
 precisely where nature stops. When we consider how 
 strong the tendency must have been to unaided human 
 nature to gratify and excite man by particular descrip- 
 tions of other worlds and of things unseen, so naturally 
 to be expected from a messenger from those worlds ; 
 when we consider how strong a hold the fanatic and 
 the impostor gain upon the imagination of their follow- 
 ers by such means ; and that, without miracles and 
 without evidence, this is, indeed, the chief hold they 
 can have upon them; and when we observe the course 
 taken at this point by all others who have pretended 
 
LECTURE III. 87 
 
 to revelation, we shall not estimate this argument 
 lightly. 
 
 How different the course of Christ and his apos- 
 tles, in this resix^ct, from that of the writers of the 
 Shasters, and of Mohanuned ! When Christ and 
 his apostles speak of a future world of reward and of 
 punishment, it is, indeed, in such terms as to produce 
 a strong moral impression, but it is still with a se- 
 vere and cautious reserve. Those terms are general. 
 There is no dwelling upon particulars, as if for the 
 purpose of gratifying curiosity, or giving a loose rein 
 to the imagination. They speak of " the kingdom of 
 heaven," of " everlasting life," of " a crown of glory 
 that fadeth not away," of " life and immortality," of 
 " many mansions," and a " Father's house ; " but then 
 they say, " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
 have entered into the heart of man, the things which 
 God hath prepared for them that love him." So, on the 
 other hand, they speak of " the fire that never shall be 
 quenched," " where their worm dieth not, and the fire 
 is not quenched;" of the "everlasting fire, prepared 
 for the devil and his angels; " of " everlasting destruc- 
 tion from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory 
 of his power; " of " the blackness of darkness forever;" 
 but they descend into no minute descriptions. Not so 
 Mohammed.. Speaking of heaven, he says, " There 
 are they who shall approach near unto God. They 
 shall dwell in gardens of delight. Yonths^ w- hich shall 
 continue in their bloom forever, shall go round about 
 to attend them with goblets and beakers, and a cup of 
 flowing wine, — their heads shall not ache by drinking 
 the same, neither shall their reason be disturbed ; and 
 with fruits of the roots which they shall choose, and the 
 
88 LECTURE III, 
 
 flesh of birds of the kind wiiich they shall desire. And 
 there shall accompaiij them fair damsels, having large 
 black eyes resembling pearls hidden in their shells, as 
 a reward for that which they have wrought." * " But 
 as for the sincere servants of God, they shall have a 
 certain provision in paradise, namely, delicious fruits ; 
 and they shall be honored ; they shall be placed in 
 gardens of pleasure, leaning on couches, opposite to 
 one another ; a cup shall be carried round unto them, 
 filled from a limpid fountain, for the delight of those 
 who drink, — it shall not oppress their understanding, 
 neither shall they be inebriated therewith. And near 
 them shall lie the virgins of paradise, refraining their 
 looks from beholding any besides their spouses, having 
 large black eyes, and resembling the eggs of an ostrich 
 covered with feathers from the dust." f So, also, 
 speaking of the world of punishment, he says, " Those 
 who believe not have garments of fire fitted to them ; 
 boiling water shall be poured on their heads ; their 
 bowels shall be dissolved thereby, and also their skin ; 
 and they shall be beaten with maces of iron. So often 
 as they shall endeavor to get out of hell, because of the 
 anguish of their torments, they shall be dragged back 
 into the same, and their tormentors shall say, ' Taste ye 
 the pains of burning.' " J "It shall be said unto them. 
 Go ye into the punishment which ye denied as a false- 
 hood : go ye into the smoke of hell, which shall arise 
 in three volumes, and shall not shade you from the 
 heat, neither shall it be of service against the flame ; 
 but it shall cast forth sparks as big as towers, resem- 
 bling yellow camels in color." ^ We can now see 
 
 » 
 
 Koran, chap. Ivi. Sale's edition. t Koran, chap. xxii. 
 
 t Koran, chap, xxxvii. § Koran, chap, xxvii. 
 
LECTURE ITT. 89 
 
 that the stern refusal on the part of Christ and his disci- 
 ples to lift the veil and show us the invisible world was 
 not onlv analoirous to the course of nature, but that it 
 was the only course compatible with good sense and 
 sound philosophy. But why have these men, of all 
 those who have made pretensions to inspiration, thus 
 kept upon that difficult line which so commends itself to 
 the sober judgment of the thinking part of mankind ? 
 And not less striking is the analogy between the 
 limits of that knowledge which is obtained from na- 
 ture, and that which is obtained from the Bible ; or, 
 to express my thought more exactly, between the 
 mode in which what is made known in both cases, 
 runs out into an infinite unknown. However long, 
 and in whatever department the student of nature 
 may labor, he finds himself no nearer the completion 
 of his knowledge ; and, as he passes on, he is ready to 
 exclaim, with Burke, " What subject is there that does 
 not branch out into infinity! " Even when most suc- 
 cessful, he compares himself to a " child picking up 
 pebbles upon the beach, while the great ocean of truth 
 is still before him." The intellectual vision of one 
 man may extend farther than that of another ; he may 
 have a wider horizon ; but to both alike the sky closes 
 down upon the mountains, and what is known stretches 
 off into the infinity that is unknown. Nature places 
 us in the midst of infinity. She intimates a probable 
 connection between our planet and the myriads of 
 worlds which float in space ; she suggests, by analogy, 
 the probability of a moral and intellectual system cor- 
 responding in extent to the greatness of the physical 
 universe ; she awakens our curiosity respecting the 
 forms and modes of being of those who dwell in the 
 
 12 
 
90 LECTURE III. 
 
 Stellar worlds ; but she gives us no means of grati- 
 fying our curiosity. The language of nature to man 
 is, 'You are a pupil, upon one form, in the great 
 school of God's discipline. You are permitted to 
 conjecture that there are other and higher forms, but 
 to know nothing of what is taught there. Your busi- 
 ness is to learn the lessons which are taught here, and 
 be content, though you cannot but see that all known 
 truth has relations with much more that is unknown.' 
 And just so it is with the Bible. It does not present 
 us with a defined system of truth, squared by the sci- 
 entific rule and compass, which the human mind can 
 master and comprehend. Its truths take hold on the 
 eternity that is past, and stretch on into that which is 
 to come. Does Nature lead us into deep mysteries ? 
 So does the Bible. Does she leave us there, to 
 wonder and adore ? So does the Bible. We claim 
 mysteries as a part of Christianity. We say that a 
 religion coming from the God of nature could not 
 be without them. We are nothing moved by the 
 sneer of the infidel when he asks, " What kind of 
 a revelation is the revelation of a mystery ? " We 
 say to him, that it is the revelation of a fact, all 
 the modes and relations of which are not known ; or 
 which may seem to conflict with something already 
 known ; and that, in the revelation of portions of an 
 infinite scheme to a finite mind, facts thus related 
 would be naturally expected. Is no revelation of any 
 value but that which is clear, full, and distinct ? What 
 kind of a revelation is that which nature makes of the 
 starry heavens — dim, remote, obscure, suggesting a 
 thousand questions, and answering none ? And yet 
 even this is of infinite value to man. And thus it is 
 
LECTURE III. 91 
 
 that the Bil)le takes it for granted that there are other 
 orders of intelligent beings, angels and archangels, ])rin- 
 cipalities and powers, heavenly hosts innumerable — 
 just such an intellectual and moral system as we might 
 su})pose from our present knowledge of the works of 
 God ; but no particulars are given : it merely shows 
 them as the night shows the stars, and, like nature, 
 it leaves us standing in the midst of infinity, with a 
 thousand questions unanswered. Now, I cannot help 
 thinking, if the Bible had been made by man, that it 
 would either have been a system perfectly defined, 
 with the clearness, and at the same time, the shallow- 
 ness, of the human intellect ; or it would have been 
 wild, and extravagant, and vague ; or it would have 
 pretended to lay open minutely the secrets of distant 
 and future worlds. 
 
 4. I observe, that there is an analogy or correspond- 
 ence between the works of God and the Bible, such 
 as w'e had a right to expect, if both came from him, 
 because a similar temper and attitude of mind is re- 
 quired for the successful study of both. The identity 
 of that spirit, which Christ inculcates as the essential 
 prerequisite to the proper understanding and reception 
 of the great truths which he taught, with the true 
 philosophic spirit, was first noticed by Bacon. He 
 says, in very remarkable words, " The kingdom of 
 man, which Wcls founded on the sciences, cannot be 
 entered otherwise than the kingdom of God ; that is, 
 in the condition of a little child." The meaning and 
 the truth of this will be manifest from a moment's 
 attention to the history of science. So long as man 
 attempted to theorize, and to sit in judgment upon 
 God, to determine what he ought to have done, instead 
 
92 LECTURE III. 
 
 of taking the attitude of a learner before the book of 
 nature, nothing can exceed the puerilities and absurdi- 
 ties into which he fell. But the moment he laid aside 
 the pride of theory, and took the humble attitude of a 
 learner and observer, an interpreter of nature, science 
 began to advance. Man talked of rearing the temple 
 of science, as if it were to be constructed by him. But, 
 as far as there is any temple, it has stood, as it now 
 stands, in its imposing majesty, since the creation of 
 the works of God ; and all that man can do is to unveil 
 that temple, and show its fair proportions. The true 
 philosopher does not think of rearing any thing of his 
 own. He feels that he is a learner, and a learner only 
 at the feet of nature. He represses entirely the im- 
 agination, however beautiful and enticing may be the 
 theories which it would form ; rejects all prejudice and 
 preconceived opinion ; and follows fearlessly wherever 
 observation, and experiment, and facts, may lead him. 
 
 Is it said that there have been great philosophers 
 who have been infidels, and have not had this spirit ? 
 I answer, no. There have been second-rate philoso- 
 phers, who have distinguished themselves by following 
 out the discoveries of greater men ; but all the great 
 discoverers, those whose minds have sympathized most 
 intensely with nature, have been distinguished for this 
 spirit.* 
 
 But that this spirit and temper are required by the 
 gospel in order to a knowledge of that, it is hardly 
 necessary to show. There we find the original requi- 
 sition to become as a little child. It requires every 
 imagination to be brought down, and every high thing 
 
 * See Whewell's Bridt^ewater Treatise. 
 
LECTURE III. 93 
 
 that exalteth itself against the knowledge of Cod; and 
 that every thought should be brought into captivity to 
 the obedience of Christ. No progress can be made 
 in religion, or in science, till the pride which exalts 
 itself to judge over God, and to decide what he ought 
 to have done, is repressed, and till the man takes his 
 place as a learner at the feet of Jesus, as the philoso- 
 pher takes his place at the feet of nature. So coinci- 
 dent is the spirit of true religion and of true philosophy : 
 so perfectly did our Saviour express the true spirit of 
 both eighteen hundred years ago. Wonderful indeed 
 is it that, when the great expounder of method in nat- 
 ural science would express the true spirit of the true 
 method, he should find no fitter words than those used 
 by Christ, before the inductive philosophy was dreamed 
 of, to express the proper method of study in a higher 
 department of the kingdom and government of God. 
 If, then, nature and revelation are thus similarly related 
 to the human mind, they must be analogous to each 
 other. 
 
 In close connection with this head, I observe that, so 
 far as Nature teaches natural religion and moral truth, 
 there is an analogy between both the mode and the 
 results of her teaching and those of Christianity. 
 Nothing can be more evident than that the condition 
 in which God intended man should be placed, in this 
 world, is that of a probation, in which there should be 
 no overwhelming force, or preponderance of motives, 
 on either side ; in which a wrong choice should be 
 possible, and a right one often difficult. No other 
 supposition accords with the limited knowledge of 
 man, or with the mixed and balanced motives in the 
 midst of which he must often act. Accordingly, while 
 
94 LECTURE III. 
 
 the moral and religious teachings of nature are real 
 and valid, and he that has ears to hear may hear, 
 they are yet never obtrusive. The voice of those 
 teachings is a still, small voice, easily drowned by the 
 roar of passion or by the din of the world, but sweet 
 and powerful in the ear of those who are willing to 
 listen. Accordingly, nothing is easier, or more common, 
 than for men "to quench the light of natural virtue by 
 a course of profligacy, and to acquire contempt for all 
 goodness by familiarity with vice." This is the method 
 in which nature teaches moral and religious truth, lift- 
 ing up always the same quiet voice, whether men will 
 hear or whether they will forbear ; and these are the 
 results. Christianity keeps to the principle of that 
 method, nor are the results different in kind. Whether 
 we consider the evidence for its divine origin, or the 
 moral truths which it inculcates, we find that, while it 
 has such evidence as to be satisfactory to those who 
 will attend to it, yet that it does not force that evi- 
 dence upon the attention of any. Here the voice is 
 indeed a louder voice, and he that hath ears may hear ; 
 but it does not compel the attention of men. Accord- 
 ingly, as we find men disregarding the teachings of 
 natural conscience, and the general maxims of virtue, 
 so also do we find them remaining in ignorance, and 
 consequent contempt, of God's revelation. 
 
 I know that this feature of revelation has been 
 made an objection against it. It has been said that, 
 if God had given a revelation, he would have accom- 
 panied it with evidence that must have forced con\'ic- 
 tion upon every mind — that he would have written 
 it upon the heavens ; but the objector does not con- 
 sider that, in that case, this would have been no longer 
 
LECTURE III. 95 
 
 a place of probation, and the revelation of the gospel 
 not at all in keeping with the revelation of nature. 
 Are the great truths of natural religion written upon 
 the heavens ? Are the common maxims of temper- 
 ance, and integrity, and benevolence, forced upon the 
 attention of all ? Instead, therefore, of finding, in the 
 unobtrusive nature of the evidence and claims of Chris- 
 tianity, an argument against it, I find, in these very 
 circumstances, an argument that it is from that God 
 who has caused the light of natural religion, and even 
 the light of science, to exist in the world under pre- 
 cisely the same conditions. 
 
 5. I observe, that Christianity is in harmony with 
 the works of God, because it is a system of means.* 
 It is asked, by some, if God wishes the holiness of 
 men, why he does not make them holy at once ; and 
 that he should take a long course of means, to accom- 
 plish his wish, is objected to as derogatory both to his 
 power and to his wisdom. But, surely, I need not say 
 that all nature is a system of means — that the end to 
 be accomplished never is accomplished without the 
 means, and that those means often require the lapse 
 of ages before this end is obtained. No doubt God 
 could create a tree at once in its full perfection ; but, 
 instead of this, he causes it to germinate from a little 
 seed, and makes his sun shine upon it, and waters it 
 with showers, and subjects it to the vicissitudes of the 
 seasons, (during portions of which it seems to make no 
 progress,) till, at length, it towers towards heaven, and 
 defies the storms of ages. So the kingdom of heaven 
 in the soul is like a grain of mustard-seed, which is 
 
 * Butler's Analogy, part 2, chap. 4. 
 
96 LECTURE III. 
 
 indeed the least of all seeds ; but God causes it to 
 spring up, and shines uj)on it with the light of his 
 countenance, and waters it with the dews of his grace, 
 till it becomes a plant bearing fruit in the garden of 
 God. And yet those who believe that nature is of 
 God, object to the gospel because of the very circum- 
 stances in which it harmonizes with his other works. 
 And here I mention a ground of misapprehension 
 w^hich is common to nature and to Christianity. A 
 system of means implies the gradual development of 
 a plan, and of course the plan must present very differ- 
 ent aspects to those who view it in its different stages. 
 There are some processes in nature that could not 
 have been understood in the first periods of the world. 
 Thus the periods and motions of some of the heavenly 
 bodies were so obscure and comj)licated, that it re- 
 quired the observation and study of near six thousand 
 years to understand and reduce them to system ; and 
 the eye of the philosopher who scanned those bodies 
 before such observations could be made, must have 
 remained unsatisfied and perj)lexed. He saw the light 
 of the bodies, and walked in it ; but he could not un- 
 derstand the j:)hilosophy and harmony of their motions. 
 So it is with Christianity. While it gives freely the 
 practical light which is necessary to our guidance, men 
 have been very differently situated in regard to their 
 opportunities of judging of its philosophy. Respecting 
 this they have judged, and still judge, very differently, 
 and probably none of them, in all points, correctly. 
 They are not yet in the right position. Place a man 
 in the sun, and he will be an astronomer at once. His 
 position will enable him to see the motions of the plan- 
 ets just as they are. And Christianity speaks of just 
 
LECTURE III. 97 
 
 such a point, in relation to itself and the moral govern- 
 ment of God, A\'here every man will hereafter be placed. 
 It speaks of a " day of the restitution of all things." 
 In the mean time, those who refuse to be governed by 
 the practical light of Christianity, because they cannot 
 understand certain points of its philosophy, pursue the 
 same course as those philosophers who lived before the 
 time of Newton would have done, if they had shut 
 their eyes upon the light of the moon because they 
 could not understand its motions. 
 
 6. I observe, that Christianity is analoirous to the 
 system of nature because it is a remedial system.* 
 When the body is diseased, when a limb is broken, 
 when gangrene conmiences, nature does not certainly 
 leave the man to perish. She has provided a remedial 
 system ; and if the proper remedies are applied in sea- 
 son, the man may be restored. Now, what this reme- 
 dial system is in the course of nature, Christianity is 
 in the moral government of God. It comes to us in 
 the same way, not as to the whole, but as to the sick, 
 and offers us assistance upon similar conditions. The 
 man who is sick must have sufficient faith in the rem- 
 edy to give it a fair trial, and so must he who would 
 be benefited by Christianity. The remedial system 
 of nature often requires the suffering of great present 
 pain, that greater future pain may be avoided ; and 
 Christianity requires self-denials and sacrifices which 
 are so difficult, that they are compared to the cutting 
 off of a right hand, and the plucking out of a right 
 eye. The remedial system of nature does not free the 
 sick man at once from all the painful consequences 
 
 * Butler, part 2, chap. 3. 
 13 
 
98 LECTURE III. 
 
 of his disease. He suffers, and, it may be, lingers 
 long under it, in spite of the best remedies. So he 
 who receives Christianity does not escape at once all 
 the painful consequences of sin. He suffers and dies 
 on account of it; but the remedy is sovereign, and 
 through it he shall finally be delivered from sin alto- 
 gether, and restored to perfect moral soundness. Na- 
 ture makes no distinctions. The pains which she 
 inflicts are as severe, and the remedies which she 
 offers are as bitter, to one as to another. Christianity, 
 also, is entirely impartial. All who receive it must 
 receive it on the same humbling terms, and, upon all 
 who will not receive it, it denounces the same fearful 
 punishment. Under this head, therefore, we find a 
 very close analogy betw^een the mode of administra- 
 tion in nature and that which is revealed by Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 7. I observe, that Christianity is analogous to the 
 system of nature because it is a mediatorial system. 
 In mentioning this, I do not intend to enter upon any 
 controverted ground, for all admit that, through the 
 sufferings and death of Christ, voluntarily undergone, 
 we receive at least great temporal benefits ; and what 
 I contend for is, that, whether we confine his interpo- 
 sition and mediation to this low sense, or suppose it 
 the sole ground of pardon, still the principle, as one 
 of mediation, is not changed, and is in accordance 
 with what constantly passes under our notice in the 
 natural government of God. " The world," says But- 
 ler, " is a constitution, or system, whose parts have a 
 mutual reference to each other ; and there is a scheme 
 of things gradually carrying on, called the course of 
 nature, to the carrying on of which God has appoint- 
 
LECTURE III. 99 
 
 ed us in various ways to contribute. And when, in 
 the daily course of natural providence, it is appointed 
 that innocent people should suffer for the faults of the 
 guilty, this is liable to the very same objection as the 
 instance we are now considering. The infinitely 
 greater importance of that appointment of Christian- 
 ity, which is objected against, does not hinder, but it 
 may be, as it plainly is, an api)ointment of the very 
 same kind as that which the world affords us daily 
 examples of." " Men, by their follies, run themselves 
 into extreme distress and difficulties, which would be 
 absolutely fatal to them were it not for the interposi- 
 tion and assistance of others. God commands, by the 
 law of nature, that we afford them this assistance, in 
 many cases where we cannot do it without very 
 great pains, and labor, and suffering to ourselves. 
 And we see in what variety of ways one person's 
 sufferings contribute to the relief of another, and 
 how this follows from the constitution and laws of 
 nature which come under our notice ; and, being famil- 
 iarized to it, men are not shocked with it. So that 
 the reason of their insisting upon objections of the 
 foregoing kind against the satisfaction of Christ, is, 
 either that they do not consider God's settled and 
 uniform appointments as his appointments at all, or 
 else they forget that vicarious punishment is an ap- 
 pointment of every day's experience." As therefore 
 evils, and great evils, and such as we could not of 
 ourselves avoid, are so often averted from us, in the 
 providence of God, l)y the interposition of our fellow- 
 creatures, so it is in perfect harmony with that provi- 
 d(?nce to suppose that greater evils, otherwise unavoid- 
 able, might be averted by the interposition of the Son 
 of God. 
 
100 LECTURE III. 
 
 Ill these, and other particulars which might be men- 
 tioned, we find an analogy between Christianity and 
 nature, such as to show that they came from the same 
 hand. Here is a test — its general correspondence and 
 harmony ^^ ith the works of God and with the natural 
 and providential government of God — which no false 
 system can stand. And more especially remarkable 
 is it that Christianity can stand this test, when we 
 consider it in contrast with that to which it was sub- 
 jected at its first appearance in the world. With the 
 presentation of this contrast I shall close this lecture. 
 
 Christianity, at its commencement, recognized the 
 Jewish religion as from God ; and it was a ground of 
 its rejection, by the Jews, that it destroyed their law 
 or ritual. Hence it became necessary — and this was 
 the main object of the apostle in the Epistle to the He- 
 brews — to show that it was in perfect harmony with 
 the Jewish religion when rightly understood, and w^as, 
 indeed, necessary to its completion. Did the Jews 
 insist that Christianity had no priesthood ? The apos- 
 tle affirms that it had such a high priest as became 
 us, " who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from 
 sinners, and made higher than the heavens." Did the 
 Jews affirm that Christianity had no tabernacle ? The 
 apostle asserts that Christ was the minister " of the true 
 tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man ; " 
 that he had " not entered into the holy places made 
 with hands, which are the figures of the true, but 
 into heaven itself." Was it objected that Christianity 
 had no altar and no sacrifice ? The apostle affirms 
 that " now, once in the end of the world, Christ had 
 appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 
 Thus did the apostle show that the Jewish religion, 
 
LECTURE III, 101 
 
 having dropped its swaddling-clothes of rites and 
 ceremonies, was identical in spirit with Christianity. 
 The same correspondence was either attempted to be 
 shown, or taken for granted, by all the New Testament 
 writers. But when we remember that Christianity is 
 a purely spiritual religion, encumbered by no forms, 
 and that the Jewish w^as apparently the most technical 
 and artificial of all systems ; when we remember that 
 there was not only to be preserved a correspondence 
 with the types and ceremonies, but also that there was 
 to be the fulfilment of many prophecies, we may see 
 the impossibility that any human art should construct a 
 system so identical in its principles, and yet so diverse 
 in its manifestations. Nor, indeed, could there have 
 been any motive to induce such an attempt ; lor, be- 
 sides its inherent difficulty, Christianity so far dropped 
 all the pei'uliarities of the Jews as to forfeit every 
 hope of benefit from their strong exclusive feelings, 
 while at the same time it came before other nations 
 subject to all the odium which it could not fail to 
 excite as based on the Jewish religion. We accord- 
 ingly find that, in point of fact, it was equally opposed 
 by Jews and Gentiles. But such was the system — 
 exclusive, typical, ceremonial, external, magnificent, 
 addressed to the senses — between which and Chris- 
 tianity, simple, universal, without form or pomp, it 
 was necessary to show a correspondence ; and this the 
 apostle Paul, and the New Testament writers gen- 
 erally, did show. 
 
 How different the test to which Christianity is now 
 put! The works of God are acknowledged to be 
 from him, and, as now understood, how simple in their 
 laws, how complex in their relations, how infinite in 
 
102 LECTURE III. 
 
 their extent! And can the same system, which so 
 perfectly corresponded with the narrow system of the 
 Jews, correspond equally with the infinite and unre- 
 stricted system and relations of God's works ? Is it 
 possible that the religion once embosomed in the cere- 
 monies of an ignorant and barbarous people, which 
 received its expansion and completion in an age of the 
 greatest ignorance in regard to physical science, should 
 yet harmonize, in its disclosures respecting God and 
 his government, with those enlarged conceptions of 
 his nature and kingdom which we now possess ? 
 Could Newton step from the study of the heavens to 
 the study of the Bible, and feel that he made no de- 
 scent ? It is even so. The God whom the Bible 
 discloses, and the moral system which it reveals, lose 
 nothing when compared with the extent of nature, or 
 with the simplicity and majesty of her laws ; they 
 seem rather worthy to be enthroned upon, and to pre- 
 side over, such an amazing domain. The material uni- 
 verse, if not infinite, is indefinite in extent. We see 
 in the misty spot which, in a serene evening, scarce 
 discolors the deep blue of the sky, a distant milky 
 way, like that which encircles our heavens, and in a 
 small projection of which our sun is situated. We see 
 such milky ways strown in profusion over the heavens, 
 each containing more suns than we can number, and 
 all these, with their subordinate systems, we see 
 bound together by a law as efficient as it is simple 
 and unchangeable. "They stand up together — not 
 one foileth ! " But long before this system was dis- 
 covered, there was made known, in the Bible, a moral 
 system in entire correspondence with it. We see at 
 the head of it, and presiding in high authority over the 
 
LECTURE III. 103 
 
 whole, one infinite and " only wise God," " the King 
 eternal, immortal, invisible." Of the systems above 
 us, angelic and seraphic, we know little ; but we see 
 one law, simple, efficient, and comprehensive as that 
 of gravitation, — the law of love, — extending its 
 sway over the whole of God's dominions, living where 
 he lives, embracing every moral movement in its 
 universal authority, and producing the same harmony, 
 where it is obeyed, as we observe in the movements 
 of nature. We find here none of the puerilities which 
 dwarf every other system. The sanctions of the law, 
 the moral attributes revealed, the destinies involved, 
 the prospects opened up, — all take hold on infinity, 
 and are in perfect keeping with the solemn emotions 
 excited by dwelling upon the illimitable works of God. 
 ^' Deep calleth unto deep." 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 COINCIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY WITH NATURAL RELIGION.— 
 ITS ADAPTATION TO THE CONSCIENCE AS A PERCEIVING 
 POWER — PECULIAR DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF ES- 
 TABLISHING AND MAINTAINING A PERFECT STANDARD.— 
 CHRISTIAN MORALITY INSEPARABLE FROM THE CHRIS- 
 TIAN RELIGION. 
 
 If, as was attempted in the last lecture, a distinct 
 analogy can be shown between Christianity and the 
 constitution of nature, it will afford a strong presump- 
 tion that they both came from the same hand. But 
 if such an analogy cannot be shown, it will not be 
 conclusive against Christianity, because there is such a 
 disparity between the material and the spiritual worlds, 
 and the law^s by which they must be governed, that a 
 revelation concerning one might be possible, which yet 
 should not seem to be analogous to the other. 
 
 Not so, however, with the argument which I next 
 adduce, which is drawn from the coincidence of Chris- 
 tianity with natural religion. Truth is one. If God 
 has made a revelation in one mode, it must coincide 
 with what he has revealed in another. If, therefore, 
 it can be shown that Christianity does not coincide 
 with the well-authenticated teachings of natural re- 
 ligion, it will be conclusive against it. Nature is from 
 God. Her teachings are from him, and I should regard 
 
LECTURE IV. 105 
 
 it as settling the question against any thing claiming 
 to bo a divine revelation, if it could be shown to con- 
 tradict those teachings. If, on the other hand, it 
 can be shown that Christianity coincides perfectly with 
 natural religion, and indeed teaches the only perfect 
 system of it ever known, it will furnish a strong argu- 
 ment in its favor, especially when we consider how 
 the religion originated. 
 
 By natural religion, I mean that knowledge of God 
 and of duty which may be acquired by man without 
 a revelation. So far as this phrase is made to im- 
 ply, as it sometimes is, that revealed religion is not 
 natural, it is objectionable; for I conceive that the 
 original and natural state of man was one of direct 
 communication with God, and even now, that revela- 
 tion is, in the highest sense, natural. It ought to be 
 used simply to contradistinguish the knowledge, which 
 man might gain from nature, from that which revela- 
 tion alone teaches. Of natural religion the ideas of 
 many are exceedingly indefinite ; but that the defini- 
 tion now given is the true one is obvious, because it is 
 the only one that can give it any fixed and definite 
 meaning. It cannot mean what men have actually 
 learned from nature, for this has varied at different 
 times. We should be doing injustice to the teachings 
 of nature if we were to call that knowledge of God 
 and of duty, which has been attained by the most 
 enlightened heathen, the whole of natural religion. 
 We mean, by revealed religion, not the partial and per- 
 verted views of any sect, but that system which God 
 has actually revealed in the Bible, and which the dili- 
 gent and candid can discover to be there. And so we 
 mean, by natural religion, not what indolent, and biased, 
 
 14 
 
106 LECTURE IV. 
 
 and selfish men have discovered, but that which nature 
 actually teaches, and which a diligent and candid man 
 could discover in the best exercise of his powers. 
 
 If this, then, be natural religion, how are its teach- 
 ings made knowai ? Its mode of teaching concern- 
 ing God, and concerning duty, is not the same. Its 
 teachings concerning God and his attributes are made 
 known chiefly by reasoning from effects to their cause. 
 In addition to this, it is supposed by some that all 
 men have certain intuitive and necessary convictions 
 concerning the being of a God. But, however this 
 may be, I think that the being of a God, and the 
 perfection of most of his natural attributes, might be 
 inferred from nature as now known. That nature 
 and Christianity agree in their teachings concerning 
 these attributes, I have already shown ; concerning 
 the moral attributes of God, it is more difficult to 
 say what Nature does teach. Certain it is that man 
 has never so learned them, from her light alone, as to 
 lay the foundation for any rational system of religious 
 morality; or so as to free the best minds from great 
 and distressing uncertainty. 
 
 Her mode of teaching duty is by the tendencies and 
 results of different actions, and courses of action. We 
 cannot doubt — at least natural religion does not permit 
 itself to doubt — that the object of God, in the constitu- 
 tion of things, and in the relations established by him, 
 is the good of man. If, therefore, we see any course of 
 conduct tending to, and resulting in, the good of man, 
 individually and socially, we infer that it is according to 
 the will of God. If we see a course of conduct tending 
 to, and resulting in, the unhappiness of the individual 
 and of society, we infer that it is contrary to his will. 
 
LECTURE IV. 107 
 
 It is ill this way, solely, by the tendencies and results 
 of actions, that natural religion teaches us our duty. 
 
 But it must be conceded that this mode of teaching, 
 by relations, and tendencies, and results, is not well 
 adapted to the common mind. Even to comprehend 
 these relations and tendencies fully, much more to trace 
 them out originally, requires a philosophic mind of the 
 highest order. In some cases, indeed, the tendency of 
 actions, or courses of action, is obvious, and the will of 
 God, when we believe in his being and perfections, is 
 thus as clearly indicated as it would be by a voice from 
 heaven ; but, in others, nothing can be more complex 
 or difficult of determination even after an experience 
 somewhat extended. After all their experience, men 
 are still divided on the tendencies and results of 
 a protective tariff, which we should think it would 
 be perfectly easy to test to the satisfaction of all ; 
 but so varied are the interests involved, and so com- 
 plex are the causes at work, that men seem now no 
 nearer an agreement respecting them than ever. And 
 if this is so on a subject to which attention is stimu- 
 lated by immediate interest, and which appeals to 
 interest alone, how much more must it be so with those 
 courses of action in which moral tendencies and results, 
 so obscure and tardy, are to be considered, and in 
 which the strong natural feelings of the heart are at 
 work to bias the judgment ? Accordingly, though the 
 teachings of nature have been open to all, and have 
 influenced all to some extent, yet it has been only 
 among the enlightened few, and at favored periods, 
 that a system of natural religion could be said to exist 
 at all, or that its teachings have exerted any consider- 
 able influence. Nor, when we consider how complex 
 
108 LECTURE IV. 
 
 are the tendencies of actions, and how remote aro 
 often their completed results, — how plausible are 
 some courses of action, which yet experience shows 
 to be injurious, — when we consider the eagerness 
 of passion, the blinding power of selfishness, how 
 opposed some of the virtues are to the strongest feel- 
 ings of men, and how evil practices, when once 
 adopted, perpetuate themselves and become fixed by 
 custom and association in the community, can we 
 wonder that nothing like a perfect system of natural 
 religion was ever discovered by man. 
 
 Teaching by inference, too, without any immediate 
 sanction to the laws she could establish, and witliout 
 any certain knowledge of a future retribution, there 
 was very little in the voice of natural religion to arrest 
 the attention of man. Accordingl}^, we find that her 
 teachings were overlooked and disregarded by the great 
 mass of men. They have been entirely drowned and 
 superseded by systems of idolatry, and superstition, 
 and fanaticism. Far, very far, therefore, have even 
 the wisest heathen been from listening to all the voices 
 uttered by Nature, from reading all the lessons of 
 wisdom and virtue inscribed on her pages. 
 
 It is, indeed, often difficult to know precisely how 
 much we ought to attribute to natural religion. It 
 seems certain that there was a primitive revelation 
 communicating the idea of sacrifices, and modifying 
 the religious and moral views of after times : rays of 
 light from the Jewish and Christian revelations may 
 have been more widely dispersed than we suppose, and 
 many things, when once made known, so commend 
 themselves to reason as to cause it to be felt that they 
 might have been discovered. Hence deists have 
 
LECTURE IV. 109 
 
 claimed several principles as discovered by reason, 
 as the pardon of sin on repentance, which are unques- 
 tionablv due to revelation alone. But whatever natu- 
 ral religion might teach, we do know that it cannot 
 teach facts, but only laws and tendencies. However 
 complete, therefore, we may suppose it, it never could 
 have taught those great facts which lie at the founda- 
 tion of a system of mercy ; but precisely how much of 
 duty it might have taught, we cannot say. We know, 
 also, that the whole of the system never was reasoned 
 out, nor is there the least reason to suppose it ever 
 would have been. 
 
 Now, if a system purporting to come from heaven, 
 comprises incidentally and naturally a perfect system 
 of natural religion, gathering up all the obscure voices 
 that Nature utters, tracing out the indistinct lines 
 which she has written ; if its precepts are often in 
 opposition to the common judgment and to the strong 
 feelings of men, and yet, when tested by tendencies 
 and results, are universally found to be sustained by 
 these sanctions of natural religion ; if it originated 
 among a people who had manifested no tendency to 
 philosophical studies, and from men without education, 
 then we may well inquire, " Whence had these men 
 this wisdom ? " The more we consider the extreme 
 difticulty of tracing out these tendencies, the minute and 
 comprehensive knowledge both of man and of nature 
 which it must require to do it perfectly, together with 
 the blinding influence of selfishness and passion in such 
 inquiries, the more highly shall we estimate the mar- 
 vellous sagacity that could gather up and imbody every 
 utterance and law of nature as declared by results. 
 
 But this Christianity has actually done. Here we 
 
110 LECTURE IV. 
 
 feel that we stand on firm ground. At this point, we 
 challenge the scrutiny of the infidel. We defy him to 
 point out a single duty even whispered by nature, 
 which is not also inculcated in the New Testament : 
 we defy him to point out a single precept of Chris- 
 tianity, a single course of action inculcated by it, 
 which does not, in proportion as it is followed, receive 
 the sanction of natural religion as declared by bene- 
 ficial consequences. In fact, moral philosophy, and 
 political economy, and the science of politics, the 
 sciences which teach men the rules of w^ell-being, 
 w hether as individuals, or as communities, are, so far 
 as they are sound, but experience and the structure 
 of organized nature echoing back the teachings of 
 Christianity. What principle of Christian ethics does 
 moral philosophy now presume to call in question ? 
 What are the general principles of political economy, 
 but an imperfect application, to the intercourse of 
 trading communities, of those rules of good neigh- 
 borhood, and of that spirit of kindness, which Chris- 
 tianity inculcates ? What is the larger part of political 
 science but a laborious and imperfect mode of realizing 
 those results in society which would flow spontane- 
 ously from the universal prevalence of Christian morals 
 and of a Christian spirit ? Does Christianity com- 
 mand us to be temperate ? Science, some eighteen 
 hundred years afterwards, discovers that temperance 
 alone is in accordance with what it calls the natural 
 laws ; and political economy reckons up the loss of 
 labor and of wealth resulting from intemperance ; and 
 then, after an untold amount of suffering, what do they 
 do but echo back the injunction, " Add to knowledge 
 temperance." Does the Bible command men to do no 
 
LECTURE IV. Ill 
 
 work on the seventh day, and to let then* cattle rest ? 
 It is now beginning to be discovered that this is in 
 accordance with an organic law, and that, thus doing, 
 both men and animals Mill be more healthy, and will 
 do more work. And so, in regard to every course that 
 would lead men to unhappiness, Christianity has stood 
 Irom the first at the entrance of the paths, and uttered 
 its warning cry. The nations have not heard it, but 
 have rushed by, and rushed on, till they have reaped 
 the fruit of their own devices in the corruption of 
 morals, in the confusion of society through oppression 
 and misrule; and then philosophy has condescended to 
 discover these evils, and, if it has done any thing for 
 the permanent relief of society, it has brought it back 
 to the letter or spirit of the gospel. The stern teach- 
 ings of experience are making it manifest, and they 
 will continue to do it more and more, that the Bible is 
 God's statute-book for the regulation of his moral crea- 
 tures, and that the laws of the Bible can no more be 
 violated with impunity than the natural law^s of God. 
 
 If Christianity had contained all the teachings of 
 natiu-al religion known at that day, had gathered up 
 all that the great and wise men of all previous time 
 had reasoned out, and had made some additions of 
 its own, it would have been most extraordinary, and 
 would have required for its production the greatest 
 philosopher of the age. But while it adopted many 
 things that were then taught, and rejected nothing 
 that was good, it completed the system for all ages, 
 leaving nothing for philosophy to do but to apply and 
 verify its principles. And in doing this, it promulga- 
 ted many things that were entirely contrary to all the 
 tastes and all the teachings both of the Jews and of 
 
112 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the Gentiles. Several of the fundamental principles of 
 Christian morality — such as, if adopted, would change 
 the face of society — were original with Christ, at least 
 in their practical enforcement, and were so opposed 
 to every thing taught among the Jews, that it was 
 with great difficulty and slowness that the disciples 
 themselves were made to understand them, or to con- 
 ceive the possibility of their adoption. Such, for ex- 
 ample, were its condemnation of war, and private 
 retaliation, and of polygamy, and of divorce except for 
 a single cause ; such its inculcation of purity of heart, 
 of meekness and humility, of the love of enemies, and 
 of universal benevolence. Such was its estimation of 
 the poor as standing on the same level of immortality 
 with the rich ; such its principle of self-denial for the 
 *^ good of others, its supreme regard to the will of God, 
 and its regard for the interests of the soul rather than 
 those of the body. So that Christ did not merely 
 make some improvements, such as a great genius 
 might be supposed to do ; nor did he, as Linnaeus in 
 botany, discover a new method or system, which gave 
 him a clew to vast stores of new knowledge ; but, 
 standing precisely where other men had stood, with 
 no education, with no knowledge of Greek or Roman 
 literature in the ordinary way, he adopted all that 
 was good in the prevalent systems, but still intro- 
 duced so much that was new, that the system, as a 
 whole, was not only perfect, but was a new and an 
 original system. The adoption of it was opposed by 
 every selfish principle, and seemed to require, and 
 often did require, the renunciation of life itself. But 
 the system was original in its motives as well as in 
 its principles. Many were led to adopt it, and now 
 
LECTURE IV. 113 
 
 we sec that it is tlirough these principles, and tliese 
 alone, that individuals and society can be made happy, 
 and we bow with humble reverence before that wis- 
 don] by which they were promulgated. Let these 
 princi})les be adopted and carried out, and we have 
 an entirely different world from that which could exist 
 on any others — a world from which the chief causes 
 of unhappiness are removed. 
 
 And is it possible that any human sagacity could 
 have adopted so much that was new, and yet have 
 excluded every thing that was injurious, or excessive, or 
 unbalanced? "With such an agent as man," says 
 Bishop Sumner, "and in a condition so complicated as 
 that of human society, it is no less dangerous than dif- 
 ficult to introduce new modes of conduct and new 
 principles of action. What extensive and unforeseen 
 results have sometimes proceeded from a single statute, 
 like that which provides for the support of the poor in 
 England; a single institution, like the trial by jury; 
 a single admission, like that of the supremacy of the 
 Roman pontiff; a single principle, as Luther's ap- 
 peal to the Bible ! "* And yet, here is a new system, 
 involving all the relations of human society, the re- 
 sults of which are invariably confirmed by those of 
 experience. 
 
 The only possible objection to the morality of Chris- 
 tianity is, that it is too perfect ; that, though it may fit 
 men for heaven, it will sulject those who adopt it to 
 injury and depredation here. But, whatever injury 
 may be done in this way is the result, not of Christi- 
 anity, but of a system of wickedness which it forbids ; 
 
 * Sumner's Evidences, chap. 8. 
 15 
 
114 LECTURE IV. 
 
 and surely it ought not to be made responsible for the 
 results of disobeying its precepts. It claims to be a 
 universal system. Let it be universally obeyed, and 
 the objection vanishes. 
 
 But there is another test to which the morality of 
 Christianity may be brought ; it may be tested, not 
 only by its tendencies, but by the conscience of man. 
 The utility of an action is one thing, its Tightness is 
 another. The understanding judges of the utility, the 
 conscience of the rightness, of actions. That the con- 
 science is not an infallible test in all cases, must be 
 conceded. It is liable to be both blunted and per- 
 verted. Still, with the light we now have, it is not 
 difficult to determine, respecting any system, whether 
 it does commend itself to the conscience of the race. 
 Let it stand before men from age to age, so as to come 
 in contact with the conscience, — and the more inti- 
 mately, the more the conscience is developed, — and if 
 it is found to teach that system, and those rules of con- 
 duct, in favor of which the conscience gives its verdict 
 as founded in the eternal rules of right, then either 
 it must have come from God, or it must be precisely 
 such a system as God would reveal, — for, plainly, 
 he would reveal no other. 
 
 And here I may remark, in passing, what is of great 
 importance, that Christianity is adapted to the moral 
 nature of man, not only as it meets the claims of con- 
 science as a discriminating power, but as it acts upon 
 it, quickening it and bringing it to perfection. It is 
 contradistinguished from every other system by its phil- 
 osophic perception that the full activity of conscience 
 is necessary to moral perfection, and by its direct 
 efforts and tendency, whether we regard its precepts 
 
LECTURE IV. 115 
 
 or its facts, to make it both tender and discriminating. 
 We all know that the very first effect of Christianity, 
 when it begins to act practically upon the mind, is to 
 arouse the conscience by convincing men of sin, of 
 righteousness, and of a coming judgment. 
 
 Does, then, Christianity, whether we consider it as 
 a system of doctrines or of morals, fully meet the de- 
 mands of the conscience as a discriminating j^ower ? 
 We say. Yes. We say that there is not a single prin- 
 ciple of moral government, not a single course of action, 
 not a temper of mind which it a})proves, which an 
 enlightened conscience does not also approve as right, 
 and suitable to the relations in which man is placed. 
 This, so far as the morality of Christianity is con- 
 cerned, I may safely say, because it is conceded by 
 infidels. There is no candid and well-informed man 
 who does not now concede that the morality of Chris- 
 tianity, whether tested by tendencies or by conscience, 
 is perfect ; that, if it were fully carried out, it would 
 promote happiness in all the relations of life, and that 
 it is the only system that can do so to the same extent. 
 
 But, in meeting this test, Christianity has had a task 
 to perform, the difficulty of which is seldom appre- 
 ciated. It was necessary that it should do four things, 
 neither of which has ever been done by any other 
 system. 
 
 And, first, it was necessary, not only that it should 
 assume a standard absolutely perfect, — which, however 
 far from any thing that man has ever done, would be 
 comparatively easy, — but that it should apply a perfect 
 law to those complex and infinitely diversified cases 
 which arise when law is violated. A perfect moral 
 government of perfect beings must require a perfect 
 
116 LECTURE IV. 
 
 law If Christianity is to meet the demands of the 
 conscience that has once recognized such a law, it must 
 utter no precept opposed to it — nothing opposed to 
 the highest standard of which we are capable of con- 
 ceiving. So long as a perfect state remained, the 
 simple law of perfection would be the only precept 
 required, and it would be comparatively easy to obey 
 it. The substance of the perfect law of God, is the 
 love of God and of our neighbor, and where this law 
 is perfectly observed, nothing can occur to provoke 
 ill-will. Hence there is in heaven no precept that, 
 when they are smitten on the one cheek, they shall 
 turn the other also. But Christianity lays down a 
 multitude of precepts intended to regulate, in the 
 spirit of a perfect rule, the intercourse of beings in- 
 clined to inflict upon each other injury and depreda- 
 tion. Does it, then, in order to meet the apparent 
 exigencies of the case, to conciliate to itself human 
 prejudice or passion, ever, in any of these subordinate 
 precepts, depart from its high requisitions, or abate any 
 thins; from the inteo;ritv of its original and fundamental 
 principle ? We know the opposition it encountered, 
 and that the true ground of that opposition was the 
 high standard it assumed. If it had been of the 
 world, the world would have loved its own. There 
 was, then, the strongest temptation, if not to Christ 
 himself, yet to those who succeeded him, to dilute this 
 original principle, and soften down their requirements, 
 lest they should incur the charge of inculcating an 
 impracticable morality. Have they done this? In no 
 case have they done it. There are no Jesuitical excep- 
 tions or reservations. Not only was Christ consistent 
 with himself in his minor precepts, but the apostles 
 
LECTURE IV. 117 
 
 were in every instance true to their trust, and no 
 stronger proof could be given, not only of integrity, hut 
 of wisdom. Nothing but the most })erfect int(?grity 
 could have adhered to the law in all its breadth, and 
 nothing but a divine wisdom could have accommodated 
 it to the very peculiar circumstances of man in this 
 world. The minor precepts of Christianity are all 
 consistent with its fundamental and its perfect law. 
 
 And here I may remark that not only docs Chris- 
 tianity sustain the authority of a j)erlect law, but, in 
 the line of conduct it lays dow n towards the injurious, 
 it has adopted the very principle which, according to 
 the laws of mental operation discovered in later times, 
 must tend in the greatest possible degree to diminish 
 injury. It is a well-ascertained fact, that the most 
 powerful mode of inculcating and exciting any quality, 
 or temper, is the distinct and vivid manifestation of 
 that temper. The manifestation of anger towards 
 another excites anger in him ; and the manifestation 
 of a meek and forgiving spirit has a tendency to dis- 
 arm hostility, and does all that can be done to prevent 
 ill-feeling. If, therefore, a man were to inquire how, 
 according to principles of mental philosophy alone, 
 he could do most to banish the malignant and selfish 
 passions from the earth, and make it like heaven, he 
 would be obliged to adopt the very course prescribed 
 by the New Testament. 
 
 But, secondly, Christianity, as I have already shown, 
 agrees with nature, so far as that goes, in its teachings 
 concerning the natural attributes of God, and con- 
 cerning morality ; but it reveals some things concern- 
 ing God peculiar to itself; and it imposes upon man 
 some new duties. The question, then, is, whether 
 
118 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the additionai revelations concerning God are in keep- 
 ing with those of nature, and whether they satisfy 
 the demands of the conscience for a perfect Being, 
 in the moral attributes which they reveal ; and, also, 
 whether the duties it imposes are agreeable to reason 
 and conscience. So far as Christianity coincides with 
 nature, I take it for granted that it satisfies the de- 
 mands of the conscience. Does it do this equally 
 when it passes on beyond nature to those independ- 
 ent and fuller revelations which it makes of God and 
 of duty, so tliat-the transition from the one to the 
 pjther - is ' only as that from the dim twilight to the 
 "-. -full blaze of day? We know something of God from 
 ^:y nature, just as we know something of the heavens 
 
 from the naked eye. Are, then, the revelations of 
 Christianity respecting him in keeping with those of 
 nature, only more imposing and magnificent, just as 
 the revelations of the telescope concerning the heav- 
 ens are in keeping with those of the naked eye, 
 while they so far transcend them ? 
 
 We are so accustomed to contemplate God as in- 
 vested with all those paternal and perfect moral attri- 
 butes with which Christianity clothes him, — to see 
 him in that amazing attitude of holy sovereignty and 
 paternal goodness in which it represents him, — that 
 this perfect combination of moral attributes, this com- 
 pleteness of moral character, in the Sovereign of the 
 universe, such that we should as soon think of adding 
 to infinite space as of adding any thing to its perfection, 
 seems as a matter of course, and we do not remember 
 how difficult it must have been to carry out the frag- 
 mentary revelation of nature to its absolute complete- 
 ness, and to combine with those tremendous natural 
 
LECTURE IV. 119 
 
 attributes, shadowed forth in tlic agencies of nature, 
 the benignity and mercy, the Justice and compassion, 
 that form the character of our Father in heaven. We 
 forget that Nature has her terrilic and fearful aspects, 
 her barren wastes, her regions of wild disorder, her 
 lightning and thunder, her tornadoes and earthquakes, 
 and her breath of pestilence, as well as her glad 
 voices, and her quiet sunshine that rests like a smile 
 on the face of creation, and her waving harvests, — 
 and that it is by her terrific aspects that men are most 
 impressed, and that hence they have been led to form 
 gloomy ideas of God, and not unfrequently to imper- 
 sonate the principle of evil into a sovereign divinity 
 whose wrath they were chiefly desirous of propitiating. 
 We forget the distressing perplexity in which the 
 greatest and best men of antiquity were respecting 
 the moral attributes of God, and the important fact 
 that theij never so conceived of him as to make the love 
 of God a duty. All this, I say, we seem to forget, and 
 to think it was a matter of course that Christianity 
 should thus carry out, into all conceivable perfection, 
 the dim revelations of nature concerning God. This 
 indeed it does with such ease, so incidentally, so lit- 
 tle with the pride or in the forms of philosophic dis- 
 quisition, that we scarcely give it credit for what it 
 does, though all this but renders it the more remarka- 
 ble. It is related of a palace built by genii, that all 
 the treasures of a great monarch were inadequate to 
 complete one of the windows purposely left unfinished. 
 And when I see how fragmentary the structure of 
 religious knowledge was left by nature, — when I see 
 how inadequate all the labors of man had proved for 
 its completion, — and when I look at the glorious and 
 
120 LECTURE IV. 
 
 completed dome reared by Christianity, I cannot but 
 feel that other than human hands have been employed 
 in the structure. The first and fundamental condition 
 of a perfect religion — of one which can do all for 
 the moral powers that can be done for them — is a 
 perfect character in the object of worship. The mind 
 is naturally assimilated to the object which it contem- 
 plates with delight, and especially which it worships ; 
 and it is demonstrable, on principles of reason, that, 
 unless the character of the God of Christianity is 
 absolutely perfect, then that character not only will 
 not meet the demands of the conscience, but can never 
 do for man, in the elevation and perfection of his char- 
 acter, all that could be done for him. But, the more 
 we dwell on it, the more we shall see that the charac- 
 ter of the God of the Bible is absolutely perfect, and 
 therefore, either the God of Christianity is the true 
 God, or there can be no being who shall be God to 
 us — none who shall meet that conception of absolute 
 perfection which w^e form in our minds, and feel that 
 we must transfer to him. 
 
 Of the new duties demanded by Christianity, it may 
 be said that they are in no case arbitrary and ca- 
 pricious, but are exactly those which grow out of the 
 new relations in which we are placed by Christianity, 
 and which the conscience cannot but approve the 
 moment these relations are perceived. Thus, if God 
 has shown us new evidence of love through Chris- 
 tianity, then are we under new obligations of gratitude 
 to him. If Christ has signally interposed in our be- 
 half, then we are under obligations to him in propor- 
 tion to what he has done for us. If we are intrusted 
 by Christianity with good tidings of great joy, then 
 
LECTURE IV. 121 
 
 we are under obligation to j)ublisli them to all 
 people. 
 
 Thus, whether we consider the additional revelation 
 of Christianity respecting God or duty, we find that 
 it perfectly meets the demands of an enlightened 
 conscience. 
 
 But in neither of the particidars just mentioned do 
 we find the most difficult task which Christianity had 
 to perform, if it would meet the demands of conscience. 
 Its professed object was to introduce a system of len- 
 ity. And was it possible it should do this, and still 
 cause that perfect law, which, if it meet the demands 
 of the conscience, it must sustain, to appear as strict 
 and binding as if no such system had been introduced? 
 This it must do if it meets the demands of the con- 
 science ; for, when once that has obtained the concep- 
 tion of absolute moral perfection, nothing can satisfy it 
 which would weaken the obligation of that. Here is 
 a fundamental difficulty. Whatever Christianity may 
 profess, does not lenity, in the nature of the case, tend 
 to weaken the sanctions of law, and to detract from its 
 binding force ? Is it possible to conceive of a law- 
 giver who remits the just penalty of crime, and, at the 
 same time, manifests the same abhorrence of it, and 
 the same anxiety to guard against its commission, as 
 he would have done if he had caused the penalty to 
 be executed? All good men agree in the essential 
 principle, that the full authority of God's law must be 
 sustained. But how can this be done while pardon is 
 granted ? This is a difficulty which if Christianity 
 has not removed, it is not because it has not perceived 
 it, and made the attempt. " That he might be just, 
 and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus," is 
 
 16 
 
122 LECTURE IV. 
 
 declared by the apostle to be the great object of all 
 that had been done by God in introducing the Chris- 
 tian revelation. This is the very centre and soul of 
 Christianity ; and, if it has not accomplished this, then 
 has it failed of the very end proposed by itself. This 
 is a question which is not stated even, in any false 
 religion, because that all -important conception of the 
 holiness of God, out of which it grows, has not been 
 sufficiently distinct to produce it. If men have offered 
 sacrifices, and submitted to torture, it has been under 
 the impression that God might be moved like an earthly 
 monarch, and never under the idea of him as having an 
 impartial and inflexible adherence to rectitude, or with 
 the purpose of bringing forgiveness within the range 
 of any great principle. But this question a religion 
 that would deal fairly with an enlightened mind must 
 meet. This problem it must solve. Standing where 
 I do, it would not become me to state the method in 
 which I suppose Christianity has solved this problem. 
 I intend to enter upon no disputed doctrines. I 
 take it for granted that all Christians suppose the 
 mercy of God to be entirely compatible with his 
 perfect holiness. Let individuals adopt what views 
 they choose in respect to the method in which this is 
 accomplished. I wish solely to draw attention to the 
 difficulty of the problem, to the fact that this difficulty 
 was fully understood by the original writers on Chris- 
 tianity, and that they profess to have solved it. If 
 they have done this, then how divine the wisdom 
 which could so perfectly meet the demands of the 
 most enlightened conscience by sustaining law, and at 
 the same time provide for the wants of the guilty! 
 Problems so high, human systems do not attempt to 
 
LECTURE IV. 123 
 
 solve ; wisdom so divine as must be involved in the 
 solution of this, they do not^ manifest. 
 
 There is one thing more ^^hich it behoved Chris- 
 tianity to do, if it would meet the demands of 
 conscience as a discriminating power. It was, to sat- 
 isfy our natural sense of justice with reference to 
 the disorders of this present world. These disorders, 
 in the height to which they have risen, have always 
 presented a great moral enigma to those who have 
 reasoned concerning the providence and moral govern- 
 ment of God. This was strongly felt and strongly 
 stated as long ago as the time of Job. "Some," says 
 he, " remove the landmarks ; they violently take 
 away flocks, and feed thereof. They drive away the 
 ass of the fatherless. They take the widow's ox for 
 a pledge. They cause the naked to lodge without 
 clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. 
 They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a 
 pledge of the poor. Men groan from out of the city, 
 and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth 
 not folly to them." " Wherefore do the wicked live, 
 become old, yea, are mighty in power ? Their seed 
 is established in their sight with them, and their off- 
 spring before their eyes. They spend their days in 
 wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave." 
 "^The earth," says he, "is given into the hand of the 
 wicked ; he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; 
 if not," — as much as to say, this must be allowed 
 whether we can reconcile it to the righteous govern- 
 ment of God or not, — " if not, where and who is 
 he ? " Thus was this wise and good man perplexed 
 before the light of Christianity. The psalmist found 
 no relief under the same difficulty until he went to the 
 
124 LECTURE IV. 
 
 sanctuary of God, and there saw the end of the 
 wicked. Solomon, too, says, " Moreover I saw under 
 the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was 
 there ; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was 
 there. I said in mine heart " — then he said, when 
 he saw^ this, as furnishing the only solution of the 
 difficulty — "God shall judge the righteous and the 
 wicked." Nor does the picture assume a brighter hue 
 as we come down the ages. History is full of multi- 
 jDlied, and aggravated, and unredressed wrongs, in- 
 flicted by man upon man. Look at the slave-trade. , 
 Look at slavery as it exists now. Look at the peas- 
 antry of Europe. Look at Poland. Or, if we turn 
 from the contemplation of open and high-handed 
 violence, to consider the triumphs of injustice ; the 
 success of fraud ; the spoliations and heartless atroci- 
 ties which are effected under the forms of law ; the 
 wrongs, and cruelties, and petty tyrannies, that are ex- 
 ercised in families, and imbitter the lives of thousands, 
 our difficulties will not be diminished. Surely, to 
 a thoughtful man, without revelation, this world must 
 present a most perplexing and discouraging spectacle. 
 He must see that there are injuries for which there 
 is no redress upon earth, questions unsettled for which 
 there is no adjudication here ; and, while he has 
 no satisfactory evidence that a time of adjudication 
 will ever come, he must feel that a violence is done to 
 his moral nature if these questions are to be cut short 
 by death, and left unsettled forever. To this state of 
 perplexity, so natural and so universal, Christianity 
 furnishes complete relief. It gives us the most positive 
 assurance that these questions shall be carried up to 
 an impartial tribunal. It makes known to us the 
 
LECTURE IV. 12S 
 
 judge and the rules of the proceedings of that great 
 "day of the restitution of all things;" — yes, "the 
 restitution of all things." When it is known that this 
 is to be, then the perplexed and agonized heart is set 
 at rest. Then, and not till then, there is felt to be a 
 congruity between the course of events, as they shall 
 ultimately terminate, and our moral frame and the de- 
 mands of the conscience are fully met. 
 
 What I would say, then, is, that Christianity com- 
 mends itself to a conscience fully enlightened, not 
 only in its morality, but by uniformly adhering to a ^ 
 
 perfect standard of rectitude, and under circumstances 
 which, to mere human wisdom, would seem to be 
 incompatible with it. Man is capable of forming the 
 idea of moral perfection ; and, having once formed it, 
 his moral nature requires that a religion claiming to 
 come from God should neither command nor reveal 
 any thing incompatible with that idea. The necessity 
 of meeting this requisition, whether man is regarded 
 as possessed of discriminating powers simply, or as a 
 being to be elevated and assimilated to something 
 higher and better than himself, Christianity, and that 
 alone, has fully perceived ; and it will be seen that it was 
 this very necessity which created the difficulty in each 
 of the cases that I have stated. In the first case, it 
 was necessary that precepts should be laid down which 
 should be compatible both with a perfect law, and with 
 the state of things in this world, so that the conduct 
 required should be neither wrong nor impracticable. 
 Who but C^^rist and his followers has ever done this ? 
 Who else has ever attempted it without conceding 
 much to human weakness and frailty? In the second 
 case, the difficulty lay in carrying out the moral char- 
 
/ 
 
 126 LECTURE IV. 
 
 acter of God, to the perfection required by the con 
 science, from the imperfect and often seemingly con- 
 tradictory revelations of nature. In the third case, it 
 consisted in reconciling a system of lenity with the 
 claims of this same perfect standard ; and, in the fourth 
 case, in revealing a method by which, in the adminis- 
 tration of God, the disorders of this world are recon- 
 ciled with the present existence and ultimate triumph 
 of a perfect law. In each of these cases, therefore, the 
 principle is the same. That there must be a perfect 
 standard established and maintained, both in the char- 
 acter and law of God, is settled. That is taken for 
 granted ; and the difficulty lay in reconciling other 
 things with that, which apparently only a divine wis- 
 dom could have reconciled. 
 
 To my mind, the argument from these cases is of 
 great weight. But, leaving them aside, I lay my finger 
 upon the morality of Christianity, whether tested by 
 consequences or by the conscience, and I claim that it 
 is perfect — "that the virtues inculcated in the gospel 
 are the only virtues which we can imagine a heavenly 
 teacher to inculcate." Is, then, this claim allowed? 
 It has been allowed by infidels, and I feel confident it 
 must be by every candid man. But if so, who does 
 not see that a perfect system of duty must come from 
 God ? Who does not see the absurdity of supposing 
 that it should be originated in connection with a sys- 
 tem of falsehood and imposture ? 
 
 And this morality is the more remarkable^^jl^ause 
 the great and primary object of Christiantty ^inot to 
 regulate the relations of earthly society, or to provide 
 for the welfare of man in this life. It is to bring " life 
 and immortality to light," and to prepare men for that 
 
LECTURE IV. 127 
 
 immortality. In its spirit, we must indeed suppose 
 this morality to belong to the heavenly state ; but in 
 many of the forms of its manifestation, it is but the 
 earthly garment of Christianity — but as the mantle of 
 the ascending prophet, which fell from him when he 
 was translated. Great, then, as is the work, and the 
 blessing of a perfect system of morality, it is only 
 incidental ; it is only as a branch from the maili stem 
 of that species of the palm-tree well known in India, 
 which still passes on upward, and produces its fruit 
 from a single magnificent blossom at the top. This 
 morality is an infinite blessing ; it is the fruit of Chris- 
 tianity ; but it is borne, as it were, only by its lower 
 branches, while it is the great doctrine of salvation, 
 of " life and immortality brought to light," that ex- 
 pands at its top, and sheds its fragrance over the 
 nations. 
 
 Men, then, may say \A^iat they please of the power 
 of the human mind to make discoveries in moral 
 science ; but to me it seems that to suppose a system 
 like this, thus perfectly coinciding with all the teach- 
 ings of natural religion and with the requisitions of 
 conscience, to have originated with peasants and fish- 
 ermen of Galilee, requires nothing less than the capa- 
 cious credulity of an infidel. 
 
 But a single question more arises on this subject. 
 May not a man adopt the morality taught by Chris- 
 tianity, and reject the religion ? It is very conceivable 
 that a system of morality and of religion should coexist, 
 and yet not be necessarily connected. The* morality 
 may be correct, as was much of that taught by Cicero in 
 his book De Officiis, and yet the religion with wiiich it 
 
128 LECTURE IV. 
 
 is associated maj be entirely false. The precepts may 
 have no connection with the facts, or doctrines, or rites, 
 of the religion. This has been the case with all false 
 religions. There has been no tendency in the doc- 
 trines or facts of the religion to form men to the prac- 
 tice of moral virtue. The morality has often been 
 better than the religion, and might be easily separated 
 from if. And if this has been so with other religions, 
 why may it not be so with Christianity ? This ques- 
 tion I am bound to notice, because infidels have not 
 been backward in conceding to the morality of Chris- 
 tianity all that we ask. They speak in terms of high 
 eulogy of the Sermon on the Mount ; they eagerly claim 
 whatever they can of its peculiar doctrines as the 
 teachings of nature, and seem to perceive no difficulty 
 even in admitting that the moralit}^ is perfect, and yet 
 rejecting the religion. The doctrines of Christianity 
 are no less peculiar and striking than its morality, and 
 the question is, whether we can logically, or rationally, 
 receive the morality and reject the doctrines. I think 
 not ; because, 
 
 First, it seems to me, as I have already attempted to 
 show, that man could not have originated such a sys- 
 tem of morals. When I stand between two cliifs rent 
 asunder by a convulsion of nature, I do not need to be 
 told that that passage was not opened by a human arm. 
 When I see the bow spanning the heavens, I do not 
 need to be told that no human hand has bended it. 
 So, when I compare such a system with the intellectual 
 and moral power of man, and especially with all the 
 attempts he has actually made, I feel that there is an 
 utter disparity between them. But no one who admits 
 the morality to be of divine origin, will hesitate to 
 admit that the rebgion is also. 
 
LECTURE IV. 129 
 
 But, secondly, it is incredible and contradictory, 
 contrary to all the known laws of mind, to suppose 
 that men whose moral discrimination and susceptibil- 
 ities were so acute — who could originate a system so 
 pure, so elevated, so utterly opposed to all falsehood — 
 should, without reason or motive that we can see, 
 deliberately attempt to deceive mankind concerning 
 their highest interests. If they had a system of mo- 
 rality to comnmnicate, why did they not, like honest 
 men, communicate it as an abstract system, unencum- 
 bered with doctrines which were, and which they 
 must have foreseen would be, to the Jews a stumbling- 
 block and to the Greeks foolishness ? Why did they 
 connect with it a narrative of facts which*, if false, 
 might have been easily disproved ? How much more 
 safe and dignified to have delivered the system. in its 
 abstract form, after the manner of the philosophers ! 
 The combination of folly and wickedness, which such 
 a course would involve, with those high qualities, both 
 of the intellect and of the heart, in which alone such 
 a system could have originated, seems to me impos- 
 sible. 
 
 Thirdly, the intimate connection which ought to 
 exist, and which naturally does exist, between moral- 
 ity and religion, forbids such a supposition. There* 
 are those, I know, who say that the foundations of 
 morality in man are different from those of religion ; 
 and I am not disposed to deny that certain faculties 
 are called into high activity, in religion, which are 
 excited slightly, if at all, in the duties of morality^ 
 Still, so far as duty is concerned, which is the whole 
 of morality, and which is the central and indispen- 
 sable part of any true religion, they both appeal to 
 
 17 
 
130 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the same conscience, and to that alone. Dependmg 
 thus upon a common faculty, a true religion and a 
 true morality must have an essential unity, and I 
 greatly doubt whether a perfect system of one can be 
 associated with a false system of the other. 
 
 It is certain that a perfect religion must comprise 
 a perfect morality, because a perfect religion must 
 include every religious duty, and we are under obliga- 
 tions to perform our duty to our fellow-creatures, not 
 simply from our relations to them, but because the 
 performance of that duty is the will of God. Hence 
 every moral duty is, and must be, also binding as a 
 religious duty ; and hence no man can be truly reli- 
 gious further than he is moral. But if the duties of 
 a perfect religion would include those of morality, 
 the duties of a perfect morality would not, it may be 
 said, include those of religion. They would not, in 
 the same sense. Still, the duties of morality being 
 recognized by the same faculty as those of religion, 
 and in the same way, and the principle of duty being 
 one, w^e cannot conceive of a truly moral man, one 
 who performs his duties as such, who is not also 
 religious so far as his known relations to God would 
 teach him his duty. The conscience, as such, must 
 respond to the call of duty wherever that call is heard. 
 Nor can we conceive that a perfect system of moral 
 duty should coalesce and harmonize with the religious 
 duty taught by a system of falsehood, such as the 
 Christian religion must be if it did not come from 
 God. But, in the Christian system, the moral and 
 the religious duties do evidently thus coalesce and 
 form a part of one independent whole. The reli- 
 gious morality of the Bible, if I may call it so, that 
 
LECTURE IV- 131 
 
 which relates to God, is quite as extraordinary as that 
 which relates to man ; it is quite as far elevated above 
 that of any other system ; and these, when united 
 and interwoven as they are in the Bible, form one 
 whole, perfect and complete. Besides, it may well be 
 doubted whether a perfect system of morality could 
 be laid down, even in an abstract or tabular form, in 
 connection with a false religion, because many of our 
 duties to our fellow-men, as well as the motives by 
 which they are enforced, arise out of our relations 
 to tJiem as the children of a common parent, and a 
 knowledge of tiiese relations can come only from a 
 true religion. If, therefore, the morality is what we 
 claim it to be, the religion must also be true. 
 
 But I observe, once more, that the peculiar morality 
 of Christianity so grows out of its facts and doctrines, 
 and so derives from them its power, that it cannot be 
 separated from them. It does not lie in the religion 
 as the gem does in the rock, but is an organized part 
 of one vital whole. It is as the hands and the feet to 
 the heart and the brain. And here we find incident- 
 ally a strong evidence of the wisdom and divine origin 
 of Christianity. What but a divine wisdom could 
 cause all the great doctrines and facts of such a re- 
 ligion to bear, either in the way of instruction or 
 motive, upon the formation of a right moral character ? 
 How difficult — I may say how impossible — that a 
 writer of fiction should introduce an extraordinary per- 
 son, like Christ, possessed of high supernatural powers, 
 and yet not attribute to him one wild or fanciful 
 adventure, such as we find in every account of heathen 
 gods ; not one capricious, or selfish, or unworthy ex- 
 ertion of his miraculous powers ; but that he should 
 
132 LECTURE IV. 
 
 make all the exertions of those powers, and all the 
 events of his life, such that they bear powerfully as 
 motives on the practice of a then unheard-of, but per- 
 fect morality ! As I have already said, there are many 
 new duties growing out of the new relations in which 
 we are placed by the facts of Christianity ; but not to 
 these only, to every duty, those facts furnish new and 
 powerful motives, without which the system, as a 
 practical whole, has no power. Certainly, it is from 
 the character of God as revealed by Christianity, and 
 from the new relations assumed by him towards us, 
 that the most effective motives are drawn for the per- 
 formance of many of our duties towards our fellow-men. 
 The paternal relation of God to man, as a practical 
 doctrine, is made known only by Christianity. It is 
 true — what was said by Madame De Stael — that, 
 if Christ had simply taught men to say, "Our Father," 
 he would have been the greatest benefactor of the race. 
 If the heathen had some notion of the beneficence 
 of the supreme power, from the operation of general 
 law^s, yet there was a difference heaven-wide between 
 that and all that is involved in the doctrine of a par- 
 ticular providence and of paternal regard and super- 
 vision. Yet how effectively does Christ himself use 
 this doctrine, and those high moral qualities revealed 
 in connection with it, to enforce practical duty ! Does 
 he command us to love our enemies, and bless them 
 that curse us ? It is that we may be the children of 
 our Father which is in heaven, who " maketh his sun 
 to rise on the evil and on the good." Does he teach 
 us the duty of forgiveness ? It is because God forgives 
 us. If the master forgives the debt of ten thousand 
 talents, the servant should forgive his fellow-servant 
 
LECTURE IV. 133 
 
 the debt of a hundred pence. Does he teach that tlie 
 pure in heart are blessed ? It is because " thej shall 
 see God." Does he teach the duty of letting our light 
 shine ? It is that we may glorify our Father which is 
 in heaven. Would an apostle teach men the duty of 
 mutual love ? " Herein," says he, " is love ; not that 
 we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son 
 to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God 
 so loved us, we ought also to love one another." And 
 in the same way are the character and acts of Christ 
 referred to. Would Peter teach us to bear injuries 
 patiently ? He tells us of Him " who, when he was 
 reviled, reviled not again ; when he sufft^red, he threat- 
 ened not ; but committed himself to Him that Judgeth 
 righteously." Would Paul teach us lowliness of mind, 
 and to esteem others better than ourselves, what is 
 his argument ? He says, " Let this mind be in you, 
 which was also in Christ Jesus ; who, being in the form 
 of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 
 but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him 
 the form of a servant." Indeed, the more we exam- 
 ine this point, the more we shall be surprised to see 
 how almost exclusively the motives to Christian mo- 
 rality are drawn from the Christian religion, and how 
 its doctrines, and facts, and motives, and precepts, 
 all coalesce and become indissolubly united in one 
 harmonious and perfect whole. 
 
 Let no one suppose, then, that he can separate 
 Christian morality from the Christian religion. What- 
 ever the origin of this religion may have been, it is no 
 heterogeneous mass promiscuously thrown together. 
 It is obviously one, and must be accepted or rejected 
 as one. From the nature of the case, therefore, we 
 
134 LECTURE IV. 
 
 might expect — what all experience shows has hap- 
 pened — that any attempt to separate this morality 
 from this religion, and yet give it power, woidd be like 
 the attempt to separate the branch from the parent 
 stock, and yet cause it to live. We might expect, if 
 we were ever to see a perfect morality coming up 
 from the wilderness of this world, that she would 
 come, not walking alone, but "leaning upon her 
 Beloved." 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
 ADAPTATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE CONSCIENCE, CON- 
 SIDERED AS A POWER CAPABLE OF IMPROVEMENT — ITS 
 ADAPTATION TO THE INTELLECT, THE AFFECTIONS, THE 
 IMAGINATION, AND THE WILL. 
 
 Christianity is analogous to nature ; it coincides 
 with natural religion, and it is adapted to the moral 
 nature of man. This adaptation may be said to exist 
 if it satisfy the conscience as a discriminating power, 
 and if it has a tendency to quicken and exalt its action, 
 considered as a power needing improvement. This 
 last point I regard as of great importance. If it can 
 be shown that the moral powers are quickened and 
 perfected in proportion as the mind comes under the 
 legitimate action of any system, that system must be 
 from God. That a false system should tend to perfect 
 the conscience in its discriminating, and impulsive, and 
 rewarding, and punishing power, would be not only 
 impossible, but suicidal. It would purge the eye to 
 a quicker perception of its own deformities, and nerve 
 the arm for its own overthrown Accordingly, there is 
 no tendency in any system, except the Christian, to 
 create a pure and an efficient individual or public con- 
 science. Other systems act upon men through pre- 
 scription, through awe and reverence, and hope and' 
 
136 LECTURE V. 
 
 fear, and not by commending themselves as righteous 
 to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But 
 Chiistianity, by the perfect standard which it sets up 
 in the character of God and of his law, by its doc- 
 trines of the universal and constant inspection of a 
 righteous God, and of a future judgment, by its amaz- 
 ing sanctions, and especially by the light in which it 
 places all sin as ingratitude to an infinite Benefactor, 
 does all that we can conceive any system to do to 
 quicken and to perfect the powers of moral perception 
 and of action. The adjustments of the system are 
 made ; they are perfect ; it only needs to be applied. 
 Accordingly, we find that an efficient and an enlightened 
 conscience exists just in proportion to the prevalence 
 of pure Christianity ; and we must see that its full in- 
 fluence would banish moral evil as the sun disperses 
 the darkness. It is by the light and strength drawn 
 from Christianity itself that we are able to apply 
 many of those tests which we now apply in judging 
 of it ; and the more fully we are under its influence, 
 the more competent shall we be to apply such tests, 
 and the more convincing will be the evidence derived 
 from their application. 
 
 Having made these few additional remarks respect- 
 ing the adaptation of Christianity to the conscience, I 
 now proceed to speak of its adaptation to the intellect, 
 to the affections, to the imagination, and to the wifl. 
 
 By the adaptation of Christianity to the inteUect, I 
 mean its tendency to give it clearness and strength. 
 I mean by it just what is meant when it is said that 
 nature is adapted to the intellect. The intellect is 
 
LECTURE V. 137 
 
 enlarged and strengthened by the exercise of its pow- 
 ers on suitable subjects. This exercise can be induced 
 in only two ways — by furnishing it with information^ 
 or by leading it to stiuhj and rcjiection ; and which- 
 ever of these we regard, we need not fear to compare 
 Christianity with nature as adapted to enlarge and 
 strengthen the intellectual powers. 
 
 And, first, of information. If we consider the Chris- 
 tian revelation, as we fairly may in this connection, as 
 it recognizes, includes, and presupposes the Old Testa- 
 ment, there is no book that can compare with it for 
 the variety and importance of the information it gives ; 
 nor can it be exceeded by nature itself. From this, and 
 from this alone, do we know any thing of the origin 
 of the world and of the human race ; of the introduc- 
 tion of natural and moral evil ; of the history of men 
 before the deluge ; of the deluge itself, as connected 
 with the race of man ; of the early settlement and dis- 
 persions of the race ; of the history of the Jews ; and 
 of the history of the early rise and progress of Chris- 
 tianity. Without the Bible, an impenetrable curtain 
 would be dropped between us and the whole history 
 of the race farther back than the Greeks ; and who 
 does not feel that the letting down of such a curtain 
 would act upon the mind, not simply by the amount of 
 information it would withdraw, but with the effect of 
 a chill and a paralysis, from the necessity of that infoi ■ 
 mation to give completeness to knowledge as an organ- 
 ized whole ? It would be like taking the hook out of 
 the beam on which the whole chain hangs. And, again, 
 w4iat information gained from nature can be more 
 interesting than that which the Bible gives concerning 
 God as a Father, concerning his universal providence, 
 
 13 
 
138 LECTURE V. 
 
 our accountability, a resurrection from the dead, the 
 second coming of Christ, and an eternal life ? Who 
 would su})stitute the mists of conjecture for this mighty 
 background, piled up by revelation along the horizon 
 of the future ? 
 
 But, to say nothing of information, as it is not from 
 that that the mind gains its chief efficiency ; I infer 
 that Christianity is adapted to the intellect, 1st, From 
 the fact of the identity of its spirit with that of true 
 philosophy. Of this I have ah-eady spoken. 
 
 2. Christianity is indirectly fovorable to the intel- 
 lect by bringing men out from under the dominion 
 of sensuality and of those low vices by which it is 
 checked and dwarfed in its growth. The temper- 
 ance and sobriety of life which it enjoins are essen- 
 tial, as conditions, to the full expansion and power 
 of the intellect. 
 
 3. That Christianity is favorable to the intellect, 
 is obvious from the place which it assigns to truth. 
 Truth, in this system, lies at the foundation of every 
 thing. It is contradistinguished from every other sys- 
 tem, pretending to come from God, by this. Christ 
 said that he came into the world to bear witness of 
 the truth. He prayed that God would sanctify men, 
 but it was through the truth. It seems to have been 
 the object of Christ to place his disciples in a position 
 in which they could intelligently, as well as affection- 
 ately, yield themselves to him, and to the government 
 of God. How remarkable are his words ! " Hence- 
 forth," says he, " I call you not servants ; for the 
 servant knoweth not what his lord doeth : but I have 
 called you friends; for all things that I have heard of 
 my Father, I have made known unto you." Christ 
 
LECTURE V. 139 
 
 is spoken of as a liglit to lighten tlic Gentiles. The 
 objeet of Paul was to turn men from darkness to lioht, 
 as well as from the power of Satan unto God. He 
 spoke the words of truth as well as of soberness. If 
 he was strongly moved hy the conduct of a church, 
 it was because it did not obey the truth. Does the 
 beloved disciple exhort the elect lady not to receive 
 some into her house ? It is those who do not teach 
 the truth. Light in the understanding is scarcely less 
 an object, with Christianity, than purity in the affec- 
 tions. Its whole scope and tendency is to magnify 
 the importance of truth. The enemies of Christianity 
 cannot point out any thing, either in its letter or spirit, 
 which would restrict knowledge or cramp the intel- 
 lect. We are, indeed, required to have faith ; but 
 we are also required to " add to faith knowledge." 
 We are to adopt no conviction on the ground of any 
 blind impulse ; we are always to be able to give a 
 reason of the hope that is in us. We glory in Chris- 
 tianity, as a religion of light not less than a religion 
 of love. 
 
 4. Christianity is favorable to the intellect, because, 
 wherever it exists in i^s purity, there must be freedom 
 of opinion, and this is one great condition of vigorous 
 intellect. Recognizing truth as the great instrument 
 of moral power and of moral changes in the soul, 
 making no account of any forms, or external conduct 
 not springing from conviction, Christianity claims truth 
 as the right of the human soul. What was the fun- 
 damental principle of the Reformation, but the right 
 of the people to the truth, and the whole truth — 
 access for themselves to its fountain-head in the 
 Bible? And whence did that principle spring, but 
 
140 LECTURE V. 
 
 from the Bible itself, from that Bible found and read 
 by Luther? It is to the very book he abuses that 
 the infidel owes that freedom by which he is permitted 
 to abuse it ; for where, except where the Bible has in- 
 fluence, do you find opinion free ? The fact is, that 
 Christianity gives to God and truth a supremacy in the 
 mind which unfits man for becoming either the dupe 
 or the tool of designing men ; and hence, chiefly, their 
 attempts to corrupt it, and to take it from the people. 
 5. But I have intimated that Christianity is adapted 
 to the intellect in the same way that nature is. I 
 wish to show^ this. How is it, then, that nature im- 
 proves the mind ? Evidently only as it contains 
 thought. Mind cannot commune with chaotic matter, 
 but only with mind ; and therefore the study of nature 
 can improve the intellect only as we gain from it the 
 thought of its Author. It would seem to be plain that 
 nothing, whether a book, or a machine, or a work of 
 art, or of nature, can be a profitable object of study, 
 except for the thought it contains ; and that when 
 the whole of that thought is grasped by the mind, 
 there can be no longer any improvement in the study 
 of that object. And Nature seems to be so construct- 
 ed, in almost all her departments, (perhaps for the very 
 purpose of training the intellect,) as to render it dif- 
 ficult to discover the controlling thought according 
 to which they were constructed. On the surface, all 
 seems confused and irregular ; but as we penetrate 
 deeper, perhaps by long processes of observation and 
 induction, we find a principle of order and harmony 
 running through all. What more confused, apparent- 
 ly, than the motions and appearances of the heavenly 
 bodies? See, now, the ancient astronomer studying 
 
LECTURE V. 141 
 
 these appearances. How does he grope in the dark ! 
 How fanciful and inadequate are his hypotheses ! 
 Plainly, he is but groping after the true idea or 
 thought of the system, as it lay in the mind of God. 
 Give him this carried out into its details, and he has 
 the science of astronomy completed. It has nothing 
 more to sav to him. So the heavens are constructed : 
 so they move. Not less confused to the eye of man, 
 for ages, was the vegetable creation ; but at length, 
 running like a line of light through all its species and 
 genera, the true principle of classification was found. 
 So it was in chemistry ; so in geology, if, indeed, the 
 true thought there be yet found. 
 
 .It would appear, then, that nature is adapted to the 
 intellect of man only, first, as it contains the thought 
 of God ; and, secondly, as it is so constructed as to 
 stimulate and task the powers of the intellect in the 
 attainment of that thought. Now, I have no right 
 to assume, here, that the Bible contains the true 
 thought of God ; but I do say that its thoughts are not 
 less grand and exciting than those of nature, and that 
 there is between its construction and that of nature 
 a singular analogy, as adapted to the intellect. There 
 is the same apparent want of order and adjustment, 
 and the same deep harmony, running through the 
 whole. An individual truth, revealed in one age for 
 a particular purpose, and, by itself, adapted to the use 
 of man, lies imbedded here, and another there. By 
 comparison, it is seen that they may come together, as 
 bone to its fellow-bone, till, at length, the mammoth 
 framework of a complete organization stands before 
 us. Does the Bible contain a system of theology ? 
 Yes, a complete system ; but it contains it as the 
 
142 LECTURE V. 
 
 heavens contain the system of astronomy. Its truths 
 lie there in no logical order. They appear at first like 
 a map of the apparent motions of tiie planets, whose 
 paths seem to cross each other in all directions ; but 
 you have only to find the true centre, and the orbs of 
 truth take their places, and circle around it like the 
 stars of heaven. And I venture to say that the 
 efforts of thought, the struggles of intellect, that have 
 been called forth for the adjustment of this system, 
 have done more for the human mind than its efforts 
 in any other science. Its questions have stirred, not 
 the minds of philosophers alone, but every meditative 
 human soul. Does the Bible contain a system of 
 ethics ? Yes ; but it is as the earth contains a system 
 of geology ; and long might the eye of the listless or 
 unscientific reader rest upon its pages without discov- 
 erins; that the system was there, — just as men trod the 
 earth for near six thousand years without discovering 
 that its surface was a regular structure, with its strata 
 arranged in an assignable order. And after we have 
 reason to suppose there is a system, whether in nature 
 or the Bible, we often find facts that seem to contradict 
 each other, that can be reconciled only by the most 
 patient attention ; perhaps, in the present state of 
 our knowledge, cannot be reconciled at all. How 
 strong, then, is the argument, drawn from this struc- 
 ture of the Bible, that it did not originate in the mind 
 of man ! The mind loves unity ; it seeks to sys- 
 tematize every thing. It is in finished systems that 
 great minds produce their works, never leaving truths, 
 seemingly incompatible, lying side by side, and re- 
 quiring or expecting us to adopt them both. But so 
 does the Bible, and so does nature. Our conclusion, 
 
LECTURE V. 143 
 
 cherefore, is that, if nature is adapted to tlic mind of 
 man, so, and on the same principle, is the Bible. 
 
 6. Once more, Christianity is adapted to the; intel- 
 lect because it puts it in possession of a higher kind 
 of knowledge than nature can give. It solves ques- 
 tions of a different order, and those, too, which man, 
 as an intellectual being, most needs to have solved. 
 There are plainly two classes of questions which we 
 may ask concerning the works of God ; and concern- 
 ing one of these, philosophy is profoundly silent. One 
 class respects the relation of the different parts of a 
 constituted whole to each other and to that whole. 
 The other respects the ultimate design of the whole 
 itself. In the present state of science, questions of 
 the first class can generally be answered with a good 
 degree of satisfaction. Man existing, the philosopher 
 can tell the number of bones, and muscles, and blood- 
 vessels, and nerves, in his body, and the uses of all 
 these. He may, perhaps, tell how the stomach digests, 
 and the heart beats, and the glands secrete ; but of the 
 great purpose for which man himself was made, he can 
 know nothing. But this knowledge Christianity gives. 
 It attributes to God a purpose worthy of him ; one that 
 satisfies the intellect and the heart ; and the knowl- 
 edge of this must modify our views of all history, and 
 of the whole drama of human life. It gives us a new 
 stand-point, from which w^e see every thing in different 
 relations and proportions. We had seen the river, 
 before, on which we were sailing ; now we see the 
 ocean. Entirely different must be the relation of man 
 to God, both as an intellectual and a practical being, 
 when he knows his plans and can intelligently cooper- 
 ate with him. He now^ comes, in the language of our 
 
144 LECTURE V. 
 
 Saviour, into the relation of a friend. Surely no one 
 can think lightly of the influence of this on the intellect ! 
 From the arguments now stated, we infer that 
 Christianity is adapted to the intellect ; and these 
 arguments are confirmed by fact. No book, not na- 
 ture itself, has ever waked up intellectual activity like 
 the Bible. On the battle-field of truth, it has ever 
 been round this that the conflict has raged. What 
 book besides ever caused the writing of so man}^ other 
 books ? Take from the libraries of Christendom all 
 those which have sprung, I will not say indirectly, but 
 directly from it, — those written to oppose, or defend, 
 or elucidate it, — and how would they be diminished ! 
 The very multitude of infidel books is a witness to the 
 power with which the Bible stimulates the intellect. 
 Why do we not see the same amount of active intel- 
 lect coming up, and dashing and roaring around the 
 Koran ? And the result of this activity is such as we 
 might anticipate. The general intellectual, as well as 
 moral superiority of Christian nations, and that, too, in 
 proportion as they have had a pure Christianity, stands 
 out in too broad a sunlight to be questioned or ob- 
 scured. Wherever the word of God has really entered, 
 it has given light — light to individuals, light to com- 
 munities. It has favored hterature ; and by means of 
 it alone has society been brought up to that point at 
 which it has been able to construct the apparatus of 
 physical science, and to carry its investigations to the 
 point which they have now reached. The instru- 
 ments of a well-furnished astronomical observatory 
 presuppose accumulations of w^ealth, and the exist- 
 once of a class of arts, and of men, that could be 
 the product only of Christian civilization. Accord- 
 
LECTURE V. 145 
 
 ingly, we find, whatever may be said of literature, that 
 physical science, except in Christian countries, has, after 
 a time, either become stationary, or begun to recede; 
 and there is no reason for supposing that the ])ath of 
 indefinite progress which now lies before it, could have 
 been opened except in connection with Christianity. 
 Individual men who reject Christianity, and yet live 
 within the general sphere of its influence, may distin- 
 guish themselves in science ; they have done so ; but 
 it has been on ji;rounds and conditions furnished by that 
 very religion w^hich they have rejected. Christianity 
 furnishes no new faculties, no direct power to the intel- 
 lect, but a general condition of society favorable to its 
 cultivation ; and it is not to be wondered at, if, in such 
 a state of things, men who seek intellectual distinction 
 solely, rejecting the moral restraints of Christianity, 
 should distinguish themselves by intellectual effort. 
 
 But if there is this adaptation of Christianity to the 
 intellect, ought not those who are truly Christians to 
 distinguish themselves above others in literature and 
 science ? This does not follow. Up to a certain 
 point, Christianity in the heart will certainly give 
 clearness and strength to the intellect ; and cases are 
 not wanting in which the intellectual powers have been 
 surprisingly roused through the action of the moral na- 
 ture, and of the affections, awakened by the religion of 
 Christ. But when we consider that the change pro- 
 duced by Christianity is a moral change ; that the ob- 
 jects it presents are moral objects ; that it presents this 
 world as needing: not so much to be enlightened in the 
 more abstract sciences, or to be delighted with the 
 refinements of literature, as to be rescued from moral 
 pollution, and to be won back to God ; — perhaps we 
 
 rj 
 
146 LECTURE V 
 
 ought not to be surprised if it has caused many to 
 be absorbed in labors of an entirely different kind, 
 who would otherwise have trodden the highest walks 
 of science. 
 
 And here, precisely at this point, I think we may see 
 how an impression has been originated in the minds of 
 some that distinguished piety is even unfavorable to the 
 hiehest cultivation of the sciences and arts and to re- 
 
 a 
 
 finement of taste. If this were so, — as it is not, — it 
 would prove nothing against Christianity ; nor would it 
 invalidate at all the position I have taken, that it is fa- 
 vorable to the intellect. There are things more impor- 
 tant than science, or literature, or taste. Nor is it in 
 these that the true and the highest dignity of man con- 
 sists. Perhaps Paul, if he had not been a Christian, 
 might have shone as a philosopher. He did not be- 
 come less a philosopher by being a Christian ; but the 
 energies of his mind were given neither to philosophy 
 nor to hterature, but to something far higher. In a 
 noble forgetfulness of self, he strove to turn men " from 
 darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
 God." And so, now, many of the finest spirits of our 
 race are diverted from science by the practical calls 
 and self-denying duties arising from the spiritual wants 
 of the world. But does this dwarf the intellect ? Far 
 from it. It leads it to grapple practically with ques- 
 tions higher than those of science, though it may be 
 not so as to gain the admiration of men ; and hence 
 we often find in an humble Christian a breadth of mind 
 which we should look for in vain in many professed 
 votaries of literature. Can that dwarf the intellect 
 which shows it realities more grand than those of 
 science ; which, with a full comprehension of the na- 
 
LECTURE V. 147 
 
 ture, and processes, and ends of science and of litera- 
 ture, jet gives them their rightful, though subordinate 
 j)lacc ? Never; even though it should sometimes lead 
 to the general feeling expressed by one who said that 
 he would attend to his more immediate duties here, 
 and study the science of astronomy on his way up to 
 heaven. No ; men may do what they please in dis- 
 seminating school libraries, and scattering abroad 
 cheap publications ; but, for energy and balance, I 
 would rather have the intellect formed by the Bible 
 alone, — by grappling with its mighty questions, by 
 communing with its high mysteries, by tracing its 
 narratives, by listening to its matchless eloquence and 
 poetry, — than to have that formed by all the light and 
 })opular literature, and by all the scientific tracts, in 
 existence ; and if these efforts should practically ex- 
 clude the Bible, and prevent a general and familiar 
 acquaintance with it on the part of the young, instead 
 of being a blessing, they would bring only disaster. 
 
 Before leaving this subject, perhaps I ought to ad- 
 vert to the manner in w Iiich the teachings of the Bible 
 are given, as a book adapted to the instruction of all 
 classes, and of all ages. This, though a minor point, 
 is one of great interest. In this respect, again, the 
 Bible is like nature, and is indeed a most wonderful 
 book. What a problem it would be to prepare a book 
 now, which should be equally adapted to the young 
 and to the old, to the learned and to the unlearned ! 
 Man could not do it. But such a book is the Bible. 
 It has a simplicity, a majesty, a beauty, a variety, 
 which fit it for all ; and, as the eye of the child can 
 see something in nature to please and instruct it, 
 while the philosopher can see more, and yet not all, — 
 
148 LECTURE V. 
 
 SO does the youngest and most ignorant person, who 
 can read its pages, find, in the Bible, narratives, para- 
 bles, brief sayings, just suited to his comprehension ; 
 while the profoundest theologian, or "the greatest phi- 
 losopher, can never feel that he has sounded all its 
 depths. And here w^e may perhaps see one great 
 reason why the revelation of God was written by so 
 many different persons, at different times, and with 
 such different habits of thought and of feeling. It 
 was because it w^as intended to be a book for the 
 instruction of the race, and this it could not be if it 
 were written in any one style, or w-ere stamped with 
 the peculiarities of any one human mind. In order to 
 this, it must embrace narratives, poetry, proverbs, par- 
 ables, letters, profound reasoning, — which, w^hile they 
 all harmonized in doctrine and in spirit, should yet 
 be as diversified as the hills and valleys of the green 
 earth ; should yet refract the pure light of inspiration 
 in colors to catch and fix every eye. Wonderful book ! 
 If some of its parts seem to us less interesting, let us 
 remember that nature too has many departments, and 
 that it was made for all ; and the more we study it in 
 this point of view, the more ready shall we be to join 
 with the apostle in saying, that " all scripture is given 
 by inspiration of God." 
 
 We say, then, that Christianity is adapted to the 
 intellect, because its spirit coincides with that of true 
 philosophy ; because it removes the incubus of sensu- 
 ality and low vice ; because of the place it gives to 
 truth ; because it demands free inquiry ; because its 
 mighty truths and systems are brought before the mind 
 in the same way as the truths and systems of nature ; 
 because it solves higher problems than nature can ; 
 
LECTURE V. 149 
 
 and because it is so communicated as to be adapted 
 to every mind. 
 
 But, if Christianity is adapted to the intellect, as a 
 religion of light, it is not less adapted to the affections, 
 as a religion of love. The affections are that part of 
 our being from which we are most susceptible of en- 
 joyment and of suffering. They are the source of all 
 disinterested action, of all cheerful and happy obedi- 
 ence. They arc, to the other faculties of man, what 
 the light is to the body of the sun, what its leaves and 
 blossoms are to the tree ; and the system in which 
 they are not regarded, and put in their proper place, 
 cannot be from God. 
 
 The affections, as we all know, are not under the 
 immediate control of the will ; that is, we cannot love 
 any object we choose, simply by willing to love it. 
 We may act towards an unworthy being — a tyrant, 
 for example — as if we loved him ; but, unless we see 
 in him qualities really excellent and lovely, it is impos- 
 sible we should love him. The natural affections, so 
 far as they are instinctive, have their own laws. Lay- 
 ing them, then, aside, the first condition on which it is 
 possible for us to love a moral being, as such, is a per- 
 ception of some excellence in his character. If we 
 are rightly constituted, we shall love him on the per- 
 ception of such excellence, whether he has any })ar- 
 ticular relation to us or not. But the whole strength 
 of our affections can be elicited only when goodness 
 is manifested towards us individually. That which 
 should call forth our strongest affections would evident- 
 ly be a being of perfect moral excellence, putting forth 
 effort and sacrifice on our behalf. To be adapted to 
 
150 LECTURE V. 
 
 the affections, then, any system must first recognize 
 and encourage them ; and, secondly, it must present 
 suitable objects to call them forth. 
 
 I observe, then, first, that Christianity is adapted to 
 the affections, because it encourages and supports 
 them in the relations and trials of the present life. 
 And here, perhaps, I ought to mention that the domes- 
 tic constitution, which Christianity, and that alone, 
 enjoins and maintains in its purity, is fundamental to 
 a pure and healthful state of the natural and social 
 affections. It is impossible there should be, under 
 any other system or conditions, the same conjugal, 
 and parental, and filial affection as there will be when 
 the domestic constitution, as enjoined by Christianity, 
 is strictly regarded. Here we see the far-reaching 
 wisdom of Christ in casting up an enclosure, the ma- 
 terials of which we now see w^ere provided in the 
 nature of things, which should be to the affections as 
 a walled garden, where their tendrils and blossoms 
 might put forth secure from any intruder. Accord- 
 ingly, who can estimate the blessings of peace, and 
 purity, and hallowed affection, which have been en- 
 joyed through this constitution, and which are now 
 enjoyed around ten thousand firesides in every Chris- 
 tian land ? But, besides this, Christianity encourages 
 directly the natural affections of kindred and of friend- 
 ship; it never condemns grief as a weakness; and 
 it affords the most effectual consolation when these 
 relations are sundered by death. In this respect, it is 
 contrasted, not only with the selfish Epicureanism 
 and sensual indulgences by which the heathen became 
 " without natural affection," but especially with the 
 proud s])irit of Stoicism — a spirit far from having be- 
 
LECTURE V. 151 
 
 come extinct with the sect. Stoicism would fain 
 elevate human nature, but it really dismembers it. It 
 was an attempt to destroy that Avhich t!i(;y knew not 
 how to regulate. To do this, they were obliged to 
 deny their own nature, and to affect insensibility, 
 when it was impossible that man should not feel. It 
 was, indeed, a hard task which this system imposed, 
 — to feel the cold hand of death grasping those warm 
 affections which are so deeply rooted in the heart, and 
 withering them up, and tearing them away, and yet 
 shed no tear. They were driven to this because they 
 could find no consolation in death. They knew not 
 the rod, or Him who appointed it ; but assumed an 
 attitude of sullen defiance, and steeled themselves as 
 well as they were able against the bolts of what they 
 deemed a stern necessity. This system, indeed, was 
 not favorable to the growth of the natural affections at 
 all ; and many who adhered to it refused to suffer them 
 to expand, or to enter into any intimate alliances. But 
 Christianity neither destroys those affections in which 
 we find the beauty and the fragrance of existence, 
 nor does it nourish those which must bleed, without 
 furnishing a balm to heal the wound. It is indulgent 
 to our weakness, and never sneers at the natural ex- 
 pression of sorrow. "Jesus w'ept." Surely, if we 
 except our own death-bed, there is no place where we 
 so much need support as at the death-bed of a friend, 
 a wife, a child ; and the religion or the system, the 
 Stoicism or the Skepticism, which fails us there, is good 
 for nothing. How desolate often the condition of those 
 
 Who " to the grave have followed tliose they love, 
 
 And on t,h' inexorable tlireshold stand ; 
 With cherished names its speechless calm reprove, 
 
 And stretch into th' abyss their ungrasped hand"! 
 
152 LECTURE V. 
 
 But just here it is that Cin-istianitj comes in with its 
 strong supports. This it does, 1. By the sympatliy 
 which it provides ; for it not only supposes those who 
 are afflicted to weep, but it commands others to weep 
 with them. 2. By teaching us that our afflictions 
 are brought upon us, not by a blind fate, but by a wise 
 and kind Parent. 3. By the blessed hopes which it 
 enables us to cherish. We sorrow not as those who 
 have no hope ; " for, if we believe that Jesus died and 
 rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus 
 will God bring with him." 4. And by encouraging 
 and enabling us to fix our affections upon a higher 
 and better object. So long as we have something to 
 love, the heart is not desolate. Christianity furnishes 
 us with an object that cannot fail us. It suffers the 
 affections to shoot out their tendrils here upon the 
 earth as vigorously as they may ; but it trains them up, 
 and trains them up, till it fixes them around the base of 
 the eternal throne. Then, if these lower tendrils are 
 severed, they do not fall to the dust to be trampled on, 
 and wither, and decay, till our hearts die within us; 
 they fix themselves the more firmly to their all-suffi- 
 cient and never-failing support. It is easy to see that 
 all these circumstances must make the valley of afflic- 
 tion far less dark than it once was. To the true 
 Christian there is light all the way through it, there is 
 light at the end of it. Thus Christianity aims at no 
 heights of Stoicism. It neither uproots nor dwarfs the 
 affections, on the one hand, nor does it, on the other, 
 leave them to the wild and aimless paroxysms of a 
 hopeless sorrow ; but it encourages their growth, and, 
 in affliction, gives them the support which they need. 
 
 And this leads me to observe, secondly, that Chris- 
 
LECTURE V. 153 
 
 tiaiiity is ada])t(3d to the affections because it pre- 
 sents them with an obje(-t, upon vviiich they can rest, 
 that is infinite, perfect, and unchangeable. Here we 
 find the transcendent excellence of this religion, in 
 that it presents God as the object of our affections ; 
 and I know of nothing in it more amazing than the 
 union that it presents, in God, of those infinite natural 
 attributes which raise in the mind the highest possible 
 emotions of awe and sublimity, — and of those holy 
 moral attributes which cause the angels to veil their 
 faces, — with the pity, and condescension, and love, 
 which Christianity represents him as manifesting 
 towards the guilty creatures of a day. Here was a 
 difficult point. Beforehand, I should have thought it 
 impossible that the infinite and holy God should so 
 reveal himself, to a creature so insignificant and guilty 
 as man, as to lead him to have confidence in him, and 
 to look up and say, " My Father! " Yet so does Chris- 
 tianity reveal God. It is a revelation adapted, not to 
 angels, but to Just such a being as man, guilty, and 
 having the distrust that guilt naturally engenders, yet 
 seeking assurance that a God so holy, and so dreadful, 
 and so infinitely exalted above him, could yet love him 
 and be the object of his love. Certainly it abates 
 nothing of the infinite majesty or purity of God. It 
 enthrones him with the full investment of every high 
 and holy attribute, and yet nothing can exceed the 
 expressions of tenderness and compassion with which 
 he seeks to win the confidence of his creatures. He 
 is represented as having an unspeakable affection for 
 the race of man ; as watching over all in his universal 
 providence ; as the Father of the fatherless, and the 
 widow's God and Judge ; as strengthening men upon 
 
 20 
 
154 LECTURE V. 
 
 the bed of languishing, and making all their bed in 
 their sickness; as hearmg the groanings of the prisoner 
 and the cry of the poor and needy, when they seek 
 water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for 
 thirst ; as the God that hears the faintest whisper of 
 true prayer; as the God upon whom we may cast all 
 our cares, because he careth for us ; the God who com- 
 forteth those that are cast down ; who shall wipe away 
 all tears from all faces ; who is more ready to give to 
 man the Holy Spirit (the greatest of all gifts) than 
 earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children ; 
 who so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, 
 but have eternal life. If such expressions, and such a 
 pledge, do not satisfy men of the love of God, and lead 
 them to him, nothing can. Well might the apostle 
 say, " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered 
 him up for us all, how shall he not with him also 
 freely give us all things!" Well might he invite men 
 to " come boldly unto the throne of grace," that they 
 may " obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of 
 need." Nothing can be more tender or winning, more 
 calculated to secure the confidence of men, more un- 
 speakably touching and affecting, than the mode in 
 which God is revealed to us in the gospel of his Son. 
 But, in thus offering himself as the object of affec- 
 tion to man, we cannot fail to see that God has made 
 provision, in the very nature of things, both for his 
 holiness and his happiness. It is impossible that we 
 should truly love Him, without being conformed and 
 assimilated to his character. The moment the first 
 throb of affection is felt, that process must begin, 
 spoken of by the apostle, where he says, "We all, 
 
LECTURE V. 155 
 
 bcliolding as in a glass tlie glory of tlie Lord, are 
 changed into the same image from glory to glory, even 
 as by the Spirit of the Lord." And when this process 
 is once commenced, through the operation of the 
 great principle that we become morally conformed to 
 that which we contemplate with delight, it will go on to 
 its consummation. Nor, if we can contemplate them 
 separately, is provision less made in this way for hap- 
 piness than for holiness — since the happiness derived 
 from the affections must arise from their exercise, and 
 since the highest conceivable happiness would arise 
 from the perfect love of such a being as God. It is in 
 this way only that God can become the portion of the 
 soul ; and thus he may become its infinite and only 
 adequate portion. Let the affections rest upon a per- 
 fect being, and happiness, so far as it can be derived 
 from them, will be complete ; but when their object is 
 not only perfect, but infinite and unchangeable, then 
 is there provision both for perfect happiness, and for 
 its perpetuity and augmentation forever. 
 
 Here, then, we find a mark which must belong to a 
 religion from God. From our present knowledge of 
 the faculties of man, and of their relations to each 
 other, and of the conditions on which alone they can 
 be improved and perfected, we see that a rehgion 
 which is to elevate man, and make him either holy 
 or happy, must present God as the object of love, and 
 provide for the assimilation of the character of man to 
 his character. 
 
 But what of this love do we find provided for, or pos- 
 sible, out of Christianity ? Absolutely nothing. The 
 love of God never entered as an element into any 
 heathen religion ; nor, with their conceptions of God 
 
156 LECTURE V, 
 
 was it possible it should. The affections, as ah-eadj 
 stated, are drawn forth by moral excellence, especially 
 when manifested in our behalf. Was it possible, then, 
 on either of these grounds, that the Jupiter, or Pluto, 
 or Bacchus, of old, should be loved? Were their moral 
 characters even reputable ? Did they ever make dis- 
 interested sacrifices for the good of men ? Is it pos- 
 sible that the present Hindoos should love, on either 
 of these grounds, any being or thing that is presented 
 for their worship ? According to the very constitution 
 of our minds, it is impossible. The objects of wor- 
 ship are neither in themselves, nor in their relations to 
 man, adapted to draw out the affections. Again, is it 
 possible that the affections should be strongly moved 
 by the God of the deist, who manifests himself only 
 through general lav.s that bring all things alike to all, 
 who never speaks to his creatures, or makes himself 
 known as the hearer of prayer ? I think not. Who 
 ever heard of a devout deist ? Who ever heard of 
 one who was willing to spend his life in missionary 
 labor for the good of others ? It is not according to 
 the constitution of the mind that such a system should 
 awaken the affections. And what is true of these 
 systems is true of every false system. All such sys- 
 tems leave the heart cold, and, accordingly, exert very 
 little genuine transforming power over the life. 
 
 And this, again, leads me to observe, thirdly, that 
 Christianity is adapted to the affections, from the place 
 it assigns to love as the governing principle of action. 
 Moral order requires obedience to God. But what is 
 that obedience which can honor God and make him 
 who renders it happy? Plainly, it is not a selfish, 
 external obedience, which would be wicked; not an 
 
LECTURE V. 157 
 
 obedience from fear, — for all "fear hath torment;" 
 but it can be only an intelligent and an affectionate 
 obedience. Such an obedience would honor God, and 
 make him who rendered it hapjjy. There is in it no 
 element of degradation or slavish subjection. On the 
 contrary, as the whole intellect, and conscience, and 
 heart, cons})ire together in such an act, performed with 
 reference to the will of such a Being, it must elevate 
 the mind. It is the only possible manner in which we 
 can conceive a rational creature to act so as to honor 
 God, and make himself hapi)y ; and, therefore, that 
 system of religion which is so constructed, with refer- 
 ence to the human mind, as to produce intelligent and 
 affectionate obedience in the highest degree, must be 
 the true religion, and no other is possible. Now, we 
 certainly can see that no heathen system can pro- 
 duce such obedience, and that the Christian sys- 
 tem is adapted to produce it in the highest possible 
 degree. 
 
 But I observe, once more, that Christianity is adapt- 
 ed to the affections from its representations of a future 
 state. It does not, like Hindooism, or Pantheism, 
 represent man as absorbed into the Deity, nor, like 
 Mohammedanism, as engrossed in sensuality ; but it 
 represents heaven as a social state of pure and holy 
 affection. It does not, indeed, tell us that we shall 
 recognize there our earthly kindred, though it leaves 
 us no ground to doubt this ; but it tells us of a 
 Father's house, and of the one family of the good 
 who shall be gathered there, and to whom we shall 
 be united in nearer bonds than those of earth. What 
 possible representation could be better adapted to a 
 being endowed with affections ? — the one infinite 
 
158 LECTURE V. 
 
 Father and Redeemer of his creatures, and the united 
 family of all the good ! 
 
 We next proceed to the imagination. And I ob- 
 serve that Christianity is no less adapted to this than 
 to the conscience, the intellect, or the affections. 
 The imagination is a source of enjoyment ; a spring 
 of activity; and an efficient agent in moulding the 
 character : and any system may be said to be adapt- 
 ed to it which is calculated to give it the highest and 
 purest enjoyment, and so to direct the activity which 
 it excites as to mould the character into the finest 
 form. 
 
 Looking at the imagination simply as a source of 
 enjoyment, that system will be best adapted to it 
 which contains the most elements of beauty and sub- 
 limity, and which leaves for their combination the 
 widest range. And in this respect, certainly noth- 
 ing can exceed Christianity. There are no conceiv- 
 able scenes of grandeur equal to those connected with 
 the general judgment and the final conflagration of 
 this world ; no scenes of beauty like those connected 
 with the new Jerusalem — with the abodes and the 
 employments of those who shall be sons and heirs 
 of God, and to whom the whole creation will be 
 given, so far as it may be subservient to their enjoy- 
 ment. And if the present scene is filled up with so 
 much of beauty and sublimity, what imagination can 
 conceive of the splendors of that world whose external 
 decorations shall correspond with its spiritual glory ? 
 Let no one say, then, that Christianity would repress 
 the imagination ; or that God did not intend that 
 imagination, and poetry, and the exertion of every 
 
LECTURE V. 159 
 
 faculty which brings with it what is beautiful and 
 pleasing, should be connected with it. He did in- 
 tend it ; he has made provision for it, and that not in 
 this life only. There will be poetry in heaven ; its 
 numbers will measure the anthems that swell there. 
 There will be imagination there. This is no imper- 
 tinent faculty, given, as some seem to suppose, only 
 to be chided and repressed. No ; its wang, however 
 strong, will always find room enough in the illimita- 
 ble universe and the unfathomed perfections of God. 
 But it is chiefly of the imagination as prompting to 
 activity that I would speak. " The faculty of imagi- 
 nation," says Stewart, " is the great spring of human 
 activity, and the principal source of human improve- 
 ment. As it delights in presenting to the mind scenes 
 and characters more perfect than those which we are 
 acquainted with, it prevents us from ever being com- 
 pletely satisfied with our present condition or with 
 our past attainments, and engages us continually in 
 the pursuit of some untried enjoyment, or of some 
 ideal excellence." Again he says, " Tired and dis- 
 gusted with this world of imperfection, we delight to 
 escape to another of the poet's creation, where the 
 charms of nature wear an eternal bloom, and where 
 sources of enjoyment are opened to us suited to the 
 vast capacities of the human mind. On this natural 
 love of poetical fiction Lord Bacon has founded a very 
 ingenious argument for the soul's immortalit}^ ; and, 
 indeed, one of the most important purposes to which 
 it is subservient is to elevate the mind above the pur- 
 suits of our present condition, and to direct the views 
 to higher objects." * With this representation of the 
 
 * Elements, vol. i. chap. 7. 
 
160 LECTURE V. 
 
 office and importance of this faculty I agree in the 
 main ; but, instead of a world of the poet's creation 
 for it to range in, I would have one of God's creation. 
 Certainly we can, by means of this faculty, form to 
 ourselves models of individual excellence, and of what 
 we may conceive to be a perfect state of things, which 
 shall essentially guide our activity and affect our char- 
 acter and influence. But here, no less than in the 
 intellect, does all experience show that we need to 
 find the thought of God as a model and guide to this 
 formative power. Left to itself, how many false stan- 
 dards of character has it set up ! How many Utopian 
 schemes has it originated ! IIow little has it ever 
 conceived of individual excellence, or of an ultimate 
 and perfect state of things, worthy of God or having 
 a tendency to exalt man ! Witness the heathen gods 
 and representations of heaven ; the classic fables ; the 
 speculations of Plato, even, respecting a future state ; 
 the Hindoo mythology, and transmigration ; and the 
 Mohammedan paradise. These are to that future, 
 and to that heaven which God has revealed, what 
 the conjectures and systems of ancient astronomers 
 were to the true system of the physical heavens. Not 
 more do the heavens of true science exceed those 
 imagined by man, — not more does the actual milky 
 way, composed of a stratum of suns lying rank above 
 rank, exceed that conception of it which imputed 
 its origin to the infant Hercules, when he was nurs- 
 ed, — than the glory of the millennial day, and the 
 purity and grandeur of the Christian heaven, exceed 
 any future ever imagined by man, and adopted as the 
 basis of a religion invented by him. In both cases, 
 in the moral no less than in the physical heavens, 
 
LECTURE V. IGl 
 
 we need to have given us tlie outline as sketched by 
 God, and then it is tlie nobU^st work of the imagina- 
 tion to fill it up. 
 
 Christianity alone furnishes the model of a perfect 
 manhood, and the true elements of social perfection ; 
 it alone furnishes to the imagination a representation 
 of a perfect state on earth ; and it unfolds the gates 
 of a heaven, at whose entrance it can only stand and 
 exclaim, " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
 have entered into the heart of man, the things which 
 God hath prepared for them that love him !" It is 
 therefore perfectly adapted to the imagination, so for 
 as that is a faculty which leads to activity by setting 
 before us ideal excellence which we may attempt to 
 realize in actual life. 
 
 Before leaving this point, I may just say that Chris- 
 tianity does not, like systems of philosophy, present 
 us with an ideal excellence withoDt showing us how 
 to attain it. The obedience of its precepts would 
 realize the excellence it portrays ; and it is a re- 
 markable fact that thus, and thus only, can there be 
 brought out, into the bold relief of actual life, the 
 visions of those ancient prophets whose imaginations 
 were fired by these scenes of grandeur and of beauty. 
 
 It now only remains to speak of Christianity as 
 adapted to the will. A system may be adapted to 
 the will of man by flattering his pride, by taking 
 advantage of his weaknesses, by indulging his cor- 
 ruptions ; and in this sense false systems have been 
 adapted to it with great skill. But, properly speaking, 
 a system is adapted to the will of a rational and moral 
 being when it is so constructed that it must necessarily 
 
 21 
 
162 LECTURE V. 
 
 control the will in proportion as reason and con- 
 science prevail. This is a point of high importance, 
 because, the will being that in man which is per- 
 sonal and executive, nothing is cfifected till this is 
 reached; and the system which cannot legitimately 
 control this may have every other adaptation, and yet 
 be good for nothing. 
 
 1 observe, then, first, that Christianity is adapted to 
 the will because it provides for the pardon of sin, and 
 for divine aid in the great struggle in w^hich it calls 
 upon us- to engage. I remarked, w hen speaking of the 
 intellect, that Christianity was adapted to it because it 
 relieved it from the incubus of vice. It is much in the 
 same way that it acts here in reference to the will. 
 The will of man never acts when the attainment of 
 his object is absolutely hopeless ; and a sense of par- 
 doned sin, and a hope of divine aid, if not imme- 
 diate motives, yet come in as conditions on which 
 alone the will can be brought up to the great struggle 
 of the Christian warfare. Without these, a mind truly 
 enlightened w^ould rest under a discouragement that 
 w^ould forever paralyze effort. 
 
 I observe, secondly, that Christianity is adapted to 
 the will because it is adapted to the affections. I do 
 not, as some have done, regard the will and the affec- 
 tions as the same. They are, however, intimately con- 
 nected ; and the affections being, as I have said, the 
 only source of disinterested action and of happy moral 
 obedience, it is evident that, just in proportion as any 
 system takes a strong hold of them, it must be adapted 
 to move the will. It is not enough to know our duty, 
 and to wish to do it simply as duty. We need to have 
 it associated with the impulses of the affections, with 
 
LECTURE V. 163 
 
 that love of God, and of man, implanted in the heart, 
 which are the first and the second great moral pre- 
 cepts of Christianity, and which, where they reign, 
 must induce a happy obedience. 
 
 I observe, thirdly, that Christianity is adapted to the 
 will from the grandeur of those interests which it pre- 
 sents, and from its amazing sanctions. Here it is 
 unrivalled. Here every thing takes hold on infinity 
 and eternity. Here the greatness of man as a spiritual 
 and an immortal being assumes its proper place, and 
 throws into the shade all the motives and the interests 
 of time. Its language is, "What shall it profit a man, 
 if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ; 
 or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? " 
 It makes the will of God our rule ; it places us under 
 his omniscient eye ; it points us forward to the tribunal 
 of an omnipotent Judge, to a sentence of unmixed jus- 
 tice, and a reward of matchless grace. Nothing can 
 be more alluring, on the one hand, or more terrific, on 
 the other, than its descriptions of the consequences of 
 human conduct. It speaks of " eternal life ; " of being 
 the " sons and heirs of God ; " of a " crown of life ; " 
 of " an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and 
 that fadeth not away." It speaks, also, of " the black- 
 ness of darkness forever ; " of " the worm that dieth 
 not, and the fire that is not quenched." Laying aside, 
 then, the affections, and looking solely at the direct mo- 
 tives of duty and of interest which it presents, surely 
 no other system can be so adapted to move the will as 
 this, when it is really believed. 
 
 I observe, finally, that Christianity is adapted to the 
 will, and to the whole emotive nature of man, because 
 its teachings respecting the character of God and 
 
164 LECTURE V. 
 
 human duty are not by general and abstract proposi- 
 tions, but by facts, and by manifestations in action. 
 At this point Christianity is strongly contrasted with 
 natural religion, and with every thing that tends 
 towards pantheism. " It is, indeed," says Erskine, 
 "a striking, and yet an undoubted fact, that we are 
 comparatively little affected with abstract truths in 
 morahty." " A single definite and intelligible action 
 gives a vividness and a power to the idea of that moral 
 character which it exhibits, beyond what could be con- 
 veyed by a multitude of abstract descriptions. Thus 
 the abstract ideas of patriotism and integrity make but 
 an uninteresting appearance when contrasted with the 
 high spectacle of heroic worth which was exhibited in 
 the conduct of Regulus, when, in the senate of his 
 country, he raised his solitary voice against those 
 humbling propositions of Carthage, which, if acqui- 
 esced in, would have restored him to liberty, and which 
 for that single reason had almost gained an acqui- 
 escence ; and then, unsubdued alike by the frantic 
 entreaties of his family, the weeping solicitations of 
 the admiring citizens, and the appalling terrors of his 
 threatened fate, he returned to Africa, rather than 
 violate his duty to Rome and the sacredness of 
 truth." " In the same way, the abstract views of the 
 divine character, drawn from the observation of nature, 
 are in general rather visions of the intellect than 
 eff cient moral principles in the heart and conduct ; 
 and, however true they may be, are uninteresting and 
 unexciting when compared with the vivid exhibition 
 of them in a history of definite and intelligible action. 
 To assist our weakness, therefore, and to accommodate 
 his instructions to the principles of our nature, God 
 
LECTURE V. 105 
 
 has been pleased to present us a most interesting series 
 of actions, in which his moral character, as far as we 
 are concerned, is fully and perspicuously imbodied." 
 
 So great is this difference, as ideas are presented in 
 diiilerent modes, that an idea or a principle may be 
 apparently received, and approved, in its abstract form, 
 which shall not be recognized as the same when it 
 takes the form of action. "A corrupt politician, for 
 instance, can speculate on and a])plaud the abstract 
 idea of integrity ; but when this abstract idea takes 
 the form of a man and a course of action, it ceases to 
 be that harmless and welcome visitor it used to be, 
 and draws on itself the decided enmity of its former 
 apparent friend." " In the same way, many men 
 will admit the abstract idea of a God of infmite holi- 
 ness and goodness, and will even take delight in ex- 
 ercising their reason or their taste in speculating on 
 the subject of his being and attributes ; yet these 
 same persons will shrink with dislike and alarm from 
 the living energy which this abstract idea assumes in 
 the Bible." * The great object of Erskine is to show, 
 first, that there is this difference between ideas thus 
 presented ; and, secondly, that God has made in action 
 such manifestations of himself as must, if they are 
 believed, bring the character into conformity with his. 
 Whatever we may think of the second proposition, 
 there can be no doubt of the principle involved in the 
 first ; nor of the fact that the emotive nature of man 
 is addressed, in accordance wdth it, both in the Old 
 Testament and in the New. All that series of mighty 
 acts w hich God performed in behalf of the Israelites — 
 the deliverance from Egypt, the giving of the law, the 
 
 * Internal Evidence- 
 
166 LECTURE V. 
 
 passage through tlie wilderness and through Jordan — 
 could not but affect their hearts and wills infinitely 
 more than they could have been by any description of 
 God, or by any mere precepts. Probably it was better 
 adapted than any thing else could have been to give 
 that people correct ideas of God, and to lead them 
 to a full and joyful obedience of his commandments. 
 And so the great fact of the New Testament, that 
 " God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begot- 
 ten Son," and the example of our Saviour, "who loved 
 us and gave himself for us," have ever been among its 
 most powerful and constraining motives. They have, 
 in fact, been those without which no others would have 
 been of any avail. 
 
 Whether, then, we consider its offers of pardon and 
 of aid ; its connection with the affections ; the power 
 of its direct motives ; or its mode of appeal by facts 
 and manifestations in action, — we see that Christianity 
 is perfectly adapted to the will of man. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AS A RESTRAINING POWER. — THE EXPERI- 
 MENTAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. — ITS FITNESS AND 
 TENDENCY TO BECOME UNIVERSAL. -- IT HAS ALWAYS 
 BEEN IN THE WORLD. 
 
 Man is a complex l)eing. He has been called the 
 microcosm, or httle world, because, while he has a 
 distinctive nature of his o\vn, he is a partaker and rep- 
 resentative of every thing in the inferior creation. In 
 him are united the material and the spiritual, the ani- 
 mal and the rational. He has instincts, propensities, 
 desires, passions, by which he is allied to the animals ; 
 he has also reason, conscience, free-will, by which he is 
 allied to higher intelligences and to God. Hence the 
 ends he is capable of choosing, and the principles by 
 which he may be actuated, are very various. Body and 
 soul, reason and passion, conscience and desire, often 
 seem to be, and are, opposing forces, and man is left 
 
 " In doubt to act or rest, 
 In doubt to deem himself a god or beast, 
 In doubt his soul or body to prefer." 
 
 *' The intestine war of reason against the passions," 
 says Pascal, " has given rise, among those who wish lor 
 peace, to the formation of two different sects. The 
 one wished to renounce the passions, and be as gods ; 
 the other to renounce reason, and become beasts." 
 
168 LECTURE VI. 
 
 With this wide range of faculties, and consequent 
 variety of impulses and motives, in the individual, and 
 especially when we consider the variety of his social 
 relations, we may well say that, if any problem was 
 beyond human skill, it was the choice of ends, and the 
 arrangement of means and motives, — the contrivance 
 of a system of excitement, and guidance, and re- 
 straint, — which should harmonize these jarring ele- 
 ments, and cause every wheel in the vast machinery of 
 human society to move freely and without interference. 
 Accordhigly, whether we look at the faculties excited, 
 or at the ends to which they have been directed, or 
 at the restraints imposed, we find in all human sys- 
 tems a great want of adaptation to the nature of man. 
 Excitement, guidance, restraint, — these are what man 
 needs ; and a system which should so combine them as 
 to lead him, in its legitimate influence, to his true per- 
 fection and end, would be adapted to his whole nature. 
 I have already spoken of the power of Christianity to 
 excite and to guide some of the principal faculties. I 
 now proceed to make some observations upon it as a 
 restraining power. 
 
 There is no natural principle of action which re- 
 quires to be eradicated, but there are many which 
 require to be directed, subordinated, and restrained. 
 There are principles of our nature, which conduce 
 only to our well-being when acting within prescribed 
 limits, which become the source of vice and wretched- 
 ness when those limits are overstepped. But to put 
 the check upon each particular wheel, precisely at the 
 point at wliich its motion would become too rapid for 
 the movement of the whole, requires a skill beyond 
 that of man. 
 
LECTURE VI. 169 
 
 To fix, for exam])le, the limits within which, for the 
 best interests of the iiulividiuil and of society, the a})- 
 petites should be restrained, requires a knowledge of 
 the human frame, and of the relations of society, which 
 no philosopher, unenlightened by the Bible, has ever 
 shown. I need not say how essential it is to the well- 
 being of any community that these limits should be 
 rightly fixed. If there is too much restraint, society be- 
 comes secretly, and often hopelessly, corrupt; to other 
 sins the guilt of hypocrisy is added, and sanctimonious 
 bcentiousness — the most odious of all its forms — be- 
 comes common. If there is too little restraint, vice 
 walks abroad with an unblushing front, and glories in 
 its shame. The state of the ancient heathen world 
 is described by the apostle in the first of Romans. 
 The accuracy of that description is remarkably con- 
 firmed by testimony from heathen writers, and, accord- 
 ing to the testimony of all impartial travellers, that 
 chapter is true, to the letter, of the heathen of the 
 present day. The tendency of human nature to sen- 
 suality, in some form, is so strong that no false religion 
 has ever dared to lay its hand upon it, in all its forms. 
 Mohammed, it is well known, did not interfere essen- 
 tially with the customs of his country in this respect ; 
 and, in fact, all his rewards and motives to religious 
 activity were based on an appeal to the sensitive, and 
 not to the rational and spiritual part of man. In in- 
 stances not a few, the grossest sensuality has been 
 made a part of religion ; and, in almost all cases, the 
 voluptuary has been sufibred to remain undisturbed, or 
 has been led to commute, by offerings, for indulgence 
 in vice. 
 
 Those, on the other hand, who have recognized the 
 
 22 
 
170 LECTURE VI. 
 
 higher nature of man, and have felt that there was 
 something noble in the subjugation of the animal part 
 of the frame, have been excessive. Instead of regu- 
 lating the appetites, they have attempted to extermi- 
 nate them ; and the mass of their followers have been 
 ambitious, corrupt, and hypocritical. "Nothing," says 
 Isaac Taylor, " has been more constant in the history 
 of the human mind, wherever the rehgious emotions 
 have gained a supremacy over the sensual and sordid 
 passions, than the breaking out of the ascetic temper, 
 in some of its forms ; and most often in that which 
 disguises virtue, now as a spectre, now as a maniac, 
 now as a mendicant, now as a slave, but never as the 
 bright daughter of heaven." * 
 
 But not only have men framed systems of religion 
 which allowed of sensuality, — not only have they at- 
 tempted to subdue the animal nature altogether, — 
 they have also ingrafted sensuality upon self-torture. 
 There is in man a sense of guilt ; and, connected with 
 this, the idea has been almost universal that suffering, 
 or personal sacrifice, had, in some way, an efficacy to 
 make atonement for it. Hence the costly offerings of 
 heathen nations to their gods ; hence their bloody rites, 
 the offering up of human victims, and even of their 
 own children. But when once the principle was 
 established that personal suffering could do away sin, 
 then a door was opened for license to sin ; and hence 
 the monstrous, and apparently inconsistent spectacle, 
 so often witnessed, of sensuality walking hand in hand 
 with self-torture. 
 
 In opposition to these corruptions and distortions, 
 
 * Lectures on Spiritual Christianity. 
 
LECTURE VI. 171 
 
 how simple, how ck^aily in accordance with the 
 original institutions and the evident intentions of God, 
 are the principles of Christianity ! Christ assumed no 
 sanctity in indifferent things, such as that by which 
 the Pharisees sought to distinguish themselves. He 
 swept away, without hesitation or compromise, the 
 rabbinical superstitions and slavish exactions which 
 had been ingrafted on the Jewish law. He came 
 " eating and drinking." He declared that that which 
 entereth into a man doth not defile him. He sanctioned 
 marriage, and gave it an honor and a sacredness little 
 known before, by declaring it an institution of divine 
 origin, which w^as appointed in the beginning. " The 
 superiority of the soul to the body was the very purport 
 of his doctrine ; and yet he did not waste the body 
 by any austerities ! The duty of self-denial he per- 
 petually enforced ; and yet he practised no factitious 
 mortifications ! This teacher, not of abstinence, but of 
 virtue, — this reprover, not of enjoyment, but of vice, — 
 himself went in and out, among the social amenities 
 of ordinary life, with so unsolicitous a freedom as to 
 give color to the malice of hypocrisy in pointing the 
 finger at him, saying, 'Behold a gluttonous man and 
 a wine-bibber ; a friend of publicans and sinners ! ' " * 
 But, while he did this, he did not yield at all to the 
 prejudices and vices of the age, but forbade all im- 
 purity, even in thought. The teaching and course 
 of the apostles was marked by the same wisdom. 
 Paul asserts, in relation to meats, that every creature 
 of God is good, and to be received with thanksgiving ; 
 and says of marriage, that it is honorable in all ; while, 
 
 * Lectures on Spiritual Christianity. 
 
172 LECTURE VI. 
 
 at the same time, he ranks drinikenness, and gluttony, 
 and impurity, among those sins which will exclude 
 a man from the kingdom of heaven. He was a 
 preacher of temperance, as well as of righteousness 
 and of a judgment to come, and insisted upon that 
 temperance in all things. 
 
 Nor are the prohibitions and restraints of Christian- 
 ity laid with less discrimination upon the malevolent 
 and selfish passions, — as anger, malice, envy, revenge, 
 of the first ; and vanity, pride, and ambition, of the 
 second. These, with the exception of anger, it abso- 
 lutely prohibits ; and it prohibits that, so far as it is 
 malevolent. It distinguishes between the holy indiff- 
 nation which must be excited by wickedness, and any 
 mere personal feeling, or desire to inflict pain for its 
 own sake ; and hence it speaks of Christ as looking 
 on men " with anger, being grieved for the hardness 
 of their hearts," and it commands us to " be angry and 
 sin not." 
 
 Of the propriety of an absolute prohibition of the 
 malevolent feelings, probably few at this day will doubt. 
 They are dissocial, and are destructive alike of the 
 happiness of him who indulges them and of those 
 against whom they are indulged. It is impossible that 
 a man, in whose breast they bear sway, should be 
 happy; and, so far as their influence extends to others, 
 they produce unhappiness of course. We cannot con- 
 ceive of them as entering heaven, which would no 
 longer be heaven if they were there, nor of their 
 having a place in a perfect society on earth. 
 
 Nor, if we analyze them fairly, can there be more 
 room to doubt the propriety of prohibiting what I have 
 called the selfish passions — as vanity, pride, and ambi- 
 
LECTURE VI. 173 
 
 tioii. Vanity, notwithstanding the commendation of it 
 by Hume as a virtue, will be condemned by all as 
 weak, if not wicked ; and if we regard pride and 
 ambition as the love of superiority for its own sake, 
 and of ruling over others, we must see that they are 
 both sellish and mischievous. By confounding pride 
 with true dignity, and ambition with the love of excel- 
 lence, some have been led to suppose that these were 
 necessary elements in an efficient and elevated charac- 
 ter. But Christianity fully recognizes the distinction 
 between these qualities ; and while it asserts, far be- 
 yond any other system, the true dignity of man ; while 
 it sets before him the pursuit of an excellence, and the 
 objects of an ambition, which must call forth every 
 energy, though their attainment implies no inferiority 
 on the part of others; it prohibits, and, by its doctrines 
 and very structure, eradicates every selfish element of 
 what are usually called pride and ambition. It is, 
 indeed, a great distinction and glory of Christianity, 
 that its objects of pursuit and its sources of enjoyment 
 are like the sunlight and the air, which are free to all ; 
 and that the highest attainments of one have no tend- 
 ency to diminish the happiness of others. 
 
 1 mention another strong principle of action — the 
 desire of property, which Christianity regulates wisely. 
 Recognizing the inadequacy of property to meet the 
 wants of a spiritual being, it prohibits covetousness as 
 idolatry, and exhorts the rich not to trust in uncertain 
 riches, but in the living God. At the same time it 
 forbids indolence, requiring industry and frugality; and 
 when, by means of these, or by any other means, 
 property is acquired, it commands us to do good, to be 
 " ready to distribute, willing to communicate." He 
 
174 LECTURE VT. 
 
 that stole is to steal no more, but is to labor, work- 
 ing with his hands, that he may have to give to him 
 that needeth. Thus would Christianity transform 
 every lazy, thievish pest of society into an industrious, 
 useful, and liberal man. It is also worthy of remark 
 how careful Christianity is to guard its ministers 
 against the love of money, and how entirely free it is, 
 as we find it in the New Testament, from holding out 
 any inducement to the people to build up rich and 
 pompous religious establishments. Its ministers are 
 to take the oversight of the flock, not for filthy lucre, 
 but of a ready mind. In instructing both Timothy and 
 Titus whom to ordain, Paul mentions the love of "filthy 
 lucre" as a disqualification. And while such a motive 
 on the part of the minister is prohibited, and would be 
 contrary to the entire spirit of Christianity, it never 
 speaks of the giving of money to him as peculiarly 
 meritorious. It provides for his support, and makes 
 provision for that, simply, a common duty. Its ex- 
 hortations would all lead men to works of general 
 beneficence, — to give to him that needeth, w hoever he 
 may be, — and would thus cause money to become a 
 means of spiritual culture to him who has it, as well as 
 of blessing to him to whom it is given. 
 
 I need not speak further of the particular things 
 which Christianity prohibits and regulates. Respect- 
 ing them all, three remarks, of much importance, are 
 to be made. The first is, that these prohibitions are 
 laid, not upon the outward act, but, in all cases, upon 
 the spirit or temper from which outward acts spring. 
 Nothing can be more evident than that Christianity 
 legislates for man as a spiritual being, and the subject 
 of a kingdom in which every secret thought is known, 
 
LECTURE VI. 175 
 
 and every malicious, and covetous, and impure desire 
 is a crime. This has often been mentioned as a proof 
 of the wisdom and superiority of the Christian system 
 of morals, because the only possible way of regulating 
 the external act is to regulate the spirit. But, how- 
 ever wise and necessary this might be in a system of 
 morals, it was not adopted by Christianity as a system 
 of morals, but because it recognizes man as a member 
 of a spiritual kingdom, in which volition itself is action, 
 and character itself, and not its outward manifestation, 
 is the object of legislation. It is far enough from 
 striking at the principle of wickedness because this is 
 necessary to restrain the outward act ; but because 
 it deals with realities, and not with appearances, and 
 is at war with wickedness itself, which has no exist- 
 ence in act as distinguished from its principle. 
 
 The second remark, intimately connected with the 
 first, is, that Christianity, considered as prohibitory, 
 is not a religion of mere precepts, but of principles. 
 " The New Testament," says Taylor, " contains vital 
 principles ; not always defined ; but w hich, as they 
 are evolved one after another, and are successively 
 brought to bear upon the opinions and manners of 
 Christianized nations, do actually remove from them 
 those flagrant evils which had accumulated in the 
 course of time, and which, so long as they are preva- 
 lent, abate very much the religious sensibilities even 
 of those who are the most conscientious." He says, 
 further, " that the New Testament, considered as im- 
 bodying a system of morals for the world, — a system 
 which is slowly to develop itself, until the human 
 family has been led by it into the path of peace and 
 
176 LECTURE VI. 
 
 purity, — effects this great purpose, not by prohibiting, 
 in so many words, the evils it is at length to abolish, 
 but by putting in movement unobtrusive influences, 
 which nothing, in the end, shall be able to with- 
 stand." * It is thus that Christianity has wrought 
 the revolution in favor of woman ; that it abolished 
 the ancient games and gladiatorial contests ; that it 
 has mitigated the horrors of war ; that it has, over a 
 large portion of the earth, abolished slavery, and that 
 it is now hastening to bring it to a full end. This 
 peculiarity of Christianity gives it a power of expan- 
 sion, and of adaptation to all circumstances, which 
 fits it for man as man. 
 
 The third remark is, that Christianity is a system 
 of prohibition and restraint only as it is a system of 
 excitement and guidance. Plainly, there are two 
 kinds of self-denial : the one from fear — formal, slavish, 
 barren ; the other from love — blessing the spirit, and 
 strengthening it in virtue. So far as Christianity re- 
 quires self-denial, it is uniformly and only of this latter 
 kind. It does not call men off from the world, that 
 they may sit sullenly by and envy others the pleasures 
 which they cannot share. If it calls them at all, it 
 calls them to something higher, purer, nobler, happier. 
 Its self-denial is that of a son who is laboring for the 
 support and comfort of a mother ; of a mother who 
 denies herself that she may educate a son ; of a sol- 
 dier who is marching on to do battle for liberty ; of 
 a racer who is speeding to the goal. It is the self- 
 denial of the great Howard, traversing Europe, and 
 diving into dungeons to "take the gauge of human 
 
 * Lectures on Spiritual Christianity. 
 
LECTURE VI. 177 
 
 misciy," with his heart too much interested in tliis 
 service to spend much time even to look at the mas- 
 terpieces of art. And who will say that he did not 
 iind a satisfaction higher, and more consonant to his 
 nature, than any work of art could have given ? Chris- 
 tianity excludes man from no enjoyment that is com- 
 patible with his highest good. It cannot, indeed, 
 reconcile incompatibilities. It cannot make a man a 
 soldier on duty, and let him be at the same time en- 
 joying himself by his fireside ; it cannot make him a 
 racer, and at the same time permit him to sit down 
 at his ease by the side of the course. It does call 
 men to be soldiers, but it is in the army of the Cap- 
 tain of tiieir salvation ; it does make them racers, 
 but it sets before them an immortal crown. Utterly 
 do they misapprehend the religion of Christ who re- 
 gard it as gloomy and austere — as a system of formal 
 prohibitions and restraints. No ; its self-denial is 
 from love. It is a system of prohibition and restraint 
 only as it is a system of excitement and guidance. 
 Let Christians be fully inspired with the great positive 
 ideas and motives of their religion, and it is impossi- 
 ble there should be in their deportment any thing au- 
 stere, or sanctimonious, or gloomy, more than there was 
 in the deportment of Christ and of his apostles. It is 
 only under the influence of self-denial from love that 
 the highest character can be formed. 
 
 Nor, in speaking of Christianity as a system of 
 excitement and restraint, ought we to omit its won- 
 derful balance of motives, and the manner in which 
 every weak point is guarded. Of particular instances 
 of this I have spoken incidentally ; but the system is 
 full of them. Thus, in the case recently mentioned, 
 
 23 
 
178 LECTURE VI. 
 
 while a selfish pride is guarded against and destroyed, 
 the true dignity of man is secured ; while the ambition 
 of superiority and comparison is repressed, the am- 
 bition of excellence is cherished; while the deepest 
 reverence towards God is demanded, it is made com- 
 patible with an affectionate and filial confidence ; 
 while humility, that virtue so peculiarly Christian, is 
 promoted, there is no approach towards meanness or 
 servility. It is " sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; " it 
 requires active beneficence, yet represses all self- 
 gratulation ; it insists strongly on the duties of piety 
 and of devotedness to God, but it excludes mysticism 
 and monachism, by insisting equally upon our duties 
 to man ; it inculcates universal benevolence, but 
 weakens no tie of family or of country. 
 
 If, then, there is this adaptation of Christianity to 
 man ; if it is adapted to his conscience, his intellect, 
 his affections, his imagination, his will, — exciting and 
 guiding them aright ; if it represses only evil, and that 
 at its source ; if its motives are wonderfully balanced, 
 so that the character produced by them would be one 
 of great loveliness and symmetry, — then it will follow 
 that it must carry the individual to the highest state of 
 perfection, not simply as a Christian, but as a man. 
 There are, indeed, manly traits which are not distinc- 
 tively Christian ; but no man can become a Christian 
 without becoming a better man, or can improve as a 
 Christian without improving in manhood ; and the 
 ideal of true manhood will find its completion only in 
 the perfection of the Christian character. And what 
 is thus true of the individual must, for that very 
 reason, be true of the community. If we may suppose 
 Christianity to have done its work upon all the indi- 
 
LECTURE VI. 179 
 
 viduals of a community, they would be like the stones 
 and the beams prepared by the workmen of Solomon 
 in the mountains, and would be ready to go up into 
 the magnificent temple of a perfect society, without 
 the sound of the axe or the hammer. And, moreover, 
 the same process which would perfect individuals as 
 such, and at the same time fit them to coalesce in an 
 harmonious society here, would, of course, fit them for 
 that perfect state of society which is represented as 
 existing in heaven. In this respect, Christianity com- 
 mends itself to our reason. It does not, like other 
 religions, care for rites, and forms, and ceremonies, 
 except as they bear upon character. It lays down no 
 arbitrary rules, to the observance of which it offers a 
 reward in the form or on the principle of wages, but 
 it goes to form a definite character ; and we can see 
 that the character it forms is precisely such as must 
 be a preparation for the Iieaveti which it promises. It 
 speaks of a holy heaven, and its great object is to 
 make men holy here that they may be fit to enter 
 there. This is its great object; but, in doing this, it 
 would bring the individual man, considered as an in- 
 habitant of the earth, to the highest perfection, and 
 would adjust, in the best possible manner, the relations 
 of society. 
 
 This is a point upon which I insist that we are 
 competent to judge. It is a vital point to all who 
 would do any thing to advance society beyond its 
 present state. We know something of man ; and we 
 certainly can tell what would be the effects upon the 
 individual, and upon society, if the law laid down in 
 the Bible — the great law of love — were universally 
 obeyed, and if the principles there insisted on were 
 
180 LECTURE VI. 
 
 universally regarded. We know what the representa- 
 tion of heaven is, as made in the Bible, and we cer- 
 tainly can tell whether the following of Christ would 
 be a natural and necessary preparation for such a 
 state. My object has been to compare Christianity 
 with the nature of man ; to observe their adjustments 
 to each other, and to see what that nature would be- 
 come, if yielded wholly to its influence. And if, im- 
 perfectly as this has been done, I yet find that the 
 powers of the individual man come forth, in their true 
 strength and proportion, only under its influence ; if I 
 find that there can be no perfect state of society 
 except in accordance with its laws ; if I see that it 
 would fit man for a heaven of purity and love, in- 
 volving the highest activity and fullest expansion of 
 every power, — then I am prepared to say that, if this 
 religion be not from God, it must yet be true ; and 
 that, if God should reveal a religion, it could neither 
 propose nor accomplish any thing higher or better. 
 
 I have now brought to a conclusion the argument 
 from a comparison of Christianity with the constitution 
 of man. There is another, usually termed the experi- 
 mental evidence of Christianity, which is intimately 
 connected with this ; for, if this religion is indeed 
 adapted to act thus fully and powerfully upon the 
 mind, it cannot but be that he who yields himself to 
 its influence will find, growing out of that very influ- 
 ence, a deeply-wrought conviction of its wisdom, and 
 of its adaptation to his nature and wants. Of the 
 validity of this argument there have been various 
 opinions. Some have objected to it altogether, as 
 fanatical ; while others have supposed that it might 
 
LECTURE VI. 181 
 
 be valid for the Chiistian himself, but neither ou"ht 
 to be, nor could be, any ground of conviction for 
 another. What, then, is the nature of this argument? 
 What ought to be its force, first, upon the minds of 
 Christians, and, secondly, upon the minds of others? 
 An answer to these inquiries would exhaust the subject. 
 What, then, is the nature of this argument, and the 
 consequent force which it ought to have upon the 
 mind of the Christian himself? The Christian con- 
 tends that he has a knowledge of Christianity, and a 
 conviction of its truth, which he did not acquire bv 
 reasoning, and which, therefore, reasoning cannot, and 
 ought not, to shake. Can he have such a knowledge 
 and conviction in a rational way ? By confounding 
 reasoning with reason, many have been led to suppose 
 that we could have no rational conviction of any thing 
 which we could not prove by reasoning. Than this no 
 mistake could be greater ; for a very large part of our 
 knowledge is neither acquired by reasoning nor de- 
 pendent on it. This is so with all the intuitions 
 of reason, and with all the knowledge acquired by 
 sensation and by experience. The very condition of 
 knowledge at all is a direct power of perception, and 
 where this does not exist, there can be no reason- 
 ing. Thus, no one can know what it is to live, but 
 by living ; what it is to see, but by seeing ; what it 
 is to feel, but by feeling; nor, in general, can any' one 
 know what it is to be any thing, but by becoming that 
 thing. Direct knowledge, thus gained, is the con- 
 dition of all reasoning, and it is not within the proper 
 province of reasoning to call it in question. The 
 knowledge is not gained by reasoning, but it is in the 
 highest degree rational to admit it and act uj)on it. 
 
182 LECTURE VI. 
 
 The question is, whether there is a knowledge of 
 Christianity which is obtained in this way ; whether, 
 in order to be a Christian, a man is simply to believe 
 something, or whether he is to become something. 
 
 And here I observe that, if Christianity be true, 
 there must be such a knowledge. It claims to be, not 
 a mere system of rites and forms, nor a system of phil- 
 osophical belief, but a life ; and, if so, that life can be 
 known only by living it ; if so, there must be gained, 
 by living it, immediate perceptions and experimental 
 knowledge, such as we gain by living our natural life. 
 Without these it would be merely a form, or a creed 
 in the understanding, or an external rule — something 
 dead and formal ; and not as " a well of water 
 springing up into everlasting life." Without these, it 
 is impossible that the words of Christ should be " spirit 
 and life." 
 
 The analogy is often drawn in this respect, and, so 
 far as I can see, properly, between Christianity, as a 
 remedy for the moral maladies of man, and remedies 
 for bodily disease. It is plain that he who takes a 
 remedy for bodily disease, may have an evidence and 
 conviction of its efficacy entirely independent of any 
 testimony or reasoning, and more convincing than 
 either or both of these could give. He may try the 
 remedy in such a variety of forms, may so watch the 
 symptoms as he takes or omits it, that he can have no 
 more doubt of its effect than he has of the rising and 
 settino; of the sun. Here is somethins; which comes 
 within the province of consciousness and of direct 
 knowledge, and it is in vain that you attempt to de- 
 stroy a conviction thus produced. You may tell him 
 that he is not sick, and never was ; that the dose was 
 
LECTURE VI. 183 
 
 the liiindrcd-thousandth part of a drop, and tluMcfore 
 could not have done him any good ; but he may have 
 had experience of such a kind that it would be prac- 
 tically irrational, and the height of folly, for him to lay 
 aside his medicine on the ground of any reasoning, or 
 previous estimate of probabilities. And so, when the 
 mind is awakened to the realities of its spiritual con- 
 dition, if, as the conscience is quickened and the moral 
 eye is purged, it is perceived that there is a wonderful 
 correspondence between the discoveries which a man 
 makes concerning himself and the delineations of the 
 heart which he finds in the Bible ; if this correspond- 
 ence is the same in kind with that which he finds in 
 the writinjis of those who have best described human 
 character, but is more perfect ; if it is such that an 
 uncultivated man, to whom the Bible becomes a new 
 book, may well say, as one recently did say, " I see 
 now that a man's history may be written before he was 
 born ; " if he finds in himself wants, hungerings and 
 thirstings of spirit, for which Christianity, and nothing 
 else, makes provision, and feels that that provision is 
 precisely adapted to his wants; if he finds himself 
 engaged in a conflict for which Christianity furnishes 
 the only appro])riate armor; if he obtains answers to 
 prayer, and finds grace to help in time of need, so that 
 his evil tendencies are overcome and his virtues are 
 strengthened, — then it would be no more rational for 
 him to doubt the truth of the Christian religion than 
 to doubt the testimony of his senses. Of such corres- 
 pondences between his heart and the Bible, of such 
 wants and their supplies, of such helps and of such 
 conquests, we might naturally suppose the Christian 
 would have an experimental knowledge, if Christianity 
 
184 LECTURE VI. 
 
 be true; and 1 venture to say that^no religion could 
 do for man what Christianity proposes to do without 
 furnishino; to those under its influence this kind of 
 evidence. 
 
 And not only might we rationally expect such a 
 ground of conviction, but Christianity itself, under- 
 standing its own nature and the grounds on which 
 it would be believed in, promises to give it to all who 
 will put themselves in a position to avail themselves 
 of it. " If any man," says Christ, " will do his will, 
 he shall know of the doctrine." " He," says John, 
 " that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness 
 in himself." " The Spirit itself," says Paul, " beareth 
 w^itness with our spirit that we are the children of 
 God." This evidence Christianity regards as indis- 
 pensable. It counts itself to have done nothing till 
 this is given. Till then, it is like the physician who 
 stands by the bedside and exhibits the evidences of his 
 skill, but accomplishes nothing, if the patient so dis- 
 likes the remedy that he prefers to suffer the pain, 
 and risk the consequences of the disease, rather than 
 to take that remedy. Here, indeed, is the great point 
 of difficulty. It is not so much that men are not 
 speculatively convinced of the truth of Christianity, 
 as that they defer applying it to themselves, and thus 
 fail of the highest of all possible grounds of convic- 
 tion — that of experience. 
 
 And as this evidence might be anticipated from the 
 nature of the case, and is promised in the Scriptures, 
 so we find it possessed by all true Christians, though 
 in a degree by no means proportioned to their learning 
 or talents, but to the sincerity of their faith and the 
 fulness of their obedience. Hence, unlike those spe- 
 
LECTURE VI. 185 
 
 cies of evidence vvliicli require learning, it is open to 
 all, and forms, for Christians of every age and of every 
 variety of attainment, a ground of conviction, which 
 they do not perhaps state as an argument, but vvliich 
 is rational, and satisfactory to all. To the philosopher 
 it is satisfactory, because he can trace it up to its prin- 
 ciples, and can feel that, in resting on it, he is resting 
 on precisely the same kind of evidence which com- 
 mands assent in all other cases of consciousness ; and 
 it is not less satisfactory to the unlettered man through 
 that healthy assent, unaccompanied by any reflex act 
 of the mind, by which we gain all our primary knowl- 
 edge. " Merely literary men," says Wilson, taking 
 the thought from Verplanck, " are slow to admit that 
 vulgar minds can have any rational perception of 
 truths involving great and high contemplation. They 
 overlook the distinction between the nice analysis of 
 principles, the accurate statement of definitions, logi- 
 cal inferences, and the solution of difficulties, and the 
 structure of our own thoughts and the play of the affec- 
 tions. They discern not between the theory of met- 
 aphysical science and the first truths and rational 
 instincts which are implanted in the breasts of all, 
 and which prepare them to see the glory of the gos- 
 pel, to feel its influence, and to argue from both for the 
 divinity of Christianity. The one is an elevating em- 
 ployment of the intellect ; the other, the germs and 
 seeds of all intellectual and moral knowledge, which 
 lie dormant till they are called forth by occasions, and 
 then burst forth into life and power. " * 
 
 And this evidence, being thus universal, shows us the 
 
 * Wilson's Evidences. 
 24. 
 
186 LECTURE VI. 
 
 true reason of that hold which Christianity lias upon 
 the minds of men, and of the place which it holds in 
 the earth as a leavening and extending power. It is 
 through this that the weak are made strong and the 
 timid brave ; that persons of every description have be- 
 come martyrs, equally in the first freshness and power 
 of the religion, and near the seat of its origin, and, in 
 these last days, in the remote island, and among the 
 semi-barbarous people, of Madagascar. I know it is 
 said that all religions can claim their martyrs, and that 
 for a man to die for his religion only shows that he is 
 sincere, and not at all the truth of the religion. But 
 it seems to me that the Christian religion is peculiar in 
 this respect, on the ground we are now considering, 
 and that its martyrdoms do show something more. 
 As between Christian sects, martyrdom can, indeed, 
 show nothing concerning the truth of particular tenets; 
 and it may be doubted whether other religions have 
 had their martvrs, in the strict sense of that word. In 
 confirmation of what other religion can it be shown 
 that any considerable number of persons have laid 
 down their lives solely from their belief in the religion, 
 unconnected with ambition, or the revolution of par- 
 ties ? I know of none. What other religion could 
 go to the Island of Madagascar, and, not only without 
 any temptation of honor or gain, but in opjiosition to 
 every motive of this kind, and to the entreaties of 
 friends, could induce persons to change their religion, 
 and then lead them, solely for the sake of the new re- 
 ligion, to wander about destitute, afflicted, tormented, 
 and finally to lay down their lives ? And here we see 
 only the operation of the same principle that led 
 persons of all descriptions, under the Roman emperors, 
 
LECTURE VI. 187 
 
 to submit to the loss of all, and to martyrdom. Such 
 martyrs, — the most enlightened philosophers and schol- 
 ars, multitudes of the common people, women, and 
 even children, evidently upheld by the same convic- 
 tions, — I contend, are peculiar to the Christian religion. 
 The history of the world can show nothing like them; 
 and whoever will consider them candidly, must confess 
 that they show, not merely the sincerity of those who 
 suffered, but the adaptation of the religion to take a 
 deep hold of the human mind, and its power to produce 
 conviction, in the manner of which I am now speaking. 
 In this power we rejoice. We point it out to the 
 infidel. We say to him that, as long as this power 
 remains, his warfare against Christianity must be in 
 vain. We tell him that he may argue, may ridicule, 
 may scoff; may think, with the mild Pliny, that " such 
 inveterate obstinacy ought to be punished ; " and he 
 may persecute and kill ; — but that he can never cause 
 the true Christian to yield his faith, or prevent the 
 working of those secret but mighty aflfiinities by which 
 he becomes more attached to it than to kindred, or 
 wealth, or life. 
 
 If, then, this evidence is of a nature so unexception- 
 able; if it is promised in the Scriptures; if we find such 
 evidence of it in the lives of Christians, — we may well 
 conclude that it must be, to tliem, a rational and satis- 
 factory ground of conviction that the religion is true. 
 
 But the unbeliever may say, this may be all very 
 well for the Christian himself, but it can be no evi- 
 dence to me. Let us see, then, whether it w^ould be 
 no evidence to a candid man ; whether an attempt is 
 not made in this, as in so many other cases, to judge 
 of religion in a way and by a standard different from 
 
188 LECTURE VI. 
 
 those adopted in other things. To me it seems that 
 the simple question is, whether this kind of evidence 
 is good for tlie Christian himself; for if it is, then the 
 candid inquirer is as much bound to take his testimony 
 as he is to take that of a man who has been sick, 
 respecting a remedy that has cured him. If a large 
 number of persons, whose testimony would be received 
 on any other subject, should say that they had been 
 cured of a fever by a particular remedy, there is no 
 man who would say that their testimony was of no 
 account in making up his mind respecting that remedy, 
 though he had not himself had the experience upon 
 which the testimony was founded. If it is said that 
 the evidence to the Christian himself is not well 
 founded, and is fanatical, very well. Let that point 
 be fairly settled. But if it be a good argument for 
 him, then we ask that his testimony should be received 
 on this subject as it would be on any other. The 
 testimony is that of many witnesses ; and I am per- 
 suaded that a fair examination of facts, and a careful 
 induction, after the manner of Bacon, would settle for- 
 ever the validity of this argument, and the proper force 
 of this testimony. Every circumstance conspires to 
 give it force. It is only from its truth that we can 
 account for its surprising uniformity, I may say identity, 
 in every age, in every country, and when given by 
 persons of every variety of talent and of mental culture. 
 Compare the statements given, respecting the power 
 of the gospel, by Jonathan Edwards, by a converted 
 Greenlander, a Sandwich Islander, and a Hottentot, 
 and you will find in them all a substantial identity. 
 They have all repented, and believed, and loved, and 
 obeyed, and rejoiced; they all speak of similar con- 
 
LECTURE VI. 189 
 
 flicts, and of similar snpj)orts. And their statements 
 respecting these things have the more force, because 
 they are not given as testimony, but seem rather Hkc 
 notes, varying, indeed, in fuhiess and power, which 
 may yet be recognized as coming from a simiUu" instru- 
 ment touched by a single hand. If I might allude 
 here to the comparison, by Christ, of the Spirit to the 
 wind, I should say that in every climate, and under all 
 circumstances, that divine Agent calls forth the same 
 sweet notes whenever he touches the ^olian harp of a 
 soul renewed. And this uniform testimony does not 
 come as a naked expression of mere feeling ; it is ac- 
 companied with a change of life, and with fruits meet 
 for repentance, showing a permanent change of prin- 
 ciple. This testimony, too, is given under circum- 
 stances best fitted to secure truth — given in affliction, 
 in poverty, on the bed of death. How many, how 
 very many, have testified in their final hour to the sus- 
 taining power of the gospel ! And was there ever one, 
 did any body ever hear of one, who repented, at that 
 hour, of having been a Christian ? Why not, then, 
 receive this testimony ? Will you make your own 
 experience the standard of what you will believe ? 
 Then we invite you to become a Christian, and gain 
 this experience. Will you be like the man who did not 
 believe in the existence of Jupiter's moons, and yet 
 refused to look through the telescope of Galileo for fear 
 he should see them ? Put the eye of faith to the gos- 
 pel, and if you do not see new moral heavens, I have 
 nothing more to say. Will you refuse to believe that 
 there is an echo at a particular spot, to believe that the 
 lowest sound can be conveyed around the circuit of a 
 whispering gallery, and yet refuse to put your ear at 
 
190 LECTURE VI. 
 
 the proper point to test these facts ? Put jour ear to 
 the gospel, and if you do not hear voices gathered from 
 three worlds, I have nothing more to say. Will you 
 refuse to believe that the colors of the rainbow are to be 
 seen in a drop of water, and yet not put your eye at 
 the angle at which alone they can be seen ? Or, il 
 you think there is nothing analogous to this in moral 
 matters, as there undoubtedly is, will you hear men 
 speaking of the high enjoyment they derive from view- 
 ing works of art, and think them deluded and fanatical 
 till your taste is so cultivated that you may have the 
 same enjoyment ? Surely, nothing can be more unrea- 
 sonable than for men to make their own experience, in 
 such cases, a standard of belief, and yet refuse the 
 only conditions on which experience can be had. 
 
 I have thus endeavored to show, first, that there is 
 in Christianity a self-evidencing power, and that the 
 experimental knowledge of a Christian is to him a 
 valid ground of belief; and, secondly, that a fair- 
 minded man will receive his testimony respecting 
 that knowledge as he would respecting the colors 
 in a drop, or the echo at a particular point, or the 
 pleasures of taste, or any other experience which he 
 had not himself been in a position to gain. 
 
 There is one argument more, intimately connected 
 with the adaptation of Christianity to the constitution 
 of man, to which I now proceed. A fitness and tend- 
 ency to become universal must be discernible in a 
 religion coming from God, and claiming to be given 
 for the race ; and if there is the adaptation for which 
 I have contended, then Christianity must have this 
 fitness and tendency. 
 
LECTURE VI. 191 
 
 The fitness, however, of Christianity to become uni- 
 versal, arises as much from what it is not as from 
 what it is, and can be fully appreciated only by look- 
 ing at the relation of its object to all human institu- 
 tions. That object is a moral object, with no taint 
 of any thing earthly about it ; and, in pursuing it, 
 Christianity keeps itself enth'ely aloof from all polit- 
 ical and local questions. It regards man solely as a 
 moral and spiritual being, under the government of 
 God ; and its object, distinctly announced from the 
 first, is to save men from the consequences of trans- 
 gression under that government. " His name shall 
 be called Jesus," said the angel, " for he shall save 
 his people from iheii' sm5." Not from the Roman 
 yoke — not primarily from any earthly evil — but from 
 their sins. Upon this one object Christianity steadily 
 keeps its eye. The Son of man came " to seek and 
 to save that which was lost." It is simply a system 
 of salvation from sin, and its consequences under the 
 government of God ; and whatever may be his age, 
 or language, or country, or the form of government 
 under which he lives, it is equally adapted to every 
 child of Adam who is led to ask the question, " What 
 must I do to be saved?" It comes with pardon and 
 hope to every one who feels the guilt of sin, or who 
 is subject to bondage through fear of death. There 
 are certain great moral interests which are common 
 to the race, — certain chords in the human heart 
 which vibrate whenever they are struck ; and it is 
 remarkable that Christianity concerns itself oidy with 
 those interests, and strikes only those chords. It has 
 to do with individuals as guilty under the government 
 of God, without respect to their earthly relations ; and 
 
192 LECTURE VI. 
 
 hence it has the power to enter in as a new element, 
 and to pervade and enhghten every form of society, 
 as the sunlight enters into and pervades the body of 
 the atmosphere. Hence, in its original diffusion, re- 
 garding man simply as man, it swept as freely as the 
 breeze of heaven past all territorial and national limits. 
 All other religions are adapted to particular climates ; 
 are upheld, like that of the Jews, by association with 
 particular places ; but, since Christ has entered into 
 the true tabernacle above, incense and a pure offering 
 may go up from every place. All other religions are 
 connected with the government, and we have no 
 evidence that, without such connection, they could be 
 sustained. But " Christianity, as a spiritual system, 
 is always superior to every visible institution." Some 
 systems and institutions may oppose greater obstacles 
 to its progress than others ; but none can become 
 Christianity, nor can they do any thing for it except 
 to give it free scope to do its own work upon individ- 
 ual character. It is not monarchy, it is not democ- 
 racy, it is not Episcopacy, it is not Congregationalism ; 
 it is something which may pervade and bless society 
 where any of these exist, and which may be with- 
 drawn and leave either of these standing as an orjjan- 
 ization through which human passion and corruption 
 shall work out their own unmixed and unmitigated 
 effects. Hence, too, Christianity attacks no visible 
 institutions as such. It goes to the slave, and tells 
 him he is the Lord's freed man ; it goes to the mas- 
 ter, and tells him he is Christ's servant. It tells both 
 master and slave that they are brethren. It goes to 
 the king, and tells him he is the subject of a higher 
 power ; it goes to the subject, and tells him he may 
 
LECTURE VI. 193 
 
 become a king and priest to God. It raises all men 
 to the level of a common immortality ; it depresses 
 them all to tiie level of a common sinfulness and ex- 
 posure ; it subjects all to a common accountability ; 
 it offers to all a common salvation ; it proposes to all 
 a law of perfect equity and a principle of universal 
 love ; and then it leaves these principles and motives 
 to work their own effect — assured that, in proportion 
 as they act, they must change the nature, if not the 
 name, of all visible institutions opposed to its sj)irit. 
 It is capable of taking human organizations, as culture 
 took the peach when it was dwarfed and its fruit was 
 poisonous, and of causing other juices and vital fluids 
 to circulate through the pores of those same organiza- 
 tions, and far other fruit to hang upon their branches. 
 It understands perfectly that no change of form is of 
 any permanent value without a change of spirit ; and 
 seeks (and oh that men would learn this lesson !) a 
 change of form only through a change of spirit. Hence 
 it works like leaven, that passes on from particle to 
 particle, and finds no limit till the whole lump is 
 leavened. Hence, too, I may remark here, Chris- 
 tianity is the most formidable of all foes to tyrants and 
 to every form of oppression. No walls, or fortifica- 
 tions, or armed legions, can keep it out, and no weapon 
 can smite it. Working silently upon the consciences 
 of men, it is impossible to say where it is, or to what 
 extent, and the opposer knows not where to strike. 
 The very executioner chosen by persecution offers 
 himself to die with the martyr; and when it is sup- 
 posed that the two witnesses are dead, and there is 
 reat rejoicing, they suddenly rise and stand upon 
 their feet. 
 
 25 
 
 g 
 
194 LECTURE VI. 
 
 But the fitness of Christianity to become universal 
 does not result from any properties merely negative, 
 nor from the possibility of its becoming so ; but from 
 all those adaptations by which it appears that it con- 
 tains the moral laws of God, and lays down the only 
 conditions of individual and social well-being. Of 
 some of these adaptations I have spoken ; and, for my 
 present purpose, it cannot be necessary that I should* 
 speak further, because, whatever men may think of the 
 divine origin of Christianity — however far they may 
 be from yielding practically to its claims — they almost 
 universally concede that its tendency is good, and that 
 society is improved just so far as it prevails. This is 
 conceded by philosophers, and politicians, and men of 
 the world ; and, with the exception of a few of the 
 lowest and most bigoted of them, by infidels them- 
 selves. They cannot deny its tendency to promote 
 industry, and honesty, and temperance, and peace, and 
 good order. And, if this is so, then Christianity has a 
 positive fitness to become universal in the same way 
 that any truth or practical knowledge has ; and, if there 
 is ever to be any thing like universal order, it must 
 take its place as a part of it. 
 
 But, if there is this Jitiiess in Christianity to become 
 universal, then it must have a tendency to become so, 
 or else there is neither a tendency to progress, nor a 
 law of progress, for man. The whole of our hope here 
 rests on the belief that there is inwrought into the 
 constitution of things a tendency by which those things 
 that have a fitness to promote happiness shall gradu- 
 ally remove obstacles, and become universal. That 
 the Saviour intended his religion should become uni- 
 versal is plain, because he left it in charge to his disci- 
 
LECTURE VI. 195 
 
 pies to preach it to every creature. That a real 
 apprehension of its truths, and of their value to the 
 race, would lead a benevolent mind to >vish to com- 
 municate them, is equally plain ; and hence we say 
 that, from the command of Christ, and from the very 
 nature of Christian truth and of Christian motives. 
 Christians themselves can never rest till they have 
 carried this gospel over the earth. But we say, fur- 
 ther than this, that Christianity has the same tendency 
 to prevail that reason has to prevail over brute force, or 
 that virtue has to prevail over vice, or truth over error, 
 — the same tendency that correct doctrines respecting 
 peace, or justice, or political economy, have to prevail 
 over those that are false. Man is capable of scientific 
 insight, and he seeks to be happy. There are certain 
 moral laws of God, as fixed and unchangeable as any 
 physical laws, in accordance with which alone he can 
 be so. Those laws, we say, are a part of Christianity, 
 and that all true progress in society must be a progress 
 towards the realization and establishment of those laws. 
 We say that every step in the progress of moral and 
 political science shows that, when these shall be com- 
 plete, they will be seen to be only the scientific ex- 
 pression of the precepts and laws of Christianity. 
 Hence there is the same tendency to universality in 
 Christianity, not as a mode of salvation, but in its 
 earthly aspects, that there is to any advancement and 
 progress in morals, or in politics, or in political econ- 
 omy. The true laws of these, and of human happi- 
 ness as depending on them, will be found to be iden- 
 tical with the spirit of Christianity, and they can never 
 be practically applied except as that spirit prevails. 
 
 Thus we see a preparation made, in the adaptation 
 of Christianity to the nature and wants of man as 
 
196 LECTURE VI. 
 
 man ; in the command of Christ ; in the nature of 
 Christian love and of Christian motives; and in the 
 identity of Christianity, in some of its aspects, with 
 moral and political science, for that final and universal 
 triumph predicted by the prophets and waited for by 
 the church ; and through these, in connection with 
 that divine aid which is promised and has never been 
 withheld, we think it rational to expect, not only that 
 it will be perpetuated till the end of time, but that 
 " the mountain of the Lord's house will be established 
 in the top of the mountains, and that all nations will 
 flow unto it." 
 
 Having thus spoken of the continuance of Chris- 
 tianity till the end of time, I will close this lecture by 
 observing that, in substance, if not in form, it has con- 
 tinued from its beginning. That it should have been 
 always in the world, is mentioned by Pascal as the 
 mark of a religion from God. It is a mark which we 
 might expect would belong to the true religion, and 
 this mark Christianity, and that alone, has. The 
 patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian dispensa- 
 tions, are evidently but the unfolding of one general 
 plan. In the first we see the folded bud ; in the sec- 
 ond, the expanded leaf; in the third, the blossom and 
 the fruit. And now, how sublime the idea of a re- 
 ligion thus commencing in the earliest dawn of time ; 
 holding on its way through all the revolutions of king- 
 doms and the vicissitudes of the race ; receiving new 
 forms, but always identical in spirit ; and, finally, ex- 
 panding and embracing in one great brotherhood the 
 whole family of man ! Who can doubt that such a 
 religion was from God ? 
 
LECTURE VII. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ORIGINATED BY 
 
 MAN. 
 
 If we could possibly be called on to argue the 
 question whether the ocean was made by God, or 
 whether it was an artificial salt lake, made by man, we 
 should show, on the one hand, that it was worthy of 
 God, and that it corresponded with his other works ; 
 and, on the other, that it was impossible it should 
 have been made by man. Every fact respecting its 
 vastness and depth would show that it was worthy of 
 God, and every relation that could be pointed out be- 
 tween that and the other works of God would be an 
 argument to show that they were fashioned by the 
 same hand. Probably no one could see the sun 
 evaporating its waters, the atmosphere bearing them 
 up in clouds, the clouds pouring them down upon the 
 waiting tribes of vegetation, the springs welling them 
 up for the service of animals and of man, without 
 being convinced that He who made the sun, and the 
 air, and the grass, and the animals, and man, made 
 also the ocean. Such relations of mutual dependence 
 could exist only in the different departments of the 
 works of one Beins. 
 
 Hitherto, I have endeavored to show that Christiani- 
 
198 LECTURE VII. 
 
 tj was worthy of God, and that it so corresponds with 
 his other works, that He who made nature, and the 
 mind, must have been the author of Christianity. I 
 now proceed to show that it could not have been pro- 
 duced by man. It may, perhaps, amount to the same 
 thing, whether I attempt to show that Christianity 
 must have come from God, or could not have come 
 from man ; but as the terms qf comparison are differ- 
 ent, it will lead to a presentation of the subject in an 
 entirely different point of view. 
 
 I continue to pursue this method of proof, bringing 
 Christianity, in different relations, alongside of the 
 human mind, because it is perfectly within the reach 
 of every person of good sense, whether learned or un- 
 learned. We know the capacities of the human mind, 
 and we are capable of forming, within certain limits, 
 a judgment, respecting what it can or cannot do, upon 
 which we may rely. The powers of the mind are lim- 
 ited no less than those of the body ; and as we can 
 judge what man can do, in given circumstances, by 
 his physical strength, and, in some cases, be sure we 
 are right, so we can judge what he can do intellectu- 
 ally and morally, in given circumstances, and, in some 
 cases, be sure we are right. The question, then, is, 
 whether it is possible that the human mind should 
 have originated the Christian system, under the cir- 
 cumstances in which it was placed. Had unassisted 
 man the capacity to originate such a system ? Was 
 there any motive to lead him to labor for its establish- 
 ment ? Upon this point I have already incidentally 
 touched, but it requires further attention. 
 
 And here I observe, that the question concerning 
 the origin of Christianity cannot be disposed of by a 
 
LECTURE VII. 199 
 
 general reference to the facility with which mankind 
 are deluded, and the frequency of impostures in the 
 world. This may do when speaking of tlie origin of 
 local and temporary movements, but not when we 
 approach the deepest and mightiest movement that 
 has appeared on the earth. It is admitted that delu- 
 sions are not uncommon ; that fanaticism, and enthusi- 
 asm, and interest, and fraud, and, possibly, all these 
 combined, may go a great way ; but is it possible 
 that any thing thus originated should overturn systems 
 the most deeply seated, and receive the homage of 
 the highest intellect and of the most extensive learn- 
 ing the world has ever seen, and gain vigor by op- 
 position, and survive, for eighteen hundred years, 
 every change in the forms of society, and, at the end 
 of that time, stand at the head of those influences 
 which are leading mankind on to a higher destiny ? 
 For such a religion, or delusion, or movement, to arise, 
 is not an every-day occurrence. It is altogether un- 
 precedented in the history of the race ; and to put 
 aside the question of its origin by telling us that 
 mankind are easily deceived, is much the same as it 
 would be to put aside the question about the origin of 
 the Gulf Stream by telling us that water is an element 
 very easily moved in different directions. Certainly, 
 water is a fluctuating and unstable element ; but to say 
 this, is not to account for a broad current in mid ocean 
 that has been uniform since time began ; nor is it any 
 account of a uniform current of thought and feeling, 
 setting in one direction for eighteen hundred years, to 
 say that the human mind is fluctuating and unstable ; 
 that man has been often deceived ; and that there 
 have been great extravagances in belief. The origm 
 
200 LECTURE VII. 
 
 of such a movement is to be investigated, and not to 
 be shrouded in mist. The New Testament gives a 
 full and satisfactory account of it ; and it behoves those 
 who do not receive that account, to substitute some 
 other that shall, at least, be plausible. This they have 
 failed to do. Perhaps no one was more competent to 
 do this, or has been more successful, than Gibbon ; and 
 yet the five causes which he assigns for the spread of 
 Christianity — namely, " the zeal of Christians," "their 
 doctrine of a future life," " the miraculous powers 
 ascribed to the primitive church," "their pure and 
 austere morals," and " their union " — are obviously 
 effects of that very religion of which they are assigned 
 as the cause. 
 
 To me, when I look at this religion, taking its point 
 of departure from the earliest period in the history of 
 the race ; when I see it analogous to nature ; when I 
 see it comprising all that natural rehgion teaches, and 
 introducing a new system in entire harmony with it, 
 but which could not have been deduced from it; wKeii 
 I see it commending itself to the conscience of man, 
 containing a perfect code of morals, meeting all his 
 moral wants, and embosoming the. only true principles 
 of economical and political science ; when I see in it 
 the best possible system of excitement and restraint 
 for all the faculties ; when 1 see how simple it is in 
 its principle, and yet in how many thousand ways it 
 mingles in with human affairs, and modifies them for 
 good, so that it is adapted to become universal ; when 
 I see it giving an account of the termination of all 
 things, worthy of God and consistent with reason ; — 
 to me, when I look at all these things, it no more 
 seems possible that the system of Christianity should 
 
LECTURE V[ I. 201 
 
 have been originated or sustained by man, tlian it 
 does that the ocean should have been made by liim. 
 These considerations, however, have been adduced to 
 elucidate that phase of the argument by which it was 
 intended to show that the religion must have come from 
 God, and I shall not further apply them here except 
 as — 
 
 I observe, that the more we examine the state of 
 opinions among the Jews, or among the surrounding 
 nations, at the time Christianity arose, the greater will 
 be our surprise that it should be what it is, respecting, 
 almost all those cardinal points which it does not 
 so much reveal as take for granted. Such are the 
 unity and spirituality of God, his holy character, the 
 spirituality of his worship, his paternal relation to us, 
 the doctrine of a resurrection and of human accounta- 
 bility. The most of these doctrines are not so much 
 systematically taught, as implied, in Christianity, and 
 they are not only consistent with reason, but are 
 essential as conditions to the end which Christianity 
 proposes to itself. 
 
 And this leads me to observe, that the end proposed 
 by Christianity, distinctly announced from the first, 
 and perseveringly adhered to, was one which could 
 not have been adopted either Iby an enthusiast or an 
 impostor. In the very first annunciation of the gospel, 
 it was said by the angel, " Thou shalt call his name 
 Jesus ; for he shall save his people from their sins." 
 Christ himself said that he came " to seek and to save 
 that which was lost" — "that the world through him 
 might be saved." Peter calls upon men to " repent, 
 and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the 
 remission of sins ; " and, again, to " repent and be con- 
 
202 LECTURE VII. 
 
 verted, that their sins may be blotted out." Nothing 
 can be plainer than that the great end of Christianity 
 is to deliver men from the power and the consequences 
 of sin under the government of God. With the light 
 which we now have, we can see that the object of a 
 religion from God must be to correct the state of the 
 heart ; but this object could never have been adopted 
 by enthusiasm. It is not of a character to awaken 
 enthusiasm, for it implies a recognition of guilt, and, 
 moreover, it involves a clear perception of the deepest 
 and most fundamental truth on which the reformation 
 of the world depends. Before the miseries of the 
 world can be removed, their cause must be known ; and 
 this shows an insiirht into the cause of human wretch- 
 edness such as we find nowhere else. Men are un- 
 happy, perhaps wretched, and they impute it to fate, 
 to others, to the want of wealth or of external advan- 
 tages, or to the constitution of society ; but Christianity 
 takes it for granted that sin, moral guilt, is the true 
 cause, the cause of all the other causes, of the unhap- 
 piness of man ; and that, in saving him from this, it 
 saves him from every thing that a rational being has 
 to fear. And is not this so? Does not man bring 
 upon himself, by his sins, the greater part of the evils 
 which he suffers? Remove war, and the fear of it; 
 remove dishonesty of every kind ; remove indolence, 
 and intemperance, and licentiousness, and envy, and 
 detraction, and revenge, and pride, and a selfish ambi- 
 tion, — and let the virtues opposite to these reign ; 
 remove, also, those apprehensions and terrors of 
 conscience, and that fear of death, which come in 
 consequence of sin, — and this world would become 
 comparatively a paradise. Christianity, then, strikes 
 
LECTURE VII. 203 
 
 at the true cause of all the miseries of man. In- 
 stead of endeavoring to check or control particular 
 streams of evil, it goes at once to the fountain whence 
 all those streams flow, and would seal that up forever. 
 To my mind, nothing can be clearer than that moral 
 evil is the true cause of the miseries of the world ; but 
 can this deep, and sober, and philosophical view of the 
 cause of human misery, and an attempt to remove it, 
 be the product of enthusiasm ? Of all feelings, a con- 
 sciousness of guilt is that which most represses en- 
 thusiasm. An enthusiast, therefore, could not come to 
 those only who would acknowledge themselves guilty, 
 and call them to the unwelcome duty of repentance, 
 and of renouncing cherished indulgences and habits. 
 He could not say, " They that are whole need not a 
 physician, but they that are sick." " I am not come to 
 call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 
 
 But if such an object could not have been selected 
 by an enthusiast, much less could it have been by an 
 impostor. An impostor must have a personal and 
 selfish motive ; but suppose this object gained, of what 
 advantage would it be to him ? Is it not a contra- 
 diction to suppose an impostor to call upon men to 
 repent of all sin, when, in the very act of thus calling 
 upon them, he is guilty of one of the blackest sins of 
 which man is capable ? And, further, an impostor esti- 
 mates the chances of success. But let any man look 
 at the state of things when Christ appeared, and 
 see what chance there could have been, in the eye 
 of an impostor, that such an object should succeed. 
 The great doctrines which lie at the foundation of 
 repentance were but very imperfectly known. Super- 
 stition and formality had almost entirely excluded the 
 
204 LECTURE VII. 
 
 spirit of any true religion, whether natural or revealed. 
 Sin, as such, was not disliked or deplored ; and if in 
 any case it should be, the Jews had a mode for its 
 removal, as they supposed, divinely constituted, and 
 with which they were satisfied ; while the Gentiles 
 were attached to their own religions, and hated and 
 despised the Jews. Now, in such a state of things, 
 for an impostor — a young man without learning, or 
 wealth, or influential friends ; a Jew, who would natu- 
 rally have shared in the prejudices and national feel- 
 ings of his countrymen — to arise and call upon men to 
 repent of sin in general, and believe in him ; at the 
 same time proposing no definite scheme, either political 
 or ecclesiastical; directing the energies of his followers 
 to nothing that could gratify their ambition, or love of 
 gain or pleasure, on earth ; and proposing rewards, 
 hereafter, that can be enjoyed only as men are morally 
 good, — and yet to make such an impression upon the 
 world as to overturn systems that had stood for ages, — 
 does seem to me far more improbable than any miracle 
 recorded in the Bible. The disparity between the 
 means employed and the effect to be produced would 
 not be greater, if a single, unaided man should attempt 
 to unseat Mount Atlas, and lift it from its bed. In 
 making it its object to remove guilt, and to rectify the 
 state of the heart before God, Christianity stands 
 alone ; and we can now see that this is the only 
 ultimate object which a religion from God could 
 propose. To my mind, therefore, the simple choice 
 of this object, requiring such breadth and accuracy of 
 view, so impossible to have been chosen by enthu- 
 siasm or imposture, taken in connection with the 
 movement produced by Christianity, is a sufficient 
 
LECTURE VII. 205 
 
 proof that it originatod with God, and was accompa- 
 nied by a divine power. 
 
 But perhaps the success in carrying forward this 
 object may be accounted for by a skilful adaptation 
 of some features of the system to the prejudices, or 
 wants, or habits of thought, of the age. Did Christ, 
 then, adapt his system to the prejudices and expecta- 
 tions of the Jews ? So far from this, nothing could 
 have been more strongly opposed to all the habits of 
 thought and long-cherished associations both of Jews 
 and of Gentiles. This point has been most ably pre- 
 sented by Bishop Sumner, of whose labors I shall avail 
 myself in the particulars I shall adduce respecting it. 
 
 The Jews were divided into three great sects — the 
 Pharisees, the Sadducees, and Essenes. The senti- 
 ments and modes of thought of the first two are 
 sufficiently known. The Essenes were a compara- 
 tively small sect, professing a community of goods and 
 the most austere celibacy. Among these sects were 
 found the great and influential men of the nation ; but 
 neither of these did Christ endeavor in the least to 
 propitiate, but he attacked them all equally. With 
 the general tone of thought, and laxity of morals, of the 
 Sadducees, his whole system was in direct conflict ; 
 and we all know how terrible were his denunciations 
 of the Pharisees and scribes, as hypocrites and formal- 
 ists, and as having put false glosses upon the law of 
 God. The spirit of sect is among the most bitter and 
 formidable that can be aroused ; but, instead of taking 
 advantage of this, or of commending himself to any 
 party, Christ armed every influence that could be 
 drawn from such sources against himself. 
 
206 LECTURE VII. 
 
 But, though the Jews were divided into sects, there 
 were many points which they held in common as 
 Jews, and which were to them the ground of a strong 
 and exclusive national feeling. If we can suppose it 
 possible that Christ himself should have risen superior 
 to all the prejudices and associations of his nation, yet, 
 if we look at him either as an enthusiast or an impos- 
 tor, we cannot suppose he would have gone counter 
 to every feeling that was strongly and distinctively 
 Jewish ; much less can we suppose he would have 
 attempted to bring to an end a system which he 
 himself, in common with all his countrymen, acknowl- 
 edged to be from God, and to the rites of which he 
 conformed. Yet so did Christ. 
 
 Hence I observe, that, while Christ claimed to be 
 the Messiah expected by the Jews, his whole appear- 
 ance, and character, and object, were totally opposed 
 to all their interpretations of prophecy, and wishes, 
 and long-cherished anticipations. In the language of 
 Sumner, " They looked for a conqueror, a temporal 
 king, and had been accustomed to interpret in this 
 sense all the prophecies which foretold his coming. 
 The Jews were at the time suffering under a foreign 
 yoke, which they bore with great uneasiness and im- 
 patience. And whether we suppose Jesus to have 
 been an impostor or enthusiast, this is the character 
 which he would naturally assume. If he were an en- 
 thusiast, his mind would have been filled with the 
 popular belief, and his imagination fired with the 
 national ideas of victory and glory. If he were an im- 
 postor, the general expectation would coincide with 
 the only motive to which his conduct can be attributed 
 — ambition and the desire of personal aggrandize- 
 
LECTURE VII. 207 
 
 meiit. How, then, can we explain his rejecting, from 
 the first, and throughout liis whole career, all the 
 advantage which he might have derived from the pre- 
 vious expectation of the people, and even his turning 
 it against himself and his cause ? Why should he, as 
 a Jew, have interpreted the prophetic Scriptures differ- 
 ently from all other Jews ? Why should he, as an 
 impostor, have deprived himself of all personal benefit 
 from his design ? " * 
 
 Again ; " No feeling could be stronger, or better 
 founded, than the veneration of the Jews for the Mo- 
 saic law. The account of its origin which had come 
 down to them from their ancestors ; its singularity ; the 
 effect that singularity had produced in establishing a 
 wide separation between themselves and other nations ; 
 above all, the important results which they expected 
 from obeying it, as entitling them to the favor and pro- 
 tection of God ; all these circumstances united to ren- 
 der that attachment to their national law, which is 
 common among every people, inconceivably strong in 
 the case of the Jews." Yet Christ said to these same 
 Jews, " The law and the prophets were until John." 
 Himself acknowledging its divine origin, he yet abro- 
 gated the ceremonial law, and put new interpretations 
 upon the moral law. Of the distinction between these 
 he had the most accurate perception ; for, while he 
 struck down the one, declaring that the hour had 
 come in which men need no longer worship at Jerusa- 
 lem, but that every where the true worship})ers should 
 worship the Father in spirit and in truth, he yet de- 
 clared that heaven and earth should pass away sooner 
 
 * Sumner's Evidences, chap. ii. 
 
203 LECTURE VII. 
 
 than one jot or tittle of the moral law should fail. 
 But though he retained the law as the moral code of 
 the universe, he jet abrogated it so far as it applied 
 exclusively to the Jews, and in all those respects in 
 which it was chiefly valued by them. 
 
 Further ; " It was a favorite belief among the Jews, 
 confirmed by the whole course of their history, that 
 their nation enjoyed the exclusive regard and pro- 
 tection of the true God. But the first principle of 
 the Christian religion tended to dislodge the Jews 
 from these high pretensions, and to admit all other 
 nations, indiscriminately, within the pale of God's 
 church." 
 
 And, once more ; " The city of Jerusalem was uni- 
 versally believed to be secure under the especial care 
 of God, as being the seat of the only true religion, 
 and its temple consecrated to his peculiar service by 
 divine institution and ancient usage. Yet Christ and 
 his disciples declared that total destruction was quickly 
 approaching both the temple and the city." 
 
 Thus Ciirist not only armed against himself the 
 spirit of sect, but also that peculiar national feeling 
 which was stronger among the Jews than among any 
 other people. But while he did this, and while it 
 was declared, from the first, that he should be a light 
 to lighten the Gentiles, he himself never went among 
 the Gentiles, but declared that he was not sent but 
 to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. All this, we 
 may safely say, neither an enthusiast nor an impos- 
 tor could have done. 
 
 But, while the origin of Christianity is so anoma- 
 lous and inexplicable on the supposition that the 
 agents were actuated by merely human motives, every 
 
LECTURE VII. 200 
 
 thing becomes perfectly consistent and reasonable the 
 moment we suppose they were the agents of God to 
 introduce a new and universal religion. If such a 
 religion was to be introduced, the whole Jewish econ- 
 omy must of necessity have been removed. But was 
 a Jewish peasant, unlettered and untravelled, going 
 up with his countrymen every year to Jerusalem, the 
 person to see this ? Was he to have the inconceiva- 
 ble arrogance to assume to himself the authority to 
 remove that dispensation, at the same time that he 
 admitted it to be from God ? 
 
 I proceed to another point. Extraordinary as was 
 the character of Christ, and unaccountable as was 
 his conduct while he was alive, yet, if we suppose 
 him to have been either an enthusiast or an imi)ostor, 
 there must have been some one among his disciples, 
 after his death, whose character and conduct were 
 still more extraordinary and unaccountable ; for it is 
 to be remembered that, on this supposition, Christ 
 cannot, with any propriety, be said to be the origina- 
 tor of the system wliich bears his name. This is a 
 j)oiut not sufficiently noticed, if indc(>d it has been 
 noticed at all. 
 
 It will not be denied that the resurrection of Christ 
 lies at the foundation of the system. It did so in the 
 mind of Paid when he wrote to the Corinthians that, 
 if Christ were not raised, their faith was vain ; and 
 it has been regarded as fundamental by Christians 
 ever since. Did Christ, then, or did he not, know the 
 place which his death, and the story of his resurrec- 
 tion, were to have in the Christian system ? If we 
 suppose him to have been any thing except what he 
 
210 LECTURE VII. 
 
 claimed to be, he could not have known this. With- 
 out the gift of prophecy, he could not have known 
 that the Roman governor would sentence him to 
 death. Besides, it is absurd to suppose that any en- 
 thusiast or impostor could frame a scheme of which 
 his own death on the cross, and a story of his resur- 
 rection, to be started and substantiated by others, 
 should form a necessary part. His death must, then, 
 on the supposition on which we are arguing, have 
 been unexpected, both to himself and to his follow- 
 ers. His schemes, whatever they were, must have 
 perished with him; for of the Christian system, as con- 
 tained in the New Testament, involving his own 
 death and resurrection, he could, by no possibility, 
 have had any conception. This system did not be- 
 come possible till after his death. Previous to that, 
 the very foundation of it had no existence, nor could 
 it even have had if his death had not been public ; 
 for, otherwise, his death would not have been certain, 
 and the story of the resurrection would have excited 
 no attention. 
 
 Who, then, was that man, the true author of Chris- 
 tianity, of quick and original thought, who, in that 
 moment when the Jews supposed they had triumphed, 
 when the plans of Christ himself, whatever they were, 
 had failed, saw, from the very fact of the crucifixion, 
 that a story of a resurrection might be framed, and 
 be so connected with the former life and instructions 
 of Christ, and with the Jewish Scriptures, as to form 
 the basis of a new religion ? Who was this master- 
 spirit, — for the unity of the system shows that it must 
 have been the product of one mind, — who was so 
 prompt in combining the fearful fact of his master's 
 
LECTURE VH. 211 
 
 execution, and the strange story of the resurrection, 
 with his former life and teachings, so as to make one 
 connected whole ? Who rallied the dispersed and dis- 
 heartened disciples, opened to them his plan of decep- 
 tion, assigned to each his part, and induced tliem to 
 stand firm by the cause even unto death ? Certainly, 
 if Christ was not what he claimed to be, there was 
 some one concerned, in the orioin of the Christian 
 system, who ^vas a greater and more extraordinary 
 person than he, and the true author of that system is 
 unknown. 
 
 But here let me ask, supposing such a scheme to 
 have been originated, whether any person of common 
 sense could possibly have hoped for its success ; 
 whether any but madmen could have been persuaded 
 to engage in it. For what was the scheme ? It 
 was nothing less than to persuade all mankind to 
 receive one, as a Saviour, and to believe in him as the 
 final Judge of the world, who, they themselves ac- 
 knowledged, had been put to death by crucifixion 
 between two thieves. And, in order to realize fully 
 what this undertaking was, we must further, first, 
 remember how alien from all the habits of thought 
 among the Gentiles and among most of the Jews, 
 how utterly improbable, the story of a resurrection 
 must have been ; and, secondly, we must divest our- 
 selves of all the associations which we have gathered 
 around the cross, and, going back to that period, must 
 furnish our minds with those which were then preva- 
 lent. We must remember that the cross was not only 
 an instrument of public execution peculiarly dreadful, 
 but also peculiarly ignominious ; that it was unlawful 
 to put a Roman citizen to death in this way; and that 
 
212 LECTURE VII. 
 
 it was a punishment reserved only to slaves, and per- 
 sons of the lowest description. 
 
 And now, with these facts before us, I ask whether 
 the idea of the resurrection of a person thus put to 
 death, and of his exaltation to be the Saviour of men 
 and the Judge of the whole earth, occurring to a person 
 without any manifestation of miraculous power, is in 
 accordance with the laws of human thought ; whether 
 an attempt to make mankind believe such a story, and 
 to cause them — the very Jews who had just crucified 
 him, the Gentiles who held all Jews in contempt, and 
 would more especially despise and abhor a crucified 
 Jew — whether the attempt to cause them to forsake 
 their own religions, and to acknowledge such a Saviour 
 and Judge, is compatible with what we know of the 
 laws of human action. Can we conceive of any en- 
 thusiast so utterly wild, of any impostor so utterly 
 foolish, as to suppose he could make such a story and 
 such a proposition the basis of a religion which should 
 overthrow all others, and become universal ? Can we 
 conceive, not only that such an attempt should be 
 made, but that it should succeed? The man who 
 can believe this, can believe any thing. What an as- 
 tonishing contrast between such a point of departure 
 of the Christian religion, and that moment when a 
 Roman emperor turned his expiring eyes to heaven 
 and said, " O Galilean, thou hast conquered ! " 
 
 And here, again, what is so entirely unaccountable 
 if we exclude divine agency, is perfectly accounted 
 for the moment we allow that these men were what 
 they claimed to be, and were endowed with power 
 from on high. 
 
 I might pursue this train of thought at great lengthy 
 
LECTURE Vll. 213 
 
 applying it to tlie conduct of the disciples individuaily 
 and as a body, and particularly to the conversion and 
 subsequent course of the aj)ostle Paul. I think it can 
 be shown, on the supposition of imposture or enthu- 
 siasm — and no other is possible without admitting the 
 truth of the religion — that the conduct of these men 
 was as contrary to known and established laws of 
 human action as any miracle can be to the laws of 
 nature. But I proceed to observe that no enthusiast 
 or impostor either would or could have effected that 
 peculiar connection, doctrinal, typical, and prophetical, 
 which exists between the Jewish and the Christian 
 religion. This no man would have done. For while, 
 as I have just shown, they rejected so much, and such 
 })arts, of the sj^stem as would excite to the utmost the 
 hostility of the Jews, they yet declared it to be identical 
 in spirit with the Jewish religion, and thus presented 
 themselves at a great disadvantage before the Gentiles. 
 Accordingly, we find the Roman magistrates speaking 
 in the most contemptuous manner of the whole thing, 
 as being a question of Jewish superstition. Thus 
 Festus, giving an account of Paul's case to Agrippa, 
 said, " Against whom, when the accusers stood up, 
 they brought none accusation of such things as I sup- 
 posed, but had certain questions against him of their 
 own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, 
 whom Paul affirmed to be alive." So, also, when 
 Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, and the Jews brought 
 Paul before him, and he was about to defend himself, 
 Gallio said unto the Jews, " If it were a matter of 
 wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would 
 that I should bear with you ; but if it be a question 
 of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; 
 
214 LECTURE VII. 
 
 for I will be no judge of such matters. And he drave 
 them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks 
 took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and 
 beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared 
 for none of those things." This feeling was per- 
 fectly natural, and the author or authors of Christianity 
 must have known it would be excited if such a con- 
 nection was retained between the new religion and 
 that of the Jews. The course pursued, therefore, was 
 apparently the most impolitic that could have been 
 adopted, whether the feelings of the Jews or of the 
 Gentiles were regarded. 
 
 But this is not the point of the greatest difficulty. 
 No impostor, or enthusiast, could have adopted such a 
 course, if he would. For, first, no human wisdom could 
 have taken the Jewish system, complicated as it was, 
 and have drawn the line with a judgment so unerring 
 between those things which ought to be rejected and 
 those which might be retained ; between those things 
 which would, and those which would not, harmonize 
 with the new system. And, secondly, that a system 
 depending so much upon facts over which the authors 
 of it had no control, such as the place of Christ's birth, 
 and the time and manner of his death — a system that 
 had never before been thought of, or provided for — a 
 system springing up at a particular juncture from 
 enthusiasm or imposture, — should have so many cor- 
 respondences with a system originated thousands of 
 years before, that the attempt should be universally 
 made to convert the Jews by reasoning out of their 
 own Scriptures, showing that " so it was written," — 
 and that such a book as the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 could be written, — is, to my mind, inconceivable. Nor 
 
LECTURE VII. 215 
 
 is it less inconceivable — what I have spoken of in a 
 former lecture — that man should invent a system which 
 would permit its advocates to pass from the Jewish 
 synagogue, where their whole argument had been based 
 on the Old Testament Scriptures, into a company of 
 Athenian philosophers, and, with the same confidence, 
 and freedom, and power, argue with them from the 
 book of nature, and the moral constitution and wants 
 of man. Nothing can be more striking tiian the con- 
 trast between Paul's speech on Mars Hill and that 
 recorded in the thirteenth of Acts, in a Jewish syna- 
 gogue at Antioch, or even that before Agrippa, in 
 which he made the appeal, " King Agrippa, believest 
 thou the prophets ? " 
 
 On the whole, then, laying aside those analogies and 
 adaptations by which it is shown that Christianity must 
 have come from God, and taking only the particulars 
 adduced in this lecture, have we not reason to conclude 
 that it could not have been originated by man ? 
 
 I have thus far spoken chiefly of the system of Chris- 
 tianitv. I shall devote the remainder of this lecture to 
 the consideration of some points of evidence drawn from 
 the books in which its records and doctrines are con- 
 tained — confining myself, however, to such as must be 
 judged of in the same way as those which we have 
 been considering. These books open to us a field-of 
 such evidence as every man of good sense and candor 
 can judge of, scarcely less extensive and rich than the 
 system itself; but to this my time will permit me but 
 briefly to refer. 
 
 1 observe, then, in accordance with the general scope 
 of this lecture, that no impostor, or enthusiast, cither 
 
216 LECTURE VII. 
 
 would, or could, have written the books of the New 
 Testament. 
 
 And, first, no such person would have written them ; 
 for they are of such a character that it is impossible 
 to assign a motive for a forgery. The motive could 
 not have been gain. For what is the relation of these 
 books to Christianity ? Plainly, they presuppose its 
 existence. To suppose that the books themselves, 
 coming out as a mere bald, naked fiction, could have 
 been received by both Jews and Gentiles, and have 
 worked a revolution in society, and that, too, in an age 
 when printing was unknown, and the number and in- 
 fluence of books were comparatively small, is absurd. 
 Christianity must then have sprung up, and spread 
 more or less extensivelv, and then the books must 
 have been written to give an account of its origin 
 and progress. If, then, gain had been the object, it 
 was necessary to write an account that could not 
 be discredited. No forgery could have escaped both 
 neglect and contempt. 
 
 Nor could the motive have been fame. No one, 
 from reading the Gospel of Matthew, would suspect 
 who the author was. He speaks of himself very little, 
 and mentions that he belonged to a class who were 
 despised and hated by the Jews. Would any man, 
 could any man, compose the Sermon on the Mount — a 
 production, for its beauty, and majestic simplicity, and 
 morality, unequalled since the world stood — for fame, 
 and then ascribe it to a fictitious person, or one whom 
 he knew to be an impostor? 
 
 Nor could his motive have been power or influence. 
 No book was ever more unskilfully constructed for 
 such a purpose. It had no connection with politics or 
 
LECTURE VII. 217 
 
 parties, nor does it contain any thing to give distinction 
 or influence to its autlior. What, then, could have 
 induced a man capable of surpassing, as a moralist 
 and as a deep thinker, all the philosophers of antiquity, 
 to conceal himself entirely behind an impostor ? How 
 could he have induced the world to mistake that im- 
 postor for himself? 
 
 And what is thus true of the Gospels, and of the 
 Acts, is equally true of the Epistles. Indeed, there 
 are some circumstances which would seem to render a 
 forgery of these peculiarly improbable. If 1 were to 
 select the last form in which a forgery would be 
 likely to come before the world, it would be this. 
 These are extraordinary productions, and it is incon- 
 ceivable that any man should introduce them into the 
 world by the fiction of addressing them to a church, 
 and should connect such admirable sentiments with 
 the details of their peculiar difficulties, and with salu- 
 tations addressed to many persons by name. Let any 
 man read the last chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Romans, (which is almost entirely made up of greet- 
 ings and salutations,) and ask himself if it is possible 
 that any man, writing a letter for the purpose of 
 deception, could have written it. Observe his par- 
 ticularity. Not only does Paul himself salute many 
 persons, but Timotheus, his work-fellow, is joined with 
 him, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, his kins- 
 man, and Tertius, who wrote the Epistle, and Gains, 
 his host, and Erastus, the chamberlain of the city, and 
 Quartus, a brother. 
 
 If, however, it should be said that there were forge- 
 ries afterwards, I reply, that all great originals, all 
 genuine articles of great value, present temptations to 
 
 28 
 
218 LECTURE VII. 
 
 imitation and forgery, but there is no such tempta- 
 tion to forge the original work. No instance of such 
 a forgery can be adduced. 
 
 The strong point here, however, is, that no enthu- 
 siast or impostor could have forged these books. This 
 is manifest from the marks of honesty which they 
 bear upon their face. It is with books as with men. 
 Without stating to ourselves the ground of it, we all 
 form a judgment of the character of men from their 
 appearance. There is in some men an appearance 
 of openness, and candor, and fairness, in all they do 
 and say, which can hardly be mistaken. There is 
 often something in the appearance and modes o\ 
 statement of a witness on the stand, there are certain 
 undefinable but very appreciable marks of honesty 
 or of dishonesty, which will and ought to go very far, 
 with one who has been accustomed to observe men 
 under such circumstances, in fixing the character of 
 his testimony. Now, this is remarkably the case with 
 the writings of the New Testament. We cannot read 
 a chapter without feeling that we are dealing with 
 realities. The writers show no consciousness of any 
 possibility that their statements should be doubted. 
 They have the air of persons who state things perfectly 
 well known. They express no wonder ; they do not 
 seem to expect that their statements, extraordinary as 
 they are, will excite any ; they enter into no explana- 
 tions, attempt to remove or evade no difficulties ; they 
 speak freely of their own faults and weaknesses ; they 
 flatter no one ; they express no malice towards any. 
 There is no ambition of fine writing, no special plead- 
 ing, no attempt to conceal circumstances apparently 
 unfavorable — as the agony of Christ in the garden, so 
 
LECTURE VII. 219 
 
 liable to be imputed to weakness ; the fact that he 
 was forsaken of God on the cross, that Peter denied 
 Jiim, and that the disciples forsook him and fled. 
 Their narratives are minute, circumstantial, graphic, 
 giving the names of persons and the time and the 
 place of events. At every step they lay themselves 
 open to detection if their accounts are, I will not say 
 fabrications, but false in any respect. Do they give 
 us the Sermon on the Mount? They tell us that 
 multitudes heard it. Do they give an account of the 
 resurrection of Lazarus ? They give the place and 
 the family, and state its effects upon different classes 
 of persons. Do they speak of the Roman governor, 
 or of the high priest ? They mention his name. 
 There is the Sea of Galilee, and Capernaum, and Jeru- 
 salem, and the temple with its goodly stones. There 
 are the Jewish feasts, and their sects, and traditions. 
 Every thing is thoroughly Jewish, and still there is the 
 publican and the Roman soldier. All these seem to 
 stand before us with the distinctness of life — not by 
 the force of rhetorical painting, but by the simple nar- 
 ration of truth. 
 
 The chief difficulty, however, in fabricating these 
 books, would not have been in giving them singly 
 an air of truth, however striking and life-like, but 
 in constructing so many of them with such numer- 
 ous and incidental marks of correspondence as to 
 negative entirely the supposition of imposture. And 
 here it ought to be observed, that the number of 
 books is itself a strong reason for supposing that 
 there was no imposture. An imposture would nat- 
 urally have appeared in one well-considered and 
 well-guarded account. So have all impostures of 
 
220 LECTURE VII. 
 
 the kind appeared. The Koran was wholly written 
 by one man. So was the Mormon Bible. But here 
 we have twenty-seven books, or letters, written by 
 eight different men, each implying the truth of most of 
 the others, and, as they stand, giving an opportunity 
 for comparison, and for what the lawyers would call 
 cross-questioning, which must have proved fatal to any 
 fabrication, and to which imposture was never known 
 to subject itself. We have four independent histories 
 of Christ. Between these there are a few apparent 
 discrepancies respecting minor points, such as will 
 always occur when independent witnesses state their 
 own impressions respecting a series of events. These 
 lie for the most part on the surface, are such as might 
 have been easily avoided, and such as imposture cer- 
 tainly would have avoided. They show that the wit- 
 nesses were independent, that there was no collusion 
 between them ; while the points of agreement are so 
 many, and of such a character, as can be accounted for 
 only on the supposition of truth. 
 
 Of the advantages thus furnished, the opposers of 
 Christianity have eagerly availed themselves ; but they 
 are careful not to state, if, indeed, they reflect, that 
 the very fact that these advantages are thus gratu- 
 itously furnished shows the conscious security of truth, 
 and affords the strongest possible presumption that 
 nothing can be made of them. They have, however, 
 been made the ground of petty objections, and small 
 cavils, by a class of men having the same turn of mind 
 as Paine, and that kind of acquaintance with the New 
 Testament indicated by him when he ranked the 
 evangelist Luke as one of the eleven apostles. These 
 men have discovered, for example, that the same words 
 
LECTURE VII, 221 
 
 are not given by the different evangelists as forming 
 the superscription over the head of Christ ; and also 
 that, while one says he was crucified at the third hour, 
 another says it was the sixth. In general, such objec- 
 tions are easily answered. They arise from mere 
 omissions, or from our ignorance of local customs, and 
 are constantly diminished in number by more thorough 
 research. In the first of the cases just mentioned, it 
 would be sufficient if the substance of the superscrip- 
 tion were given, without verbal accuracy ; but it is to 
 be remembered that it was WTitten in three difTerent 
 languages, and the expressions may have varied ; or if, 
 as is very probable, they translated the Hebrew title 
 into the Greek, we all know that there might be 
 different forms of expression. If two men were to 
 translate a similar expression from Latin into English, 
 they probably would not adopt the same words. In 
 the second case, the difficulty is obviated by supposing 
 that one of the evangelists made use of the Roman, 
 and the other of the Jewish method of computing time ; 
 or by supposing a mistake in copying some manu- 
 scripts of John's Gospel, by a slight change of the 
 numeral letter, — the two Greek numerals much re- 
 sembling each other, — the other reading, "the third 
 hour," being confirmed by several ancient manuscripts 
 and authors, and approved by almost all critical editors 
 of the Greek Testament. Discrepancies of this kind 
 are few in number ; for the best effect of the evidence 
 upon a fair mind, we should not wish them fewer: 
 while the coincidences, evidently undesigned, between 
 the four Gospels, and between the Gospels and the 
 Acts, are so numerous as to have been collected, by 
 Mr. Blunt, into a volume. 
 
222 LECTURE VII. 
 
 But, as if to furnish the best possible opportunity for 
 this species of proof, we have the history of the apos- 
 tle Paul stated fully and circumstantially in the Acts ; 
 and then we have thirteen letters of the same apostle, 
 purporting to have been written during the period 
 covered by the history. If, therefore, the history and 
 the letters are both genuine, w^e should expect to find 
 the same general character ascribed to the apostle in 
 the history that is indicated by his letters ; we should 
 expect to find in the letters numerous minute and un- 
 designed references, such as could not be counterfeited, 
 to the facts stated in the history. And all this we do 
 find. The character of Paul was strongly marked, and 
 no one can doubt whether the Epistles ascribed to him 
 were written by such a man as he is described in the 
 history to have been. How different are the charac- 
 ters of Paul, of Peter, and of John, and yet how per- 
 fectly do the writings ascribed to each correspond with 
 his character! If the history had given us an account 
 of a person hke John, and then these letters had been 
 ascribed to him, how differently would our evidence 
 have stood ! 
 
 But the argument from the coincidences between 
 the different Epistles, and between the Episdes and 
 the Acts, has been presented in a full and masterly 
 mariner by Paley, in his Horae Paulinse, a book to 
 which, so far as I know, infidels have judged it wise 
 not to attempt an answer. In this argument, Paley 
 does not notice those coincidences which are direct 
 and striking, and which might have been fabricated; 
 but those which are evidently undesigned, which are 
 remote and circuitous, and so woven into the web that 
 the supposition of art or imposture is impossible. This 
 
LECTURE VII. 223 
 
 argument is best illustrated by examples. Thus we 
 fmd, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the follow- 
 ing passage : " Even unto this present hour we both 
 hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, 
 and have no eertain dwelling-place ; and labor, work- 
 ing with our own hands." We are expressly told, 
 in the history, that, at Corinth, St. Paul labored with 
 his own hands : "He found Aquila and Priscilla ; 
 and, because he was of the same craft, he abode 
 with them, and wrought; for, by their occupation, 
 they were tent-makers." But, in the text before 
 us, he is made to say that he labored " even unto 
 this present hour," that is, to the time of writing the 
 Epistle, at Ephesus. Now, in the narration of St. 
 Paul's transactions at Ephesus, delivered in the nine- 
 teenth chapter of the Acts, nothing is said of his 
 working with his own hands ; but in the twentieth 
 chapter we read that, upon his return from Greece, he 
 sent for the elders of the church at Ephesus to meet 
 him at Miletus ; and, in the discourse which he there 
 addressed to them, we fmd the following : " I have 
 coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel ; yea, ye 
 yourselves also know, that these hands have ministered 
 unto my necessities, and to them that were with me." 
 That manual labor, therefore, which he had exercised 
 at Corinth, he continued at Ephesus; and not only so, 
 but continued it during that particular residence at 
 Ephesus, near the. conclusion of which this Epistle was 
 written ; so that he might, with the strictest truth, say, 
 at the time of writing the Epistle, " even unto this 
 present hour, we labor, working with our own hands." 
 "The correspondency is sufficient, then, as to the unde- 
 signedness of it. It is manifest to my judgment that, 
 
224 LECTURE VII. 
 
 if the history in this article had been taken from the 
 Epistle, this circumstance, if it appeared at all, would 
 have appeared in its place — that is, in the direct ac- 
 count of St. Paul's transactions at Ephesus. Nor is it 
 likely, on the other hand, that a circumstance, which 
 is not extant in the history of St. Paul at Ephesus, 
 should have been made the subject of a factitious 
 allusion in an Epistle purporting to be written by 
 him from that place ; not to mention that the allusion 
 itself, especially as to time, is too obUque and general 
 to answer any purpose of forgery whatever." 
 
 Again ; we find, in the Second Epistle to the Thessa- 
 lonians, iii. 8, " Neither did we eat any man's bread for 
 nought; but wrought with labor, night and day, that 
 we might not be chargeable to any of you ; not because 
 we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensam- 
 ple unto you to follow us." Here, again, his conduct 
 — and, what is much more precise, the end which he 
 had in view by it — is the very same which the history 
 attributes to him in this discourse to the elders of the 
 church at Ephesus ; for, after saying, " Yea, ye your- 
 selves know, that these hands have ministered unto 
 my necessities, and to them that were with me," he 
 adds, " I have showed you all things, how that, so 
 laboring, ye ought to support the iceak.''^ " The sen- 
 timent in the Epistle and in the speech is, in both parts 
 of it, so much alike, and yet the words which convey 
 it show so little of imitation, or even of resemblance, 
 that the agreement cannot well be explained without 
 supposing the speech and the letter to have really pro- 
 ceeded from the same person." 
 
 Do we find Paul saying abruptly, and without 
 explanation, to Timothy, " Let not a .widow be taken 
 
LECTURE VII. 225 
 
 into the ivjiiiber under threescore years old"? Wc 
 also find, from the Acts, that provision was made, from 
 the first, for the indigent widows who belonged to the 
 Christian church. Does he say to Timothy that, from 
 a child, he had known the Holy Scriptures ? The Acts 
 t(>ll us that his mother was a Jewess. Do we hear 
 him exhorting the Corinthians not to despise Timothy? 
 We hear him saying to Timothy himself, " Let no man 
 despise thy youth ; " and again, " Flee also youthful 
 lusts." Does Paul, in the Epistle to Timothy, refer 
 particularly to the afflictions which came unto him at 
 Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra ? We find from 
 the history, in the most indirect way imaginable, that 
 Timothy must have lived at one of those cities, and 
 have been converted at the time of those persecutions. 
 Does Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, ask their 
 prayers that he might be delivered from them that did 
 not believe, in Judea ? We hear him saying, in the 
 Acts, with reference to the same journey, " And now, 
 behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not 
 knowing the things that shall bcfiill me there ; save that 
 the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that 
 bonds and afflictions abide me." Do we hear him, 
 in the Epistle to the Romans, commending to them 
 Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchrea ? We 
 find, from the history, that Paul had been at Cenchrea, 
 only from the following passage — " Having shorn his 
 head in Cenchrea, for he had a vow." Of such coin- 
 cidences Paley has pointed out, perhaps, a hundred, 
 and he has by no means exhausted the subject.* 
 
 And not only do we find epistles directed to 
 churches, — the last species of composition that an 
 
 * Horse Paulinse, passim. 
 29 
 
226 LECTURE VII. 
 
 original impostor, whether we suppose that the church 
 did or did not exist at the time, could have thought of 
 fabricating, — but we have, in more than one instance, 
 two letters addressed to the same church, the last 
 having all that reference to the first that we should 
 expect. We find it also directed that the letter to one 
 church should be read in another ; we find it implied 
 that one of the churches had written to the apostle, 
 and his letter is partly in reply to theirs ; we find such 
 points discussed as would naturally have arisen in 
 societies constituted as Christian churches must then 
 have been ; and, finally, we find a strength of personal 
 feeling, a depth of tenderness and interest, a prompt- 
 ness in bestowing deserved censure, a tone of au- 
 thority, and a fulness of commendation, which could 
 have sprung only from the transactions of actual life. 
 Am I not, then, even from this view of their internal 
 evidence, so briefly and imperfectly presented, justified 
 in the assertion that no impostor either would, or could, 
 have fabricated these books ? 
 
 And now, whether we look at the relations which 
 Christianity must have sustained either to the Jews or 
 to the Gentiles ; at the course pursued either by Christ 
 himself or by the apostles ; at the connection between 
 the Christian and the Jewish system ; or at the 
 impossibility of fabricating the books of the New 
 Testament, — I think we may reasonably conclude 
 that this religion, and these books, did not originate 
 with man. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 THE CONDITION, CHARACTER, AND CLAIMS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Thus far, we have attended to the system of 
 Christianity, to its marvellous adaptations, and to the 
 impossibility that it should have come from man. 
 We now turn from the system to its Author. Who 
 was the author of this system ? What were his con- 
 dition, his claims, and his character ? We have already 
 seen that the object he proposed, and the system he 
 taugiit, are worthy of God, and correspond perfectly 
 with the nature of man. But, were his condition in 
 life, the claims he preferred, and the character he 
 sustained, such as we can now see ought to have 
 belonged to one who claimed the spiritual headship 
 of the race ? Is it possible that he should have been 
 an impostor ? Do we not find, meeting in him alone, 
 so many things that are extraordinary, as to forbid 
 that supposition ? These questions it will be the 
 object of the present lecture to answer. 
 
 And if there is any subject to which we can 
 apply, not only the tests of logic, but the decisions of 
 intuitive reason, and of all the higher instincts of our 
 common humanity, it is the condition in life, and 
 teachings, and proposed object, and character, of one 
 
228 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 who presents himself with the claims put forth by 
 Jesus Christ. We have an intuitive insight into 
 character. We have, in the history of the world, large 
 experience of it in all its combinations. We are all 
 capable, when our moral nature is quickened, of judg- 
 ino; whether the character of one who claims the 
 homage both of the understanding and of the heart is 
 in accordance with such a claim. " I know men," 
 said Napoleon Bonaparte, " and I tell you that Jesus 
 Christ was not a man." We also know men ; and, 
 presented as Christ is to us by the evangelists, not 
 by description or eulogy, but standing before us in 
 his actions and discourses, so that he seems to live 
 and to speak, we feel that we can judge whether he 
 bore the true insignia of his office or the marks of 
 an impostor. If his claim had been to any thing 
 else, it would be different. A claim to property, or to 
 external homage, or to belief in a particular case, may 
 be substantiated by external testimony ; but when 
 any being claims that I should believe a thing be- 
 cause he says it ; when he claims an affection from 
 me greater than that which I owe to father, or mother, 
 or brothers, or sisters, or wife, or children, 1 not only 
 do not, but I cannot, and I ought not, to yield this 
 confidence and affection on the ground of any exter- 
 nal testimony. There must be presented an object 
 of moral affection which shall commend itself as wor- 
 thy, to my immediate perception, before I can do this. 
 We cannot yield our affections except to perceived 
 excellence ; and, since no man becomes a Christian 
 who does not make Christ himself an object of affec- 
 tion, it is plain that his character, as well as his 
 teaching, is a point of primary importance. 
 
 i 
 
LECTURE VIII. 229 
 
 And here, again, as in every thing else, Christianity 
 stands by itself. If other systems are, to some extent, 
 vulnerable through the character of their authors, no 
 other presents its very heart to be thus pierced. In 
 an abstract system of philosophy, we do not incpiiro 
 what the character of its author was. The truth of 
 the system of Plato, or of Adam Smith, or of Jeremy 
 Bentham, does not depend on the question whether 
 they were good or bad men ; but if it could be shown 
 that Christ was a bad man, — nay, if we were simply 
 to withdraw his character and acts, — the whole system 
 would collapse at once. His character stands as the 
 central orb of the system, and without it there would 
 be no effectual light and no heat. This arises from 
 two causes. The first is the very striking peculiarity, 
 — which, in considering the evidences, has not been 
 enough noticed, — that the Author of Christianity 
 claims, not merely belief, but affection. What would 
 have been thought of Socrates, or Plato, if they had 
 not merely taught mankind, but if they and their 
 disciples had set up a claim that they should be loved 
 by the whole human race with an affection exceeding 
 that of kindred ? This affection Christ claimed, and 
 his disciples claimed it for him. Paul says, " If any 
 man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anath- 
 ema, maranatha," making the mere absence of the 
 love a crime. But if he is to be thus loved by all 
 men, he must first place himself in the relation to them 
 of a personal benefactor, and then, by the very laws 
 of affection, he must present a character which ought 
 to call forth their love. The second cause why the 
 character of Christ is so essential is, that in the moral 
 and spiritual world power is manifested, and move- 
 
230 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 ment is efiected, only by action. A moral system 
 must, indeed, like any thing else, be the object of the 
 intellect; but no abstract system of moral truth, no 
 precepts merely enunciated, but not imbodied and 
 manifested in actual life, could ever have been the 
 means of moral life to the world. Men need, not 
 only truth, but life — the truth and life imbodied. 
 They need a leader, some one to go before them as 
 the Captain of their salvation, whose voice they can 
 hear saying, " Follow me." While, therefore, in all 
 other systems, the character of the founder is of little 
 importance, it is vital here. But no one can fail to 
 see the infinite difficulty and hazard of introducing 
 such an element as this into any system of imposture. 
 It opens a point of attack against which no such sys- 
 tem could ever rear an effectual barrier. 
 
 Let us, then, first, as was proposed, look at the con- 
 dition in fife* of the Author of Christianity, and at the 
 suitableness of that condition to one who was to be 
 the teacher and spiritual deliverer of man. And here 
 I need hardly say that our Saviour was in humble 
 circumstances, and was entirely without property. 
 This fact we find indicated by himself in the simplest 
 and most affecting manner. He did not speak of it 
 in the language of repining and complaint, nor yet 
 of stoical indifference and contempt of wealth, but in 
 the language of kindness, and to prevent disappoint- 
 ment in one who proposed to follow him without 
 
 * The argument from this topic is so similar to what is said respect- 
 ing it by the author of the " Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation," that 
 I think it proper to say, that it was copied almost literally from an 
 unpublished discourse, delivered before the publication of that work. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 231 
 
 understanding the true nature of his kingdom. He 
 had become celebrated, both as having the power to 
 work miracles and as a great teacher. Multitudes 
 followed him; and a certain man, no doubt with some 
 hope of worldly gain, said unto him, " Lord, I will 
 follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus 
 said unto him. Foxes have holes, and birds of the air 
 have nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to 
 lay his head." The beasts of the field and the fowls 
 of heaven had places of rest and shelter; but the 
 greatest benefactor of men, when he came to dwell 
 among them, had nothing that he could call his own. 
 He had no legal title to any thing, no control over 
 any thing which men call property. And not only 
 was he poor after he commenced his ministry, but 
 from his early days. His parents had no such w^eallh 
 and consideration as would piocure them a place in 
 an inn in Bethlehem when there was a crowd, and 
 accordingly he was cradled in a manger. He was 
 early driven into a strange country ; and when he 
 returned, his parents, through fear, turned aside and 
 dwelt in a place where there was neither wealth 
 nor refinement, and which had connected with it no 
 elevating associations. He was called a Nazarene by 
 way of reproach, and it was asked, " Can any good 
 thing come out of Nazareth ? " So poor were Joseph 
 and Mary, that they do not seem to have been able to 
 give their children the more common advantages of edu- 
 cation ; for it is said that, when Christ read, the Jews 
 marvelled, saying, " How knoweth this man letters, 
 having never learned ? " He chose for his compan- 
 ions poor and unlettered men ; and as he went from 
 place to place, he was supported — shall I say by 
 
232 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 charity ? Yes ; but there are two kinds of charity. 
 He was not supported by that kind of charity which 
 is drawn forth in view of distress, and accompanied 
 with pity ; but, wherever he went, there were those 
 who received him in the spirit of his mission, to whom 
 his words were gracious words, and who esteemed it 
 an honor and a privilege to minister to him of their 
 substance. Support flowing from such a source, which 
 was but a simple reflection of the spirit which he him- 
 self manifested, he was willing to receive, and did 
 receive, and never seems to have had any other. 
 
 Such was the condition in life of the Author of 
 Christianity, and it was fit and important that it 
 should be so : first, to show that his kingdom was 
 not of this world, and to prevent any from attaching 
 themselves to it from worldly motives. There is a 
 kingdom of matter governed by gravitation and the 
 laws of affinity ; there is a kingdom of sense and of 
 sensitive good, governed by desire and by fear ; and 
 there is a moral and spiritual kingdom. In this king- 
 dom the government is by rational motives, by a per- 
 ception of right and of wrong, and by moral love. 
 The motives by which a man is led to become a sub- 
 ject of this kingdom can have nothing to do with any 
 thing material. The moment any consideration of 
 wealth or of power comes in, to induce any one to 
 enter into its visible enclosure, its very nature becomes 
 changed. It was of infinite importance that this point 
 should be guarded, and in no way could this have 
 been done so eflectually as by the humble condition, 
 the entire separation, on the part of the Author of 
 Christianity, from all connection with wealth or with 
 power. Perhaps such a separation was even required 
 
LECTURE VIII. 233 
 
 by consistency, in one who said that his kingdom was 
 not of this world. 
 
 Secondly, such a condition was necessary to the 
 personal dignity of Christ as the head of a spiritual 
 kingdom, and to the highest evidence of the reality of 
 such a kingdom. If Christ was what he claimed to 
 be, he could not receive title-deeds from men. He 
 came out from God on a great mission, as the ambas- 
 sador of an infinite and an eternal kingdom ; and it 
 would not only have interfered with that mission in its 
 spirit, but would have debased and degraded it beyond 
 expression, if he had shown any regard for wealth, or 
 had had any thing to do with the i)etty strifes of men 
 for temporary power. Moreover, it could not other- 
 wise have appeared that his true kingdom could stand 
 by itself, and that it needed none of those attractions 
 and supports at which alone men are accustomed to 
 look. If Christ had possessed either wealth or power, 
 I should feel that I w^as conducting this argument 
 at an immense disadvantage. 
 
 Thirdly, such a condition was necessary, not only 
 that he mi^ht show his own estimate of wealth and 
 power, but that he might lead his followers to a right 
 view, and a right spirit, concerning them, and concern- 
 ing the distinctions which they bring. They are 
 external to the spirit. They have nothing to do with 
 that state of it in which character consists, and on 
 which its true dignity and happiness must depend. 
 Christ came to prepare men for a kingdom where 
 neither property nor wealth exists as an element of 
 enjoyment, but where all things will be as the air 
 and the sunlight ; and where, if intellectual and moral 
 beings differ, it will be only as one star diflters from 
 
 30 
 
234 LECTURE VIll. 
 
 another star in glory. It is impossible, therefore, that 
 any one who truly sympathizes with the spirit of 
 Christ should have that selfish and idolatrous attach- 
 ment to them which has been the cause of so much 
 disorder and unhappiness among men. 
 
 And, once more ; this condition of Christ was requi- 
 site to show the true worth ajid dignity of man as 
 man. In a world where respect for man as an im- 
 mortal being, in the image of God, had so far given 
 place to respect for wealth and rank, it was of the first 
 importance that a spiritual teacher should himself 
 stand in the simple grandeur of a true and perfect 
 manhood. By doing this, Christ furnished to the poor 
 in all ages, many of whom were to be his disciples, 
 a model, and a ground of self-respect ; and he made 
 it impossible that there should not be, wherever the 
 spirit of his religion prevails, a true respect for every 
 human being. With that estimate of man, or, if you 
 please, of men, which ministers to the pride of talent, 
 or of wealth, or of power, he had no sympathy. He 
 looked at man as a spirit, at all men as standing upon 
 the same level of immortality ; and his teachings, 
 his labors, and his sufferings, w^ere equally for all. 
 Who can see the humble walks of life thus trodden, 
 and not feel that the race is one brotherhood, and not 
 be ready to give the hand of fellowship, of sympathy, 
 and of aid, to every one whom Christ thus represented, 
 and for whom he thus cared ? 
 
 Strange, then, and offensive as it was at the first, 
 as it always has been to many, it must yet be admit- 
 ted that, if Christ was to be a spiritual deliverer, to 
 eradicate pride and selfishness, and to unite all men in 
 one brotherhood, it was essential that he should appear 
 
LECTURE VIU. 235 
 
 in the very circumstances and condition of life in 
 whicli he did appear. 
 
 We next inquire what were the claims of this man, — 
 so humble in his condition ; so lowly ; so destitute of 
 learning, of wealth, of influential friends ; whose public 
 ministry but little exceeded three years, and was ter- 
 minated by crucifixion. In general, he claimed to be 
 the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Saviour of men. 
 As I wish to avoid here all disputed points, I shall not 
 move the great question whether he claimed to be a 
 truly divine person, or to be " the Lamb of God, that 
 taketh away the sins of the w^orld," in the sense of 
 making an atonement, but shall observe, — 
 
 1. That he claimed to be a perfect teacher; 
 
 2. To set a perfect example ; to be the model man 
 of the race ; 
 
 3. To be a perfectly sinless being; 
 
 4. That all men should love and obey him ; 
 
 5. To work miracles as no other man ever did ; 
 
 6. That in him the prophecies of the Old Testa- 
 ment were fulfilled ; 
 
 7. That he would himself rise from the dead ; 
 
 8. To be the final Judge of the world. 
 
 Such were his claims — claims till then unprece- 
 dented, unheard of, undreamed of, by the wildest and 
 most extravagant imagination. 
 
 Let us next see, so far as we have the means of 
 determining, how he sustained these claims. In doing 
 this, we shall, of necessity, as was proposed, consider 
 his character. 
 
 And here, before saying any thing under the par- 
 
236 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 ticular heads specified, I shall enrich this lecture with 
 three general remarks from one whose eloquent voice 
 will long echo in the public halls of this city. " We 
 are immediately struck," says Dr. Channing, in his 
 Dudleian lecture, " with this peculiarity in the Author 
 of Christianity, — that whilst all other men are formed 
 in a measure by the spirit of the age, we can discover 
 in Jesus no impression of the period in which he lived. 
 We know, with considerable accuracy, the state of 
 society, the modes of thinking, the hopes and ex- 
 pectations, of the country in which Jesus was born 
 and grew up ; and he is as free from them as if he 
 had lived in another world, or with every sense shut 
 on the objects around him. His character has in it 
 nothing local or temporary. It can be explained by 
 nothing around him. His history shows him to us a 
 solitary being, living for purposes which none but him- 
 self comprehended, and enjoying not so much as the 
 sympathy of a single mind. His apostles, his chosen 
 companions, brought to him the spirit of the age ; and 
 nothing shows its strength more strikingly than the 
 slowness with which it yielded, in these honest men, 
 to the instructions of Jesus." 
 
 Again ; *'One striking peculiarity in Jesus is the ex- 
 tent and vastness of his views. Whilst all around him 
 looked for a Messiah to liberate God's ancient people, — 
 whilst, to every other Jew, Judea was the exclusive 
 object of pride and hope, — Jesus came, declaring him- 
 self to be the deliverer and light of the world; and in his 
 whole teaching and life you see a consciousness, which 
 never forsakes him, of a relation to the whole human 
 race. This idea of blessing mankind, of spreading a 
 universal religion, was the most magnificent which had 
 
LECTURE VIII. 237 
 
 ever entered man's mind. All previous religions had 
 been given to particular nations. No conqueror, legis- 
 lator, philosopher, in the extravagance of ambition, had 
 ever dreamed of subjecting all nations to a common 
 faith." 
 
 Once more ; he says, " I cannot but add another 
 striking circumstance in Jesus, and that is, the calm 
 confidence with which he always looked forward to the 
 accomplishment of his design. He fully knew the 
 strength of the passions and powers which were arrayed 
 against him, and was perfectly aware that his life was 
 to be shortened by violence ; yet not a word escapes 
 him implying a doubt of the ultimate triumphs of his 
 rehgion. * * * This entire and patient relinquishment 
 of immediate success, this ever-present persuasion that 
 he was to perish before his religion would advance, 
 and this calm, unshaken anticipation of distant and un- 
 bounded triumphs, are remarkable traits, throwing a 
 tender and solemn grandeur over our Lord, and wholly 
 inexplicable by human principles, or by the circum- 
 stances in which he was placed ! " 
 
 I now proceed to observe, 1 . That, under that general 
 claim to which these remarks apply, Christ claimed to 
 be a perfect teacher — to be not only a light, but the 
 light of the world. And who can point out any defect 
 in his teaching, either in respect to matter or to man- 
 ner ? As a teacher of religion, he set before us, in the 
 matter of his teaching, the paternal and the holy char- 
 acter of God, and taught us to love him, and to wor- 
 ship him in spirit and in truth. It is evidently impos- 
 sible that we should have a higher conception of God 
 in any of his attributes, or of his worship, than he 
 
238 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 communicated. In the same character, he taught us 
 the great doctrines of a perfect human accountability, 
 of the immortality of the soul, of the resurrection of 
 the dead, and of the final reward of the righteous and 
 punishment of the wicked. As a teacher of morality, 
 he introduced a system, the great characteristics of 
 which are, 1. That it establishes a perfect standard. 
 2. That it takes cognizance of the heart. 3. That 
 it forbids all the malevolent and dissocial passions. 
 4. That it forbids all merely selfish passions, as vanity 
 and pride. 5. That it forbids all impure passions. 
 6. That it includes all its positive duties under the 
 two great requisitions of love to God and love to man, 
 which all moralists now agree is the sum of human 
 duty. If we look at man as a practical being, what 
 point is there on which Christ did not shed light 
 enough to lead him, if he will but follow his instruc- 
 tions, to his true happiness, whether in this world or 
 the world to come ? 
 
 Nor was the manner of his teaching less extraordi- 
 nary. He taught them as one having authority, and 
 not as the scribes, or as the philosophers who ran into 
 subtile distinctions, and deduced every thing from the 
 nature of things. In opposition to all the learning, 
 and authority, and prejudices, of his age and nation, he 
 simply said, " Verily / say unto you." He spoke with 
 the calmness, and dignity, and decision, of one who 
 bore credentials that challenged entire deference. But, 
 if his manner was authoritative, it was also gentle and 
 condescending ; if it was dignified, it was also kind ; 
 if it was calm, it was also earnest. While his instruc- 
 tions were the most elevated that were ever uttered, 
 they were uttered with such plainness, were so clothed 
 
LECTURE VIII. 239 
 
 in parables, and illustrated by common objects, that they 
 were also the most intelligible. Nothing can exceed, 
 nothing ever equalled, in depth and weight, some of his 
 disclosures and parables; and yet they are simple and 
 beautiful, " are adapted to the habits of thinking of 
 the poor, are opened and expanded to their capacities, 
 separated from points of difliculty and abstraction, and 
 presented only in the aspect which regarded their duty 
 and hopes." * The most exalted intellect cannot ex- 
 haust his instructions, and yet they are adapted to the 
 feeblest. "Never man spake like this man." No 
 teacher ever so combined authority and condescension, 
 dignity and gentleness, zeal and discretion, sublimity 
 and plainness, weight of matter and a facility of com- 
 prehension by all. 
 
 2. But if the claim to be a perfect teacher was so 
 high, far higher was that to set a perfect example, and 
 to stand before the world as the model man. 
 
 In every practical science, a perfect system of in- 
 struction must include both precept and example. If 
 God was to institute a perfect system for the instruc- 
 tion and elevation of man, both as a speculative and a 
 practical being, it was necessary that he should not 
 only give him perfect precepts, but that he should cause 
 a perfect example to be set before him. The consti- 
 tution of man requires this. He is, and must be, more 
 atfected by example than by precept. Even in the 
 exact sciences, when a rule is given, though it really 
 covers every possible case, it is yet .necessary to give 
 examples to show practically its application. Much 
 more must this be needed in the ever-varying adjust- 
 ments of moral relations. A great example will speak, 
 
 * Wilson. 
 
240 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 though silently, yet powerfully, to the sympathetic feel- 
 ings, and will aid the imagination in giving direction 
 and definiteness to its ideas of perfection. 
 
 And here we find one great adaptation of the 
 Christian system to the moral condition and wants 
 of man, which is not even attempted in any other. 
 It is one on which I did not dwell when on the subject 
 of adaptations, because I intended to speak of it here. 
 The Author of Christianity, in claiming to give such 
 an example, at least showed his knowledge of what a 
 perfect system required ; and if he has done it, he has 
 not only done what unassisted man could not do, but 
 what I am inclined to think he could not even con- 
 ceive of. It was not in the power of man to form 
 a conception of the character of Christ before he 
 appeared. It is one thing to recognize a perfect 
 character as such, when it is presented, and quite 
 another so to combine the qualities as to form such a 
 character, and to manifest it in action. It is at this 
 point that we find all the difference between the com- 
 mon power of judging of the productions of genius in 
 the fine arts, and of producing models of excellence in 
 those arts ; and I do not hesitate to say that, as a 
 work of art, a product of genius, simply, the exhibition 
 in life of a perfect model of human nature would be 
 the highest conceivable attainment. That man has 
 genius who can imbody the perfection of material 
 forms in his imagination, and cause those forms to live 
 before us in the. marble, on the canvass, or on the 
 printed page ; and he has higher genius still who can 
 arrange the elements of character into new yet natural 
 combinations, and cause his personages, as organized 
 and consistent wholes, to speak and act before us. In 
 
LECTURE VIII. 241 
 
 all these cases, when Michael Angelo produces a 
 statue, or Allston a painthig, or Milton a landscape, or 
 Shakspcare a character, we can Judge of it, though 
 we could not have made that combination. It is, 
 indeed, the great prerogative of genius to produce 
 thoughts, and forms, and characters, and I will add 
 here actions, of which other men recognize the excel- 
 lence, but which thev could not have produced. Yes, 
 1 add actions ; for if the conception and delineation of 
 an original course of action require genius, it must be 
 equally required, and in combination too with high 
 practical qualities, to realize that same conception in the 
 bolder relief of actual life. The power to act thus does 
 not always, perhaps not generally, involve the power 
 of delineation, but it does involve the very highest form 
 of genius, and something more ; and it is only because 
 there is genius, that expresses itself in great action, that 
 that of delineation has either dignity or worth. 
 
 Now, as the highest effort of genius in statuary 
 would be to produce a perfect human form, one of 
 which it might be said that, tlwugh no form in nature 
 ever equalled it, yet that every form was perfect in 
 proportion as it approximated towards it, so it would 
 be the highest conceivable effort of genius, involving its 
 most complex elements, to present, as an organized and 
 consistent whole, and to cause to speak and act before 
 us in all the diversified relations of life, a perfect 
 human being, — one of whom it might be said that, 
 though no other ever manifested the same excellence, 
 yet that all others were excellent in proportion as 
 they approximated towards him. Philosopher, man of 
 genius and of taste, here is a task for you. We chal- 
 lenge you to it. Would you, could you, not merely de- 
 
 31 
 
242 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 scribe in general terms, but present in detail, the words 
 and actions even of a consistent and perfect piety ? No. 
 1 ou would not, and you could not. Attempts had often 
 been made to portray a model character, but it does not 
 appear that it was within the power of human genius ; 
 and when the majestic, the simple, the beautiful, the 
 perfect character of Christ appeared, it was seen how 
 poor those attempts had been. Certainly, applying the 
 most philosophical tests, if the evangelists did invent 
 this character, they manifested higher genius than any 
 other men that ever lived. But if the bare repre- 
 sentation of such a character would be so difhcult, who 
 could have thought of really being such a person, of 
 expressing it in life and action ? 
 
 Now, the question whether the true model of 
 humanity has been really thus presented, is one, to my 
 mind, not only of religious, but of the deepest philo- 
 sophical interest. If mankind are ever to advance 
 intelligently in excellence, they must have the true 
 model before them. There can be no true progress, 
 either of individuals or. of society, without this. The 
 greatest amount of human activity, hitherto, has had 
 no tendency to advance the cause of humanity, and it 
 never can have till men adopt a right model, and 
 seek to conform themselves to that. To conform our- 
 selves to such a model, we do aspire in our better 
 moments. Is there one here who has not felt the 
 stirrings within him of something that would lead him 
 to take hold on this ? Wherever there is any thing 
 truly elevated in human nature, it is this that it seeks 
 for ; it is this that, in its blindness and moral ruin, it 
 still gropes after; it is this respecting which many, 
 very many, when they have beheld the character of 
 
LECTURE VIII. 243 
 
 Christ, liave exclaimed, with a deeper joj than that of 
 the philosopher, "Eureka, Eureka! " — I have found it, 
 I have found it ! 
 
 Yes, we do claim that this model was presented, as 
 a part of the system of Christianity, in the character 
 of Christ ; this deep want of human nature, we say 
 that he has supplied. The more we look at the char- 
 acter of Christ, the more we shall be satisfied that there 
 is there presented what w'e seek — the more ready 
 shall we be to exclaim, " Who is this that cometh 
 up * * * travelling in the greatness of his strength?" 
 It is obviously not every part of his life that was 
 intended to be an example to man, but only that in 
 w^iich he stood in the relations common to men, in 
 which he moved and walked as one of them. And 
 he did move and mingle freely with men of all classes 
 and of all conditions. He was placed not only in such 
 a condition in life, but in so many situations — he came 
 into collision with human passion and interest in so 
 many ways — as most fully to test his character and 
 make him an example to all. At this example we 
 will brieflv look. 
 
 I observe, then, first, that his piety was most exem- 
 plary.* On all occasions he acknowledged God, and 
 always did those things that pleased him. He con- 
 formed to the ceremonial law. He expounded the 
 Scriptures, and honored them as the word of God. He 
 attended public worship on the Sabbath. There are 
 indications that he was in constant habits of devotion, 
 and on all solemn occasions he prayed. "It is record- 
 ed of him, on no less than six occasions, that he gave 
 
 • On this whole subject, see Archbishop Newcome''s " Observations 
 on our Lord." 
 
244 LECTURE VIll. 
 
 thanks to God on partaking and distributing food." 
 When he was baptized, he prayed. Before he chose 
 his twelve disciples, he went out into a mountain to 
 pray. When he had wrought a great number of cures 
 publicly for the first time, he " rose up a great while 
 before it was day, and went into a desert place, and 
 prayed." When many came together to hear him, and 
 to be cured of their infirmities, he retired into desert 
 places, and prayed. When he had fed five thousand 
 with five loaves and two fishes, he dismissed the mul- 
 titudes, and went up into a mountain apart, to pray. 
 On one occasion, he continued all night in prayer. 
 He prayed for Peter. He praj^ed, if it may be called 
 prayer, at the grave of Lazarus. He prayed at the close 
 of the institution of the Lord's supper. He prayed in 
 his agony. He prayed on the cross. He taught his 
 disciples to pray, and gave them that form of which 
 Paley says that, " For a succession of solemn thoughts, 
 for fixing the attention upon a few great points, for 
 suitableness to every condition, for sufficiency, for 
 conciseness without obscurity, for the weight and real 
 importance of its petitions, it is without a rival." In 
 all things he had reference to the will of God, so that 
 he could say that it was his meat to do his will. The 
 doing of God's will perfectly was evidently the great 
 element in which he lived. And this piety was a ra- 
 tional piety, without any tinge of mysticism, or gloom, 
 or fanaticism, or extravagance. For, 
 
 Secondly, it was equalled only by his benevolence. 
 Of this it cannot be necessary that I should adduce 
 particular instances. His whole history, in this re- 
 spect, is comprised in five words — "He went about 
 doing good." All his acts were entirely unselfish. 
 
LECTURE VITI. 245 
 
 He never refused to relieve the distress of any, but 
 never used his miraculous powers for his own benefit, 
 or to gain applause. His benevolence was universal, 
 embracing, in direct opposition to the s])irit of his age 
 and nation, not only the Jews, but the Samaritans 
 and the Gentiles. His benevolence rose superior to 
 injuries. He neither reviled, nor complained, nor 
 ceased from his labors and sufferings for the good of 
 men, when he was the most cruelly treated. 
 
 And not only was he benevolent, but compassionate. 
 He had compassion on the multitude when they were 
 hungry and faint. He \vept over Jerusalem. He 
 was full of sympathy. When he saw Mary weep- 
 ing, and the Jews also weeping who came with 
 her, "Jesus wept." He was full of gentleness and 
 condescension, taking up little children in his arms 
 and blessing them ; and yet he was fearless and ter- 
 rible in his reproofs of iniquity in high places. He 
 " came eating and drinking," and was free from all 
 austerity; and yet he was "pure in spirit." He 
 had great meekness and lowliness, in union with an 
 evident consciousness of the highest dignity. He 
 washed his disciples' feet, at the same time that he 
 told them that he was their JiOrd and Master. He 
 was not elated by popularity, nor depressed when his 
 followers deserted him. He had a zeal wiiich led his 
 friends to say he was beside himself; and yet his pru- 
 dence, as shown by his answers to those who would 
 entrap him, was equal to his zeal. Nor was his zeal 
 indiscriminate ; for, while he insisted on the silent 
 worship which is in spirit and in truth, he yet gave 
 their })roper place to external observances, even to the 
 titliing of mint, and he rebuked zeal in his own cause, 
 
246 LECTURE yiii. 
 
 when it did not proceed from a pure motive. He was 
 keenly sensible to suffering,. and yet he bore it without 
 murmuring. He was subject to his parents in early 
 life, and remembered his mother on the cross. There 
 is no virtue which he did not exemplify, and man can 
 be placed in no situation in which his example will not 
 be applicable. But, to sum up what has been said of 
 the example of Christ, it has often seemed to me re- 
 markable that he should have been brought into such 
 positions as to try, in the highest possible manner, both 
 his piety and his benevolence, and to lead him to give 
 of each of these the highest possible example. No 
 doubt this was so ordered of God. The two great 
 principles of conduct, which men need to have con- 
 stantly set before them, are love and submission to 
 God, and benevolence to men. And did not he man- 
 ifest a perfect love and submission to God, who could 
 say, in the prospect of his dreadful sufferings, and in 
 the hour of his agony, " Not my will, but thine be 
 done " ? Did not he love others as himself, and ex- 
 emplify his own most difficult precept of forgiving 
 injuries, who prayed for his murderers on the cross ? 
 " Behold the man ! " 
 
 And here I would observe, that I do not regard the 
 setting of a perfect example, in every thing that may 
 strictly be called a duty, as comprising every thing 
 that should belong to a perfect humanity. A perfect 
 humanity implies a sensibility, a refinement, a grace, 
 a beauty of character, which cannot be said to be 
 required by duty. And all these the Saviour had in 
 the highest degree. There was no pure and exqui- 
 site emotion of human nature to which he was not 
 keenly alive ; and it is the union, in him, of every thing 
 
LECTURE VIII. 247 
 
 that is tender and gentle with those higher and stern- 
 er quahties, whieh renders him a fit exani])le, not for 
 man only, but for woman. How just and perfect 
 must have been his perception of the beauties of na- 
 ture, who could say of the lilies of the field, that Solo- 
 mon, in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these ! 
 In all the attitudes in which Christ was placed, in 
 all the words that he uttered, there is nothing un- 
 seemly, or offensive to a just taste. His suscepti- 
 bilities to both joy and suffering were intense. He 
 rejoiced in spirit, and his joy instantly burst forth in 
 devout thanksgiving. He was prone to compassion, 
 and repeatedly melted into tears. The innocence of 
 children engaged his affection. His heart was open 
 to impressions of friendship. " .Jesus loved Martha, 
 and her sister, and Lazarus." He had a beloved 
 disciple. When he saw an amiable young man, he 
 loved him. He was grieved at unbelief, and had a 
 generous indig;nation against vice. 
 
 In all these respects — in his piety, in his benevo- 
 lence and other virtues, in the refinement and delicacy 
 of his character — he is a suitable example for us. But, 
 as difficult as it must have been to present in action 
 this combination of human excellences, it must have 
 been much more so to combine with them those qual- 
 ities, and that deportment, which were appropriate to 
 him as the Messiah and Saviour of the world. Is it pos- 
 sible that he who claimed to be greater than Solomon, 
 to command legions of angels, to raise the dead, — 
 who spoke of himself as the Son of God, and as the 
 final Judge of thew^orld, — should so move, and speak, 
 and act, as to sustain a character compatible with 
 these high pretensions, and yet have the condescension, 
 
248 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 and gentleness, and meekness, of Christ ? And yet 
 such is the character presented by the evangelists. 
 There is no break, no incongruity. Like his own 
 seamless garment, the character is one. He seems 
 to combine, with perfect ease, these elements, appa- 
 rently so incompatible. This, I confess, excites my 
 astonishment. The presentation of a perfect man- 
 hood in a lowly station had been beyond the power 
 of human genius ; but when this is combined with 
 the proprieties and requisitions of a public charac- 
 ter, and an office so exalted as that of the Messiah 
 and the Judge of the world, then I have an intuitive 
 conviction that I stand in the presence of no human 
 invention ; then this character presents itself to me 
 with the grandeur and wonder that belong to the 
 great mountains and the starry heavens. 
 
 Is there an infidel who hears me, and who says 
 that these impressions are made on a mind predis- 
 posed to receive them, and that they are not those 
 which would legitimately be made ? — let him hear what 
 one of his own prophets has said. " I confess," saj's 
 Rousseau,* " that the majesty of the Scriptures aston- 
 ishes me ; that the sanctity of the gospel speaks to 
 my heart. View the books of the philosophers, — with 
 all their pomp, what a littleness have they when com- 
 pared with this ! Is it possible that a book at once 
 so sublime and simple should be the work of men ? 
 Is it possible that he whose history it records should 
 be himself a mere man ? Is this the style of an en- 
 thusiast, or of an ambitious sectary ? What sweet- 
 ness, what purity, in his manners ! what affecting 
 
 * Emile, as translated by Newcome. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 249 
 
 grace in his instructions ! \vh:it elevation in his max- 
 ims ! what profound wisdom in liis discourses ! ^^•hat 
 presence of mind, what delicacy, and what justness, in 
 his replies ! what empire over his passions ! Where 
 is the man, where is the pliiloso])her, who knows how 
 to act, to suffer, and to die, without weakness and 
 
 without ostentation ?* Where could Jesus have 
 
 taken, among his countrymen, that elevated and pure 
 morality of which he alone furnished both the precept 
 and the example ? The most lofty wisdom was heard 
 from the bosom of the most furious fanaticism ; and 
 the simplicity of the most heroic virtues honored the 
 vilest of all people. The death of Socrates, serenely 
 philosophizing with his friends, is the most gentle that 
 one can desire ; that of Jesus, expiring in torments, 
 injured, derided, reviled by a whole people, is the 
 most horrible that one can fear. When Socrates takes 
 the poisoned cup, he blesses him who presents it, and 
 who at the same time weeps ; Jesus, in the midst of 
 a horrid punishment, prays for his enraged execution- 
 ers. Yes ; if the life and death of Socrates are those 
 of a philosopher, the life and death of Jesus Christ 
 are those of a God." 
 
 3. According to the idea of many, the claim to set 
 a perfect example involves the claim to be perfectly 
 sinless. But, in some respects, the claim to be sinless 
 involves more than the claim to exhibit a perfect model 
 of humanity, since this exhibition respects an outward 
 manifestation ; and who can say that it may not be 
 
 * Part of this passage is here omitted. I wish to add the following: 
 "What prejudices, what blindness, must they have, wlio dare to draw 
 a comparison between the son of Sophroniscus and the son of Mary ! 
 What distance is there between the one and tlie otlier!" 
 32 
 
250 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 compatible with some wrong feeling or affection ? 
 And, in some respects again, the claim to be a model 
 man is more extensive than that to be perfectly sinless. 
 A human being might be sinless, and be destitute of 
 many of the perfections of the character of Christ. 
 And then, again, these claims look in such different 
 directions, and respect such entirely different objects, 
 that there is a propriety in considering them apart. 
 The claim to present a perfect manhood has respect to 
 the wants of man ; the claim to be sinless has respect 
 to the relations of the individual to God, and to his 
 fitness to be a Redeemer from sin. It must, I think, 
 be conceded, that he who would deliver others from the 
 power of sin must himself be free from its power — 
 be entirely above and aloof from it. While, therefore, 
 we can conceive of an exhibition of our nature that 
 w ould appear to us faultless, while we might not be cer- 
 tain that it was sinless, yet we cannot conceive of one, 
 coming as a redeemer and deliverer from sin, who 
 had himself ever swerved from moral rectitude even 
 in thought or feeling. But since the great purpose 
 for which Christ came was to " save his people from 
 their sins," it became necessary that he should him- 
 self be, and claim to be, entirely free from sin. 
 
 That Christ made this claim, and that his disciples 
 made it for him, there can be no doubt. They made 
 it impliedly, and they made it expressly. Christ said, 
 "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" — that he did 
 always those things that pleased the Father, — that he 
 was one with the Father. Peter says, expressly, that 
 he " did no sin," that he was "the holy one and the 
 just ; " and Paul says that he was " holy, harmless, 
 undefiled, and separate from sinners." 
 
LECTURE Vlir. 251 
 
 But what a claim is this! — a claim never made by 
 any other human being. Such a claim, the most 
 extraordinary, and the most difficult to be sustained, of 
 any that was ever set up, while it is implied in the 
 idea of a redeemer from sin, must have been fotal to 
 any impostor. Is this claim admitted, or is it denied? 
 If it is admitted, the claims of Christianity are admit- 
 ted with it. If it is denied, the claims of Christianity, 
 as a religion, are denied; for, as a mode of deliverance 
 from sin, and of salvation, its whole value turns upon 
 this. Men may have what knowledge they please of 
 external evidences, and of mere facts, but this can 
 never work a spiritual renov^ation. They must come 
 to Christ, and believe in him as a sinless Redeemer, or 
 there can no virtue go out of him for their spiritual 
 healing. 
 
 The proof that Christ was a sinless being will be 
 founded, first, on the same facts that prove his perfect 
 example. Here, too, we may properly receive his own 
 testimony, since he could not have been deceived on 
 this point. His perfect sinlessness is also to be in- 
 ferred from the effects produced by his life upon his 
 disciples ; from its effects upon the world ; and from 
 the fact that, as the mind of any individual becomes 
 more pure and elevated, he perceives a greater and 
 greater purity and elevation in the character of Christ, 
 so that, to whatever height he may attain, he still per- 
 ceives the majestic form of the Redeemer moving 
 before him. I leave the point by remarking, that if 
 any wish to see it fully illustrated, I would refer them 
 to an excellent essay upon it by Dr. Ullman, in 
 the " German Selections," translated by Edwards and 
 Park. 
 
252 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 4. Christ also claimed that all men should love 
 and obey him. This — the assertion of a right to a 
 paramount and spiritual dominion, not over one race 
 or one* age only, but over all mankind, and through 
 all coming ages — was, as I have already said, entirely 
 peculiar. It must imply a claim to stand in the rela- 
 tion of a personal benefactor to every one, and to pos- 
 sess such a character as ought to call forth affection. 
 After the other claims of Christ, we need not be 
 surprised at this. But what a glorious kingdom of 
 affection and love does it open before us ! Here is the 
 foundation of that kingdom of love of which Napoleon 
 spoke when he compared the kingdom of Christ with 
 his own. "Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and my- 
 self," said he, " founded empires ; but upon what 
 foundations did we rest the creations of our genius ? 
 Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire 
 upon love, and, at this hour, millions of men would die 
 
 for him I die before my time, and my body 
 
 will be given back to the earth to become the food of 
 worms. Such is the fate of him who has been called 
 the great Napoleon. What an abyss between my deep 
 misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ, which is 
 proclaimed, loved, and adored, and w^hich is extending 
 over the whole earth ! " 
 
 5. Christ claimed to work miracles. I mention 
 this, not because he alone has made this claim or 
 has wrought miracles, but because, all the circum- 
 stances considered, he stands entirely by himself in 
 this respect. I have already spoken of the character 
 of his miracles, as sufficient of itself to confirm his 
 divine mission. They were none of them wrought for 
 his personal advantage, or for display, or capriciously, 
 
LECTURE VIII. 253 
 
 or to gratify curiosity. Tliey were all benevolent and 
 worthy of Cod. lie was jjeculiar, too, in the numljcr 
 of his miracles. It is probable, from the accounts 
 given, that, on a single occasion, he wrought more 
 miracles than had been wrought by all the prophets 
 from the beginning. He was also peculiar in his 
 manner of working miracles. He performed them 
 with entire simplicity and facility, and generally, so far 
 as appears, by his own authority. " He commanded 
 the unclean spirits, and they came out." He said to 
 the sea, " Peace, be still." When he raised the dead, 
 he simply said, " Young man, I say unto thee. Arise." 
 The apostles did their miracles in the name of Christ, 
 and the manner of the prophets was entirely different, 
 giving no such impressions of power and majesty. 
 
 6. Christ also claimed that in him the prophecies 
 of the Old Testament were fulfilled. I mention this 
 among the claims which he must be acknowledged to 
 have made, but shall not dwell upon it here, because I 
 intend to speak of it more fully at another time. The 
 claim, however, is not a slight one, to stand as the 
 subject of prophecy and the antitype of all the types 
 in the old dispensation from the beginning, — the 
 claim that he was a person of such importance as to 
 have been spoken of from the first by holy men, and 
 to appeal to the Scriptures as testifying of him. 
 
 7. Christ claimed that he would rise from the 
 dead. What could have induced him to make so 
 strange a claim as this ? And yet, to substantiate 
 this claim, thus put forth, we have an accumulation of 
 evidence such as we have for scarcely any other an- 
 cient fact. 
 
 8. Of the claim of Christ to be the final Judge 
 
254 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 of the world I shall say nothing, because, from the 
 nature of the case, I have no means of verifying it 
 The fact that he made this claim, however, is all that 
 is needed for the purpose of my present argument ; 
 and 1 will only observe, that it is not more extra- 
 ordinary than his other claims, and is in perfect keep- 
 ing with them. If we admit his other claims, we shall 
 of course admit this. 
 
 Such were the condition, the claims, and the char- 
 acter, of Jesus Christ. And now, is it possible that he 
 was either deceived or a deceiver ? Was he sincere 
 in making these claims ? If he was, and they are 
 not well founded, then I ask, could a young man, poor, 
 unlearned, brought up in an obscure village, accus- 
 tomed to an humble employment, make such claims, 
 and not be utterly insane ? Can we conceive of a 
 wilder hallucination ? Is there one of all the vagaries 
 entertained by the tenants of our lunatic asylums that 
 is more extravagant than these ? No mere self-exalta- 
 tion or enthusiasm, nothing short of insanity, can 
 account for such claims. I mention this the rather, 
 because I remember to have been struck by it in read- 
 ing the New Testament in my early days. When 
 I heard this man, apparently so lowly, saying that he 
 was the light of the world, — " If any man thirst, let 
 him come unto me and drink," — that he was one with 
 God, that all things were delivered to him by his 
 Father, that he that had seen him had seen the Father, 
 that whatsoever the disciples should ask in his name 
 he would do it, that he would rise from the dead, and 
 come in the clouds of heaven, attended by myriads of 
 angels, to Judge the world, I felt that I had evidence, 
 
LECTURE VIII. 255 
 
 eitlier that those claims were well-founded, or of a 
 hopeless insanity. No wonder those who did not 
 believe said of him, " He hath a devil, and is mad : 
 why hear je him ? " But then, as now, there was the 
 unanswerable reply, " These are not the words of him 
 that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the 
 blind ? " When we look at his discourses, at their 
 calmness, at their deep insight and profound wisdom; 
 when we see that the discoveries of all ages have 
 only shed lustre upon their wisdom, and that the 
 wisest and best portion of the race now sit at his feet 
 as their instructor ; when we see the more than pro- 
 priety, the self-possession, the dignity, of his deport- 
 ment under the most trying circumstances, we feel 
 that not a voice from heaven could make it more 
 certain that his was not a crazed, or a weak, or an 
 unbalanced intellect. This fact is borne witness to 
 by the light of its own evidence ; it shines by its own 
 brightness. 
 
 Did he, then, in the exercise of a sound mind, put 
 forth those claims w ith the intention to deceive others ? 
 This, as I have just intimated, I hold to have been im- 
 possihle. No impostor of common sense could have 
 had the folly to prefer such claims. But, if this con- 
 sideration is conclusive, how much more is that drawn 
 from the moral character of Christ ? Look at his un- 
 affected and all-pervading piety, at his universal and 
 self-sacrificing benevolence ; look at his purity and ele- 
 vation above the world; listen to his prayer for his 
 murderers on the cross ; and say, is it possible that 
 through all this he was meditating a scheme of decep- 
 tion deeper, more extensive, involving greater sacri- 
 fices and sufferings, and more ultimate disappointment 
 
256 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 to human hope, than any other ? Do we not know 
 that this was not so ? If we could believe this, would 
 not that faith in goodness, which is the vital element in 
 the atmosphere of our moral life, be destroyed ? And 
 what would remain to us but the stifling, and oppres- 
 sive, and desolating conviction, that there could be no 
 ground of faith in any indications of goodness ? We 
 cannot believe this, we will not believe it. Take 
 away, if you will, the vital element of the air, disrobe 
 the sun of his beams, but remove not from me this 
 life of my life ; leave to me the full-orbed and unshorn 
 brightness of the character of Christ, the Sun of right- 
 eousness. 
 
 It only remains that I should refer to what has, 
 indeed, been implied throughout the preceding part 
 of the lecture — that gathering about the person of 
 Christ of so many and such extraordinary circum- 
 stances ; that clustering upon him of so many wonderful 
 and diverse characteristics and appropriate insignia of 
 a messeno;er from God : that accumulation of evidences 
 which come in, as it were, from the four winds, 
 and become as a crown of many stars upon the head 
 of the Redeemer. It is to be distinctly noticed, in 
 estimating the evidence, that it is not one only of the 
 surprising offices and characteristics which have been 
 mentioned that he sustained so perfectly, but all of 
 them. It is the same great Teacher around whoso 
 system natural religion, and the old dispensation, and 
 all human science, stand up and do obeisance, as did 
 the sheaves of Joseph's brethren around his sheaf, who 
 also set a perfect example, and stands before us as the 
 model man. It is the same person who " did no sin," 
 who wrought miracles, who fulfilled the prophecies. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 257 
 
 who rose from the dead, around whom there shines, as 
 I shall show hereafter, such an effulgence of external 
 evidence, whose life and death have been followed by 
 such amazing effects. If we were to estimate by the 
 doctrine of chances the probability that so many ex- 
 traordinary circumstances, each of which could be 
 confirmed by so much evidence, should meet upon a 
 single person, the fraction expressing that probability 
 would be infinitely small. Had any one of these 
 characteristics belonged to any other individual, it 
 would have placed him among the most distinguished 
 personages of history; but when we see them all 
 clustering upon the lowly Jesus, the crucified One, 
 we must say, with one of old, "We have found the 
 Messias." 
 
 33 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 THE EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. — GENERAL GROUNDS ON WHICH 
 THIS IS TO BE PUT. — AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY OF 
 THE WRITINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 
 When we came into life, we found Christianity ex- 
 isting. It was our business, as independent thinkers, 
 to examine it in its relations to the human consti- 
 tution and to human well-being. This we have done 
 in the preceding lectures ; and if the system be such 
 as it has been represented to be, then we may well 
 feel a deep interest in every thing relating to its origin 
 and history — in what have been called its external 
 evidences. To those evidences, then, we now turn. 
 
 In this department of the evidences, the object of 
 our inquiry is, not adaptations, or doctrines, or opinions, 
 or inferences, but simply historical facts. 
 
 Was there such a person as Jesus Christ.^ Was 
 he crucified ? Did he rise from the dead ? These 
 are questions which we are to settle precisely as we 
 would settle the questions whether there was such a 
 man as Augustus Caesar, and whether he became the 
 sole ruler of the Roman empire. These are no ab- 
 stract questions, and w^e are not to let any of the 
 uncertainty which must often belong to the discussion 
 of such questions connect itself with these. There is 
 
LECTURE rX. 259 
 
 a science of evidence ; tliere are laws of evidence; and 
 all we ask is that those laws may be applied to the 
 facts of Christianity precisely as they are to any other 
 facts. We insist upon it that the evidence ought to be 
 judged of by itself, simply as evidence ; that no man 
 has a right first to examine the facts, and make up 
 an antecedent Judgment that they are improbable, and 
 then transfer this feeling of improbability over to the 
 evidence. We hold to the principle of Butler, that, 
 to a being like man, objections against Christianity, 
 as distinguished from objections against its evidence, 
 unless, indeed, it can be shown to contain something 
 either immoral or absurd, really amount to nothing. 
 
 It is, indeed, a striking peculiarity of the Christian 
 religion, that the truth of its doctrines, and the power 
 of its motives, are inseparably connected with the 
 reality of certain facts which might originally be 
 judged of by the senses, and which are now to be 
 determined by the same historical evidence as we 
 employ in judging of any other focts. As fully as I 
 have entered upon the internal evidence, as satisfacto- 
 ry as I regard the proof it furnishes, as heartily as I 
 should deprecate a merely historical religion, necessa- 
 rily destitute of any life-giving power, I would yet 
 say, distinctly, that I believe in no religion that is 
 not supported by historical proof. Unless Jesus Christ 
 lived, and wrought miracles, and was crucified, and 
 rose from the dead, Christianity is an imposture — 
 beautiful, indeed, and utterly unaccountable, but still 
 an imposture. 
 
 Perhaps it is not enough considered how much 
 Christianity is contradistinguished, in this respect, not 
 only from other systems of religion, but from all systems 
 
260 LECTURE IX. 
 
 and questions of philosophy. Christ said, " Though 
 ye believe not me, believe the works." So said not 
 Mohammed. The facts on which his system, as a 
 religion, rests, depend solely on the testimony of one 
 man. So says not any system of philosophy. It is 
 a totally different thing for the philosopher to present 
 certain doctrines for our reception on the ground of 
 his reasoning, and for the witness to testify, " That 
 which we have heard, which we have seen with our 
 eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands 
 have handled, — declare we unto you." Christianity 
 is, indeed, a spiritual religion ; but it is a spirituality 
 manifesting itself through facts, clothed in substantial 
 forms. It says to the unbelieving, " Reach hither thy 
 finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand 
 and thrust it into my side." In saying this, it offers 
 itself to be tried by a new test — such a one as no 
 other rehgion can stand. But the Christian religion 
 shrinks from no test. We wish it to be fully tried. 
 We know that, like the pure gold, the more it is tried, 
 the more clearly it will be seen to be genuine. That 
 a religion intended for the race would need the kind 
 of evidence of which I am now to speak, is plain ; but 
 the difficulty is immeasurably increased when it is at- 
 tempted to sustain an imposture by evidence of this 
 kind, freely thrown open to all. 
 
 As, then, our object is to ascertain the reality of cer- 
 tain alleged facts, it may be well to look at the grounds 
 on which we believe other and similar facts. It has 
 generally been said, that the sole ground on which we 
 believe facts that we have not ourselves witnessed, 
 is that of testimony. In some cases this is so, but in 
 many others I should think it an inadequate account of 
 
LECTURE IX. 261 
 
 the grounds of our belief. When a man finds an an- 
 cient mound at the west, and in it human bones and 
 the implements of eivilization, is it on the ground of 
 testimony that he beHeves tliat this continent was onee 
 inliabited by a raee now extinct? Or, again; if I 
 were required to prove that such a man as General 
 Washington ever existed, and performed the acts gen- 
 erally ascribed to him, should I rest on the ground of 
 testimony alone ? Perhaps the evidence of testimony 
 is involved in the fact that his birthday is celebrated ; 
 but that fact is something more than mere testimony. 
 So, when I go to the house where it is said he lived 
 and the tomb where it is said he is buried, when I see 
 the sword presented to Congress which it is said he 
 wore, I find, in the existence of the house, the tomb, 
 the sword, an evidence distinct from that of naked 
 testimony. So, again, when I look at the independ- 
 ence of this country, and at its republican institutions, 
 and find them ascribed by universal testimony to what 
 Washington did, and w^hen I find existing no other 
 account of the manner in which our independence was 
 achieved and our institutions established, then I find, 
 in the fact of the independence of this country and the 
 existence of its free institutions, an evidence distinct 
 from that of mere testimony. Every lawyer knows 
 the difference between naked testimony and testi- 
 mony thus corroborated by circumstantial evidence. 
 
 Here, then, we find the ground of a wide distinc- 
 tion between the different classes of facts for which we 
 have evidence. They may be divided into those which 
 rest on the evidence of testimony alone, and those 
 which we receive, not merely on the direct evidence 
 of testimony, but which produced permanent effects in 
 
262 LECTURE IX. 
 
 the world that are now manifest, and whicii can be 
 reasonably traced to no other causes than those as- 
 signed bj the testimony. And of this hitter kind, 
 especially, some are so substantiated, that no miracle 
 could be more strange, or more difficult to be believed^ 
 or more a violation of the uniform course of our ex- 
 perience, than that such evidence should deceive us. 
 The existence and history of Washington, for example, 
 are so much involved in the present state of things, 
 the evidence for them comes from so many sources, 
 it touches so many points, that to deny them would 
 be a practical absurdity. We should think it no breach 
 of charity to say to him who questioned such evidence, 
 that he was insincere. 
 
 Now, it is on this general ground that the evidence 
 for Christianity rests ; and we say that no man can 
 pluck away the pillars on which it rests, without bring- 
 ing down the whole fabric of historical evidence in 
 ruins over his head. We say that this evidence can- 
 not be invalidated without introducing universal and 
 absolute historical skepticism. Christianity, with all 
 its institutions, exists. Christendom exists, and it is 
 important to our argument that the greatness of this 
 fact should not be overlooked. It is the great fact in 
 the history of the world. Here is a religion, received 
 by a large portion of the human race ; by that portion, 
 too, which takes the lead in civilization and the arts. 
 It confessedly supplanted other religions ; it produced 
 a revolution in the opinions and habits of men, unpar- 
 alleled in the history of the world. It has not merely 
 accomplished religious and moral revolutions, but, inci- 
 dentally, social and civil changes, so as completely to 
 transform the face of society. It came to its ascend- 
 
LECTURE IX. 263 
 
 eiicy through great opposition and persecutions, such 
 as no other rehgion ever did or could withstand; and 
 now it does not live by flattering the natural passions 
 of men, or by letting them alone and requiring of 
 them no sacrifices. It has not, like other religions, 
 depended for its existence and power upon its connec- 
 tion with the state ; for, though it has often been con- 
 nected with the state, and, in some particular form, 
 uphekl by it, yet it flourishes best when left to find its 
 own way, and to control the hearts of men by its own 
 proper force. 
 
 Now, the existence of such a religion as this, in the 
 world, requires to be accounted for. It would be 
 absurd to suppose that, in a period of high intel- 
 lectual cultivation, it should spring up and subvert 
 other religions, without being challenged by mankind, 
 and having its credentials demanded, and its history 
 known. But if the facts on which the religion was 
 based were once known, it would seem in the last 
 degree improbable that the knowledge of them should 
 perish, and the religion remain ; or, what would be still 
 more strange, not only that all knowledge, oral or 
 written, of these facts should have perished, but that 
 a false and most minute account should have been sub- 
 stituted for the true one, and received from the first. 
 
 Moreover, it is chiefly with facts that exert an impor- 
 tant influence on the destiny of mankind, that tradition 
 connects itself; and this, in connection with institutions 
 which enter into the fabric of society, or with monu- 
 ments or observances handed down by an unbroken 
 succession of persons, who have felt a deep interest in 
 the facts in question, cannot fail to preserve the great 
 outlines of events as Ion": as such observances and mon- 
 
264 LECTURE IX. 
 
 uments remain. If all written records were blotted out 
 from this time, and jet the independence of this nation 
 were to be preserved, and the fourth of July were to 
 continue to be annually celebrated, who can suppose 
 that, in any length of years, all trace of the true origin 
 of the day should be lost, and another, entirely false, sub- 
 stituted for it ? So, when we find a Christian church, 
 that has existed as a separate independent body from 
 the origin of the religion, celebrating an ordinance once 
 a week, or once a month, or once in two months, in 
 commemoration of the death of Christ, if we had no 
 other evidence for it than that of tradition, the pre- 
 sumption would be very strong that, at least, such a 
 man as Christ lived and died, and was supposed to 
 have conferred some distinguished benefit. And in 
 this case the evidence is peculiarly strong, because the 
 ordinance has been so frequently repeated, and so 
 widely extended. No delusion, from national pride or 
 local feeling, can be suspected, because we find the 
 same tradition, and the same ordinance, in the most 
 distant and remote countries. Millions of Christians 
 now regard this rite as the most sacred one belonging 
 to a religion for which they are ready to lay down their 
 lives ; they received it from those who were equally 
 attached to it; and so it must have been up to the 
 point — a point perfectly well defined in history — from 
 which the tradition, and the written history, and the 
 ordinance, started together. 
 
 Here, then, we find Christendom, and the Christian 
 church — a body of men as distinctly organized and as 
 intimately associated as those of any state — having its 
 institutions, its traditions, and its records, all perfectly 
 harmonizing with each other. These records bear on 
 
LECTURE IX. 265 
 
 the face of them the marks of veracity ; there is noth- 
 ing known that is contradictory to them ; they contain 
 a fair and phiusible account of the origin of the church. 
 Admit the account, and every difliculty is removed. 
 Refuse to admit it, and you destroy the very founda- 
 tions of liistorical proof in any fact whatever. So 
 much, indeed, are the general facts of Christianity im- 
 phed in the present state of the world, and so much 
 has it of that conviction which springs from universal 
 notoriety, and which we can neither doubt, nor trace 
 to any particular source, that I do not hesitate to say, 
 that the objections brought by Archbishop Whately 
 against the existence and general history of Napo- 
 leon Bonaparte are quite as plausible as any that can 
 be brought against the existence and general history 
 of Christ. 
 
 And more especially ought we to receive facts thus 
 substantiated, when we remember how fully we be- 
 lieve those which are established by testimony alone. 
 This, as w^as said in a former lecture, may be the 
 ground of a certainty as full and perfect as any of 
 which we can conceiv'e. Can I doubt that there is 
 such a city as Rome, or such a person as Queen 
 Victoria ? or that there has been such a person as 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, or George the Fourth ? And 
 yet I know these facts solely by testimony. Who 
 doubts, or can doubt, that Augustus Caesar was em- 
 peror of Rome ? Who would fear to stake his life on 
 the fact that such a man as Alexander the Great ex- 
 isted ? And yet no trace of that fact remains in the 
 present organizations or customs of society, and the 
 written and traditionary evidence for it is as nothing 
 compared with that of Christianity. 
 
266 LECTURE IX. 
 
 It is not, then, true of every kind of testimony that 
 it sometimes deceives us. There may be testimony of 
 such a nature as never was, and never can be, false; 
 and it was a poor fallacy of Hume to attempt to trans- 
 fer over to all testimony that uncertainty which be- 
 longs to it only in some cases. We affirm that the 
 testimony for Christianity, taken by itself, is such as 
 could not possibly be deceptive, as was never known 
 to be so since the world began ; and we challenge 
 infidels to point out an instance of such deception. 
 When they do this, they may talk of the uncertainty 
 of testimony. 
 
 I may properly refer here, also, to another common 
 fallacy respecting testimony, which is based on the 
 same principle of transferring to the whole what 
 belongs only to a part, and which has had some in- 
 fluence. It is, that testimony loses its weight by age ; 
 that every century steals something from its proba- 
 bility. As if testimony that was once true, would not 
 always be true ; and the question whether it shall 
 appear more or less true to the minds of men, after 
 longer or shorter periods have elapsed, is one that 
 must be determined by circumstances. Nothing can 
 be more untrue than the general assertion, as made 
 universally ; and, as applied to the evidences of Chris- 
 tianity, I deny it altogether. Age itself, as such, has 
 no tendency to impair the force of testimony ; and 
 it often happens that, by the discovery of coins, or 
 ruins, or hieroglyphics, or inscriptions, or manuscripts, 
 testimony which had been doubted for ages is fully 
 confirmed. It is, indeed, a fact, that, from fuller 
 research, and from such discoveries, the historical 
 testimony for Christianity, instead of being diminished 
 
LECTURE IX. 2G7 
 
 within the last hundred jears, lias been greatly in- 
 creased and strengthened. 
 
 But, valid as is the evidence of testimony, we do not 
 feel that we rest upon that alone, but that the facts of 
 Christianity are sustained by every species of evidence 
 by which it is possible that any past event should be 
 substantiated. The great facts in history are very few 
 — I think of none — which are implied in the present 
 state of the civilized world as are those of the Chris- 
 tian religion. It is as if the taking of Constantinople 
 by the Turks were to be confirmed by a reference to 
 its present state. Let us suppose, to illustrate this 
 point more fully, that a book purporting to be a history 
 of the Turks, and giving an account of their taking 
 the city of Constantinople and making it their capi- 
 tal, were put mto the hands of a man who had never 
 heard of that people. If it bore upon its face evidence 
 of its being a true history, he might receive it, and 
 this would be naked testimony. But, if he should 
 afterwards travel, and find this same people making a 
 city of that name their capital, and find still dwelling 
 among them the remains of a subjugated people, and 
 should find, both among Turks and others, one unva- 
 rying tradition of the same events, and should find, 
 moreover, other and independent histories agreeing in 
 all respects with the history he had first seen, and the 
 original letters of the commanders of the army in those 
 days, he would feel that all room for doubt was re- 
 moved. But all this evidence, and more, would he 
 have who should have the Gospel of Matthew and the 
 Acts of the Apostles put into his hands, and should 
 then be made acquainted for the first time with the 
 
268 LECTURE IX. 
 
 present state of the world, and with the other books 
 of the New Testament. 
 
 With this general statement of the nature of the 
 evidence, I proceed to consider more particularly, in 
 reference to the books of the New Testament, the two 
 great questions of their authenticity and their credi- 
 bility. The question of credibility is, of course, the 
 great question ; but, in the present case, that of authen- 
 ticity is so intimately connected with this, that it 
 cannot be omitted. 
 
 Let us inquire, then, what evidence we have that 
 the books of the New Testament were written by the 
 persons whose names they bear, and at the time they 
 purport to have been written. No one can be more 
 aware than I am that this is beaten ground; but my 
 business is, as I said at the commencement of these 
 lectures, to present the argument. The materials for 
 it are abundant ; their force is overwhelming : the only 
 difficulty is to present them so, within the space to 
 which I must now be restricted, that that force shall 
 be felt. The great storehouse of learning on this sub- 
 ject is Lardner; and to him all subsequent writers 
 refer, doing little more than to quote and abridge him. 
 For ordinary purposes, however, such works as those 
 «f Home and Paley are sufficiently full.* 
 
 We have the New Testament, consisting of twenty- 
 seven separate books, written by eight different au- 
 thors. Some of these books are formal histories — one 
 is a personal narrative — but the most of them are letters 
 
 * It is chiefly on their authority that the quotations on the subse- 
 quent pages are made. 
 
LECTURE IX. 269 
 
 addressed to associated l)odies of Christians. That 
 they were written by the j)ersons to whom they are 
 ascribed, and at the time claimed, we believe, — 
 
 First, because they are quoted and referred to by a 
 series of writers in close and uninterrupted succession, 
 from that time till the present. 
 
 1. We find one apostle referring to the writings of 
 another. Peter refers to the writings of Paul, char- 
 acterizing them, just as many do now, as containing 
 some things hard to be understood ; but, what is 
 remarkable, recognizing them as of the same authority 
 with the other Scriptures. The force of this incidental 
 reference to the writings of Paul, by Peter, is less felt 
 from the fact that both writings are bound up in the 
 same volume ; but it is really as great as if the Epistle 
 of Peter were now discovered for the first time. 
 
 2. We have writings bearing the names of five 
 persons, who, because they were contemporary with 
 the apostles, are called "apostolical" fathers, and three 
 of these, Barnabas, Clement, and Hermas, are men- 
 tioned by name in the New Testament. But as there 
 are doubts respecting the genuineness of the writings 
 ascribed to Barnabas and Hermas, I shall not quote 
 from them : we have no need of inferior kinds of 
 evidence. 
 
 ' The Epistle by Clement was addressed to the 
 church at Corinth, and is spoken of by the ancients 
 as acknowledged by all to be his. Irenasus says it 
 was written by Clement, " who had seen the blessed 
 apostles and conversed with them, who had the preach- 
 ing of the apostles still sounding in his ears, and their 
 traditions before his eyes." And Dionysius, bishop of 
 Corinth, about eighty or ninety years after the Epistle 
 
270 LECTURE IX. 
 
 was written — that is, in the year 170 — bears witness 
 that it had been wont to be read in that church from 
 ancient times. " Especially," says Clement, "remem- 
 bering the words of the Lord Jesus, which he spoke, 
 teaching gentleness and long-suffering; for thus he said, 
 ' Be ye merciful, that ye may obtain mercy ; forgive, 
 that it may be forgiven unto you ; as you do, so shall 
 it be done unto you ; as ye judge, so shall ye be 
 judged ; as ye show kindness, so shall kindness be 
 shown unto you ; with what measure ye mete, with the 
 same it shall be measured to you.' By this command, 
 and by these rules, let us establish ourselves, that we 
 may always walk obediently to his holy words." I 
 quote this passage for the purpose of bringing to notice 
 one circumstance respecting all the quotations from 
 these fathers — which is, that they do not quote the 
 evangelists by name, and, on this account, it may be 
 said that they do not refer to them. But that Clement 
 did here quote from Matthew, is plain from the coin- 
 cidence of the words, and from the fact that he 
 certainly does quote both the Epistle to the Romans 
 and to the Corinthians in the same way. But, to 
 give another example : Can any one doubt the origin 
 of the following ? " Remember the words of the Lord 
 Jesus; for he said, 'Woe to that man by whom offences 
 come : it were better for him that a millstone should 
 be tied about his neck, and that he should be drowned 
 in the sea, than that he should offend one of these little 
 ones.'"* This Epistle of Clement, it is to be observed, 
 was written in the name of the church of Rome, and 
 addressed to the church at Corinth, and may thus 
 
 * Epistle of Clement, in " Apostolical Fathers." 
 
LECTURE IX. 271 
 
 be regarded as expressing the judgment of those 
 churches. 
 
 Ignatius was bishop at Antioch, and a member of 
 that church at least as early as thirty-seven years 
 after Christ's ascension. He quotes Matthew and 
 John, and quotes the Epistle of Paul to the Ephe- 
 sjans by name. 
 
 Polycarp had been taught by the apostles, had 
 conversed with many who had seen Christ, and was 
 set by the apostles over the church of Smyrna. 
 Irena^us, who in his youth had seen him, says, " I 
 can tell the place in which the blessed Polycarp sat 
 and taught, and his going out and coming in, and 
 the manner of his life, and the form of his person, 
 and the discourses he made to the people, and how 
 he related his conversation with John and others 
 who had seen the Lord, both concerning his mira- 
 cles and his doctrine, as he had received them from 
 the eye-witnesses of the w^ord of life ; all which Poly- 
 carp related agreeably to the Scriptures,''^ Of Poly- 
 carp one undoubted Epistle remains, and in this, 
 though short, we have about forty clear allusions to 
 the books of the New Testament. 
 
 Papias was a hearer of John, and a companion of 
 Polycarp. Of his we have nothing remaining ; but 
 Eusebius quotes from a work of his, in which he as- 
 cribes their respective Gospels to Matthew and Mark. 
 
 Here, then, we have the testimony of writers who 
 all lived and conversed with the apostles, and in their 
 writings we have numerous quotations or plain allu- 
 sions to most of the books of the New Testament ; 
 and, what is remarkable, they uniformly treat them 
 with the reverence belonging to inspired books. 
 
272 LECTURE IX. 
 
 Of late, — as might have been anticipated among 
 a set of critics and philosophers who doubt the exist- 
 ence of Christ himself, and who also doubt whether 
 any thing either exists now or ever did exist, — the 
 authenticity of all these writings has been doubted. 
 But, so far as I understand the subject, this is with- 
 out any good reason in regard to those which 1 have 
 specially quoted. 
 
 And here I will make a remark that needs to be 
 borne in mind in all our use of dates, in speaking of 
 the early history of Christianity. It is, that the cen- 
 tury commences with the birth of Christ, whereas 
 the history of the religion does not commence till 
 thirty-three years afterwards, — so that the end of the 
 first century was only sixty-seven years from the first 
 attempt by the apostles to establish the new religion. 
 And when it is remembered that John lived till nearly 
 the close of this century, it will be seen that the means 
 of verifying every thing w^ere very abundant. 
 
 Twenty-five or thirty years after Polycarp follows 
 Justin Martyr, universally known in the ancient 
 church. He was a convert from heathenism after 
 he had arrived at mature age, and was distin- 
 guished as a philosopher, a Christian, and a writer. 
 Of his writings we have remaining only — two 
 Apologies for the Christians, one addressed to the 
 Emperor Titus Antoninus Pius, and the other to the 
 Emperor Marcus Antoninus, and the senate and people 
 of Rome ; and his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew. We 
 find, however, in these, thirty-five plain quotations 
 from the Gospel of Matthew alone, and, in one case, a 
 considerable part of the Sermon on the Mount, in the 
 very words of Matthew. He either quotes, or clearly 
 
LECTURE IX. 273 
 
 refers to, the Acts of the Apostles, and nearly all the 
 Epistles, and says expressly that the Revelation was 
 \vritten by John. He calls the books from wliich 
 he quotes, " Memoirs composed by the Apostles," 
 " Memoirs composed by the Apostles and their Com- 
 panions," — which description, the latter especially, 
 exactly agrees with the titles wliich the Gospels and 
 the Acts of the Apostles now bear. This manner of 
 reference "shows that the books were perfectly notori- 
 ous, and that there were no other accounts of Christ 
 then extant so received and credited as to make it 
 necessary to distinguish these from the rest." .Justin 
 also tells us, in his first Apology, that the memoirs of 
 the apostles, and the writings of the prophets, were 
 read and expounded in the Christian assemblies for 
 worship, wliich shows that the Gospels were at that 
 time well known in the world. To this testimony of 
 Justin, who sealed his belief in the Christian religion 
 with his blood, there is no objection, except that he 
 does not quote the different writers by name; but 
 skepticism itself cannot suppose that books were read 
 and expounded in the Christian churches so generally 
 that he should mention it in an apology to the emperor, 
 and yet that all trace and record of those books should 
 have been lost, and that others should have been fab- 
 ricated, and substituted in their place. We find in 
 this author almost a complete history of Christ ; and 
 yet he mentions only two circumstances which are not 
 contained in our Gospels. 
 
 After Justin Martyr follows Tatian, a disciple of 
 his. He flourished about the year 170, and composed 
 a harmony of the Gospels, which he called " Diatessa- 
 ron," — that is, of the four, — showing that there were 
 then four, and only four. Gospels. 
 
 35 
 
274 LECTURE iX. 
 
 About this time, the churches of France sent a rela- 
 tion of the sufferings of their martyrs to the churches 
 of Asia and Phrygia, and the epistle is preserved by 
 Eusebius. Their bishop was Pothinus, v/ho was then 
 ninety years old, so that his testimony would join on 
 to that of the apostles. In this we find the following : 
 " Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the 
 Lord, that whosoever killeth you will think that he 
 doeth God service ; " with similar references to Luke 
 and to the Acts. 
 
 To Pothinus, as bishop of Lyons, succeeded Ire- 
 nseus, who was, in his youth, a disciple of Polycarp. 
 He wrote many works, but his five books against 
 heresies are all that remain. In these he has shown a 
 full acquaintance with the Scriptures both of the Old 
 and New Testament. Being only a century distant 
 from the time of the publication of the Gospels, and 
 only one step removed from the apostles, he speaks of 
 himself and his contemporaries as being able to reckon 
 up, in all the principal churches, the succession of 
 bishops from the first. He mentions the code of the 
 New Testament, as well as the Old, and calls the one, 
 as well as the other, the Oracles of God. His testi- 
 mony is full and explicit to all the books of the New 
 Testament, except the Epistle to Philemon, the Third 
 of John, and the Epistle of Jude. And here we find, 
 for the first time, what we might now expect to find, — 
 an appeal to the books as the ground of the Christian 
 faith. " We have not received," says Irenaeus, " the 
 knowledge of the way of our salvation by any other 
 than those by whom the gospel has been brought to 
 us ; which gospel they first preached, and afterwards, 
 by the will of God, committed to writing, that it might 
 
LECTURE IX. 275 
 
 be for time to come the foundation and pillar of our 
 faith. For, after our Lord rose from the dead, and 
 thej were endued from above with the power of the 
 Holy Ghost coming down upon them, they received a 
 perfect knowledge of all things. They then went 
 forth to all the ends of the earth, declaring to men the 
 blessing of heavenly peace, having all of them, and 
 every one alike, the gospel of God. Matthew, then, 
 among the Jews, wrote a Gospel in their own language, 
 while Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel at 
 Rome, and founding a church there. And, after their 
 exit, Mark, also the disciple and interpreter of Peter, 
 delivered to us in writing the things that had been 
 preached by Peter; and Luke, the companion of Paul, 
 put down in a book the gospel preached by him. 
 Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also 
 leaned upon his breast, he likewise published a Gospel 
 while he dwelt at Ephesus, in Asia." We could 
 certainly wish nothing more explicit than this ; and 
 there are other passages not less so. It is worthy 
 of remark, also, that, though Irenaeus quotes the 
 Scriptures so largely, he does not, in any single in- 
 stance, refer to any work now known, and supposed 
 to be spurious. 
 
 After Irena^us, we come to Athenagoras, about the 
 year 180, and to Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, and 
 to Clement of Alexandria, an author of note, who 
 quotes from almost all the writers of the New Tes- 
 tament so largely, that the citations would fill a 
 considerable volume. He gives us an account of 
 the order in which the Gospels were written, and 
 then says that he received the account from presby- 
 ters of more ancient times. 
 
276 LECTURE IX. 
 
 About the same time with Clement Hved Tertullian, 
 a presbyter of the church of Carthage, whose testimo- 
 ny is very full and explicit. After enumerating the 
 apostolical churches, he says, " I say, then, that with 
 them, but not with them only which are apostolical, 
 but with all who have fellowship with them in the 
 same faith, is that Gospel of Luke received, from its 
 first publication, which we so zealously maintain." 
 He adds, " The same authority of the apostolical 
 churches will support the other Gospels which we have 
 from them — I mean John's and Matthew's — although 
 that likewise which Mark published may be said to 
 be Peter's, whose interpreter Mark was." In another 
 place, Tertullian says that the three other Gospels 
 were in the hands of the churches from the begin- 
 ning. And this evidence appears not more than one 
 hundred and fifty years after the publication of the 
 books. 
 
 With Tertullian I close my citations from the au- 
 thors of the second century, of whom it has been 
 said with truth, so numerous are their quotations 
 from the New Testament, that, if that book had 
 been lost, it might be almost compiled anew from 
 these citations. 
 
 And here we may remark, with Paley, "the wide 
 extent through which the reputation of the Gospels 
 and the Acts of the Apostles had spread, and the per- 
 fect consent, on this point, of distant and independent 
 societies. It is now only about one hundred and fifty 
 years since Christ was crucified, and within this period, 
 to say nothing of the apostolical fathers, we have 
 Justin Martyr of Neapolis, Theophilus at Antioch, 
 Irenaeus in France, Clement in Alexandria, and Ter- 
 
LECTURE IX. 277 
 
 tullian at Carthage, quoting the same books of histori- 
 cal Scriptures, and, 1 may say, quoting them alone." 
 These men too — which is an important point — being 
 bishops and presbyters, their testimony involves that 
 of large bodies of men. It gives us the authority of 
 common consent. And certainly such an authority 
 and assent, extending over thousands of miles, could 
 never have been gained to books esteemed as these 
 were, except on the best grounds. There are no 
 others that can be placed at all in competition with 
 them in this respect. 
 
 It has been usual to continue citations down as 
 far as the fourth century ; but can this be necessarj^ ? 
 I think not, especially as they now multiply upon 
 us on every side. It has also been usual, and is, 
 perhaps, more strictly logical, to trace the testimony 
 upward ; but, in the present state of this argument, 
 that cannot be important. 
 
 But I observe, • secondly, not only were these wri- 
 tings thus quoted, but, when they were, it was with 
 peculiar titles and marks of respect. Thus Theophi- 
 lus, bishop of Antioch, who flourished a little more 
 than a century after the books were written, says, 
 " These things the Holy Scriptures teach us, and all 
 who were moved by the Holy Spirit, among whom 
 John says, 'In the beginning was the Word.'" Ori- 
 gen says, " That our religion teaches us to seek after 
 wisdom, shall be shown both out of the ancient Jewish 
 Scriptures, which we also use, and out of those written 
 since Jesus, which are believed in the churches to be 
 divine." 
 
 These writings, moreover, as has already been 
 statedj were early read in the public assemblies of 
 
278 LECTURE IX. 
 
 Christians. Justin Martyr, who wrote only about one 
 hundred years after the crucifixion, giving an account 
 of Christian worship, has this remarkable passage : 
 " The memoirs of the apostles, or the writings of the 
 prophets, are read according as the time allows, and, 
 when the reader has ended, the president makes a 
 discourse." This passage is of great weight, because 
 Justin speaks here of the general usage of the Chris- 
 tian church, and because he speaks of it as a long- 
 established custom. That by " memoirs of the apos- 
 tles " he means our Gospels, is evident, because he 
 tells us, in another place, that they are what are called 
 " Gospels," and because he has made numerous quo- 
 tations from them, and from no others. 
 
 At what time our present Scriptures were collected 
 into a distinct volume is not certainly known; but there 
 is no doubt it was very early, and that this volume was 
 ranked from the first with the Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament. Polycarp, a companion of tlTe apostles, 
 says, " I trust ye are well exercised in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, as in these Scriptures it is said, 'Be ye angry 
 and sin not.' " This passage, thus quoted by Polycarp, 
 shows that, in his time, there were Christian waitings 
 distinguished as the " Holy Scriptures." This is in per- 
 fect accordance with' what we should expect after the 
 recognition, by Peter, of the writings of Paul as a part 
 of the Scriptures. Polycarp has also quoted in the 
 same way the Gospel of Matthew, the Acts, ten Epis- 
 tles of Paul, the First of Peter, and the First of John. 
 Justin Martyr, also, in the " Apology" of which I have 
 already spoken, (which was written about thirty years 
 after the Epistle of Polycarp,) says, " For the apostles, 
 in the memoirs composed by them, which are called 
 
LECTUllE IX. 279 
 
 * Gospels,' have thus delivered it, that Jesus commanded 
 them to take bread and give thanks/' 
 
 I speak of this subject, because it has been said that 
 no such book as the New Testament existed before the 
 fourth century, and because our evidence on this point 
 stands just as we could wish — that is, it stands just 
 as we should supjiose it would from the nature of the 
 case. Here are twenty-seven separate pieces written 
 within the space of sixty years. It is not to be su])- 
 posed that all these pieces should be [)ossessed at once 
 by all the churches, or that there should be at once a 
 perfect agreement in regard to them all. We should 
 expect that copies would be taken, and collections 
 made, of those writings concerning which there was 
 no question, and that these would be quoted and inci- 
 dentally referred to, precisely as our books are, till some 
 question was raised about the introduction of another 
 book, or about the authority or authenticity of any 
 part of it. Then we should expect to jfind the grounds 
 stated on which the books were received, and formal 
 catalogues made out of such as were received. If, 
 then, by saying that there was no such book as the 
 New Testament before the fourth century, it is meant 
 that the canon, as it is called, was not formally set- 
 tled by a council till that time, it is true ; but if it be 
 meant, as is insinuated, that the writings were then 
 first published, no man can make such an assertion, 
 except from the grossest ignorance, or as a wilful 
 falsehood. 
 
 The truth is, that, in the first century, we have, from 
 the contemporaries of the apostles, more than two 
 hundred quotations, and allusions to our sacred books, 
 in which we have an incidental and unintentional 
 
2S0 LECTURE IX. 
 
 testimony, more satisfactory than any formal testimony 
 could be; and, in these quotations and allusions, nine- 
 teen or twenty of our present books are recognized. 
 In the second century, we find the testimony more 
 express and full, and the quotations so numerous, that 
 a large part of the New Testament might be collected 
 from them. Of this age there are thirty-six writers 
 of whose works some part has come down to us. In 
 the third and fourth centuries, we have more than a 
 hundred authors whose works testify to the authen- 
 ticity of these books. During these two centuries, 
 catalogues of the authentic works were expressly 
 drawn up, harmonies were formed, versions were made 
 into many languages, and the canon was fully settled. 
 In settling the canon, we find, from Eusebius, A. D. 
 315, that there were seven books concerning which 
 there was some hesitation, and the grounds of the 
 doubts are fully given. Eusebius begins his enumer- 
 ation of Scriptures universally acknowledged in the 
 following manner : " In the first place are to be ranked 
 the sacred four Gospels ; then the book of the Acts of 
 the Apostles ; after that are to be reckoned the Epis- 
 tles of Paul ; in the next place, that called the First 
 Epistle of John, and the Epistle of Peter, are to be 
 esteemed authentic ; after this is to be placed the 
 Revelation of John, about which we shall observe the 
 different opinions at proper seasons. Of the contro- 
 verted, yet well known, or approved by the most, are 
 that called the Epistle of James, and that of Jude, and 
 the Second of Peter, and the Second and Third of John, 
 whether written by the evangelist, or by another of 
 the same name." Concerning these last, however, all 
 doubt was gradually removed, so that, by the time of 
 
LECTURE IX. 281 
 
 Jerome and Augustine, A. D. 342-420, many cata- 
 logues are given, including all our present books, and 
 none other. 
 
 While, therefore, it appears that the writings of the 
 New Testament were, some of them, collected into a 
 volume in the apostolical times, under the name of the 
 Gospels and the Apostles ; w hile the references to this 
 volume, during the second century, are almost number- 
 less; while no doubt ever arose respecting the mass of 
 them, — still the book which we now receive was not, 
 in all its parts, formally agreed upon, in consequence 
 of a careful examination of ancient testimony, till 
 between three and four hundred years after the birth 
 of Christ. It will be remembered, however, that if 
 every part of the New Testament, concerning which 
 there was then dispute, were blotted out, the argu- 
 ment for the truth of Christianity would not be in the 
 least invalidated. There is, therefore, direct evidence, 
 as perfect as the nature of the case admits, that those 
 writings on which we depend for the truth of the 
 Christian religion have existed, and were received 
 without doubt, from the very first. 
 
 So full and unexceptionable is the testimony thus 
 given by early writers, that it would seem, in the 
 absence of any thing to contradict it, or to throw over 
 it the slightest discredit, that further evidence could 
 not be needed. Indeed, if we were to stop here, we 
 should have a body of evidence for the authenticity of 
 these writings such as can be adduced in favor of no 
 others of equal antiquity. The writings of Cicero are 
 quoted by Quintilian, which shows that they were then 
 extant and ascribed to him. But the works of Cicero 
 excited no controversy, they gave rise to no general 
 
 36 
 
282 LECTURE IX. 
 
 opposition, they created no sects ; hence we have no 
 means of knowing how those works were regarded by 
 enemies, or by rival parties, appealing to their au- 
 thority. This, when it can be obtained, is the very 
 highest kind of evidence* and, in respect to the Chris- 
 tian Scriptures, it is most full and satisfactory. The 
 heretical writers do, indeed, sometimes deny that the 
 apostle or writer is an infallible authority ; but they 
 never deny that the books were written by those to 
 whom they were ascribed. Thus the Cerinthians and 
 the Ebionites, who sprang up while St. John was yet 
 living, wished to retain the Mosaic law, and hence 
 rejected the Epistles of Paul, while they retained the 
 Gospel of Matthew. And Marcion, A. D. 130, who 
 rejected the Old Testament, and was excommunicated, 
 though greatly incensed, and though he speaks dispar- 
 agingly of several of the books, yet nowhere intimates 
 that they were forgeries. The same may be said of 
 all the ancient sects. 
 
 We have, also, the indirect testimony of the enemies 
 of Christianity — as Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian. Of 
 these, Celsus flourished only about a hundred years 
 after the Gospels were published, and was an acute 
 and bitter adversary ; and it seems quite impossible 
 that any one of them, much more the whole, should 
 have been forged, and yet he not know or suspect it. 
 He attacks the books, he speaks of contradictions and 
 difficulties in them, but he hints no suspicion that they 
 were forged. Indeed, he claims the writings, for he 
 says, "These things, then, we have alleged to you out 
 of your own writings, not needing any other weapons." 
 In Porphyry, born A. D. 233, (the most sensible and 
 severe adversary of Christianity that antiquity can 
 
LECTURE IX. 283 
 
 produce,) \vc find no trace of any suspicion that the 
 Christian writings were not auth(Mitic, tliough he pro- 
 nounces the prophecy of Daniel a forgery. Por})hyry 
 did not even deny the truth of the Gospel history. He 
 admitted that the miracles were performed by Christ, 
 but imputed them to magic, which he said he learned 
 in Egypt. Julian, commonly called the Apostate, 
 flourished from A. D. 331 to 363. He quotes the four 
 Gospels and the Acts, and nowhere gives any intima- 
 tion that he suspected the whole, or any part of them, 
 to be forgeries. 
 
 Another source of evidence is to be found in ancient 
 versions and manuscripts. The Syriac version was 
 probably made early in the second century, and the 
 first Latin versions almost as early. Of course the 
 New Testament must have existed, and been received 
 as the standard of Christian truth, before those versions 
 were made. Of ancient manuscripts, containing the 
 New Testament or parts thereof, there are several 
 thousands. About five hundred of the most important 
 have been collated with great care. Many of them 
 are of great antiquity. The Codex Vaticanus is be- 
 lieved, on very satisfactory evidence, to be of the 
 fourth century, and the Codex Alexandrinus, of the 
 fifth, — perhaps both much earlier. Thus these 
 manuscripts connect with manuscripts compared by 
 Jerome and Eusebius, A. D. 315-420, who pre- 
 pared critical editions of the New Testament from 
 manuscripts then ancient. The prodigious number 
 of these manuscripts, the distant countries whence 
 they were collected, and the identity of their con- 
 tents with the quotations of the fathers of dif- 
 ferent ages, place the New Testament incompara- 
 
284 LECTURE IX. 
 
 blj above all other ancient works in point of au- 
 thenticity. 
 
 Is there, then, we are ready to ask, any kind of 
 external evidence conceivable, w hich is wanting to our 
 sacred books ? 
 
 But, strong as is the external proof, it hardly equals 
 that which is to be derived from the circumstances of 
 the case, and from internal evidence. 
 
 For, if these writings are not authentic, they must 
 be forgeries; and they are of such a character, and 
 purport to have been written under such circumstances, 
 as to render a forgery of them impossible. Here, for 
 example, are no fewer than nine letters which claim 
 to have been written to numerous bodies of men, and 
 received by them; and can any man believe that such 
 letters, often containing severe reproof, could have 
 been received and read, as we know these were, by 
 the early Christians, if they were forgeries ? " Come 
 now," says Tertullian, — born only sixty years after the 
 death of St. John, — " come now, thou who wilt exer- 
 cise thy curiosity more profitably in the business of 
 thy salvation, run through the apostolical churches in 
 which the very chairs of the apostles still preside, in 
 which their authentic letters are recited, sounding forth 
 the voice and representing the countenance of each." 
 Can any man suppose that letters thus spoken of at 
 that early day could be forged ? Besides, when could 
 they have been forged ? Not, certainly, during the 
 lives of the apostles, for then they would have confuted 
 them ; and, after their death, it is morally impossible 
 such letters should have been received as from them 
 by any body of Christians. 
 
 It is to be added, also, that Christianity sprang up in 
 
LECTURE IX. 285 
 
 the midst of opposition, keen-sighted and relentless. 
 It was opposed by Heathenism and by Judaism, and, 
 moreover, there were always in its own bosom some 
 who were false-hearted and ready to betray it. For 
 more than three hundred years it was constantly the 
 subject of violent and bloody persecutions; and, in such 
 circumstances, it is morally impossible tiiat twenty- 
 seven books should be forged, and imposed as au- 
 thentic upon both friends and foes, and no one, for the 
 first four hundred years, hint a suspicion of the au- 
 thenticity of the most of the books. When Celsus 
 reproached the Christians with dissensions, in the 
 second century, Origen admits the truth of the ac- 
 cusation, but says, nevertheless, that the four Gospels 
 were received by the whole church of God under 
 heaven. 
 
 Again; the authenticity of the New Testament is 
 confirmed by the language and style in which it is 
 written. It could have been written only by men who 
 were born Jews, and who lived before the destruction 
 of Jerusalem. Every where their Jewish prejudices 
 and habits of thought appear, and the references to Je- 
 rusalem and the temple, as then standing, are so blended 
 with the whole narrative, that we feel it impossible 
 it should not have been written at that time. This, 
 however, is still more obvious from the peculiar 
 laniruage in which the New Testament is written. 
 Greek was then a kind of universal language ; but 
 the Greek spoken in Palestine was not the Greek of 
 Attica. It was Hebraic Greek — that is, Greek mixed 
 with the peculiar dialect of Hebrew then in use in 
 Palestine ; and in such Greek are the Gospels written. 
 After the destruction of Jerusalem, this peculiar dialect 
 
286 LECTURE IX. 
 
 ceased. Probably there was not a man living, after the 
 death of the apostle John, who could have blended 
 the peculiar elements of language which we find in 
 the New Testament. But, if these books were written 
 before the destruction of Jerusalem, they must be 
 authentic, because no books could have been forged in 
 the names of the apostles, while they were yet living, 
 and have been undetected. 
 
 It is to be remarked, too, that the books of the New 
 Testament were receiv-ed and judged of by the churches 
 separately. The Gospel of Matthew was received by 
 the churches on its own merits, and the question of its 
 reception was not embarrassed by that of any other 
 book. So the Epistle of Paul to the church at Rome 
 was judged of as authentic by that church, without any 
 reference to the Epistle to the Ephesians. If, there- 
 fore, the New Testament is a forgery, it is not an in- 
 stance of a single successful forgery, but of twenty- 
 seven separate ones, imposed upon intelligent men 
 whose interests were all involved in detecting the 
 fraud. If, now, we consider how seldom literary for- 
 geries are undertaken — that they are, in fact, nearly or 
 quite unprecedented, unless they come out under the 
 shadow of some great name — that no possible motive 
 can be assigned for the forgery of such books ; — if we 
 consider the difficulty of it in any case, and the moral 
 impossibility of it in reference to books of such pre- 
 tensions, and that have, in fact, commanded the rever- 
 ence of the civilized world, — I think we shall feel that 
 twenty-seven successful forgeries, within the space of 
 sixty years, is a supposition not to be entertained for a 
 moment. 
 
 Once more ; the reasons which render the authen- 
 
LECTURE IX. 287 
 
 ticity of a work suspicious arc thus laid down l)y 
 Micliaelis : 1. Wlieu doubts have been entertained, 
 from its first appearance, whether it was the work of 
 its reputed author. 2. When the immediate friends 
 of the author have denied it to be his. 3. When a 
 long series of years has elapsed, after his death, in 
 which the book was unknown, and in which it must 
 have been mentioned or quoted, had it been in exist- 
 ence. 4. When the style is different from his other 
 writings, or, in case no others remain, from what might 
 be reasonably expected. 5. When events are re- 
 corded which hajipened later than the time of tlic 
 pretended author. 6. When opinions are advanced 
 contradictory to those which he is known to have 
 advanced in other writings. Of these marks of spuri- 
 ousness, not one can be attached to a single book of 
 the New Testament. 
 
 I observe, finally, that this evidence is, if possible, 
 heightened by the contrast in all respects between our 
 books and those which have been regarded as spurious. 
 The fact that such books existed is sometimes made 
 use of to create the impression that they were once 
 of nearly equal authority with ours, and that there was 
 difficulty and uncertainty in making the distinction. 
 Nothing can be farther from the truth. For, 1. There 
 is no evidence that those spurious or apocryphal books 
 existed during the first century ; indeed, they all were 
 manifestly forgeries of a later age. 2. No Christian 
 history, besides our Gospels and the Acts, is quoted 
 by any writer now known within three hundred years 
 after the birth of Christ. 3. None of these apocry- 
 phal writings were read in the churches. 4. None 
 of them were ever admitted to the volume of the New 
 
288 LECTURE IX. 
 
 Testament. 5. Nor do they appear in any catalogue 
 6. Nor were they alleged by different parties, in 
 their controversies, as of authority. 7. Nor were they 
 the subjects of commentaries, or versions, or exposi- 
 tions. 8. Nor were they ever received by Christians 
 of after ages, but were almost universally reprobated 
 by them. 
 
 And, now, is not this point proved ? I suppose I 
 have been uninteresting ; but is not the point proved ? 
 Is it not fully established that these books were writ- 
 ten by the men whose names they bear, and at the 
 time when they purport to have been written ? 
 
 I close by a very brief reference to a single point 
 more, which properly belongs here. How do we know 
 that the integrity of the books of the New Testament 
 has been preserved ? I answer, first, we know it from 
 the nature of the case. Augustine, in the fourth cen- 
 tury, reasoning with a heretic, puts this well. "If any 
 one," says he, " should charge you with having inter- 
 polated some texts alleged by you, would you not 
 immediately answer, that it is impossible for you to do 
 such a thing in books read by all Christians — and 
 that, if any such attempt had been made by you, it 
 would have been presently discerned and defeated, 
 by comparing the ancient copies? Well, then, for the 
 same reason that the Scriptures cannot be corrupted 
 by you, they cannot be corrupted by any other peo- 
 ple." We know the same thing, secondly, from the 
 agreement of our books with the quotations in the 
 works of the early Christian fathers. These quota- 
 tions are so abundant that almost the whole of the 
 New Testament might be gathered from them ; and 
 
LECTURE IX: 289 
 
 jet, except in six or seven verses, there is an agreement 
 in all material respects between those quotations and 
 the corresponding parts of our books. We know it, 
 thirdly, from the entire agreement of our books with 
 ancient versions. The old Sjriac version, called Pesli- 
 ito, was certainly in use before the close of the second 
 century. This was not known in Europe before the 
 close of the sixteenth century. It came down by a 
 line perfectly' independent of that by which our Greek 
 Testament was received; yet, when the two came 
 to be compared, tlu; difterence was altogether unim- 
 portant. Is it possible that evidence should be more 
 satisfactory ? 
 
 The subject of various readings was at one time so 
 presented as to alarm and disquiet those not acquainted 
 w'nh the facts. When a person hears it stated that, in 
 the collation of the manuscripts for Griesbach's edi- 
 tion of the New Testament, as many as one hundred 
 and fifty thousand various readings were discovered, 
 he is ready to suppose that every thing must be in a 
 state of uncertainty. A statement of the facts relieves 
 every difficulty. The truth is, that not one in a thou- 
 sand makes any perceptible, or at least important vari- 
 ation in the meaning ; that they consist almost entirely 
 of the small and obvious mistakes of transcribers, such 
 as the omission or transposition of letters, errors in 
 grammar, in the use of one word for another of a 
 similar meaning, and in changing the position of 
 words in a sentence. But, by all the omissions, and 
 all the additions, contained in all the manuscripts, no 
 fact, no doctrine, no duty prescribed, in our authorized 
 version, is rendered either obscure or doubtful. 
 
 There was a time when the rubbish of antiquity did 
 
 37 
 
290 LECTURE IX. 
 
 gather around these pillars of our evidence. The keen 
 eye of the infidel saw it, and he hoped to show that 
 they rested upon rubbish alone. But, like every sim- 
 ilar attempt, at whatever point directed, a full exami- 
 nation has served only to show how firm is the rock 
 upon which that church rests which is " the pillar and 
 ground of the truth." 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 CREDIBILITY OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTA3IENT. 
 
 Our subject this evening;, as will have been anti- 
 cipated, is the credibility of the books of the New 
 Testament ; and I proceed directly to the discussion. 
 This question is purely one of historical evidence ; and 
 if there is left for me very little that is new, either in 
 the matter or in the manner of presenting it, I shall 
 yet hope for the attention of the audience, from the 
 important place which this point holds, and always 
 must, in the Christian argument. 
 
 And the first consideration which I adduce in favor 
 of the credibility of these books is their authenticity. 
 It was because I regarded every testimony adduced, 
 in the last lecture, to prove the authenticity of the 
 gospel histories as also a testimony to their truth, 
 that I dwelt so fully on that subject. The fathers 
 did not quote so largely from those books because 
 they were written by apostolical men, but because 
 they regarded them as true, and as having an au- 
 thority paramount to all others. The testimony of 
 antiquity, therefore, thus given to the authenticity of 
 these books, is equivalent to its testimony to the 
 reality of the facts which they contain. 
 
292 LECTURE X. 
 
 Moreover, when men publish an account of facts 
 under then* own names, especially of facts that are 
 within the immediate knowledge of the most of their 
 readers, and facts, too, that have e.xcited great atten- 
 tion, they must either publish what is substantially 
 true, or wilfully, and without motive, sacrifice both 
 character and reputation. There is no instance on 
 record of the publication by any one, under his own 
 name, of an account purporting to be of facts that 
 were public, and recent, and concerning which a 
 deep interest was felt by the community, which was 
 not mainly true. But here are four men who claim 
 to have been witnesses of most of the events which 
 tl]ey relate, or, if not, to have had a perfect knowl- 
 edge of them. These events must have been known, 
 at the time the books were published, to thousands 
 of others, both friends and foes, as well as to them. 
 Nothing could have prevented the instant detection 
 of any falsehood ; and yet these men published their 
 histories at the time, in the face of the world, and 
 on the spot where the transactions took place. This 
 consideration alone ought to be decisive, and in any 
 other case it would be. 
 
 But, secondly, these books are credible because the 
 authors of them had the best possible means of know- 
 ing the facts which they state. For the most part, 
 they had a personal knowledge of them. Compare 
 our evidence, in this respect, with that for other an- 
 cient events. The main facts were not such as were 
 concealed in cabinets, or in the intrigues of a court, 
 l)ut were few, and such as all might know'. But of 
 the events of the life of Alexander, we have no contem- 
 porary historian ; and yet they are not doubted. Of 
 
LECTURE X. 293 
 
 how few of the events in the histories of Livy, or of 
 Tacitus, had thev personal knowledge ! ^Vith liow 
 few of the men, whose lives he wrote, hiid Phitarch 
 personal acquaintance! In some cases, indeed, — as 
 in the account of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, or 
 the Commentaries of Caesar, — we have the story of a 
 person who was })resent, cuid saw va hat he narrates ; 
 and no one can fail to feel that tlie eredibiliiy of those 
 accounts is greatly increased by that circumstance. 
 In these cases, however, we have but a single wit- 
 ness, and the writers are the heroes of their own 
 story ; and still these writings are received witii en- 
 tire confidence. And this leads me to observe, 
 
 Thirdlv, tliat the events recorded in our books are 
 worthy of credit from the number of witnesses. To 
 put this in its true light, let us suppose that there 
 should now be discovered, among the ruins of Hercu- 
 laneum, the writings of an officer and companion of 
 Caesar, giving an account of the same campaigns and 
 battles. Let us suppose that there was a substantial 
 agreement, but such incidental differences as to show 
 that the writings were entirely independent of each 
 other; then, if we had before been inclined to call 
 the whole a fiction, or to attribute any thing to the 
 ignorance, or the prejudices, or the vanity, of Caesar, 
 we should feel all our doubts removed on those points 
 in which the accounts agreed. And if, after this, we 
 should still find another independent manuscript, and 
 still another, differing entirely in style and general 
 manner, and yet agreeing in regard to the facts, — 
 if, moreover, there should be found letters written 
 in that day incidentally confirming these accounts 
 by many allusions and undesigned coincidences, — we 
 
294 LECTURE X. 
 
 should feel that historical evidence could not go far- 
 ther, and that skepticism would be preposterous. If 
 events thus attested are not to be believed, it will 
 not be for want of evidence. If they are not to be 
 believed, no ancient history can be; for there is no 
 one for which we have any thing like this amount of 
 evidence. But all this evidence we have for the facts 
 of the gospel. The fact, that the four Gospels and 
 the Acts are bound uj) together, is not to be permit- 
 ted to weaken their force as separate testimonies. 
 This is as far as historical testimony can go with 
 respect to ordinary events ; but the facts of Chris- 
 tianity are of such a character that even this may, 
 and does, receive additional confirmation. If Caesar's 
 wars had given rise to parties, and these different 
 parties had all appealed to these writings as of un- 
 doubted authority, and if, moreover, we had, at no 
 distant dav, the distinct admission of the enemies of 
 Caesar that these books were trustworthy as to mat- 
 ters of fact, then I think we can conceive of nothing 
 that could be added ; and all this we have in favor 
 of the facts of the New Testament. If we lay aside 
 all consideration of the nature of the events, and look 
 at the evidence alone, we shall see that it has all the 
 force of which historical evidence, as such, is capable. 
 
 Still I observe, fourthly, that this evidence is pow- 
 erfully confirmed by the peculiar testimony which was 
 given by their authors to the truth of these books. 
 To state one of the fundamental propositions of Paley : 
 " There is satisfactory evidence that many, professing 
 to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles, 
 passed their lives in labors, dangers, and sufferings, 
 voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts 
 
LECTURE X. 295 
 
 which they delivered, and solely in consequence of 
 their belief of those accounts ; and that they also sub- 
 mitted, from the same motives, to new rules of con- 
 duct." Into the proof that they did thus labor and 
 suffer Paley enters at large. But it is so obvious that 
 men who, in that day, should attempt to propagate an 
 exclusive religion, that was entirely opposed both to 
 Judaism and heathenism, and also to the natural pas- 
 sions and inclinations of men, would be obliged to 
 undergo labor and suffering in proportion to their sin- 
 cerity and earnestness, that it seems to me scarcely to 
 need proof. Then the idea of this is so much implied 
 in the whole narrative, and regarded as a matter of 
 course, — it is so much taken for granted in the exhor- 
 tations, and promises, and consolations, given to the 
 disciples by Christ himself, and in the letters of the 
 apostles, and it is so fully testified to by heathen 
 writers, — that I cannot think it necessary to dwell 
 upon it. If, then, these men did labor, and suffer, and 
 finally die, in attestation of the truth of their accounts, 
 then are our books confirmed in the highest possible 
 manner, and as no other historical books ever have 
 been. 
 
 It was not, however, — and here we come to one 
 of the strongest points of the Christian testimony, — it 
 was not simply those who compiled the accounts who 
 thus gave their testimony, but thousands of others ; 
 and, though their testimony is unwritten, yet it is so 
 involved in the circumstances of the case, that it comes 
 to us with no less force than if they had certified, under 
 their own hands and seals, the truth of our accounts. 
 Every Christian who, in that early age, abandoned 
 the prejudices of education, and friends, and proi>erty, 
 
296 LECTURE X. 
 
 to become a Christian, especially every one who was 
 persecuted and suffered death for the cause, gave his 
 testimony, in the most empliatic manner possible, for 
 the truth of the facts of the Gospels. Every member 
 of a church which received an Epistle of Paul, and to 
 which it was read, was a witness of its authenticity, 
 and of the truth of the facts of Christianity, which is 
 implied in all his Epistles. The great force of this 
 unwritten testimony is fully set forth by Chalmers, as 
 also the fallacy by which we are so often led to feel 
 that heathen testimony is superior in point of force to 
 that of Christians, as if the very strength of conviction 
 which would lead a man to become a Christian should 
 not also furnish the best evidence of his sincerity. It 
 would be inconsistent that a heathen should testify 
 to the truth of the religion without becoming a Chris- 
 tian, and it is surely unreasonable to make the very 
 act by which he testified, in the highest possible 
 manner, his sincerity and consistency, a reason for not 
 receiving his testimony. This testimony meets a pos- 
 sible cavil. It may be said that the eight writers of 
 the New Testament were actuated, in their labors and 
 sufferings, by a desire to be of reputation, to be the 
 founders of sects, or to preserve their consistency. 
 But no such motives can be imputed to the mass of 
 Christians in that day, each of whom did as really and 
 as impressively testify to his belief in the facts of the 
 New Testament as if he had written a book. Men 
 may have motives for being impostors, but they can 
 have none for being imposed upon, especially when 
 the imposition costs them all that men usually hold 
 dear. When, therefore, I see the apostles and their 
 associates, and especially when I see vast numbers of 
 
LECTURE X. 297 
 
 persons, in the ordinary walks of life, preferring to 
 relin(|uisli any thing, and to undergo any thing, rather 
 than to deny the truth of these facts; when I see 
 them led, one by one, or, perhaps, numb(;rs together, 
 to scourging and torture ; when I see them standing as 
 martyrs, and, in that act, as it were lifting up their 
 dying hand to heaven, and taking an oatii of their 
 sincerity, — then I know that they believed the facts 
 for which they died ; then 1 think I have found the 
 case of which Hume speaks, when he says, " We 
 cannot make use of a more convincing argument" 
 (in proof of honesty) " than to prove that the actions 
 ascribed to any persons are contrary to the course 
 of human nature, and that no human motives, in 
 such circumstances, could ever induce them to such 
 a conduct." 
 
 I observe, fifthly, that our books are worthy of credit, 
 because it can be shown that their authors were nei- 
 ther deceivers nor deceived ; and this is the only al- 
 ternative possible unless the religion is true. The 
 alternative that, unless Christ and his apostles were 
 what they claimed to be, they were either impostors or 
 dupes, was first presented by Pascal ; and since his time 
 this whole question has often been argued under it. 
 The same thing, in fact, is sometimes argued under a 
 positive form, when it is shown that the primitive 
 witnesses were both competent and honest. The only 
 questions that can be asked respecting a witness are. 
 Is he competent — that is, is he well informed? and, 
 Is he honest ? Does he know the truth, and will he 
 tell it ? and it obviously makes no difference whether 
 we show that the apostles were well informed and 
 honest, or whether we show that they were not either 
 
 38 
 
298 LECTURE X. 
 
 deceivers or deceived. In either case, the truth of the 
 relision is estabUshed. 
 
 To one branch of this alternative — that which sup- 
 poses the apostles to have been deceivers — all that 
 was said, under the last head, of their labors and suf- 
 ferings, will apply. It is not in human nature, there 
 is no example of it, for even one man to persevere, 
 through a long life, in undergoing labors and sufferings, 
 and finally to die, in attestation of what he knew to 
 be false ; much less can we suppose that twelve men, 
 yea, that hundreds and thousands, can have done this. 
 The character of Christ and of his apostles in other re- 
 spects, and the nature of the religion which he taught, 
 forbid the supposition that they were deceivers. To 
 suppose that men, teaching a morality more perfect 
 than any other ever known, and exemplifying it in 
 their conduct, living lives of great simplicity, and self- 
 denial, and benevolence, enforcing truth and honesty 
 by the most tremendous sanctions of a future life, 
 should, without any possible advantage to themselves, 
 die as martyrs in attestation of what they knew to be 
 false, is practically absurd. 
 
 Moreover, if they were deceivers, they were so by 
 combination and conspiracy. From the nature of the 
 case this must have been so, and the number acquainted 
 with the secret could not have been small. But it is 
 morally impossible, under the temptations which we 
 know assailed them from without, and in the dissen- 
 sions which, by their own confession, sprang up among 
 themselves, that such a combination of falsehood should 
 have held together. A readiness to deceive always im- 
 plies selfishness ; and, in such a company of deceivers, 
 there would have been some one to expose any iniquity 
 
LECTURE X. 299 
 
 if thcro had been aiij to expose. I omit here, what 
 I have very brielly noticed in another lecture, the gen- 
 eral air of truth and sincerity in these narratives, their 
 simplicity, their candor, their particularity, their minute 
 and life-like touches. But I do say that, in the midst 
 of all the varieties of human conduct, there are some 
 principles as settled as the laws of physical nature ; 
 and that for men to combine to propagate such a story 
 as tliis, and to devote their lives to this object, and to 
 die solely in attestation of it, when they knew it to be 
 false, is as contrary to a fixed and uniform experience 
 as any miracle can be. These men, then, could not 
 have been deceivers. 
 
 But neither, on the other hand, could they have 
 been deceived. This is evident from the nature of the 
 facts, and from their character as indicated by their 
 writings. And here we are to keep in mind the 
 distinction between testimony to facts, and infer- 
 ences, or doctrines, or opinions. The apostles cer- 
 tainly knew whether there was, or was not, such a per- 
 son as Jesus Christ ; whether he called them to be his 
 disciples ; whether he spoke the discourses they have 
 recorded ; whether multitudes followed him ; whether 
 he was crucified. Nor, if we consider the number and 
 character of his miracles, and the manner in which 
 they were performed, is it more possible they should 
 have been deceived respecting them. We read of 
 their bringing to him great multitudes of "sick folk," 
 with every variety of disease, and of his healing them 
 all ; of his giving sight to the blind, to those born 
 blind ; of his raising the dead. And all this he did 
 openly, before friends and enemies. Now, that men 
 could be deceived respecting acts of this kind, repeated 
 
300 LECTURE X. 
 
 for years, under all varieties of circumstances, capable 
 of being tested by all the senses, — that thej could, for 
 example, have failed to know that Lazarus was dead 
 when they had the evidence of it given at his tomb, 
 or that he was alive when they conversed and ate with 
 him, — is impossible. Here is nothing that can be re- 
 solved into any false perception, no mere momentary 
 effect, nor can there be any doubt whether the events, 
 if they took place, were miraculous. But not only did 
 Christ himself work miracles, — he communicated to 
 his disciples that power. They retained it long after 
 his ascension, and they could not have been deceived 
 in supposing they wrought the cures related, if they did 
 not. Either we must abandon our faith in the testi- 
 mony of the senses, or we must admit that events thus 
 tested really took place. No stretch of enthusiasm 
 could have led them to believe that they saw such 
 things if they did not see them. No enthusiasm is suf- 
 ficient to account for the belief of so many, that they 
 saw the Saviour after his resurrection, and conversed and 
 ate with him, and like Thomas, could touch his hands 
 and his side. If Christ did not rise, it is equally im- 
 possible to account, on the supposition that they were 
 deceived, for their belief that he did rise, and for the 
 fact that the body was not produced by the Jews. 
 
 But if we look into the writings of these men, we 
 see no signs of superstitious weakness, or of enthu- 
 siastic fervors. There is nothing in their character, 
 aside from their relation of miraculous events, and 
 their maintaining their testimony at all hazards, that 
 bears any marks of enthusiasm. On the contrary, 
 their writings are marked with great good sense and 
 sobriety. There are no extravagant expressions, no 
 
LECTURE X. 301 
 
 indications of excessive emotion, no high-wrought de- 
 scription, no praise, and no censure. There is a sim- 
 ])lc statement of the facts of the life of Christ, and a 
 record of his discourses. Such men could not have 
 been deceived for so long a time respecting such facts. 
 
 But, if they were neither deceivers nor deceived, 
 then the facts took place, and the religion is true. 
 
 We now come to an argument for the credibility of 
 the facts contained in our books, which never has been 
 answered, and never can be. Infidels have repeatedly 
 been challenged to answer it, but they have never 
 made the attempt. It is the argument of Leslie in his 
 " Short Method with the Deists." This argument rests 
 solely upon the peculiarity of Christian evidence, al- 
 ready mentioned, by which the truth of the religion 
 is indissolubly connected with certain matters of fact 
 which could originally be Judged of by the senses, and 
 also upon the fact that there exist in the church certain 
 ordinances commemorative of those facts. Thus the 
 truth of our religion seems to be imbodied in institu- 
 tions that now exist, and in observances that pass 
 before our eyes. The object of Leslie is to show, 
 from the nature of the case, — for here we make very 
 little reference to written testimony, — that the matters 
 of fact stated could not have been received at the time 
 unless they were true, and that the observances could 
 never have originated except in connection with the 
 facts. In showing this, he lays down four rules, and 
 asserts that any matter of fact in which these four rules 
 meet must be true, and challenges the world to show 
 any instance of any supposed matter of fact, thus au- 
 thenticated, that has ever been shown to be false. 
 
 His four rules are these : 1. " That the matter of 
 
302 LECTURE X. 
 
 fact be such as that men's outward senses, their eyes 
 and ears, may be judges of it." 2. " That it be done 
 publicly, in the face of the world." 3. " That not 
 only public monuments be kept up in memory of it, 
 but some outward actions be performed." 4. " That 
 such monuments, and such actions, or observances, be 
 instituted, and do commence from the time that the 
 matter of fact was done." 
 
 " The two first rules make it impossible for any such 
 matter of fact to be imposed upon men at the time, be- 
 cause every man's eyes, and ears, and senses, would 
 contradict it." For example, if any man should 
 affirm that all the inhabitants of tiiis city yesterday, 
 or last year, walked to Governor's Island, and returned 
 on dry ground, while the water was divided and stood 
 in heaps on each side of them, it would be impossible 
 that he should be believed, because every man, woman, 
 and child, would know better. It would be one of 
 those things respecting which the unlearned and the 
 young could judge as well as the learned and the more 
 experienced. Equally impossible is it that the children 
 of Israel, of that generation, should have believed that 
 they passed through the Red Sea, or went out and 
 gathered manna every morning, or drank water from 
 the rock, or that the law was given with the terror and 
 solemnity described in the Bible, if these things did 
 not happen. Not less impossible is it that the five thou- 
 sand should have believed they were fed by Christ ; or 
 that the relatives of Lazarus, and the Jews who 
 knew him, should have believed that he was raised 
 from the dead, or the parents and friends of the man 
 born blind, that he was made to see ; or that the 
 multitudes before whom he healed the lame, and the 
 
LECTURE X. 303 
 
 sick of every description, should have believed that 
 these events took place, if they did not. These mira- 
 cles are of such a nature, that, unless they were really 
 wrought, it is impossible they should have been be- 
 lieved at the time. 
 
 " Therefore it only remains that such matter of 
 fact might be invented some time after, when the men 
 of that generation wherein the thing was said to be 
 done are all past and gone ; and the credulity of after 
 ages might be imposed upon to beHeve that things 
 were done in former ages which were not. 
 
 " And for this the two last rules secure us as much 
 as the two first rules in the former case ; for, when- 
 ever such a matter of fact came to be invented, if 
 not only monuments were said to remain of it, but 
 likewise that public actions and observances were 
 constantly used ever since the matter of fact was said 
 to be done, the deceit must be detected by no such 
 monuments appearing, and by the experience of every 
 man, woman, and child, who must know that no such 
 actions or observances were ever used by them." 
 " For example," continues Leslie, " suppose I should 
 now invent a story of such a thing done a thousand 
 years ago ; I might perhaps get some to believe it ; 
 but if I say that not only such a thing was done, but 
 that, from that day to this, every man, at the age of 
 twelve years, had a joint of his little finger cut off; 
 and that every man in the nation did want a joint 
 of such a finger ; and that this institution was said to 
 be part of the matter of fact done so many years 
 ago, and vouched as a proof and confirmation of it, 
 and as having descended without interruption, and 
 been constantly practised, in memory of such matter 
 
/ 
 
 304 LECTURE X. 
 
 of fact, all along from the time that such matter of 
 fact was done ; — I say it is impossible I should be 
 believed in such a case, because every one could con- 
 tradict me as to the mark of cutting off the joint of 
 the linger ; and that, being a part of my original mat- 
 ter of fact, must demonstrate the whole to be false." 
 
 The case here put is not stronger than that either 
 of the books of Moses, or of the New Testament. 
 For, at whatever time it might have been attempted 
 to impose the books of Moses upon a subsequent 
 age, it would have been impossible, because they 
 contain the laws and civil and ecclesiastical regula- 
 tions of the Jews, which the books affirm were adopt- 
 ed at the time of Moses, and were constantly in force 
 from that time ; and because they contain an account 
 of the institution of the passover, which they assert to 
 have been observed in consequence of a particular fact. 
 If, then, a book had been put forth at a particular 
 time, stating that the Jews had obeyed certain very 
 peculiar laws, and had a certain priesthood, and had 
 observed the passover from the time of Moses, while 
 they had never heard of these laws, or of this priest- 
 hood, or of a passover, it is impossible the book should 
 have been received. Nothine: could have saved such 
 a book from scorn or utter neglect. 
 
 But what the Levitical law, and the priesthood, 
 and the passover, were to the Jews, baptism, and 
 the Christian ministry, and the Lord's supper, are to 
 Christians. It is a part of the records of the Gospels 
 that these were instituted by Christ ; that they were 
 commanded by him to be continued till the end of 
 time, and were actually continued and observed at the 
 time when the Gospels purport to have been written — 
 
LECTURE X. 305 
 
 that is, before the destruction of Jerusalem. But if 
 these hooks were fictions invented after the time of 
 Christ, there would have been at that time no Cinis- 
 tian baptism, nor order of Christian ministers, nor 
 sacrament of the supper, thus derived from his ap- 
 j)ointment ; and that, alone, would have demonstrated 
 the whole to be false. Our books suppose these in- 
 stitutions to exist; they give an account of them; and 
 it is impossible they should have been received where 
 they did not exist. It is, therefore, impossible tliat 
 these books should have been received at the time 
 the facts are said to have taken place, or at any sub- 
 sequent time, unless those facts really did take place. 
 We now regard the sacrament of the supper as an 
 essential part of the religion ; it was so regarded by 
 our fathers ; nor can we conceive that it should have 
 been otherwise up to the very time when the religion 
 was founded. Thus we have a visible sign and pledge 
 of the truth of our religion, handed down, independ- 
 ently of written testimony, from age to age ; and the 
 force of which, age has no tendency to diminish. 
 
 Perhaps we do not sufficiently dwell on the great 
 strength which the Christian evidences derive from 
 this proof, or notice the contrast it makes between 
 the evidence for the facts of Christianity and those 
 of ordinary history. Not only is it impossible to point 
 out any statement of fact, substantiated by these four 
 marks, that can be shown to be false, but none of the 
 best authenticated facts of ancient history have them 
 all. The fourth of July, as observed by us, may illus- 
 trate the effects of such commemorative ordinances 
 as guarding against false historical accounts. For any 
 
 man to have invented the New Testament after the 
 
 3a 
 
306 LECTURE X. 
 
 time of Christ, and to have attempted to cause it to 
 be received, vv^ould have been as if a man had written 
 an account of the Revolution, and of the celebration 
 of this day from the first, when no revolution was 
 ever heard of, and no one ever celebrated the fourth 
 of July. Nor, when such a festival was once estab- 
 lished, would it be possible to introduce any account of 
 its origin essentially different from the true one. But 
 the case of the Christian religion is much stronger ; 
 because we have several different institutions which 
 must have sprung up at its origin ; because baptism 
 and the Lord's supper have occurred so much more 
 frequently ; and because the latter has always been 
 considered the chief rite of a religion to which men 
 have been more attached than to liberty or to life. 
 
 Thus I have brought into close juxtaposition these 
 two great arguments. We have seen that it was 
 impossible that the apostles should have been either 
 deceivers or deceived ; and that the books could not 
 have been received, either at the time they purport 
 to have been written, or at any subsequent time, 
 if the facts recorded had not taken place. 
 
 But again ; our books are credible because there are 
 no others. That such a movement as Christianity must 
 have been, involving the origin of so many new institu- 
 tions, and such ecclesiastical and social changes, should 
 have originated at such a time, and in such a place, and 
 that no written documents should have been drawn forth 
 by it, is incredible. And that the true account should 
 have perished, leaving not a vestige behind it, and that 
 false ones, and such as these, should have been substi- 
 tuted, is impossible. Of the origin of such institutions 
 we should expect some account. That of our books is 
 
LECTURE X. 307 
 
 adequate and satisfactory. Thcere is nothing contradic- 
 tory to it, for even spurious \^ ritings confirm the truth 
 of our books, and there is no vestige of any other. 
 
 I will only add, in this general department of evi- 
 dence, that our books are credible because they contain 
 accounts of such miracles. In the second lecture, I 
 spoke of miracles as the proper and only adequate seal 
 of a message from God, and also noticed the peculiar 
 import of those words of Nicodemus, " We know that 
 no man can do these miracles that thou doest except 
 God be with him," in which it seems to be implied 
 that the character of the miracle, as well as the mere 
 fact that a miracle was Avrought, may have something 
 to do w ith the weight and bearing of its evidence. I 
 have recently met with a passage, in " The Process of 
 Historical Proof," by Isaac Taylor, in which, from a 
 comparison of the Christian miracles with the prodigies 
 to which impostors have made pretension, he asserts 
 that they so bear the stamp of divinity upon them 
 as to stand in no need of external proof. Perhaps 
 this is too strongly stated, but the thought is one de- 
 serving of attention. " Whoever," says he, " is duly 
 informed of the state of mankind in ancient times, and 
 is aware of the invariable character of the preter- 
 natural events or prodigies which were talked of 
 among the Greeks, Romans, and Asiatics, (the Jews 
 excepted, whose notions were derived from another 
 source,) must allow that the miracles recorded to have 
 been performed by Christ and his apostles differ 
 totally from all such portents and prodigies. The 
 beneficent restorations which followed the word or the 
 touch of Him who came, not to destroy life, but to 
 save, were, if the expression may be allowed, per- 
 
308 LECTURE X. 
 
 fectly in the style of the Creator : they held forth such 
 exhibitions of an absolute control over the material 
 world as were most significant of the power of the 
 doctrine to restore health to the soul. If the idea of 
 the morality taught by Christ was absolutely new, so 
 likewise was the idea of the miracles performed by him 
 to enforce it." ... . 
 
 " Were there room to doubt what is the character 
 of the native imagination of enthusiasts — of fanatics 
 
 — of interested priests — when they have devised the 
 means of giving credit to their fraudulent usurpations 
 over the consciences of their fellows, we might read 
 the history of superstition in ancient Egypt, India, or 
 Greece ; or, if that were not enough, we might turn to 
 the history of those ' lying wonders,' upon which the 
 ministers of the Romish religion in modern times have 
 rested their pretensions." A missionary from India 
 informs me, that the traditionary miracles of that 
 country, at the present time, are generally connected 
 with stories the most whimsical and absurd ; that they 
 were wrought to establish no principle, and not unfre- 
 quently for the purposes of cruelty and lust. 
 
 " The gospel miracles stand out, therefore, from the 
 uniform history of false religions, just as the gospel 
 morality stands out from the history of all other ethi- 
 cal systems. They alone are worthy of the Creator, 
 
 — and that alone is worthy of the Supreme Lawgiver. 
 Instead, then, of admitting that stronger evidence is 
 necessary, to attest the extraordinary facts recorded in 
 the New Testament, than is deemed sufficient in the 
 common path of history, we assert their intrinsic in- 
 dependence of external proof; and we affirm that no 
 sound and well-informed mind could fail to attribute 
 
LECTURE X. 300 
 
 them to the Divine Agent, even though all historical 
 evidence were absent. Nothing is so reasonable as to 
 believe that the miracles and discourses of Jesus were 
 from God, — nothing so absurd as to suppose them to 
 have been of men." 
 
 Here, then, we have five authentic histories — four, of 
 the same events — written by four different persons, 
 who were themselves eye-witnesses, or had the best 
 means of knowing what they relate. We have original 
 letters, written at the time, both to bodies of men, and 
 to individuals, containing a great variety of indirect, and 
 therefore of the very strongest, testimony. We find 
 the books bearing every mark of honesty. We find 
 the facts of such a nature that the witnesses could not 
 have been deceived, and we find them lavins; down 
 their lives to testify that they did not deceive others. 
 We find institutions now existing, and rites observed, 
 which hold such a relation to the facts of Christianity, 
 as given in the books, that the books must be true. 
 We find, moreover, no other account, nor the vestige of 
 any, of the greatest revolution the w^orld has ever 
 known, while our accounts are in all respects simple, 
 and natural, and perfectly satisfactory, assigning only 
 adequate causes for effects which we know were pro- 
 duced ; and, finally, we find in these books the only 
 account of miracles that are worthy of God. Can 
 any man then refuse to believe facts thus substantiated, 
 and yet receive evidence for any past event ? Can he 
 do it, and pretend he is not governed by other con- 
 siderations than those of evidence ? 
 
 And here I might pause ; but I am to present the 
 evidence, and there is still another department on 
 
310 LECTURE X. 
 
 which I have not touched. All the evidence hitherto 
 adduced has been drawn from our own books, or from 
 the nature of the case. Let us now turn to that 
 which we may derive from heathen writers, and from 
 other sources. This evidence must be noticed, because 
 there are those who attach to it a peculiar value. 
 There are those who give a weight to the testimony 
 of Tacitus the heathen, which they would not have 
 given to that of Tacitus the Christian. This is unrea- 
 sonable ; because, if Tacitus had become a Christian, it 
 would, under the circumstances, have implied both sin- 
 cerity and more accurate knowledge. The very fact of 
 becoming a Christian would have been, on his part, as 
 it was on the part of every converted heathen, the most 
 striking testimony he could have given of his belief in 
 the facts of Christianity. Still, there are those who will 
 not detach the idea of partisanship from the belief and 
 maintenance of any great truth, and who look upon 
 Christian testimony, as such, with suspicion. While, 
 therefore, we say that they suffer the very circumstance, 
 that ought to give this evidence weight, to impair its 
 force, yet, for their sakes, as well as for its intrinsic 
 value, the evidence from other sources must be given. 
 And here, again, as at other points, the evidence of 
 Christianity shines with a peculiar lustre. It may, in- 
 deed, almost be said that our books are credible from the 
 very time and place of their origin. " Few persons," 
 says the forcible writer whom I last quoted, "few per- 
 sons, perhaps, give due attention to the relative position 
 of the Christian history, which stands upon the very 
 point of intersection where three distinct lines of his- 
 tory meet — namely, the Jewish, the Grecian, and 
 the Roman. These three bodies of ancient literature, 
 
LECTURE X. 311 
 
 alone, have descended, by an unintcrrupied channel 
 of transmission, to modern times ; and these three, by 
 a most extraordinary combination of circumstances, 
 were brought together to elucidate the origination of 
 Christianity. If upon the ])road field of history there 
 rests the common light of day, upon that spot where a 
 new religion was given to man there shines the inten- 
 sity of a concentrated brightness." The Jews had 
 their own literature ; they had lieen formerly conquered 
 by the Greeks, and the Greek language was in com- 
 mon use ; they were also a Roman province, and 
 " during more than a century, in the centre of which 
 stands the ministry of Christ, the affairs of Syria 
 attracted the peculiar attention of the Roman govern- 
 ment." "No other peo])le of antiquity can be named, 
 upon whose history and sentiments there falls this 
 triple flood of historic light ; and upon no period in the 
 history of this one people do these triple rays so pre- 
 cisely meet, as upon the moment when the voice of 
 one was heard in the wilderness of Jordan, saying, 
 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord.'"* Well, then, 
 might an apostle say, " These things were not done 
 in a corner." The time is not run back, like that of 
 Indian legends, to obscure and fabulous ages ; nor is 
 it in what are called the dark ages of more modern 
 times. It was a civilized and enlightened age — a 
 classic age — an age of poets, philosophers, and his- 
 torians. Nor was it in Mecca, a citv little known or 
 visited by the civilized world, and where the people 
 and language were homogeneous, that Christ arose. 
 It was in Jerusalem, in Asia Minor, — the theatre of 
 
 * Process of Historical Proo£ 
 
312 LECTURE X. 
 
 history from the first, — and from the bosom of a peo- 
 ple with all whose rites and usages we are perfectly 
 acquainted. It was, perhaps, the only place on earth 
 in which a Roman governor would have called the 
 three lans-uages which contain the literature of ancient 
 civilization into requisition, to proclaim at once the 
 accusation and the true character of Christ. " And 
 Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the 
 writing was — Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the 
 Jews. And it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and 
 Latin.^'' 
 
 Here, then, was a mixed population, with different 
 prejudices and interests, speaking different languages, 
 for that day a reading population, in a city to which 
 not only the Jews dwelling in Palestine, but those 
 from distant countries, and proselytes, came up yearly 
 as the centre and seat of the only pure worship of God 
 on earth. And was this the place to select for the 
 production of forged writings ? or for an imposture ot 
 any kind to gather a force that should carry it over the 
 earth ? 
 
 I have already spoken of the opportunity furnished 
 by the number and variety of the Christian witnesses 
 for a most searching cross-examination, and we have 
 seen how triumphantly they come out from such an 
 ordeal. And here again they are brought to a test 
 scarcely less trying. The contemporary writers, Jewish 
 and heathen, in the three languages mentioned, are 
 numerous ; and whatever, in any of them, throws light 
 on the manners, or habits, or sects, or forms of govern- 
 ment, or general condition, of the inhabitants of Pales- 
 tine and the surrounding countries, will enable us to 
 put to a most decisive test those who describe with 
 
LECTURE X. 313 
 
 any minuteness important events passing upon such 
 a scene. 
 
 Of Hebrew literature, then, we have the Tahnuds, 
 collections of Jewish traditions, the compilation of 
 which was commenced as early as the second century. 
 They speak of Christ, and of several of the disciples, 
 by name. They speak also of his crucifixion. They 
 admit, also, that he performed many and great miracles, 
 but impute his power to his having learned the right 
 pronunciation of the ineffable name of God, which, 
 they say, he stole out of the Temple, or to the magic 
 arts which he learned in Egypt. These writings are 
 specific in their statements respecting the destruction 
 of Jerusalem, and throw much light on the sects and 
 customs of the Jews.* 
 
 Of Greek writers, we cite first Josephus, who, though 
 he was a Jew by birth, and a Roman by association 
 and habits, yet wrote in Greek — which, together with 
 the fact that the books of the New Testament were 
 most, if not all of them, written in the same language, 
 shows how extensively it was used in those days. 
 Josephus lived at the time many of these events are 
 said to have happened, and was present at the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem. In him, therefore, we have the 
 most ample means of ascertaining every thing relating 
 to Jewish sects, and customs, and opinions, and of 
 testing the accuracy of our books respecting many 
 dates and names of persons and places. 
 
 And, on all hands, it is agreed that, so far as Jose- 
 phus goes, he confirms in every thing the accuracy of 
 our books. Every thing said in relation to the sects 
 
 * See Home. 
 4D 
 
314 LECTURE X. 
 
 of the Jews, and the Herods, and Pilate, and the di- 
 vision of provinces, and Felix, and Diusilla, and Ber- 
 nice, and John the Baptist, has just that agreement 
 with our accounts which we should expect in inde- 
 pendent historians. The account given by Josephus 
 of the death of Herod is strikingly similar to that of 
 Luke. The account by Luke you will remember. 
 Josephus says that Herod came into the theatre early 
 in the morning, dressed in a robe or garment made 
 wholly of silver, and that the reflection of the rays of 
 the rising sun from the silver gave him a majestic and 
 awful appearance, and that in a short time his flatter- 
 ers exclaimed, one from one place and another from 
 another, though not for his good, that he was a god, 
 and they entreated him to be propitious to them. He 
 then adds, "Immediately after, he was seized with 
 pain in his bowels, extremely violent, and was carried 
 to the palace." Luke gives the cause of the pain, 
 saying he was eaten of worms. Do we find in the 
 New Testament the Jews calling upon Pilate to cruci- 
 fy Jesus, and saying. We have no power to put any 
 man to death ? Josephus says that they had the free 
 exercise of their religion, and the power of accusing 
 and prosecuting, but not of putting any man to death. 
 Do we find the Roman captain, when Paul was ar- 
 rested, asking, " Art not thou that Egyptian, which 
 before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out 
 into the wilderness four thousand men that were mur- 
 derers ? " We find in Josephus a full account of the 
 transaction, which happened under the government of 
 Felix, and, what is remarkable, Josephus does not 
 mention his name, but every where calls him " the 
 Egyptian," and " the Egyptian false prophet." Do 
 
LECTURE X. 315 
 
 our books speak of Pharisees, and Sadducees, and 
 Herodians? Josephus confirms all that is said of 
 these in the minutest particulars. Does Luke speak 
 of soldiers who went to John the Baptist, using a word 
 (fSToattvofievoL) which indicates that they were then 
 under arms and marching to battle ? Josephus tells us 
 that Herod was then at war with Antipas, his father- 
 in-law, and that a body of soldiers was at that very 
 time marching through the region where John was. 
 Does Luke speak of Herod as reproved by John for 
 Herodias, his brother Philip's wife ? Josephus tells us 
 it was on her account that Herod had sent back his 
 wife, and that the war was undertaken. Does Paul 
 say of Ananias, when reproached for reviling God's 
 high priest, " I wist not, brethren, that he was the high 
 priest"? We find, from Josephus, that Ananias had 
 been deposed, and his successor murdered, and that in 
 the interim, when there really was no high priest, 
 Ananias had usurped the place. Does Luke speak of 
 a body of soldiers stationed at Caesarea, called the 
 Augustan band? Josephus says, that though that 
 garrison was chiefly composed of Syrian soldiers, yet 
 that there was a small body of Roman soldiers sta- 
 tioned there, called by this title, and he applies to them 
 the very Greek term used by Luke. So minute and 
 perfect are these coincidences, that no one can resist 
 the conviction that the WTiters of our books lived and 
 acted in the scenes which they relate. 
 
 But it is said that Josephus is silent respecting Christ 
 and Christianity. This is not true, if we admit as 
 authentic a passage which is found in all the manu- 
 scripts, and which has strong external testimony. 
 The following is the passage : " Now there was, about 
 
316 LECTURE X. 
 
 this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call 
 him a man ; for he performed many wonderful works. 
 He was a teacher of such men as received the truth 
 with pleasure. He drew over to him many of the 
 Jews, and also of the Gentiles. This was the Christ. 
 And when Pilate, at the instigation of the principal 
 men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those 
 who had loved him from the first did not cease to ad- 
 here to him. For he appeared to them alive again on 
 the third day ; the divine prophets having foretold 
 these and ten thousand other wonderful things con- 
 cerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named 
 from him, subsists to this time."* He says in another 
 place, and subsequently, "Ananias assembled the 
 Jewish Sanhedrim, and brought before it James, the 
 brother of Jesus, who is called Christ, with some 
 others, whom he delivered over to be stoned as in- 
 fractors of the law." The authenticity of these pas- 
 sages has been controverted. But, if we suppose 
 Josephus silent, then it is certain, from Tacitus, that 
 his silence was not from ignorance, and, inasmuch as 
 he continued a Jew, it thus becomes an indirect testi- 
 mony. He could not say any thing to contradict our 
 books. He says nothing different from our historians; 
 he brings no charge of falsehood against them. He 
 confirms them in all incidental points. 
 
 But, again ; does Luke speak of the Athenians as 
 spending their time in hearing and telling some new 
 thing ? We find Demosthenes, long before, inquiring 
 of them whether it was their sole ambition to wander 
 through the public places, each inquiring of the other, 
 
 * For a vindication of the genuineness of this passage, see the re- 
 cent edition of Home, vol. i. p. 463. 
 
LECTURE X. 317 
 
 " Wliat news ? " Does Paul speak of the Cretans as 
 liars ? We find that to " Cretize " was a proverbial 
 expression, among the ancients, for lying. 
 
 Before citing two celebrated Latin authors, I will 
 say a word of the testimony of Pilate. It appears 
 that the Roman governors sent to the emperors an ac- 
 count of remarkable transactions which took place in 
 their provinces, and these accounts were preserved as 
 the acts of that government. Eusebius, speaking of 
 this custom, says, " Our Saviour's resurrection being 
 much ta^ed of throughout Palestine, Pilate informed 
 the emperor of it." These accounts were never pub- 
 lished ; but Justin Martyr, in his first Apology, present- 
 ed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius and to the senate 
 of Rome, only about one hundred years after the death 
 of Christ, having mentioned the crucifixion, and some 
 of the attending circumstances, adds, " And that these 
 things were so done, you may know from the Acts made 
 in the time of Pontius Pilate." And again, speaking 
 of the miracles of Christ, he refers in the same words 
 to these Acts of Pilate. Tertullian also speaks ex- 
 pressly of them, and states some things they contained. 
 If such Acts had not existed, it would have been mere 
 foolhardiness in Justin to refer to them when writing 
 to the very person in whose hands they were ; and if 
 they did exist, how perfect the evidence ! * 
 
 But I pass to Tacitus, whose testimony even Gib- 
 bon admits must be received. In connection with an 
 account of the burning of Rome, in the tenth year of 
 Nero, which was imputed by Nero to the Christians, 
 he tells us that Christ was put to death by Pontius 
 
 * Home, to whom, and Paley, I have chiefly referred in tliis part of 
 tiie lecture. 
 
318 LECTURE X. 
 
 Pilate, who was the procurator under Tiberius, as a 
 malefactor; that the people called Christians derived 
 their name from him; that this superstition arose in 
 Judea, and spread to Rome, where at that time, only 
 about thirty years after the death of Christ, the Chris- 
 tians were very numerous. The words of Tacitus, in 
 speaking of them, are, " ingens multitudo,^^ a great 
 multitude. It is obvious, also, from the account of 
 Tacitus, that the Christians were subjected to contempt 
 and the most dreadful sufferings. " Their executions," 
 says he, " were so contrived as to expose th»m to de- 
 rision and contempt. Some were covered over with 
 the skins of wild beasts, that they might be torn to 
 pieces by dogs ; some were crucified ; while others, be- 
 ing daubed over with combustible materials, were set 
 up as lights in the night-time, and were thus burnt to 
 death." This account is confirmed by Suetonius, and 
 by Martial, and Juvenal. In his first satire, Juvenal 
 has the following allusion, which I give as translated 
 by Mr. Gifford : — 
 
 " Now dare 
 To glance at Tigellinus, and you glare 
 In that pitched shirt in which such crowds expire, 
 Chained to the bloody stake, and wrapped in fire." 
 
 This testimony of Tacitus, confirmed as it is, is per- 
 fectly conclusive respecting the time and the main 
 facts of the origin of Christianity. 
 
 It would here be in place to quote the whole of the 
 celebrated letter of Pliny to Trajan, and the reply ; 
 but as these are so well known, I will simply give two 
 brief passages, one respecting the character, and the 
 other the numbers, of the Christians. Pliny was pro- 
 praetor of Pontus and Bithynia, a part of Asia remote 
 
LECTURE X. 319 
 
 from Judea, and the letter was written but a little 
 more than seventy years after the death of Christ. 
 "They affirmed," says he, — that is, those who said 
 they had once been Christians, but were not then, — 
 " that the whole of their fault, or error, lay in this, 
 that they were wont to meet together on a stated day 
 before it was light, and sing among themselves, alter- 
 nately, a hymn to Christ, as God, and bind themselves, 
 by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, 
 but not to be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery, 
 never to falsify their ^^'ord, nor to deny a pledge»com- 
 mitted to them when called upon to return it. When 
 these things were performed, it was their custom to 
 separate, and then to come together again to a meal, 
 which they ate in common without any disorder." 
 This account seemed so extraordinary to Pliny, that 
 he applied torture to two women, but discovered noth- 
 ing more. 
 
 The passage in regard to numbers is — " Suspend- 
 ing, therefore, all judicial proceedings, I have recourse 
 to you for advice ; for it has appeared to me a matter 
 highly deserving consideration, especially on account 
 of the great number of persons who are in danger of 
 suffering ; for many of all ages and every rank, of 
 both sexes likewise, are accused, and will be accused. 
 Nor has the contagion of this superstition seized cities 
 only, but the lesser towns also, and the open country." 
 Here we find the testimony given in our books of the 
 progress of the religion fully confirmed. Pontus and 
 Bithynia were remote provinces, and it does not ap- 
 pear that the Christian religion had spread more 
 rapidly there than elsewhere. How strong must 
 have been that primitive evidence for Christianity 
 
320 LECTURE X. 
 
 which could induce these persons, persons of good 
 sense, in every walk of life, to abandon the religion 
 of their ancestors, and thus, in the face of imperial 
 power, to persist in their adherence to one who had 
 suffered the death of a slave ! 
 
 We might also refer to Celsus, and Lucian, and 
 Epictetus, and the Emperor Marcus Antoninus, and 
 Galen, and Porphyry, — who all throw light on the 
 early history of Christianity, and all confirm, so far 
 as they go, the accounts of our books. 
 
 There is a single species of evidence more, that I 
 will just mention — that which is derived from an- 
 cient coins, medals, and inscriptions. The most 
 striking of these relate to the credibility of the Old 
 Testament ; still, valuable confirmation to the New 
 is not wanting, and I mention it because it shows 
 how every possible line of evidence converges on this 
 point. 
 
 Luke gives to Sergius Paulus a title belonging only 
 to a man of proconsular dignity, and it had been 
 doubted whether the governor of Cyprus had that 
 dignity. A coin, however, has been found, struck in 
 the reign of Claudius Caesar, (the very reign in which 
 Paul visited Cyprus,) and under Proclus, who succeeded 
 Sergius Paulus, on which the very title applied by 
 Luke is given to Proclus. Luke speaks of Philippi 
 as a colony, and the word implies that it was a Ro- 
 man colony. It was mentioned as such by no other 
 historian, and hence the authority of Luke was 
 questioned. But a medal has been discovered which 
 shows that this dignity was conferred upon that city 
 by Julius Caesar. It is implied, in the nineteenth of 
 
LECTURE X. 321 
 
 Acts, that there was great zeal at Ephesus for the 
 worship of Diana ; and a long inscription has been 
 fonnd there, by which it i*pears that, at one time, 
 a whole month was set apart to games and festivals 
 in honor of her. 
 
 There have also been found, in the catacombs at 
 Rome, inscrij)tions which show, in a touching man- 
 ner, in opposition to the insinuations of Gibbon and 
 of some later writers, the cruelty of the early per- 
 secutions, and the number of those who suffered 
 martyrdom.* Much evidence of this kii^ might be 
 added. 
 
 Thus have we every conceivable species of his- 
 torical proof, both external and internal. Thus do 
 the very stones cry out. And, my hearers, if there 
 may be such a thing as a weak and obstinate cre- 
 dulity, may there not also be such a thing as a 
 skepticism equally w?&k and obstinate ? 
 
 * Wiseman's Lectures. 
 41 
 
LECTURE XI. 
 
 PROPHECY. — NATURE OF THIS EVIDENCE. — THE GENERAL 
 OBJECT OF PROPHECY. — THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. 
 
 The sul^ect of propfiecy, upon which we now 
 enter, is a great subject. It involves many questions 
 of difficulty, and of deep and increasing interest ; and 
 I find myself embarrassed in the attempt to say any 
 thing respecting it in a single lecture, 
 i The term 'prophet' meant, originally, one who spoke 
 the words of God, not necessaril3^mplying that he fore- 
 told future events ; but, when I speak of prophecy as 
 an evidence of revealed religion, I mean by it a fore- 
 telling of future events so contingent that they could 
 not be foreseen by human sagacity, and so numerous 
 and particular that they could not be produced by 
 chance. To foretell such events, and bring them to 
 pass, is among the most striking of all possible mani- 
 festations of the omniscience and omnipotence of God. 
 "To declare a thing shall come to be, long before it is 
 in being," says Justin Martyr, " and then to bring 
 about that very thing according to the same declara- 
 tion — this, or nothing, is the work of God." Hume was 
 fully aware of the force of this kind of evidence, and 
 justly, though for an obvious reason, classed prophecies 
 with miracles, as furnishing proof of a revelation from 
 
LECTURE XI. 323 
 
 God. Indeed, a propliecy fulfilled before our eves is 
 a standing miracle. Let it once be made out that a 
 religion is sustained by genuine prophecies, and I see 
 not how it is possible that evidence should be more 
 complete or satisfactory. 
 
 In claiming prophecy as a ground of evidence, 
 Christianity again stands entirely by itself. Miracles 
 and prophecy — those two grand pillars of Christian 
 evidence — are neither of them even claimed by Mo- 
 hammedanism, and are neither of them the ground on 
 which it has been attempted to introduce any other 
 religion. Impostors have pretended, and still do, to 
 •work miracles in support of systems of paganism and 
 of su})erstition already established ; and, in the same 
 way, juggling oracles have been uttered, which seem 
 to have resembled modern fortune-tellinir far more 
 than Scripture prophecy. Indeed, the contrast is 
 not greater between the Christian miracles and the 
 ridiculous prodigies of paganism, than it is between 
 the prophecies of the Scriptures and the heathen 
 oracles. Those oracles were given for purposes of 
 gain, on special application, to gratify curiosity, or to 
 subserve the purposes of ambition, political or mili- 
 tary ; all the circumstances under which they were 
 given favored imposture, and the responses were gen- 
 erally so ambiguous, that they would apply to either 
 alternative. " Thus when Croesus consulted the ora- 
 cle at Delphi, relative to his intended war against 
 the Persians, he was told that he would destroy a 
 great empire. This he naturally interpreted of his 
 overcoming the Persians, though the oracle was so 
 framed as to admit of an opposite meaning. Croesus 
 made war against the Persians, and was ruined, and 
 
324 LECTURE XI. 
 
 the oracle continued to maintain its credit."* But the 
 prophecies of the Scriptures were generally uttered on 
 no solicitation, and never for a selfish end. They relate 
 sometimes to individuals and sometimes to nations, 
 and present us with a comprehensive view of the king- 
 dom of God in its rise and progress, and of those 
 events most intimately associated with it till the end 
 of time. They are one great and harmonious system, 
 not one of which can be shown to have failed, com- 
 mencing in the garden of Eden, uttered by persons of 
 the greatest variety of character, and extending over 
 the space of four thousand years. A system of decep- 
 tion like this could have been undertaken from no 
 conceivable motive, and could have been executed by 
 no human power. 
 
 This is a species of evidence which invests the 
 Christian religion, and especially the coming of Christ, 
 with a peculiar grandeur. As his coming is the great 
 event to which the Christian world must always look 
 back, so prophecy makes it the great event to which 
 the ancient church constantly looked forward. It makes 
 him the centre of the system, the great orb of moral 
 day; and prophets and holy men of old it makes but 
 as the stars and constellations that preceded and 
 heralded the brightness of his coming. 
 
 The evidence of prophecy is also constantly grow- 
 ing. This results, not from the nature of prophecy, in 
 itself considered, but from the number and nature of 
 those unfulfilled prophecies of which there are so many, 
 both in the Old and in the New Testament. If proph- 
 ecy has laid down a map of time till the end, then 
 
 Home. 
 
LECTURE XI. 325 
 
 the evidences from it must be more full as the scroll of 
 Divine Providence is unrolled, and is found to corre- 
 spond with this map. It has even been said that this 
 increasing evidence of prophecy was intended to act 
 as a compensation for the decreasing evidence of mira- 
 cles ; but 1 admit of no such decrease in the evidence 
 for miracles. We may be as certain that miracles 
 were wrought as those were who saw them; Just as we 
 may be as certain that Jerusalem was besieged and 
 taken as those were who saw it; but, in ])oth cases, 
 according to a common law in respect to distance in 
 space and time, the impression upon our minds will be 
 less lively than if it had been produced by the evidence 
 of the senses, or from a near proximity in time or 
 space. We might be as certain of the fact, if tlicre 
 had been an earthquake in China, as if one had swal- 
 lowed up New Orleans or New York ; but how much 
 less lively would be our impressions in one case than 
 in the other ! It was a doctrine of Hume, that belief 
 consists in liveliness of ideas, and this doctrine of a 
 decreasino; evidence for miracles seems to have resulted 
 from confounding these two. 
 
 The evidence from prophecy, being thus conclusive, 
 peculiar, grand, and growing, cannot be omitted; 
 though, if we look at Christianity as merely requiring 
 a logical proof, it is not needed. But the minds 
 of men are differently constituted. Some are more 
 struck with one species of evidence, and some with 
 another; and it seems to have been the intention of 
 God that his revelation should not be without any 
 kind of proof that could be reasonably demanded, 
 nor without proof adapted to every mind. To my 
 mind, the argument from the internal evidence is 
 
326 LECTURE XL 
 
 conclusive ; so is that from testimony ; and here is 
 another, perhaps not less so even now, and which is 
 destined to become overwhelming. These are inde- 
 pendent of each other. They are like separate nets, 
 which God has commanded those who would be " fish- 
 ers of men" to stretch across the stream — that stream 
 which leads to the Dead Sea of infidelity — so that if 
 any evade the first, they may be taken by the second ; 
 or, if they can possibly pass the second, that they may 
 not escape the third. 
 
 This evidence, so striking and peculiar, it has gen- 
 erally been supposed it was the object of prophecy to 
 give. That this was one object I cannot doubt. It 
 may even have been the sole object of some particular 
 prophecies, as when Christ said to his disciples, re- 
 specting the treachery of Judas, " Now I have told 
 you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, 
 ye might believe." But, important as this object is, 
 it seems to me to be only incidental. Prophecy 
 seems, like the sinlessness of Christ, to enter neces- 
 sarily into the system — to be a part, not only of the 
 evidence of the system, but of the system itself. 1 
 speak not now of this or that particular prophecy ; 
 but I say that the prophetic element causes the whole 
 system to have a different relation to the human mind, 
 and makes it quite another thing as a means of moral 
 culture and discipline. It is one thing for the soldier 
 to march without any knowledge of the places through 
 which he is to pass, or of that to which he is going, or 
 of the object of the campaign ; and it is quite another 
 for him to have, not a map, perhaps, but a sketch 
 of the intended route, with the principal cities through 
 which he is to pass dotted down, and to know what is 
 
LECTURE XI. 327 
 
 intended to be the termination and the final object of the 
 campaign. It is evident that in the one case a vastly 
 wider range of sympathies will be called into action 
 than in the other. In the latter case, the soldiers can 
 cooperate far more intelligently with their commander- 
 in-chief; they will feel very differently as they arrive 
 at designated points, and far higher will be their en- 
 thusiasm as they approach the end of their march, and 
 the hour of the final conflict draws on. And this is 
 the relation in which God has placed us, by the pro- 
 phetic element in revelation, to his great plans and 
 pur[)oses. He has provided that there shall be jnjt 
 into the hands of every soldier a sketch of the route 
 which the church militant is to pursue in following the 
 Captain of her salvation ; and this sketch is continued 
 all the way, till we see the bannered host ])assing 
 through those triumphal arches where the everlasting 
 doors have been lifted up for their entrance into the 
 Jerusalem above. This is not merely to gratify curi- 
 osity ; it is not merely to give an evidence w hich 
 becomes completed only when it is no longer needed ; 
 but it is to furnish objects to faith and affection, and 
 motives to effort, and to put the mind of man in that 
 relation to the great plan of God which properly be- 
 longs to those whom he calls his children and his 
 friends. 
 
 Objection has been made to the obscurity of the 
 prophecies. This objection cannot lie against them as 
 indicatino; the general course of events, and thus ac- 
 com])lishing the great end for w^iich 1 suppose they 
 were given. Nor can it lie against some of the par- 
 ticular prophecies, for nothing can be more direct and 
 explicit. Others, however, are obscure. The revela- 
 
328 LECTURE XI. 
 
 tions were made by symbols which are subject to their 
 own laws of interpretation, and the meaning of which 
 the prophets themselves did not always understand. 
 But it is through this very obscurity, in the exact de- 
 gree in which it exists, that many of these prophecies 
 furnish the highest possible evidence of their genuine- 
 ness. If the object had been to furnish the very best 
 evidence that certain prophecies were inspired, it could 
 have been done only by investing them with such a 
 degree of obscurity that the events could not have 
 been certainly recognized before their fulfilment, and 
 yet by making them so clear that they could not be 
 mistaken afterwards. And this is precisely the princi- 
 ple on which many of the prophecies are constructed. 
 Ijooked at in this point of view, they show a divine 
 skill. If a prophecy had the plainness of a narration, 
 it might be plausibly said that it was the cause of its 
 own fulfilment. Individuals wishing it to be fulfilled 
 might accommodate themselves to the prophecy, or, as 
 has been done in one famous instance,* they might en- 
 deavor to prevent the fulfilment. How eagerly this 
 objection would have been seized on may be seen from 
 the fact that Bolingbroke says, even now, that Christ 
 did bring on his own death wilfully, that his disciples 
 might boast that the prophecies were fulfilled in him. 
 But when prophecy, while it spans, as with a luminous 
 arch, the whole canopy of time, and reveals some events 
 with perfect distinctness, yet so far shrouds others as 
 to show only their general form, while it so far reveals 
 them that they cannot be mistaken when they stand 
 in the light of actual fulfilment, then we see the cer^ 
 
 * That of Julian. 
 
LECTURE XI. 329 
 
 tain signature of a divine hand ; we have the very 
 best evidence that the prophecy is from God. 
 
 Perhaps I ought to say a word on another point. 
 Much has been said of the connection between the 
 Old and the New Testament. To some it has seemed 
 that the Old Testament was only a dead weight, and 
 that Christianity would move on triumphantly if it 
 were once fairly cut loose from this. Its morality has 
 seemed to them barbarous, and its narrations improba- 
 ble. They would not, perhaps, say positively that 
 those events never did take place, but they greatly 
 doubt whether they did, and they talk of " those old 
 myths. '^'' But I have no fears that the Old Testament 
 will drag down the New. I have no wish to cut 
 Christianity loose from any connection with it, but 
 would rather draw that connection closer. To me the 
 morality of the Old Testament is the morality of the 
 ten commandments. I find nothing sanctioned there 
 which these would not allow, and 1 wish for nothing 
 better. To me its narratives are facts; and I remem- 
 ber that the Saviour said of these books that they 
 were they which testified of Him. 
 
 With these views, while 1 allow that there are diffi- 
 culties coimected with the proper interpretation of some 
 of the prophecies, and in a hw cases with the manner 
 in which they are referred to by the New Testament 
 writers, I yet feel that there is overwhelming evidence, 
 
 1. Of the fulfilment of those prophecies which related 
 to events that occurred before the time of Christ. 
 
 2. That Christ and his apostles did claim that many 
 of the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in him. 
 
 3. That those prophecies were thus fulfilled. And, 
 
 42 
 
330 LECTURE XI. 
 
 4. That not only the prophets of old, but Christ and 
 his apostles, uttered prophecies which have been ful- 
 filled since his time, and which are in the process of 
 fulfilment now. 
 
 Let us, then, look at the fulfilment of those prophe- 
 cies which related to events that occurred before the 
 time of Christ. Of these the number is very great, 
 relating to the Jews, and to those nations with whom 
 they were connected. Of those respecting the Jews, 
 I shall adduce only such as relate to their Babylonish 
 captivity and return, and of these I can give but single 
 specimens out of large classes of passages. Jeremiah 
 says, (xxxii. 28,) " Therefore thus saith the Lord, Be- 
 hold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chal- 
 deans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of 
 Babylon, and he shall take it." This is sufficiently 
 explicit with respect to the taking of the city. He 
 says again, (xxix. 10,) "For thus saith the Lord, that 
 after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will 
 visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in 
 causing you to return to this place." Hear, now, Isaiah, 
 a hundred and sixty years before these events, calling 
 by name and pointing out the work of one who was 
 not yet. Isa. xliv. 28. " That saith of Cyrus, He is 
 my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure : even 
 saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built ; and to the 
 Temple, Thy foundation shall be laid." Now let us 
 hear the decree of this same Cyrus, made at the ex- 
 piration of the seventy years. Ezra i. 2, 3. " Thus 
 saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven 
 hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth ; and he 
 hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, 
 which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his 
 
LECTURE XI. 331 
 
 people ? Ills God be witli him, and let him go up to 
 Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of 
 the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in 
 Jerusalem." History itself could not be more plain 
 or specific, and such events were plainly beyond the 
 reach of human sagacity. 
 
 The nations chiefly connected with the Jews were 
 the Ninevites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Phi- 
 listines, the Edomites, the Egyptians, the Tyrians, and 
 the Babylonians : and concerninir each of these there 
 are numerous and specific prophecies. 
 
 Of Nineveh, that exceeding great city of three days' 
 journey, the prophet says, (Nahum i. 9,) " What 
 do ye imagine against the Lord ? He will make an 
 utter end: aflfliction shall not rise up the second time." 
 And says another prophet, (Zeph. ii. 13, 15,) " He 
 will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilder- 
 ness. This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, 
 that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside 
 me : how is she become a desolation ! " Of the 
 Moabites, and the Ammonites, the prophet said, 
 (Zeph. ii. 8, 9,) " I have heard the reproach of 
 Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, 
 whereby they have reproached my people, and mag- 
 nified themselves against their border. Therefore, as 
 1 live, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 
 surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of 
 Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, 
 and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation." "Moab," 
 says another prophet, (Jer. xlviii. 42,) " shall be 
 destroyed from being a people." All this respecting 
 Nineveh, and Moab, and Ammon, has been literally 
 accomplished. Of the Philistines the prophet says, 
 
332 LECTURE XI. 
 
 (Zeph. ii. 4,) " Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon 
 a desolation : they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon- 
 day, and Ekron shall be rooted up." Of Edom the 
 prophecies are the more remarkable, because com- 
 mentators on the Bible were long troubled to know 
 how to dispose of them, and because their literal and 
 exact fulfilment has been known only a few years. 
 This country was once a great thoroughfare, and a 
 mart for commerce, and remained so long after the 
 prophecies were uttered. Here was Petra, that city 
 the ruins of w hich have recently become so celebrated. 
 When this was discovered in the midst of such utter 
 desolation, then, and not till then, was the meaning of 
 such passages as the following made known. Jer. xlix. 
 16 — 18. " Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and 
 the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the 
 clefts of the rock, that boldest the height of the hill. 
 Also Edom shall be a desolation : every one that goeth 
 by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the 
 plagues thereof. As in the overthrow of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah, and the neighbor cities thereof, saith the 
 Lord, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of 
 man dwell in it," The discovery of this country and 
 its ruins, which no traveller seems to have visited for a 
 thousand years, was like the resurrection of one from 
 the dead to bear witness to the literal truth of the 
 prophecies of God. Concerning Egypt, once so mighty, 
 it was said, (Ezek. xxix. 15 ; xxx. 13,) "It shall be the 
 basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any 
 more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that 
 they shall no more rule over the nations. And there 
 shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt." Upon 
 this passage the whole history of Egypt is but one 
 
LECTURE XI. 333 
 
 commentary. The prophecies concerning Tyre and 
 Babylon are well known. Of Tyre it was said, 
 (Ezek. xxvi. 4, 5,) " And they shall destroy the walls 
 of Tyrus, and break down her towers : I will also 
 scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a 
 rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in 
 the midst of the sea." Alexander scraped the ruins 
 from the site of the old city for the purpose of filling 
 up a passage to the new, and the infidel Volney tells 
 us that it is now a place where the fishermen spread 
 their nets. Of "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms," it 
 was said, (Isa. xiii. 20, 21,) " It shall never be inhab- 
 ited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to 
 generation : neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; 
 neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But 
 wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; and their 
 houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls shall 
 dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there." No better 
 description of the fate and condition of Babylon could 
 be written now. These prophecies were literal, and 
 they have been literally fulfilled. At the time they 
 were uttered there was nothing to indicate the proba- 
 bility of such events. The world had then had no 
 experience of the transfer of the seats of power and 
 civilization. How strange that all these cities and 
 nations should have perished ! Why should not the 
 Moabites, or the Ammonites, have remained a sep- 
 arate people, as well as the Jews or the Ishmael- 
 ites ? The prophets of God no longer wander over 
 those regions, but he has not left himself without a 
 witness. No voice could be more eloquent than that 
 of those ruined cities and desolate kingdoms, tes- 
 tifying how fearful a thing it is to fall under the 
 
334 LECTURE XI. 
 
 displeasure of God, and how certainly he will exe- 
 cute all his threatenings. 
 
 I now proceed to show that Christ and his apostles 
 did claim that many of the Old Testament prophecies 
 were fulfilled in him. This claim, it seems to me, if 
 it could have been made by language, was made. I 
 shall cite a few passages, and leave the audience to 
 judge. Christ says, (John v. 39,) " Search the Scrip- 
 tures, for they are they which testify of me." John v. 
 46. " For had ye believed Moses, ye would have be- 
 lieved me; for he wrote of me." " The Son of man," 
 said he, (Matt. xxvi. 24,) " goeth, as it is written of 
 him." Mark ix. 12. " It is written of the Son of 
 man, that he must suffer many things." Luke xviii. 
 31. "All things written by the prophets concerning 
 the Son of man shall be accomplished." Luke xxiv. 
 25 — 27. " Then he said unto them, O fools, and 
 slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have 
 spoken ! Ought not Christ to have suffered these 
 things, and to enter into his glory ? And beginning at 
 Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in 
 all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." And 
 it was when he thus opened to them the Scriptures, that 
 their hearts burned within them. Again, he said, (verses 
 44 — 46,) " All things must be fulfilled, which Avere 
 written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, 
 and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then opened he 
 their understanding, that they might understand the 
 Scriptures, and said unto them. Thus it is written, and 
 thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the 
 dead." Could Christ have claimed that he was the 
 subject of prophecy, not only in one portion of Scrip- 
 
LECTURE XI. 335 
 
 ture, but in all the Scriptures, more plainly than he did 
 claim it ? It is obvious, from the narrative, that the ef- 
 fect was scarcely greater of seeing him alive, than was 
 that produced by his opening to them the Scriptures. 
 
 But what say the apostles ? " Paul went in unto 
 the Jews," (Acts xvii. 2, 3,) " and three Sabbath days 
 reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and 
 alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and 
 risen again from the dead." And the noble Bereans 
 " searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things 
 were so." Again, (Acts xxviii. 23,) Paul " expounded 
 and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them 
 concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out 
 of the prophets." Paul declared before Agrippa (Acts 
 xxvi. 22) that he said " none other things than those 
 which the prophets and Moses did say should come." 
 Apollos (Acts xviii. 28) " mightily convinced the Jews, 
 publicly showing, by the Scriptures, that Jesus was 
 Christ." Peter, even in his first discourse to the 
 Gentiles, said, (Acts x. 43,) " To him give all the 
 prophets witness." And again, (Acts iii. 18,) "Those 
 things which God before had showed by the mouth of 
 all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so 
 fulfilled." Again, (verse 24,) he says, "Yea, and«// 
 the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, 
 as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of 
 these days." And Peter says expressly (1 Pet. i. 10, 
 11) that "the prophets have inquired and searched dili- 
 gently, 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." 
 
 To me it seems that these passages show, if any 
 
336 LECTURE XI. 
 
 thing can show it, not only that Christ and his apostles 
 claimed that the Old Testament Scriptures were ful- 
 filled in him, but that the great question, when they 
 attempted to convert the Jews, was, whether they had 
 been thus fulfilled. 
 
 Our next inquiry is, whether there are prophecies 
 in the Old Testament which were thus fulfilled in 
 Christ. 
 
 And here I hardly know what course to take. I 
 might propound a theory, or make general assertions, 
 and perhaps, as has too often been done, mystify the 
 subject ; but this would not be proof. Proof must be 
 drawn from a comparison of Scripture with Scripture. 
 Hence only can conviction arise. Will the audience 
 then permit me to present briefly, letting the Scrip- 
 tures speak for themselves, some corresponding pas- 
 sages of the Old and of the New Testament on this 
 subject? It will be my intention to produce no pas- 
 sage which is not applicable; but, if I should, it would 
 not invalidate the general argument. The question 
 here is not one of small criticism. It is as when we 
 stand in the light of open day. We should not deny, 
 perhaps, that there might be found dark corners into 
 which a man could run and see nothing; nor that so 
 small an object as his hand even might conceal from 
 him the whole horizon. So here, the question is not 
 whether a man may not find some dark points, or some 
 small objection which he may hold in such a position 
 as to eclipse the glory of the whole prophetic heavens; 
 but whether there is not, for the candid mind, one 
 broad flood of light pouring out from the prophecies of 
 the Old Testament, the rays of which converge, as in 
 
LECTURE XI. 337 
 
 a halo of glory, around the head of the Redeemer. 
 We contend that there is, and that this light began 
 to shine even before our first parents were expelled 
 from Eden. 
 
 Tiie first intimation we have of a Messiah was in 
 the promise that the seed of the woman should bruise 
 the head of the serpent. Gen. iii. 15. In the New 
 Testament it is said, " God sent forth his Son, made 
 of a woman." Gal. iv. 4. And again ; He became 
 a partaker of flesh and blood, that " through death he 
 might destroy him tliat had the jwwer of death, that 
 is, the devil." Heb. ii. 14. The next general intima- 
 tion was given to Abraham, and his family was pre- 
 dicted. " And in thy seed shall all the nations of the 
 earth be blessed." Gen. xxii. 18. "Now to Abraham,", 
 says Paul, " and his seed, were the promises made. 
 He saith not, And to seeds, as of many ; but as of one, 
 And to thy seed, which is Christ." Gal. iii. 16. "For 
 verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he 
 took on him the seed of Abraham." Heb. ii. 16. He 
 was to be of the tribe of Judah. " The sceptre shall 
 not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between 
 his feet, until Shiloh come : and unto him shall the 
 gathering of the people be." Gen. xlix. 10. " For 
 it is evident," says Paul, " that our Lord sprang out 
 of Judah ; of which tribe Moses spake nothing con- 
 cerning priesthood." Heb. vii. 14. He was to be of 
 the house of David. " And in that day there shall be a 
 root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the 
 people ; to it shall the Gentiles seek : and his rest shall 
 be glorious." Isa. xi. 10. "Behold, the days come, 
 saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous 
 Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall 
 
 43 
 
338 LECTURE XI. 
 
 execute judgment and justice ; and this is his name 
 whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Right- 
 eousness." Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. Paul says, " Concern- 
 ing his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of 
 the seed of David according to the flesh." Rom. i. 3. 
 The place of his birth was designated. "But 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 Ruler in Israel ; whose goings 
 forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Micah 
 V. 2. " Now," says IVIatthew, " when Jesus was born 
 in Bethlehem of Judea." Matt. ii. 1. The time was 
 designated. It was not only to be before the sceptre 
 departed from Judah, but while the second Temple was 
 standing. " And I will shake all nations," says God 
 by Haggai, "and the Desire of all nations shall come: 
 and the glory of this latter house shall be greater than 
 of the former, saith the Lord of hosts." Hag. ii. 7, 9. 
 Daniel also said, " Seventy weeks are determined 
 upon thy people and upon the holy city, to finish the 
 transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make 
 reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting 
 righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, 
 and to anoint the Most Holy." Dan. ix. 24. Accord- 
 ingly we find, not only from Jewish writers, but from 
 the most explicit passages in Tacitus and Suetonius, 
 that there was a general expectation that an extraordi- 
 nary person w^ould arise in Judea about that time. So 
 strong was this expectation among the Jews as to 
 encourage numerous false Christs to appear, and to 
 enable them to gain followers, and so certain were 
 they that the Temple could not be destroyed before the 
 coming of the Messiah, that they refused all terms from 
 
LECTURE XI. 339 
 
 Titus, and fought with dcsjDcration till the last. He 
 was to be preceded by a remarkable j)erson reseinbliiig 
 Elijah. " Behold, I will send my messenger, and he 
 shall prepare the way before me." Mai. iii. 1. "Be- 
 hold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the 
 coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." 
 Mai. iv. 5. " 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." Isa. 
 xl. 3. " In those days came John the Baptist, preach- 
 ing in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye ; 
 for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt. iii. 1, 2. 
 He was to work miracles. " Then the eyes of the 
 blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall 
 be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a 
 hart, and the ton"ue of the dumb sin"." Isa. xxxv. 
 5, 6. These are precisely the miracles recorded as 
 wrought by Christ in instances too numerous to men- 
 tion. He was to make a public entry into Jerusa- 
 lem riding upon a colt the foal of an ass. " Rejoice 
 greatly, O daughter of Zion ; shout, O daughter of 
 Jerusalem : behold, thy King cometh unto thee : he is 
 just, and having salvation ; lowly, and riding upon an 
 ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." Zech. ix. 9. 
 An account of the exact fulfilment of this j)rophecy 
 will be found in the twenty-first chapter of Matthew. 
 He was to be rejected of his own countrymen. " And 
 he shall be for a sanctuary ; but for a stone of stum- 
 bling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of 
 Israel." Isa. viii. 14. " He hath no form nor come- 
 liness ; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty 
 that we should desire him. He is despised and reject- 
 ed of men ; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
 
340 LECTURE XI. 
 
 grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he 
 was despised, and we esteemed him not." Isa. hii. 
 2, 3. "He came unto his own," says John, "and his 
 own received him not." John i. 11. And again; 
 " Though he had done so many miracles before them, 
 jet they beheved not on him : that the saying of 
 Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, 
 Lord, who hath believed our report?" — quoting the 
 first verse of the fifty-third of Isaiah, and thus claim- 
 ing it as spoken of the Messiah. And after quoting 
 another prophecy, the apostle says, " These things 
 said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him." 
 John xii. 37, 38, 41 . He was to be scourged, mocked, 
 and spit upon. " I gave my back to the smiters, and 
 my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair : I hid 
 not my face from shame and spitting." Isa. 1. 6. 
 "And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him 
 to be crucified." Matt, xxvii. 26. "Then did they 
 spit in his face, and buffeted him ; and others smote 
 him with the palms of their hands." Matt. xxvi. 67. 
 His hands and his feet were to be pierced. " The 
 assembly of the wicked have enclosed me ; they 
 pierced my hands and my feet." Ps. xxii. 16. This is 
 remarkable, because the punishment of crucifixion was 
 not known among the Jews. He was to be numbered 
 with the transgressors. " And he was numbered 
 with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, 
 and made intercession for the transgressors." Isa. liii. 
 12. He was to be mocked and reviled on the cross. 
 " All they that see me laugh me to scorn ; they shoot 
 out the lip, they shake the head, saying. He trusted on 
 the Lord that he Avould deliver him : let him deliver 
 him, seeing he delighted in him." Ps. xxii. 7, 8. 
 
LECTURE XI. 341 
 
 " Likewise also the chief priests, mocking him, with 
 the scribes and elders, said. He saved others ; himself 
 he cannot save. — He trusted in God ; let him deliver 
 him 710W, if he will have him: for he said, I am the 
 Son of God." Matt, xxvii. 41, 42, 43. He was to 
 have gall and vinegar to drink. " Thev gave me also 
 gall for mv meat; and in mj thirst, they gave me 
 vinegar to drink." Ps. Ixix. 21. " And when thej were 
 come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, 
 A place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink, 
 minorJcd withmliy Matt, xxvii. 3S. 34. His garments 
 were to be parted, and upon his vesture lots were to 
 be cast. " They part my garments among them, and 
 cast lots upon my vesture." Ps. xxii. 18. "Then the 
 soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his gai*- 
 ments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; 
 and also his coat : now the coat was without seam, 
 woven from the top throughout. They said therefore 
 among themselves. Let us not rend it, but cast lots for 
 it, whose it shall be : that the Scripture might be ful- 
 filled." John xix. 23, 24. He was to be cut off by a 
 violent death. " For he was cut off out of the land of 
 the liviniT." Isa. liii. 8. " And after threescore and 
 two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for him- 
 self." Dan. ix. 26. He was to be pierced. " And I 
 will pour upon the house of David, and upon the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of 
 supplications : and they shall look upon me whom they 
 have pierced." Zech. xii. 10. "But one of the sol- 
 diers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came 
 thereout blood and water." John xix. 34. He was to 
 make his grave with the rich. " And he made his 
 grave with the wicked, and with the rich iii his 
 
342 LECTURE XI. 
 
 death." Isa. liii. 9. "When the even was come, 
 there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, 
 who also himself was Jesus' disciple. He went to 
 Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus, and laid it in 
 his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the 
 rock." Matt, xxvii. 57, 58, 60. He was not to see 
 corruption. " For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell ; 
 neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corrup- 
 tion." Ps. xvi. 10. "Men and brethren," says Peter, 
 after citing this passage, " let me freely speak unto 
 you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and 
 buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. 
 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God 
 had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his 
 loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ 
 to sit on his throne ; he, seeing this before, spake of 
 the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in 
 hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." Acts ii. 29, 
 30, 31. And yet there are some who say that these 
 prophecies are no prophecies, and were never claimed 
 to be. But I think it evident that Peter did not be- 
 long, as an interpreter of prophecy, to the schools of 
 German neology. 
 
 These passages are far from being all that might be 
 adduced. Respecting some of them as they stand, a 
 person without previous knowledge would be led to 
 ask the question of the Ethiopian eunuch, " I pray 
 thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, 
 or of some other man ? " But when we see these 
 passages brought together; when we see their wonder- 
 ful convergence, so that the history of Christ, from 
 his miraculous birth — of the foretellino; of which I 
 have not spoken — to his death, was only their coun- 
 
LECTURE XI. 343 
 
 terpart; when we find that the Jews tliemselves 
 referred most of them to the Messiah, and that they 
 are expressly claimed by Christ and his aj)ostles, the 
 general argument becomes exceedingly strong. How 
 strong it is may be seen by any one who will attempt 
 to apply one tenth part of these passages to any otiier 
 person that ever lived. Let him attempt to ap])Iy 
 them to Titus, of whom .Tosophus says that he was 
 the extraordinary person foretold, and see how he will 
 succeed. If we admit that these pro))hecies were ex- 
 tant before the coming of Christ — and of this we have 
 the best possible evidence, because, as was said by an 
 ancient father, the Jews, the enemies of Christianity, 
 were the librarians of Christians — and if we estimate 
 matliematically, by the doctrine of chances, the proba- 
 bihty that these circumstances would meet in one 
 person, it w^ould, as is said by Dr. Gregory, surpass 
 the powers of numbers to express the immense im- 
 probability of its taking place. 
 
 But, striking as are these passages in their applica- 
 tion to Christ, while many of them, if not applied to 
 him, would seem to mean nothing, they are yet far from 
 giving the whole weight of the argument ; for not only 
 were the circumstances of his life and death niinutel}^ 
 pointed out, but his ofiices were also described. He 
 was to be a prophet, like unto Moses. " I will raise 
 them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like 
 unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth ; and 
 he shall speak unto them all that I shall command 
 him." Deut. xviii. 18. This is expressly quoted by 
 Peter, in the Acts, (iii. 22,) as fulfilled by Christ. He 
 was to be a priest. " The Lord hath sworn, and will 
 .lot repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order 
 
344 LECTURE XI. 
 
 of Melchisedek." Ps. ex. 4. " Called of God," says 
 Paul, " a high priest after the order of Melchisedek." 
 Heb. V. 10. He was to be a king. "Yet have I set 
 my King upon my holy hill of Zion." Ps. ii. 6. " Thy 
 people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Ps. 
 ex. 3. " All power," says Christ, " is given unto me 
 in heaven and in earth." Matt, xxviii. 18. " For he 
 must reign," says Paul, " till he hath put all enemies 
 under his feet." 1 Cor. xv. 25. 
 
 His kingdom was to be one of peace. " For unto 
 us a child is born, unto us a son is given : and the 
 government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name 
 shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty 
 God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 
 Of the increase of his government and peace there 
 shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon 
 his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judg- 
 ment and with justice from henceforth, even forever." 
 Isa. ix. 6, 7. " And they shall beat their swords into 
 ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks ; 
 nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither 
 shall they learn war any more." Micali iv. 3. " They 
 shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." 
 Isa. xi. 9. His kingdom was also to include the Gen- 
 tiles. "And he said. It is a light thing that thou 
 shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, 
 and to restore the preserved of Israel : I will also give 
 thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be 
 my salvation unto the end of the earth." Isa. xlix. 6. 
 " And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings 
 to the brightness of thy rising. The abundance of the 
 sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the 
 Gentiles shall come unto thee." Isa. Ix. 3, 5. This is 
 
LECTURE XI. 345 
 
 especially remarkable, because there was nothing in 
 the feeling ot" the Israelites, or in their relations to the 
 nations around them, in the time of Isaiah, to indicate 
 the possibility of a spiritual and universal kingdom, in 
 which the Gentiles should become fellow-citizens, and 
 have equal privileges with the Jews. 
 
 Here, then, we have the three great offices of 
 prophet, priest, and king, united by proj)hecy in one 
 person ; we have a kingdom of peace, and that king- 
 dom one which was to include all nations. How 
 perfectly all this is fulfilled in the person and kingdom 
 of Christ I need not say ; nor how entirely impossible 
 it would be to make these passages apply to any other 
 person or kingdom. 
 
 And not only were these three great offices united 
 in one person, but the prophecies respecting him were 
 so apparently incompatible and contradictory that it 
 must have seemed beforehand impossible they should 
 be fulfilled, and they must have caused great perplexi- 
 ty in the minds of those who were unwilling to receive 
 the word of God and rest on it by simple faith. Now, 
 he was represented as a triumphant conqueror, as a 
 king sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling all 
 nations, and now he was spoken of as " despised and 
 rejected of men," as " oppressed and afflicted." It 
 was said of the Messiah, " I have set my King upon 
 my holy hill of Zion," and that " of the increase of 
 his government and peace there shall be no end." 
 It was also said of him, " After threescore and two 
 weeks shall Messiah be cutoff." What contradictions, 
 might a Jew have said, have we here ! A King w ho 
 is to have perpetual dominion, and is to reign till he 
 has put all enemies under his feet, and yet is to be 
 
346 LECTURE XI. 
 
 despised, and rejected, and oppressed ! A Messiah 
 who is to be slain, and yet is to reign forever ! 
 These assertions might, indeed, have been received 
 separately, by faith, as the word of God ; a reasonable 
 Jew would have so received them ; but, before the 
 event, he could not have understood and reconciled 
 them with each other ; and yet the demand made 
 by each of these aspects of the prophecy is fully met 
 in Christ. 
 
 How, then, can the conclusion be avoided, that these 
 prophecies were given by inspiration of God? Not 
 by the supposition that they were fulfilled by human 
 contrivance, for the enemies of Christ, far more than 
 his friends, contributed to that fulfilment. As was 
 said by Paul, (Acts xiii. 27,) " They that dwell at Je- 
 rusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, 
 nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read 
 every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in con- 
 demning him." It was they that smote him, and hung 
 him on a tree, and parted his garments among them, 
 and cast lots, and pierced his side. It was they who 
 paid the thirty pieces of silver, the goodly price at 
 which they valued him, and who bought, with the 
 price of blood, the potter's field. Nor can this conclu- 
 sion be avoided on the supposition of chance ; for, as 
 has already been said, it would surpass the power of 
 numbers to express the extreme improbability of the 
 fulfilment of such prophecies. 
 
 Nor is this all ; for it would be easy to show that 
 the whole of the Old Testament dispensation, the ark 
 of the covenant, with all its arrangements, the pass- 
 over, the sacrifices, the ceremonies, the priesthood, 
 were all typical, and therefore prophetic ; and that the 
 
LECTURE XI. 347 
 
 true import and substance of all these is to be found 
 in the Christian dispensation. This, however, is a 
 great subject, and I cannot enter upon it. 
 
 We now come to tlie fourth point mentioned — 
 namely, that Christ and his apostles uttered prophecies 
 which have been fulfilled since their time, and which 
 are in the process of fulfilment now. Fully to illus- 
 trate this position, would require a leciure. I can only 
 glance at it. 
 
 As the prophecy of Christ respecting the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem had for one of its objects to warn 
 his followers to escape from that city, it was delivered 
 in the most direct and explicit terms. Before the time 
 of Christ, and during his life, no false Christ arose ; 
 there was no war, and no prospect of one ; and the 
 Temple, and Jerusalem, were standing in all their 
 strength. But he foretold that false Christs should 
 arise, and should deceive many ; that there should be 
 earthquakes and famine, and fearful sights in heaven, 
 and wars and rumors of wars, and great tribulation, 
 such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor 
 ever should be ; and that Jerusalem should be com- 
 passed with armies ; and that a trench should be cast 
 round about it ; and that one stone of the Temple 
 should not be left upon another; and that the Jews 
 should be carried captive among all nations. Paul also 
 prophesied of the great apostasy, and the coming of 
 the man of sin ; and John, in the Revelation, has 
 spoken of the course of events till the end of time. 
 
 To verify the prophecies of Christ respecting the 
 destruction of Jerusalem, and the events preceding it, 
 we have a history of those times, written by Josephus 
 
348 LECTURE XI. 
 
 an eye-witness and a Jew ; and nothing can be more 
 striking than a comparison of the history and the 
 prophecy. Josephus gives particular accounts of the 
 false Christs and false prophets, and of their deceiving 
 many. He speaks of the distracted state of those 
 countries, corresponding to the prophecy ; of wars and 
 rumors of wars ; and says that the " disorders of all 
 Syria were terrible. For every city was divided into 
 parties armed against each other, and the safety of 
 one depended on the destruction of the other ; the 
 days were spent in slaughter, and the nights in ter- 
 rors." He speaks also of famines, and pestilences, and 
 earthquakes, and especially of " fearful sights, and 
 great signs from heaven." He tells us that just before 
 the war, a star, resembling a sword, stood over the 
 city, and a comet that continued a whole year. That 
 " before sunsetting, chariots, and troops of soldiers 
 in their armor, were seen running about among the 
 clouds, and surrounding cities." He says, also, " At 
 the feast of Pentecost, as the priests were going by 
 night into the inner court of the Temple, they felt a 
 quaking, and heard a great noise, and, after that, they 
 heard the sound as of a multitude, saying, ' Let us 
 depart hence ! ' " Nor is Josephus alone in giving these 
 accounts. Tacitus, also, says, " There w^ere many 
 prodigies presignifying their ruin, which was not 
 averted by all the sacrifices and vows of that people. 
 Armies were seen fighting in the air with brandished 
 weapons. A fire fell upon the Temple from the clouds. 
 The doors of the Temple were suddenly opened. At 
 the same time there was a loud voice declaring that 
 the gods were removing, which was accompanied with 
 a sound as of a multitude going out. All which things 
 
LECTURE XI. 349 
 
 were supposed, by some, to portend great calamities." 
 He speaks, also, of the fact that Jerusalem was com- 
 passed by an army at the beginning of the war, and 
 that, owing to the state of parties, many of the prin- 
 cipal men were about to o])en the gates ; but says 
 that the Roman general recalled the soldiers from the 
 place without having received any defeat, and retired 
 from the city, without any reason in the world. He 
 then mentions that, when the Roman armies ap- 
 proached again, a great multitude fled to the moun- 
 tains. Thus a way was made for the disciples of 
 Christ to escape, and it is not known that a single one 
 of them perished in that destruction. It really seems 
 to have prefigured the final destruction of the wicked, 
 when the righteous shall all have been gathered from 
 among them. Josephus also speaks particularly of 
 the trench and wall which were made about Jerusalem 
 by Titus. This was done with great difficulty, and, 
 except for the purpose of a little more speedy reduc- 
 tion of the city, without necessity, and was contrary 
 to the advice of the chief men of Titus. But so it 
 was written. In respect to the tribulation of those 
 days, of which our Saviour speaks so strongly, if the 
 purpose of Josephus had been to confirm the words of 
 the prophecy, he could have said nothing more to the 
 point. " No other city," says he, "ever suffered such 
 miseries ; nor was there ever a generation more fruit- 
 ful in wickedness from the beginning of the world." 
 Again ; " It appears to me that the misfortunes of all 
 men, from the beginning of the world, if they be 
 compared to those of the Jews, are not so considera- 
 ble. For in reality it was God who condemned the 
 whole nation, and turned every course that was taken 
 
350 LECTURE XI. 
 
 for their preservation to their destruction." And 
 again ; " The multitude of those who perished exceed- 
 ed all the destructions that man or God ever brought 
 upon the world." The great mass of the nation was 
 gathered within the city. They were divided into con- 
 tending factions, who fought with the fury of fiends 
 against each other. Famine did its slow but fearful 
 
 a 
 
 work, so that women were known to eat their own 
 children. And while those within were thus the prey 
 of famine and of each other, those who attempted to 
 escape were taken by the Roman soldiers and nailed 
 on crosses, some one way, some another, as it were 
 in jest, around the outside of the walls, till so great 
 was the number, that room was wanting for crosses, 
 and crosses for bodies. As Titus beheld the dead 
 bodies that had been thrown from the w^alls into the 
 valleys, " he lifted up his hands to heaven, and called 
 God to witness that this was not his doing." These 
 were " the days of vengeance;" and it is computed by 
 Josephus that upwards of one million three hundred 
 thousand persons perished in the siege of Jerusalem 
 alone. And not only so, but, when the city was taken, 
 it was, contrary to the wish of Titus, devoted to utter 
 destruction; and the prophecy of Christ, that not one 
 stone of the Temple should be left upon another, was 
 literally fulfilled. 
 
 Of the other prophecies I have not time to speak ; 
 but the Jews were carried into captivity among all 
 nations, and their condition from that time till now has 
 been a standing and wonderful attestation of the truth 
 of the prophetic record, while their present condition 
 is an evident preparation for the fulfilment of those 
 still more wonderful prophecies which now stand like 
 
LECTURE XI. 351 
 
 the bow of promise, overarching the future. Accord- 
 ing to tliat expression of the prophet, so wonderfully 
 accurate, they have been sifted among all nations ; yet 
 have they, of all ancient people similarly situated, alone 
 preserved their identity, and now seem to be preparing 
 for that restoration which shall not only be to th(;m the 
 fuUilment of the prophecies, but shall be as Hfe from 
 the dead to the Gentile nations. 
 
 Thus, whether we look at the prophecies that re- 
 lated to events before the time of Christ, or to those 
 relating to him, or to those which he uttered, or to the 
 present state of the Jews, and indeed of the world, as 
 indicating a complete fulfilment of the prophecies, we 
 shall see the fullest reason to believe that " the proph- 
 ecy came not in old time by the will of man, but that 
 holy men of God spake as they were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 I will only add, as a beautiful instance of the con- 
 sistency of all Scripture, that the magnificent pictures 
 of the prophets, respecting a state of future blessedness 
 on earth, are just such as would be realized by the 
 entire prevalence of Christianity, and by nothing else. 
 These pictures are not drawn at random, or in general 
 terms. They are precise and definite. They rep- 
 resent a state of peace, and purity, and love — of high 
 social enjoyment, and of universal prosperity. And it 
 is only by the prevalence of Christianity that such a 
 state of things can be realized. Let this become 
 universally prevalent, not in its form only, but in its 
 spirit, and then nation would no more lift up sword 
 against nation, neither would they learn war any 
 more ; then the wolf also would dwell with the lamb, 
 
352 LECTURE XI. 
 
 and the leopard lie down with the kid ; then would 
 the wilderness and solitary place he glad for them, 
 and the desert rejoice ; then, instead of the thorn 
 would come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier 
 would come up the myrtle-tree; then would the in- 
 habitants of the rock sing, and shout from the top 
 of the mountains ; the people would be all righteous, 
 and inherit the land forever. 
 
LECTURE XIL 
 
 OBJECTIONS. — THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. — ITS 
 EFFECTS AND TENDENCIES. — SUMMARY AND CONCLU- 
 SION. 
 
 It has been my wish to present, in this course of 
 lectures, as I was able, the positive argument for Chris- 
 tianity. I commenced the course with an invitation 
 to the audience to go with me round about our Zion, 
 and tell the towers thereof. Those towers are not yet 
 all told. To some of the most common and effective 
 topics of argument I have yet scarcely referred, and I 
 ought, in logical order, to proceed at once to the con- 
 sideration of them. This I have thought of doing, 
 and of omitting to say any thing upon the objections 
 against Christianity. If the time would admit of it, 
 I should be pleased to devote at least a lecture to the 
 consideration of these ; for, while there are objections 
 which are unworthy of an answer, — while there are 
 persons, who make them, who would be no nearer be- 
 coming Christians if their objections were all removed, 
 — there are objections, the force of which 1 think may 
 be removed, that weigh heavily upon some who are 
 sincerely inquiring for the truth. To every such indi- 
 vidual I would give my hand. I would make any 
 effort to relieve him. I know what it is to wade in 
 
 4& 
 
354 LECTURE XII. 
 
 the deep waters of doubt, and the blessedness of find- 
 ing what seems to me to be the rock. For the sake 
 of such I would gladly dwell upon this point at length ; 
 but as that is now out of the question, I will make a 
 few observations on the subject of objections generally, 
 and then go on with the argument. 
 
 And here, if I may be permitted to drop a word in 
 a more familiar way in the ear of the candid and 
 practical inquirer, referring to my own experience, I 
 would say, that I have found great benefit in being 
 willing — a lesson which we are all slow to learn — to 
 wait. It has not unfrequendy occurred that I have 
 stood in such an attitude (perhaps for months or years 
 together) to a certain objection as to see no way of 
 evading it, till, at length, light would break in, and I 
 could see with perfect distinctness that there was 
 nothing in it. Are there not many here who have un- 
 expectedly met with something which has removed, in 
 a moment, objections which have lain with weight 
 upon their minds for years ? I well remember when 
 it seemed to me that there was a direct contradiction 
 between Paul and James, on the subject of faith and 
 works. It seemed so to Luther, and, because he could 
 not reconcile them, and was unwilling to wait, he re- 
 jected the Epistle of James, calling it a strawy Epistle. 
 I can now see that Paul and James, not only do not 
 contradict each other, but harmonize perfectly. I 
 have sometimes compared the path of a sincere in- 
 quirer to a road that winds among the hills. Who has 
 not seen the hills, perhaps the high mountains, closing 
 down upon such a road so as to render it apparently 
 impossible he should proceed ; and who has not been 
 surprised, when he reached the proper point to see it, 
 
LECTURE XII 355 
 
 to find the road taking an unexpected turn, and hold- 
 ing on its own level way. And to such a point I 
 think every sincere inquirer will come, who is willing 
 to follow the right path so far as he can find it, and to 
 wait, putting up the petition, and adopting the resolu- 
 tion, of Elihu, — "That which I see not, teach thou 
 me ; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more." I 
 have the fullest conviction, not only of the truth, but 
 of the philosophical profoundness, of that saying of our 
 Saviour, — " If any man will do his will, he shall know 
 of the doctrine, whether it he of God, or whether I 
 speak of myself." 
 
 But, leaving this, I observe, in the first place, that 
 we are not to have our confidence in the Christian 
 religion shaken, from the mere fact that objections can 
 be made against it. There are those who seem to 
 think that, if an objection can be made, some degree 
 of uncertainty is introduced at once, and that there 
 comes to be a balance of probabilities. But this is 
 not so. When once a thing is fairly proved, all objec- 
 tions must go for nothing. Very plausible objections 
 may be made to many things which we yet know to 
 be true. Thus objections have been made to the 
 existence of matter, and to the truth of the evidence 
 of the senses, which a plain jnan would find it difficult 
 to answer, and which yet would have no weight with 
 him whatever. We all believe there is such a thing 
 as motion, and yet there may be some here who would 
 find it difficult to answer the common logical objection 
 against it. Let me put that objection. You will, I 
 suppose, all agree that, if any thing moves, it must 
 move either where it is, or where it is not. But cer- 
 tainly nothing can move where it is, for that would not 
 
356 LECTURE XII. 
 
 be moving at all ; and it would seem quite as certain 
 that nothing could move where it is not ; and hence 
 there is no such thing as motion. " There are objec- 
 tions," says Dr. Johnson, " to a vacuum^ and there are 
 objections to a plenum ; but one of these must be true." 
 But to any one who has been turned aside, and is 
 eddying round among these shoals of doubt, I would 
 recommend that masterly pamphlet, by VVhately, the 
 " Historic Doubts respecting the Existence and Acts 
 of Napoleon Bonaparte." I think it would lead him 
 to see that there may be plausible objections against 
 that concerning which there cannot be the least doubt. 
 I observe, secondly, that, if we would consider the 
 objections against Christianity fairly, we must distin- 
 guish those which lie against Christianity, as such, from 
 those which may be made equally against any religion 
 or scheme of belief whatever. This world is in a 
 strange state. There is a condition of things very 
 different from what we should suppose, beforehand, 
 there would be, under the government of a God of 
 infinite power, and wisdom, and goodness ; and it is not 
 uncommon for men to burden Christianity with all the 
 difficulties that are connected with the origin of evil, 
 or the doctrine of the foreknowledge of God as con- 
 nected with human freedom. But these are questions 
 that belong to the race, and have equally exercised the 
 mind of the Grecian philosopher, of the Persian sage, 
 and of the Christian divine. You, as a man, may be 
 as properly called on to solve any difficulties arising out 
 of such questions, as I can as a teacher of Christianity. 
 Christianity had nothing to do with the origin of evil. 
 It takes for granted, what we must all admit, that it 
 exists ; it does not attempt to account for its origin, 
 
LECTURE XII. 357 
 
 but it proposes a remedy. If, then, men object to 
 Christianity, let them object to it as wliat it chiims 
 to be. Let them show that, when fairly received and 
 fully practised by all men, it would not be the remedy 
 which it claims to be, and their objections will In) valid. 
 It is of no avail for inlidels and deists to shoot arrows 
 against Christianity which may be picked up and shot 
 back with equal force against their own systems ; and 
 yet a much larger portion of the objections against 
 Christianity than is commonly supposed is of this 
 character. 
 
 I observe, thirdly, that we are to keep in mind the 
 distinction of Butler, already referred to, between ob- 
 jections against Christianity and objections against its 
 evidence. Of the evidence for Christianity we are 
 capable of judging. I insist ujion it that there are 
 laws of evidence, which any man of good sense can 
 understand, according to which we judge and act in 
 other cases ; and I only ask that these same laws may 
 be applied to Christianity, as a matter of fact and a 
 ground of action, just as they would be to any thing 
 else. But of Christianity itself, as a part of an infinite 
 scheme of moral government, having relation to the 
 eternity that is past and to that which is to come, and 
 perhaps to other worlds and to other orders of being, 
 we ought as much to expect that we should find in it 
 things beyond our reach, and which would seem to us 
 strange and objectionable, as that there would be such 
 things in nature. And if, as Butler has most fully 
 shown, the objections which are made against Chris- 
 tianity are of the same kind with those which may be 
 made against nature, then those very objections are 
 turned into arguments in its favor, as they show the 
 
358 LECTURE XII. 
 
 probability that Christianity and nature came from the 
 same hand. Here is one principal source of the power 
 of Butler's great work. It shows that all the chief 
 objections which are urged against Christianity may 
 be urged equally against the constitution and course of 
 nature, and would equally show that that was not from 
 God. If Christianity itself can be shown to be either 
 immoral or absurd, we will reject it ; but, with these 
 exceptions, objections to Christianity on the part of 
 such a being as man, as distinguished from objections 
 against its evidence, are, in the language of Butler, 
 " frivolous." Nor in saying this do we undervalue 
 reason, or refuse to give it its true place. To quote 
 Butler again, " Let reason be kept to ; and if any part 
 of the Scripture account of the redemption of the 
 world by Christ can be shown to be really contrary 
 to it, let the Scripture, in the name of God, be given 
 up ; but let not such poor creatures as we go on object- 
 ing, against an infinite scheme, that w^e do not see the 
 necessity and usefulness of all its parts, and call this 
 reasoning." 
 
 But, fourthly, we are to observe that Christianity 
 is not the only scheme against which objections can be 
 made. From its position, its success, its uncompro- 
 mising claims, Christianity has been met from the first 
 by every objection that ingenuity, quickened by a love 
 of pleasure and hatred of restraint, could invent ; and, 
 from the constancy with which these have been plied, 
 it has been felt by many that Christianity was espe- 
 cially liable to objections. It has hence been the habit 
 of many Christians to stand on the defensive, and in- 
 fidels have felt that it was their place to attack. In 
 proportion as any scheme has about it more that is 
 
LECTURE XII. 359 
 
 positive, it of course presents a larger surface for ob- 
 jections ; but as for as other schemes have any thing 
 positive about them, they are equally liable to objec- 
 tions with Christianity, and have none of its evidence. 
 And the only reason that these schemes have not been 
 as much objected against is, that men do not care 
 enough about them. If an inlidel has nothing positive 
 in his belief, then, of course, nothing can be objected 
 to it. But if it were possible, as it is not, for any man 
 to take such a position, we should object to that. We 
 say that it is a state of mind from which no good can 
 possibly come, either to the individual or the com- 
 munity. It is a poor, cold, heartless state, furnishing 
 no ground for hope, no elevation to character, no mo- 
 tive to effort, that has no adaptation to the wants of 
 man even in prosperity, and that must utterly fail him 
 in those trying hours when he needs such supports as 
 religion only can give. It can be made to appear, from 
 the very laws of mind, that great achievements, power- 
 ful exertions, self-denying labors and sacrifices, must 
 spring from a vigorous faith ; and that, in proportion as 
 a belief, or a religion, becomes one of negations, it 
 must lower the pulse of intellectual, and especially of 
 moral life. Let a man, however, have any thing pos- 
 itive in his belief — let him bring forward his own solu- 
 tion of the great problems which must be connected in 
 the mind of every thinking man with human life and 
 destiny — and it would be no difficult matter, a very 
 child could do it, to start objections against that solu- 
 tion, whatever it might be, which it would trouble the 
 wisest infidel to meet. Hence I have sometimes been 
 amused at the effect, upon a noisy and boastful objector, 
 of a quiet question or two in regard to his own belief. 
 
360 LECTURE XII. 
 
 I have seen those to whom it never seemed to have 
 occurred that we were thrown into this world together 
 with certain great common difficulties, and that other 
 people could ask questions as well as they. Whenever, 
 indeed, infidelitj has thus assumed a positive form, it 
 has been met and fairly driven from the field ; and 
 now, it is difficult to say what the prevalent form of 
 it is. It has always been Ishmaelitish in its habits, 
 pitching its tent now here and now there, and con- 
 stantly varying its mode of attack. The infidelity of 
 one age is not that of another, while Christianity re- 
 mains ever the same. And so we are to expect it will 
 be while the human heart remains what it is. Infi- 
 delity will exist. There is at present more of it than 
 appears. Not being reputable in its own form, it con- 
 ceals itself under various disguises. But the infidelity 
 that springs from the heart is not to be reached by a 
 course of lectures on the evidences of Christianity. 
 As I have already said, argument did not cause, and 
 argument will not remove it. For that, we look to a 
 higher power. 
 
 I now proceed with the evidence. As yet 1 have 
 said nothing of the argument to be derived from the 
 mode and circumstances of the propagation of Chris- 
 tianity, and have only incidentally alluded to its effects 
 and tendencies. Each of these is a standing topic of 
 argument on this subject, and, when properly presented, 
 sufficient of itself to prove the truth of the Christian 
 religion. But, with the time which now remains, I 
 shall be able to do little more than to indicate the place 
 which these arguments hold, without giving them their 
 proper expansion and force. These topics of argument 
 
LECTURE XII. 361 
 
 are entirely distinct in their nature, but are so con- 
 nected at certain points that it is diflicult to treat 
 of one, without involving considerations which belong 
 also to the other. 
 
 First, then, of the propagation of Christianity : And 
 in speaking of this subject, I will notice, 1, the facts; 
 2, the difficulties ; and, 3, the instrumentality. This 
 subject has been ably treated by Bishop M'llvaine, in his 
 excellent lectures on the evidences, and I shall avail my- 
 self of his labors in presenting it.* It would appear, 
 then, that on the fiftieth day after the death of Christ 
 the apostles commenced their labors. " Beginning in 
 Jerusalem, the very furnace of persecution, they first 
 set up their banner in the midst of those who had been 
 first in the crucifixion of Jesus, and were all elate with 
 the triumph of that tragedy. No assemblage could 
 have been more possessed of dispositions perfectly at 
 war with their message than that to which they made 
 their first address." And what was the tenor of the 
 address ? " Jesus of Nazareth," said Peter, " being de- 
 livered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge 
 of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have cru- 
 cified and slain; whom God hath raised up. — There- 
 fore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that 
 God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have cru- 
 cified, both Lord and Christ." One would have sup- 
 posed that the same hands that had rioted in the blood 
 of his Master would now have wreaked their enmity in 
 that of this daring, and, to all human view, most im- 
 politic apostle. But what ensued ? Three thousand 
 souls were that day added to the infant church. In a 
 
 * Lecture ix. 
 
 46 
 
362 LECTURE XII. 
 
 few days, the number was increased to five thousand ; 
 and in the space of about a year and a half, though the 
 gospel was preached only in Jerusalem and its vicinity, 
 multitudes, both of men and women, and a great com- 
 pany of the priests, were obedient to the faith. Now, 
 the converts, being driven by a fierce persecution from 
 Jerusalem, went every where preaching the word, and 
 in less than three years churches were gathered through- 
 out all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and were multi- 
 plied. About two years after this, or seven from the 
 beginning of the w^ork, the gospel was first preached to 
 the Gentiles ; and such was the success that, before 
 thirty years had elapsed from the death of Christ, 
 his church had spread from Palestine throughout 
 Syria ; through almost all the numerous districts of 
 Lesser Asia ; through Greece, and the islands of the 
 iEgean Sea, the sea-coast of Africa, and even into 
 Italy and Rome. The number of converts in the 
 several cities respectively is described by the expres- 
 sions, " a great number," " great multitudes," " much 
 people." What an extensive impression had been 
 made is obvious from the outcry of the opposers at 
 Thessalonica, that " they who had turned the world 
 upside-down were come hither also." Demetrius, an 
 enemy, complained of Paul, " that not alone at Ephesus, 
 but almost throughout all Asia," he had persuaded and 
 turned away much people. In the mean while, Je- 
 rusalem, the chief seat of Jewish rancor, continued the 
 metropolis of the gospel, having in it many tens of 
 thousands of believers. These accounts are taken * 
 from the book of the Acts of the Apostles ; but as this 
 book is almost confined to the labors of Paul and his 
 immediate companions, saying very little of the other 
 
LECTURE XII. 363 
 
 apostles, it is very certain that the view we have 
 given of the propagation of the gospel during the 
 lirst thirty years is very incomplete. In the thirtieth 
 year after the beginning of the work, the terrible per- 
 secution under Nero kindled its fires ; then Christians 
 had become so numerous at Rome, that, by the testi- 
 mony of Tacitus, a " great multitude " were seized. 
 In forty years more, we are told, in a celebrated letter 
 from Pliny, the Roman governor of Pontus and By- 
 thinia, Christianity had long subsisted in these prov- 
 inces, though so remote from Judea. Many of all ages 
 and of every rank, of both sexes likewise, were accused 
 to Pliny of being Christians. What he calls the con- 
 tagion of this superstition (thus forcibly describing the 
 irresistible and rapid progress of Christianity) had 
 seized not cities only, but the less towns also, and the 
 open country, so that the heathen temples " were 
 almost forsaken ; " few victims were purchased for sac- 
 rifice, and a long intermission of the sacred solemnities 
 had taken place. Justin Martyr, who wrote about 
 thirty years after Pliny, and one hundred after the 
 gospel was first preached to the Gentiles, thus de- 
 scribes the extent of Christianity in his time : "There 
 is not a nation, either Greek or barbarian, or of any 
 other name, even those who wander in tribes and live 
 in tents, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are 
 not offered to the Father and Creator of the universe 
 by the name of the crucified Jesus." Clemens Alex- 
 andrinus, a few years after, thus writes : " The philoso- 
 phers were confined to Greece, and to their particular 
 retainers ; but the doctrine of the Master of Christianity 
 did not remain in Judea, but is spread throughout the 
 whole world, in every nation, and village, and city, 
 
364 LECTURE XII. 
 
 converting both whole houses and separate individuals, 
 having already brought over to the truth not a few of 
 the philosophers themselves. If the Greek philosophy 
 be prohibited, it immediately vanishes ; whereas, from 
 the first preaching of our doctrine, kings and tyrants, 
 governors and presidents, with their whole train, and 
 with the populace on their side, have endeavored with 
 their whole might to exterminate it, yet doth it flourish 
 more and more." Nothing can so well represent the 
 mode in which this extension took place as the com- 
 parison, by our Saviour, of Christianity to leaven. It 
 had an affinity for the human mind, by which it passed 
 from individual to individual, as the leavening process 
 passes from particle to particle ; and no human power 
 could arrest its progress. Since the world stood, no 
 change like it has taken place, nor has any power 
 existed that could have produced such a change. 
 
 2. In estimating the obstacles to this progress, we 
 are to observe that the enterprise of propagating a 
 religion, as such, and especially an exclusive religion, 
 w^as then entirely new. The Jewish system was not 
 adapted to universal diffusion, and the zeal of the Jews 
 was directed rather to keep other nations at a distance 
 than to bring them to an equal participation of their 
 privileges. The Gentiles knew nothing of an exclu- 
 sive religion, nor of a benevolent religion — exclusive 
 because it was benevolent. Heathenism, being without 
 a creed and without principle, "had nothing to con- 
 tend for but the privilege of assuming any form, wor- 
 shipping any idol, practising any ritual, and pursuing 
 any absurdity, which the craft of the priesthood, or the 
 superstitions and vices of the people, might select. It 
 never was imagined, by any description of pagans, that 
 
LECTURE XII. 365 
 
 all Other forms of religion were not as good for the 
 people observing them, as theirs was for them ; or that 
 any dictate of kindness, or common sense, should lead 
 them to attempt the subversion of the gods of their 
 neighbors, for the sake of establishing their own in 
 their stead." This is the species of charity and the 
 ground of harmony — arising from a want of the knowl- 
 edge of the true religion, and of its unspeakable value 
 — which is so highly praised by Gibbon and Voltaire. 
 But, in such a state of things, " nothing could have 
 been more perfectly new, surprising, or offensive to the 
 whole Gentile world, than the duty laid upon the first 
 advocates of Christianity to go into all nations assert- 
 ing the exclusive claims of the gospel, denouncing 
 the validity of all other religions, and laboring to bring 
 every creature to the single faith of Christ." And 
 then, how different the religion of the gospel, not 
 only in its relation to other religions, but in itself, from 
 any of which they had any conception ! " Religion, 
 among the Gentiles, was a creature of the state. It 
 consisted exclusively in the outward circumstances of 
 temples, and altars, and images, and priests, and sacri- 
 fices, and festivals, and lustrations. It multiplied its 
 objects of worship at the pleasure of the civil authori- 
 ties ; taught no system of doctrine; recognized no 
 system of morality ; required nothing of the heart ; 
 committed the life of man to unlimited discretion ; and 
 allowed any one to stand perfectly well with the gods, 
 (on the trifling condition of a little show of respect for 
 their worship,) to whatever extent he indulged in the 
 worst passions and lowest propensities of his nature. 
 Nothing could have been more foreign to every habit 
 of thought, in the mind of a native of Greece or Rome, 
 
366 
 
 LECTURE XII- 
 
 than the Scripture doctrines of the nature and guilt of 
 sin, of repentance, conversion, faith, love, meekness, 
 and purity of heart." 
 
 In the nature of the case, such a religion " must 
 have arrayed against it all the influence of every 
 priesthood both among Jews and heathens." With 
 the power of the priests among the Jews, and their 
 bitterness against Christianity, we are sufficiently ac- 
 quainted, but are less familiar with the superstitious 
 dread in which they were held, and with their power 
 among other nations. " The religion of the nations," 
 says Gibbon, " was not merely a speculative doctrine 
 professed in the schools or taught in the temples. 
 The innumerable duties and rites of polytheism were 
 closely interwoven with every circumstance of busi- 
 ness or of pleasure, of public or of private life ; and it 
 seemed impossible to escape the observance of them 
 w^ithout at the same time renouncing the commerce of 
 mankind. The important transactions of peace and 
 war were prepared and concluded by solemn sacrifices, 
 in which the magistrate, the senator, and the soldier, 
 were obliged to participate." Speaking of the priests, 
 he says, " Their robes of purple, chariots of state, and 
 sumptuous entertainments, attracted the admiration of 
 the people ; and they received from the consecrated 
 lands and public revenue an ample stipend, which lib- 
 erally supported the splendor of the priesthood, and all 
 the expenses of the religion of the state." It is stated, 
 as an evidence of the extent and power of the organiza- 
 tions with which this priesthood was connected, that, 
 sixty years after Christianity had been the established 
 religion of the Roman empire, there were four hundred 
 and twenty-four temples and chapels, at Rome, in 
 
LECTURE XII. 367 
 
 which their worsliip was celebrated. " In connection 
 with all this organization and deep-rooted power of 
 heathenism, consider its various tribes of subordinate 
 agents and interested allies, — the diviners, augurs, and 
 managers of oracles, with all the attendants and assist- 
 ants belonging to the temples of a countless variety of 
 idols ; the trades whose craft was sustained by the 
 patronage of image-worship, such as statuary, shrine- 
 mongers, sacrifice-sellers, incense-merchants ; consider 
 the great festivals and games by which heathenism 
 flattered the dispositions of the people, and enlisted all 
 classes and all countries in its support, — and say, 
 what must have been the immense force in which the 
 several priesthoods of all heathen nations were capable 
 of uniting among themselves, and with the priests of 
 the Jews, in the common cause of crushing a religion 
 by whose doctrines none of them could be tolerated. 
 That with all their various contingents they did unite, 
 consenting in this one object, if in little else, of smoth- 
 ering Christianity in her cradle, or of drowning her in 
 the blood of her disciples, all history assures us." 
 
 And with the influence of the priests was associated 
 the power of the magistrate. The true principle of 
 toleration was entirely unknown among heathen na- 
 tions, and is to this day. Toleration, in its true sense, 
 — as distinguished from indiflerence on the one hand, 
 and from zeal, manifesting itself through a wrong spirit 
 and in a wrong direction, on the other, — is not natural 
 to man. It is a Christian virtue. The heathen were 
 ready to tolerate any thing which did not interfere 
 with the established worship of the state ; but the 
 moment a religion arose which forbade its followers 
 to unite in that, the fires of a relentless persecution 
 
368 LECTURE XII. 
 
 were every where kindled, and the whole force of 
 the civil arm was brought to bear upon it. 
 
 With this position of the priesthood and of the 
 magistracy towards Christianity, we should naturally 
 expect the tumults and outbreaks of popular passion 
 which we find were generally excited when it was 
 first preached. Vicious, unprincipled, accustomed, in 
 many instances, to gladiatorial shows and sights of 
 blood, — it was from the populace that the more im- 
 mediate danger to the preachers of Christianity often 
 arose. 
 
 Nor was Christianity less opposed to the philoso- 
 phers, or less opposed by them, than by other classes 
 of the community. " Their sects, though numerous, 
 and exceedingly various, were all agreed in proudly 
 trusting in themselves that they were wise, and de- 
 spising others. Their published opinions, their pri- 
 vate speculations, their personal immorality, made 
 them irreconcilable adversaries of Christianity. It 
 went up into their schools, and called their wisdom 
 foolishness, and rebuked their self-conceit. 'What 
 will this babbler say ? He seemeth to be a setter 
 forth of strange gods,' were the taunting words of 
 certain of the Epicureans and Stoics when they en- 
 countered St. Paul. Mockery was the natural expres- 
 sion of their minds when they heard of the resurrection 
 of the dead. The apostles, therefore, in attempting 
 to propagate the gospel among the Gentiles, were 
 opposed by all the wit, and learning, and sophistry, — 
 all the pride, and jealousy, and malice, — of every sect 
 of philosophers." 
 
 These remarks will enable us to judge whether the 
 state of the world was at that time favorable to the 
 
LECTURE XII. 3G9 
 
 propagation of Christianity ; for on this point very 
 different views seem to be entertained by different 
 persons. Of those Avho think the state of tlie world 
 was thus favorable, there are two classes. Some have 
 thought they could see the hand of Divine Providence 
 in the arrangements and preparations which they think 
 were made for its introduction ; while others evidently 
 speak of it in this way for the purpose of diminishing 
 the force of the argument usually drawn from the 
 propagation of Christianity. To the most, however, it 
 has seemed that the state of the world never opposed 
 greater obstacles to the propagation of such a religion. 
 On the one hand, it is said that the world was at peace, 
 and was united under one government, and that it was 
 easy to pass from place to place, and to affect a large 
 mass, and that the force of the old superstitions was 
 expended, and that the minds of the people were pre- 
 pared for a new religion. On the other hand, it is 
 said that if it was an age of peace, that only gave 
 opportunity to examine the claims of the new re- 
 ligion with the more care ; that it was an enlightened 
 age, an age of literature and refinement, of vice, of a 
 general prevalence of the Epicurean philosophy, and of 
 skepticism ; and that it was the very last period in the 
 history of the world in which any thing false or feeble 
 would have been likely to succeed. This is my im- 
 pression. For the extension of such a religion as 
 Christianity, with its indubitable evidence and mighty 
 motives, there were certainly many things most favor- 
 able ; but if Christianity had not been what it claimed 
 to be, — certainly the most enlightened, and civilized, 
 and skeptical age which the world had ever seen would 
 have been the most unfavorable period for its propaga- 
 
 •47 
 
370 LECTURE XII. 
 
 tion. What would, the infidel have said if, instead of 
 springing up in this age of light and refinement, Chris- 
 tianity had first been spread among an ignorant and 
 barbarous people ? But, however this point may be 
 decided, if any man thinks it could be an easy thing, 
 under any circumstances, to cause such a religion as 
 Christianity to take the place of any thing, or of noth- 
 ing, in the mind of any human being, so that that 
 person, too, should become a centre of influence to 
 extend the religion to others, he has only to try the 
 experiment any where, and under the most favorable 
 circumstances. Let him take the first unconverted 
 man he meets in the streets, and try to make him 
 an active Christian, — such as tens of thousands and 
 millions must have become on the first preaching of 
 Christianity, — and he will have some conception of the 
 difficulty of working a change in the wills, and habits 
 of thought, and object of pursuit, and whole mode of 
 life, of people of different nations, of the most various 
 belief, of every age and condition. But this did the 
 apostles. 
 
 3. And now, by what instrumentality did they ac- 
 complish this? On this I need not dwell. Eleven 
 men, — for it was not till after the death of Christ that 
 the great enterprise of converting the world was com- 
 menced, — eleven men, without learning, or wealth, or 
 rank, or power, from the humble walks of life, among a 
 despised people, never resorting to force, and having no 
 connection with politics, by a simple statement of facts, 
 by preaching Christ and him crucified, subverted the 
 divinely-appointed institutions of Judaism, and over- 
 turned the superstitions of ages throughout the known 
 world. The history of the race has nothing to show 
 
LECTURE XII. 371 
 
 that can for a moment comi)arc with this. If Moham- 
 medanism may be compared with Cln'istianitj in 
 respect to the rapidity of its extension, it is yet in 
 entire contrast with it in all the circumstances in which 
 it arose, and in all the means adopted for its diffusion. 
 Wiiilc it confined itself to persuasion, it accomplished 
 nothing worthy of notice ; and it never has been ex- 
 tended at all in the only method by which it can be 
 clearly shown that a true religion must be extended. 
 Its sway is perpetuated only as it holds its sabre over 
 the neck of its followers, and threatens them with in- 
 stant death if they turn to any other religion. Wheth- 
 er, then, we examine the nature of the case, or look 
 at it in the light of history, we must feel that the 
 propagation of such a religion, in opposition to such 
 obstacles, with such rapidity, and by such means, is a 
 moral miracle, and can be reasonably imputed only to 
 the power of truth and of God. How will the infidel 
 account for it ? Does he believe that these men were 
 weak and deluded ? Then he believes that weak and 
 deluded men could accomplish a work requiring greater 
 moral power than any other. Does he believe they 
 were deceivers ? Then he believes that these men 
 labored, and suffered, and died, to cause others to 
 believe that which they did not believe themselves. 
 
 We now proceed to the effects and tendencies of 
 Christianity. If it can be shown that this religion, 
 and this alone, has been the cause of the greatest 
 blessings that mankind have enjoyed ; and that, if fully 
 received, it would carry the individual and society to 
 the highest possible state of perfection in this life, and 
 fit man for the highest conceivable state of hap[)iness 
 
372 LECTURE XII. 
 
 hereafter, — it must bo from God. And this can be 
 shown. Nor, in speaking of this subject, would 1 
 conceal any evil that has taken place in connection 
 with the introduction of Christianity, or any iniquity 
 that has been perpetrated by those who have borne its 
 name. I only ask that men will distinguish, as every 
 candid man must, between tendencies and actual re- 
 sults when those tendencies are perversely and wick- 
 edly thwarted ; and also between names and things. 
 
 The persecution by Nero — to illustrate the first 
 distinction — was an evil, and without Christianity it 
 would not have existed. But who or what was the 
 cause of it ? Was it the inoffensive Christians, simply 
 asserting their own inherent right to love the Saviour, 
 and to worship God according to the dictates of their 
 own conscience ? or was it the wickedness of Nero 
 and of his creatures? When, at the command of 
 Christ, the devil went out of one who had been pos- 
 sessed, and tore him, and left him as dead, was it 
 Christ who was the cause of this suffering? And 
 thus has it always been with Christianity, whether its 
 object has been to enjoy its own rights or to benefit 
 others. If evil has arisen, it has been because men 
 have persecuted Christians, and have sought to take 
 from them the inalienable rights which God has given ; 
 or because, when Christianity has attacked great and 
 deeply-seated evils, as idolatry and slavery, men have 
 clung to these with a wicked pertinacity, and the devil 
 has not been cast out of society without rending it. 
 
 In regard to the second distinction, that between 
 names and things, there is a very general delusion 
 which steals insensibly over the mind from the appli- 
 cation of the term ' Christian' to those who are in no 
 
LECTURE XII. 373 
 
 sense governed by Christian principle. If men would 
 test the effect of a medicine, they must take that, and 
 not something else which they may choose to call by 
 that name. If they take arsenic, and call it flour, the 
 mere fact that they call it by a wrong name will not 
 prevent its poisonous effects. And so ambition, and 
 pride, and vanity, and selfishness, in its various forms, 
 will produce their own appropriate effects, in whatever 
 form of society they may exist, and by whatever name 
 they may be called. Keeping these two distinctions 
 in view, it may easily be shown that Christianity has 
 really been the cause of no evil, Avhile it has conferred 
 infinite blessings upon mankind, and only waits to be 
 fully received, to introduce a state as perfect as can be 
 conceived of in connection with the present physical 
 constitution of things. 
 
 Certainly, no revolution that has ever taken place in 
 society can be compared to that which has been pro- 
 duced by the words of Jesus Christ. Those words 
 met a want, a deep want, in the spirit of man. They 
 placed in the clear sunlight of truth a solution of those 
 profound problems and enigmas, in relation to man 
 and his destiny, about which the philosophers only dis- 
 puted. They more than confirmed every timid hope 
 which the wisest and best of men had cherished. He 
 pointed men to a Father in heaven, to the mansions 
 of rest which he would prepare. He " brought life 
 and immortality to light." He erected a perfect 
 standard of morals, and insisted upon love to God and 
 love to man, and he stood before men in the glorious 
 light of his own perfect example. He spoke, and that 
 spiritual slumber of the race which seemed the image 
 of death was broken up, and a movement commenced 
 
374 LECTURE XII. 
 
 in the moral elements that has not ceased from that 
 day to this, and that never will cease. Those who 
 were mourning heard his voice, and were comforted ; 
 those who were weary and heavy-laden heard it, and 
 found rest unto their souls. It stirred up feelings, 
 both of opposition and of love, deeper than those of 
 natural atfection. It therefore set the son against the 
 father, and the father against the son, and caused a 
 man's foes to be they of his own household. Having 
 no affinity with any of the prevalent forms of idolatry 
 and corruption, and making no compromise with them, 
 it turned the world upside down wherever it came. 
 Before it, the heathen oracles were dumb, and the 
 fires upon their altars went out. It acted as an in- 
 visible and secret force on society, communing with 
 men upon their beds by night, dissuading them from 
 wickedness, seconding the voice of conscience, giv- 
 ing both distinctness and energy to its tones, now 
 whispering, and now^ speaking with a voice that made 
 the stoutest tremble, of righteousness, temperance, and 
 of a judgment to come. It opened heaven, and spoke 
 to the ear of hope. It uncovered that world, "where 
 their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 
 It was stern in its rebukes of every sin, and encour- 
 aged every thing that was " pure, and lovely, and of 
 good report." Being addressed to man universally, 
 without regard to his condition or his nation, it paid 
 little regard to differences of language, or habits, or the 
 boundaries of states. Persecution was aroused ; it 
 kindled its fires, it brought forth its wild beasts. Blood 
 flowed like water, but the blood of the martyrs was 
 the seed of the church. No external force could avail 
 against a power like this. The word was spoken, and 
 
LECTURE XII. 375 
 
 it could not be recalled. The hand of God had made 
 a new adjustment in the movement of the moral 
 world, and the hand of man could not ])ut it back. 
 No other revolution has ever been so extensive or so 
 radical. Moving on directly to the accom})lishm(uit of 
 its own more immediate and higher objects, the voice 
 of Christ has incidentally caused, not only moral, but 
 social and civil revolutions. It has banished idolatry 
 and polytheism, with tlieir inseparable degradations, 
 and pollutions, and cruelty. Human sacrifices, offered 
 by our own ancestors, by the Greeks, and Romans, and 
 Carthaginians, and the ancient worshippers of Baal 
 and Moloch, — offered now in the islands of the Pa- 
 cific, and in India, and in Africa, — cease at once where 
 Christianitv comes. It was before its li2;ht had visited 
 this continent, that seventy thousand human beings 
 were sacrificed at the consecration of a single temj)le.* 
 It has banished the ancient games, in which men slew 
 each other, and were exposed to the fury of wild beasts, 
 for the amusement of the ])eople. It has banished 
 slavery, once so prevalent, from Europe, and from a 
 large portion of this continent. To a great extent it 
 has put an end to the exposure of infants. It has 
 elevated woman, and given her the place in society 
 which God designed she should occupy. By putting 
 an end to polygamy, and to frequent divorces, it has 
 provided for the cultivation of the domestic and nat- 
 ural affections, for the proper training of children, and 
 for all the unspeakable blessings connected with the 
 purity and peace, and mutual love and confidence, of 
 Christian families. It has so elevated the general 
 
 * Prescott's Mexica 
 
376 LECTURE XII. 
 
 Standard of morality, that unnatural crimes, and the 
 grosser forms of sensuality, which once appeared openly, 
 and were practised and defended by philosophers, now 
 shrink away and hide themselves in the darkness. It 
 has diminished the frequency of wars, and mitigated 
 their horrors. It has introduced the principle of gen- 
 eral benevolence, unknown before, and led men to be 
 willing to labor, and suffer, and give their property, for 
 the good of those whom they have never seen, and 
 never expect to see in this life. It has led men to 
 labor for the w^elfare of the soul, and, in connection 
 with such labors, to provide for the sufferings and for the 
 physical wants of the poor ; and it is found that these 
 two go hand in hand, and cannot be separated. If 
 there be here and there a mistaken zealot, or a phari- 
 saical professor of Christianity, who would seem to be 
 zealous for the spiritual wants of men, and yet would 
 say to the hungry and the naked, Be ye clothed and be 
 ye fed, — at the same time giving them nothing to sup- 
 ply their wants, — it is also found, not only that the 
 truest regard for the present well-being of man must 
 manifest itself through a regard for his spiritual wants, 
 but also that, when a regard to those wants ceases, the 
 lower charity which cares for the body w ill decay with 
 it. When the tree begins to die at the top, where the 
 juices are elaborated that nourish it, it will die down. 
 Christianity alone has built hospitals for the sick and 
 for the insane, and almshouses, and houses of refuge, 
 and provided for the instruction and reformation of those 
 confined as criminals. Was there ever any thing in a 
 heathen land like what is to be seen at South Boston ? 
 What book is it that the blind are taught to read ? If 
 there had been no Bible, and no such estimate of the 
 
LECTURE XII. 377 
 
 worth of man as that contains, can any one bcHcve 
 that the great work of printing for the blind would 
 have been performed ? or that the deaf and dumb 
 would have been so provided for ? When I recently 
 saw those blind children so instructed, and heard them 
 sing, — when I saw thoughts and feelings chasing each 
 other like light and shade over the speaking counte- 
 nance of Laura Bridgman, deaf, and dumb, and blind, — 
 I could not but feel, thou^i the ordinary fountains of 
 knowledge were still sealed up, yet that in a high 
 sense it might be said to them and to her, as Peter said 
 to Eneas, " Jesus Christ maketh thee whole." 
 
 And what Christianity has hitherto done, it is now 
 doing. It is to some extent imbodying its force in 
 missionary operations, and it has lost none of its 
 original power. Men are found ready to take their 
 lives in their hands ; to forsake their country, and 
 friends, and children ; and go among the heathen, for 
 the love of Jesus ; and it is found that the same sim- 
 ple preaching of the cross, that was mighty of old to 
 the pulling down of strongholds, is still accompanied 
 with a divine powder ; and nations of idolaters, savages, 
 cannibals, infanticides, are seen coming up out of the 
 night of paganism, and taking their place among civ- 
 ilized, and literary, and Christian nations. 
 
 These, and such as these, are the public, visible, and 
 undeniable effects of Christianity, uniformly produced 
 in any community in proportion as a pure Christianity 
 prevails. To me, however, these are rather indications 
 of a great w^ork, than the work itself. They are but as 
 the coral reef that appears above the surface, w^hich is 
 as nothing to the deep and concealed labors of the little 
 ocean architect. Like that architect in the ocean, 
 
 48 
 
378 LECTURE XII. 
 
 Christianity begins at the bottom of society, and works 
 up. It never acts successfully upon the faculties of 
 man as an external force. It must act through these 
 faculties, and hence it can change public institutions 
 and forms of government, and produce those great 
 public effects which are noticed, only as it changes in- 
 dividuals. How immense the work, how mighty the 
 changes which must have been wrought in individuals, 
 before these imbodied and^public effects could appear ! 
 Such institutions and effects are the results of a life, a 
 vitality, a power ; and they stand as the indices and 
 monuments of its action. When I see the earth cov- 
 ered with vegetation, — when I see a vast forest stand- 
 ing and clothed with the green robes of summer, — I 
 know there must have been an amazing amount of 
 elemental action. I think how the atmosphere, and the 
 light, and the moisture, and the earth, must have con- 
 spired together, and how the principle of vegetable life 
 must have lifted up the mass, particle by particle, till 
 at length it had formed the sturdy trunk, and set his 
 "coronal" of green leaves upon the monarch of the 
 forest. And so, when I see these results, these institu- 
 tions, standing in their freshness and greenness, — when 
 I see the moral desert budding and blossoming, — I know 
 there must have been the play of moral life, the clear 
 shining of truth, the movement of the Spirit of God, 
 and the deep, though, it may be, silent strugglings of 
 the spirit of man. Then I know that conscience must 
 have been aroused, and that there has been the anxious 
 questioning, and the earnest struggle, and that the tear 
 of penitence has flowed, and that the secret prayer has 
 gone up, and that songs of hope and salvation have 
 taken the place of a sense of guilt and of anxious fear. 
 
LECTURE XII. 379 
 
 Then I know that tliere have been holy lives and 
 hapjjy deaths. Such changes in individuals, and such 
 results, who that lives in these days has not seen ? 
 Such changes and results it is the great object of 
 Christianity to produce. When it shall produce these 
 changes fully upon all, fitting them for heaven, then, 
 and not till then, will its tendencies be fully carried 
 out. Then will every thing wrong in the constitu- 
 tion and relations of society be displaced, and with- 
 out violence, as the organization of the chrysalis is 
 displaced by that of the bright and winged being that 
 is enfolded within it, and society shall come forth in 
 its perfect state. Then shall the will of God be done ; 
 and this earth, so long tempest-tossed, like a clear and 
 peaceful lake, shall reflect the image of heaven. 
 
 Thus, as well as I was able under the severe pres- 
 sure of other duties, with a sincere desire to promote 
 the views of the munificent founder of these courses 
 of lectures, and I trust with some sense of my respon- 
 sibility to God, have I presented, separately, such ar- 
 guments as the time would permit for the truth of 
 Christianity ; but, if we would see the proof in all its 
 strength, we must look at these arguments in their 
 united force. We know that an argument may be 
 framed from separate circumstances, each of which 
 may have little weight, while the force of the whole 
 combined shall amount to a moral demonstration. It 
 is in this way that some of the separate arguments for 
 Christianity are constructed ; but it is not thus that we 
 present these separate arguments as conspiring to- 
 gether. We claim that there are for Christianity 
 many separate infallible proofs, each of which is 
 
380 LECTURE XII. 
 
 sufficient of itself; but still, the general impression 
 upon the mind may be increased when they are 
 seen together. We claim that the proofs for the 
 religion of Christ are like those for his resurrection 
 given through the different senses of the disciples. 
 Some believed when they merely saw him ; some be- 
 lieved when they saw him and heard his voice. Each 
 of these was a separate and adequate proof; but 
 Thomas thought it necessary, not only that he should 
 see and hear him, but that he should put his finger into 
 the prints of the nails, and thrust his hand into his 
 side. Christ did not ask his disciples to believe with- 
 out proof then ; he does not now. He has provided 
 that which must satisfy, if he be only fair-minded, 
 even an unbelieving Thomas ; and this proof, as it 
 comes in from very various and independent sources, 
 is adapted to every mind. 
 
 We have seen that there was nothing in the nature 
 of the evidence, or in any conflict of the evidence of 
 testimony and of experience, to prevent our attaining 
 certainty on this subject. We have seen that there 
 was no previous improbability that a Father should 
 speak to his own child, benighted and lost ; or that he 
 should give him the evidence of miracles that he did 
 thus speak. We have heard the voice of Nature recog- 
 nizing, by her analogies, the affinities of the Christian 
 religion with her mysterious and complex arrange- 
 ments and mighty movements. We have seen the 
 perfect coincidence of the teachings of natural religion 
 with those of Christianity ; and, when Christianity has 
 transcended the limits of natural religion, we have 
 seen that its teachings were still in keeping with hers, 
 as the revelations of the telescope are with those of 
 
LECTURE XII. 381 
 
 the naked eye. We have seen that this religion is 
 adapted to the conscience, not only as it meets all its 
 wants as a perceiving power, by establishing a perfect 
 standard, but also as it quickens and improves the 
 conscience itself, and gives it both life and peace. 
 We have seen that, though morality was not the great 
 object of the gospel, yet that there must spring up, in 
 connection with a full reception of its doctrines, a 
 morality that is perfect. We have seen that it is 
 adapted to the intellect, to the affections, to the 
 imagination, and to the will ; that, as a restraining 
 power, it places its checks precisely where it ought, 
 and in the wisest way ; so that, as a system of excite- 
 ment, of guidance, and of restraint, it is all that is 
 needed to carry human nature to its highest point of 
 perfection. We have seen that it gives to him who 
 practises it a witness within himself; and that it is 
 fitted, and tends, to become universal, while it may be 
 traced back to the beginning of time. Such a religion 
 as this, whether we consider its scheme, or the cir- 
 cumstances of its origin, or its records in their sim- 
 plicity and harmony, we have seen could no more have 
 been originated by man than could the ocean. We 
 have seen the lowly circumstances, the unprecedented 
 claims, and the wonderful character, of our Saviour. 
 Around this religion, thus substantiated, we have seen 
 every possible form of external evidence array itself. 
 W^e have seen the authenticity of its books substan- 
 tiated, by every species of proof, both external and 
 internal. We have seen that its facts and miracles 
 were such that men could not be mistaken respecting 
 them, and that the reality of those facts was not only 
 attested, on the part of the original witnesses, by mar- 
 
382 LECTURE Xll. 
 
 tyrdom, but that it is implied in institutions and 
 observances now existing, and is the only rational 
 account that can be given of the great fact of Chris- 
 tendom. We have seen, also, that the accounts given 
 by our books are confirmed by the testimony of numer- 
 ous Jewish and heathen writers. And not only have we 
 seen that miracles were wrought, and that the great 
 facts of Christianity are fully attested by direct evi- 
 dence, but we have heard the voice of prophecy her- 
 alding the approach of Him who came travelling in 
 the greatness of his strength, and saying, " Prepare 
 ye the way of the Lord." We have seen this religion, 
 cast like leaven into society, go on working by its 
 mysterious but irresistible agency, transforming the 
 corrupt mass. We have seen it taking the lead among 
 those influences by which the destiny of the world is 
 controlled ; so that the stone which was cut out with- 
 out hands has become a great mountain ; and, finally, 
 we have seen its blessed effects, and its tendency to 
 fill the earth with righteousness and peace. 
 
 These things we have seen separately; and now, 
 when we look at them as they stand up together 
 and give in their united testimony, do they not pro- 
 duce, ought they not to produce, a full, a perfect, and 
 abiding conviction of the truth of this religion? If 
 such evidence as this can mislead us, have we not 
 reason to believe that the universe itself is constituted 
 on the principle of deception ? 
 
 May I not hope, then, that, as we have thus gone 
 together about our Zion, some of my hearers, at least, 
 have felt that her towers are impregnable, — that 
 
 '' Walls of strength embrace her round " ? 
 
LECTURE XII. 383 
 
 May I not hope that they have been led so to see 
 the certainty of those things in which they have been 
 instructed, as to gain strength in their own moral 
 conflicts, and to tread with a firmer step, and gird 
 themselves for higher exertion, in spreading this 
 blessed religion over the world ? If so, I have my 
 reward. 
 
\ 
 
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