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UNIVERSITY SBHIES. 
 
 PALEY'S EVIDENCES 
 
 CHRISTIANITY.- 
 
 WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS 
 
 CHARLES MURRAY NAIRiXE, M.A. 
 
 ©mbrrailfi of tfee iHiis of Keto^gorK. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS. 
 
 No, 285 BROADWAY. 
 
 1855. 
 
37 //oo 
 
 Kntered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 
 
 ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of 
 
 New York. 
 
 ^ 
 
 %'^ 
 
 /^ 
 
 6 
 
 STKREOTYPKD BY PRINTED BY 
 
 THOMAS B. SMITH E. O. JENKINS, 
 
 '216 William St. N. Y. 114 Nassau St. 
 
TO THE 
 
 REV. ISAAC FERRIS, D.D., LL.]). 
 
 CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY Or THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Rev. and Dear Sir — 
 
 As you suggested to me the superintendence of this 
 edition of Paley's Evidences of Christianity, I beg permis- 
 sion to throw the few prefatory remarks I have to make, 
 into the form of a letter to yourself. Dr. Chalmers has re- 
 corded his opinion that Paley's work forms, all things con- 
 sidered, the best text-book for students. My own opinion is 
 — and you were pleased to coincide in it — that, not only for 
 academical, but also for popular use, it is one of the best 
 treatises extant upon the External Evidence of our Holy 
 Faith. The argument is not more difficult, and certainly not 
 less interesting, than that which may be produced by an 
 able advocate in some important trial ; and those who ear- 
 nestly and intelligently peruse discussions of the latter sort, 
 are inexcusable if they recoil from the attentive perusal of a 
 work like the present. As a mere logical study, it is emi- 
 nently beautiful ; as an unanswerable demonstration of the 
 truth of Christianity, it is in the highest degree precious. 
 In my introductory chapter I have endeavored to state 
 
IV IlSrTKODUCTORY LETTEE. 
 
 fairly the claims of Divine Revelation. To this succeeds 
 Paley's argument, which, in proving the Historical Reality 
 of the Miracles of the New Testament, establishes the 
 claims that the Bible for itself sets forth. The notes to the 
 work are sometimes original, and frequently extracted from 
 the writings of others. I was anxious to add the authority 
 of greater names than my own humble and obscure one to 
 the opinions which these notes embody. The books on the 
 subject of the Evidences, to which I have chiefly referred, 
 are those that are most easily accessible in this country ; for, 
 in these days of daring hypotheses and new revelations, it is 
 more than ever necessary that the Christian should be able 
 to give a reason for the hope that is in him, and more than 
 ever desirable that the sciolist and the sceptic should study 
 the credentials of the Sacred Scriptures. Whenever our 
 author deserves commendation he receives it ; when cen- 
 sure, it is not withheld. The case of Dr. Paley is one that 
 strikingly illustrates the possibility of a man's being mighty 
 in stating the credentials of Revelation, and most feeble in 
 interpreting the contents of Revelation. I believe that had 
 he executed this work at a later period of his life, he would 
 have used much more caution than he has done, in speaking 
 of Morals, of Inspiration, of the Old Testament, and of the 
 peculiar object of the Gospel. But, fortunately, the very 
 inferiority of the ground which, on those points, he chooses 
 to occupy, only strengthens the arguments that he draws 
 from them. They become arguments a fortiori. Yet, after 
 all, although, in what he terms the Auxiliary Evidences of 
 Christianity, his sagacious and judge-like faculty of clear and 
 conclusive statement does not desert him, it is the Direct 
 Historical proof that constitutes the stronghold of the work. 
 
INTEODUCTOEY LETTEE. V 
 
 And this is impregnable. It is equally fatal to Deism, 
 which pronounces the Bible false ; to Naturalism, which 
 pronounces it fabulous ; and to Spiritualism^ which pro- 
 nounces it the production of mere human genius. Deism 
 has had its day. Naturalism is compelled to assume, in 
 spite of Historical fac% that the books were got up as myth- 
 ical creations during the interval between Christ's death and 
 some fancied epoch at which the books are said to have been 
 compiled from the popular legends of the church! And 
 Spiritualism maintains that the Great Teacher himself, and 
 his apostles, were not more divinely inspired, and much less 
 extensively informed, than the modern apostles of its own 
 school. The Historical chain, however, is traced up to the 
 very days of our Saviour, of whose life we have no fewer 
 than four distinct memoirs composed by Ms own contempo- 
 raries^ besides numerous other documents of the same period^ 
 which proceed upon the facts as notorious — the whole con- 
 stituting a body of proof unequalled, we believe, in any 
 other ancient historical question whatever, while the books 
 themselves, on the ground of the imdoubted miracles they 
 record, claim, in every possible form, direct and indirect, to 
 be, in very deed, the WORD. OF GOD and NOT OF 
 MAN. 
 
 I have endeavored to render this edition as complete a 
 text-book for colleges and schools as my limits would allow. 
 In my own experience I have found Paley's treatise singu- 
 larly adapted to this purpose by its perspicuity, precision, 
 and brevity — the three great requisites in such a work; 
 and it is hoped that the notes and additions to the present 
 re-issue will supply, to some extent, what was wanting to 
 make it suitable to the times in which we live. 
 
VI INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 The text and references are accurately reprinted from the 
 large English edition in two vols. 8vo. Of the notes which 
 I have added, the shorter will be found in the margin, the 
 larger at the close of the chapters. 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Very respectfully and sincerely, yours, 
 
 Charles Murray Nairnb. 
 New York, Oct. 1st, 1854. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Introductory Letter . iii 
 
 Claims of Divine Revelation 1 
 
 Prefatory Considerations 19 
 
 PAET I. 
 
 OF THE direct HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, AND WHEREIN IT 
 IS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE EVIDENCE ALLEGED FOR OTHER JaRACLES. 
 
 Propositions stated 44 
 
 PROPOSITION I. 
 
 There is satisfactory evidence that many, professing to be 
 original witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their 
 lives in labors, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily under- 
 gone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, 
 and solely in consequence of their belief of those accounts ; 
 and that they also submitted, from the same motives, to 
 new rules of conduct 46 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Evidence of the sufferings of the first propagators of Christi- 
 anity from the nature of the case 45 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Evidence of the sufferings of the first propagators of Chris- 
 tianity from profane testimony ...... 67 
 
Vm CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Indirect evidence of the sufferings of the first propagators of 
 Christianity from the Scriptures and other ancient Christian 
 writings 63 
 
 CIIAPTEPw IV. 
 
 Direct evidence of the sufferings of the first propagators of 
 Christianity from the Scriptures and other ancient Christian 
 writings 68 
 
 CHAPTER y. 
 Observations upon the preceding evidence . . . .83 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 That the story, for which the first propagators of Christianity 
 suffered, was miraculous 88 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 That it was, in the main, the story which we have now, proved 
 by indirect considerations 92 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 The same proved, from the authority of our historical Scrip- 
 tures 108 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of the authenticity of the historical Scriptures, in eleven sec- 
 tions 126 
 
 Sect. I. — Quotations of the historical Scriptures, by ancient 
 Christian writers 133 
 
 Seot. II. — Of the peculiar respect with which they were quoted . 157 
 
 Sect. III. — The Scriptures were, in very early times, collected 
 into a distinct volume . .161 
 
 Sect. IV. — And distinguished by appropriate names and titles 
 of respect 166 
 
 Sect. V. — Were publicly read and expounded in the religious 
 assemblies of the early Christians 16Y 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sect. VI. — Commentaries, &e., were anciently written upon the 
 Scriptures 170 
 
 Sect. YII. — ^They were received by ancient Christians of dif- 
 ferent sects and persuasions 1*75 
 
 Sect. VIII. — The four Gospels, the acts of the Apostles, thirteen 
 Epistles of St. Paul, the First Epistle of St. John, and the 
 First of St. Peter, were received without doubt by those 
 who doubted concerning the other books of our present 
 canon 182 
 
 Sect. IX. — Our present Gospels were considered by the adver- 
 saries of Christianity, as containing the accounts upon which 
 the religion was founded 186 
 
 Sect. X. — Formal catalogues of authentic Scriptures were pub- 
 lished, in all which our present Gospels were included . .192 
 
 Sect. XL — ^The above propositions cannot be predicated of those 
 books which are commonly called apocryphal books of the 
 New Testament 194 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Recapitulation 200 
 
 Appendix 204 
 
 PROPOSITION II. 
 
 That there is not satisfactory evidence that persons pretending 
 to be original witnesses of any similar miracles have acted 
 in the same manner in attestation of the accounts which 
 they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of 
 the truths of those accounts 208 
 
 CHAPTER I. .... . 209 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Consideration of some specific instances 233 
 
 Remarks 242 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 OF THE AUXILIARY EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Propliecy 246 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 The morality of the Gospel 276 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The candor of the writers of the New Testament . . .815 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Identity of Christ's character 329 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Originality of Christ's character 841 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Conformity of the facts occasionally mentioned or referred to 
 in Scripture, with the state of things in those times, as rep- 
 resented by foreign and independent accounts . , . 343 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Undesigned coincidences 378 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Of the history of the resurrection 876 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of the propagation of Christianity 880 
 
 Sect. IF. — Reflections upon the preceding account . . . 398 
 Sectt. III. — Of the success of Mahometanism .... 408 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 PAET III. 
 
 A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF SOME POPULAR OB- 
 JECTIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 The discrepancies between the several Gospels . . . 421 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Erroneous opinions imputed to the Apostles .... 426 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The connection of Christianity with the Jewish history . . 432 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Rejection of Christianity 448 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 That the Christian miracles are not recited, or appealed to, by 
 early Christian writers themselves, so fully or frequently as 
 might have been expected 457 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Want of universality in the knowledge and reception of Chris- 
 tianity, and of greater clearness in the evidence . . . 466 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The supposed effects of Christianity 4*74 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Conclusion 485 
 
 Inspiration of the Bible, 498 
 
CLAIMS OF DIYINE REVELATION. 
 
 [editor.] 
 
 1. The Bible is a collection of sixty-three works, by up- 
 wards of thirty different writers, who belonged to the same 
 nation, and succeeded each other, at greater or less intervals, 
 during a period of seventeen hundred years. 
 
 2. The claims of this collection are altogether peculiar. It 
 professes to be literally a revelation from God to man — a 
 supernatural^ divine communication of that which man is re- 
 quired to believe concerning God, and of the duty which God 
 requires of man. 
 
 3. If this claim can be satisfactorily established, then the 
 authority of the Bible must be supreme and decisive in all 
 matters of religious faith and practice. No system of phi- 
 losophy which is at variance with it can be correct ; no creed 
 can be true and complete which does not embody all its doc- 
 trines ; and no action can be riglit which it, either directly or 
 by fair implication, condemns. 
 
 4. The importance of these points must be abundantly 
 obvious. An infallible standard of truth in government, 
 economics, and art, would be a most desirable thing ; an in- 
 fallible standard in moral and religious truth would be the 
 most desirable of all things. It would determine the most 
 momentous of all questions — namely, man's relation to time 
 and eternity, to his fellow mortals, and to his Maker, God. 
 
 5. Infidelity — by which we mean unbelief in the proper 
 divinity and supremacy of the Bible — assumes various forms. 
 Of these, the one extreme would represent the prophets and 
 apostles, with Jesus Christ at their head, as a band of im- 
 
 1 
 
2 CLAIMS 0.7 DIVINE REVELATION. 
 
 . j;0^ter3, who- succeeded in establishing a pernicious supersti- 
 tfloii; tlie other T^'Ou'ld associate them with ordinary great 
 men, intent upon the amelioration of the world, and uttering 
 the intuitions of their own spiritual instinct as oracles direct 
 from the great Source of Truth. The former affects to re- 
 gard all revealed religion as a lie, and all ministers of religion 
 as either dupes or deceivers. The latter tells us that the 
 voice of reason is the voice of God, and leaves us to con- 
 clude that reason alone is a sufficient guide to life and im- 
 mortality ; it reminds us that the word Vates denotes both 
 prophet and poet, expecting us to infer that the prophetic and 
 poetic inspiration are identical ; it ranks the miracles of 
 Scripture with the rarer phenomena of nature, and the more 
 recent discoveries of physical science ; and it is fond of com- 
 paring the legislators and leaders, the wise men and seers, 
 the evangelists and apostles of the Bible, with the statesmen 
 and heroes, the philosophers, moralists, and reformers, of civil 
 history. The divine mission of Moses was neither more nor 
 less authentic than that of Solon or Numr ; all men of genius 
 being God-sent and God-gifted. Joshua was a conqueror of 
 the same stamp w^ith Mahommed. Isaiah was about as good 
 a poet as Homer or ^schylus, and all three were divine. 
 King David was a pious warrior and able ruler, like Crom- 
 well, with the poetic faculty superadded. Christ was a little 
 wiser and more God-like than Socrates. Paul might have 
 met his match in Modern Germany ; Peter might have found 
 a brother in Coleridge or Carlyle ; and John embraced 
 Swedenborg as a participator in the beatific vision. 
 
 6. Now, both these extreme opinions, and all intermediate 
 ones, on the authority of the Bible, are in diametric and 
 irreconcilable opposition to the plainest statements of the 
 Book itself. It professes to be a divine record of truth ; no 
 production of mere human genius, however exalted, but 
 literally the Word of the Most High, uttered either immedi- 
 ately by Himself, as on Mount Sinai, and at the door of the 
 tabernacle, or mediately by men whom he selected as His 
 
CLAIMS OF DIVINE REVELATION. 3 
 
 instruments of communication with their fellows."^ Moses 
 and the prophets, Christ and the apostles, assert that they en- 
 joyed an intercourse \Yith God entirely sui generis. They 
 speak as messengers of heaven accredited, not by superior 
 natural ability, but by signs and wonders — works which God 
 alone could perform. Not only is direct, supernatural, 
 miraculous communication with God claimed by the per- 
 sonages of Scripture, but the wit and the wisdom of men are 
 most positively disclaimed. Revelation is placed in express 
 contrast with philosophy, and the simplicity of a Divine 
 Gospel with the loftiest pretensions of reason and under- 
 standing, f 
 
 7. It will be conceded that the dream-interpreters, sooth- 
 sayers, sybils, priests, and prophets, who figure both in 
 sacred and profane history, intended the people to believe 
 that they were the channels of a knowledge more than human. 
 They did not desire to be understood figuratively, or other- 
 wise than most literally, when they professed to be mediums 
 of spiritual intelligence. But if their assertions were direct 
 and unequivocal, those of the Bible seers and messengers are 
 still more so. There is no escape from the conclusion that 
 if the latter were not even more impudent impostors, or more 
 hopeless dupes, than the former, they meant, with all emphasis, 
 to declare that they were supernaturally informed ; that the 
 authority of their teachings was supreme, infallible, celestial ; 
 that their communications were as truly the communications 
 of God, as if He had proclaimed them, in articulate thunder, 
 from the throne of heaven. To talk of Moses having re- 
 course, like Numa, to the trick of intercourse with a divine 
 being, for the purpose of giving weight to his laws ; to talk 
 of the prophets as conspiring with Moses in order to keep 
 up the theocratic delusion ; to talk of Christ and his apostles 
 as carrying out, with still greater effrontery, the same pre- 
 tence ; and yet to commend or excuse them all, for merely 
 
 * Exodus, XX. 22. Numbers, xii. 6-9. Hebrews, i. 1-2. 
 f 1 Cor. ii. 4— end. Gal. i. 11, 12. 
 
4 CLAIMS OF DIVINE EEVELATION. 
 
 recording the intuitions of their own genius in a peculiar 
 form, and according to a popular superstition, is really too 
 absurd for reasonable men. Were the Bible a poem, like 
 the Iliad or Odyssey, we could understand such doctrine. 
 All interpositions of God and His angels — all exhibitions of 
 miracle and prediction — we might then regard as the ma- 
 chinery of the tale. But though there is in the Bible much 
 fine poetry ; now occupying whole books, and now scattered 
 through it in fragments of song and prophecy ; yet no one, it 
 is presumed, will call the Bible a poem. With respect to its 
 authenticity, therefore, there can be but one alternative. It 
 is either a continuous fable — a huge historical romance — un- 
 paralleled in the annals of fiction — or it must be a veritable 
 message from the Upper Sanctuary. 
 
 8. If the Bible is a fiction ; if the Lord did not truly speak 
 unto Moses ; if the Word of the Lord really never came to 
 the prophets ; if Jesus Christ and his disciples positively did 
 no miracle ; if the whole succession of writers, from Moses 
 to St. John, have adopted the idea of a Theocracy, or special 
 Divine government, merely as a frame-work, around which 
 to weave the history and literature of a nation, a code of laws, 
 a system of morals, and a scheme of religion ; then, not only 
 is the fiction most extraordinary, and altogether inexplicable, 
 but the doctrines and precepts of the collection, however ex- 
 cellent they may be in themselves, come to us under such 
 circumstances of suspicion and discredit, as to deprive them 
 of more than half their efficacy. To seek our instruction on 
 the nature and character of God, on the origin and issues of 
 evil, on a future state of rewards and punishments, on the 
 whole conduct of life and the unseen arrangements of eternity, 
 on the nature of the soul and the destiny of the body, on the 
 spiritual intelligences that people God's universe, on the ruin 
 and redemption of the human race ; — we say, that to be sent 
 to seek our instruction on questions so difficult, and so tran- 
 scendently momentous as these, in a series of works which 
 perpetually proceed upon the basis of a monstrous falsehood, 
 
CLAIMS OF DIVINE EEYELATION. 5 
 
 or, at best, of a mythical superstition, is to outrage common 
 sense, and defeat the end of instruction, by a wanton insult 
 to the dignity of man. Give us in preference Hesiod, Homer, 
 and Virgil, who are confessedly writers of fiction ; give us 
 Plato and Cicero — for they treat us like rational beings;, and 
 do not expect us, like marvel-loving barbarians, to pick im- 
 perfect notions of divine things from a mass of eastern fable, 
 related with all coolness, and confidence, and grave circum- 
 stantiality, as God's authentic truth ! 
 
 9. If, on the other hand, the Bible is true ; if God did 
 really speak to Moses ; if His word did really come to 
 the prophets ; if Christ really descended from heaven, and, 
 with the authority of a celestial messenger, taught life and 
 immortality ; if he brought with him the seal of Omnipotence 
 in the possession of miraculous power ; if he rose from the 
 dead and ascended into heaven ; if he appointed followers to 
 propagate and expound his religion, and empowered them 
 also to work miracles in attestation of their mission ; if there 
 is satisfactory evidence that these things are true, then, 
 honesjly and indisputably, the Bible must be a Divine Reve- 
 lation, whose deliverances, when fairly interpreted, are de- 
 cisive on all the great questions of faith and practice which 
 it undertakes to determine. 
 
 10. We are the more anxious to present this alternative 
 clearly, because the prevailing infidelity of the present day 
 is not disposed to characterize the Bible as a fable, and the 
 founders of the Christian faith as -impostors. Nevertheless, 
 it renders nugatory the decisive authority of the Bible, by ac- 
 cepting low and erroneous views of the claims which the 
 Bible unquestionably holds forth. That various interpreters 
 put various meanings on some important portions of Scrip- 
 ture, and draw conclusions directly opposed to each other on 
 some doctrines of really vital consequence, is a flict which 
 cannot be denied. Nay, in the case of a record so volumi- 
 nous and varied, this diversity of exposition was most natur- 
 ally to be expected, so long, at least, as human interests and 
 
6 CLAIMS OF DIVINE REVELATION. 
 
 passions continue to affect the purity of our vision, and the 
 honesty of our judgment. One obvious and remarkable 
 property of the Bible is, that it does not come to us in the 
 shape of a creed or confession of faith, containing a formal 
 and philosophic statement of facts and doctrines. Although 
 the errors and heresies that crept into the early Christian 
 Church, called forth from the apostles and evangelists epistles 
 and treatises, written in avowed opposition to imperfect his- 
 tories and heterodox opinions, yet the unscientific and anti- 
 technical character of the Scriptures, as a whole, is carefully 
 preserved. This peculiarity of structure in the Bible pos- 
 sesses manifest advantages. It secures a beauty, variety, and 
 attractiveness which otherwise would have been utterly lost. 
 It renders the collection fit for the perusal of all classes, 
 learned and unlearned. It shows the truth of God, not in 
 bare scientific outline, but in its operations and effects, upon 
 the life of man. It displays the Divine attributes and ad- 
 niinistration, not in metaphysical and theoretic nakedness, but 
 in diversified practical appliance to the circumstances of God's 
 creation. It exhibits a concrete, and not an abstract system 
 of religion. It gives us an interesting and instructive series 
 of annals, narratives, memoirs, letters, and poems, instead of 
 a dry parliamentary proclamation of facts and principles such 
 as a mere lawyer loves. And above all, it puts to proof the 
 sincerity and diligence of every reader, by requiring a fair 
 and careful interpretation of communications with which the 
 Omniscient has been pleased " at once to intrust and to try 
 us." But even if the Bible had assumed the form of a phi- 
 losophical treatise on Theology and Morals, or an elaborately 
 prepared constitution of Divine government, the question 
 still arises whether, in compensation for the sacrifice of so 
 many other advantages, it would have been possible, by the 
 employment of human speech addressed to human under- 
 standing, to produce a document embracing so great a variety 
 of topics bearing directly on the most momentous concerns 
 of humanity, which would have precluded all difference of 
 
CLAIMS OF DIVINE REVELATION. 7 
 
 opinion among mankind, in their present imperfect condition. 
 All experience demonstrates that this would not have been 
 possible. Even in the case of compositions, where no points 
 of superhuman difficulty are treated, and where the nicest 
 exactness has been studied to express facts and principles 
 that were intensely familiar to the authors, perfect unanimity 
 of interpretation has never been secured. The Constitution 
 of the United States was prepared by men of acknowledged 
 wisdom qnd genius. Although comprising numerous par- 
 ticulars, it will not compare with the Scriptures in their 
 multifarious range. It is a body of plain rules that were 
 carried out into action, under the superintendence of those 
 who framed them, and who most thoroughly understood what 
 they were intended to convey. Its authors were placed in 
 circumstances very singularly calculated to inspire them with 
 perfect earnestness and unity of purpose ; it was written with 
 all the care, precision, and perspicuity of which men, so 
 gifted and so situated, were capable ; and it was reviewed 
 and canvassed, criticised, weighed and approved, in its every 
 clause and term, by the councils of a people whom recent 
 fiery trial had fused, more completely, perhaps, than ever 
 before happened in the history of nations, into one mass of 
 watchful, jealous, and sincere patriots. Nevertheless, how 
 great is the contrariety of opinion held by different parties, 
 upon several of the provisions of the American Constitution, 
 and even, in some respects, upon its general scope and ten- 
 dency ! All the zeal, intelligence, honesty, and extraordinary 
 pains exercised by its framers have not prevented controversy 
 among their posterity, neither is entire unanimity to be ex- 
 pected, unless some manifest and overmastering danger shall 
 quell the spirit of party, or some marvellous accession of 
 virtue shall purge the general eyesight, so that pure and 
 penetrating candor shall sit in judgment on the great charter 
 of our government. To object, therefore, to the Bible be- 
 cause, variant and contradictory interpretations are put by 
 frail and fallible mortals upon some of its statements, and 
 
8 CLAIMS OF DIVINE REVELATIOlSr. 
 
 opposing doctrines are drawn by adverse sects from a partial 
 or biassed comparison of its parts, is to deny the possibility 
 of a written revelation altogether. Let it be remembered 
 that, in the production of such a w^riting, the Spirit of God 
 must employ an imperfect instrument to affect an imperfect 
 faculty — namely, human speech to inform human understand- 
 ing ; and that, too, on many points of which human lan- 
 guage, at the best, can only convey, and human intellect, at 
 the best, can only receive, a merely approximate expression. 
 This last consideration increases the difficulty infinitely, and 
 calls for the exercise of a power superior to reason, even of 
 Faith, which as " she is above reason, so she best holds the 
 reins of it from her high seat." What, then, it may be de- 
 manded, is the use of a written revelation, if, afler all, it does 
 not secure unanimity of sentiment among believers ? We 
 answer that it ultimately will secure it. The truths of science 
 are not created ; they are only evolved. Newton did not 
 enact the law of gravitation ; he merely discovered its exist- 
 ence in the solar system. The truths of astronomy were 
 written on the heavens from the beginning. They existsd 
 there as a standard to which all astronomical speculation 
 might be referred ; and as patient observation and honest 
 reason persevered, the right interpretation of the phenomena 
 was found. The scroll of the firmament was a divine reve- 
 lation, shining forth continually amid the clouds and currents 
 of error and prejudice, reclaiming against all false and con- 
 tradictory hypotheses ; and at length unfolding, to the child- 
 like soul of the English sage, the real mind of God in the 
 motions of the celestial orbs. So, also, in the case of Bible 
 revelation. The truth of God may be most accurately stated 
 there, even though men may not yet perceive it exactly as it 
 is revealed. God may desire — indeed, it is best for us, and 
 most consistent with His ways, that He should desire — to test 
 our honesty and earnestness on this mighty matter. Mean- 
 while, the standard is still uplifted ; the eternal counsels are 
 emblazoned thereon ; and if ever the prediction be fulfilled, 
 
CLAIMS OF DIVIN-E REVELATION. 9 
 
 that the love of God shall fill the earth, then manly self- 
 denial, and humble docility, and far-looking devotion, and 
 serene purity of heart — those great reasoners — shall find, we 
 doubt not, in the Divine Word, harmonies not less complete, 
 and much more marvellous than have been traced by 
 kindred virtues in the starry vault. The sound of contro- 
 versy shall by degrees wax low ; the surges of polemical dis- 
 putation shall subside ; and, as the Spirit of God shall move 
 upon the face of the waters and soothe them to repose, they 
 shall become, as it were, a mirror, in which the light of 
 heaven shall be reflected without distortion — a clear and per- 
 fect image of the truth. 
 
 11. That the Bible really is such a standard — really is 
 what it claims to be — has been established by a weight of 
 argument unequalled in any other instance of historical testi- 
 mony. The entire set of proofs which learning and talent 
 have elaborated on the question would occupy the volumes 
 of a library ; but of all the demonstrations of the truth of 
 the Christian religion, none is more, distinguished by sagacity, 
 fairness, and logical power, than the work of Archdeacon 
 Paley. The whole treatise is so calm, clear, sensible, dis- 
 passionate, unsectarian, geometrically demonstrative, it seems 
 impossible that any one accustomed to weigh evidence and 
 judge of probabilities — a lawyer, for example, or a phi- 
 losophical critic — who peruses it with ordinary care and can- 
 dor, can rise from the perusal of it unconvinced ; and were 
 such a case of proof submitted, as in court, to an intelligent 
 jury, we are persuaded that their verdict of proven would be 
 unanimous and immediate. Nelson, in his " Cause and Cure 
 of Infidelity," makes the following statement : " I know not 
 why it is ; but it is the result of eighteen years' experience, 
 that lawyers^ of all those with whom I have examined, exer- 
 cise the clearest judgment while investigating, the evidences 
 of Christianity." The secret of this peculiarity is obvious. 
 The lawyer's business is to weigh testimony and appreciate 
 probabilities ; his profession trains him in this art ; he knows 
 
10 CLAIMS OF DIVIKE REVELATION. 
 
 the true power of evidence ; his common sense is awake upon 
 the point ; and therefore we are not surprised that one legal 
 friend, of whom Mr. Nelson speaks, should have said to a 
 brother of the bar, after seriously examining the first volume 
 of Home's Introduction : " Were I a juror, and had sworn 
 the ordinary oath, and were you, as one of the parties, to 
 establish just this amount of evidence, nor more nor less, 1 
 should declare, by my verdict, that your point was proved." 
 If such be true of Home, it is still more emphatically true 
 of Paley. The first part of his work — the direct historical 
 evidence — is compiled from Lardner's laborious collection, 
 but arranged with his own inimitable skill and clearness ; 
 and appears to us quite unanswerable, except upon principles 
 that would subvert all history, and render all testimony use- 
 less. So perfect is the argument, that Archbishop Whately 
 has selected it for illustrative analysis in his treatise on Logic. 
 The second part, which treats of the auxiliary evidences^ is 
 equally conclusive so far as it goes. The argument from 
 prophecy is stated with Paley's usual accuracy and skill ; but 
 the illustration of it is brief and meagre. In those days the 
 proofs of the fulfilment of prophecy were not so accessible as 
 in these times of extensive travel and antiquarian research. 
 Assyria and Egypt, Palestine and Petra, were not then fa- 
 miliar to the western world, as they are now. Besides, a few 
 strong and unexceptionable examples of accomplished pre- 
 diction, are as good as a thousand, to establish the exercise of 
 Divine foreknowledge, just as in natural theology a few un- 
 questionable and striking instances of design and contrivance 
 are sufficient to reveal a Designer and Contriver. All ad- 
 ditional cases are merely corroborative. And farther, as 
 there are many prophecies in the Bible concerning the ac- 
 complishment of which Christians themselves are not agreed, 
 our author has shown his sagacity, rather timidly we admit, 
 but still erring on the side of safety, by refraining from the 
 introduction of any matter about which even the smallest 
 difference of opinion might possibly exist — well knowing that 
 
CLAIMS OF DIVINE KEVEIjATION. 11 
 
 an adversary is sure to assail any point of seeming weakness, 
 and to leave untouched that which is manifestly impregnable. 
 Our author's inadequate views of the nature and object of 
 the Gospel are more to be regretted than his meagreness on 
 the subject of prophecy. Nevertheless, they affect his de- 
 monstration only in so far as he takes lower ground than he 
 was entitled to occupy. If, even from that inferior position, 
 he is able to maintain his point, we may feel assured that his 
 cause is a good one ; and, perhaps, the very moderatism of 
 Paley's orthodoxy, and his destitution of what is commonly 
 called unction, may be reckoned an advantage for the con- 
 viction of those who have not yet made a study of the evan- 
 gelical scheme, and to whom a different style would be dis- 
 tasteful. The third and last part contains " A brief consider- 
 ation of some popular objections." In answering these, we 
 do not think that Dr. Paley has been altogether so successful 
 as in presenting his positive argument ; neither has he noticed 
 objections which, to some, may appear more worthy of reply 
 than those he has attempted to dispose of. But we must not 
 forget that as there have been many demonstrations of the 
 truth of Christianity, so the difficulties started by unbelievers 
 are innumerable. They have all been met by Christian 
 writers ; yet no single work could comprise the discussion of 
 them all. Neither is that necessary to a perfect proof; for 
 the only objections that, in strict logic, ought to be admitted, 
 are objections to the particular argument in hand. Our ad- 
 versaries, therefore, in dealing with Paley's demonstration, 
 are bound to show objections, not to some other demonstration, 
 but to his. Let every proof stand on its own merits ; to 
 change ground is unfair and sophistical, and betrays a con- 
 sciousness of defeat. 
 
 12. But what if the Revelation, which claims such high 
 authority, should be at variance with the discoveries of sci- 
 ence ? Are we, then, as in the case of Galileo, to put in- 
 vestigation down, and return to the bigotry of the middle 
 ages 1 Let us commence our reply to these questions by 
 
12 CLAIMS OF DIVINE KEVELATION. 
 
 asking another. How is it that we proceed in the researches 
 of any individual science ? Do we not advance by accurate 
 observation, experiment, and reasoning, being earnest after 
 truth alone, and fully confident that each department of true 
 philosophy will take care of itself, and that, in the end, all 
 truth will be found consistent and harmonious 1 If any ap- 
 parent discovery in our favorite pursuit should clash with 
 facts already regarded as established, then will we renew our 
 observations, and repeat our experiments, and review our 
 reasons, and proceed altogether with genuine philosophic 
 self-denial and caution, such as Bacon inculcated and Newton 
 practised — others doing the same in their departments — 
 until, by patient, impartial, thorough investigation of the 
 whole case, discrepancy shall disappear, and a perfect under- 
 standing be effected. It would be the height of arrogance 
 to expect that, as soon as our apparent discovery was made, 
 all other sciences with which it seemed at variance, should 
 immediately be cast aside, as if they stood on no solid founda- 
 tion, but were mere bundles of hypotheses ! The true sons 
 of science would go on with their investigations as before, 
 having due, but not undue regard to the new phenomena, and 
 never doubting that, through care, and candor, and concession 
 to the truth on all sides, every contradiction would ultimately 
 disappear. There are scientific bigots, as well as bigots 
 ecclesiastical, and both are equally odious, because both belie 
 their professions. The priests who condemned the Copernican 
 Astronomy as heretical, and the infidels who condemn Di- 
 vine Revelation as an imposture, have no right to cast a stone 
 at each other. There is a science of . testimony, a science of 
 history, a science of criticism, and a science of interpretation. 
 The learned lawyer is conversant with the first, the phi- 
 losophical historian with the second, the accomplished re- 
 viewer with the third, and the translator and commentator 
 with the fourth. These four are sciences equally with physi- 
 ology, geology, ethnology, or any other, and on these four 
 sciences T;he evidence for the truth of the Bible depends. If 
 
CLAIMS OF DIVINE REVELATION. 13 
 
 their verdict is loud and unquestionable in its favor, then 
 must that verdict be accepted. Why should the findings of 
 these sciences be willingly received in all minor instances, and 
 repudiated in the case of Revelation alone? The same kind 
 of proof that authenticates the exploits of Alexander, Hanni- 
 bal, and Caesar, will surely authenticate the deeds of Moses 
 and Christ ; the same kind of proof that establishes the hon- 
 esty of Xenophon or Sallust, will surely establish that of 
 Luke and John ; the same kind of proof that is held good in 
 the case of Shakspeare's plays, will surely hold good in the 
 case of St. Paul's Epistles ; and as to the amount of proof 
 in the sacred questions, it is tenfold greater than that which 
 can be produced in the secular. The Church has subsisted 
 amid the ruins of Empires, and her archives have been pre- 
 served while theirs have perished. The zeal of believers has 
 exceeded that of mere literary men. Suppose, therefore, 
 that some science, — physical or metaphysical — should, on oc- 
 casion, seem to land us in a conclusion that is at variance 
 w^ith the deductions of those sciences on which the evidences 
 of Christianity rest, shall the latter give way to the former, 
 or the former to the latter ? We answer that neither is to 
 give way to the other, but both to truth. Let the geologist, 
 or physiologist, or whosoever he may be, proceed onward in 
 his investigations with the honest, earnest, unpresumptuous 
 spirit of genuine philosophy ; let the historian, the critic, and 
 the interpreter do precisely the same ; and let the result be 
 left to Truth herself, who will, in the upshot, vindicate her 
 own consistency. Christianity, whenever a difference arises, 
 must not be expected, as a matter of course, to go tamely 
 and timidly to the wall, neither must science be anathema- 
 tized by ecclesiastical intolerance. The idea of a natural 
 hostility between the two is absurd; and intolerance is a 
 shame to both. So much has already been done to reconcile 
 apparent discrepancies between Science and Revelation, that 
 there is the amplest reason to believe in their perfect harmo- 
 ny. On the introduction of the Copernican Astronomy, that 
 
14 CLAIMS OF DIVINE REVELATION. 
 
 system had all the appearance of irreconcilable antagonism 
 to the Scriptures ; but now the ground of difference has been 
 removed, and the two are chief friends. Geology, too, has 
 been arrayed against the Bible ; and the history of the con- 
 flict, confined as it has been to our own day, is most instruc- 
 tive and encouraging. The earth, as a planet, was proved to 
 be much older than six thousand years. Whereupon it was 
 at once concluded that the Mosaic cosmogony must be false, 
 and Moses himself a mere pretender to supernatural inspira- 
 tion. Unwise and overzealous ecclesiastics, on the one hand, 
 denounced Geology as an infidel speculation ; infidels, on the 
 other, gloried over a baffled priesthood, and a ruined faith ; 
 but cautious and candid men, on both sides, reviewed the la- 
 bors of their friends. The geologist found that the existing 
 races of 'animals and plants on the globe were created at a 
 recent geological epoch, and that man commenced his exist- 
 ence not more than six thousand years ago ; while ecclesias- 
 tics discovered that the translation of the Mosaic account is 
 more simple, direct, and self -consistent, when executed amid 
 the light of the nineteenth, than under the comparative dark- 
 ness of the seventeenth century. The geologist positively 
 helps the interpreter out of his difficulties, and renders per- 
 fectly intelligible that which, up to the time of his discover- 
 ies, was really obscure. In fact, Geology and Sacred Her- 
 meneutics, the more they are brought into contact, and the 
 longer they advance side by side, recognize each other more 
 cordially as common friends of truth, and rejoice in their 
 mutual corroboration. Physiology, with its cognate sciences, 
 is a favorite field of infidel theorizing ; but it is also a fine field 
 of legitimate philosophy. It contributes to theology the best 
 marks of design in the works of nature ; as well as the im- 
 portant truth, that species are not transmu table ; and even in 
 that most difficult question, the descent of the whole human 
 race from one original pair, we say : " Let the physiologist 
 investigate, and the interpreter examme, each in the pure spirit 
 of true science — and here, as heretofore, the works of God 
 
CLAIMS OF DIVINE REVELATION. 15 
 
 and the word of God will turn out to be entirely at one. 
 The universality of the deluge has come to be questioned 
 even by some of the most accomplished divines. Of those 
 in England we mention the late Dr. John Pye Smith, whose 
 orthodoxy is admitted, whose piety is known, and whose 
 Scripture testimony to the Divinity of our Saviour is one of 
 the noblest monuments of Bible , Hermenei^tics that the 
 Church of Christ can show. Dr. Smith argues with much 
 ability for the only partial diffusion of the Noachian flood. 
 Of those in America, we cite Dr. Hitchcock, of Amherst 
 College, whose acquirements, both in Geology and Theology, 
 eminently fit him for pronouncing an opinion on this ques- 
 tion ; and to whose lectures on the " Religion of Geology " we 
 earnestly refer the student of the Christian Evidences, for a 
 view of the connection between Science and Revelation, and 
 of the assistance which the former lends to the interpretation 
 of the latter.* Whether we regard these scientific critics to 
 have completely succeeded in their endeavors or not, we 
 think that the spirit in which they have undertaken their task 
 is worthy of all commendation. They have pointed out the 
 method whereby the voices of Science and Scripture may be 
 brought, without marring either, into harmony ; and their 
 friendship to the Christian cause is too well known, while the 
 soundness of their judgment is too firmly established, to 
 countenance any suspicion of treachery or rashness. On this 
 matter of Scripture criticism, however, we desire not to be 
 misunderstood. We are far, very far, indeed, from even 
 hinting at the admission of laxity or compromise into the 
 interpretation of the Bible. On the contrary, it must be 
 
 * In Dr. Hitchcock's work will be found many curious and strik- 
 ing examples of the aid which modern discovery lends to the right 
 interpretation of the sacred writings ; together with numerous ref- 
 erences to, and extracts from, the most distinguished authors who 
 have written on the relations of the one to the other. To students 
 the book is at once a manual and a catalogue on this branch of the 
 Christian Evidences. 
 
16 CLAIMS OF DIVINE EEVELATION. 
 
 obvious that we are contending for still more expansive and 
 thorough investigation than ever into its real meaning, by 
 aid of all the beacons and helps which modern science and 
 research afford us. We wish simply to illustrate the spi7it 
 of mind in which all study — whether sacred or secular — ought 
 to be conducted, and without which we can never arrive at 
 satisfactory conclusions. Let not intolerance arise on either 
 side, from the seeming contradictions of Revelation and Sci- 
 ence. Harmony is not to be established by haste and de- 
 struction, but by perseverance and progress. Let not the 
 theologian denounce the philosopher in his single-minded 
 search after truth ; neither let the philosopher betray " an 
 evil heart of unbelief" by ivatching for objections to the 
 Bible — by lying in wait for the halting of God's own word. 
 Both are alike engaged in the study of a Revelation ; and 
 there should be no jealousy between them, except zeal to read 
 faithfully what is the mind of the most High in their several 
 departments. Jf the Bible does not speak in direct opposi- 
 tion to establish fects ; if its contents are not so manifestly 
 absurd as to demand the prostration of reason ; if, on the 
 contrary, it exhibits, on the face of it, innumerable marks of 
 the highest wisdom and goodness ; if its ideas of God are the 
 sublimest and the holiest ; if its morality is the purest and 
 most truly heroic ; if its prevailing spirit is the most heaven- 
 ly ; if its great leading character, Jesus Christ, is the loftiest, 
 the noblest, the wisest, the kindest, and the best ; if its ac- 
 count of human nature is the truest ; if its style is the sim- 
 plest and most sincere ; if, amid all its marvels, the narrative 
 itself is one of unparalleled calmness ; and if, in its whole 
 structure it displays the securest honesty and candor — then, 
 supported as it is by a weight of testimony, both historical 
 and critical, of which no other record can boast, to despise 
 its claims may not be scientific but presumptuous-— not philo- 
 sophical but foolish ; to entertain, and examine, and, if they 
 are well founded, to receive them, is dignified, rational, and 
 
CLAIMS OF DIVINE KEVEtiATIO:N-. 17 
 
 wise. Difficulties and discrepancies will disappear, as knowl- 
 edge and experience increase. 
 
 13. The dogmatic method of interpretation, which pre- 
 vailed in the church during the seventeenth century, is now 
 giving way to a method more enlightened, more philosophical, 
 and much more powerful as an instrument of investigation. 
 A new calculus, so to speak, has been introduced to aid our 
 researches among the records of the past. Its efficacy has 
 been tested in the com.position of history ; and in the hands 
 of judicious men, such as Schleiermacher, Neander, Hengsten- 
 berg, Dorner, and others, it is destined to be of inestimable 
 service for the ascertainment of Christian truth. Criticism 
 does not merely imply, as till recently it did, a thorough ac- 
 quaintance with the language in which an ancient author wrote ; 
 but, in addition to that, it implies a profound insight into the 
 linguistic mode of the writer, and his individuality as a thinker. 
 The latter is absolutely necessary to complete the sympathy 
 between an author and his interpreter. You cannot success- 
 fully render the meaning of an author without a quick per- 
 ception of the spirit of his age, the whole range of his ideas, 
 and the train and genius of his thoughts as modified by the 
 speculative conceptions amid which he lived, and with which 
 he had to do. A threefold induction — critical, historical, and 
 philosophical — ^must be made in order to arrive at his true 
 mind and meaning. Nobody, for example, can understand, as 
 Bunsen, speaking on this subject, observes, " the first three 
 verses of St. John's Gospel, without being at home in those 
 regions of thought, to which the questions respecting the Logos 
 belong." Let it not be imagined, however, that the histor- 
 ical method of interpretation, when legitimately applied^ can 
 lead to any overturn in the great and essential doctrines of 
 the Gospel. Its chief use is to elucidate those difficulties, and 
 remove those stumbling-blocks, which unbelievers and free- 
 thinkers have so often paraded as fatal objections to the di- 
 vine authority of the Bible. 
 
 14. It will be observed that, in the following treatise, Dr. 
 
18 CLAIMS OF DIVINE REVELATION. 
 
 Paley confines his argument to the claims of the New Testa- 
 ment Scriptures alone. That he was entitled to disunite the 
 claims of the Old Testament from those of the New is ex- 
 tremely questionable. We think the two are so inseparably 
 connected that they must stand or fall together. The utmost 
 benefit that the disjunction secures is to shorten and simplify 
 the argument ; and on that ground alone it is justifiable. 
 But this matter will be noticed more fully in its proper place. 
 In these introductory remarks we have taken the unity of the 
 two Revelations for granted. The Jewish and Christian dis- 
 pensations are the same Religion in two different stages of 
 development : the former being provisional and introductory, 
 the latter perfect and permanent. The same God and Sa- 
 viour, the same faith, the same atonement, and the same re- 
 wards belong to both ; and the light of either is the best in 
 which the other can be read. 
 
PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 I DEEM it unnecessary to prove that mankind stood in need 
 of a revelation, because I have met with no serious person 
 who thinks that, even under the Christian revelation, we have 
 too much light, or any degree of assurance which is superflu- 
 ous.* I desire, moreover, that, in judging of Christianity, it 
 may be remembered, that the question lies between this relig- 
 ion and none : for, if the Christian religion be not credible, 
 no one, with whom we have to do, will support the preten- 
 sions of any other, f 
 
 * This is the common sense view of the question, and is given 
 with the author's characteristic plainness. Learned discussion would 
 only perplex it. But such discussion is not wanting. See Leland 
 on the "Necessity of a Divine Revelation ; " in which work the Re- 
 ligion and Morality of the ancient Heathens is fully considered. 
 Philosophy had been permitted to try her skill in Theology and 
 Ethics during a period of four thousand years — and failed. This 
 was surely experiment enough. In the fulness of time^ when the in- 
 sufficiency of human reason had been practically and decisively dem- 
 onstrated, Revelation was completed, and the Divine command issued 
 for its universal promulgation. The student is referred to Alexan- 
 der's Evidences of Christianity, chapters III. and IV., where the 
 attempts of Modern philosophy in the same field, are admirably 
 handled, and the necessity of a Divine Revelation proved from the 
 nature of tlie case. See Note A at the end of this chapter. — Ed. 
 
 f By Religions are here meant Christianity and the various other 
 systems — heathen and Mohammedan, The Religion of Nature, so 
 far as it goes, is coincident with that of Revelation, — see Butler's 
 Analogy, — but the Religion of Nature is imperfect, and cannot, by 
 
20 PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 Suppose, then, the world we live in to have had a Creator ; 
 suppose it to appear, from the predominant aim and tendency 
 of the provisions and contrivances observable in the universe, 
 that the Deity, when he formed it, consulted for the happi- 
 ness of his sensitive creation ; suppose the disposition which 
 dictated this counsel to continue ; * suppose a part of the 
 creation to have received faculties from their Maker, by 
 which they are capable of rendering a moral obedience to his 
 will, and of voluntarily pursuing any end for which he has 
 designed them ; suppose the Creator to intend for these, his 
 rational and accountable agents, a second state of existence, 
 in which their situation will be regulated by their behavior 
 in the first state, by which supposition (and by no other) the 
 objection to the divine government in not putting a difference 
 between the good and the bad, and in the inconsistency of 
 this confusion with the care and benevolence discoverable in 
 the works of the Deity is done away ; suppose it to be of 
 the utmost importance to the subjects of this dispensation to 
 know what is intended for them, that is, suppose the knowl- 
 edge of it to be highly conducive to the happiness of the 
 species, a purpose which so many provisions of nature are 
 calculated to promote : Suppose, nevertheless, almost the 
 whole race, either by the imperfection of their faculties, the 
 misfortune of their situation, or by the loss of some prior 
 revelation, to want this knowledge, and not to be likely with- 
 out the aid of a new revelation to attain it : Under these cir- 
 cumstances, is it improbable that a revelation should be made ? 
 is it incredible that God should interpose for such a purpose ? 
 Suppose him to design for mankind a future state ; is it un- 
 likely that he should acquaint him with it ? 
 
 Now in what way can a revelation be made, but by mira- 
 
 any means, be substituted for the Religion of Christ. Moreover, the 
 lessons of I^ature when read in the light of Christianity, and when 
 read without that light, are very different things. See Note B at 
 the end of this chapter. — EcL 
 
 * See Paley's Natural Theology.— ^J. 
 
PREPAEATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 21 
 
 cles 1 In none -which we are able to conceive.* Consequent- 
 ly, in whatever degree it is probable, or not very improbable, 
 that a revelation should be communicated to mankind at all ; 
 in the same degree is it probable, or not very improbable, 
 that miracles should be wrought. Therefore, when miracles 
 are related to have been wrought in the promulgating of a 
 revelation manifestly wanted, and, if true, of inestimable 
 value, the improbability which arises from the miraculous 
 nature of the things related, is not greater than the original 
 improbability that such a revelation should be imparted by 
 God. 
 
 I wish it, however^ to be correctly understood, in what 
 manner, and to what extent, this argument is alleged. We 
 do not assume the attributes of the Deity, or the existence 
 of a future state, in order to prove the reality of miracles. 
 That reality always must be proved by evidence. We assert 
 only, that in miracles adduced in support of revelation there 
 is not any such antecedent improbability as no testimony can 
 surmount. And for the purpose of maintaining this asser- 
 tion, we contend, that the incredibility of miracles related to 
 have been wrought in attestation of a message from God, 
 conveying intelligence of a future state of rewards and pun- 
 ishments, and teaching mankind how to prepare themselves 
 for that state, is not in itself greater than the event, call it 
 either probable or improbable, of the two following proposi- 
 tions being true : namely, first, that a future state of exist- 
 ence should be destined by God for his human creation ; and, 
 secondly, that, being so destined, he should acquaint them 
 with it. It is not necessary for our purpose, that these prop- 
 
 * This, also, is a characteristic and common sense statement of the 
 question, and will weigh more with the mass of honest men, than a 
 hundred abstract speculations on the nature, possibility, probability, 
 and credibility of Miracles, and on the relation which Miracles bear 
 to Divine Revelation. Of such abstract arguments, however, there 
 are plenty for those who want them. See Note C at the end of this 
 chapter. — Ed. 
 
22 PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 ositions be capable of proof, or even that, by arguments 
 drawn from the light of nature, they can be made out to be 
 probable ; it is enough that we are able to say concerning 
 them, that they are not so violently improbable, so contra- 
 dictory to what we already believe of the divine power and 
 character, that either the propositions themselves, or facts 
 strictly connected with the propositions (and therefore no 
 farther improbable than they are improbable), ought to be 
 rejected at first sight, -and to be rejected by whatever strength 
 or complication of evidence they be attested. 
 
 This is the prejudication we would resist. For to this 
 length does a modern objection to miracles go, viz. : that no 
 human testimony can in any case render them credible. I 
 think the reflection above stated, that, if there be a revela- 
 tion, there must be miracles, and that, under the circum- 
 stances in which the human species are placed, a revelation is 
 not improbable or not improbable in any great degree, to be 
 a fair answer to the whole objection. 
 
 But since it is an objection which stands in the very thresh- 
 old of our argument, and, if admitted, is a bar to every 
 proof, and to all future reasoning upon the subject, it may be 
 necessary, before we proceed farther, to examine the princi- 
 ple upon which it professes to be founded ; which principle is 
 concisely this : That it is contrary to experience that a mira- 
 cle should be true, but not contrary to experience that testi- 
 mony should be false. 
 
 Now there appears a small ambiguity in the term " expe- 
 rience," and in the phrases " contrary to experience," or " con- 
 tradicting experience," which it may be necessary to remove 
 in the first place. Strictly speaking, the narrative of a fact 
 is then only contrary to experience, when the fact is related 
 to have existed at a time and place, at which time and place 
 we being present did not perceive it to exist ; as if it should 
 be asserted, that in a particular room, and at a particular 
 hour of a certain day, a man was raised from the dead, in 
 which room, and at the time specified, we, being present and 
 
PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 28 
 
 looking on, perceived no such event to have taken place. 
 Here the assertion is contrary to experience properly so call- 
 ed ; and this is a contrariety which no evidence can sur- 
 mount. It matters nothing, whether the flict be of a miracu- 
 lous nature, or not. But although this be the experience, and 
 the contrariety, which archbishop Tillotson alleged in the quo- 
 tation with which Mr. Hume opens his Essay, it is certainly 
 not that experience, nor that contrariety, which Mr. Hume 
 himself intended to object. And, short of this, I know no 
 intelligible signification which can be affixed to the term 
 "contrary to experience," but one, viz. : that of not having 
 ourselves experienced anything similar to the thing related, 
 or such things not being generally experienced by others. I 
 say " not generally : " for to state concerning the fact in ques- 
 tion, that no such thing was ever experienced, or that universal 
 experience is against it, is to assume the subject of the con- 
 troversy. 
 
 Now the improbability which arises from the want (for 
 this properly is a want, not a contradiction) of experience, is 
 only equal to the probability there is,' that, if the thing were 
 true, we should experience things similar to it, or that such 
 things would be generally experienced. Suppose it then to 
 be true that miracles were wrought on the first promylgation 
 of Christianity, when nothing but miracles could decide its 
 authority, is it certain that such miracles would be repeated 
 so often, and in so many places, as to become objects of gen- 
 eral experience ? Is it a probability approaching to certainty 1 
 is it a probability of any great strength or force 1 is it such 
 as no evidence can encounter ? And yet this probability is 
 the exact converse^ and therefore the exact measure, of the 
 improbability which arises from the want of experience, and 
 which Mr. Hume represents as invincible by human testimony. 
 
 It is not like alleging a new law of nature, or a new exper- 
 iment in natural philosophy ; because, when these are related, 
 it is expected that, under the same circumstances, the same 
 effect will follow universally ; and in proportion as this ex- 
 
24 PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 pectation is justly entertained, the want of a corresponding 
 experience negatives the history. But to expect concerning a 
 miracle, that it should succeed upon a repetition, is to expect 
 that which would make it cease to be a miracle, which is con- 
 trary to its nature as such, and would totally destroy the use 
 and purpose for which it was wrought. 
 
 The force of experience as an objection to miracles, is 
 founded in the presumption, either that the course of nature 
 is invariable, or that, if it be ever varied, variations will be 
 frequent and general. Has the necessity of this alternative 
 been demonstrated ? Permit us to call the course of nature 
 the agency of an intelligent Being ; and is there any good 
 reason for judging this state of the case to be probable? 
 Ought we not rather to expect, that such a Being, on occa- 
 sions of peculiar importance, may interrupt the order which 
 he had appointed, yet, that such occasions should return sel- 
 dom ; that these interruptions consequently should be con- 
 firmed to the experience of a few ; that the want of it, there- 
 fore, in many, should be matter neither of surprise nor ob- 
 jection ? 
 
 But as a continuation of the argument from experience, it 
 is said that, when we advance accounts of miracles, we assign 
 effects without causes, or we attribute effects to causes inade- 
 quate to the purpose, or to causes, of the operation of which 
 we have no experience. Of what causes, we may ask, and 
 of what effects does the objection speak ? If it be answered 
 that, when we ascribe the cure of the palsy to a touch, of 
 blindness to the anointing of the eyes 'vvith clay, or the rais- 
 ing of the dead to a word, we lay ourselves open to this im- 
 putation ; we reply, that we ascribe no such effects to such 
 causes. We perceive no virtue or energy in these things 
 more than in other things of the same kind. They are mere- 
 ly signs to connect the miracle with its end. The effect we 
 ascribe simply to the volition of the Deity ; of whose exist- 
 ence and power, not to say of whose presence and agency, 
 we have previous and independent proof. We have, there- 
 
PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 25 
 
 fore, all we seek for in the works of rational agents, — a suffi- 
 cient power and an adequate motive. In a word, once be- 
 lieve that there is a God, and miracles are not incredible. 
 
 Mr. Hume states the case of miracles to be a contest of 
 opposite improbabilities, that is to say, a question whether it 
 be more improbable that the miracle should be true, or the 
 testimony false ; and this I think a fair account of the contro- 
 versy. But herein I remark a want of argumentative justice, 
 that, in describing the improbability of miracles, he sup- 
 presses all those circumstances of extenuation, which result 
 from our knowledge of the existence, power, and disposition 
 of the Deity ; his concern in the creation, the end answered 
 by the miracle, the importance of that end, and its subser- 
 viency to the plan pursued in the work of nature. As Mr. 
 Hume has represented the question, miracles are alike incred- 
 ible to him who is previously assured of the constant agency 
 of a Divine Being, and to him who believes that no such 
 Being exists in the universe. They are equally incredible, 
 whether related to have been wrought upon occasions the 
 most deserving, and for purposes the most beneficial, or for 
 no assignable end whatever, or for an end confessedly trifling 
 or pernicious. This surely cannot be a correct statement. 
 In adjusting also the other side of the balance, the strength 
 and weight of testimony, this author has provided an answer 
 to every possible accumulation of historical proof by telling 
 us, that we are not obliged to explain how the story of the 
 evidence arose. Now I think that we are obliged ; not, per- 
 haps, to show by positive accounts how it did, but by a prob- 
 able hypothesis how it might so happen. The existence of 
 the testimony is a phenomenon : the truth of the fact solves 
 the phenomenon. If we reject this solution we ought to 
 have some other to rest in ; and none, even by our adversa- 
 ries, can be admitted, which is not consistent with the princi- 
 ples that regulate human affairs and human conduct at pres- 
 ent, or which makes men then to have been a different kind 
 of beings from what they are now. 
 
 2 
 
26 PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 But the short consideration which, independently of every 
 other, convinces me that there is no solid foundation in Mr. 
 Hume's conclusion, is the following : When a theorem is pro- 
 posed to a mathematician, the first thing he does with it is to 
 try it upon a simple case, and if it produce a false result, he 
 is sure that there must be some mistake in the demonstration. 
 Now to proceed in this way with what may be called Mr. 
 Hume's theorem. If twxlve men, whose probity and good 
 sense I had long known, should seriously and circumstantially 
 relate to me an account of a miracle wrought before their 
 eyes, and in which it was impossible that they should be de- 
 ceived ; if the governor of the country, hearing a rumor of 
 this account, should call these men into his presence, and offer 
 them a short proposal, either to confess the imposture, or 
 submit to be tied up to a gibbet ; if they should refuse with 
 one voice to acknowledge that there existed any falsehood or 
 imposture in the case ; if this threat were communicated to 
 them separately, yet with no different effect ; if it was at last 
 executed ; if I myself saw them, one after another, consent- 
 ing to be racked, burnt, or strangled, rather than give up the 
 truth of their account ; — still, if Mr. Hume's rule be my 
 guide, I am not to believe them. Now I undertake to say 
 that there exists not a sceptic in the world, who would not be- 
 lieve them, or w^ho would defend such incredulity.* 
 
 Instances of spurious miracles supported by strong appar- 
 ent testimony, undoubtedly demand examination ; Mr. Hume 
 has endeavored to fortify his argument by some examples of 
 this kind. I hope in a proper place to show that none of 
 
 * This mode of dealing with Hume's celebrated argument is clear, 
 straight-forward, business-like, and eminently English. For more 
 elaborate refutations, read Campbell on Miracles, Chalmers' Evi- 
 dences, Wardlaw, Alexander, and Br. Hopkins' Lowell Lectures. In 
 Dr. Alexander's Evidences will be found certain strictures, well 
 worthy of attention, on a volume of Essays published in England, 
 " On the Pursuits of Truth, on the Progress of Knowledge, and the 
 Fundamental Principles of all Evidence and Expectation." — Repub- 
 lished in Philadelphia, and lauded by the Westminster Review. — Ed. 
 
PKEPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 27 
 
 them reach the strength or circumstances of the Christian 
 evidence. In these, however, consists the weight of his objec- 
 tion : in the principle itself, I am persuaded, there is none. 
 
 Note A. 
 
 "From the entire history of the religions which have existed 
 amongst men independently of revelation, we might demonstrate the 
 need in which the world stood of such an inspired communication 
 from Deity. We might enter into a proof, not in the way of theo- 
 retical speculation, but in the only way in which a just conclusion 
 can be educed, — the way which has the sanction of human philoso- 
 phy in every other department of investigation, — namely, by the 
 process of induction, — by an appeal to facts, — of the truth of the 
 Bible position that 'the world by wisdom knew not God.' Such 
 facts there are, without number. They extend through the whole 
 period of our world's existence, and embrace all nations under 
 heaven. If, with so wide and varied a field of facts before them, — 
 if, with the experiment under their eye, made in all imaginable va- 
 riety of circumstances, some of them the most advantageous for a 
 favorable result, and yet invariably yielding the same conclusion, — 
 men will be either so disingenuous or so inconsistent with them- 
 selves, as, while they extol the experimental method of inquiry in 
 every other field, to persist in theorizing in this, we cannot help it. 
 We can only point to the inconsistency, and pray them to look at 
 the facts." — Wardlaw on Miracles, pp. 17, 18. 
 
 Note B. 
 
 "What nature without revelation teaches, and what, without reve- 
 lation, man has learned, are two widely difi'erent things ; and widely 
 diflferent things will systems of natural theology be, which are fram- 
 ed from the one and from the other. The philosopher of modern 
 days and of Christian .lands reads the lessons of nature by the aid 
 of another light than was, or is, possessed by the wise men of antiq- 
 uity and of heathenism. He reads them by the light — the unac- 
 knowledged light — of the Bible ; and thus aided, though not owning 
 the aid, he may read them well. With the same advantage, the an- 
 cient or the pagan philosopher might have read them, or might now 
 read them, as well, — perhaps even better. But the question is — 
 
28 PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 without this advantage, where, when, and by whom, have they ac- 
 tually been thus read ? Even the speculations of the most profound 
 and sagacious have amounted to little more than dim and dubious 
 conjectures. And even as to the nearest approximations to truth, 
 there is no small ground for regarding them as having been either 
 imported from Palestine, or the meagre and mutilated remnants of 
 primitive tradition. 
 
 "Still, — notwithstanding the fact, that it has thus been by the 
 help of the Bible, direct or indirect, consciously or unconsciously, 
 that such theories of natural theology have been framed, — and not- 
 withstanding the probability thence arising of the Bible being the 
 revelation needed, — of this Book being the very desideratum requir- 
 ed ; in a case so solemn and momentous, such evidence could not be 
 held as of itself sufficient. "We reasonably look for more, for much 
 more. And more, — much more, we have. In the language of one 
 of the penmen of the Book whose claims are the subject of question, 
 we have ' many infallible proofs.' The field, indeed, is so wide, and 
 the materials so ample, that the difficulty lies, not in finding, but in 
 selecting ; not in knowing what to say, but rather what not to say. 
 "We have no fear from inquiry. All such fear we hold to be a dis- 
 honor to truth, and an indication of the weakness of faith. All 
 truth is consistent. So that, if that which we hold to be true be 
 really so, no future discoveries can ever alter, or ever invalidate it, 
 but must, on the contrary, illustrate and establish it. Our appre- 
 hensions are from the want of inquiry. "We desire, we court, we 
 urge investigation. We have no idea of honoring with the name of 
 faith anything, be its pretensions what they may, that consists in a 
 blind assent to unexamined truth, on unexamined evidence. An in- 
 spired Apostle — (if I may be allowed, in the meanwhile, to speak on 
 the assumption of his inspiration) — enjoins believers of the gospel 
 to * be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh them 
 a reason of the hope that is in them.' Now, whatever is the reason 
 of our hope must be the reason of our faith, — for it is in what we 
 believe that our hope has its foundation. So that, if we are hoping 
 without reason, it must be because we are believi^ig without reason. 
 There is a way which some persons have of distinguishing between 
 reason and faith, in which, as it seems to us, there is neither faith 
 nor reason. They talk of faith, as if it were something quite inde- 
 pendent of reason ; something quite above it, — quite transcendental ; 
 something that rests on no ascertained, defined, proveable grounds ; 
 something, in a word, that begins where reason ends, and with 
 which argument has little or nothing to do. This is a description 
 
PKEPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 29 
 
 of mysticism, of which the tendency is most pernicious, and of 
 which the effects have been most mischievous. We utterly disclaim 
 it. "We are quite aware of its source. That source is to be found 
 in a sound Bible doctrine ; the doctrine of the necessity of divine 
 influence to the spiritual discernment and faith of divine truth. 
 But it is on an entirely mistaken apprehension of that doctrine that 
 the mystical notions of which we speak are founded. There is per- 
 fect harmony between that doctrine and the position that faith rests 
 on evidence, and can rest on nothing else. In this respect, the belief 
 of the Bible being the Word of God differs not in its nature from 
 the belief of any other proposition. In that word itself, indeed, 
 evidence of its own divine authority, of various descriptions, is ap- 
 pealed to. The Spirit of God makes use of that evidence, whether 
 existing in the truth itself or extraneous to it, for working convic- 
 tion. We call on no man to receive anything whatsoever as truth, 
 for which satisfactory evidence cannot be produced. No ; nor does, 
 nor can, a righteous God." — Wardlaw on Miracles^ pp. 18, 19, 20. 
 
 To this extract, not more valuable for its estimate of natural relig- 
 ion, than for its definition of the province of faith, we beg to add 
 a passage from and address on Atheism and Pantheism, delivered by 
 the Editor before the Young Men's Association in the city of Albany, 
 New York. 
 
 " That which renders the study of Christianity and its Evidences 
 so important, is, that Natural Theology * * * is an imperfect 
 science. * * * The deductions of the natural argument are, in- 
 deed, valuable and accurate, so far as they go ; but, in our peculiar 
 circumstances, they do not go far enough. What men call the relig- 
 ion of nature is not a religion for sinners ; and on no account must 
 it be reckoned either as a substitute for, or a necessary supplement 
 to, that knowledge which alone makes men wise unto Salvation. 
 Life eternal is not simply to know the true God. It is also to know 
 Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. Natural Theology may, and does, 
 tell us of the former, even though in that respect, its voice possesses 
 not the clearness and authority of revelation ; but Natural Theology 
 tells us absolutely nothing of the latter. Natural Theology records, 
 in its own enduring characters, the existence and attributes of a 
 Creator ; but it says nothing whatever of a Saviour. It is silent as 
 the grave upon that transcendently momentous question to our fall- 
 en race, *How shall man be just with God?' — and I should de- 
 plore it, as the most lamentable of all results, if your investigation 
 of the works of God, led you to undervalue or neglect the thorough 
 searching of the word of God. I am the more deeply earnest on 
 
80 PREPABATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 this point, because I am aware that many men, wise in their own 
 conceit, content themselves with professing to seek and worship the 
 Almighty in creation ; while they have no taste and little toleration 
 for the more marvellous discoveries which are made of the Almighty 
 in redemption. These are the persons who talk sentimentally about 
 the beauty of Virtue — about looking through nature up to nature's 
 God — about finding sermons in stones, and books in the running 
 brooks — while the Bible, emphatically the Book of books, is, if pe- 
 rused at all, only perused by them for the sublimity of its diction, 
 and the literary interest of its narrative. Mistake me not — I do not 
 denounce the admiration of external nature — God forbid! I trust that 
 I am as sensible to nature's beauties and sublimities as any man of 
 the same capacity. To the eye of devout imagination the whole 
 world shows the majestic footsteps of Jehovah, who ruleth over all ; 
 and to its ear every creature, living or lifeless, organic or inorganic, 
 becomes vocal, as it were, to proclaim the wisdom, power, and good- 
 ness of the same Jehovah, whose right it is to govern all things, be- 
 cause He made them all, and provides for them all. But I do de- 
 nounce the perversity of those who, while perceiving much to be 
 admired in the face of nature, are yet determined strangers to all 
 that is most admirable in the face of God's Anointed. It is true that 
 the Bible itself represents nature, throughout her every province, as 
 confessing a present and presiding Deity ; as rendering to Him either 
 the homage of terror or of gladness, when He descends from His 
 throne to visit her. Nor can men, whether they be impenitent or 
 redeemed, refuse to unite in the general acknowledgment. If the 
 Most High approaches in wrath, we behold Him bending the heavens, 
 and coming down, in His omnipotence, to astound and convulse the 
 universe, even in its most steadfast places, and to its lowest depths. 
 Thick clouds and dark waters are His pavilion ; the tempest is under 
 His feet; the thunder or the trumpet blast is His voice ; the light- 
 ning is the gleam, of His eye ; and smoke, mingled with flame, is the 
 breath of His nostrils. He rides on the cherubim — divine symbols 
 of nature — and flies upon the wings of the wind. If He touch the 
 mountains, they melt ; if He look upon the earth, it trembles ; men's 
 hearts fail them for fear ; and the channels of the unfathomed deep 
 are disclosed through the chasms of its affrighted waves. Or again, 
 when He approaches in love, the mighty heart of nature rejoices, and 
 joy circulates through all her members. The mountains break forth 
 into singing, the fields exult on every side, the rush as of a harping 
 sound comes forth from the woods ; streams murmur praise as they 
 flow, and ocean uplifts his music of many waters in concert with 
 
PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 31 
 
 the winds of Heaven ; the stars peal notes of gratulation from their 
 spheres, and men join in the grand jubilee with trump, and cornet, 
 and the voice of psalms, while the vaulted sky, like a high temple- 
 roof, re-echoes the glad chorus of adoration. But do not forget, I 
 beseech you, that this homage of nature is rendered to God, not 
 simply as the Creator^ but chiefly as the Saviour^ the Redeemer^ and 
 the Judge. It has continual reference to His last great advent — to 
 the last great change which this earth shall undergo, and the awful 
 transactions of that day of consummation. There is a catastrophe 
 unspeakably more terrible and decisive than any that has befallen 
 the material frame-work of our globe ; but out of the ruins of which 
 there hath likewise arisen, as in these natural convulsions, a nobler 
 and a more enduring creation. Mankind sinned and fell, and forfeit- 
 ed the glory and blessedness of Eden ; but mankind are also created 
 anew ; and the paradise which is their purchased inheritance — the 
 paradise into which the tree of life has been transplanted, and 
 where the river of life 
 
 " Rolls o'er Elysiaii flowers her amber stream," 
 
 is a region still more enchanting than was even the seat ot primeval 
 felicity, when it shone with the radiance of an undisturbed sky, and 
 celestial visitants shared the hospitality of man, and the Lord God 
 himself walked among the trees of the garden. This is a paradise 
 that fears no forfeiture ; a creation that apprehends neither termi- 
 nation nor decay ; an Eden which no tempter can ever invade, and 
 no sin can ever deform. It shall be in the new heavens and the new 
 earth — in a world which has undergone its last great convulsion, 
 upheaving the dead, not in fragments and skeletons, but living and 
 to live, for ages ; a world purified by fire, and sublimed into a resi- 
 dence fit for the incorruptible bodies and holy spirits of the Re- 
 deemed," &c. 
 
 Note C. 
 
 Dr. Paley enters into no discussion respecting what constitutes a 
 miracle. He evidently regards it as a work which is performed by 
 the immediate agency of God. He does not take up the question 
 whether or not a miracle is a suspension or a contravention of a law 
 of nature — whether it is a violation of natural law, or only beyond 
 and above nature. It is enough for his purpose that, whatever else 
 it may be, it is a sure evidence that God is with the doer of it. If 
 Nature mean the entire plan — including creation and government — 
 of the universe, as it existed from eternity in the Divine mind, then 
 
32 PREPARATOEY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 miracles, supposing thej ever were performed, must have constituted 
 part of that plan, and are, therefore, neither contrary to nature, nor 
 above it, nor beyond it, but a portion of it. In that case they would 
 "be nothing more than rare acts of God's general administration. 
 Now, on this supposition, how would a miracle constitute a divine 
 testimony to the commission and authority of a messenger claiming 
 to be sent from heaven ? Such acts as raising the dead, rising from 
 the dead, and healing inveterate disease by a word, are certainly not 
 of the number which the most extensive human experience of nature 
 could possibly anticipate or account for. Consequently, the man 
 who knew that simultaneously with the utterance of the word, or 
 the formation of the volition, the wonderful occurrence would take 
 place, must have enjoyed some means of information which human 
 wisdom and science could not supply. He must have received intel- 
 ligence from a higher source — he must have possessed a superhuman 
 knowledge of the Divine counsels. Upon this hypothesis he must 
 have been a prophet ; and thus, instead of our reckoning miracles to 
 be of two kinds — as is usually done — namely, miracles of knowledge 
 and miracles of power ; we should have to consider all miracles as 
 simply miracles of knowledge — predictions instantaneously fulfilled. 
 Nevertheless, a miracle, on this ground, would be as much as ever a 
 sign from heaven — a sure testimony that God was with the man who 
 could thus confidently and infallibly predict that which no science 
 could foresee. The miracles done in Egypt were usually foretold. 
 In them is exemplified the two-fold process of receiving and com- 
 municating the information. Jehovah informed Moses, and Moses 
 informed Pharaoh of them, previously to their taking place. So fre- 
 quent a repetition of foretelling even common events, would have 
 furnished no small presumption in favor of the Divine commission 
 of the Hebrew Lawgiver ; but to predict events so wonderful was a 
 proof that could not be gainsaid or resisted. One great difference 
 between prophecies of this kind and those whose accomplishment 
 was remote, is that they imply a stronger prophetic confidence, inas- 
 much as the test of truth or falsehood was to follow immediately, 
 instead of being delayed till after the prophet's death. 
 
 11^ on the other hand. Nature is understood to denote the ordinary 
 course of created things which we learn by daily experience, and 
 reduce, by induction, into the various sciences, then a miracle must 
 obviously be something out of that course — ^something which mere 
 science cannot account for — something which science acknowledges 
 to be contrary to observed laws — something, in short, which can be 
 performed only by the direct agency of the Omnipotent. Creation 
 
PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. SS 
 
 is a miracle — raising the dead is a miracle — curing inveterate dis- 
 ease, opening the eyes of those who were born blind, making the. 
 lame and paralytic to walk, unstopping the ears of the deaf, and 
 loosening the tongues of the dumb, by a simple word or sign, — all 
 these are miracles ; and it matters not in our author's estimation, 
 nor, we think, in the estimation of any sagacious, matter-of-fact man, 
 what abstract discussions may be indulged in upon the question ; 
 they are manifestly works that God alone can do. No science can 
 tell us how they may be done otherwise ; for all science proves them 
 to be otherwise impossible. 
 
 But there are men who deny even the possibility of a miracle. It 
 must have been to obviate this theory that the term Nature was 
 accepted as denoting the entire plan of the universe, from its begin- 
 ning to its ending, and not merely the observed constitution and 
 order of that department of the universe which forms our own sys- 
 tem ; and this extension of meaning appears to us really to meet the 
 objection. Neither can we perceive why the extension ought not to 
 be admitted. The antitheist declares that there positively is no God ; 
 and we reply to him that even though within the visible universe 
 there were no undoubted proof of God's existence, still there may 
 be found such proof in that which to us is invisible ; and therefore, 
 he who dares to affirm that God is not, must himself be omniscient. 
 In like manner, the infidel who denies the possibility of a miracle — 
 that is, of an eff'ect which is at variance with the ordinary course of 
 our own system, must himself be acquainted with the order and consti- 
 tution of the whole universe, from its commencement to its consum- 
 mation. Spinoza, the great leader of this sect, maintains that no 
 power can supersede that of nature, and that nothing can disturb or 
 interrupt the order of things ; and, accordingly, he defines a miracle 
 to be a rare event, happening according to some laws which are un- 
 known to us. "But," says Richard Watson in answer to Spinoza's 
 doctrine, "if the facts themselves which have been commonly call- 
 ed miraculous are admitted to have taken place, this method of 
 accounting for them is obviously most absurd; inasmuch as it sup- 
 poses that those unknown laws chance to come into operation, just 
 when men professing to be endued with miraculous powers wished 
 them — whilst yet, such laws were to them unknown." (Inst. Vol. I. 
 p. '7 '7.) Dr. Wardlaw, in commenting on this passage, adds: "The 
 absurdity, thus stated by this acute reasoner, must at once come 
 home to the reader's convictions." We venture to say, however, 
 that, in itself, and apart from Spinoza's deductions from it, the defi- 
 nition he gives of a miracle, does not involve any such absurdity ; 
 2* 
 
84 PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 for, granting the definition true, the real miracle in the case would 
 be the certain prescience of the person who, knowing nothing of the 
 law, yet knew that the event would come to pass at the precise time, 
 and in the precise place and manner that were necessary to consti- 
 tute it a sign and seal of a Divine Commission. 
 
 It is not necessary, however, to adopt any new hypothesis in order 
 to escape the avowal that a miracle is a deviation from what are 
 usually termed the laws of nature. The impossibility of such devia- 
 tion is a gratuitous assumption. Is creation a miracle ?* Is it the 
 effect of mere natural law, or the result of immediate divine agency? 
 The doctrine of creation by law has been refuted both by abstract 
 reasoning, and by actual observation. Law is only the method ac- 
 cording to which an intelligent agent operates in the accomplishment 
 of his designs, and of itself can produce nothing. If law means agent^ 
 it is no more law. When the atheist desires to expel a prime agent 
 from the universe, he merely makes an agent out of that which is 
 none ; in other words, for the sake of banishing an agent from crea- 
 tion altogether, he introduces an imaginary agent of his own. He 
 creates an agent in order to dispense with an agent ! Since the ap- 
 pearance of that extraordinary book, the " Vestiges of the Natural 
 History of Creation," the attention of scientific men has been more 
 particularly turned to the theory of Development by law, which 
 either endeavors to get rid of a Creator entirely, or to reduce his 
 agency in the production of the universe to the very smallest 
 amount — an infinitesimal quantity ! That this theory is wholly un- 
 tenable has been demonstrated by the very science to which an 
 appeal was most confidently made for its confirmation — Geology. 
 (See Hugh Miller's " Footprints of the Creator.") According to the 
 Development hypothesis the earliest fossil fishes ought to have ex- 
 hibited the lowest organization, whereas, they are really quite high 
 in the scale. The intransmutability of species is now one of the best 
 ascertained facts in Natural History. Consequently, the introduc- 
 tion of every new species of plants and animals, and especially the 
 appearance of man upon the earth, must have been a direct crea- 
 tion — the result of the Creator's immediate fiat. Here, therefore, 
 are miracles, the truth of which depends not upon human testimony — 
 although that would be sufficient — but upon testimony engraven on 
 the everlasting rocks. And if God has thus ofttimes interfered to 
 create, why may he not interfere to raise the dead, or restore a withered 
 limb, provided the occasion is truly worthy of the interposition — 
 
 * See latter part of note A at the end of the chapter on Prophecy. 
 
PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 85 
 
 and, indeed, absolutely demands it? This is the law of miracles. 
 They are not to be done unless unavoidably necessary : — 
 
 "Nee Deus inlersit nisi dignus vindice nodus." 
 
 But if the object is worthy, and the necessity clear, the power is in 
 existence, and the will to exert it is just as probable as that a revela- 
 tion should be given to us at all. For, in any way you choose to 
 take it, a revelation must be made by miracle. If any information 
 come from God to man, which the highest human endowments could 
 never have attained, it must come otherwise than by the simple 
 operation of the laws of the human mind. These laws, however, 
 need not be violated in the process. Neither reason, nor conscience, 
 nor will require to be set aside. Not by doing violence to the oper- 
 ation of those powers, but by the extraordinary operation of the 
 Divine mind upon and through them, the requisite information may 
 be communicated. And this is a miracle. It is direct intervention 
 of the Almighty, and not the result of any Natural law. The dis- 
 covery is not made by human genius, or reason, or intellect ; but by 
 Divine disclosure — even as Paul says of his own inspiration: "I 
 certify you, brethren, that the gospel which I preached unto you is 
 not after man: — for I neither received it of man, neither was I 
 taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." (Gal. i., 11, 12.) 
 To allege, therefore, that a miracle is impossible, is to allege that 
 even though God should desire to make a revelation to His creatures, 
 He could not accomplish His desire ! Will this conclusion be main- 
 tained by any one except an Atheist ? If God himself speaks to the 
 people as on Mount Sinai, that surely is a miracle ; if God inspires 
 a prophet or apostle to speak for Him, that is a miracle ; if God 
 commissions evangelists to communicate new expressions of His will 
 to mankind, they must have power to prove that He is with them, 
 and thereby authenticates their message as divine. This last posi- 
 tion may be illustrated by a remark made to the editor by two of 
 the leaders of the spiritual manifestation party, which has recently 
 established an organization in the city of New York. The remark 
 was this : " It is useless to visit speaking or writing ' mediums ' in 
 the hope of being convinced of the truth of our claims. You must 
 be a witness to the physical phenomena — the table movements and 
 other singular occurrences, such as Judge Edmonds has detailed in 
 the introduction to his book, and which were the means of his own 
 conversion." Now, these "physical phenomena" are their mira- 
 cles — the facts to which they appeal in proof of a real spiritual 
 agency. They do not rest for primary conviction upon the revela- 
 
86 PKEPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 tions themselves, but upon the initiatory marvels of their system, 
 which they allege as evidence of a power and intelligence, whose 
 existence cannot be accounted for except on the ground of inter- 
 course between the living and the dead. The internal evidence may 
 be satisfactory to one who already believes, but the sceptic is referred 
 to the external manifestations. These, it is maintained, are the deeds 
 of departed spirits and not of living men. In truth, they are not such 
 acts as one would expect the Most High God to perform ; they bear 
 but a sorry comparison with the signs and wonders of the Bible ; still 
 the use that is made of them serves to illustrate the necessity of mira- 
 cles — or of such works as God alone can do— in order to authenti- 
 cate a Revelation from Him. Our limits, however, forbid us to 
 enlarge farther upon this subject. If the reader is not contented 
 with Paley's plain and practical view of Miracles, let him peruse Dr. 
 Wardlaw on Miracles— (J^ew York: Carter & Brothers, 1853). This 
 work — like that of Dr. Hitchcock, already referred to — is at once a 
 manual and a catalogue on the modern state of the question which 
 it discusses. Besides consulting the authors to whom Dr. W. alludes, 
 let him also read Professor Babbage's Ninth Bridgewater Trea- 
 tise — an essay abounding in profound thought, and ingenious argu- 
 ment. Dr. Hitchcock's work likewise contains much valuable matter 
 on Miracles. 
 
 The connection between Miracles and Revelation is thus stated by 
 Dr. "Wardlaw, pp. 49-54. 
 
 " When such miracles are wrought in connection with any com- 
 mission professedly received from God, or with any testimony alleg- 
 ed to have his authority, there cannot, with any ingenuous mind, be 
 the slightest difficulty in discerning the relation between the one 
 and the other, — or the nature of the evidence borne by the miracle 
 to the commission or the testimony. Every such mind will be ready, 
 with Nicodemus, to say, regarding him in support of whose commis- 
 sion, or of whose testimony, they are wrought — * We know that thou 
 art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles 
 which thou doest, except God be with him.' In every such case, it 
 requires but the capacity of a child to see, that they are the direct and 
 unequivocal seal of Heaven to the commission, or to the testimony, 
 of him who possesses the seal and can thus show its impress. — I can 
 imagine nothing more perverse, or more futile, than to put such a 
 question as — What connection can there be between any fact whatever 
 and the truth of a doctrine ?^-lii one sense, it may at once be granted, 
 there is and can be none, Truth, considered abstractly, does not at 
 fill depend upon evidence. If a proposition be true, it has the attri- 
 
PREPARATOPwY CONSIDEJIATIONS. 87 
 
 bute of truth in itself, independently of all evidence. Evidence, 
 every one must see, does not 7nalce it true ; — it only shows it to be 
 true: — and shows it to be true only to those who before were igno- 
 rant of its truth. And in this view, the connection of the evidence 
 with the truth is much too simple to be capable of being perverted 
 by any sophistry. If a man announces himself as having been com- 
 missioned by God to propoimd a certain doctrine, or system of doc- 
 trines, as from Him; and, for the truth of his commission and his 
 communication, appeals to works such as no power but that of God 
 can effect : — if, upon his making this appeal, these works are instant- 
 ly and openly done at his bidding ; — there is no evading of the con- 
 clusion, that this is a divine interposition, at the moment, in attesta- 
 tion of the authority he claims ; and of the truth of what is declared. 
 The professed divine ambassador says — ' 7%is is from God ;^ — and 
 God by the instant intervention of the miracle, sets his seal to it, — 
 says, as by a voice from heaven, if not even more decisively — * it is 
 from me I ' — ^The sole questions requiring to be answered, in order 
 to the legitimacy of the conclusion, are these two : — * Is the work one 
 which God alone can do ? ' — and — * Is it actually done ? ' If these ques- 
 tions are settled in the affirmative, — there is no reasonable ground 
 on which the conclusion can be withstood. 
 
 "You will further have observed, that I have represented miracles 
 as attesting the one or the other of two things; — either a divine 
 commission in general, or the truth of any particular article in the 
 communication made. It is in the former of these two lights that 
 the words of Mcodemus present them : as evidences of commission ; 
 — * We know that thou art a teacher come from God.' And in the 
 same light our Lord himself, on various occasions, appeals to them ; 
 ' The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same 
 works that I do hear witness of me that the Father hath seiit me.' — On 
 the other hand, when Jesus said to the Jews — * But that ye may know 
 that the Son of man hath poioer on earth to forgive sins,' — and then, as 
 a proof of this particular fact or truth, commanded the paralytic to 
 * rise, take up his bed and walk,' — we have an exemplification of the 
 second of the two lights in which we have said miracles may be 
 regarded : — the miracle having been wrought in immediate connec- 
 tion with that one position, was the direct divine attestation of 
 its truth. 
 
 " Another observation still requires to be made, — made, that is, 
 more pointedly, for it has already been alluded to ; — I mean that in 
 the working of a miracle, there is, in every case, a direct and imme- 
 diate interference of Deity. There is no transference of power from 
 
38 PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 God to the divinely-commissioned messenger. Neither is there any- 
 committing of divine omnipotence to his discretion. The former is, 
 in the nature of the thing, impossible. It would be making the 
 creature for the time almighty: — and that — (since omnipotence can 
 belong to none but divinity) — would be equivalent to making him 
 God. And the latter, were it at all imaginable, would neutralize and 
 nullify the evidence : — inasmuch as it would render necessary to its 
 validity a previous assurance of the impeccability of the person to 
 whom the trust was committed ; that is, an assurance, and an abso- 
 lute one, of the impossibility of its being ever perverted, by the im- 
 proper application of the power, to purposes foreign to those of his 
 commission. Omnipotence placed at a creature's discretion, is indeed 
 as real an impossibility in the divine administration, as the endow- 
 ing of a creature with the attribute itself: — for, in truth, if the 
 power remains with God, it would amount to the very same thing as 
 God's subjecting himself to his creature's arbitrary and capricious 
 will. — There is, strictly speaking, in any miracle, no agency but that 
 of the divine Being himself. Even to speak of the messenger as his 
 instrument, is not correct. All that the messenger does, is — to de- 
 clare his message; to appeal to God for its truth: — and if, at his 
 word, intimating a miracle as about to be performed in proof of it, 
 the miracle actually takes place ; — there is, on his part, in regard to 
 the performance, neither agency nor instrumentality; unless the 
 mere utterance of words, in intimation of what is about to be done, 
 or in appeal to Heaven and petition for its being done, may be so 
 called, God himself is the agent, — the sole and immediate agent. 
 And there is, in connection with the miracle of power, a miracle of 
 knowledge ; consisting in such a secret supernatural communication 
 between the mind of God and the mind of his servant, as imparts to 
 the latter the perfect assurance that God willy at the moment, put 
 forth the necessary power ; — that he certainly will strike in with his 
 miraculous attestation. Failing this, the professed divine messenger 
 must be set down as an impostor, and his alleged message given to 
 the winds ; — if, indeed, for his impiety and presumption, the Divine 
 Being, whom, if he could, he would have made a liar, does not, in 
 jealousy for the glory of his name, strike in, in another way, and, 
 instead of miraculously attesting the divinity of the message, exe- 
 cute supernatural and summary vengeance on the messenger. 
 
 " It may, then, we presume, be considered as admitted, that on the 
 supposition of miracles — 'works which no man can do unless God be 
 with him' — being bona fide wrought, — they do constitute a satis- 
 factory evidence, — an evidence which there is no rebutting, — of a 
 
PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 89 
 
 commission or a testimony being from God. One of the most emi- 
 nent of the opposers of the divinity of tjie Bible in our own country, 
 to whose reasonings we shall have occasion, by-and-bye, very spec- 
 ially to advert, — the celebrated historian and philosopher, David 
 Hume, — never makes this a question. He denies that real miracles 
 ever have been wrought ; we shall see on what ground : — but he 
 never at all disputes the point that, if actually wrought, they would 
 have been conclusive proofs of divine authority. And, in spite of a 
 little occasional sceptical speculation, on the part of some whose 
 desire makes a near approach to atheism, such is the general and 
 reasonable belief. The grand inquiry is — Have they been wrought ? — 
 which amounts to the same thing with — Have we, by whom they have 
 not been witnessed, sufficient evidence on which to found our conviction of 
 their having been wrought ? It is evident, that we can have no solid 
 ground for our faith of the attested doctrine, unless we have suffi- 
 cient ground for our faith in the miracles by which their attestation 
 is alleged to have been given." 
 
 To this statement we subjoin that of Principal Hill — Lectures on 
 Divinity, Vol. I. pp. 54-59. 
 
 "By experience and information we are able to trace a certain 
 regular course, according to which the Almighty exercises his power 
 throughout the universe ; and all the business of life proceeds upon 
 the supposition of the uniformity of his operations. We are often, 
 indeed, reminded that our experience and information are very lim- 
 ited. Extraordinary appearances at particular seasons astonish the 
 nations of the earth : new powers of nature unfold themselves in the 
 progress of our discoveries ; and the accumulation of facts collected 
 and arranged by successive generations, serves to enlarge our con- 
 ceptions of the greatness and the order of that system to which we 
 belong. But although we do not pretend to be acquainted with the 
 whole course of nature, yet the more that we know, we are the more 
 confirmed in the belief that there is an established course ; and every 
 true philosopher is encouraged by the fruit of his own researches 
 to entertain the hope, that some future age will be able to reconcile 
 with that course, appearances which his ignorance is at present un- 
 able to explain. 
 
 *' Although the business of life and the speculations of philosophy 
 proceed upon the uniformity of the course of nature, yet it cannot 
 be understood by those who believe in the existence of a Supreme 
 Intelligent Being, that this imiformity excludes his interposition 
 whensoever he sees meet to interpose. We use the phrase, laws of na- 
 ture, to express the method in which, according to our observation, 
 
40 PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 the Almighty usually operates. "We call them laws, because they 
 are independent of us, because they serve to account for the most 
 discordant phenomena, and because the knowledge of them gives us 
 a certain command over nature. But it would be an abuse of lan- 
 guage to infer from their being called laws of nature, that they bind 
 him who established them. It would be recurring to the principles 
 of atheism, to fate, and blind necessity, to say that the author of na- 
 ture is obliged to act in the manner in which he usually acts ; and 
 that he cannot, in any given circumstances, depart from the course 
 w^hich we observe. The departure, indeed, is to us a novelty. We 
 have no principles by which we can foresee its approach, or form any 
 conjecture with regard to the measure and the end of it. But if we 
 conceive worthily of the Ruler of the universe, we shall believe that 
 all these departures entered into the great plan which he formed in 
 the beginning ; that they were ordained and arranged by him ; and 
 that they arise at the time which he appointed, and fulfil the pur- 
 poses of his wisdom. 
 
 " There is not then any mutability or weakness in those occasional 
 interpositions which seem to us to suspend the laws and to alter the 
 course of nature. The Almighty Being, who called the universe out 
 of nothing, whose creating hand gave a beginning to the course of 
 nature, and whose will must be independent of that which he him- 
 self produced, acts for wise ends, and at particular seasons, not in 
 that manner which he has enabled us to trace, but in another man- 
 ner concerning which he has not furnished us with the means of 
 forming any expectation, and which is resolvable merely into his 
 good pleasure. The one manner is his ordinary administration, 
 under which his reasonable offspring enjoy security, advance in the 
 knowledge of nature, and receive much instruction : the other man- 
 ner is his extraordinary administration, which, although foreseen by 
 him as a part of the scheme of his government, appears strange to 
 his intelligent creatures, but which, by this strangeness, may pro- 
 mote purposes to them most important and salutary. It may rouse 
 their attention to the natural proofs of the being and perfections of 
 God ; it may afford a practical confutation of the scepticism and 
 materialism to which false philosophy often leads ; and, rebuking 
 the pride and the security of man, may teach the nations to know 
 that the Lord God reigneth * in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and 
 all deep places.' * 
 
 " To such moral purposes as these, any alteration of the course of 
 nature, by the immediate interposition of the xYlmighty, may be sub- 
 * Psalm cxxxv. 6. 
 
PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 41 
 
 servient ; and no man will presume to say that our limited faculties 
 can assign all the reasons which may induce the Almighty thus to 
 interpose. But we can clearly discern one most important end 
 which may be promoted by those alterations of the course of nature, 
 in which the agency of men, or other visible ministers of the divine 
 power, is employed. 
 
 " The circumstances of the intelligent creation may render it high- 
 ly expedient that, in addition to that original revelation of the na- 
 ture and the will of God which they enjoy by the light of reason, 
 there should be superadded an extraordinary revelation, to remove 
 the errors which had obscured their knowledge, to enforce the prac- 
 tice of their duty, or to revive and extend their hopes. The wisest 
 ancient philosophers wished for a divine revelation ; and to any one 
 who examines the state of the old heathen world in respect of relig- 
 ion and morality, it cannot appear unworthy of the Father of his 
 creatures to bestow such a blessing. This revelation, supposing it to 
 be given, may either be imparted to every individual mind, or be 
 confined to a few chosen persons, vested with a commission to com- 
 municate the benefits of it to the rest of the world. It is certainly 
 possible for the Father of spirits to act upon every individual mind 
 so as to give that mind the impression of an extraordinary revela- 
 tion : it is as easy for the Father of spirits to do this, as to act upon 
 a few minds. But, in this case, departures from the established 
 course of nature would be multiplied without end. In the illumin- 
 ation of every individual, there would be an immediate extraor- 
 dinary interposition of the Almighty. But extraordinary interposi- 
 tions so frequent would lose their nature, so as to be confounded 
 with the ordinary light of reason and conscience : or if they were so 
 striking as to be, in every case, clearly discriminated, they would 
 subdue the understanding, and overawe the whole soul, so as to ex- 
 tort by the feeling of the immediate presence of the Creator, that 
 submission and obedience which it is the character of a rational 
 agent to yield with deliberation and from choice. It appears, there- 
 fore, more consistent with the simplicity of nature, and with the 
 character of man, that a few persons should be ordained the instru- 
 ments of conveying a divine revelation to their fellow-creatures; 
 and that the extraordinary circumstances which must attend the giv- 
 ing such a revelation should be confined to them. But it is not 
 enough that these persons feel the impression of a divine revelation 
 upon their own minds : it is not enough that, in their communica- 
 tions with their fellow-creatures, they appear to be possessed of 
 superior knowledge, and more enlarged views : it is possible that 
 
42 PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 their knowledge and views may have been derived from some nat- 
 ural source ; and we require a clear indisputable mark to authenti- 
 cate the singular and important commission which they profess to 
 bear. It were presumptuous in us to say what are the marks of 
 such a commission which the Almighty can give ; for our knowledge 
 of what He can do, is chiefly derived from our observation of what 
 He has done. But we may say, that, according to our experience of 
 the divine procedure, there can be no mark of a divjne commission 
 more striking and more incontrovertible, than that the persons who 
 bear it should have the privilege of altering the course of nature by 
 a word of their mouths. The revelation made to their minds is 
 invisible ; and all the outward appearances of it may be delusive. 
 But extraordinary works, beyond the power of man, performed by 
 them, are a sensible outward sign of a power which can be derived 
 from God alone. If he has invested them with this power, it is not 
 incredible that he has made a revelation to their minds ; and if they 
 constantly appeal to the works, which are the sign of the power, as 
 the evidence of the invisible revelation, and of the commission with 
 which it was accompanied, then we must either believe that they 
 have such a commission, or we are driven to the horrid supposition 
 that God is the author of a falsehood, and conspires with these men 
 to deceive his creatures." 
 
 Dr. Hill's is the usual view of the nature of a miracle. Paley 
 does not seem to think a formal definition necessary. If one is 
 wanted, we venture to give the following : 
 
 A miracle is an event beyond the power of man to effect; and is 
 brought about for the purpose of furnishing mankind with a revelation 
 from God, or of fulfilling something foretold in a former revelation, or 
 of furthering the ends and objects of a divine revelation in some way 
 or other. 
 
 This definition appears to clear us of all controversy on the ques- 
 tion of natural laws, and whether or not a miracle suspends or con- 
 travenes them. It may often be difficult or impossible for us to tell 
 when a law of nature is suspended or contravened ; but we can de- 
 termine, with sufficient accuracy and certainty, how far the exertion 
 of human powers can go. On that ground, Paley rests the question, 
 and rests it, we think, with abundant safety. It is, moreover, the 
 ground assumed by the Bible itself. 
 
 This definition, also, includes the proper occasion of miracles ; 
 which were not afforded except in cases where they were absolutely 
 necessary. It likewise implies that everything laying claim to the 
 authority of a miracle, but tending, in any degree, to oppose or 
 
PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. 43 
 
 contradict the declarations of a prior revelation, must be an impos- 
 ture. God cannot contradict Himself. 
 
 Now that we have done with these preliminary matters, we shall 
 have much less to do in the way of appendix and annotation for 
 some time to come. The historical evidence is so strong, that the 
 adversary betakes himself to metaphysics in order to destroy its 
 foundations. In conclusion, we beg to recommend the Prize Essay 
 on Infidelity, by the Rev. Thomas Pearson, {Carter <b Brothers, 1854,) 
 as a popular, eloquent, and masterly expose of unbelief in its various 
 aspects, causes, and agencies. It examines nearly every phase of the 
 subject — Atheism, Pantheism, Naturalism, Spiritualism, Indiflferent- 
 ism. Formalism, and Secularism. This is a formidable array ; but 
 Mr. Pearson solves the mystery of these names, and handles the 
 questions involved in them with singular skill and fervor. M'Cosh 
 and Pearson are noble associates in the same School of Theology. 
 The Venerable Wardlaw, also, discusses the opinions concerning 
 miracles held by spiritualists, mythists, and rationalists. The Amer- 
 ican reader must recollect that the new philosophy called Spirit- 
 ualism, has no connection whatever with spirit-rappings, and alleged 
 spiritual communications ah extra, which distinguish another new 
 school of revelationists. — Editor, 
 
PART I. 
 
 OF THE DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, 
 AND WHEREIN IT IS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE EVI- 
 DENCE ALLEGED FOR OTHER MIRACLES. 
 
 The two propositions which I shall endeavor to establish 
 are these : 
 
 I. That 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 which they delivered, and solely 
 in consequence of their belief of those accounts ; and that 
 they also submitted, from the same motives, to new rules of 
 conduct. 
 
 II. That there is not satisfactory evidence, that persons 
 professing to be original witnesses, of other miracles, in their 
 nature as certain as these are, have ever acted in the same 
 manner, in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, 
 and properly in consequence of their belief of those accounts.* 
 
 * For an account of the three kinds of evidence — External, Inter- 
 nal, and Experimental, — and also for a definition of satisfactory Evi- 
 dence, see Wardlaw, chap. i. sec. 2., and Hopkins' Lowell Lectures. 
 Dr. H. proves that testimony and reasoning will produce all the 
 certainty of mathematical demonstration ; pp. 23-31. — Ed, 
 
PROPOSITION I. 
 
 THERE IS SATISFACTORY EVIDENCE THAT MANY, PRO- 
 FESSING TO BE ORIGINAL WITNESSES OF THE CHRIS- 
 TIAN MIRACLES, PASSED THEIR LIVES IN LABORS, 
 DANGERS, AND SUFFERINGS, VOLUNTARILY UNDER- 
 GONE IN ATTESTATION OF THE ACCOUNTS WHICH 
 THEY DELIVERED, AND SOLELY IN CONSEQUENCE OF 
 THEIR BELIEF OF THOSE ACCOUNTS ; AND THAT THEY 
 ALSO SUBMITTED, FROM THE SAME MOTIVES, TO NEW 
 RULES OF CONDUCT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EVIDENCE OF THE SUFFEBINGS OF THE FIRST PROPAGATORS OF CHRIS- 
 TIANITY FROM THE NATURE OF THE CASE. 
 
 To support this proposition, two points are necessary to 
 be made out : first, that the Founder of the institution, his 
 associates and immediate followers, acted the part which the 
 proposition imputes to them : secondly, that they did so in 
 attestation of the miraculous history recorded in our Scrip- 
 tures, and solely in consequence of their belief of the truth 
 of this history. 
 
 Before we produce any particular testimony to the activity 
 and sufferings which compose the subject of our first asser- 
 tion, it will be proper to consider the degree of probability 
 which the assertion derives from the nature of the case, that 
 is, by inferences from those parts of the case which, in point 
 of fact, are on all hands acknowledged. 
 
46 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 First then, the Christian Religion exists, and therefore by 
 some means or other was established. Now, it either owes 
 the principle of its establishment, ^. e, its first publication, to 
 the activity of the Person who was the founder of the insti- 
 tution, and of those who were joined with him in the under- 
 taking, or we are driven upon the strange supposition, that, 
 although they might lie by, others would take it up ; although 
 they were quiet and silent, other persons busied themselves 
 in the success and propagation of their story. This is per- 
 fectly incredible. To me it appears little less than certain, 
 that, if the first announcing of the religion by the Founder 
 had not been followed up by the zeal and industry of his im- 
 mediate disciples, the attempt must have expired in its birth. 
 Then as to the kind and degree of exertion which was em- 
 ployed, and the mode of life to which these persons submit- 
 mitted, we reasonably suppose it to be like that which we 
 observe in all others who voluntarily become missionaries of 
 a new faith. Frequent, earnest, and laborious preaching, 
 constantly conversing with religious persons upon religion, a 
 sequestration from the common pleasures, engagements, and 
 varieties of life, and an addiction to one serious object, com- 
 pose the habits of such men. I do not say that this mode of 
 life is without enjoyment, but I say that the enjoyment 
 springs from sincerity. With a consciousness at the bottom, 
 of hollo wn ess and falsehood, the fatigue and restraint would 
 become insupportable. I am apt to believe that very few 
 hypocrites engage in these undertakings ; or, however, per- 
 sist in them long. Ordinarily speaking, nothing can over- 
 come the indolence of mankind, the love which is natural to 
 most tempers of cheerful society and cheerful scenes, or the 
 desire, which is common to all, of personal ease and freedom, 
 but conviction. 
 
 Secondly, it is also highly probable, from the nature of 
 the case, that the propagation of the new religion was attend- 
 ed with difficulty and danger. As addressed to tlie Jews, it 
 was a system adverse not only to their habitual opinions, but 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 47 
 
 to those opinions upon which their hopes, their partialities, 
 their pride, their consolation, was founded. This people, 
 with or without reason, had worked themselves into a persua- 
 sion, that some signal and greatly advantageous change was 
 to be effected in the condition of their country, by the agency 
 of a long-promised messenger from heaven.* The rulers of 
 the Jews, their leading sect, their priesthood, had been the 
 authors of this persuasion to the common people. So that it 
 was not merely the conjecture of theoretical divines, or the 
 secret expectation of a few recluse devotees, but it was be- 
 come the popular hope and passion, and like all popular opin- 
 ions, undoubting, and impatient of contradiction. They clung 
 to this hope under every misfortune of their country, and 
 with more tenacity as their dangers or calamities increased. 
 To find, therefore, that expectations so gratifying were to be 
 worse than disappointed ; that they were to end in the diffu- 
 sion of a mild unambitious religion, which, instead of victo- 
 ries and triumphs, instead of exalting their nation and insti- 
 tution above the rest of the world, was to advance those 
 whom they despised to an equality with themselves, in those 
 very points of comparison in which they most valued their 
 own distinction, could be no very pleasing discovery to a 
 Jewish mind ; nor could the messengers of such intelligence 
 expect to be well received or easily credited. The doctrine 
 was equally harsh and novel. The extending of the kingdom 
 of God to those who did not conform to the law of Moses, 
 
 * " Percrebuerat oriente toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in 
 fatis Tit eo tempore Judsea profecti rerum potirentur." Sneton. Ves- 
 pasian, cap. 4-8. 
 
 " Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiqnis sacerdotum literis contineri, 
 60 ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret oriens, profectique Judaea rerum 
 potirentur." Tacit. Hist. lib. v. cap. 9-13.* 
 
 * An ancient and unchanging opinion had become common throughout all the 
 east, that a race of men from Judea were destined by the fates to obtain, at that 
 time, universal sovereignty. 
 
 Many entertained the persuasion that, according to the ancient writings of the 
 priests, it would come to pass at that very time, that the east would wax powerful, 
 and that a race of men from Judea would obtain universal dominion. — Ed, 
 
48 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 was a notion that had never before entered into the thoughts 
 of a Jew. 
 
 The character of the new institution was, in other respects 
 also, ungrateful to Jewish habits and principles. Their own 
 religion was in a high degree technical. Even the enlight- 
 ened Jew placed a great deal of stress upon the ceremonies 
 of his law, saw in them a great deal of virtue and efficacy ; 
 the gross and vulgar had scarcely anything else ; and the 
 hypocritical and ostentatious magnified them above measure, 
 as being the instruments of their own reputation and influ- 
 ence. The Christian scheme, without formally repealing the 
 Levitical code, lowered its estimation extremely. In the 
 place of strictness and zeal in performing the observances 
 which that code prescribed, or which tradition had added to it, 
 the new sect preached up faith, well-regulated affections, ifo- 
 ward purity, and moral rectitude of disposition, as the true 
 ground, op^the part of the worshipper, of merit and accept- 
 ance with God. This, however rational it may appear, or 
 recommending to us at present, did not by any means facili- 
 tate the plan then. On the contrary, to disparage those qual- 
 ities which the highest characters in the country valued them- 
 selves most upon, was a sure way of making powerful ene- 
 mies. As if the frustration of the national hope was not 
 enough, the long-esteemed merit of ritual zeal and punctual- 
 ity was to be decried, and that by Jews preaching to Jews. 
 
 The ruling party at Jerusalem had just before crucified the 
 Founder of the religion. That is a fact which will not be 
 disputed. They, therefore, who stood forth to preach the 
 religion, must necessarily reproach these rulers with an exe- 
 cution, which they could not but represent as an unjust and 
 cruel murder. This would not render their office more easy, 
 or their situation more safe. 
 
 With regard to the interference of the Roman government, 
 which was then established in Judea, I should not expect, 
 that, despising as it did, the religion of the country, it would, 
 if left to itself, animadvert, either with nmch vigilance or 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 4d 
 
 much severity, upon the schisms and controversies which arose 
 within it. Yet there was that in Christianity which might 
 easily afford a handle of accusation with a jealous govern- 
 ment. The Christians avowed an unqualified obedience to a 
 new master. They avowed also that he was the person who 
 had been foretold to the Jews under the suspected .title of 
 King. The spiritual nature of this kingdom, the consistency 
 of this obedience with civil subjection, were distinctions too 
 refined to be entertained by a Roman president, who viewed 
 the business at a great distance, or through the medium of 
 very hostile representations. Our histories accordingly inform 
 us, that this was the turn which the enemies of Jesus gave 
 to his character and pretensions in their remonstrances with 
 Pontius Pilate. And Justin Martyr, about a hundred years 
 afterwards, complains that the same mistake prevailed in his 
 time : " Ye, liaving heard that we are waiting for a kingdom, 
 suppose, without distinguishing, that we mean a human king- 
 dom, when in truth we speak of that which is with God.'* * 
 And it was undoubtedly a natural source of calumny and 
 misconstruction. 
 
 The preachers of Christianity had therefore to contend with 
 prejudice backed by power. They had to come forward to a 
 disappointed people, to a priesthood possessing a consiiderable 
 share of municipal authority, and actuated by strong motives 
 of opposition and resentment ; and they had to do this under 
 a foreign government, to whose favor they made no preten- 
 sions, and which was constantly surrounded by their enemies. 
 The well-known, because the experienced fate of reformers, 
 whenever the reformation subverts some reigning opinion, 
 and does not proceed upon a change that has already taken 
 place in the sentiments of a country, will not allow, much 
 less lead us to suppose, that the first propagators of Chris- 
 tianity at Jerusalem and in Judea, under the difficulties and 
 the enemies they had to contend with, and entirely destitute 
 
 * Ap. ima. p. 16. Ed. ThirL 
 3 
 
50 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 as they were of force, authority, or protection, could execute 
 their mission with personal ease and safety. 
 
 Let us next inquire, what might reasonably be expected by 
 the preachers of Christianity when they turned themselves to 
 the heathen public. Now, the first thing that strikes us is, 
 that the religion they carried with them was exclusive. It 
 denied without reserve the truth of every article of heathen 
 mythology, the existence of every object of their worship. 
 It accepted no compromise ; it admitted no comprehension. 
 It must prevail, if it prevailed at all, by the overthrow of 
 every statue, altar, and temple, in the world. It will not 
 easily be credited, that a design, so bold as this was, could 
 in any age be attempted to be carried into execution with 
 impunity. 
 
 For it ought to be considered, that this was not setting 
 forth, or magnifying the character and worship of some new 
 competitor for a place in the Pantheon, whose pretensions 
 might be discussed or asserted without questioning the real- 
 ity of any others ; it was pronouncing all other gods to be 
 false, and all other worship vain. From the facility with 
 which the Polytheism of ancient nations admitted new ob- 
 jects of worship into the number of their acknowledged 
 divinities, or the patience with which they might entertain 
 proposals of this kind, we can argue nothing as to their toler- 
 ation of a system, or of the publishers and active propagat- 
 ors of a system, which swept away the very foundation of 
 the existing establishment. The one was nothing more than 
 what it would be, in popish countries, to add a saint to the 
 calendar ; the other was to abolish and tread under foot the 
 ' calendar itself 
 
 Secondly, it ought also to be considered, that this was not . 
 the case of philosophers propounding in their books, or in 
 their schools, doubts concerning the truth of the popular 
 creed, or even avowing their disbelief of it. These philoso- § 
 phers did not go about from place to place to collect prose- 
 lytes from amongst the common people ; to form in the heart 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 51 
 
 of the country societies professing their tenets ; to provide 
 for the order, instruction, and permanency of these societies ; 
 nor did they enjoin their followers to withdraw themselves 
 from the public worship of the temples, or refuse a compli- 
 ance with rites instituted by the laws.* These things are 
 what the Christians did, and what the philosophers did not ; 
 and in these consisted the activity and danger of the enterprise. 
 Thirdly, it ought also to be considered, that this danger 
 proceeded not merely from solemn acts and public resolu- 
 tions of the State, but from sudden bursts of violence at par- 
 ticular places, from the license of the populace, the rashness 
 of some magistrates and negligence of others ; from the in- 
 fluence and instigation of interested adversaries, and, in gen- 
 eral, from the variety and warmth of opinion which an errand 
 so novel and extraordinary could not fail of exciting. I can 
 conceive that the teachers of Christianity might both fear and 
 suffer much from these causes, without any general persecu- 
 tion being denounced against them by imperial authority. 
 Some length of time, I should suppose, might pass, before 
 the vast machine of the Roman empire would be put in mo- 
 tion, or its attention be obtained to religious controversy ; 
 but, during that time, a great deal of ill usage might be en- 
 dured, hyttsi set of friendless, unprotected travellers, telling 
 men, wherever they came, that the religion of their ancestors, 
 the religion in which they had been brought up, the religion 
 of the State, and of the magistrate, the rites which they fre- 
 quented, the pomp which they admired, was throughout a 
 system of folly and delusion. 
 
 * The best of the ancient philosophers, Plato, Cicero, and Epicte- 
 tus, allowed, or rather enjoined, men to worship the gods of the 
 country, and in the established form. See passages to this purpose, 
 collected from their works by Dr. Clark, Nat. and Rev. Rel. p. 180, 
 ed. V. — Except Socrates, they all thought it wiser to comply with 
 the laws than to contend.* 
 
 * Even Socrates did not contend. Had Paley forgotten the cock sacrificed to Ma- 
 culapius 1—Ed. 
 
52 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 Nor do I think that the teachers of Christianity would find 
 protection in that general disbelief of the popular theology, 
 which is supposed to have prevailed amongst the intelligent 
 part of the heathen public. It is by no means true that un- 
 believers are usually tolerant. They are not disposed (and 
 why should they ?) to endanger the present state of things, 
 by suffering a religion of which they believe nothing, to be 
 disturbed by another of which they believe as little. They 
 are ready themselves to conform to anything ; and are, often- 
 times, amongst the foremost to procure conformity from 
 others, by any method which they think likely to be effi- 
 cacious. When was ever a change of religion patronized by 
 infidels ? How little, notwithstanding the reigning scepti- 
 cism, and the magnified liberality of that age, the true prin- 
 ciples of toleration were understood by the wisest men 
 amongst them, may be gathered from two eminent and un- 
 contested examples. The younger Pliny, polished as he was 
 by all the literature of that soft and elegant period, could 
 gravely pronounce this monstrous judgment : — " Those who 
 persisted in declaring themselves Christians, I ordered to be 
 led away to punishment {i, e. to execution), for I did not 
 DOUBT, whatever it was that they confessed^ that contumacy and 
 inflexible obstinacy ought to be punishedy^ Hi# master, 
 Trajan, a mild and accomplished prince, went, nevertheless, 
 no farther in his sentiments of moderation and equity, than 
 what appears in the following rescript : " The Christians are 
 not to be sought for ; but if any are brought before you, and 
 convicted, they are to be punished." And this direction he 
 gives, after it had been reported to him by his own president, 
 that, by the most strict examination, nothing could be dis- 
 covered in the principles of these persons, but " a bad and 
 excessive superstition," accompanied, it seems, with an oath 
 or mutual federation, " to allow themselves in no crime or 
 immoral conduct whatever." The truth is, the ancient hea- 
 
 * Plin. lib. X. ep. 97. 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 5S 
 
 thens considered religion entirely as an affair of state, as much 
 under the tuition of the magistrate, as any other part of the 
 police. The religion of that age was not merely allied to the 
 state ; it was incorporated into it. Many of its offices were 
 administered by the magistrate. Its titles of pontiffs, augurs, 
 and flamens, were borne by senators, consuls, and generals. 
 Without discussing, therefore, the truth of the theology, they 
 resented every affront put upon the established worship, as a 
 direct opposition to the authority of government. 
 
 Add to which, that the religious systems of those times, 
 however ill supported by evidence, had been long established. 
 The ancient religion of a country has always many votaries, 
 and sometimes not the fewer, because its origin is hidden in 
 remoteness and obscurity. Men have a natural veneration 
 for antiquity, especially in matters of religion. What Taci- 
 tus says of the Jewish, was more applicable to the heathen 
 establishment : " Hi ritus, quoquo modo inducti, antiquitate 
 defenduntur." It was also a splendid and sumptuous worship. 
 It had its priesthood, its endowments, its temples. Statuary, 
 painting, architecture, and music, contributed their effect to 
 its ornament and magnificence. It abounded in festival shows 
 and solemnities, to which the common people are greatly ad- 
 dicted, aild which were of a nature to engage them much 
 more than anything of that sort among us. These things 
 would retain great numbers on its side by the fascination of 
 spectacle and pomp, as well as interest many in its preserva- 
 tion by the advantage which they drew from it. " It was, 
 moreover, interwoven," as Mr. Gibbon rightly represents it, 
 " with every circumstance of business or pleasure, of public 
 or private life, with all the offices and amusements of society." 
 On the due celebration also of its rites, the people were 
 taught to believe, and did believe, that the prosperity of their 
 country in a great measure depended. 
 
 I am willing to accept the account of the matter which is 
 given by Mr. Gibbon : " The various modes of worship 
 which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by 
 
64 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 the people as equally true, by the philosophers as equally 
 false, and by the magistrate as equally useful ;" and I would 
 ask from which of these three classes of men were the Chris- 
 tian missionaries to look for protection or impunity ? Could 
 they expect it from the people, " whose acknowledged con- 
 fidence in the public religion" they subverted from its founda- 
 tion ? From the philosopher, who, " considering all religions 
 as equally false," would of course rank theirs among the 
 number, with the addition of regarding them as busy and 
 troublesome zealots ? Or from the magistrate, who, satis- 
 fied with the " utility" of the subsisting religion, would not 
 be likely to countenance a spirit of proselytism and innova- 
 tion ; — a system w^hich declared war against every other, 
 and which, if it prevailed, must end in a total rupture of pub- 
 lic opinion ; an upstart religion, in a word, which was not 
 content with its own authority, but must disgrace all the 
 settled religions of the world ? It was not to be imagined 
 that he would endure with patience, that the religion of the 
 emperor and of the state should be calumniated and borne 
 down by a company of superstitious and despicable Jews. 
 
 Lastly ; the nature of the case affords a strong proof, that 
 the original teachers of Christianity, in consequence of their 
 new profession, entered upon a new and singular course of 
 life. We may be allowed to presume, that the institution 
 which they preached to others, they conformed to in their 
 own persons ; because this is no more than what every teacher 
 of a new religion both does, and must do, in order to obtain 
 either proselytes or hearers. The change which this would 
 produce was very considerable. It is a change which we do 
 not easily estimate, because, ourselves and all about us being 
 habituated to the institution from our infancy, it is that we 
 neither experience nor observe. After men became Chris- 
 tians, much of their time was spent in prayer and devotion, 
 in religious meetings, in celebrating the eucharist, in confer- 
 ences, in exhortations, in preaching, in an affectionate inter- 
 course with one another, and correspondence with other so- 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 55 
 
 cieties. Perhaps their mode of life, in its form and habit, 
 was not very unlike the Unitas Fratrum, or of modern 
 Methodists. Think, then, what it was to become such at Cor- 
 inth, at Ephesus, at Antioch, or even at Jerusalem. How 
 new ! how alien from all their former habits and ideas, and 
 from those of everybody about them ! What a revolution 
 there must have been of opinions and prejudices to bring 
 the matter to this ! 
 
 We know what the precepts of the religion are ; how pure, 
 how benevolent, how disinterested a conduct they enjoin; 
 and that this purity and benevolence are extended to the very 
 thoughts and affections. We are not, perhaps, at liberty to 
 take for granted that the lives of the preachers of Christian- 
 ity were as perfect as their lessons ; but we are entitled to 
 contend, that the observable part of their behavior must 
 have agreed in a great measure w^ith the duties which they 
 taught. There was, therefore (which is all that we assert), a 
 course of life pursued by them, different from that which 
 they before led. And this is of great importance. Men are 
 brought to anything almost sooner than to change their habit 
 of life, especially when the change is either inconvenient, or 
 made against the force of natural inclination, or with the loss 
 of accustomed indulgences. " It is the most difficult of all 
 things to convert men from vicious habits to virtuous ones, 
 as every one may judge from v/hat he- feels in himself, as 
 well as from what he sees in others." * It is almost like 
 making men over again. 
 
 Left then to myself, and without any more information 
 than a knowledge of the existence of the religion, of the gen- 
 eral story upon which it is founded, and that no act of power, 
 force, and authority, was concerned in its first success, I 
 should conclude, from the very nature and exigency of the 
 case, that the Author of the religion during his life, and his 
 immediate disciples after his death, exerted themselves in 
 spreading and publishing the institution throughout the coun- 
 * Hartley's Essays on Man, p. 190. 
 
56 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 try in which it began, and into which it was first carried ; 
 that, in the prosecution of this purpose, they underwent the 
 labors and troubles which we observe the propagators of new 
 sects to undergo ; that the attempt must necessarily have 
 also been in a high degree dangerous ; that, from the subject 
 of the mission, compared with the fixed opinions and preju- 
 dices of those to whom the missionaries were to address 
 themselves, they could hardly fail of encountering strong and 
 frequent opposition ; that, by the hand of government, as 
 well as from the sudden fury and unbridled license of the 
 people, they would oftentimes experience injurious and cruel 
 treatment ; that, at any rate, they must have always had so 
 much to fear for their personal safety, as to have passed their 
 lives in a state of constant peril and anxiety ; and lastly, that 
 their mode of life and conduct, visibly at least, corresponded 
 with the institution which they delivered, and, so far, was 
 both new, and required continual self-denial. 
 
 FINIS 
 
ohaptee: i-i; 
 
 EVIDENCE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF THE FIEST PROPAGATORS OF CHRIS- 
 TIANITY, FROM PROFANE TESTIMONY. 
 
 After thus considering what was likely to happen, we are 
 next to inquire how the transaction is represented in the 
 several accounts that have come down to us. And this in- 
 quiry is properly preceded by the other, forasmuch as the 
 reception of these accounts may depend in part on the credi- 
 bility of what they contain. 
 
 The obscure and distant view of Christianity, which some 
 of the heathen writers of that age had gained, and which a 
 few passages in their remaining works incidentally discover to 
 us, offers itself to our notice in the first place : because, so 
 far as this evidence goes, it is the concession of adversaries ; 
 the source from which it is drawn is unsuspected. Under 
 this head, a quotation from Tacitus, well known to every 
 scholar, must be inserted, as deserving particular attention. 
 The reader will bear in mind that this passage was written 
 about seventy years after Christ's death, and that it relates 
 to transactions which took place about thirty years after that 
 event. — Speaking of the fire which happened at Rome in the 
 time of Nero, and of the suspicions which were entertained 
 that the emperor himself was concerned in causing it, the 
 historian proceeds in his narrative and observations thus : 
 
 " But neither these exertions, nor his largesses to the peo- 
 ple, nor his offerings to the gods, did away the infamous im^ 
 putation under which Nero lay, of having ordered the city to 
 be set on fire. To put an end, therefore, to this report, he 
 3* 
 
58 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 laid the guilt, and inflicted the most cruel punishments, upon 
 a set of people who were holden in abhorrence for their 
 crimes, and called by the vulgar, Christians, The founder 
 of that name was Christ, who suffered death in the reign of 
 Tiberius, under his procurator Pontius Pilate. — This perni- 
 cious superstition, thus checked for awhile, broke out again ; 
 and spread not only over Judea, where the evil originated, 
 but through Eome also, whither everything bad upon the 
 earth finds its way, and is practiced. Some who confessed 
 their sect, were first seized, and afterwards, by their informa- 
 tion, a vast multitude were apprehended, who were convicted, 
 not so much of the crime of burning Rome, as of hatred to 
 mankind. Their sufferings at their execution were aggra- 
 vated by insult and mockery ; for, some were disguised in 
 the skins of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs ; — 
 some were crucified ; — and others were wrapped in pitched 
 shirts,* and set on fire when the day closed, that they might 
 serve as lights to illuminate the night. Nero lent his own 
 gardens for these executions, and exhibited at the same time 
 a mock Circensian entertainment ; being a spectator of the 
 whole, in the dress of a charioteer, sometimes mingling with 
 the crowd on foot, and sometimes viewing the spectacles from 
 his car. This conduct made the sufferers pitied ; and though 
 they were criminals, and deserving the severest punishments, 
 yet they were considered as sacrificed, not so much out of a re- 
 gard to the public good, as to gratify the cruelty of one man."f 
 Our concern with this passage at present is only so far as 
 it affords a presumption in support of the proposition which 
 we maintain, concerning tjpie activity and sufferings of the first 
 teachers of Christianity. Now, considered in this view, it 
 proves three things : 1 st, that the Founder of the institution 
 
 * This .is rather a paraphrase, but is justified by what the Scho- 
 liast upon Juvenal says : " Nero maleficos homines taeda et papyro et 
 cera supervestiebat, et sic ad ignem admoveri jnbebat." Lard. Jew- 
 ish and Heath. Test, vol. i. p. 359. 
 
 f Tacit. An. 1. xv. c. 44. 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 59 
 
 was put to death ; 2dly, that in the same country in which 
 he was put to death, the religion, after a short check, broke 
 out again and spread ; 3dly, that it so spread, as that, within 
 thirty-four years from the Author's death, a very great num- 
 ber of Christians (ingens eorum multitudo) were found at 
 Rome. From which fact, the two following inferences may 
 be fairly drawn : first, that if, in the space of thirty-four 
 years from its commencement, the religion had spread 
 throughout Judea, had extended itself to Rome, and there 
 had numbered a great multitude of converts, the original 
 teachers and missionaries of the institution could not have 
 been idle ; secondly, that when the Author of the undertaking 
 was put to death as a malefactor for his attempt, the en- 
 deavors of his followers to establish his religion in the same 
 country, amongst the same people, and in the same age, 
 could not but be attended with danger. 
 
 Suetonius, a writer cotemporary with Tacitus, describing 
 the transactions of the same reign, uses these words : " Af- 
 fecti suppliciis Christiani, genus hominum superstitionis novae 
 et maleficse."* The Christians, a set of men of a new and 
 mischievous (or magical) superstition, were punished. 
 
 Since it is not mentioned here that the burning of the city 
 was the pretence of the punishment of the Christians, or that 
 they were the Christians of Rome who alone suffered, it is 
 probable that Suetonius refers to some more general persecu- 
 tion than the short and occasional one which Tacitus de- 
 scribes. 
 
 Juvenal, a writer of the same age with the two former, 
 and intending, it should seem, to commemorate the cruelties 
 exercised under Nero's government, has the following lines :f 
 
 " Pone Tigellinum, tseda lucebis in ilia, 
 Qua stantes ardent, qui fixo gutture fumant, 
 Et latum media sulcum deducitj arena." 
 
 " Describe Tigellinus (a creature of Nero), and you shall 
 * Suet. Nero. cap. 16. | Sat. i. ver. 166. J Forsan "deducis." 
 
60 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 suffer the same punishment with those who stand burning in 
 their own flame and smoke, their head being held up by a 
 stake fixed to their chin, till they make a long stream of 
 blood and melted sulphur on the ground." 
 
 If this passage were considered by itself, the subject of 
 allusion might be doubtful ; but, when connected with the 
 testimony of Suetonius, as to the actual punishment of the 
 Christians by Nero, and with the account given by Tacitus 
 of the species of punishment which they were made to under- 
 go, I think it sufficiently probable that these were the execu- 
 tions to which the poet refers. 
 
 These things, as has already been observed, took place 
 within thirty-one years after Christ's death ; that is, accord- 
 ing to the course of nature, in the life-time, probably, of 
 some of the apostles, and certainly in the life-time of those 
 who were converted by the apostles, or who were converted 
 in their time. If then the Founder of the religion was put 
 to death in the execution of his design ; if the first race of 
 converts to the religion, many of them, suffered the greatest 
 extremities for their profession, it is hardly credible, that 
 those who came between the two, who were companions of the 
 Author of the institution during his life, and the teachers and 
 propagators of the institution after his death, could go about 
 their undertaking with ease and safety. 
 
 The testimony of the younger Pliny belongs to a later 
 period ; for although he v»^as contemporary with Tacitus and 
 Suetonius, yet his account does not, like theirs, go back to the 
 transactions of Nero's reign, but is confined to the affairs 
 of his own time. His celebrated letter to Trajan was written 
 about seventy years after Christ's death ; and the information 
 to be drawn from it, so far as it is connected with our argu- 
 ment, relates principally to two points : first, to the number 
 of Christians in Bithynia and Pontus, which was so consider- 
 able as to induce the governor of these provinces to speak of 
 them in the following terms : " Multi, omnis setatis, utriusque 
 sexvis etiam ; — neque enim civitates tanti\m, sed vicos etiam 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 61 
 
 et agros, superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est."* " There 
 are many of every age and of both sexes ; — nor has the con- 
 tagion of this superstition seized cities only, but smaller towns 
 also, and the open country." Great exertions must have 
 been used by the preachers of Christianity to produce this 
 state of things within this time. Secondly, to a point which 
 has been already noticed, and which I think of importance to 
 be observed, namely, the sufferings to which Christians were 
 exposed, without any public persecution being denounced 
 against them by sovereign authority. For, from Pliny's 
 doubt how he was to act, his silence concerning any subsist- 
 ing law on the subject, his requesting the emperor's rescript, 
 and the emperor, agreeably to his request, propounding a 
 rule for his direction, without reference to any prior rule, it 
 may be inferred, that there was, at that time, no public edict 
 in force against the Christians. Yet from this same epistle 
 of Pliny it appears, " that accusations, trials, and examinations, 
 were, and had been, going on against them in the provinces 
 over which he presided : that schedules were delivered by 
 anonymous informers, containing the names of persons who 
 were suspected of holding or of favoring the religion ; that, 
 in consequence of these informations, many had been appre- 
 hended, of whom some boldly avowed their profession, and 
 died in the cause ; others denied that they were Christians ; 
 others, acknowledging that they had once been Christians, de- 
 clared that they had long ceased to be such." All which 
 demonstrates, that the profession of Christianity was at that 
 time (in that country at least) attended with fear and danger ; 
 and yet this took place without any edict from the Roman 
 sovereign, commanding or authorizing the persecution of 
 Christians. This observation is farther confirmed by a 
 rescript of Adrian to Minucius Fundanus, the proconsul of 
 Asia :f from which rescript it appears that the custom of the 
 people of Asia was to proceed against the Christians with 
 tumult and uproar. This disorderly practice, I say, is re- 
 * Plin. 1. X. ep. 97. t I^ard. Heath. Test., v. ii. p. 110. 
 
62 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I 
 
 cognized in the edict, because the emperor enjoins, that, for 
 the future, if the Christians were guilty, they should be 
 legally brought to trial, and not be pursued by importunity 
 and clarAor. 
 
 Martial wrote a few years before the younger Pliny ; and, 
 as his manner was, made the sufferings of the Christians the 
 subject of his ridicule.* Nothing, however, could show the 
 notoriety of the fact with more certainty than this does. 
 Martial's testimony, as well indeed as Pliny's, goes also to 
 another point, viz. : that the deaths of these men were mar- 
 tyrdoms in the strictest sense, that is to say, were so volun- 
 tary, that it was in their power, at the time of pronouncing 
 the sentence, to have averted the execution, by consenting to 
 join the heathen sacrifices. 
 
 The constancy, and by consequence the sufferings of the 
 Christians of this period, is also referred to by Epictetus, 
 who imputes their intrepidity to madness, or to a kind of 
 fashion or habit ; and about fifty years afterwards, by Mar- 
 cus Aurelius, who acribes it to obstinacy. " Is it possible 
 (Epictetus asks) that a man may arrive at this temper, and 
 become indifferent to those things, from madness or from 
 habit, as the Galileans ? " f " Let this preparation of the 
 mind (to die) arise from its own judgment, and not from ob- 
 stinacy like the Christians.^'' If, 
 
 * In matutinS, nuper spectatus arena 
 Mucins, imposuit qui sua membra fools, 
 
 Si patiens fortisque tibi durusque videtur, 
 Abderitanffi pectora plebis habes ; 
 
 Nam cum dicatur, tunica prsesente molesta, 
 Ure § manum : plus est dicere, Non facio. || 
 
 f Epict., 1. iv. c. 7. X Marc. Aur. Med., 1. xi. c. 3. 
 
 § Forsan " thure raanurn." 
 
 I You have lately seen in the theatre of a morning, Mucius, who placed his own 
 limbs on the fire!— if such a person seems to you patient, valiant, and firm, 
 you are as stupid as the clowns of Abdora ; for it is harder to say, when the cruel 
 coat is produced, "1 do not sacrifice," than to obey the order " Burn thy hand." 
 
 The cruel coat is equivalent to the pitched shirt of Tacitus. — Ed. 
 
CHAPTER III, 
 
 INDIEEOT EVIDENCE OF THE SUEFEETNGS OF THE FIRST PROPAGATORS 
 OF CHRISTIANITY FROM THE SCRIPTURES ^ND OTHER ANCIENT 
 CHRISTIAN WRITINGS. 
 
 Of the primitive condition of Christianity, a distant only 
 and general view can be acquired from heathen writers. It 
 is in our own books that the detail and interior of the trans- 
 action must be sought for. And this is nothing different 
 from what might be expected. Who would write a history 
 of Christianity, but a Christian 1 Who was likely to record 
 the travels, sufferings, labors, or successes of the apostles, 
 but one of their own number, or of their followers ? Now 
 these books come up in their accounts to the full extent of 
 the proposition which we maintain. We have four histories 
 of Jesus Christ. We have a history taking up the narrative 
 from his death, and carrying on an account of the propaga- 
 tion of the religion, and of some of the most eminent per- 
 sons engaged in it, for a space of nearly thirty years. We 
 have, what some may think still more original, a collection 
 of letters, written by certain principal agents in the business, 
 upon the business, and in the midst of their concern and con- 
 nection with it. And we have these writings severally attest- 
 ing the point which we contend for, viz. : the sufferings of 
 the witnesses of the history, and attesting it in every variety 
 of form in which it can be conceived to appear : directly and 
 indirectly, expressly and incidentally, by assertion, recital, 
 and allusion, by narratives of facts, and by arguments and 
 discourses built upon these facts, either referring to them, or 
 necessarily presupposing them. 
 
64 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 I remark this variety, because, in examining ancient rec- 
 ords, or indeed any species of testimony, it is, in my opin- 
 ion, of the greatest importance to attend to the information 
 or grounds of argument which are casually and undesignedly 
 disclosed ; forasmuch as this species of proof is, of all others, 
 the least liable to be corrupted by fraud or misrepresentation. 
 
 I may be allowed, therefore, in the inquiry which is now 
 before us, to suggest some conclusions of this sort, as prepar- 
 atory to more direct testimony. 
 
 1. Our books relate, that Jesus Christ, the founder of the 
 religion, was, in consequence of his undertaking, put to death, 
 as a malefactor, at Jerusalem. This point at least will be 
 granted, because it is no more than what Tacitus has record- 
 ed. They then proceed to tell us, that the religion was, not- 
 withstanding^ set forth at this same city of Jerusalem, propa- 
 gated thence throughout Judea, and afterwards preached in 
 other parts of the Roman empire. These points also are fully 
 confirmed by Tacitus ; who informs us that the religion, after 
 a short check, broke out again in the country where it took its 
 rise ; that it not only spread throughout Judea, but had 
 reached Rome ; and that it had there great multitudes of con-, 
 verts ; and all this within thirty years after its commence- 
 ment. Now these facts afford a strong inference in behalf of 
 the proposition which we maintain. What could the disciples 
 of Christ expect for themselves when they saw their Master 
 put to death? Could they hope to escape the dangers in 
 which he had perished ? If they have persecuted me, they 
 will also persecute you, was the warning of common sense. 
 With this example before their eyes, they could not be with- 
 out a full sense of the peril of their future enterprise. 
 
 2. Secondly, all the histories agree in representing Christ 
 as foretelling the persecution of his followers : 
 
 "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall 
 kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's 
 
 * Matt. xxiv. 
 
Chap. HI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 65 
 
 "When affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's 
 sake, immediately they are offended.'"* 
 
 "They shall lay hands on you, and persecute you, deliver- 
 ing you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being l^rought 
 before kings and rulers for my name's sake : — and ye shall 
 be betrayed both by parents and brethren, and kinsfolks and 
 friends, and some of you shall they cause to be put to 
 death."f 
 
 " The time cometh, that he that killeth you, will think that 
 he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto 
 you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But 
 these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, 
 ye may remember that I told you of them." J 
 
 I am not entitled to argue from these passages, that Christ 
 actually did foretell these events, and that they did accord- 
 ingly come to pass ; because that would be at once to assume 
 the truth of the religion ; but I am entitled to contend, that 
 one side or other of the following disjunction is true ; either 
 that the Evangelists have delivered what Christ really spoke, 
 and that the event corresponded with the prediction ; or that 
 they put the prediction into Christ's mouth, because, at the 
 time of writing the history, the event had turned out so to 
 be : for, the only two remaining suppositions appear in the 
 highest degree incredible ; which are, either that Christ filled 
 the minds of his followers with fears and apprehensions, with- 
 out any reason or authority for what he said, and contrary to 
 the truth of the case ; or that, although Christ had never fore- 
 told any such thing, and the event would have contradicted 
 him if he had, yet historians who lived in the age when the 
 event was known, falsely, as well as officiously, ascribed these 
 words to him. 
 
 3. Thirdly, these books abound with exhortations to pa- 
 tience, and with topics of comfort under distress. 
 
 * Mark, iv. 1 '7. See also chap. x. 30. 
 
 f Luke, xxi. 12-16. See also chap. xi. 49. 
 
 J John, xvi. 4. See also chap. xv. 20; xvi. 33. 
 
6i EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? Shall 
 tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or naked- 
 ness, or peril, or sword ? Nay, in all these things we are 
 more than conquerors through Him that loved us."* 
 
 "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; we 
 are perplexed, but not in despair ; persecuted, but not for- 
 saken ; cast down, but not destroyed ; always bearing about 
 in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also 
 of Jesus might be made manifest in our body ; — knowing 
 that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by 
 
 Jesus, and shall present us with you. For which cause 
 
 we faint not ; but, though our outward man perish, yet the 
 inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, 
 which is but for a moment, w^orketh for us a far more ex- 
 ceeding and eternal weight of glory."f 
 
 " Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the 
 name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and 
 of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. 
 Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end 
 of the Lord ; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender 
 mercy."! 
 
 " Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye 
 were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, partly 
 whilst ye were made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and 
 afflictions, and partly whilst ye became companions of them 
 that were so used ; for ye had compassion of me in my bonds, 
 and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in 
 yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring 
 substance. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which 
 hath great recompense of reward ; for ye have need of pa- 
 tience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might re- 
 receive the promise."§ 
 
 " So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of 
 God, for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and 
 
 * Rom. viii. 35-3Y. f 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9, 10, 14, 16, 17. 
 
 J James, v. 10, 11. § Heb. x. 32-36. 
 
Chap. III.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 67 
 
 tribulations that ye endure. Which is a manifest token of 
 the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted 
 worthy of the kingdom for which ye also suffer."* 
 
 " We rejoice in hope of the glory of God ; and not only 
 so, but we glory in tribulations also ; knowing that tribula- 
 tion worketh- patience, and patience experience, and expe- 
 rience hope."| 
 
 " Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 
 which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened 
 unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of 
 Christ's sufferings. Wherefore let them that suffer ac- 
 cording to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls 
 to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." J 
 
 What could all these texts mean, if there was nothing in 
 the circumstance of the times which required patience, — 
 which called for the exercise of constancy and resolution ? Or 
 will it be pretended, that these exhortations (which, let it be 
 observed, come not from one author, but from many) were 
 put in, merely to induce a belief in after-ages, that the Chris- 
 tians were exposed to dangers which they were not exposed 
 to, or underwent sufferings which they did not undergo ? If 
 these books belong to the age to which they lay claim, and 
 in which age, whether genuine or spurious, they certainly did 
 appear, this supposition cannot be maintained for a moment ; 
 because I think it impossible to believe, that passages, which 
 must be deemed not only unintelligible, but false, by the per- 
 sons into whose hands the books upon their publication were 
 to come, should nevertheless be inserted, for the purpose of 
 producing an effect upon remote generations. In forgeries, 
 which do not appear till many ages after that to which they 
 pretend to belong, it is possible that some contrivance of that 
 sort may take place ; but in no others can it be attempted. 
 
 * 2 Thess. i. 4, 5. f i^om. v. 3, 4. \ 1 Pet. iv. 12, 13. 19. 
 
OHAPTEE IV. 
 
 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF THE FIRST PROPAGATORS OF 
 CHRISTIANITY, FROM THE SCRIPTURES AND OTHER ANCIENT CHRIS- 
 TIAN WRITINGS. 
 
 The account of the treatment of the religion, and of the 
 exertions of its first preachers, as stated in our Scriptures 
 (not in a professed history of persecutions, or in the connect- 
 ed manner in which I am about to recite it, but dispersedly 
 and occasionally, in the course of a mixed general history, 
 which circumstance alone negatives the supposition of^ny 
 fraudulent design), is the following : " That the Founder of 
 Christianity, from the commencement of his ministry to the 
 time of his violent death, employed himself wholly in pub- 
 lishing the institution in Judea and Galilee ; that, in order to 
 assist him in this purpose, he made choice out of the number 
 of his followers, of twelve persons, who might accompany 
 him as he travelled from place to place ; that, except a short 
 absence upon a journey, in which he sent them, two by two, 
 to announce his mission, and one, of a few days, when they 
 went before him to Jerusalem, these persons were statedly 
 and constantly attending upon him ; that they were with him 
 at Jerusalem when he was apprehended and put to death ; 
 and that they were commissioned by him, when his own min- 
 istry was concluded, to publish his Gospel, and collect dis- 
 ciples to it from all countries of the world." The account 
 then proceeds to state, " that, a few days after his departure, 
 these persons, with some of his relations, and some who had 
 regularly frequented their society, assembled at Jerusalem ; 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 69 
 
 that, considering the office of preaching the religion as now 
 devolved upon them, and one of their number having desert- 
 ed the cause, and, repenting of his perfidy, having destroyed 
 himself, they proceeded to elect another into his place, and 
 that they were careful to make their election out of the num- 
 ber of those who had accompanied their Master from the 
 first to the last, in order, as they alleged, that he might be a 
 witness, together with themselves, of the principal facts 
 which they were about to produce and relate concerning 
 him ; * that they began their work at Jerusalem by publicly 
 asserting that this Jesus, whom the rulers and inhabitants of 
 that place had so lately crucified, was, in truth, the person in 
 whom all their prophecies and long expectations terminated ; 
 that he had been sent amongst them by God ; and that he 
 was appointed by God the future judge of the human species ; 
 that all who were solicitous to secure to themselves happiness 
 after death, ought to receive him as such, and to make pro- 
 fession of their belief, by being baptized in his name."f The 
 history goes on to relate, " that considerable numbers accept- 
 ed this proposal, and that they who did so, formed amongst 
 themselves a strict union and society ; J that the attention of the 
 Jewish government being soon drawn upon them, two of the 
 principal persons of the twelve, and who also had lived most 
 intimately and constantly with the Founder of the religion, 
 were seized as they were discoursing to the people in the 
 temple ; that, after being kept all night in prison, they were 
 brought the next day before an assembly, composed of the 
 chief persons of the Jewish magistracy and priesthood ; that 
 this assembly, after some consultation, found nothing, at that 
 time, better to be done towards suppressing the growth of 
 the sect, than to threaten their prisoners with punishment if 
 they persisted ; that these men, after expressing, in decent 
 but firm language, the obligation under which they consider- 
 ed themselves to be, to declare what they knew, ' to speak 
 the things which they had seen and heard,' returned from the 
 * Acts, i. 21, 22. t -A-ctB, xi. X -^^^ i^- 82. 
 
70 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 council, and reported what had passed to their companions ; 
 that this report, whilst it apprized them of the danger of their 
 situation and undertaking, had no other effect upon their con- 
 duct, than to produce in them a general resolution to perse- 
 vere, and an earnest prayer to God to furnish them with 
 assistance, and to inspire them with fortitude, proportioned 
 to the increasing exigency of the service."* A very short 
 time after this, we read " that all the twelve apostles were 
 seized and cast into prison ;f that being brought a second 
 time before the Jewish Sanhedrim, they were upbraided with 
 their disobedience to the injunction which had been laid upon 
 them, and beaten for their contumacy ; that, being charged 
 once more to desist, they were suffered to depart ; that how- 
 ever they neither quitted Jerusalem, nor ceased from preach- 
 ing, both daily in the temple, and from house to house ; J and 
 that the twelve considered themselves as so entirely and ex- 
 clusively devoted to this office, that they now transferred 
 what may be called the temporal affairs of the society to 
 other hands."§ 
 
 * Acts, iv. f Acts, V. 18. J Acts, v. 42. 
 
 § I do not know that it has ever been insinuated, that the Chris- 
 tian mission, in the hands of the apostles, was a scheme for making 
 a fortune, or for getting money. But it may nevertheless be fit to 
 remark upon this passage of their history, how perfectly free they 
 appear to have been from any pecuniary or interested views what- 
 ever. The most tempting opportunity which occurred, of making a 
 gain of their converts, was by the custody and management of the 
 public funds, when some of the richer members, intending to con- 
 tribute their fortunes to the common support of the society, sold 
 their possessions, and laid down the prices at the apostles' feet. Yet, 
 so insensible, or undesirous, were they of the advantage which that 
 confidence afforded, that we find they very soon disposed of the 
 trust, by putting it into the hands, not of nominees of their own, but 
 of stewards formally elected for the purpose by the society at large. 
 
 "We may add also, that this excess of generosity, which cast pri- 
 vate property into the public stock, was so far from being required 
 by the apostles, or imposed as a law of Christianity, that Peter re- 
 minds Ananias that he had been guilty, in his behavior, of an offi- 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 71 
 
 Hitherto the preachers of the new religion seem to have 
 had the common people on their side ; which is assigned as 
 the reason why the Jewish rulers did not, at this time, think 
 it prudent to proceed to greater extremities. It was not long, 
 however, before the enemies of the institution found means 
 to represent it to the people as tending to subvert their law, 
 degrade their lawgiver, and dishonor their temple.* And 
 these insinuations were dispersed with so much success, as to 
 induce the people to join with their superiors in the stoning 
 of a very active member of the new community. 
 
 The death of this man was the signal of a general persecu- 
 tion, the activity of which may be judged of from one anec- 
 dote of the time : " As for Saal, he m.ade havoc of the 
 church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, 
 committed them to prison. ''f This persecution raged at 
 Jerusalem with so much fury, as to drivej most of the new 
 converts out of the place, except the twelve apostles. The 
 converts, thus " scattered abroad," preached the religion 
 wherever they came ; and their preaching was, in effect, the 
 preaching of the twelve ; for it was so far carried on in con- 
 cert and correspondence with tliem^ that when they heard of 
 the success of their emissaries in a particular country, they 
 sent two of their number to the place, to complete and con- 
 firm the mission. 
 
 An event now took place, of great importance in the future 
 history of the religion. The persecution § which had begun 
 at Jerusalem, followed the Christians to other cities, in which 
 the authority of the Jewish Sanhedrim over those of their 
 
 cious and voluntary prevarication; "for whilst," says he, "thy 
 estate remained unsold, was it not thine own ? And after it was sold, 
 was it not in thine own power ? " 
 
 * Acts, vi. 12. f Acts, viii. 3. 
 
 \ Acts, viii. 1. " And they were all scattered abroad : " but the 
 term " all " is not, I think, to be taken strictly, as denoting more 
 than the generality ; in like manner as in Acts, ix. 35, "And all 
 that dwelt at Lydda and Saron, saw him, and turned to the Lord." 
 
 § Acts, ix. 
 
72 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 own nation was allowed to be exercised. A young man, 
 who had signalized himself by his hostility to the profession, 
 and had procured a commission from the council at Jerusa- 
 lem to seize any converted Jews whom he might find at Da- 
 mascus, suddenly became a proselyte to the religion which 
 he was going about to extirpate. The new convert not only 
 shared, on this extraordinary change, the fate of his compan- 
 ions, but brought upon himself a double measure of enmity 
 from the party which he had left. The Jews at Damascus, 
 on his return to that city, watched the gates night and day, 
 with so much diligence, that he escaped from their hands only 
 by being let down in a basket by the wall. Nor did he find 
 himself in greater safety at Jerusalem, whither he imme- 
 diately repaired. Attempts were there also soon set on foot 
 to destroy him ; from the danger of which he was preserved 
 by being sent away to Cilicia, his native country. 
 
 For some reason, not mentioned, perhaps not known, but 
 probably connected with the civil history of the Jews, or 
 with some danger * which engrossed the public attention, an 
 intermission about this time took place in the sufferings of 
 the Christians. This happened, at the most, only seven or 
 eight, perhaps only three or four years after Christ's death. 
 Within which period, and notwithstanding that the late per- 
 secution occupied part of it, churches, or societies of believ- 
 ers, had been formed in all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria ; for 
 we read that the churches in these countries "had now rest^ 
 and were edified, and, walking in the fear of the Lord, and in 
 the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied."! The 
 original preachers of the religion did not remit their labors 
 or activity during the season of quietness ; for we find one, 
 
 * Dr. Lardner (in which he is followed also by Dr. Benson) ascribes 
 this cessation of the persecution of the Christians to the attempt of 
 Caligula to set up his own statue in the temple of Jerusalem, and to 
 the consternation thereby excited in the minds of the Jewish peo- 
 ple ; which consternation for a season suspended every other contest. 
 
 f Acts, ix. 31. 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 73 
 
 and he a very principal person among them, passing through- 
 out all quarters. We find also those who had been before 
 expelled from Jerusalem by the persecution which raged 
 there, travelling as far as Phoenice, Cyprus^ and Antioch ;* 
 and, lastly, we find Jerusalem again in the centre of the mis- 
 sion, the place whither the preachers returned from their sev- 
 eral excursions, where they reported the conduct and effects 
 of their ministry, where questions of public concern were 
 canvassed and settled, whence directions were sought, and 
 teachers sent forth. 
 
 The time of this tranquillity did not, however, continue 
 long. Herod Agrippa, who had lately acceded to the govern- 
 ment of Judea, " stretched forth his hand to vex certain of 
 the church."f He began his cruelty by beheading one of the 
 twelve original apostles, a kinsmant and constant companion 
 of the Founder of the religion. Perceiving that this execu- 
 tion gratified the Jews, he proceeded to seize, in order to put 
 to death, another of the number, — and him, like the former, 
 associated with Christ during his life, and eminently active in 
 the service since his death. This man was, however, deliver- 
 ed from prison, as the account states,§ miraculously, and 
 made his escape from Jerusalem. 
 
 These things are related, not in the general terms under 
 which, in giving the outlines of the history, we have here 
 mentioned them, but with the utmost particularity of names, 
 persons, places, and circumstances ; and, what is deserving 
 of notice, without the smallest discoverable propensity m the 
 
 * Acts, xi. 19. f Acts, xii. 1. 
 
 }: That James, the brother of John, and often called James the 
 elder, was a kinsman of Christ, is nowhere affirmed or implied in 
 Scripture. Peter, James and John were the three most distinguish- 
 ed among the apostles ; hence the first two became the special ob- 
 jects of Herod's cruelty, (Acts, xii. 3), John escaping, in all proba- 
 bility, in consequence of his youth. James the younger, or James 
 the less, was " the Lord's brother." — Ed. 
 
 § Acts, xii. S-IY. 
 
 4 
 
74 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 historian to magnify the fortitude, or exaggerate the suffer- 
 ings of his party. When they fled for their lives, he tells us. 
 When the churches had rest, he remarks it. When the peo- 
 ple took their part, he does not leave it without notice. 
 When the apostles were carried a second time before the 
 Sanhedrim, he is careful to observe that they were brought 
 without violence. When milder counsels were suggested, he 
 gives us the author of the advice, and the speech which con- 
 tained it. When, in consequence of this advice, the rulers 
 contented themselves with threatening the apostles, and com- 
 manding them to be beaten with stripes, without urging at 
 that time the persecution farther, the historian candidly and 
 distinctly records their forbearance. When, therefore, in 
 other instances, he states heavier persecutions, or actual 
 martyrdoms, it is reasonable to believe that he states them 
 because they were true, and not from any wish to aggravate, 
 in his account, the sufferings which Christians sustained, or to 
 extol, more than it deserved, their patience under them. 
 
 Our history now pursues a narrower path. Leaving the 
 rest of the apostles, and the original associates of Christ, en- 
 gaged in the propagation of the new faith (and who, there is 
 not the least reason to believe, abated in their diligence or 
 courage), the narrative proceeds with the separate memoirs 
 of that eminent teacher, whose extraordinary and sudden con- 
 version to the religion, and corresponding change of conduct 
 had before been circumstantially described. This person, in 
 conjunction with another, who appeared among the earlier 
 members of the society at Jerusalem, and amongst the im- 
 mediate adherents* of the twelve apostles, set out from An- 
 tioch upon the express business of carrying the new religion 
 through the various provinces of the Lesser Asia.f During 
 this expedition, we find that, in almost every place to which 
 they came, their persons were insulted, and their lives en- 
 dangered. After being expelled from Antioch in Pisidia, 
 they repaired to Iconium. J At Iconium an attempt was made 
 
 * Acts, iv. 86. f Acts, xiii. 2 X Acts, xiii. 61. 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 75 
 
 to stone them'; at Lystra, whither they fled from Iconium, 
 one of them actually was stoned, and draw^n out of the city 
 for dead.* These two men, though not themselves original 
 apostles, were acting in connection and in conjunction with ' 
 the original apostles ; for, after the completion of their jour- • 
 ney, being sent on a particular mission to Jerusalem, they 
 there related to the apostlesf and elders the events and suc- 
 cess of their ministry, and were in return recommended by 
 them to the churches, " as men who had hazarded their lives 
 in the cause." 
 
 The treatment which they had experienced in the first pro- 
 , gress did not deter them from preparing for a second. Upon 
 a dispute, however, arising between them, but not connected 
 with the common subject of their labors, they acted as wise 
 and sincere men would act ; they did not retire in disgust 
 from the service in which they were engaged ; but, each de- 
 voting his endeavors to the advancement of the religion, they 
 parted from one another, and set forwards upon separate 
 routes. The history goes along with one of them ; and the v? 
 second enterprise to him was attended with the same dangers 
 and persecutions as both had met with in the first. The 
 apostle's travels hitherto had been confined to Asia. He now 
 crosses, for the first time, the ^gean sea, and carries with 
 him, amongst others, the person whose accounts supply the 
 information we are stating. J The first place in Greece at 
 which he appears to have stopped, was Philippi in Macedonia. 
 Here himself and one of his companions were cruelly 
 w^hipped, cast into prison, and kept there under the most 
 rigorous custody, being thrust, whilst yet smarting with their 
 w^ounds, into the inner dungeon, and their feet made fast in 
 the stocks.§ . Notwithstanding this unequivocal specimen of 
 the usage which they had to look for in that country, they 
 went forward in the execution of their errand. After passing 
 through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessa- 
 
 * Acts, xiv. 19. X Acts, xv. 12-26. 
 
 t Acts, xvi. 11. §Ibid., ver. 23, 24, 33. 
 
76 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 lonica, in which city the house in which they lodged was as- 
 sailed by a party of their enemies, in order to bring them 
 out to the populace. And when, fortunately for their preser- 
 vation, they were not found at home, the master of the house 
 w^as dragged before the magistrate for admitting them within 
 his doors."^ Their reception at the next city was something 
 better ; but neither had they continued long before their tur- 
 bulent adversaries, the Jews, excited against them such com- 
 motions amongst the inhabitants, as obliged the apostle to 
 make his escape by a private journey to Athens. f The ex- 
 tremity of the progress was Corinth. His abode in this city 
 for some time seems to have been without molestation. At 
 length, however, the Jews found means to stir up an insur- 
 rection against him, and to bring him before the tribunal of 
 the Roman president. J It was to the contempt which that 
 -^^' magistrate entertained for the Jews and their controversies, 
 of which he accounted Christianity to be one, that our apostle 
 owed his deliverance,§ 
 
 This indefatigable teacher, after leaving Corinth, returned 
 by Ephesus into Syria ; and again visited Jerusalem, and the 
 society of Christians in that city, which, as hath been repeat- 
 edly observed, still continued the centre of the mission. || It 
 suited not, however, with the activity of his zeal to remain 
 long at Jerusalem. We find him going thence to Antioch, 
 and, after some stay there, traversing once more the northern 
 provinces of Asia Minor.^ This progress ended at Ephesus ; 
 in which city the apostle continued in the daily exercise of 
 his ministry two years, and until his success, at length, excit- 
 ed the apprehensions of those who were interested in the 
 support of the national worship, llieir clamor produced a 
 tumult, in which he had nearly lost his life.** Undismayed, 
 however, by the dangers to which he saw himself exposed, 
 he was driven from Ephesus only to renew his labors in 
 
 * Acts, xvii 1-5. t Ibid., ver. 13. X Acts, xviii. 12. 
 
 g Ibid., ver. 15. J Ibid., ver. 22. ^ Ibid., ver. 23. 
 
 ** Acts, xix. 1, 9. 10. 
 
Chap. IY.] JiVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 77 
 
 Greece. After passing over Macedonia, he thence proceeded 
 to his former station at Corinth.* When he had formed his 
 design of returning by a direct course from Corinth into 
 Syria, he was compelled by a conspiracy of the Jews, who 
 were prepared to intercept him on his way, to trace back his 
 steps through Macedonia to Philippi, and thence to take ship- 
 ping into Asia. Along the coast of Asia, he pursued his 
 voyage with all the expedition he could command, in order 
 to reach Jerusalem against the feast of Pentecost, f His re- 
 ception at Jerusalem was of a piece with the usage he had 
 experienced from the Jews in other places. He had been 
 only a few days in that city, when the populace, instigated by 
 some of his old opponents in Asia, who attended this feast, 
 seized him in the temple, forced him out of it, and were 
 ready immediately to have destroyed him, had not the sudden 
 presence of the Roman guard rescued him out of their 
 hands. J The officer, however, who had thus seasonably inter- 
 posed, acted from his care of the public peace, with the pres- 
 ervation of which he was charged, and not from any favor to 
 the apostle, or indeed any disposition to exercise either 
 justice or humanity towards him ; for he had no sooner 
 secured his person in the fortress, than he was proceeding to 
 examine him by torture. § 
 
 From this time to the conclusion of the history, the apostle 
 remains in public custody of the Roman government. After 
 escaping assassination by a fortunate discovery of the plot, 
 and delivering himself from the influence of his enemies by 
 an appeal to the audience of the emperor, || he was sent, but 
 not until he had suffered two years' imprisonment, to Rome.^ 
 He reached Italy, after a tedious voyage, and after encoun- 
 tering in his passage the perils of a desperate shipwreck.** 
 But although still a prisoner, and his fate still depending, 
 neither the various and long-continued sufferings which he 
 
 * Acts, XX. 1, 2. f Acts, XX. 16. X Acts, xxi. 27-33. 
 
 § Acts, xxii. 24. || Acts, xxv. 9, 11. ^ Acts, xxiv. 27. 
 
 ** Acis, xxvii. 
 
78 EYIDEJS^CES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 had undergone, nor the danger of his present situation, deter- 
 red him from persisting in preaching the religion ; for the 
 historian closes the account by telling us, that, for two years, 
 he received all that came unto him in his own hired house, 
 where he was permitted to dwell w^ith a soldier that guarded 
 him, "preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those 
 things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all con- 
 fidence." 
 
 Now the historian, from whom we have drawn this account, 
 in the part of his narrative which relates to Saint Paul, is 
 supported by the strongest corroborating testimony that a 
 history can receive. We are in possession of letters written 
 by Saint Paul himself upon the subject of his ministry, and 
 either written during the period which the history comprises, 
 or if written afterwards, reciting and referring to the trans- 
 actions of that period. These letters, without borrowing 
 from the history, or the history from them, unintentionally 
 confirm the account which the history delivers, in a great va- 
 riety of particulars.* What belongs to our present purpose 
 is the description exhibited of the apostle's suflferings ; and 
 the representation, given in the history, of the dangers and 
 distresses which he underwent, not only agrees, in general, 
 with the language which he himself uses whenever he speaks 
 of his life or ministry, but is also, in many instances, attested 
 by specific correspondency of time, place, and order of events. 
 If the historian put down in his narrative, that at Philippi the 
 apostle " was beaten with many stripes, cast into prison, and 
 there treated with rigor and indignity,"f we find him, in a 
 
 * See Paley's Horce Paulince — the most powerful and perfect argu- 
 ment of its kind in existence, and sufficient of itself to establish the 
 truth of the history. Any scholar who has perused Cicero's Ora- 
 tions against Catiline, in connection with Sallust's History of Cati- 
 line's conspiracy, will understand the natui'e and force of the cor- 
 roborative testimony that is supplied by contemporary documents. 
 Cicero's speeches are to Sallust's narrative, what Paul's Epistles are 
 to Luke's Memoir. — Ed. 
 
 t Acts, xvi. 23, 24. 
 
Chap. IV. 1 .EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 79 
 
 letter* to a neighboring church, reminding his converts, that, 
 " after he had suffered before, and was shamefully entreat- 
 ed at Philippi, he was bold, nevertheless, to speak unto 
 them (to whose city he next came) the Gospel of God." 
 If the history relate,f that, at Thessalonica, the house in 
 which the apostle was lodged, when he first came to that 
 place, was assaulted by the populace, and the master of 
 it dragged before the magistrate for admitting such a guest 
 within his doors ; the apostle, in his letter to the Christians 
 of Thessalonica, calls to their -remembrance " how they had 
 received the Gospel in much affliction. "J If the history de- 
 liver an account of an insurrection at Ephesus, which had 
 nearly cost the apostle his life, we have the apostle himself, 
 in a letter written a short time after his departure from that 
 city, describing his despair, and returning thanks for his de- 
 liverance. § If the history inform us, that the apostle was 
 expelled from Antioch in Pisidia, attempted to be stoned at 
 Iconium, and actually stoned at Lystra, there is preserved a 
 letter from him to a favorite convert, whom, as the same his- -^''' 
 tory tells us, he first met with in these parts ; in which letter 
 he appeals to that disciple's knowledge " of the persecutions 
 which befell him at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra." || If the 
 history make the apostle, in his speech to the Ephesian eld- 
 ers, remind them, as one proof of the disinterestedness of 
 his views, that, to their knowledge, he had supplied his own 
 and the necessities of his companions by personal labor ;^ we 
 find the same apostle, in a letter written during his residence 
 at Ephesus, asserting of himself " that even to that hour he 
 labored, working with his own hands."** 
 
 These coincidences, together with many relative to other 
 parts of the apostle's history, and all drawn from inde- 
 pendent sources, not only confirm the truth of the account, 
 
 * 1 Thess. ii. 2. f Acts, xvii. 5. 
 
 X 1 Thess., i. 6. § Acts, xix. 2 Cor., 1. 8-10 
 
 1 Acts, xiii. 60; xiv. 5. 19. 2 Tim., iii. 10, 11. 
 If Acts, XX. 34. ** 1 Cor., iv. 11, 12. 
 
80 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 in the particular points as to which they are observed, but 
 add much to the credit of the narrative in all its parts ; and 
 support the author's profession of being a contemporary of 
 the person whose history he writes, and, throughout a material 
 portion of his narrative, a companion. 
 
 What the epistles of the apostles declare of the suffering 
 state of Christianity, the writings which remain of their com- 
 panions and immediate followers expressly confirm. 
 
 Clement, who is honorably mentioned by Saint Paul in 
 his epistle to the Philippians,* hath left us his attestation to 
 this point, in the following words : " Let us take (says he) 
 the example of our own age. Through zeal and envy, the 
 most faithful and righteous pillars of the church have been 
 persecuted even to the most grievous deaths. Let us set be- 
 fore our eyes the holy apostles. Peter, by unjust envy, un- 
 derwent, not one or two, but many sufferings ; till at last, 
 being martyred, he went to the place of glory that was due 
 unto him. For the same cause did Paul, in like manner, re- 
 ceive the reward of his patience. Seven times he was in 
 bonds ; he was whipped, was stoned ; he preached both in 
 the East and in the West, leaving behind him the glorious 
 report of his faith ; and so having taught the whole world 
 righteousness, and for that end travelled even unto the utmost 
 bounds of the West, he at last suffered m^artyrdom by the 
 command of the governors, and departed out of the world, 
 and went unto his holy place, being become a most eminent 
 pattern of patience unto all ages. To these holy apostles 
 were joined a very great number of others, who, having 
 through envy undergone, in like manner, many pains and 
 torments, have left a glorious example to us. For this, not 
 only men, but women, have been persecuted ; and, having 
 suffered very grievous and cruel punishments, have finished 
 the course of their faith with firmness, "f 
 
 HermaSjJ saluted by Saint Paul in his epistle to the Ro- 
 
 * Philipp., iv. 3. f Clem, ad Cor. c. v. vi. Abp. Wake's Trans. 
 X Paley has followed Lardner in this account of Hermas. It does 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 81 
 
 mans, in a piece very little connected with historical recitals, 
 thus speaks : " Such as have believed and suffered death for 
 the name of Christ, and have endured with a ready mind, 
 and have given up their lives with all their hearts."* 
 
 Polycarp, the disciple of John (though all that remains of 
 his works be a very short epistle), has not left this subject 
 unnoticed. " I exhort (says he) all of you, that ye obey the 
 word of righteousness, and exercise all patience, which ye 
 have seen set before your eyes, not only in the blessed Ig- 
 natius, and Lorlmus, and Eufus, but in others among your- 
 selves, and in Paul himself and the rest of the apostles ; being 
 confident in this, that all these have not run in vain, but in 
 faith and righteousness ; and are gone to the place that was 
 due to them from the Lord, with whom also they suffered. 
 For they loved not this present world, but Him who died, 
 and was raised again by God for us."f 
 
 Ignatius, the contemporary of Polycarp, recognizes the 
 same topic, briefly indeed, but positively and precisely. 
 " For this cause (i. e. having felt and handled Christ's body 
 after his resurrection, and being convinced, as Ignatius ex- 
 pressed it, both by his flesh and spirit), they (i. e. Peter, and 
 those who were present with Peter at Christ's appearance) 
 despised death, and were found to be above it. "J 
 
 Would the reader know what a persecution in these days 
 was, 1 would refer him to a circular letter, written by the 
 church of Smyrna soon afler the death of Polycarp, who, it 
 will be remembered, had lived with Saint John ; and which 
 letter is entitled a relation of that bishop's martyrdom. " The 
 sufferings (say they) of all the other martyrs were blessed 
 and generous, which they underwent according to the will of 
 God. For so it becomes us, who are more religious than 
 
 not appear, however, that the work called the " Shepherd of Her- 
 nias" was written by the Hermas whom Paul salutes, but by another 
 of the name about the middle of the second century. — Ed, 
 
 * Shepherd of Hermas, c. xxviii. 
 
 f Pol. ad Phil. e. ix. J 19 ^P- Smyr. c iii. 
 
 4* i 
 
 • 
 
82 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 others, to ascribe the power and ordering of all things unto 
 him. And indeed who can choose but admire the greatness 
 of their minds, and that admirable patience and love of their 
 Master, which then appeared in them ? Who, when they 
 were so flayed with whipping, that the frame and structure 
 of their bodies were laid open to their very inward veins and 
 arteries, nevertheless endured it. In like manner, those who 
 were condemned to the beasts, and kept a long time in prison, 
 underwent many cruel torments, being forced to lie upon 
 sharp spikes laid under their bodies, and tormented with 
 divers other sorts of punishments ; that so, if it were possi- 
 ble, the tyrant, by the length of their sufferings, might have 
 brought them to deny Christ."* 
 
 * Rel. Mor. Pol. c. 11 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE PRECEDING EVIDENCE. 
 
 On the history, of which the last chapter contains an ab- 
 stract, there are a few observations which it may be proper 
 to make, by way of applying its testimony to the particular 
 propositions for which we contend. 
 
 I. Although our Scripture history leaves the general ac- 
 count of the apostles in an early part of the narrative, and 
 proceeds with the separate account of one particular apostle, 
 yet the information which it delivers so far extends to the 
 rest, as it shows the nature of the service. When we see one ^ 
 apostle suffering persecution in the discharge of his commis- 
 sion, we shall not believe, without evidence, that the same 
 office could, at the same time, be attended with ease and 
 safety to others. And this fair and reasonable inference is 
 confirmed by the direct attestation of the letters, to which 
 we have so oflen referred. The writer of these letters not 
 only alludes, in numerous passages, to his own sufferings, but 
 speaks of the rest of the apostles as enduring like sufferings 
 with himself. " I think that God hath set forth us the apostles 
 last, as it were, appointed to death ; for we are made a spec- 
 tacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men ; — even unto 
 this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, 
 and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and 
 labor, working with our own hands : being reviled, we bless ; 
 being persecuted, we suffer it ; being defamed, we entreat : 
 we are made as the filth of the world, and as the offscouring 
 of all things unto this day."* Add to which, that in the 
 * 1 Cor. iv. 9, et seq. 
 
84 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 short account that is given of the other apostles in the for- 
 mer part of the history, and within the short period which 
 that account comprises,"we find, first, two of them seized, im- 
 prisoned, brought before the Sanhedrim, and threatened with 
 further punishment;* then, the whole number imprisoned 
 and beaten :f soon afterwards, one of their adherents stoned 
 to death, and so hot a persecution raised against the sect, as" 
 to drive most of them out of the place ; a short time only 
 succeeding, before one of the twelve was beheaded, and 
 another sentenced to the same fate ; and all this passing in 
 the single city of Jerusalem, and within ten years after the 
 Founder's death, and the commencement of the institution. 
 
 II. We take no credit at present for the miraculous part 
 of the narrative, nor do we insist upon the correctness of 
 single passages of it. If the whole story be not a novel, a 
 romance ; the whole action a dream ; if Peter, and James, 
 and Paul, and the rest of the apostles mentioned in the ac- 
 count, be not all imaginary persons ; if their letters be not 
 all forgeries, and, what is more, forgeries of names and char- 
 acters which never existed; then is there evidence in our 
 hands sufficient to support the only fact we contend for (and 
 which, I repeat again, is, in itself, highly probable), that the 
 original followers of Jesus Christ exerted great endeavors to 
 propagate his religion, and underwent great labors, dangers, 
 and sufferings, in consequence of their undertaking. 
 
 III. The general reality of the apostolic history is strongly 
 confirmed by the consideration, that it, in truth, does no more 
 than assign adequate causes for effects which certainly were 
 produced, and describe consequences naturally resulting from 
 situations which certainly existed. The effects were certainly 
 there, of which this history sets forth the cause, and origin, 
 and progress. It is acknowledged on all hands, because it is 
 recorded by other testimony than that of the Christians them- 
 selves, that the religion began to prevail at that time, and in 
 that country. It is very difficult to conceive how it could 
 
 * Acts, iv. 3, 21, f Acts, v. 18, 40. 
 
K 
 
 Chap. V.] EVIDEKCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 85 
 
 begin, or prevail at all, without the exertions of the Founder 
 and his followers in propagating the new persuasion. The 
 history now in our hands describes these exertions, the per- 
 sons employed, the means and endeavors made use of, and 
 the labors undertaken in the prosecution of this purpose. 
 Again, the treatment which the history represents the first 
 propagators of the religion to have experienced, was no other 
 than what naturally resulted from the situation in which they 
 were confessedly placed. It is admitted that the religion 
 was adverse, in a great degree, to the reigning opinions, and 
 to the hopes and wishes of the nation to which it was fa-st 
 introduced ; and that it overthrew, so far as it was received, 
 the established theology and worship of every other country. 
 We cannot feel much reluctance in believing that, when the 
 messengers of such a system went about not only publishing 
 their opinions, but collecting proselytes, and forming regular 
 societies of proselytes, they should meet with opposition in 
 their attempts, or that this opposition should sometimes pro- 
 ceed to fatal extremities. Our history details examples of 
 this opposition, and of the sufferings and dangers, which the 
 emissaries of the religion underwent, perfectly agreeable to 
 what might reasonably be expected, from the nature of their 
 undertaking, compared with the character of the age and 
 country in which it was carried on. 
 
 IV. The records before us supply evidence of what formed 
 another member of our general proposition, and what, as 
 hath already been observed, is highly probable, and almost a 
 necessary consequence of their new profession, viz. : that, to- 
 gether with activity and courage in propagating the religion, 
 the primitive followers of Jesus assumed, upon their conver- 
 sion, a new and peculiar course of private life. Immediately 
 after their Master was withdrawn from them, we hear of 
 their "continuing with one accord in prayer and supplica- 
 tion ; "* of their " continuing daily with one accord in the 
 temple ;"f of " many being gathered together praying. "J We 
 * Acts, i. 14. t Acts, ii. 46. X Acts, xii. 12. 
 
86 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 know what strict injunctions were laid upon the converts by 
 their teachers. Wherever they came, the first word of their 
 preaching was, " Repent ! " We know that these injunctions 
 obliged them to refrain from many species of licentiousness, 
 which were not. at that time, reputed criminal. We know 
 the rules of purity, and the maxims of benevolence, which 
 Christians read in their books ; concerning which rules, it is 
 enough to observe, that, if they were, I will not say com- 
 pletely obeyed, but in any degree regarded, they would pro- 
 duce a system of conduct, and, what is more difficult to pre- 
 serve, a disposition of mind, and a regulation of affections, 
 different from anything to which they had hitherto been ac- 
 customed, and different from what they would see in others. 
 The change and distinction of manners, which resulted from 
 their new character, is perpetually referred to in the letters 
 of their teachers. " And you hath he quickened, who were 
 dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past ye walked, 
 according to the course of this world, according to the prince 
 of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the 
 children of disobedience : among whom also we had our con- 
 versation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the 
 desires of the flesh, and of the mind, and were by nature the 
 children of wrath, even as others."* — " For the time past of 
 our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gen- 
 tiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, 
 revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries ; wherein 
 they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same ex- 
 cess of rioty\ Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinth- 
 ians, after enumerating, as his manner was, a catalogue of 
 vicious characters, adds, " Such were some of you, but ye are 
 washed, but ye are sanctified. "J In like manner, and alluding 
 to the same change of practices and sentiments, he asks the 
 Roman Christians, "what fruit they had in those things, 
 whereof they are now ashamed ? "§ The phrases which the 
 
 * Eph. ii. 1--3. See also Tit. iii. 3. f 1 Pet. iv. 3, 4. 
 
 X 1 Cor., vi. 11. § Rom., vi. 21. 
 
Chap. V.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 87 
 
 same writer employs to describe the moral condition of 
 Christians, compared with their condition before they became 
 Christians, such as " newness of life," being " freed from sin," 
 being " dead to sin ; " " the destruction of the body of sin, 
 that, for the future^ they should not serve sin ; " " children 
 of light and of the day," as opposed to " children of darkness 
 and of the night ; " " not sleeping as others ; " imply, at least, 
 a new system of obligation, and, probably, a new series of 
 conduct, commencing with their conversion. 
 
 The testimony which Pliny bears to the behavior of the new 
 sect in his time, and which testimony comes not more than 
 fifty years after that of Saint Paul, is very applicable to the 
 subject under consideration. The character which this writer 
 gives of the Christians of that age, and which was drawn from 
 a pretty accurate inquiry, because he considered their moral 
 principles as the point in which the magistrate was interested, 
 is as follows : — He tells the emperor, " that some of those 
 who had relinquished the society, or who, to save themselves, 
 pretended that they had relinquished it, affirmed that they 
 were wont to meet together, on a stated day, before it was 
 light,' and sang among themselves alternately a hymn to 
 Christ as a God ; and to bind themselves by an oath, not to 
 the commission of any wickedness, but that they would not 
 be guilty of theft, or robbery, or adultery ; that they would 
 never falsify their word, or deny a pledge committed to 
 them, when called upon to return it." This proves that a 
 morality, more pure and strict than was ordinary, prevailed 
 at that time in Christian societies. And to me it appears, 
 that we are authorized to carry this testimony back to the 
 age of the apostles ; because it is not probable that the im- 
 mediate hearers and disciples of Christ were more relaxed 
 than their successors in Pliny's time, or the missionaries of 
 the religion than those whom they taught. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 THAT THE STOEY, FOE WHICH THE FIEST PEOPAGATOES OF CHEISTIAX- 
 ITY SUFFEEED, WAS MIEACULOUS. 
 
 When we consider, first, the prevaleiicy of the religion at 
 this hour ; secondly, the only credible account which can be 
 given of its origin, viz. the activity of the Founder and his 
 associates ; thirdly, the opposition w^hich that activity must 
 naturally have excited ; fourthly, the fate of the Founder of 
 the religion, attested by heathen writers as well as our own : 
 fifthly, the testimony of the same writers to the sufferings of 
 Christians, either contemporary with, or immediately succeed- 
 ing, the original settlers of the institution ; sixthly, predictions 
 of the sufferings of his followers ascribed to the Founder of 
 the religion, which ascription alone proves, either that such 
 predictions were delivered and fulfilled, or that the writers 
 of Christ's life were induced by the event to attribute such 
 predictions to him ; seventhly, letters now in our possession, 
 written by some of the principal agents in the transaction, 
 referring expressly to extreme labors, dangers, and sufferings, 
 sustained by themselves and their companions ; lastly, a his- 
 tory purporting to be written by a fellow-traveller of one of 
 the new teachers, and, by its unsophisticated correspondency 
 with letters of that person still extant, proving itself to be 
 written by some one wellacquainted with the subject of the 
 narrative, which history contains accounts of travels, perse- 
 cution, and martyrdoms, answering to what the former rea- 
 sons lead us to expect : when we lay together these con- 
 siderations, which, taken separately, are, I think, correctly, 
 such as I have stated them in the preceding chapters, there 
 
Chap. VL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 89 
 
 cannot much doubt remain upon our minds, but that a num- 
 ber of persons at that time appeared in the world, publicly 
 advancing an extraordinary story, and for the sake of propa- 
 gating the belief of that story, voluntarily incurring great per- 
 sonal dangers, traversing seas and kingdoms, exerting great 
 industry, and sustaining great extremities of ill usage and 
 persecution. It is also proved, that the same persons, in con- 
 sequence of their persuasion, or pretended persuasion of the 
 truth of what they asserted, entered upon a course of life in 
 many respects new and singular."* 
 
 From the clear and acknowledged parts of the case, I think 
 it to be likewise in the highest degree probable, that the 
 story, for which these persons voluntarily exposed themselves 
 to the fatigues and hardships which they endured, was a 
 miraculous story ; I mean, that they pretended to miraculous 
 evidence of some kind or other. They had nothing else to 
 stand upon. The designation of the person, that is to say, 
 that Jesus of Nazareth, rather than any other person, was 
 the Messiah, and as such the subject of their ministry, could 
 only be founded upon supernatural tokens attributed to him. 
 Here were no victories, no conquests, no revolutions, no sur- 
 prising elevation of fortune, no achievements of valor, of 
 strength, or of policy, to appeal to ; no discoveries in any art 
 or science, no great efforts of genius or learning to produce. 
 A Galilean peasant was announced to the world as a divine 
 lawgiver. A young man of mean condition, of a private and 
 simple life, and who had wrought no deliverance for the Jew- 
 ish nation, was declared to be their Messiah. This, without 
 ascribing to him at the same time some proofs of his mis- 
 sion (and what other but supernatural proofs could there be X) 
 was too absurd a claim to be either imagined, or attempted, 
 or credited, f In whatever degree, or in whatever part, the 
 
 * Can any proof of an ancient transaction be stronger tlian this ? 
 Who, in any other case, is able to produce one so strong ? — Ed. 
 
 f No doubt it was ; and a great deal of abstract argument would 
 be needed to answer this manly reasoning. — -Ed. 
 
90 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 religion was argumentative^ when it came to the question, " Is 
 the carpenter's Son of Nazareth the person whom we are 
 to receive and obey ?" there was nothing but the miracles 
 attributed to him, by which his pretensions could be main- 
 tained for a moment. Every controversy and every ques- 
 tion must pre-suppose these : for, however such controver- 
 sies, when they did arise, might, and naturally would, be dis- 
 cussed upon their own grounds of argumentation, without 
 citing the miraculous evidence which had been asserted to' 
 attend the Founder of the religion (which would have been 
 to enter upon another and a more general question), yet we 
 are to bear in mind, that without previously supposing the 
 existence of the pretence of such evidence, there could have 
 been no place for the discussion of the argument at all. Thus, 
 for example, whether the prophecies, which the Jews inter- 
 preted to belong to the Messiah, were, or were not, applicable 
 to the history of Jesus of Nazareth, was a natural subject of 
 debate in those times ; and the debate would proceed, with- 
 out recurring at every turn to his miracles, because it set out 
 with supposing these ; inasmuch as without miraculous marks 
 and tokens (real or pretended), or without some such great 
 change effected by his means in the public condition of the 
 country, as might have satisfied the then received interpreta- 
 tion of these prophecies, I do not see how the question could 
 ever have been entertained. ApoUos, we read, " mightily 
 convinced the Jews, showing by the Scripture that Jesus was 
 Christ ;"=^ but unless Jesus had exhibited some distinction 
 of his person, some proof of supernatural power, the argu- 
 ment from the old Scriptures could have had no place. It 
 had nothing to attach upon. A young man calling himself 
 the Son of God, gathering a crowd about him, and delivering 
 to them lectures of morality, could not have excited so much 
 as a doubt among the Jews, whether he was the object in 
 whom a long series of ancient prophecies terminated, from 
 the completion of which they had formed such magnificent 
 * Acts, xviii. 28. 
 
Chap. VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 91 
 
 expectations, and expectations of a nature so opposite to 
 what appeared; I mean, no such doubt could exist when 
 they had the whole case before them, when they saw him put 
 to death for his officiousness, and when by his death the evi- 
 dence concerning him was closed. Again, the effect of the 
 Messiah's coming, supposing Jesus to have been he, upon 
 Jews, upon Gentiles, upon their relation to each other, upon 
 their acceptance with God, upon their duties and their expec- 
 tations ; his nature, authority, office, and agency, were likely 
 to become subjects of much consideration with the early 
 votaries of the religion, and to occupy their attention and 
 writings. I should not however expect, that in these disqui- 
 sitions, whether preserved in the form of letters, speeches, or 
 set treatises, frequent or very direct mention of his miracles 
 would occur. Still, miraculous evidence lay at the bottom 
 of the argument. In the 'primary question, miraculous pre- 
 tensions, and miraculous pretensions alone, were what they 
 had to rely upon. 
 
 That the original story was miraculous, is very fairly also 
 inferred from the miraculous powers which were laid claim 
 to by the Christians of succeeding ages. If the accounts of 
 these miracles be true, it was a continuation of the same pow- 
 ers ; if they be false, it was an imitation^ I will not say, of 
 what had been wrought, but of what had been reported to 
 have been wrought, by those who preceded them. That imi- 
 tation should follow reality : fiction should be grafted upon 
 truth; that, if miracles were performed at first, miracles 
 should be pretended afterwards ; agrees so well with the ordi- 
 nary course of human affairs, that we can have no great diffi- 
 culty in believing it. The contrary supposition is very im- 
 probable, namely, that miracles should be pretended to by 
 the followers of the apostles and first emissaries of the relig- 
 ion, when none were pretended to, either in their own per- 
 sons or that of their Master, by these apostles and emissaries 
 themselves. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THAT IT WAS IN THE MAIN STORY WHICH WE HAYE NOW, PEOYED 
 BY INDIRECT CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 It being then once proved, that the first propagatoi^ of the 
 Christian institution did exert activity, and subject themselves 
 to great dangers and sufferings, in consequence and for the 
 sake of an extraordinary, and, I think, we may say, of a 
 miraculous story of some kind or other : the next great ques- 
 tion is. Whether the account, which our Scriptures contain, 
 be that story ; that which these men delivered, and for which 
 they acted and suffered as they did ? This question is, in 
 effect, no other than whether the story which Christians have 
 now^ be the story which Christians had then ? And of this 
 the following proofs may be deduced from general considera- 
 tions, and from considerations prior to any inquiry into the 
 particular reason and testimonies by which the authority of 
 our histories is supported. 
 
 « In the first place, there exists no trace or vestige of any 
 other story. It is not, like the death of Cyrus the Great, a 
 competition between opposite accounts, or between the credit 
 of different historians. There is not a document, or scrap of 
 account, either contemporary with the commencement of Chris- 
 tianity, or extant w^ithin many ages after that commencement, 
 which assigns a history substantially different from ours. 
 The remote, brief, and incidental notices of the affair, which 
 are found in heathen writers, so far as they do go, go along 
 with us. They bear testimony to these facts : — that the in- 
 stitution originated from Jesus : that the Founder was put 
 
Chap. VII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 93 
 
 to death, as a malefactor, at Jerusalem, by the authority of 
 the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate ; that the religion never- 
 theless spread in that city, and throughout Judea ; and that 
 it was propagated thence to distant countries ; that the con- 
 verts were numerous ; that they suffered great hardships, and 
 injuries for their profession ; and that all this took place in 
 the age of the world which our books have assigned. They 
 go on further, to describe the manners of Christians, in terms 
 perfectly conformable to the accounts extant in our books ; 
 that they were wont to assemble on a certain day ; that they 
 sang hymns to Christ as to a god ; that they bound them- 
 selves by an oath not to commit any crime, but to abstain 
 from thefl and adultery, to adhere strictly to their promises, 
 and not to deny money deposited in their hands ;* that they 
 worshipped him who was crucified in Palestine; that this 
 their first lawgiver had taught them that they were all breth- 
 ren ; that they had a great contempt for the things of this 
 world, and looked upon them as common ; that they flew to 
 one another's relief; that they cherished strong hopes of im- 
 mortality ; that they despised death, and surrendered them- 
 selves to sufferings, f This is the account of writers who 
 
 * See Pliny's Letter. Bonnet, in his lively way of expressing 
 himself, says: "Comparing Pliny's Letter with the account in the 
 Acts, it seems to me that I had not taken up another author, but that 
 I was still reading the historian of that extraordinary society." This 
 is strong ; but there is undoubtedly an affinity, and all the affinity 
 that could be expected. 
 
 f " It is incredible what expedition they use when any of their 
 friends are known to be in trouble. In a word, they spare nothing 
 upon such an occasion ; — for these miserable men have no doubt they 
 shall be immortal and live forever : therefore they contemn death, 
 and may surrender themselves to sufferings. Moreover, their first 
 lawgiver has taught them that they are all brethren, when once they 
 have turned and renounced the gods of the Greeks, and worship 
 this Master of theirs who was crucified, and engage to live according 
 to his laws. They have also a sovereign contempt for all the things 
 of this world, and look upon them as common." Lucian. de Morte 
 Peregrini, t. i. p. 666. ed. Grsev. 
 
94 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 viewed the subject at a great distance ; who were uninformed 
 and uninterested about it. It bears the characters of such an 
 account upon the face of it, because it describes effects, name- 
 ly, the appearance in the world of a new religion, and the 
 conversion of great multitudes to it, without descending, in 
 the smallest degree, to the detail of the transaction upon 
 which it was founded, the interior of the institution, the evi- 
 dence or arguments offered by those who drew over others to 
 it. Yet still here is no contradiction of our story ; no other 
 or different story to set up against it ; but so far a confirmation 
 of it, as that, in the general points on which the heathen account 
 touches, it agrees with that which we find in our own books. 
 
 The same may be observed of the very few Jewish writers, 
 of that and the adjoining period, which have come down to 
 us. Whatever they omit, or whatever difficulties we may 
 find in explaining the omission, they advance no other his- 
 tory of the transaction than that which we acknowledge. 
 Josephus, who wrote his Antiquities, or History of the Jews, 
 about sixty years after the commencement of Christianity, in 
 a passage generally admitted as genuine, makes mention of 
 John under the name of John the Baptist ; that he was a 
 preacher of virtue ; that he baptized his proselytes ; that he 
 was well received by the people ; that he was imprisoned 
 and put to death by Herod ; and that Herod lived in a crim- 
 inal cohabitation with Herodias, his brother's wife.* In 
 another passage allowed by many, although not without con- 
 siderable question being moved about it, we hear of " James, 
 the brother of him who was called Jesus, and of his being 
 put to death."f In a third passage, extant in every copy 
 that remains of Josephus's History, but the authenticity of 
 which has nevertheless been long disputed, we have an ex- 
 plicit testimony to the substance of our history in these 
 words : — " At that time lived Jesus, a wise man, if he may 
 be called a man, for he performed many wonderful works. 
 
 * Antiq., 1. xviii. cap. v. sect. 1, 2. 
 f Auliq., 1. XX. cap. ix. sect. 1. 
 
Chap. VII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 95 
 
 He was a teacher of such men as received the truth with 
 pleasure. He drew over to him many Jews and Gentiles. 
 This was the Christ ; and when Pilate, at the instigation of 
 the chief men among us, had condemned him to the cross, 
 they who before had conceived an affection for him, did not 
 cease to adhere to him ; for, on the third day, he appeared to 
 them alive again, the divine prophets having foretold these 
 and many wonderful things concerning him. And the sect 
 of the Christians, so called from him, subsists to this time."* 
 Whatever become of the controversy concerning the genuine- 
 ness of this passage ; whether Josephus go the whole length 
 of our history, which, if the passage be sincere, he does ; or 
 whether he proceed only a very little way with us, which, if 
 the passage be rejected, we confess to be the case ; still what 
 we asserted is true, that he gives no other or different history 
 of the subject from ours, no other or different account of the 
 origin of the institution. And I think also that it may with 
 great reason be contended, either that the passage is genuine, 
 or that the silence of Josephus was designed.\ For, although 
 we should lay aside the authority of our own books entirely, 
 yet when Tacitus, who wrote not twenty, perhaps not ten 
 years after Josephus, in his account of a period in which 
 Josephus was nearly thirty years of age, tells us, that a vast 
 multitude of Christians were condemned at Eome ; that they 
 derived their denomination from Christ, who, in the reign of 
 Tiberius, was put to death, as a criminal, by the procurator, 
 Pontius Pilate ; that the superstition had spread not only 
 over Judea, the source of the evil, but had reached Rome 
 also : — when Suetonius, an historian contemporary with Taci- 
 tus, relates that, in the time of Claudius, the Jews were mak- 
 ing disturbances at Rome, Christus being their leader ; and 
 that, during the reign of Nero, the Christians were punished ; 
 under both which emperors, Josephus lived : when Pliny, 
 who wrote his celebrated epistle not more than thirty years 
 
 * Antiq., 1. xviii. cap. iii. sect. 3. 
 
 f See Note A at the end of this chapter. 
 
96 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 after the publication of Josephus's history, found the Chris- 
 tians in such numbers in the province of Bithynia, as to draw 
 from him a complaint, that the contagion had seized cities, 
 towns, and villages, and had so seized them as to produce a 
 general desertion of the public rites ; and when, as has al- 
 ready been observed, there is no reason for imagining that 
 the Christians were more numerous in Bithynia than in many 
 other parts of the Eoman empire : it cannot, I should sup- 
 pose, after this, be believed, that the religion, and the trans- 
 action upon which it was founded, were too obscure to engage 
 the attention of Josephus, or to obtain a place in his history. 
 Perhaps he did not know how to represent the business, and 
 disposed of his difficulties by passing it over in silence. 
 Eusebius wrote the life of Constantine, yet omits entirely the 
 most remarkable circumstance in that life, the death of his 
 son Crispus ; undoubtedly for the reason here given. The 
 reserve of Josephus upon the subject of Christianity appears 
 also in his passing over the banishment of the Jews by Clau- 
 dius, which Suetonius, we have seen, has recorded with an 
 express reference to Christ. This is at least as remarkable 
 as his silence about the infants of Bethlehem.* Be, however, 
 the facts, or the cause of the omission in Josephus,f what it 
 
 * Michaelis has computed, and, as it should seem, fairly enough, 
 that probably not more than twenty children perished by this cruel 
 precaution. Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, trans- 
 lated by Marsh ; vol. i. c. ii. sect. 11. 
 
 f There is no notice taken of phristianity in the Mishna, a collec- 
 tion of Jewish traditions compiled about the year 180; although it 
 contains a tract " De cultu peregrino," of strange or idolatrous wor- 
 ship : yet it cannot be disputed but that Christianity was perfectly 
 well known in the world at this time. There is extremely little 
 notice of the subject in the Jerusalem Talmud, compiled about the 
 year 800, and not much more in the Babylonish Talmud, of the year 
 500 ; although both these works are of a religious nature, and al- 
 though, when the first was compiled, Christianity was on the point 
 of becoming the religion of the state, and, when the latter was pub- 
 lished, had been so for 200 years. (See Note B at the end of this 
 chapter.) 
 
Chap. VIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, 97 
 
 may, no other or different history on the subject has been 
 given by him, or is pretended to have been given. 
 
 But further ; the whole series of Christian writers, from 
 the first age of the institution down to the present, in their 
 discussions, apologies, arguments, and controversies, proceed 
 upon the general story which our Scriptures contain, and 
 upon no other. The main facts, the principal agents, are 
 alike in all. This argument will appear to be of great force, 
 when it is known that we are able to trace back the series of 
 writers to a contact with the historical books of the New 
 Testament and to the age of the first emissaries of the relig- 
 ion, and to deduce it, by an unbroken continuation, from that 
 end of the train to the present. 
 
 The remaining letters of the apostles (and what more orig- 
 inal than their letters can we have ?), though written without 
 the remotest design of transmitting the history of Christ, or 
 of Christianity, to future ages, or even of making it known 
 to their contemporaries, incidentally disclose to us the follow- 
 ing circumstances : — Christ's descent and family ; his inno- 
 cence ; the meekness and gentleness of his character (a recog- 
 nition which goes to the whole Gospel history) ; his exalted 
 nature ; his circumcision ; his transfiguration ; his life of op- 
 position and suffering ; his patience and resignation ; the ap- 
 pointment of the eucharist, and the manner of it ; his agony ; 
 his confession before Pontius Pilate ; his stripes, crucifixion, 
 and burial ; his resurrection ; his appearance after it, first to 
 Peter, then to the rest of the apostles ; his ascension into 
 heaven ; and his designation to be the future judge of man- 
 kind ; — the stated residence of the apostles at Jerusalem ; 
 the working of miracles by the first preachers of the Gospel, 
 who were also the hearers of Christ ;* — the successful propa- 
 
 * Heb. ii. 3. " How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salva- 
 tion, which, at the first, began to be spoken by the Lord, and was 
 confirmed unto us by them that heard hhn, God also bearing them wit- 
 ness, both with signs and wonders^ and with divers miracleSy and gifts 
 of the Holy Ghost?" 1 allege this epistle without hesitation: for, 
 
 5 
 
98- EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 gation of the religion ; the persecution of its followers ; the 
 miraculous conversion of Paul ; miracles wrought by him- 
 self, and alleged in his controversies with his adversaries, 
 and in letters to persons amongst whom they were wrought ; 
 — finally, that miracles were the signs of an apostle,^ 
 
 In an epistle bearing the name of Barnabas, the companion 
 of Paul, probably genuine, certainly belonging to that age, 
 we have the sufferings of Christ, his choice of apostles and 
 their number, his passion, the scarlet robe, the vinegar and 
 gall, the mocking and piercing, the casting lots for his coat,f 
 his resurrection on the eighth (^. e, the first day of the week J), 
 and the commem^orative distinction of that day, his manifest- 
 ation after his resurrection, and lastly his ascension. We 
 have also his miracles generally but positively referred to in 
 the following words : " Finally teaching the people of Israel, 
 and doing many wonders and signs among them^ he preached 
 to them, and showed the exceeding great love which he bare 
 towards them."§ 
 
 In an epistle of Clement, a hearer of Saint Paul, although 
 written for a purpose remotely connected with the Christian 
 history, we have the resurrection of Christ, and the subse- 
 quent mission of the apostles, recorded in these satisfactory 
 
 whatever doubts may have been raised about its author, there can 
 be none concerning the age in which it was written.* No epistle in 
 the collection carries about it more indubitable marks of antiquity 
 than this does. It speaks, for instance, throughout, of the temple as 
 then standing, and of the worship of the temple as then subsisting. 
 — Heb. viii. 4. " For, if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, 
 seeing there are priests that offer according to the law." — Again, 
 Heb. xiii. 1 0. " We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat 
 which serve the tabernacle." 
 
 * Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all pa- 
 tience, in signs and wonders, and mighty deeds." 2 Cor. xii. 12. 
 
 f Ep. Bar. c. vii, % Ibid., c. vi. § Ibid., c. v. 
 
 * The Epistle to the Hebrews appeared anonymously. Hence objections were 
 afterwards made to its canonicity, and to its having been written by St. Paul. So 
 jealously did the early Christians guard the sacredness of the canon, and the apos- 
 tolic authority. See Chalmers' Post. Works, vol. ix. pp. 181, 182.— £</. 
 
Chap. VII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 99 
 
 terms : " The apostles have preached to us from our Lord 
 Jesus Christ from God : — For, having received their com- 
 mand, and being thoroughly assured by the resurrection of our 
 Lord Jesus Christy they went abroad, publishing that the 
 kingdom of God was at hand."^ ^ We find noticed also, the 
 humility, yet the power of Christ,f his descent from Abra- 
 ham, his crucifixion. We have Peter and Paul represented 
 as faithful and righteous pillars of the church ; the numerous 
 sufferings of Peter ; the bonds, stripes, and stoning of Paul, 
 and more particularly his extensive and unwearied travels. 
 
 In an epistle of Poly carp, a disciple of Saint John, though 
 only a brief hortatory letter, we have the humility, patience, 
 sufferings, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, together with 
 the apostolic character of Saint Paul, distinctly recognized.J 
 Of this same father we are also assured by Ireneeus, that he 
 (Irenseus) had heard him relate, " what he had received from 
 eye-witnesses concerning the Lord, both concerning his mira- 
 cles and his doctrine. "§ 
 
 In the remaining works of Ignatius, the contemporary of 
 Polycarp, larger than those of Poly carp (yet, like those of 
 Poly carp, treating of subjects in nowise leading to any re- 
 cital of the Christian history), the occasional allusions are 
 proportionably more numerous. The descent of Christ from 
 David, his mother Mary, his miraculous conception, the star 
 at his birth, his baptism by John, the reason assigned for it, 
 his appeal to the prophets, the ointment poured on his head, 
 his sufferings under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch, 
 his resurrection, the Lord's day called and kept in com- 
 memoration of it, and the eucharist, in both its parts, — are 
 unequivocally referred to. Upon the resurrection, this writer 
 is even circumstantial. He mentions the apostles' eating and 
 drinking with Christ after he had risen, their feeling and their 
 handling him ; from which last circumstance Ignatius raises 
 
 * Ep. Clem. Rom. c. xlii. I Ep. Clem. Rom. c. xvi. 
 
 X Pol. Ep. ad Phil. c. v. viii. ii. ill. 
 § Ir. ad Flor. ap Euseb. 1. v. c. 20. 
 
100 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 this just reflection ; — " They believed, being convinced both 
 by his flesh and spirit ; for this cause they despised death, 
 and were found to be above it."* 
 
 Quadratus, of the same age with Ignatius, has left us the 
 following noble testimony : — " The works of our Saviour 
 were always conspicuous, for they were real ; both those that 
 were healed, and those that were raised from the dead ; who 
 were seen not only when they were healed or raised, but for 
 a long time afterwards ; not only whilst he dwelled on this 
 earth, but also after his departure, and for a good while after 
 it, insomuch that some of them have reached to our times. "f 
 
 Justin Martyr came little more than thirty years after 
 Quadratus. From Justin's works, which are still extant, 
 might be collected a tolerably complete account of Christ's 
 life, in all points agreeing with that which is delivered in our 
 Scriptures ; taken, indeed, in a great measure, from those 
 Scriptures, but still proving that this account, and no other, 
 w^as the account known and extant in that age. The miracles 
 in particular, which form the part of Christ's history most 
 material to be traced, stand fully and distinctly recognized in 
 the following passage : — " He healed those who had been 
 blind, and deaf, and lame from their birth ; causing, by his 
 word, one to leap, another to hear, and a third to see : and, 
 by raising the dead, and making them to live, he induced, by 
 his works, the men of that age to know him. "J 
 
 It is unnecessary to carry these citations lower, because 
 the history, after this time, occurs in ancient Christian writ- 
 ings as familiarly as it is wont to do in modern sermons ; — 
 occurs always the same in substance, and always that which 
 our evangelists represent. 
 
 This is not only true of those writings of Christians, which 
 are genuine, and of acknowledged authority ; but it is, in a 
 great measure, true of all their ancient writings which remain ; 
 although some of these may have been erroneously ascribed 
 
 * Ad. Smyr. c. iii. f Ab. Euseb. H. E. lib. 4, c. 3. 
 
 X Just. Dial, cum Tryph. p. 288, ed. ThirL 
 
Chap. VII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIAMtY. 1.0], 
 
 to authors to whom they did not belohg,' oi* tri-Jif bontaiii false 
 accounts, or may appear to be undeserving of credit, or never 
 indeed to have obtained any. V^^hatever fables they have 
 mixed with the narrative, they preserve the material parts, 
 the leading facts, as we have them ; and, so far as they do 
 this, although they be evidence of nothing else, they are evi- 
 dence that these points were jfixed, were received and ac- 
 knowledged by all Christians in the ages in which the books 
 were written. At least, it may be asserted, that, in the 
 places where we were most likely to meet with such things, 
 if such things had existed, no relics appear of any story 
 substantially different from the present, as the cause, or as 
 the pretence, of the institution. 
 
 Now that the original story, the story delivered by the 
 first preachers of the institution, should have died away so 
 entirely as to have left no record or memorial of its exist- 
 ence, although so many records and memorials of the time 
 and transaction remain ; and that another story should have 
 stepped into its place, and gained exclusive possession of the 
 belief of all who professed themselves disciples of the insti- 
 tution, is beyond any example of the corruption of even oral 
 tradition, and still less consistent with the experience of writ- 
 ten history : and this improbability, which is very great, is 
 rendered still greater by the reflection, that no such cha7ige 
 as the oblivion of one story, and the substitution of one 
 another, took place in any future period of the Christian era. 
 Christianity hath travelled through dark and turbulent ages ; 
 nevertheless it came out of the cloud and the storm, such, in 
 substance, as it entered in. Many additions were made to 
 the primitive history, and these entitled to different degrees 
 of credit ; many doctrinal errors also were from time to time 
 grafted into the public creed, but still the original story re- 
 mained the same. In all its principal parts, it has been fixed 
 from the beginning. 
 
 Thirdly: The religious rites and usages that prevailed 
 amongst the early disciples of Christianity, were such as be- 
 
102 EVrOEN'CES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 roifgfed to 'and^ spriarlg o«t of, the narrative now in our hands ; 
 which accordancy shows, that it was the narrative upon which 
 these persons acted, and which they had received from their 
 teachers. Our account makes the Founder of the religion 
 direct that his disciples should be baptized ; we know that 
 the first Christians were baptized. Our account makes him 
 direct that they should hold religious assemblies : we find 
 that they did hold religious assemblies. Our accounts make 
 the apostles assemble upon a stated day of the week : we 
 find, and that from information perfectly independent of our 
 accounts, that the Christians of the first century did observe 
 stated days of assembling. Our histories record the institu- 
 tion of the rite which we call the Lord's Supper, and a com- 
 mand to repeat it in perpetual succession : we find, amongst 
 the early Christians, the celebration of this rite universal. 
 And indeed we find concurring in all the above-mentioned 
 observances, Christian societies of many different nations and 
 languages, removed from one another by a great distance of 
 place and dissimilitude of situation. It is also extremely 
 material to remark, that there is no room for insinuating that 
 our books were fabricated with a studious accommodation to 
 the usages which obtained at the time they were written ; 
 that the authors of the books found the usages established, 
 and framed the story to account for their original. The 
 Scripture accounts especially of the Lord's Supper, are too 
 short and cursory, not to say too obscure, and, in this view, 
 deficient, to allow a place for any such suspicion."* 
 
 Amongst the proofs of the truth of our proposition, viz. 
 that the story, which we have now^ is, in substance, the story 
 which the Christians had then^ or, in other words, that the ac- 
 counts in our Gospels are, as to their principal parts at least, 
 
 * The reader who is conversant in these researches, by comparing 
 the short Scripture accounts of the Christian rites above mentioned, 
 with the minute and circumstantial directions contained in the 
 pretended apostolical constitutions, will see the force of this* obser- 
 vation ; the difference between truth and forgery. 
 
Chap. VIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 103 
 
 the accounts which the apostles and original teachers of the 
 religion delivered, one arises from observing, that it appears 
 by the Gospels themselves, that the story was public at the 
 time ; that the Christian community was already in possess- 
 ion of the substance and principal parts of the narrative. 
 The Gospels were not the original cause of the Christian his- 
 tory being believed, but were themselves among the conse- 
 quences of that belief. This is expressly affirmed by Saint 
 Luke, in his brief, but, as I think, very important and in- 
 structive preface ; " Forasmuch (says the evangelist) as many 
 have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those 
 things which are most surely believed amongst us^ even as they 
 delivered them unto us, which, from the beginning, were eye- 
 witnesses and ministers of the word ; it seemed good to me 
 also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the 
 very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent 
 Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those 
 things ivherein thou hast been instructed^'' This short intro- 
 duction testifies, that the substance of the history, which the 
 evangelist was about to write, was already believed by Chris- 
 tians ; that it was believed upon the declarations of eye-wit- 
 nesses and ministers of the word ; that it formed the account 
 of their religion, in which Christians were instruc-ted ; that 
 the office which the historian proposed to himself, was to 
 trace each particular to its origin, and to fix the certainty of 
 many things which the reader had before heard of. In Saint 
 John's Gospel, the same point appears hence, that there are 
 some principal facts, to which the historian refers, but which 
 he does not relate. A remarkable instance of this kind is 
 the ascension, which is not mentioned by Saint John in its 
 place, at the conclusion of his history, but which is plainly 
 referred to in the following words of the sixth chapter :"* 
 " What and if ye shall see the son of man ascend up where 
 he was before?" And still more positively in the words 
 which Christ, according to our evangelist, spoke to Mary 
 .f Also JohB, iii. 13; and xvi. 28.. 
 
104 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 after his resurrection, "Touch me not, for I am not yet as- 
 cended to my Father : but go unto my brethren, and say un- 
 to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my 
 God and your God."* This can only be accounted for by 
 the supposition that Saint John wrote under a sense of the no- 
 toriety of Christ's ascension, amongst those by whom his book 
 was likely to be read. The same account must also be given 
 of Saint Matthew's omission of the same important fact. 
 The thing was very well known, and it did not occur to the 
 historian that it was necessary to add any particulars con- 
 cerning it. It agrees also with this solution, and with no 
 other, that neither Matthew, nor John, disposes of the person 
 of our Lord in any manner whatever. Other intimations in 
 Saint John's Gospel, of the then general notoriety of the 
 story are the following : His manner of introducing his nar- 
 rative (ch. i. ver. 15.), "John bare witness of him, and cried, 
 saying " — evidently presupposes that his readers knew who 
 John was. His rapid parenthetical reference to John's im- 
 prisonment, " for John was not yet cast into prison,"f could 
 only come from a writer whose mind was in the habit of con- 
 sidering John's imprisonment as perfectly notorious. The 
 description of Andrew by the addition "Simon Peter's 
 brother,"^ takes it for granted, that Simon Peter was well 
 known. His name had not been mentioned before. The 
 evangelist's noticing § the prevailing misconstruction of a dis- 
 course, which Christ held with the beloved disciple, proves 
 that the characters and the discourse were already publia 
 And the observation which these instances afford, is of equal 
 validity for the purpose of the present argument, whoever 
 were the authors of the histories. 
 
 These four circumstances ; — first, the recognition of the 
 account in its principal parts, by a series of succeeding 
 writers ; secondly, the total absence of any account of the 
 origin of the religion substantially different from ours; 
 
 * John XX. 17. f John iii. 24. 
 
 1 Ibid. i. 40. § Ibid. xxi. 24. 
 
Chap. VII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 105 
 
 thirdly, the early and extensive prevalence of rites and insti- 
 tutions, which result from our account ; fourthly, our account 
 bearing, in its construction, proof that it is an account of 
 facts, which were known and believed at the time ; — are suffi- 
 cient, I conceive, to support an assurance, that the story which 
 we have now, is, in general, the story which Christians had at 
 the beginning. I say in general ; by which term I mean, 
 that it is the same in its texture, and in its principal facts. 
 For instance, I make no doubt, for the reasons above stated, 
 but that the resurrection of the Founder of the religion was 
 always a part of the Christian story. Nor can a doubt of 
 this remain upon the mind of any one who reflects that the 
 resurrection is, in some form or other, asserted, referred to, 
 or assumed, in every Christian writing, of every description, 
 which hath come down to us. 
 
 And if our evidence stopped here, we should have a strong 
 case to offer : for we should have to allege, that in the reign 
 of Tiberius Caesar, a certain number of persons set about an 
 attempt of establishing a new religion in the world : in the 
 prosecution of which purpose, they voluntarily encountered 
 great dangers, undertook great labors, sustained great suffer- 
 ings, all for a miraculous story, which they published wher- 
 ever they came ; and that the resurrection of a dead man, 
 whom during his life they had followed and accompanied, 
 was a constant part of this story. I know nothing in the 
 above statement which can, with any appearance of reason, 
 be disputed ; and I know nothing, in the history of the human 
 species, similar to it. 
 
 Note A. 
 This alternative is clearly true, and is all that is essential to the 
 argument. Whether the above passage (from Josephus) be genuine 
 or not, continues as much disputed as ever. The external evidence 
 in its favor is strong. It is found in all the Greek manuscripts, in a 
 Hebrew version in the Vatican, and an Arabic version among the 
 
 5* 
 
106 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 Maronites of Lebanon, and is quoted by Eusebius, Jerome, Rufinus, 
 Sozomen, and a chain of later authors. It is confirmed by the exist- 
 ence of two similar testimonies to John the Baptist, and James the 
 Just, the brother of our Lord, to whose death Josephus elsewhere 
 ascribes the calamities of the Jews. The words of Tacitus, also, 
 have some appearance of being borrowed from it. On the other 
 hand, Origen quotes Josephus as saying " That these things befell 
 them by the anger of God, on account of what they dared to do to 
 James, the brother of Jesus, who is called Christ, And wonderful it 
 is, that while he did not receive Jesus for Christ, he did nevertheless 
 bear witness that Jesus was so righteous a man." He says further, 
 that " the people thought they suffered these things for the sake of 
 James."* This seems to imply that Origen had not read this tes- 
 timony of Josephus in his copy. It is also hard to believe that Jose- 
 phus owned the resurrection of Christ, and that He was the object 
 of many prophecies, and yet neither embraced Christianity, nor spoke 
 more fully concerning it. It is certain that he speaks elsewhere of 
 the national hope of a conqueror to come from the east, as fulfilled 
 in Vespasian and Titus. On the whole it seems most probable that 
 the passage is genuine; that the clause, "This was the Christ," is 
 meant simply to identify the person as the same from whom the 
 Christians derived their name ; and that either the clause about the 
 resurrection has been slightly altered, or else that Josephus, like 
 Agrippa, was a half believer, too proud and worldly to become an 
 open disciple, and that he thought some of the prophecies were ful- 
 filled in Jesus, and others in his own imperial patrons. — Rev. T. R. 
 
 NOTK B. 
 
 In the Toldoth Jeschu, and Martini's Compendium of Jewish 
 History of Jesus, of which the former dates some time after the 
 sixth century, but was probably formed, as well as the latter, from 
 earlier traditions among the Jews, are many testimonies to facts men- 
 tioned in the gospels. " Miriani (Mary) brought forth a son, whom 
 she called Joshua" (Greek, Jesus.) "The elders of the Sanhedrim 
 proclaimed him unfit to be of the congregation, and styled him 
 
 * James the Less, surnamed the Just for his holiness of life, was the son of Cleophas, 
 by Mary, sister of the Virgin. James the Great, or Elder, was the son of Zebedee 
 and Salome. He was beheaded by Herod Agrippa. James the Less was murdered 
 by the Pharisees about A.p. 63. They threw him from the battlement of the tem- 
 ple ; but life not being thus extinguished, he got up on his knees, and prayed forhia 
 murderers, amidst a shower of stones, till one beat out his brains with a fUller'a 
 cluh.— Ed. 
 
Chap. VIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 107 
 
 Jeschu, as a sign that his name and memory ought to perish. Jeschu, 
 finding himself thus marked, retired into Upper Galilee." "Jeschu 
 passed to Bethlehem, his birth-place, and said to the inhabitants, 
 ' It is of me that Isaiah spake, when he said, A virgin shall conceive.* 
 To the people of Jerusalem he said, ' I am he of whom the prophet 
 Zechariah said, Behold your king. It is I whom David, my fore- 
 father, had in view when he wrote, The Lord said unto me, Thou 
 art my son ; and again, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on 
 my right hand.' " After relating that he was bound, scourged, and 
 crowned with thorns, it adds that he declared. My blood must ex- 
 piate the sins of men, as Isaiah predicted in these words. By his 
 stripes we are healed. In the Compendium he is often called Jesus 
 the Nazarene. In the Gemara, or Babylonish Talmud, it is written, 
 *0n the day of the preparation of the Sabbath, they suspended 
 Jesus. When no proof of his innocence could be found, they sus- 
 pended him on the day of the preparation of the Passover,' " — Rev. 
 T. R. BiRKs. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE SAME PECVED, FROM THE AUTHOKITY OF OUR HISTORIOAL 
 SCEIPTUEES. 
 
 That the story which we have now is, in the main, the 
 story which the apostles published, is, I think, nearly certain, 
 from the considerations which have been proposed. But 
 whether, when we come to the particulars, and the detail of 
 the narrative, the historical books of the New Testament be 
 deserving of credit as histories, so that a fact ought to be ac- 
 counted true, because it is found in them ; or whether they 
 are entitled to be considered as representing the accounts 
 which, true or false, the apostles published ; — whether their 
 authority, in either of these views can be trusted to, is a point 
 which necessarily depends upon what we know of the books, 
 and of their authors. 
 
 Now, in treating of this part of our argument, the first and 
 most material observation upon the subject is, that such was 
 the situation of the authors to whom the four Gospels are 
 ascribed, that, if any one of the four be genuine, it is suffi- 
 cient for our purpose. The received author of the first was 
 an original apostle and emissary of the religion. The received 
 /t author of the second was an inhabitant of Jerusalem at the 
 time, to whose house the apostles were wont to resort, and 
 himself an attendant upon one of the most eminent of that 
 number. The received author of the third was a stated 
 companion and fellow-traveller of the most active of all the 
 teachers of the religion, and in the course of his travels fre- 
 quently in the society of the original apostles. The received 
 
Chap. VIII] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 109 
 
 author of tlie fourth, as well as of the first, was one of these 
 apostles. No stronger evidence of the truth of a history can 
 arise from the situation of the historian, than what is here 
 offered. The authors of all the histories lived at the time 
 and upon the spot. The authors of two of the histories were 
 present at many of the scenes which they describe ; eye- 
 witnesses of the facts, ear-witnesses of the discourses ; writ- 
 ing from personal knowledge and recollection ; and, what 
 strengthens their testimony, writing upon a subject in which 
 their minds were deeply engaged, and in which, as they must 
 have been very frequently repeating the accounts to others, 
 the passages of the history would be kept continually alive 
 in their memory. "Whoever reads the Gospels (and they 
 ought to be read for this particular purpose), will find in 
 them, not merely a general affirmation of miraculous powers, 
 but detailed circumstantial accounts of miracles, with specifi- 
 cations of time, place and persons ; and these accounts many 
 and various. In the Gospels, therefore, which bear the names 
 of Matthew and John, these narratives, if they really proceed- 
 ed from these men, must either be true, as far as the fidelity 
 of human recollection is usually to be depended upon, (that 
 is, must be true in substance, and in their principal parts, 
 which is sufficient for the purpose of proving a supernatural 
 agency), or they must be wilful and meditated falsehoods. 
 Yet the writers who fabricated and uttered these falsehoods, 
 if they be such, are of the number of those, who, unless the 
 whole contexture of the Christian story be a dream, sacrificed 
 their ease and safety in the cause, and for a purpose the most 
 inconsistent that is possible with dishonest intentions. They 
 were villains for no end but to teach honesty, and martyrs 
 without the least prospect of honor or advantage. 
 
 The Gospels which bear the names of Mark and Luke, al- 
 though not the narratives of eye-witnesses, are, if genuine, 
 removed from that only by one degree. They are the nar- 
 ratives of contemporary writers, of writers themselves mix- 
 ing with the business ; one of the two probably living in the 
 
110 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY [Prop. L 
 
 place which was the principal scene of action ; both living in 
 habits of society and correspondence with those who had 
 been present at the transactions which they relate. The lat- 
 ter of them accordingly tells us (and with apparent sincerity, 
 because he tells it without pretending to personal knowledge, 
 and without claiming for his work greater authority than 
 belonged to it), that the things which were believed amongst 
 Christians, came from those who from the beginning were 
 eye-witnesses and ministers of the word ; that he had traced 
 accounts up to their source ; and that he was prepared to in- 
 struct his reader in the certainty of the things which he relat- 
 ed.* Very few histories lie so close to their facts ; very few 
 historians are so nearly connected with the subject of their 
 narrative, or possess such means of authentic information as 
 these. 
 
 The situation of the writers applies to the truth of the 
 facts which they record. But at present we use their testi- 
 mony to a point somewhat short of this, namely, that the 
 facts recorded in the Gospels, whether true or false, are the 
 facts, and the sort of facts, which the original preachers of 
 the religion alleged. Strictly speaking, I am concerned only 
 to show, that what the Gospels contain is the same as what 
 the apostles preached. Now, how stands the proof of this 
 point ? A set of men went about the world, publishing a 
 story composed of miraculous accounts (for miraculous from 
 the very nature and exigency of the case they must have 
 been), and, upon the strength of these accounts, called upon 
 mankind to quit the religions in which they had been edu- 
 cated, and to take up, thenceforth, a new system of opinions, 
 and new rules of action. What is more in attestation of 
 
 * Why should not the candid and modest preface of this historian 
 be believed, as well as that which Dion Cassius prefixes to his life of 
 Commodns ? " These things and the following I write not from the 
 report of others, but from my own knowledge and observation." I 
 see no reason to doubt but that both passages describe truly enough 
 the situation of the authors. 
 
Chap. VIII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. Ill 
 
 these accounts, that is, in support of an institution of which 
 these accounts were the foundation, is, that the same men 
 voluntarily exposed themselves to harassing and perpetual 
 labors, dangers, and sufferings. We want to know what 
 these accounts were. We have the particulars, i. e. many 
 particulars, from two of their own number. We have them 
 from an attendant of one of the number, and who, there is 
 reason to believe, was an inhabitant of Jerusalem at the time. 
 We have them from a fourth writer, who accompanied the 
 most laborious missionary of the institution in his travels ; 
 who, in the course of these travels, was frequently brought 
 into the society of the rest ; and who, let it be observed, be- 
 gins his narrative by telling us that he is about to relate the 
 things which had been delivered by those who were ministers 
 of the word, and eye-witnesses of the fact. I do not know 
 what information can be more satisfactory than this. We 
 may, perhaps, perceive the force and value of it more sensi- 
 bly, if we reflect how requiring we should have been if we 
 had wanted it. Supposing it to be sufficiently proved, that 
 the religion now professed among us, owed its original to the 
 preaching and ministry of a number of men, who, about 
 eighteen centuries ago, set forth in the world a new system 
 of religious opinions, founded upon certain extraordinary 
 things which they related of a wonderful person who had 
 appeared in Judea ; suppose it to be also sufficiently proved, 
 that, in the course and prosecution of their ministry, these 
 men had subjected themselves to extreme hardships, fatigue, 
 and peril ; but suppose the accounts which they published 
 had not been committed to writing till some ages after their 
 times, or at least that no histories, but what had been com- 
 posed some ages afterwards, had reached our hands ; we 
 should have said, and with reason, that we were willing to be- 
 lieve these men under the circumstances in which they deliv- 
 ered their testimony, but that we did not, at this day, know 
 with sufficient evidence what their testimony was. Had we 
 received the particulars of it from any of their own number, 
 
112 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 from any of those who lived and conversed with them, from 
 any of their hearers, or even from any of their contempo- 
 raries, we should have had something to rely upon. Now, if 
 our books be genuine, we have all these. We have the very 
 species of information which, as it appears to me, our imag- 
 ination would have carved out for us, if it had been wanting. 
 
 But I have said, that, if any one of the four Gospels be 
 genuine, we have not only direct historical testimony to the 
 point we contend for, but testimony which, so far as that 
 point is concerned, cannot reasonably be rejected. If the 
 first Gospel was really written by Matthew, we have the nar- 
 rative of one of the number, from which to judge what were 
 the miracles, and the kind of miracles, which the apostles 
 attributed to Jesus. Although, for argument's sake, and only 
 for argument's sake, we should allow that this Gospel had 
 been erroneously ascribed to Matthew ; yet, if the Gospel of 
 Saint John be genuine, the ^observation holds with no less 
 strength. Again, although the Gospels both of Matthew and 
 John could be supposed to be spurious, yet, if the Gospel of 
 Saint Luke were truly the composition of that person, or of 
 any person, be his name what it might, who was actually in 
 the situation in which the author of that Gospel professes 
 himself to have been, or if the Gospel which bears the name 
 of Mark really proceeded from him ; we still, even upon the 
 lowest supposition, possess the accounts of one writer at 
 least, who was not only contemporary with the apostles, but 
 associated with them in their ministry ; which authority seems 
 sufficient, when the question is simply what it was which 
 these apostles advanced. 
 
 I think it material to have this well noticed. The New 
 Testament contains a great number of distinct writings, the 
 genuineness of any one of which is almost sufficient to prove 
 the truth of the religion ; it contains, however, four distinct 
 histories, the genuineness of any one of which is perfectly 
 sufficient. If, therefore, we must be considered as encounter- 
 ing the risk of error in assigning the authors of our books, 
 
Chap. VIII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 113 
 
 we are entitled to the advantage of so many separate proba- 
 bilities. And although it should appear that some of the 
 evangelists had seen and used each other's works, this discov- 
 ery, whilst it subtracts indeed from their characters as testi- 
 monies strictly independent, diminishes, I conceive, little, 
 either their separate authority (by which I mean the author- 
 ity of any one that is genuine), or their mutual confirmation. 
 For, let the most disadvantageous supposition possible be 
 made concerning them ; let it be allowed, what I should 
 have no great difficulty in admitting, that Mark compiled his 
 history almost entirely from those of Matthew and Luke ; 
 and let it also for a moment be supposed that these histories 
 were not, in fact, written by Matthew and Luke ; yet, if it 
 be true that Mark, a contemporary of the apostles, living in 
 habits of society with the apostles, a fellow-traveller and fel- 
 low-laborer with some of them ; if, I say, it be true that this 
 person made the compilation, it follows, that the writings 
 from which he made it existed in the time of the apostles, 
 and not only so, but that they were then in such esteem and 
 credit, that a companion of the apostles formed a history out 
 of them. Let the Gospel of Mark be called an epitome of 
 that of Matthew ; if a person in the situation in which Mark 
 is described to have been, actually made the epitome, it 
 affords the strongest possible attestation to the character of 
 the original.* 
 
 Again, parallelisms in sentences, in words, and in the order 
 of words, have been traced out between the Gospel of 
 Matthew and that of Luke ; which concurrence cannot easily 
 be explained otherwise than by supposing, either that Luke 
 had consulted Matthew's history, or, what appears to me in 
 nowise incredible, that minutes of some of Christ's dis- 
 courses, as well as brief memoirs of some passages of his 
 life, had been committed to writing at the time ; and that 
 
 * That the Gospels are distinct, independent narratives, and not 
 borrowed one from the other, is clearly shown in Alford's Pro- 
 legomena. The proof will be given in an appendix to Prop. I. — Ed. 
 
114 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 such written accounts had by both authors been occasionally 
 admitted into their histories. Either supposition is perfectly 
 consistent with the acknowledged formation of Saint Luke's 
 narrative, who professes not to write as an eye-witness, but 
 to have investigated the original of every account which he 
 delivers ; in other words, to have collected them from such 
 documents and testimonies as he, who had the best opportu- 
 nities of making inquiries, judged to be authentic. There- 
 fore, allowing that this writer also, in some instances, bor- 
 rowed from the Gospel which w^e call Matthew's, and once 
 more allowing, for the sake of stating the argument, that the 
 Gospel was not the production of the author to whom we 
 ascribe it ; yet still we have, in Saint Luke's Gospel, a his- 
 tory given by a writer immediately connected with the trans- 
 action, with the witnesses of it, with the persons engaged in 
 it, and composed from materials which that person, thus situ- 
 ated, deemed to be safe sources of intelligence : in other 
 words, whatever supposition be made concerning any or all 
 the other Gospels, if Saint Luke's Gospel be genuine, we 
 have in it a credible evidence of the point which we maintain. 
 
 The Gospel according to Saint John appears to be, and is 
 on all hands allowed to be, an independent testimony, strictly 
 and properly so called. Notwithstanding, therefore, any con- 
 nection, or supposed connection, between some of the Gos- 
 pels, I again repeat what I before said, that if any one of the 
 four be genuine, we have, in that one, strong reason, from the 
 character and situation of the writer, to believe that we pos- 
 sess the accounts which the original emissaries of the relig- 
 ion delivered. 
 
 Secondly : In treating of the written evidences of Chris- 
 tianity, next to their separate, we are to consider their aggre- 
 gate authority. Now, there is in the evangelic history a 
 cumulation of testimony which belongs hardly to any other 
 history, but which our habitual mode of reading the Scrip- 
 tures sometimes causes us to overlook. When a passage, in 
 anywise relating to the history of Christ, is read to us out of 
 
Chap. VIIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 115 
 
 the epistle of Clemens Romanus, the epistles of Ignatius, of 
 Polycarp, or from any other writing of that age, we are im- 
 mediately sensible of the confirmation which it affords to the 
 Scripture account. Here is a new witness. Now, if we had 
 been accustomed to read the Gospel of Matthew alone, and 
 had known that of Luke only as the generality of Christians 
 know the writings of the apostolical fathers, that is, had 
 known that such a writing was extant and acknowledged: 
 when we came, for the first time, to look into what it contain- 
 ed, and found many of the facts which Matthew recorded, 
 recorded also there, many other facts of a similar nature add- 
 ed, and throughout the whole work the same general series 
 of transactions stated, and the same general character of the 
 person who was the subject of the history preserved, I ap- 
 prehend that we should feel our minds strongly impressed by 
 this discovery of fresh evidence. We should feel a renewal 
 of the same sentiment in first reading the Gospel of Saint 
 John. That of Saint Mark perhaps would strike us as an 
 abridgment of the history with which we were already ac- 
 quainted ; but we should naturally reflect, that if that history 
 was abridged by such a person as Mark, or by any person of so 
 early an age, it afforded one of the highest possible attestations 
 to the value of the work. This successive disclosure of proof 
 would leave us assured, that there must have been at least 
 some reality in a story which not one, but many, had taken in 
 hand to commit to writing. The very existence of four separate 
 histories would satisfy us that the subject had a foundation ; and 
 when, amidst the variety which the diflTerent information of the 
 different writers had supplied to their accounts, or which their 
 different choice and judgment in selecting their materials had 
 produced, we observed many facts, to stand the same in all ; 
 of these facts, at least, we should conclude, that they were 
 fixed in their credit and publicity. If, after this, we should 
 come to the knowledge of a distinct history, and that also of 
 the same age with the rest, taking up the subject where the 
 others had left it, and carrying on a narrative of the effects 
 
116 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 produced in the world by the extraordmary causes of which 
 we had already been informed, and which effects subsist at 
 this day, we should think the reality of the original story in 
 no little degree established by this supplement. If subse- 
 quent inquiries should bring to our knowledge, one after 
 another, letters written by some of the principal agents in 
 the business, upon the business, and during the time of their 
 activity and concern in it, assuming all along and recognizing 
 the original story, agitating the questions that arose out of it, 
 pressing the obligations which resulted from it, giving advice 
 and directions to those who acted upon it ; I conceive that we 
 should find, in every one of these, a still further support to 
 the conclusion we had formed. At present, the weight of this 
 successive confirmation is, in a great measure, unperceived 
 by us. The evidence does not appear to us what it is, for, 
 being from our infancy accustomed to regard the New Testa- 
 ment as one book, we see in it only one testimony. The 
 whole occurs to us as a single evidence ; and its different 
 parts, not as distinct attestations, but as different portions 
 only of the same. Yet in this conception of the subject, we 
 are certainly mistaken : for the very discrepancies among the 
 several documents which form our volume, prove, if all other 
 proof were wanting, that in their original composition they 
 were separate, and most of them independent productions.* 
 
 If we dispose our ideas in a different order, the matter 
 stands thus: — Whilst the transaction was recent, and the 
 original witnesses were at hand to relate it ; and while the 
 apostles were busied in preaching and travelling, in collect- 
 ing disciples, in forming and regulating societies of converts, 
 in supporting themselves against opposition ; whilst they ex- 
 ercised their ministry under the harassings of frequent per- 
 secution, and in a state of almost continual alarm, it is not 
 probable that, in this engaged, anxious, and unsettled condi- 
 tion of life, they would think immediately of writing histories 
 
 * See Note A, at the end of this chapter. 
 
Chap. VIII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY 117 
 
 for the information of the public or of posterity.* But it is 
 very probable, that emergences might draw from some of 
 them occasional letters upon the subject of their mission, to 
 converts, or to societies of converts, with which they were 
 connected ; or that they might address written discourses and 
 exhortations to the disciples.of the institution at large, which 
 would be received and read with a respect proportioned to 
 the character of the writer. Accounts in the mean time 
 would get abroad of the extraordinary things that had been 
 passing, written with different degrees of information and 
 correctness. The extension of the Christian society, which 
 could no longer be instructed by a personal intercourse with 
 the apostles, and the possible circulation of imperfect or er- 
 roneous narratives, would soon teach some amongst them the 
 expediency of sending forth authentic memoirs of the life and 
 doctrines of their Master. When accounts appeared au- 
 thorized by the name, and credit, and situation of the writers, 
 recommended or recognized by the apostles and first preach- 
 ers of the religion, or found to coincide with what the apostles 
 and first preachers of the religion had taught, other accounts 
 would fall into disuse and neglect ; whilst these, maintaining 
 their reputation (as, if genuine and well founded, they would 
 do) under the test of time, inquiry, and contradiction, might 
 be expected to make their way into the hands of Christians 
 of all countries of the world. 
 
 This seems the natural progress of the business ; and with 
 this the records in our possession, and the evidence concern- 
 ing them, correspond. We have remaining, in the first place, 
 many letters of the kind above described, which have been 
 preserved with a care and fidelity answering to the respect 
 with which we may suppose that such letters would be re- 
 
 * This thought occurred to Eusebius : " Nor were the apostles of 
 Christ greatly concerned about the writing of books, being engaged 
 in a more excellent ministry, which is above all human power." 
 Eccles. Hist. 1. iii. c. 24 — The same consideration accounts also for 
 the paucity of Christian writings in the first century of its era. 
 
118 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 ceived. But as these letters were not written to prove the 
 truth of the Christian religion, in the sense in which we regard 
 that question ; nor to convey information of facts, of which 
 those to whom the letters were written had been previously 
 informed ; we are not to look in them for anything more 
 than incidental allusions to the Christian history. We are 
 able, however, to gather from these documents, various par- 
 ^ticular attestations which have been already enumerated ; and 
 this is a species of written evidence, as far as it goes, in the 
 highest degree satisfactory, and in point of time perhaps the 
 first. But for our more circumstantial information, we have 
 in the next place, five direct histories^ bearing the names of 
 persons acquainted, by their situation, with the truth of what 
 they relate, and three of them purporting, in the very body 
 of the narrative, to be written by such persons ; of which 
 books we know, that some were in the hands of those who 
 were contemporaries of the apostles, and that, in the age im- 
 mediately posterior to that, they were in the hands, we may 
 say, of every one, and received by Christians with so much 
 respect and deference, as to be constantly quoted and referred 
 to by them, without any doubt of the truth of their accounts. 
 They were treated as such histories, proceeding from such 
 authorities, might expect to be treated. In the preface to 
 one of our histories, we have intimations left us of the exist- 
 ence of some ancient accounts which are now lost. There is 
 nothing in this circumstance that can surprise us. It was to 
 be expected, from the magnitude and novelty of the occasion, 
 that such accounts would swarm. When better accounts came 
 forth, these died away. Our present histories superseded 
 others. They soon acquired a character and established a 
 reputation which does not appear to have belonged to any 
 other : that, at least, can be proved concerning them, which 
 cannot be proved concerning any other. 
 
 But to return to the point which led to these reflections. 
 By considering our records in either of the two views in 
 which we have represented them, we shall perceive that we 
 
Chap. VIIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 119 
 
 possess a collection of proofs^ and not a naked or solitary tes- 
 timony ; and that the written evidence is of such a kind, and 
 comes to us in such a state, as the natural order and progress 
 of things, in the infancy of the institution, might be expected 
 to produce. 
 
 Thirdly : The genuineness of the historical books of the 
 New Testament is undoubtedly a point of importance, be- 
 cause the strength of their evidence is augmented by our 
 knowledge of the situation of their authors, their relation to 
 the subject, and the part which they sustained in the trans- 
 action ; and the testimonies which we are able to produce, 
 compose a firm ground of persuasion, that the Gospels were 
 written by the persons whose names they bear. Neverthe- 
 less, I must be allowed to state, that to the argument which I 
 am endeavoring to maintain, this point is not essential ; I 
 mean, so essential as that the fate of the argument depends 
 upon it. The question before us is, whether the Gospels ex- 
 hibit the story which the apostles and first emissaries of the 
 religion published, and for which they acted and suffered in 
 the manner in which, for some miraculous story or other, 
 they did act and suffer. Now let us suppose that we pos- 
 sessed no other information concerning th*ese books than that 
 they were written by early disciples of Christianity ; that 
 they were known and read during the time, or near the time, 
 of the original apostles of the religion; that by Christians 
 whom the apostles instructed, by societies of Christians which 
 the apostles founded, these books were received (by which 
 term " received," I mean that they were believed to contain 
 authentic accounts of the transactions upon which the religion 
 rested, and accounts which were accordingly used, repeated, 
 and relied upon), this reception would be a valid proof that 
 these books, whoever were the authors of them, must have 
 accorded with what the apostles taught. A reception by the 
 first race of Christians, is evidence that they agreed with what 
 the first teachers of the religion delivered. In particular, if 
 they had not agreed with what the apostles themselves preach- 
 
120 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 ed, how could they have gained credit in churches and so- 
 cieties which the apostles established ? 
 
 Now, the fact of their early existence, and not only of their 
 existence, but their reputation, is made out by some ancient 
 testimonies which do not happen to specify the names of the 
 writers : add to which, what hath been already hinted, that two 
 out of the four Gospels contain averments in the body of the 
 history, which, though they do not disclose the names, fix the 
 time and situation of the authors, viz. that one was written by 
 an eye-witness of the sufferings of Christ, the other by a con- 
 temporary of the apostles. In the Gospel of Saint John (xix. 
 35), after describing the crucifixion, with the particular cir- 
 cumstance of piercing Christ's side with a spear, the historian 
 adds, as for himself, " and he that saw it bare record, and 
 his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye 
 might believe." Again (xxi. 24), after relating a conversa- 
 tion which passed between Peter and " the disciple," as it is 
 there expressed, " whom Jesus loved," it is added, " this is 
 the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these 
 things." This testimony, let it be remarked, is not the less 
 worthy of regard, because it is, in one view, imperfect. The 
 name is not mentioned ; which, if a fraudulent purpose had 
 been intended, would have been done. The third of our 
 present Gospels purports to have been written by the person 
 who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, in which latter history, 
 or rather latter part of the same history, the author, by using 
 in various places the first person plural, declares himself to 
 have been a contemporary of all, and a companion of one, of 
 the original preachers of the religion. 
 
 Note A. 
 
 ON THE CUMULATIVE EVIDENCE OF THE GOSPELS. 
 
 The remark of Paley, on the aggregate evidence of the sacred his- 
 tories, and the illusion which conceals its force, has been developed 
 
Chap. VIIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 121 
 
 by Dr. Chalmers with his usucal eloquence. The subject is so vital to 
 the whole argument that a few extracts will be useful. 
 
 ** Tacitus has actually attested the existence of Jesus Christ, the 
 reality of such a personage, his public execution under Pontius Pi- 
 late, the temporary check which this gave to the progress of his 
 religion, its revival shortly after his death, its progress over the land 
 of Judea, and to Rome itself, the metropolis of the empire. All this 
 we have in a Roman historian ; and in opposition to all established 
 reasoning on these subjects, it is by some more firmly confided in on 
 his testimony than upon the numerous and concurring testimonies 
 of wiser and contemporary writers.' But let us suppose that Tacitus 
 had thrown one more particular into his testimony, and that his sen- 
 tence had run thus : * They had their name from Christus, who, in the 
 reign of Tiberius, was put to death as a criminal by the procurator 
 Pontius Pilate, and who rose from the dead the third day aft^r his 
 execution, and ascended into heaven,' Does it not strike every one, 
 that, however true this sentence may be, and however well-estab- 
 lished by its proper testimonies, this is not the place where we can 
 expect to find it? If Tacitus did not believe the resurrection of our 
 Saviour, it is not to be supposed that such an assertion could have 
 been made by him. If he did believe it, he gives us an example of 
 what appears not uncommon in those ages — of a man adhering to 
 the system which interest and education recommended, in opposition 
 to the evidence of a miracle which he admitted to be true. Still, 
 even in this case, it is the most unlikely thing in the world that he 
 would have admitted the fact of the resurrection into his history. 
 If however, against all probability, this testimony had been given, it 
 would have been appealed to as a striking confirmation of the main 
 fact of the evangelic history. 
 
 " Let us now carry the supposition a step further. Let us conceive 
 that Tacitus not only believed the fact, and gave his testimony to it, 
 but that he believed it so far as to become a Christian, Is his testi- 
 mony to be refused, because he gives this evidence of its sincerity ? 
 Tacitus asserting the fact, and remaining a heathen, is not so strong 
 an argument for its truth as Tacitus asserting the fact, and becom- 
 ing a Christian in consequence of it. Yet the moment this trans- 
 lation is made, by which, in point of fact, his testimony becomes 
 stronger, in point of impression it becomes less, and by a delusion 
 common to the infidel and the believer, this argument is held to be 
 weakened by the very circumstance which imparts a greater force to 
 it. The elegant and accomplished scholar becomes a believer. The 
 truth, the novelty, the importance of this new subject^ withdraw 
 
 6 
 
122 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 him from every other pursuit. He shares in the common enthusiasm 
 of the cause, and gives all his talents and eloquence to the- support 
 of it. Instead of the Roman historian, Tacitus comes down to us in 
 the shape of a Christian father, and the high authority of his name 
 is lost in a crowd of similar testimonies In each of the nu- 
 merous fathers of the Christian church, we have a stronger testimony 
 than the required testimony of this heathen Tacitus. We see men 
 who, if they had not been Christians, would have risen to as high an 
 eminence as Tacitus in the literature of the times, and whose direct 
 testimony to the gospel history would, in that case, have been most 
 impressive even to the mind of an infidel. And are these testimo- 
 nies to be less impressive, because they were preceded by conviction 
 and sealed by martyrdom ? 
 
 " Besides what we have in the New Testament, no other narrative 
 of the miracles of Christianity has come down to us bearing the 
 marks of composition by an apostle or contemporary of the apostles. 
 Now to those who regret this circumstance, we submit the following 
 observations. Suppose that one other narrative of the life and mira- 
 cles of our Saviour had been composed ; and to give it all possible 
 value, let us suppose it to be the work of an apostle : we thus secure 
 to its uttermost extent the advantage of an original testimony, the 
 testimony of another eye-witness, and constant companion of our 
 Saviour. Now what would have been the fate of this performance ? 
 — it would have been incorporated into the New Testament along 
 with the other Gospels. It may have been the Gospel according to 
 Philip, or the Gospel according to Bartholomew. The whole amount 
 of the advantage would have been the substitution of five Gospels 
 instead of four ; and this addition, the want of which is so much 
 complained of, would scarcely have been felt by the Christians or 
 acknowledged by the infidel, to strengthen the evidence now in our 
 possession. 
 
 " But let us suppose that the narrative wanted had been the work 
 of some contemporary, who writes upon his own original knowledge 
 of the subject, but was not so closely associated with Christ or his 
 immediate disciples, as to have his history admitted into the canoni- 
 cal Scriptures. It would have been transmitted to us in a separate 
 state: it would have stood out from that collection of writings 
 which passes under the general name of the New Testament, and the 
 additional evidence would have come down in the form most satis- 
 factory to those with whom we are now reasoning. Yet though, in 
 point of form, the testimony might be more satisfactory, in point of 
 fact it would be less so. It is the testimony of a less competent wit- 
 
Chap. VIIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 123 
 
 ness ; of one who, in the judgment of contemporaries, wanted those 
 characters which entitled him to a place in the New Testament. 
 There must be some delusion, if we think that a circumstance, which 
 renders an historian less accredited in the eyes of his own age, should 
 render him more accredited in the eyes of posterity. TVe do not com- 
 plain of the anxiety for more evidence, and as much of it as possi- 
 ble ; but it is right to be told that the evidence we have is of far 
 more value than the evidence demanded ; and that in the concur- 
 rence of four canonical narratives, we see a far more effectual argu- 
 ment for the miracles of the New Testament, than in any number 
 of those separate and extensive narratives, the want of which is so 
 much felt, and so much complained of. That the New Testament is 
 not one, but many testimonies, has been often said and often ac- 
 quiesced in. Yet, even when formally acceded to, its impression is 
 unfelt. There is on this subject a great and an obstinate delusion, 
 which not only confirms the infidel in his disregard to Christianity, 
 but even hides the strength of the evidence from its warmest ad- 
 mirers. 
 
 "These remarks admit of a striking confirmation, which Dr. Chal- 
 mers has not observed. The case he puts, with regard to Tacitus, is 
 precisely what has occurred in the history of Josephus, (see p. 106.) 
 In every extant copy we find a testimony to the facts of our Lord's 
 history, closing with the words, *For on the third day he appeared 
 to them alive again, the divine prophets having foretold these and 
 many other wonderful things concerning him.' Yet this greater ful- 
 ness of statement, instead of rendering the testimony more valuable, 
 has made it nearly useless in argument, because it awakens so strong 
 a suspicion of its being spurious. Many of the ablest critics have 
 condemned the passage, though nearly all the external evidence is in 
 its favor, because, in the words of Chalmers, such an admission from 
 a Jew, remaining a mere Jew, seems ' the most unlikely thing in the 
 world.' If Tacitus had written the sentence supposed before, and 
 still remained a heathen, his testimony would have been as certainly 
 rejected for the same reason. The spirit of unbelief provides a dif- 
 ferent form of illusion for every conceivable form of the testimony. 
 If it is limited to common facts, and proceeds from unbelievers, then 
 their silence about the miracles is held to be a presumption against 
 their reality. If it is the evidei^e of unbelievers, or half believers, 
 who admit the miracles without embracing Christianity, then their 
 flagrant inconsistency either makes their words be rejected as spu- 
 rious, or destroys their character as trustworthy witnesses. If it pro- 
 ceeds from Christians, who bear witness to the miracles of the gos- 
 
124 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. J. 
 
 pel, and have embraced the faith, then a suspicion arises that they 
 are mere accomplices in collusion, or victims of a blind credulity. 
 But wisdom is still justified of all her children. 
 
 "The nature of that illusion, which conceals from us the full evi- 
 dence of truth in the sacred histories, calls for a little further illus- 
 tration. It arises in part from their being always united in one vol- 
 ume, so that our habits of thought, even from childhood, present 
 them to us as one single work. But its chief occasion is our view of 
 their common character, as the inspired word of God. They are 
 thus made the substance of the revelation which needs to be con- 
 firmed, and are excluded from that body of external testimony which 
 is needful or desirable to confirm it. It is not easy to reverence 
 them as Divine, and still to regard them as thoroughly human ; or, 
 on the other hand, to view them as independent human witnesses, 
 and not to set aside in our thoughts their claims to inspiration. The 
 mental difficulty is of the same kind, though lower in degree, which 
 attends the doctrine of the incarnation. A strong faith that Christ 
 is the very Word of God, by whom all things were made, may often 
 predispose to the heresy of the Docetae, and to the theory which 
 ascribes to the Saviour a fantastic and unreal humanity. On the 
 other hand, a vivid perception of the human elements of our Lord's 
 history may as often prove a real hindrance to a simple reception of 
 the great doctrine, that He is * God over all, blessed for ever.' It is, 
 however, of the greatest importance to remember that every view 
 of inspiration must be false, which annuls the human element, to es- 
 tablish that which is Divine. They were 'holy men of God,' who 
 spoke and wrote, though it was 'as moved by the Holy Ghost.* 
 They were human witnesses, though evangelists and apostles. Their 
 higher and spiritual gifts did not supersede, but crown and complete, 
 their natural clearness of understanding, or their moral honesty as 
 upright men. Whatever, then, brings to light the human aspect of 
 the gospel histories, and compares the time, places, customs, and per- 
 sons there mentioned, with the similar statements of other histories, 
 helps to dissipate a mischievous illusion. To lay aside, for the time, 
 all reference to their inspiration, and to treat them merely as authen- 
 tic documents of the age, is the only way to realize vividly the force 
 of the external evidence for the truth of the gospel revelation. That 
 truth being once clearly perceived, ^ge shall then learn to prize the 
 vehicles by which it is conveyed to us. As the ointment of the high 
 priest ran down to the skirts of his clothing, so the apprehended 
 glory of Christ and his salvation will extend itself over all these 
 narratives and epistles, which clothe the precious and Divine reve- 
 
Chap. VIIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 125 
 
 lation with a suitable robe wherein to present itself to the eyes of 
 men. "We shall then begin to see that the human truth and honesty 
 of the sacred histories are only a pledge to us of that still higher char- 
 acter which they possess, as the voice of the Divine Spirit; that 
 they are truly given by inspiration of God,* and therefore are profit- 
 able in every part for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for 
 instruction in righteousness. To test them candidly and freely, as 
 human documents, is only the first step towards the full and hearty 
 acknowledgment of their claims, as the inspired word of God. — Rev. 
 T, R. Birks. 
 
CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE HISTOEICAL SCEIPTURES, IN ELEVEN 
 SECTIONS.* 
 
 Not forgetting, therefore, what credit is due to the evan- 
 gelical history, supposing even any one of the four Gospels 
 to be genuine ; what credit is due to the Gospels, even sup- 
 posing nothing to be known concerning them but that they 
 were written by early disciples of the religion, and received 
 with deference by early Christian churches ; more especially 
 not forgetting what credit is due to the New Testament in its 
 capacity of cumulative evidence ; we now proceed to state the 
 proper and distinct proofs, which show not only the general 
 value of these records, but their specific authority, and the 
 high probability there is that they actually came from the 
 persons whose names they bear. 
 
 There are, however, a few preliminary reflections, by 
 which we may draw up with more regularity to the propo- 
 sitions upon which the close and particular discussion of the 
 subject depends. Of which nature are the following : 
 
 I. We are able to produce a great number of ancient 
 manuscripts^ found in many different countries, and in coun- 
 
 * According to the usage of English writers on the Evidences, 
 Genuineness denotes that the books of the Bible were composed by 
 the authors whose names they bear ; Authenticity that they relate the 
 facts as they really happened ; and Integrity, that the books have 
 been preserved pure and entire. The last two qualities are some- 
 times included in the meaning of the term, Authentic. In the writings 
 of Scottish, and of some American divines, the words Genuine and 
 Authentic change places. — Ed. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 127 
 
 tries widely distant from each other, all of them anterior to 
 the art of printing, some certainly seven or eight hundred 
 years old, and some which have been preserved probably 
 above a thousand years.* We have also many ancient ver- 
 sions of these books, and some of them into languages which 
 are not, at present, nor for many ages have been, spoken in 
 any part of the world. The existence of these manuscripts 
 and versions prove that the Scriptures were not the produc- 
 tion of any modern contrivance. It does away also the un- 
 certainty which hangs over such publications as the works, 
 real or pretended, of Ossian and Rowley, in which the editors 
 are challenged to produce their manuscripts, and to show 
 where they obtained their copies, f The number of manu- 
 scripts, far exceeding those of any other book, and their wide 
 dispersion, afford an argument, in some measure, to the senses, 
 that the Scriptures anciently, in like manner as at this day, 
 were more read and sought after than any other books, and 
 that also in many different countries. The greatest part of 
 spurious Christian writings are utterly lost, the rest preserv- 
 ed by some single manuscript. There is weight also in Dr. 
 Bentley's observation, that the New Testament has suffered 
 less injury by the errors of transcribers, than the works of 
 any profane author of the same size and antiquity ; that is, 
 there never was any writing, in the preservation and purity 
 of which the world was so interested or so careful. 
 
 II. An argument of great weight with those who are judges 
 
 * The Alexandrian manuscript, now in the British Museum, was 
 written probably in the fourth or fifth century.* 
 
 f These productions of Macpherson and Chatterton are now 
 well known to be forgeries. — Ed. 
 
 * This manuscript was presented by Cyrillus Lucaris, Patriarch, first of Alexandria, 
 and then of Constantinople, to Charles 1. of England, in the year 1628. Alford, in the 
 latest and finest edition of the Greek Testament that has yet appeared, (London, 1854,) 
 fixes its date to the fifth century. The oldest copy of the JSTeio Testament extant is the 
 Vatican MS., which was written in the fourth century. Both these MSS. contain the 
 Old Testament as well as the New. For a full account of all the MSS. and versions 
 of the Scripture, see Home's Introduction.— iC^Z. 
 
128 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 of the proofs upon which it is founded, and capable, through 
 their testimony, of being addressed to every understanding, 
 is that which arises from the style and language of the New 
 Testament."^ It is just such a language as might be expected 
 from the apostles, from persons of their age and in their sit- 
 uation, and from no other persons. It is the style neither of 
 classic authors, nor of the ancient Christian Fathers, but 
 Greek coming from men of Hebrew origin ; abounding, that 
 is, with Hebraic and Syriac idioms, such as would naturally 
 be found in the writings of men who used a language spoken 
 indeed where they lived, but not the common dialect of the 
 country. This happy peculiarity is a strong proof of the 
 genuineness of these writings : for who should forge them ? 
 The Christian fathers were, for the most part, totally ignorant 
 of Hebrew, and therefore were not likely to insert Hebra- 
 isms and Syriasms into their writings. The few who had a 
 knowledge of the Hebrew, as Justin Martyr, Origen, and 
 Epiphanius, wrote in a language which bears no resemblance 
 to that of the New Testament. The Nazarenes, who under- 
 stood Hebrew, used chiefly, perhaps almost entirely, the Gos- 
 pel of Saint Matthew, and therefore cannot be suspected of 
 forging the rest of the Sacred Writings. The argument, at 
 any rate, proves the antiquity of these books ; that they be- 
 longed to the age of the apostles ; that they could be com- 
 posed indeed in no other.f 
 
 III. Why should we question the genuineness of these 
 books ? Is it for that they contain accounts of supernatural 
 events ? I apprehend that this, at the bottom, is the real, 
 though secret, cause of our hesitation about them ; for, had 
 
 * A good critic can speak as to style, with as much certainty as an 
 adept can in the matter of handwriting. The adept's testimony is 
 received in courts of justice. — Ed. 
 
 \ See this argument stated more at large in Michaelis's Introduc- 
 tion (Marsh's translation), vol. i. c. ii. sec. 10, from which these ob- 
 servations are taken. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 129 
 
 the writings inscribed with the names of Matthew and John, 
 related nothing but ordinary history, there would have been 
 no more doubt whether these writings were theirs, than there 
 is concerning the acknowledged works of Josephus or Philo ; 
 that is, there would have been no doubt at all. Now it 
 ought to be considered that this reason, however it may ap- 
 ply to the credit which is given to a writer's judgment or 
 veracity, affects the question of genuineness very indirectly. 
 The works of Bede exhibit many wonderful relations ; but 
 who, for that reason, doubts that they were written by Bede ? 
 The same of a multitude of other authors. To which may 
 be added, that we ask no more for our books than what we 
 allow to other books in some sort similar to ours : we do 
 not deny the genuineness of the Koran : we admit that the 
 history of Apollonius Tyanseus, purporting to be written by 
 Philostratus, was really written by Philostratus. 
 
 IV. If it had been an easy thing in the early times of the 
 institution to have forged Christian writings, and to have ob- 
 tained currency and reception to the forgeries, we should 
 have had many appearing in the name of Christ himself. No 
 writings would have been received with so much avidity and 
 respect as these ; consequently, none afforded so great temp- 
 tation to forgery. Yet have we heard but of one attempt of 
 this sort, deserving of the smallest notice, that in a piece of 
 a very few lines, and so far from succeeding, I mean from 
 obtaining acceptance and reputation, or an acceptance and 
 reputation in anywise similar to that which can be proved to 
 have attended the books of the New Testament, that it is not 
 so much as mentioned by any writer of the first three centu- 
 ries. The learned reader need not be informed that I mean 
 the epistle of Christ to Abgarus, king of Edessa, found at 
 present in the work of Eusebius,* as a piece of knowledge 
 by him, though not without considerable doubt whether the 
 whole passage be not an interpolation, as it is most certain, 
 
 * Hist Eccl., lib. i. c. 15. 
 6* 
 
180 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 that, after the publication of Eusebius's work, this epistle 
 was universally rejected.* 
 
 V. If the ascription of the Gospels to their respective au- 
 thors had been arbitrary or conjectural, they would have been 
 ascribed to more eminent men. This observation holds con- 
 cerning the first three Gospels, the reputed authors of which 
 were enabled, by their situation, to obtain true intelligence, 
 and were likely to deliver an honest account of what they 
 knew, but were persons not distinguished in the history by 
 extraordinary marks of notice or commendation. Of the 
 apostles, I hardly know any one of whom less is said than of 
 Matthew, or whom the little that is said, is less calculated to 
 magnify his character. Of Mark, nothing is said in the Gos- 
 pels ; and what is said of any person of that name in the 
 Acts, and in the Epistles, in no part bestows praise or emi- 
 nence upon him. The name of Luke is mentioned only in 
 Saint Paul's Epistles, f and that very transiently. The judg- 
 ment, therefore, which assigned these writings to these au- 
 thors, proceeded, it may be presumed, upon proper knowledge 
 and evidence, and not upon a voluntary choice of names. 
 
 VI. Christian writers and Christian churches appear to have 
 soon arrived at a very general agreement upon the subject, 
 and that without the interposition of any public authority. 
 When the diversity of opinion which prevailed, and prevails 
 among Christians in other points, is considered, their concur- 
 
 * Augustin, A. D. 895, (De Consens. Evang. c. 34,) had heard that 
 the Pagans pretended to be possessed of an epistle from Christ to 
 Peter and Paul ; but he had never seen it, and appears to doubt of 
 the existence of any such piece, either genuine or spurious. No 
 other ancient writer mentions it. He also, and he alone, notices, 
 and that in order to condemn it, an epistle ascribed to Christ by the 
 Manichees, A. D. 270, and a short hymn attributed to him by the 
 Priscillianists, A. D. 3Y8, (cont. Faust. Man., lib. xxviii. c. 4.) The 
 lateness of the writer who notices these things, the manner in which 
 he notices them, and, above all, the silence of every preceding writer, 
 render them unworthy of consideration. 
 
 t Col. iv. 14. 2 Tim. iv. 11. Philem. 24. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. ISl 
 
 rence in the canon of Scripture is remarkable, and of great 
 weight, especially as it seems to have been the result of pri- 
 vate and free inquiry. We have no knowledge of any inter- 
 ference of authority in the question, before the council of 
 Laodicea in the year 363. Probably the decree of this coun- 
 cil rather declared than regulated the public judgment, or, 
 more properly speaking, the judgment of some neighboring 
 churches ; the council itself consisting of no more than thirty 
 or forty bishops of Lydia and the adjoining countries.* Nor 
 does its authority seem to have extended further ; for we 
 find numerous Christian writers, after this time, discussing 
 the question, " What books were entitled to be received as 
 Scripture," with great freedom, upon proper grounds of evi- 
 dence, and without any reference to the decision at Laodicea. 
 
 These considerations are not to be neglected ; but of an 
 argument concerning the genuineness of ancient writings, the 
 substance, undoubtedly, and strength, is ancient testimony 
 
 This testimony it is necessary to exhibit somewhat in de- 
 tail : for when Christian advocates merely tell us, that we 
 have the same reason for believing the Gospels to be written 
 by the evangelists whose names they bear, as we have for be- 
 lieving the Commentaries to be Caesar's, the iEneid Virgil's, 
 or the Orations Cicero's, they content themselves with an im- 
 perfect representation. They state nothing more than what is 
 true, but they do not state the truth correctly. In the num- 
 ber, variety, and early date of our testimonies, we far exceed 
 all other ancient books. For one, which the most celebrated 
 work of the most celebrated Greek or Roman writer can al- 
 lege, we produce many. But then it is more requisite in our 
 books, than in theirs, to separate and distinguish them from 
 spurious competitors. The result, I am convinced, will be 
 satisfactory to every fair inquirer ; but this circumstance ren- 
 ders an inquiry necessar;^ 
 
 * Lardner, Cred. vol. viii. p. 291, et. seq. 
 
132 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 In a work, however, like the present, there is a difficulty in 
 finding a place for evidence of this kind. To pursue the de- 
 tails of truth throughout, would be to transcribe a great part 
 of Dr. Lardner's eleven octavo volumes : to leave the argu- 
 ment without proofs, is to leave it without effect ; for the per- 
 suasion produced by this species of evidence depends upon a 
 view and induction of the particulars which compose it. 
 
 The method which I propose to myself is, first, to place 
 before the reader, in one view, the propositions which com- 
 prise the several heads of our testimony, and afterwards to 
 repeat the same propositions in so many distinct sections, with 
 the necessary authorities subjoined to each.* 
 
 The following, then, are the allegations upon the subject, 
 which are capable of being established by proof: — 
 
 I. That the historical books of the New Testament, mean- 
 ing thereby the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, 
 are quoted, or alluded to, by a series of Christian writers, be- 
 ginning with those who were contemporary with the apostles, 
 or who immediately followed them, and proceeding in close 
 and regular succession from their time to the present. 
 
 II. That when they are quoted, or alluded to, they are quot- 
 ed or alluded to with peculiar respect, as books sui generis ; 
 as possessing an authority which belonged to no other books, 
 and as conclusive in all questions and controversies amongst 
 Christians. 
 
 III. That they were in very early times, collected into a 
 distinct volume. 
 
 IV. That they were distinguished by appropriate names 
 and titles of respect. 
 
 V. That they were publicly read and expounded in the re- 
 ligious assemblies of the early Christians. 
 
 VI. That commentaries were written upon them, harmonies 
 
 * The reader, when he has the propositions before him, will observe 
 that the argument, if he should pmit the sections, proceeds connect- 
 edly from this point. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 188 
 
 formed out of them, different copies carefully collated, and 
 versions of them made into different languages. 
 
 VII. That they were received by Christians of different sects, 
 by many heretics as well as catholics, and usually appealed 
 to by both sides in the controversies which arose in those days. 
 
 VIII. That the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, 
 thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, the first Epistle of John, and 
 the first of Peter, were received, without doubt, by those who 
 doubted concerning the other books which are included in 
 our present canon. 
 
 IX. That the Gospels were attacked by the early adver- 
 saries of Christianity, as books containing the accounts upon 
 which the religion was founded. 
 
 X. That formal catalogues of authentic Scriptures were 
 published ; in all of which our present Sacred Histories were 
 included. 
 
 XI. That these propositions cannot be affirmed of any 
 other books claiming to be books of Scripture ; by which 
 are meant those books which are commonly called apocry- 
 phal books of the New Testament.* 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 The historical books of the New Testament, meaning thereby the 
 Four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, are quoted, or alluded 
 to, by a series of Christian writers, beginning with those who 
 were contemporary with the apostles, or who immediately follow- 
 ed them, and proceeding in close and regular succession from 
 their time to the present. 
 
 The medium of proof stated in this proposition is, of all 
 others, the most unquestionable, the least liable to any prac- 
 
 * Let the reader compare the contents of this ninth chapter with 
 all that has been written by a host of enthusiastic writers upon the 
 genuineness and integrity of Shakspeare's plays. He will then per- 
 ceive how powerful is the Christian proof. — Ed. 
 
134 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 tices of fraud, and is not diminished by the lapse of ages. 
 Bishop Burnet, in the history of his Own Times, inserts 
 various extracts from Lord Clarendon's History. One such 
 insertion is a proof, that Lord Clarendon's History was ex- 
 tant at the time when Bishop Burnet wrote, that it had been 
 read by Bishop Burnet, that it was received by Bishop Btfrnet 
 as a work of Lord Clarendon, and also regarded by him as 
 an authentic account of the transactions which it relates ; and 
 it will be a proof of these points a thousand years hence, or 
 as long as the books exist. Quintilian having quoted as 
 Cicero's,* that well-known trait of dissembled vanity ; — 
 
 " Si quid est in me ingenii, Judices, quod sentio quam sit exiguum ;" 
 
 the quotation would be strong evidence, were there any 
 doubt, that the oration, which opens with this address, actually 
 came from Cicero's pen. These instances, however simple, 
 may serve to point out to a reader, who is little accustomed 
 to such researches, the nature and value of the argument. 
 
 The testimonies which we have to bring forward under this 
 proposition are the following : 
 
 L There is extant an epistle ascribed to Barnabas, f the 
 companion of Paul. It is quoted as the epistle of Barnabas, 
 by Clement of Alexandria, A.D. cxciv ; by Origen, A.D. 
 ccxxx. It is mentioned by Eusebius, A.D. cccxv., and by 
 Jerome, A.D. cccxcii., as an ancient work in their time, 
 bearing the name of Barnabas, and as well known and read 
 amongst Christians, though not accounted a part of Scrip- 
 ture. It purports to have been written soon after the de 
 struction of Jerusalem, during the calamities which followed 
 that disaster ; and it bears the character of the age to which 
 it professes to belong. 
 
 * Quint., lib. xi. c. i. 
 
 f Lardner, Cred. edit. 1755, vol. i. p. 23, et seq. The reader will 
 observe from the references, that the materials of these sections are 
 almost entirely extracted from Dr. Lardner's work ; — my office con- 
 sisted in arrangement and selection. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 185 
 
 In this epistle appears the following remarkable passage : 
 " Let us, therefore, beware lest it come upon us, as it is 
 written ; There are many called, few chosen." From the 
 expression " as it is written," we infer with certainty, that, at 
 the time when the author of this epistle lived, there was a 
 book extant, well known to Christians, and of authority 
 amongst them, containing these words : — " Many are called, 
 few chosen." Such a book is our present Gospel of Saint 
 Matthew, in which this text is twice found,* and is found in 
 no other book now known. There is a further observation 
 to be made upon the terms of the quotation. The writer of 
 the epistle was a Jew. The phrase " it is written," was the 
 very form in which the Jews quoted their Scriptures. It is 
 not probable, therefore, that he would have used this phrase, 
 and without qualification, of any books but what had acquir- 
 ed a kind of Scriptural authority. If the passage remarked 
 in this ancient writing had been found in one of Saint PauPs 
 Epistles, it would have been esteemed by every one a high 
 testimony to Saint Matthew's Gospel. It ought, therefore, 
 to be remembered, that the writing in which it is found was 
 probably by very few years posterior to those of Saint Paul. 
 
 Beside this passage, there are also in the epistle before us 
 several others, in which the sentiment is the same with what 
 we meet with in Saint Matthew's Gospel, and two or three in 
 which we recognize the same words. In particular, the au- 
 thor of the epistle repeats the precept, " Give to every one 
 that asketh thee ;"f and saith that Christ chose as his apostles, 
 who were to preach the Gospel, men who were great sin- 
 ners, that he might show that he came "not to call the 
 righteous, but sinners, to repentance. "t 
 
 II. We are in possession of an epistle written by Clement, 
 Bishop of Rome,§ whom ancient writers, without any doubt 
 or scruple, assert to have been the Clement whom Saint Paul 
 mentions, Phil. iv. 3 ; " With Clement also, and other my 
 
 * Matt. XX. 16 ; xxii. 14. f Matt. v. 42. % lb. ix. 13. 
 
 § Lardner, Cred. vol, i. p. 62, et seq. 
 
136 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 fellow-laborers, whose names are in the book of life." This 
 epistle is spoken of by the ancients as an epistle acknowledged 
 by all ; and, as Irena3us well represents its value, " written 
 by Clement, who had seen the blessed apostles, and con- 
 versed with them ; who had the preaching of the apostles 
 still sounding in his ears, and their traditions before his eyes." 
 It is addressed to the church of Corinth ; and what alone 
 may seem almost decisive of its authenticity, Dionysius, 
 Bishop of Corinth, about the year 170, ^. e. about eighty or 
 ninety years after the epistle was written, bears witness, 
 " that it had been wont to be read in that church from an- 
 cient times." 
 
 This epistle affords, amongst others, the following valuable 
 passages : — " Especially remembering the words of the Lord 
 Jesus which he spake, teaching gentleness and long-suifering : 
 for thus he said :* ' Be ye merciful, that ye may obtain mer- 
 cy ; forgive, that it may be forgiven unto you ; as you do, so 
 shall it be done unto you ; as you give, so shall it be given 
 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 shall it be measured to you.' 
 By this command, and by these rules, let us establish our- 
 selves, that we may always walk obediently to his holy words." 
 
 Again ; " Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, for he 
 said, ' Wo to that man by whom oflences come ; it were better 
 for him that he had not been born, than that he should offend 
 one of my elect ; it were better for him that a mill-stone 
 should be tied about his neck, and that he should be drowned 
 in the sea, than that he should offend one of my little ones.' "f 
 
 * " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," Matt. v. 
 ^. — " Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven ; give, and it shall be given 
 unto you." Luke, vi. 3Y, 38. "Judge not, that ye be not judged; 
 for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged ; and with 
 what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Matt, 
 vii. 1, 2. 
 
 f Matt, xviii. 6. " But whoso shall offend one of these little ones 
 which believe in me, it were better for him that a mill-stone were 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIAlsriTY. 137 
 
 In both these passages, we perceive the high respect paid 
 to the words of Christ as recorded by the evangelists ; " Re- 
 member the words of the Lord Jesus : — by this command, 
 and by these rules let us establish ourselves, that we may al- 
 ways walk obediently to his holy words." We perceive also 
 in Clement a total unconsciousness of doubt, whether these 
 were the real words .of Christ, which are read as such in the 
 Gospels. This observation indeed belongs to the whole se- 
 ries of testimony, and especially to the most ancient part of 
 it. Whenever anything now read in the Gospels is met with 
 in an early Christian writing, it is always observed to stand 
 there as acknowledged truth, ^. e. to be introduced without 
 hesitation, doubt, or apology. It is to be observed also, that 
 as this epistle was written in the name of the church of 
 Rome, and addressed to the church of Corinth, it ought to be 
 taken as exhibiting the judgment not only of Clement, who 
 drew up the letter, but of these churches themselves, at least 
 as to the authority of the books referred to. 
 
 It may be said, that, as Clement has not used words of 
 quotation, it is not certain that he refers to any book what- 
 ever. The words of Christ, which he has put down, he might 
 himself have heard from the apostles, or might have received 
 through the ordinary medium of oral tradition. This has 
 been said ; but that no such inference can be drawn from the 
 absence of words of quotation, is proved by the three follow- 
 ing considerations : — First, that Clement, in the very same 
 manner, namely, without any mark of reference, uses a pas- 
 sage now found in the Epistle to the Romans ;* which passage, 
 from the peculiarity of the words which compose it, and from 
 their order, it is manifest that he must have taken from the 
 
 hanged about his neck, and that he were cast into the sea." The 
 latter part of the passage in Clement agrees more exactly with Lnke, 
 xvii. 2 : "It were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about 
 his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of 
 these little ones." 
 * Rom. i. 29. 
 
XS8 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 book. The same remark may be repeated of some very 
 singular sentiments in the epistle to the Hebrews. Secondly, 
 that there are many sentences of Saint Paul's First Epistle 
 to the Corinthians standing in Clement's epistle without any 
 sign of quotation, which yet certainly are quotations ; be- 
 cause it appears that Clement had Saint Paul's epistle before 
 him, inasmuch as in one place he mentions it in terms too 
 express to leave us in any doubt : " Take into your hands 
 the epistle of the blessed apostle Paul." Thirdly, that this 
 method of adopting words of Scripture without reference or 
 acknowledgment, was, as will appear in the sequel, a method 
 in general use amongst the ancient Christian writers. These 
 analogies not only repel the objection, but cast the presump- 
 tion on the other side, and afforded a considerable degree of 
 positive proof, that the words in question have been borrowed 
 from the places of Scripture in which we now find them. 
 
 But take it if you will the other way, that Clement had 
 heard these words from the apostles or first teachers of Chris- 
 tianity ; with respect to the precise point of our argument, viz, 
 that the Scriptures contain what the apostles taught, this sup- 
 position may serve almost as well. 
 
 III. Near the conclusion of the Epistle to the Romans, 
 Saint Paul, amongst others, sends the following salutation : 
 " Salute Asyncritus Phlegon, Hermas^ Patrobas, Hermes, and 
 the brethren which are with them." 
 
 Of Hermas, who appears in this catalogue of Roman Chris- 
 tians as contemporary with Saint Paul, a book bearing the 
 name, and it is most probable rightly, is still remaining. It 
 is called the Shepherd,* or Pastor of Hermas. f Its antiquity 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. i. p. 111. 
 
 f As has been remarked (note, p. 81) the genuineness and date of 
 the " Shepherd " have been disputed. So also has the genuineness, 
 but not the date of the Epistle of Barnabas. But even allowing 
 every reasonable deduction for these uncertainties, the undoubted 
 antiquity of the books, and their notoriety among the early Chris- 
 tians, render them most important testimonies to the authority of the 
 New Testament in the primitive church. — Ed. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 189 
 
 is incontestable, from the quotations of it in Irenseus, A. D. 
 178; Clement of Alexandria, A. D. 194; Tertullian, A. D. 
 200 ; Origen, A. D. 230. The notes of time extant in the 
 epistle itself, agree with its title, and with the testimonies 
 concerning it, for it purports to have been written during the 
 life-time of Clement. 
 
 In this piece are tacit allusions to Saint Matthew's, Saint 
 Luke's, and Saint John's Gospels ; that is to say, there are 
 applications of thoughts and expressions found in these Gos- 
 pels, without citing the place or writer from which they were 
 taken. In this form appear in Hernias th^ confessing and 
 denying of Christ :* the parable of the seed sown;f the com- 
 parison of Christ's disciples to little children ; the saying, 
 " he that putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, com- 
 mitteth adultery ;" J the singular expression, " having received 
 all power from his Father," in probable allusion to Matt, 
 xxviii. 18 ; and Christ being the "gate," or only way of com- 
 ing " to God," in plain allusion to John, xiv. 6 ; x. 7. 9. 
 There is also a probable allusion to Acts, v. 32. 
 
 This is the representation of a vision, and has by many 
 been accounted a weak and fanciful performance. I therefore 
 observe, that the character of the writing has little to do with 
 the purpose for which we adduce it. It is the age in which it 
 was composed, that gives the value to its testimony. 
 
 IV. Ignatius, as it is testified by ancient Christian writers, 
 became bishop of Antioch about thirty-seven years after 
 Christ's ascension ; and therefore, from his time, and place, 
 and station, it is probable that he had known and conversed 
 with many of the apostles. Epistles of Ignatius are referred 
 to by Polycarp, his contemporary. Passages found in the 
 epistles now extant under his name, are quoted by Irenseus, 
 A. D. 178 ; by Origen, A. D. 230 ; and the occasion of 
 writing the epistles is given at large by Eusebius and Jerome. 
 
 * Matt. X. 82, 33 ; or, Luke, xii. 8, 9. 
 f Matt. xiii. 3 ; or, Luke viii. 5. 
 J Luke, xvi. 18. 
 
Jokn^l 
 
 140 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 What are called the smaller epistles of Ignatius, are generally 
 deemed to be those which were read by Irenaeus, Origen, and 
 Eusebius.* 
 
 In these epistles are various undoubted allusions to the 
 Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint John ; yet so far of the 
 same form with those in the preceding articles, that, like 
 them, they are not accompanied with marks of quotation. 
 Of these allusions the following are clear specimens : 
 
 f " Christ was baptized of John, that oJl right- 
 ivr i I J ^^^^^^^^ might he fulfilled by him,^'' 
 
 I * "J56 ye wise as serpents in all things, and 
 [^harmless as a doveP 
 
 " Yet the Spirit is not deceived, being from 
 God : for it knows whence it comes, and whither 
 it goes.^^ 
 
 " He (Christ) is the door of the Father, by 
 which enter in Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, 
 and the apostles, and the church." 
 As to the manner of quotation, this is observable ; — Igna- 
 tius, in one place, speaks of Saint Paul in terms of high re- 
 spect, and quotes his Epistle to the Ephesians by name ; yet, 
 in several other places, he borrows words and sentiments 
 from the same epistle without mentioning it ; which shows, 
 that this was his general manner of using and applying writ- 
 ings then extant, and then of high authority. 
 
 V. Polycarp § had been taught by the apostles ; had con- 
 versed with many who had seen Christ ; was also by the 
 
 * Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 147. 
 
 f Chap. iii. 15. "For thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness." 
 
 Chap. X. 16. "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as 
 doves." 
 
 X Chap. iii. 8. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou 
 hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometli and 
 whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." 
 
 Chap. X. 9. " I am the door ; by me if any man enter in, he shall 
 be saved." 
 
 § Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 192. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. 14l 
 
 apostles appointed bishop of Smyrna. This testimony con_ 
 cerning Polycarp is given by Irenseus, who in his youth had 
 seen him : — " I can tell the place," saith Irenseus, " 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, and how he related their sayings, and what he had 
 heard concerning the Lord, both concerning his miracles and 
 his doctrine, as he had received them from the eye-witnesses 
 of the word of life : all which Polycarp related agreeable to 
 the Scriptures." 
 
 Of Polycarp, whose proximity to the age and country and 
 persons of the apostles is thus attested, we have one undoubt- 
 ed epistle remaining. And this, though a short letter, con- 
 tains nearly forty clear allusions to books of the New Testa- 
 ment ; which is strong evidence of the respect which Chris- 
 tians of that age bore for these books. 
 
 Amongst these, although the writings of Saint Paul are 
 more frequently used by Polycarp than any other parts of 
 Scripture, there are copious allusions to the Gospel of Saint 
 Matthew, some to passages found in the Gospels both of Mat- 
 thew and Luke, and some which more nearly resemble the 
 words in Luke. 
 
 I select the following, as fixing the authority of the Lord's 
 prayer, and the use of it amongst the primitive Christians : 
 " If therefore we jpray the Lord, that he will forgive us, we 
 ought also to forgive^ 
 
 '-'- With supplication beseeching the all-seeing God not to lead 
 us into temptation^ 
 
 And the following, for the sake of repeating an observation 
 already made, that words of our Lord, found in our Gospels, 
 were at this early day quoted as spoken by him ; and not 
 only so, but quoted with so little question or consciousness of 
 doubt about their being really his words, as not even to men- 
 
142 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 tion, much less to canvass, the authority from which they 
 were taken : 
 
 "But remembering what the Lord said, teaching. Judge 
 not, that ye be not judged ; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven ; 
 be ye merciful, that ye may obtain mercy ; with what meas- 
 ure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."* 
 
 Supposing Polycarp to have had these words from the 
 books in which we now find them, it is manifest that these 
 books were considered by him, and, as he thought, consider- 
 ed by his readers, as authentic accounts of Christ's discourses ; 
 and that that point was incontestable. 
 
 The following is a decisive, though what we call a tacit, ref- 
 erence to Saint Peter's speech in the Acts of the Apostles :— 
 " whom God hath raised, having loosed the pains of death. "f 
 
 VI. Papias. J a hearer of John, and companion of Polycarp, 
 as Irenasus attests, and of that age, as all agree, in a passage 
 quoted by Eusebius, from a work now lost, expressly ascribes 
 the respective Gospels to Matthew and Mark ; and in a man- 
 ner which proves that these Gospels must have publicly 
 borne the names of these authors at that time, and probably 
 long before ; for Papias does not say that one Gospel was 
 written by Matthew, and another by Mark ; but, assuming 
 this as perfectly well known, he tells us from what materials 
 Mark collected his account, viz. from Peter's preaching, and 
 in what language Matthew wrote, viz. in Hebrew. Whether 
 Papias was well informed in this statement, or not; to the 
 point for which I produce this testimony, namely, that these 
 books bore these names at this time, his authority is complete. 
 
 The writers hitherto alleged, had all lived and conversed 
 with somet)f the apostles. The works of theirs which remain, 
 are in general very short pieces, yet rendered extremely valua- 
 ble by their antiquity ; and none, short as they are, but what 
 contain some important testimony to our historical Scriptures.§ 
 
 * Matt. vii. 1. 2; y.1; Luke, vi. 37, 38. f -^^^s, ii. 24. 
 
 i Lardner, Cred. vol i. p. 239. 
 
 § That the quotations are more thinly strown in these, than in the 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 143 
 
 VII. Not long after these, that is, not much more than 
 twenty years after the last, follows Justin Martyr.* His 
 remaining works are much larger than any that have yet 
 been noticed. Although the nature of his two principal writ- 
 ings, one of which was addressed to heathens, and the other 
 was a conference with a Jew, did not lead him to such fre- 
 quent appeals to Christian books, as would have appeared in 
 a discourse intended for Christian readers ; we nevertheless 
 reckon up in them between twenty and thirty quotations of 
 the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, certain, distinct, and 
 copious : if each verse be counted separately, a much greater 
 number ; if each expression, a very great one.f 
 
 We meet with quotations of three of the Gospels within 
 the compass of half a page ; " And in other words he says, 
 Depart from me into outer darkness, which the Father hath 
 prepared for Satan and his angels," (which is from Matthew, 
 XXV. 41.) "And again he said in other words, I give unto 
 you power to tread upon serpents, and scorpions, and venom- 
 ous beasts, and upon all the power of the enemy." (This 
 from Luke, x. 19.) "And before he was crucified, he said, 
 The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of 
 the Scribes and Pharisees, and be crucified, and rise again the 
 third day." (This from Mark, viii. 31.) 
 
 "writings of the next and of succeeding ages, is in a good measure ac- 
 counted for by the observation, that the Scriptures of the New Tes- 
 tament had not yet^ nor by their recency hardly could have, become a 
 general part of Christian education ; read as the Old Testament was 
 by Jews and Christians from their childhood, and thereby intimately- 
 mixing, as that had long done, with all their religious ideas, and 
 with their language upon religious subjects. In process of time, 
 and as soon perhaps as could be expected, this came to be the case. 
 And then we perceive the effect, in a proportionably greater fre- 
 quency, as well as copiousness, of allusion.* 
 
 * Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 258. 
 
 f "He cites our present canon, and particularly our four Gospels, 
 continually, I dare say, above two hundred times." — Jones's New and 
 Full Method, Append., vol. i. p. 589, ed. 1726. 
 * Mich. Introd., c. ii. sect. vi. 
 
144 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 In another place, Justin quotes a passage in the history of 
 Christ's birth, as delivered by Matthew and John, and forti- 
 fies his quotation by this remarkable testimony : " As they 
 have taught, who have written the history of all things con- 
 cerning our Saviour Jesus Christ : and we believe them." 
 
 Quotations are also found from the Gospel of Saint John. 
 
 What, moreover, seems extremely material to be observed 
 is, that in all Justin's works, from which might be extracted 
 almost a complete life of Christ, there are but two instances, 
 in which he refers to anything as said or done by Christ, 
 which is not related concerning him in our present Gospels : 
 which shows, that these Gospels, and these, we may say, 
 alone, were the authorities from which the Christians of that 
 day drew the information upon which they depended. One 
 of these instances is of a saying of Christ, not met with in 
 any book now extant.* The other, of a circumstance in 
 Christ's baptism, namely, a fiery or luminous appearance 
 upon the water, which, according to Epiphanius, is noticed in 
 the Gospel of the Hebrews, and which might be true ; but 
 which, whether true or false, is mentioned by Justin, with a 
 plain mark of diminution when compared with what he quotes 
 as resting upon Scripture authority. The reader will advert 
 to this distinction ; " and then, when Jesus came to the river 
 
 * " Wherefore also our Lord Jesus Christ has said, In whatsoever 
 I shall find you, in the same I will also judge you." Possibly Justin 
 designed not to quote any text, but to represent the sense of many 
 of our Lord's sayings. Fabricius has observed, that this saying has 
 been quoted by many writers, and that Justin is the only one who 
 ascribes it to our Lord, and that perhaps by a slip of his memory. 
 
 Words resembling these are read repeatedly in Ezekiei ; " I will 
 judge them according to their ways ;" (chap. vii. 3 ; xxxiii. 20 ) It 
 is remarkable that Justin had but just before expressly quoted Eze- 
 kiei. Mr. Jones upon this circumstance founded a conjecture, that 
 Justin wrote only "the Lord hath said," intending to quote the words 
 of God, or rather the sense of those words, in Ezekiei ; and that 
 some trauscriber, imagining these to be the words of Christ, inserted 
 ID his copy the addition " Jesus Christ." Vol. i. p. 639. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 145 
 
 Jordan, where John was baptizing, as Jesus descended into 
 the water, a fire also was kindled in Jordan ; and when he 
 came up out of the water, the apostles of this our Christ have 
 written^ that the Holy Ghost lighted upon him as a dove." 
 
 All the references in Justin are made without mentioning 
 the author ; which proves that these books w^ere perfectly no- 
 torious, and that there were no other accounts of Christ then 
 extant, or, at least, no others so received and credited as to 
 make it necessary to distinguish these from the rest. 
 
 But although Justin mentions not the author's name, he 
 calls the books, " Memoirs composed by the Apostles ;" " Me- 
 moirs composed by the Apostles and their Companions ;" 
 which descriptions, the latter especially, exactly suit with the 
 titles which the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles now bear. 
 
 VIII. Hegesippus * came about thirty years after Justin. 
 His testimony is remarkable only for this particular ; that he 
 relates of himself, that, travelling from Palestine to Rome, 
 he visited, on his journey, many bishops ; and that, " in every 
 succession, and in every city, the same doctrine is taught, 
 which the Law, and the Prophets, and the Lord teacheth." 
 This is an important attestation, from good authority, and of 
 high antiquity. It is generally understood that by the word 
 " Lord," Hegesippus intended some writing or writings, con- 
 taining the teaching of Christ, in which sense alone the term 
 combines with the other terms "' Law and Prophets," which 
 denote writings ; and together with them admits of the verb 
 " teacheth " in the present tense. Then, that these writings 
 were some or all of the books of the New Testament, is ren- 
 dered probable from hence, that in the fragments of his 
 works, which are preserved in Eusebius, and in a writer of 
 the ninth century, enough, though it be little, is left to show, 
 that Hegesippus expressed divers things in the style of the 
 Gospels, and of the Acts of the Apostles ; that he referred 
 to the history in the second chapter of Matthew, and recited 
 a text of that Gospel as spoken by our Lord. 
 * Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 314. 
 7 
 
146 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 IX. At this time, viz. about the year 170, the churches of 
 Lyons and Vienne, in France, sent a relation of the suffer- 
 ings of their martyrs to the churches of Asia and Phrygia.* 
 The epistle is preserved entire by Eusebius. And what car- 
 ries m some measure the testimony of these churches to a 
 higher age is, that they had now for their bishop Pothinus, 
 who was ninety years old, and whose early life consequently 
 must have immediately joined on with the times of the apostles. 
 In this epistle are exact references to the Gospels of Luke 
 and John, and to the Acts of the Apostles ; the form of 
 reference the same as in all the preceding articles. That 
 from Saint John is in these words : " Then was fulfilled that 
 which was spoken by the Lord, that whosoever killeth you, 
 will think that he doeth God service."f 
 
 X. The evidence now opens upon us full and clear. 
 IrenaeusJ succeeded Pothinus as Bishop of Lyons. In his 
 youth he had been a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple 
 of John. In the time in which he lived, he was distant not 
 much more than a century from the publication of the Gos- 
 pels ; in his instruction, only by one step separated from the 
 persons of the apostles. He asserts of himself and his con- 
 temporaries, that they were able to reckon up, in all the 
 principal churches, the succession of bishops from the first. § 
 I remark these particulars concerning Irenaeus with more for- 
 mality than usual ; because the testimony which this writer 
 affords to the historical books of the New Testament, to their 
 authority, and to the titles which they bear, is express, 
 positive, and exclusive. One principal passage, in which 
 this testimony is contained, opens with a precise assertion of 
 the point which we have laid down as the foundation of our 
 argument, viz. that the story which the Gospels exhibit, is 
 the story which the apostles told. " We have not received," j 
 saith Irenseus, " the knowledge of the way of our salvation 
 by any others than those by whom the Gospel has been 
 
 * Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 832. f John, xvi. 2. 
 
 J Lardner, vol. i. p. 844. § Adv. Hseres., 1. iii. c. 3. 
 
Chap. IX.] ' EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 147 
 
 brought to us. Which Gospel they first preached, and after- 
 wards, by the will of God, committed to writing, that it might 
 be for time to come the foundation and pillar of our faith. 
 For after that our Lord rose from the dead, and they (the 
 apostles) were endowed 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, writ 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 (Paul). 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." If any modern divine should write a book upon the 
 genuineness of the Gospels, he could not assert it more ex- 
 pressly, or state their original more distinctly, than Irenseus 
 hath done within little more than a hundred years after they 
 were published. 
 
 The correspondency, in the days of Irenseus, of the oral 
 and written tradition, and the deduction of the oral tradition 
 through various channels from the age of the apostles, which 
 was then lately passed, and, by consequence, the probability 
 that the books truly delivered what the apostles taught, is 
 inferred also with strict regularity from another passage of 
 his works. " The tradition of the apostles," this father saith, 
 " hath spread itself over the whole universe ; and all they, 
 who search after the sources of truth, will find this tradition 
 to be held sacred in every church. We might enumerate all 
 those who have been appointed bishops to these churches by 
 the apostles, and all their successors, up to our days. It is by 
 this uninterrupted succession that we have received the tra- 
 
148 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Peop. L 
 
 dition which actually exists in the church, as also the doc- 
 trines of truth, as it was preached by the apostles."* The 
 reader will observe upon this, that the same Irenaeus, who is 
 now stating the strength and uniformity of the tradition, we 
 have before seen recognizing, in the fullest manner, the au- 
 thority of the written records ; from which we are entitled 
 to conclude, that they were then conformable to each other. 
 
 I have said, that the testimony of Irenaeus in favor of our 
 Gospels is exclusive of all others. I allude to a remarkable 
 passage in his works, in which, for some reasons sufficiently 
 fanciful, he endeavors to show, that there could be neither more 
 nor fewer Gospels than /owr. With his argument we have no 
 concern. The position itself proves that four, and only four, 
 Gospels were at that time publicly read and acknowledged. 
 That these were our Gospels, iind in the state in which we 
 now have them, is shown, from many other places of this 
 writer beside that which we have already alleged. He men- 
 tions how Matthew begins his Gospel, how Mark begins and 
 ends his, and their supposed reasons for so doing. He 
 enumerates at length the several passages of Christ's history 
 in Luke, which are not found in any of the other evangelists. 
 He states the particular design with which Saint John com- 
 posed his Gospel, and accounts for the doctrinal declarations 
 which precede the narrative. 
 
 To the book of the Acts of the Apostles, its author, and 
 credit, the testimony of Irenaeus is no less explicit. Refer- 
 ring to the account of Saint Paul's conversion and vocation, 
 in the ninth chapter of tha-t book, " Nor can they," says he, 
 meaning the parties with whom he argues, " show that he is 
 not to be credited, who has related to us the truth with the 
 greatest exactness." In another place, he has actually collect- 
 ed the several texts, in which the writer of the history is rep- 
 resented as accompanying Saint Paul ; which leads him to 
 deliver a summary of almost the whole of the last twelve 
 chapters of the book. 
 
 * Iren. in Hser., 1. iii. c. 3. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 149 
 
 In an author thus abounding with references and allusions 
 to the Scriptures, there is not one to any apocryphal Chris- 
 tian writing whatever.* This is a broad line of distinction 
 between our Sacred Books, and the pretensions of all others. 
 
 The force of the testimony of the period which we have 
 considered, is greatly strengthened by the observation, that it 
 is the testimony, and the concurring testimony, of writers 
 who lived in countries remote from one another. Clement 
 flourished at Eome, Ignatius at Antioch, Poly carp at Smyrna, 
 Justin Martyr in Syria, and Irenseus in France. 
 
 XI. Omitting Athenagoras and Theophilus, who lived 
 about this time ;f in the remaining works of the former of 
 whom are clear references to Mark and Luke ; and in the 
 works of the latter, who was Bishop of Antioch, the sixth in 
 succession from the apostles, evident allusions to Matthew 
 and John, and probable allusions to Luke (which, considering 
 the nature of the compositions, that they were addressed to 
 heathen readers, is as much as could be expected) ; observ- 
 ing, also, that the works of two learned Christian writers of. 
 the same age, Miltiades and Pantcenus.J are now lost ; of 
 which Miltiades, Eusebius records, that his writings " were 
 monuments of zeal for the Divine Oracles :" and which Pan- 
 
 * The only apparent exception to this remark is one quotation 
 from the Shepherd of Hermas. Eusebius gives it in these words : 
 " Nor did he only know, but he also receives the scripture of the 
 Shepherd, saying, Well, therefore, spake the Scripture, which says. 
 First of all believe that there is one God, who created and formed all 
 things, (fee." But this exception is only apparent. Irenseus makes 
 many and long quotations from nearly every book of the New Testa- 
 ment, and only one from this book of Hermas, which is larger than 
 any of them. He uses the word Scripture, in other places, in its 
 looser sense, for writings that he plainly did not account canonical. 
 Even the very manner in which he quotes this passage, implies that 
 he did not ascribe to it an apostolic authority, and he does not even 
 mention the name of the author. Hence the remark in the text 
 is substantially accurate. — Rev. T. R. Birks, 
 
 * Lardner, vol. i. p. 400. — Ibid., 422. 
 f Lardner, vol. i. pp. 413, 450. 
 
150 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 taenus, as Jerome testifies, was a man of prudence and learn- 
 ing, both in the Divine Scriptures and secular literature, and 
 had left many commentaries upon the Holy Scriptures then 
 extant ; passing by these without further remark, we come 
 to one of the most voluminous of ancient Christian writers, 
 Clement of Alexandria.* Clement followed Irenaeus at the 
 distance of only sixteen years, and therefore may be said to 
 maintain the series of testimony in an uninterrupted continua- 
 tion. 
 
 In certain of Clement's works, now lost, but of which 
 various parts are recited by Eusebius, there is given a dis- 
 tinct account of the order in which the four Gospels were 
 written. The Gospels which contain the genealogies, were 
 (he says) written first ; Mark's next, at the instance of Peter's 
 followers ; and John's the last ; and this account he tells us 
 that he had received from presbyters of more ancient times. 
 This testimony proves the following points ; that these Gos- 
 pels were the histories of Christ then publicly received, and 
 relied upon ; and that the dates, occasions, and circumstances, 
 of their publication were at that time subjects of attention 
 and inquiry amongst Christians. In the works of Clement 
 which remain, the four Gospels are repeatedly quoted by the 
 names of their authors, and the Acts of the Apostles is ex- 
 pressly ascribed to Luke. In one place, after mentioning a 
 particular circumstance, he adds these remarkable words : 
 " We have not this passage in the four Gospels delivered to 
 us, but in that according to the Egyptians ;" which puts a 
 marked distinction between the four Gospels and all other 
 histories, or pretended histories, of Christ. In another part 
 of his works the perfect confidence with which he received 
 the Gospels, is signified by him in these words : " That this 
 is true, appears from hence, that it is written in the Gospel 
 according to Saint Luke ;" and again, " I need not use many 
 words, but only to allege the evangelic voice of the Lord." 
 His quotations are numerous. The sayings of Christ, of 
 * Lardner, vol. ii. p. 469. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 151 
 
 which he alleges many, are all taken from our Gospels ; the 
 single exception to this observation appearing to be a loose* 
 quotation of a passage in Saint Matthew's Gospel. 
 
 XII. In the age in which they live,f Tertullian joins on 
 with Clement. The number of the Gospels then received, 
 the names of the evangelists, and their proper descriptions, 
 are exhibited by this writer in one short sentence : — " Among 
 the apostles^ John and Matthew teach us the faith ; among 
 apostolical men^ Luke and Mark refresh it." The next pas- 
 sage to be taken from Tertullian, affords as complete an attest- 
 ation to the authenticity of our books, as can be well imag- 
 ined. After enumerating the churches which had been founded 
 by Paul, at Corinth, in Galatia, at Philippi, Thessalonica, and 
 Ephesus ; the church of Rome established by Peter and 
 Paul, and other churches derived from John ; he proceeds 
 thus : — " 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 :" and 
 presently afterwards adds ; " The same authority of the apos- 
 tolical churches will support the other Gospels, which we 
 have from them and according to 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 affirms, that the three other Gospels 
 were in the hands of the churches from the beginning, as well 
 as Luke's. This noble testimony fixes the universality with 
 which the Gospels were received, and their antiquity ; that 
 
 * "Ask great things, and the small shall be added unto you." 
 Clement rather chose to expound the words of Matthew (chap. vi. 
 33) than literally to cite them ; and this is most undeniably proved 
 by another place in the same Clement, where he both produces the 
 text and these words as an exposition : — " Seek ye first the kingdom 
 of heaven and its righteousness, for these are the great things; but 
 the small things, and things relating to this life, shall be added unto 
 you." — Jones's New and Full Method, vol. i. p. 653. 
 
 f Lardner, vol. ii. p. 661. 
 
152 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 they were in the hands of all, and had been so from the first. 
 And this evidence appears not more than one hundred and 
 fifty years after the publication of the books. The reader 
 must be given to understand that, when TertuUian speaks of 
 maintaining or defending (tuendi) the Gospel of Saint Luke, 
 he only means maintaining or defending the integrity of the 
 copies of Luke received by Christian churches, in opposition 
 to certain curtailed copies used by Marcion against whom he 
 writes. 
 
 This author frequently cites the Acts of the Apostles under 
 that title, once calls it Luke's Commentary, and observes 
 how Saint Paul's epistles confirm it. 
 
 After this general evidence, it is unnecessary to add partic- 
 ular quotations. These, however, are so numerous and am- 
 ple, as to have led Dr. Lardner to observe, " that there are 
 more, and larger quotations of the small volume of the New 
 Testament in this one Christian author, than there are of all 
 the works of Cicero in writers of all characters for several 
 ages."* 
 
 TertuUian quotes no Christian writing as of equal author- 
 ity with the Scriptures, and no spurious books at all ; a broad 
 line of distinction, we may once more observe, between our 
 Sacred Books and all others. 
 
 We may again likewise remark the wide extent through 
 which the reputation of the Gospels, and of the Acts of the 
 Apostles, had spread, and the perfect consent, in 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 
 who have been noticed already, we have Justin Martyr at 
 Neapolis, Theophilus at Antioch, Irenseus in France, Clement 
 at Alexandria, TertuUian at Carthage, quoting the same 
 books of historical Scriptures, and, I may say, quoting these 
 alone. 
 
 XIII. An interval of only thirty years, and that occupied 
 * Lardner, vol. ii. p. 647. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 153 
 
 by no small number of Christian writers,* whose works only 
 rem.ain in fragments and quotations, and in every one of 
 which is some reference or other to the Gospels (and in one 
 of them, Hippolytus,f as preserved in Theodoret, is an ab- 
 stract of the whole Gospel history), brings us to a name of 
 great celebrity in Christian antiquity, Origen J of Alexan- 
 dria, who, in the quantity of his writings, exceeded the most 
 laborious of the Greek and Latin authors. Nothing can be 
 more peremptory upon the subject now under consideration, 
 and, from a writer of his learning and information, more sat- 
 isfactory, than the declaration of Origen, preserved, in an ex- 
 tract from his works, by Eusebius ; " That the four Gospels 
 alone are received without dispute by the whole Church of 
 God under heaven :" to which declaration is immediately sub- 
 joined a brief history of the respective authors, to whom 
 they were then, as they are now, ascribed. The language 
 holden concerning the Gospels, throughout the works of Ori- 
 gen which remain, entirely corresponds with the testimony 
 here cited. His attestation to the Acts of the Apostles is no 
 less positive : " And Luke also once more sounds the trum- 
 pet, relating the acts of the apostles." The universality with 
 which the Scriptures were then read, is well signified by this 
 writer, in a passage in which he has occasion to observe 
 against Celsus, " That it is not in any private books, or such 
 as are read by a few only, and those studious persons, but in 
 books read by everybody, that it is written, The invisible 
 things of God from the creation of the world are clearly 
 
 * Minucius Felix, Apollonius, Caius, Asterius, Urbanus, Alexander 
 bishop of Jerusalem, Hippolytus, Ammonius, Julius Africanus. 
 
 ] It has been shown by Dr. Bunsen in his work entitled " Hippol- 
 ytus and his Age" that a book on "All the Heresies," which has 
 lately been brought to light, is the production, not of Origen, as 
 was first supposed, but of Hippolytus. The book is full of valuable 
 quotations from lost writings. It is thus that critics, explorers, trav- 
 ellers, as well as naturalists, and other scientific laborers, are con- 
 stantly contributing to the stability of our faith. — JEd. 
 
 X Lardner, vol. iii. p. 234. 
 
 7* 
 
154 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 seen, being understood by things that are made." It is to no 
 purpose to single out quotations of Scripture from such a 
 writer as this. We might as well make a selection of the 
 quotations of Scripture in Dr. Clarke's Sermons. They are 
 so thickly sown in the works of Origen, that Dr. Mill says, 
 " If we had all his works remaining, we should have before 
 us almost the whole text of the Bible."* 
 
 Origen notices, in order to censure, certain apocryphal 
 Gospels. He also uses four writings of this sort ; that is, 
 throughout his large works he once or twice, at the most, 
 quotes each of the four ; but always with some mark, either 
 of direct reprobation or of caution to his readers, manifestly 
 esteeming them of little or no authority. 
 
 XIV. Gregory, Bishop of Neocesarea, and Dionysius, of 
 Alexandria, were scholars of Origen. Their testimony, 
 therefore, though full and particular, may be reckoned a rep- 
 etition only of his. The series, however, of evidence, is 
 continued by Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who flourished 
 within twenty years after Origen. " The Church," says this 
 father, " is watered, like Paradise, by four rivers, that is, by 
 four Gospels." The Acts of the Apostles is also frequently 
 quoted by Cyprian under that name, and under the name 
 of the " Divine Scriptures." In his various writings are such 
 constant and copious citations of Scripture, as to place this 
 part of the testimony beyond controversy. Nor is there, in 
 the works of this eminent African bishop, one quotation of a 
 spurious or apocrjphal Christian writing. 
 
 XV. Passing over a crowdf of writers following Cyprian 
 at different distances, but all within forty years of his time ; 
 and who all, in the imperfect remains of their works, either 
 cite the historical Scriptures of the New Testament, or speak 
 of them in terms of profound respect ; I single out Victorin, 
 
 * Mill, Proleg. cap. vi. p. 66. 
 
 f Novatus, Rome, A.D. 251 ; Dionysius, Rome, A.D. 259 ; Corn- 
 modi an, A. D. 2Y0; Anatolius, Laodicea, A.D. 270; Theognostus, 
 A.D. 282 ; Methodius, Lycia, AD. 290 ; Phileas, Egypt, A.D. 296. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY 155 
 
 Bishop of Pettaw, in Germany, merely on account of the re- 
 moteness of his situation from that of Origen and Cyprian, 
 who were Africans ; by which circumstance his testimony, 
 taken in conjunction with theirs, proves that the Scripture 
 histories, and the same histories, were known and received 
 from one side of the Christian world to the other. This 
 bishop* lived about the year 290 ; and in a commentary 
 upon this text of the Revelations, " The first was like a lion, 
 the second was like a calf, the third like a man, and the fourth 
 like a flying eagle," he makes out that by the four creatures 
 are intended the four Gospels ; and, to show the propriety of 
 the symbols, he recites the subject with which each evangelist 
 opens his history. The explication is fanciful, but the testi- 
 mony positive. He also expressly cites the Acts of the 
 Apostles. 
 
 XVI. Arnobius and Lactantius,f about the year 300, com- 
 posed formal arguments upon the credibility of the Christian 
 religion. As these arguments were addressed to Gentiles, 
 the authors abstain from quoting Christian books by name ; 
 one of them giving this very reason for his reserve ; but 
 when they come to state, for the information of their readers, 
 the outlines of Christ's history, it is apparent that they draw 
 their accounts from our Gospels, and from no other sources ; 
 for these statements exhibit a summary of almost everything 
 which is related of Christ's actions and miracles by the 
 four evangelists. Arnobius vindicates, without mentioning 
 their names, the credit of these historians ; observing, that 
 they were eye-witnesses of the facts which they relate, and 
 that their ignorance of the arts of composition was rather a 
 confirmation of their testimony, than an objection to it. 
 Lactantius also argues in defence of the religion, from the 
 consistency, simplicity, disinterestedness, and sufferings of 
 the Christian historians, meaning by that term our evan- 
 gelists. 
 
 * Lardner, vol. v. p. 214. f Lardner, vol. vii. pp. 43, 201. 
 
156 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 XVII. We close the series of testimonies with that of 
 Eusebius,* Bishop of Cassarea, who flourished in the year 
 315, contemporary with, or posterior only by fifteen years 
 to, the two authors last cited. This voluminous writer, and 
 most diligent collector of the writings of others, beside a 
 variety of large works, composed a history of the affairs of 
 Christianity from its origin to his own time. His testimony 
 to the Scriptures is the testimony of a man much conversant 
 in the works of Christian authors, written during the first 
 three centuries of its era, and who had read many which are 
 now lost. In a passage of his evangelical demonstration, 
 Eusebius remarks, with great nicety, the delicacy of two of 
 the evangelists, in their manner of noticing any circumstance 
 which regarded themselves ; and of Mark, as writing under 
 Peter's direction, in the circumstances which regarded him. 
 The illustration of this remark leads him to bring together 
 long quotations from each of the evangelists ; and the whole 
 passage is a proof, that Eusebius, and the Christians of those 
 days, not only read the Gospels, but studied them with atten- 
 tion and exactness. In a passage of his Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory, he treats, in form, and at large, of the occasions of writ- 
 ing the four Gospels, and of the order in which they were 
 written. The title of the chapter is, " Of the Order of the 
 Gospels ;" and it begins thus : " Let us observe the writings 
 of this apostle John, which are not contradicted by any ; and, 
 first of all, must be mentioned, as acknowledged by all, the 
 Gospel according to him, well known to all the churches un- 
 der heaven ; and that it has been justly placed by the ancients 
 the fourth in order, and after the other three, may be made 
 evident in this manner." Eusebius then proceeds to show 
 that John wrote the last of the four, and that his Gospel was 
 intended to supply the omissions of the others ; especially in 
 the part of our Lord's ministry, which took place before the 
 imprisonment of John the Baptist. He observes, " that the 
 apostles of Christ were not studious of the ornaments of com- 
 * Lardner, vol. viii. p. 38. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 157 
 
 position, nor indeed forward to write at all, being wholly- 
 occupied with their ministry." 
 
 This learned author makes no use at all of Christian writ- 
 ings, forged with the names of Christ's apostles, or their com- 
 panions. 
 
 We close this branch of our evidence here, because, after 
 Eusebius, there is no room for any question upon the sub- 
 ject ; the works of Christian writers being as full of texts of 
 Scripture, and of references to Scripture, as the discourses of 
 modern divines. Future testimonies to the books of Scrip- 
 ture could only prove that they never lost their character or 
 authority.* 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 When the Scriptures are quoted, or alluded to, they are quoted with 
 peculiar respect, as books sui generis ; as possessing an authority 
 which belonged to no other books, and as conclusive in all ques- 
 tions and controversies amongst Christians. 
 
 Beside the general strain of reference and quotation, which 
 uniformly and strongly indicates this distinction, the following 
 may be regarded as specific testimonies : 
 
 I. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, the sixth in succession 
 from the apostles, and who flourished little more than a cen- 
 tury after the books of the New Testament were written, 
 having occasion to quote one of our Gospels, writes thus : 
 "These things the Holy Scriptures teach us, and all who 
 
 * Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes of the Scottish Court of Ses- 
 sion, and author of a most masterly refutation of Gibbon's 15th chap- 
 ter, actually discovered the whole New Testament from these writ- 
 ings, except ten or eleven verses. As he reported this result, after 
 two months' research, he felt convinced that further investigation 
 would have led to the discovery of these also. — Ed. 
 
 \ Lardner, Cred., part ii., vol. i., p. 429. 
 
158 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 were moved by the Holy Spirit, among whom John says, In 
 the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." 
 Again : " Concerning the righteousness which the law teaches, 
 the like things are to be found in the Prophets and the Gos- 
 pels^ because that all, being inspired, spoke by one and the 
 same Spirit of* God."* No words can testify more strongly 
 than these do, the high and peculiar respect in which these 
 books were holden. 
 
 II. A writer against Artemon,f who may be supposed to 
 come about one hundred and fifty-eight years afte/- the publi- 
 cation of the Scripture, in a passage quoted by Eusebius, uses 
 these expressions : " Possibly what they (our adversaries) 
 say, might have been credited, if first of all the Divine 
 Scriptures did not contradict them ; and then the writing of 
 certain brethren more ancient than the times of Victor." 
 The brethren mentioned by name, are Justin, Miltiades, 
 Tatian, Clement, IrenaBus, Melito, with a general appeal to 
 many more not named. This passage proves, first, that there 
 was at that time a collection called Divine Scriptures ; sec- 
 ondly, that these Scriptures were esteemed of higher author- 
 ity than the writings of the most early and celebrated Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 III. In a piece ascribed to Hippolytus,J who lived near the 
 same time, the author professes, in giving his correspondent 
 instruction in the things about which he inquires, " to draw 
 out of the sacred fountain, and to set before him from the 
 Sacred Scriptures, what may afford him satisfaction." He 
 then quotes immediately Paul's epistles to Timothy, and 
 afterwards many books of the New Testament. This pre- 
 face to the quotations carries in it a marked distinction be- 
 tween the Scriptures and other books. 
 
 IV. " Our assertions and discourses," saith Origen,§ " are 
 unworthy of credit ; we must receive the Scriptures as wit- 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. i. p. 448. f lb., vol. iii. p. 40. 
 
 X Lardner, Cred., vol. iii. p. 112.* § lb., pp. 287, 288, 289. 
 
 * See note on p. 153.— Ed. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 159 
 
 nesses." After treating of the duty of prayer, he proceeds 
 with his argument thus : "What we have said, may be proved 
 from the Divine Scriptures." In his books against Celsus, 
 we find this passage : " 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 expressions afford abundant evidence of the peculiar 
 and exclusive authority which the Scriptures possessed. 
 
 V. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage,* whose age lies close to 
 that of Origen, earnestly exhorts Christian teachers, in all 
 doubtful cases, " to go back to the fountain ; and, if the 
 truth has in any case been shaken, to recur to the Gospels 
 and apostolic writings." " The precepts of the Gospel," 
 says he in another place, " are nothing less than authoritative 
 divine lessons, the foundations of our hope, the supports of 
 our faith, the guides of our way, the safeguards of our course 
 to heaven." 
 
 VI. Novatus,f a Eoman, contemporary with Cyprian., ap 
 peals to the Scriptures, as the authority by which all errors 
 were to be repelled, and disputes decided. "That Christ is 
 not only man, but God also, is proved by the sacred author- 
 ity of the Divine Writings." — " The Divine Scripture easily 
 detects and confutes the frauds of heretics." — " It is not by 
 the fault of the heavenly Scriptures, which never deceive." 
 Stronger assertions than these could nofe be used. 
 
 VII. At the distance of twenty years from the writer last 
 cited, Anatolius,J a learned Alexandrian, and bishop of Lao- 
 dicea, speaking of the rule for keeping Easter, a question at 
 that day agitated with much earnestness, says of those whom 
 he opposed, "They can by no means prove their point by the 
 authority of the Divine Scriptures." 
 
 VIII. The Arians, who sprung up about fifty years after 
 this, argued strenuously against the use of the words consub- 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. iv. p. 840. 
 
 f Lardner, Cred., vol. v. p. 102. % lb., vol. v. p. 146. 
 
160 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 stantial, and essence, and like phrases ; " because they ivere not 
 in BcriftureP^ And in the same strain, one of their advo- 
 cates opens a conference with Augustine, after the following 
 manner : "If you say what is reasonable, I must submit. If 
 you allege anything from the Divine Scriptures, which are 
 common to both, I must hear. But unscriptural expressions 
 (quag extra Scripturam sunt) deserve no regard." 
 
 Athanasius, the great antagonist of Arianism, after having 
 enumerated the books of the Old and New Testament, adds, 
 " These are the fountain of salvation, that he who thirsts may 
 be satisfied with the oracles contained in them. In these 
 alone the doctrine of salvation is proclaimed. Let no man 
 add to them, or take anything from them."f 
 
 IX. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, J who wrote about twenty 
 years after the appearance of Arianism, uses these remarkable 
 words : " Concerning the divine and holy mysteries of faith, 
 not the least article ought to be delivered without the divine 
 Scriptures." We are assured that Cyril's Scriptures were 
 the same as ours, for he has left us a catalogue of the books 
 included under that name. 
 
 X. Epiphanius,§ twenty years after Cyril, challenges the 
 Arians, and the followers of Origen, " to produce any passage 
 of the Old and New Testament, favoring their sentiments." 
 
 XL Psebadius, a Gallic bishop, who lived about thirty years 
 after the council of Nice, testifies, that " the bishops of that 
 council first consulted ^he Sacred Volumes, and then declared 
 their faith." || 
 
 XII. Basil, bishop of Csesarea, in Cappadocia, contempora- 
 ry with Epiphanius, says, " that hearers instructed in the 
 Scriptures ought to examine what is said by their teachers, 
 and to embrace what is agreeable to the Scriptures, and to re- 
 ject what is otherwise."^ 
 
 XIII. Ephraim, the Syrian, a celebrated writer of the same 
 
 * Lardiier, Cred., vol. vii. pp. 283, 284. f lb., vol. xii. p. 182. 
 
 X Lardner, Cred, vol. viii. p. 276. § lb., p. 314. 
 
 1 lb. vol. ix. p. 62. t lb., vol, ix. p. 124. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 161 
 
 times, bears this conclusive testimony to the proposition 
 which forms the subject of our present chapter : " The truth 
 written in the Sacred Volume of the Gospel, is a perfect rule. 
 Nothing can be taken from it or added to it, without great 
 guilt."* 
 
 XIV. If we add Jerome to these, it is only for the evidence 
 which he affords of the judgment of preceding ages. Je- 
 rome observes, concerning the quotations of ancient Christian 
 writers, that is, of writers who were ancient in the year 400, 
 that they made a distinction between books ; some they quot- 
 ed as of authority, and others not : which observation relates 
 to the books of Scripture, compared with other writings, 
 apocryphal or heathen. f 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 The Scriptures were in very early times collected into a distinct 
 
 volume. 
 
 Ignatius, who was bishop of Antioch within forty years 
 after the Ascension, and who had lived and conversed with 
 the apostles, speaks of the Gospel and of the apostles in terms 
 which render it very probable that he meant by the Gospel, 
 the book or volume of the Gospels, and by the apostles, the 
 book or volume of their Epistles. His words in one place 
 are, J " fleeing to the Gospel as the flesh of Jesus, and to the 
 apostles as the Presbytery of the church ;" that is, as Le 
 Clerc interprets them, " in order to understand the will of 
 God, he fled to the Gospels, which he believed no less than if 
 Christ in the flesh had been speaking to him ; and to the 
 writings of the apostles, whom he esteemed as the presbytery 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. ix. p. 202. 
 
 f Lardner, Cred., vol. x. pp. 123, 124. 
 
 X Lardner, Cred., part ii. vol. i. p. 180. 
 
162 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 of the whole Christian church." It must be observed, that 
 about eighty years after this, we have direct proof, in the 
 writings of Clement of Alexandria,* that these two names, 
 *' Gospel," and " Apostles," were the names by which the 
 writings of the New Testament, and the division of these 
 writings, were usually expressed. 
 
 Another passage from Ignatius is the following : — " But 
 the Gospel has somewhat in it more excellent, the appearance 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, his passion and resurrection. "f 
 
 And a third ; "Ye ought to hearken to the Prophets, but 
 especially to the Gospel, in which the passion has been mani- 
 fested to us, and the resurrection perfected." In this last pas- 
 sage, the Prophets and the Gospel are put in conjunction ; 
 and as Ignatius undoubtedly meant by the Prophets a collec- 
 tion of writings, it is probable that he meant the same by the 
 Gospel, the two terms standing in evident parallelism with 
 each other. 
 
 This interpretation of the word " Gospel," in the passages 
 above quoted from Ignatius, is confirmed by a piece of nearly 
 equal antiquity, the relation of the martyrdom of Polycarp 
 by the church of Smyrna. " All things," say they, " that 
 went before, were done, that the Lord might show us a mar- 
 tyrdom according to the Gospel, for he expected to be deliv- 
 ered up as the Lord also did. "J And in another place, " We 
 do not commend those who offer themselves, forasmuch as 
 the Gospel teaches us no such thing."§ In both these places, 
 what is called the Gospel^ seems to be the history of Jesus 
 Christ, and of his doctrine. 
 
 If this be the true sense of the passages, they are not only 
 evidences of our proposition, but strong and very ancient 
 proofs of the high esteem in which the books of the New Tes- 
 tament were holden. 
 
 II. Eusebius relates, that Quadratus and some others, who 
 were the immediate successors of the apostles, travelling 
 
 * Lardner, vol. ii. p. 517. t Ih., p. 182. 
 
 X Ignat. Ep., c. i. § lb., c. iv. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 163 
 
 abroad to preach Christ, carried the Gospels with them, and 
 delivered them to their converts. The words of Eusebius 
 are : " Then travelling abroad, they performed the work of 
 evangelists, being ambitious to preach Christ, and deliver the 
 Scripture of the divine Gospels,^^^ Eusebius had before him 
 the writings both of Quadratus himself, and of many others 
 of that age, which are now lost. It is reasonable, therefore, 
 to believe, that he had good grounds for his assertion. What 
 is thus recorded of the Gospels, took place within sixty, or, 
 at the most, seventy years after they were published ; and 
 it is evident, that they must, before this time (and, it is prob- 
 able, long before this time), have been in general use, and in 
 high esteem in the churches planted by the apostles, inas- 
 much as they were now, we find, collected into a volume ; 
 and the immediate successors of the apostles, they who 
 preached the religion of Christ to those who had not already 
 heard it, carried the volume with them, and delivered it to 
 their converts. 
 
 III. Irenseus, in the year 178,f puts the evangelic and apos- 
 tolic writings in connection with the Law and the Prophets, 
 manifestly intending by the one a code or collection of Chris- 
 tian sacred writings, as the other expressed the code or col- 
 lection of Jewish sacred writings. And, 
 
 IV. Melito, at this time bishop of Sardis, writing to one 
 Onesimus, tells his correspondent,^ that he had procured an 
 accurate account of the books of the Old Testament. The 
 occurrence, in this passage, of the term Old Testament, has 
 been brought to prove, and it certainly does prove, that there 
 was then a volume or collection of writings called the JVew 
 Testament. 
 
 V. In the time of Clement of Alexandria, about fifteen 
 years after the last quoted testimony, it is apparent that the 
 Christian Scriptures were divided into two parts, under the 
 general titles of the Gospels and Apostles ; and that both 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., part ii. vol. 1. p. 236. 
 
 t Lardner, Cred., vol. i. p. 883. J lb., p. 331. 
 
164 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 these were regarded as of the highest authority. One, out 
 of many expressions of Clement, alluding to this distribution, 
 is the following : — " There is a consent and harmony between 
 the law and the Prophets, the Apostles and the Gospel."* 
 
 VI. The same division, " Prophets, Gospels, and Apostles," 
 appears in Tertullian,f the contemporary of Clement. The 
 collection of the Gospels is likewise called by this writer the 
 " Evangelic Instrument ;"J the whole volume, the " New Tes- 
 tament ;" and the two parts, the " Gospels and Apostles. "§ 
 
 VII. From many writers also of the third century, and 
 especially from Cyprian, who lived in the middle of it, it is 
 collected, that the Christian Scriptures were divided into two 
 codes or volumes, one called the " Gospels or Scriptures of 
 the Lord," the other, the "Apostles, or Epistles of the 
 Apostles." II 
 
 VIII. Eusebius, as we have already seen, takes some pains 
 to show, that the Gospel of Saint John had been justly 
 placed by the ancients " the fourth in order, and after the other 
 three. "T" These are the terms of his proposition ; and the 
 very introduction of such an argument proves incontestably, 
 that the four Gospels had been collected into a volume, to 
 the exclusion of every other ; that their order in the volume 
 had been adjusted with much consideration; and that this 
 had been done by those who were called ancients in the time 
 of Eusebius. 
 
 In the Diocletian persecution, in the year 303, the Scrip- 
 tures were sought out and burnt ;** many suffered death rather 
 than deliver them up ; and those who betrayed them to the 
 persecutors, were accounted as lapsed and apostate. On the 
 other hand, Constantine, after his conversion, gave directions 
 for multiplying copies of the Divine Oracles, and for magnifi- 
 cently adorning them at the expense of the imperial treas- 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. ii. p. 516. f lb., p. 631. 
 
 i lb., p. 574. § lb., p. 632. 
 
 II lb., vol. iv. p. 846. T[ Ibid., vol. viii. p. 90. 
 
 ** Ibid., vol. vii. p. 214, et seq. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 165 
 
 ury.* What the Christians of that age so richly embellished 
 in their prosperity, and, which is more, so tenaciously pre- 
 served under persecution, was the very volume of the New 
 Testament which we now read. 
 
 SECTION lY. 
 
 Our present Sacred "Writings were soon distinguished by appropriate 
 names and titles of respect. 
 
 I. PoLYCARP. " I trust that ye are well exercised in the 
 Hohj Scriptures ; — as in these Scriptures it is said. Be ye 
 angry and sin not, and let not the sun go down upon your 
 wrath."f This passage is extremely important ; because it 
 proves that, in the time of Poly carp, who had lived with the 
 apostles, there were Christian writings distinguished by the 
 name of " Holy Scriptures," or Sacred Writings. Moreover, 
 the text quoted by Polycarp is a text found in the collection 
 at this day. What also the same Polycarp hath elsewhere 
 quoted in the same manner, may be considered as proved to 
 belong to the collection ; and this comprehends Saint Mat- 
 thew's, and, probably. Saint Luke's Gospel, the Acts of the 
 Apostles, ten epistles of Paul, the First Epistle of Peter, and 
 the Eirst of John. J In another place, Polycarp has these 
 words : " Whoever perverts the Oracles of the Lord to his 
 own lusts, and says there is neither resurrection nor judg- 
 ment, he is the first-born of Satan."§ — It does not appear 
 what else Polycarp could mean by the " Oracles of the Lord," 
 but those same " Holy Scriptures," or Sacred Writings, of 
 which he had spoken before. 
 
 II. Justin Martyr, whose apology was written about thirty 
 years after Polycarp's epistle, expressly cites some of our 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. vii. p. 43 2. f lb. vol. i. p. 203. 
 
 , t lb. vol. i. p. 223. § lb. p. 222. 
 
166 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 present histories under the title of Gospel, and that not as a 
 name by him first ascribed to them, but as the name by 
 which they were generally known in his time. His words 
 are these : — " For the apostles in the memoirs composed by 
 them, which are called Gospels^ have thus delivered it, that 
 Jesus commanded them to take bread, and give thanks."* 
 There exists no doubt but that, by the memoirs above men- 
 tioned, Justin meant our present historical Scriptures ; for 
 throughout his works he quotes these, and no others. 
 
 III. Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, who came thirty years 
 after Justin, in a passage preserved in Eusebius (for his works 
 are lost), speaks " of the Scriptures of the Lord."f 
 
 IV. And at the same time, or very nearly so, by Irenaeus, 
 bishop of Lyons in France,J; they are called " Divine Scrip- 
 tures," — " Divine Oracles," — " Scriptures of the Lord," — 
 " Evangelic and Apostolic Writings. "§ The quotations of 
 Irenseus prove decidedly, that our present Gospels, and these 
 alone, together with the Acts of the Apostles, were the histor- 
 ical books comprehended by him under these appellations. 
 
 V. Saint Matthew^s Gospel is quoted by Theophilus, bishop 
 of Antioch, contemporary with Irenseus, under the title of the 
 "Evangelic Voice ;"|| and the copious works of Clement of 
 Alexandria, published within fifteen years of the same time, 
 ascribe to the books of the New Testament the various titles 
 of " Sacred Books," — " Divine Scriptures," — " Divinely in- 
 spired Scriptures," — " Scriptures of the Lord," — " the true 
 Evangelical Canon."*]" 
 
 VL Tertullian, who joins on with Clement, beside adopt- 
 ing most of the names and epithets above noticed, calls the 
 Gospels " our Digesta," in allusion, as it should seem, to 
 some collection of Roman laws then extant.** 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. i. p. 271. t Ih., p. 298. 
 
 J The reader will observe the remoteness of these two writers in 
 country and situation. 
 
 § Lardner, Cred., vol. i. p. 343, et. seq. 
 
 \ lb. vol. i. p. 42*7. t lb., vol. ii. p. 616. ** lb., p. 630. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 167 
 
 VII. By Origen, who came thirty years after Tertullian, 
 the same, and other no less strong titles, are applied to the 
 Christian Scriptures ; and, in addition thereunto, this writer 
 frequently speaks of the " Old and New Testament," — the 
 "Ancient and New Scriptures," — the "Ancient and New 
 Oracles."* 
 
 VIII. In Cyprian, who was not twenty years later, they are 
 "Books of the Spirit," — "Divine Fountains," — "Fountains 
 of the Divine Fulness."f 
 
 The expressions we have thus quoted, are evidences of high 
 and peculiar respect. They all occur within two centuries from 
 the publication of the books. Some of them commence with 
 the companions of the apostles ; and they increase in number 
 and variety, through a series of writers, touching upon one 
 another, and deduced from the first age of the religion. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Our Scriptures were publicly read and expounded in the religious 
 assemblies of the early Christians. 
 
 Justin Martyr, who wrote in the year 140, which was 
 seventy or eighty years after some, and less, probably, after 
 others of the Gospels were published, giving, in his first apol- 
 ogy, an account, to the emperor, of the 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, exhort- 
 ing to the imitation of so excellent things. "J 
 
 A few short observations will show the value of this testi- 
 mony. 
 
 1. The "Memoirs of the Apostles," Justin in another 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. iii. p. 230. f lb., vol. iv. p. 844. 
 
 X Ibid, vol. i. p. 273. 
 
168 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 place expressly tells us, are what are called " Gospels ;" and 
 that they were the Gospels which we now use, is made cer- 
 tain by Justin's numerous quotations of them^ and his silence 
 about any others. 
 
 2. Justin describes the general usage of the Christian church. 
 
 3. Justin does not speak of it as recent or newly instituted, 
 but in the terms in which men speak of established customs. 
 
 II. Tertullian, who followed Justin at the distance of about 
 fifty years, in his account of the religious assemblies of Chris- 
 tians as they were conducted in his time, says, " We come 
 together to recollect the Divine Scriptures ; we nourish our 
 faith, raise our hope, confirm our trust, by the Sacred Word."* 
 
 in. Eusebius records of Origen, and cites for his authority 
 the letters of bishops contemporary with Origen, that, when 
 he ^ent into Palestine about the year 216, which was only 
 sixteen years after the date of Tertullian's testimony, he was 
 desired by the bishops of that country to discourse and ex- 
 pound the Scriptures publicly in the church, though he was 
 not yet ordained a presbyter, f This anecdote recognizes the 
 usage, not only of reading, but of expounding the Scriptures ; 
 and botWs subsisting in full force. Origen also himself bears 
 witness to the same practice : " This," says he, " we do, when 
 the Scriptures are read in the church, and when the discourse 
 for explication is delivered to the people." J And, what is a still 
 more ample testimony, many homilies of his upon the Scrip- 
 tures of the New Testament, delivered by him in the assem- 
 blies of the church, are still extant. 
 
 IV. Cyprian, whose age was not twenty years lower than 
 that of Origen, gives his people an account of having ordain- 
 ed two persons, who were before confessors, to be readers ; 
 and what they were to read, appears by the reason which he 
 gives for his choice : " Nothing," says Cyprian, " can be more 
 fit, than that he, who has made a glorious confession of the 
 Lord, should read publicly in the church ; that he who has 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., voL ii. p. 628. f lb. vol. ill. p. 68. 
 
 X lb., vol. iii. p. 302. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 169 
 
 shown himself willing to die a martyr, should read the Gos- 
 pel of Christy by which martyrs are made."* 
 
 V. Intimations of the same custom may be traced in a great 
 number of writers in the beginning and throughout the whole 
 of the fourth century. Of these testimonies I will only use 
 one, as being, of itself, express and full. Augustine, who ap- 
 peared near the conclusion of the century, displays the benefit 
 of the Christian religion on this very account, the public read- 
 ing of the Scriptures in the churches, " where," says he, "is a 
 confluence of all sorts of people of both sexes ; and where 
 they hear how they ought to live well in this world, that they 
 may deserve to live happily and eternally in another. And 
 this custom he declares to be universal : " The canonical books 
 of Scripture being read everywhere, the miracles therein re- 
 corded are well known to all people, "f 
 
 It does not appear that any books, other than our present 
 Scriptures, were thus publicly read, except that the epistle of 
 Clement was read in the church of Corinth, to which it had 
 been addressed, and in some others ; and that the Shepherd of 
 Hermas was read in many churches. Nor does it subtract 
 much from the value of the argument, that these two writings 
 parti}- come within it, because we allow them to be the genu- 
 ine writings of apostolical men.J There is not the least evi- 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. iv. p. 842. 
 
 f lb. vol. X. p. 276, et seq. The proofs advanced in this section are 
 confirmed by the testimony of the New Testament itself. " I charge 
 you by the Lord that this Epistle be read unto all the holy brethren." 
 1 Thess. V. 27. "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the 
 words of this prophecy." Rev. i. 3. The apostolic command was 
 faithfully obeyed. — Ed. 
 
 X This remark applies fully to the Epistle of Clement, which is 
 certainly genuine, and worthy of his scriptural character, as a fellow- 
 laborer of the apostle. But if the Shepherd of Hermas is spurious, as 
 there is strong reason to believe, and written near the middle of the 
 second century, (about A. D. 160 — or within 120 years of the cruci- 
 fixion,) as Lucke and Stuart suppose, it may seem hard to explain why 
 it should be publicly read in the churches, without impairing the 
 
 8 
 
170 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 dence, that any other Gospel, than the four which we receive, 
 was ever admitted to this distinction. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 CommeDtaries were anciently written upon the Scriptures; harmo- 
 nies formed out of them; different copies carefully collated; and 
 versions made of them into different languages. 
 
 No greater proof can be given of the esteem in which these 
 books were holden by the ancient Christians, or of the sense 
 
 force of the argument. There are two or three remarks which seem 
 to remove this difficulty. St. Jerome limits the public reading of it 
 to " some churches in Greece," but says further that it was almost un- 
 known to the Latins. Now, the fact that a genuine Epistle of Clem- 
 ent, an uninspired companion of St. Paul, was read at Corinth, and 
 in the neighboring churches, would predispose them to read publicly 
 in the same manner, another writing, having the name of another 
 friend of St. Paul, when once it had gained a circulation. That this 
 use of it was very limited, may be inferred from the late date assign- 
 ed to it by the writers of the second century, from the slightiag ex- 
 pressions of Tertullian, and its rejection by many others to whom Ori- 
 gen alludes in these words : " If that book seem to any worthy to be 
 received ;" and again, " The book of the Shepherd which some ap- 
 pear to despise." An exception so partial detracts very slightly from 
 the force of the general argument drawn from the public perusal in 
 the churches of the canonical writings of the New Testament. Rev. 
 T. R. BirJcs. 
 
 That the "Shepherd" was thus publicly received as genuine — the 
 production of an apostolic man — affords a strong presumption that 
 Hermas, the friend of St. Paul, really was its author. To assume 
 that Hermas, or even Barnabas, were men of powerful intellect, be- 
 cause they were associates of the great apostle, is unwarrantable. How 
 many Christians are there now, whom Paul would have " grappled " 
 to his mighty soul, for the sincerity of their faith, the fervor of their 
 love, and the alacrity of their service, even though, as the authors of 
 books, they might have been far inferior to himself or Clement? This 
 intellectual inferiority appears to be the main objection to the genu- 
 ineness of the Epistle of Barnabas — and one of the main objections 
 to that of the Shepherd of Hermas. — JSd. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 171 
 
 then entertained of their value and importance, than the in- 
 dustry bestowed upon them. And it ought to be observed, 
 that the value and importance of these books consisted entire- 
 ly in their genuineness and truth. There was nothing in them 
 as works of taste, or as compositions, which could have in- 
 duced any one to have written a note upon them. Moreover, 
 it shows that they were even then considered as ancient books. 
 Men do not write comments upon publications of their own 
 times : therefore the testimonies cited under this head, afford 
 an evidence which carries up the evangelic writings much be- 
 yond the age of the testimonies themselves, and to that of 
 their reputed authors. 
 
 I. Tatian, a follower of Justin Martyr, and who flourished 
 about the year 170, composed a harmony, or collation, of the 
 Gospels, which he called Diatessaron^ Of the four.* The 
 title, as well as the work, is remarkable ; because it shows 
 that then, as now, there were four, and only four. Gospels in 
 general use with Christians. And this was little more than a 
 hundred years after the publication of some of them. 
 
 II. Pantsenus, of the Alexandrian school, a man of great 
 reputation and learning, who came twenty years after Tatian, 
 wrote many commentaries upon the Holy Scriptures, which, 
 as Jerome testifies, were extant in his time.f 
 
 III. Clement of Alexandria wrote short explications of 
 many books of the Old and New Testament. J 
 
 IV. Tertullian appeals from the authority of a later ver- 
 sion, then in use, to the authentic Greek.§ 
 
 V. An anonymous author, quoted by Eusebius, and who 
 appears to have written about the year 212, appeals to the 
 ancient copies of the Scriptures, in refutation of some corrupt 
 readings alleged by the followers of Artemon. 1| 
 
 VI. The same Eusebius, mentioning by name several 
 writers of the church who lived at this time, and concerning 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. i. p. 307. f lb., vol i. p. 465. 
 
 X lb., vol. ii. p. 462. § lb., p. 638. 
 
 \ lb., vol. iii. p. 46. 
 
172 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 whom he says, " There still remain divers monuments of the 
 laudable industry of those ancient and ecclesiastical men " 
 (^. e. of Christian writers who were considered as ancient in 
 the year 300), adds, " There are besides, treatises of many 
 others, whose names we have not been able to learn, orthodox 
 and ecclesiastical men, as the interpretations of the Divine 
 Scriptures given by each of them show."* 
 
 VII. The last five testimonies may be referred to the year 
 200 ; immediately after which, a period of thirty years 
 gives us 
 
 Julius Africanus, who wrote an epistle upon the apparent 
 difference in the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, which he 
 endeavors to reconcile by the distinction of natural and legal 
 descent, and conducts his hypothesis with great industry 
 through the whole series of generations.! 
 
 Ammonius, a learned Alexandrian, who composed, as Ta- 
 tian had done, a harmony of the four Gospels ! which proves, 
 as Tatian's work did, that there were four Gospels, and no 
 more, at this time in use in the church. It affords, also, an 
 instance of the zeal of Christians for those writings, and of 
 their solicitude about them.J 
 
 And, above both these, Origen, who wrote commentaries, 
 or homilies, upon most of the books included in the New 
 Testament, and upon no other books but these. In particular, 
 he wrote upon Saint John's Gospel, very largely upon Saint 
 Matthew's, and commentaries, or homilies, upon the Acts of 
 the Apostles. § 
 
 VIII. In addition to these, the third century likewise con- 
 tains : 
 
 Dionysius of Alexandria, a very learned man, who com- 
 pared, with great accuracy, the accounts in the four Gospels 
 of the time of Christ's resurrection, adding a reflection which 
 showed his opinion of their authority : " Let us not think 
 that the evangelists disagree, or contradict each other, al- 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. ii. p. 551. f lb., vol. iii. p. 170. 
 
 X lb., vol. iii. p. 122. § lb., vol. iii. pp. 352, 192, 202, 246. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 173 
 
 though there be some small difference ; but let us honestly 
 and faithfully endeavor to reconcile what we read.""^ 
 
 Victorin, bishop of Pettaw, in Germany, who wrote com- 
 ments upon Saint Matthew's Gospel.f 
 
 Lucian, a presbyter of Antioch ; and Hesychius, an Egyp- 
 tian bishop, who put forth editions of the New Testament. 
 
 IX. The fourth century supplies a catalogue J of fourteen 
 writers, who expended their labors upon the books of the 
 New Testament, and whose works or names are come down 
 to our time ; amongst which number it may be sufficient, for 
 the purpose of showing the sentiments and studies of learned 
 Christians of that age, to notice the following : 
 
 Eusebius, in the very beginning of the century, wrote ex- 
 pressly upon the discrepancies observable in the Gospels, and 
 likewise a treatise, in which he pointed out what things are 
 related by four, what by three, what by two, and what by 
 one evangelist. § This author also testifies, what is certainly 
 a material piece of evidence, " that the writings of the apos- 
 tles had obtained such an esteem, as to be translated into 
 every language both of Greeks and Barbarians, and to be 
 diligently studied by all nations."! This testimony was 
 given about the year 300 ; how long hefore that date these 
 translations were made, does not appear. 
 
 Damacus, bishop of Rome, corresponded with Saint Je- 
 rome upon the exposition of difficult texts of Scripture ; and, 
 in a letter still remaining, desires Jerome to give him a clear 
 
 *Lardner, Cred., vol. iv. p. 166. f lb., p. 195. 
 
 X Eusebius, A. B 315 
 
 Juvencus, Spain 330 
 
 Theodore, Thrace 334 
 
 Hilary, Poictiers 354 
 
 Fortunatus 340 
 
 Apollinarius of Laodicea. . 362 
 
 Damascus, Rome 366 
 
 Gregory, Nyssen 371 
 
 § Lardner, Cred., vol. viii. p. 46. || lb., p. 201. 
 
 Didimus of Alex. 3*70 
 
 Ambrose of Milan 374 
 
 Diodore of Tarsus. 378 
 
 Gaudent. of Brescia 38'7 
 
 Theodore of Cilicia 894 
 
 Jerome 392 
 
 Chrysostom 398 
 
174 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 explanation of the word Hosanna, found in the New Testa- 
 ment ; " he (Daniacus) having met with very different inter- 
 pretations of it in the Greek and Latin commentaries of 
 Catholic writers which he had read.'** This last clause shows 
 the number and variety of commentaries then extant. 
 
 Gregory of Nyssen, at one time, appeals to the most exact 
 copies of Saint Mark's Gospel ; at another time, compares 
 together, and proposes to reconcile, the several accounts of 
 the Resurrection given hy the four Evangelists ; which limita- 
 tion proves, that there were no other histories of Christ 
 deemed authentic beside these, or included in the same char- 
 acter with these. This writer observes, acutely enough, that 
 the disposition of the clothes in the sepulchre, the napkin that 
 was about our Saviour's head, not lying with the linen clothe§^ 
 but wrapped together in a place by itself, did not bespeak 
 the terror and hurry of thieves, and therefore refutes the 
 story of the body being stolen. f 
 
 Ambrose, bishop of Milan, remarked various readings in 
 the Latin copies of the New Testament, and appeals to the 
 original Greek ; 
 
 And Jerome, towards the conclusion of this century, put 
 forth an edition of the New Testament in Latin, corrected, at 
 least as to the Gospels, by Greek copies, " and those (he says) 
 ancient." 
 
 Lastly, Chrysostom, it is well known, delivered and pub- 
 lished a great many homilies, or sermons, upon the Gospels 
 and the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 It is needless to bring down this article lower ; but it is of 
 importance to add, that there is no example of Christian 
 writers of the first three centuries composing comments upon 
 any other books than those which are found in the New Tes- 
 tament, except the single one of Clement of Alexandria, com- 
 menting upon a book called the Revelation of Peter. 
 
 Of the ancient versions of the New Testament, one of the 
 most valuable is the Syriac. Syriac was the language of 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. ix. p. 108. f lb., vol. ix. p. 163. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 175 
 
 Palestine when Christianity was there first established. And 
 although the books of Scripture were written in Greek, for 
 the purpose of a more extended circulation than within the 
 precincts of Judea, yet it is probable that they would soon 
 be translated into the vulgar language of the country where 
 the religion first prevailed. Accordingly, a Syriac transla- 
 tion is now extant, all along, so far as it appears, used by the 
 inhabitants of Syria, bearing many internal marks of high 
 antiquity, supported in its pretensions by the uniform tradi- 
 tion of the East, and confirmed by the discovery of many 
 very ancient manuscripts in the libraries of Europe. It is 
 about two hundred years since a bishop of Antioch sent a 
 copy of this translation into Europe, to be printed ; and this 
 seems to be the first time that the translation became gener- 
 ally known to these parts of the world. The bishop of An- 
 tioch's Testament was found to contain all our books, except 
 the second epistle of Peter, the second and third of John, and 
 the Eevelation ; which books, however, have since been dis- 
 covered in that language in some ancient manuscripts of Eu- 
 rope. But in this collection, no other book, beside what is 
 in ours, appears ever to have had a place. And, which is 
 very worthy of observation, the text, thought preserved in a 
 remote country, and without communication with ours, dif- 
 fers from ours very little, and in nothing that is important.* 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Our Scriptures were received by ancient Christians of different sects 
 and persuasions, by many Heretics as well as Catholics, and were 
 usually appealed to by both sides in the controversies which arose 
 in those days. 
 
 The three most ancient topics of controversy amongst 
 Christians, were, the authority of the Jewish constitution, the 
 * Jones on the Canon, vol. i. c. 14. 
 
176 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIAKITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 origin of evil, and the nature of Christ. Upon the first of 
 these we find, in very early times, one class of heretics 
 rejecting the Old Testament entirely ; another contending for 
 the obligation of its law, in all its parts, throughout its whole 
 extent, and over every one who sought acceptance with God. 
 Upon the two latter subjects, a natural, perhaps, and venial, 
 but a fruitless, eager, and impatient curiosity, prompted by 
 the philosophy and by the scholastic habits of the age, which 
 carried men much into bold hypotheses and conjectural solu- 
 tions, raised, amongst some who professed Christianity, very 
 wild and unfounded opinions. I think there is no reason to 
 believe that the number of these bore any considerable pro- 
 portion to the body of the Christian church ; and amidst the 
 disputes which such opinions necessarily occasioned, it is a 
 great satisfaction to perceive, what, in a vast plurality of in- 
 stances, we do perceive, all sides recurring to the same 
 Scriptures. 
 
 * I. Basilides lived near the age of the apostles, about the 
 year 120, or, perhaps, sooner. f He rejected the Jewish insti- 
 tution, not as spurious, but as proceeding from a being infe- 
 rior to the true God ; and in other respects advanced a 
 scheme of theology widely different from the general doc- 
 trine of the Christian church, and which, as it gained over 
 some disciples, was warmly opposed by Christian writers of 
 the second and third century. In these writings, there is posi- 
 tive evidence that Basilides received the Gospel of Matthew ; 
 and there is no sufficient proof that he rejected any of the 
 other three c on the contrary, it appears that he wrote a com- 
 mentary upon the Gospel, so copious as to be divided into 
 twenty -four books. J 
 
 * The materials of the former part of this section are taken from 
 Dr. Lardner's History of the Heretics of the two first Centuries, 
 published since his death, with additions, by the Rev. Mr. Hogg, of 
 Exeter, and inserted in the ninth volume of his works, of the edi- 
 tion of HIS. 
 
 \ Lardner, vol. ix. p. 271. I lb., vol. ix. ed. ITSS, pp. 306, 306. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 177 
 
 II. The Valentinians appeared about the same time.* Their 
 heresy consisted in certain notions concerning angelic natures, 
 which can hardly be rendered intelligible to a modern reader. 
 They seem, however, to have acquired as much importance 
 as any of the separatists of that early age. Of this sect, 
 Irenaeus, who wrote A. D. 172, expressly records that they 
 endeavored to fetch arguments for their opinions from the 
 evangelic and apostolic writings. f Heracleon, one of the 
 most celebrated of the sect, and who lived probably so early 
 as the year 125, wrote commentaries upon Luke and John. J 
 Some observations also of his upon Matthew are preserved 
 by Origen.§ Nor is there any reason to doubt that he re- 
 ceived the whole New Testament. 
 
 III. The Carpocratians were also an early heresy, little, if 
 at all, later than the two preceding. |1 Some of their opinions 
 resembled what we at this day mean by Socinianism. With 
 respect to the Scriptures, they are specifically charged, by 
 Irenaeus and by Epiphanius, with endeavoring to pervert a 
 passage in Matthew, which amounts to a positive proof that 
 they received that Gospel.^ Negatively, they are not accused, 
 by their adversaries, of rejecting any part of the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 IV. The Sethians, A. D.150 ;** the Montanists, A. D.156 ;tt 
 the Marcosians, A. D. 160 ',11 Hermogenes, A. D. 180 ;§§ 
 Praxias, A. D. 196 ;|1|1 Artemon, A. D. 200 ;tl Theodotus, 
 A. D. 200 ; all included under the denomination of heretics, 
 and all engaged in controversies with Catholic Christians, 
 received the Scriptures of the New Testament. 
 
 V. Tatian, who lived in the year 172, went into many ex- 
 travagant opinions, was the founder of a sect called Encratites, 
 and was deeply involved in disputes with the Christians of 
 
 * Lardner, vol. ix. ed. 1788, pp. 350, 361. f lb., vol. i. p. 383. 
 
 X lb., vol. ix. ed. 1788, p. 352. § lb., 353. 
 
 II lb., 309. T lb., 318. ** lb., 455. 
 
 . tt lb., 482. Xt lb., 348. §§ lb., 473. 
 
 II II lb., 433. Tl lb., 466. 
 
 8* 
 
178 EYIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 that age ; yet Tatian so received the four Gospels, as to com- 
 pose a harmony from them. 
 
 VI. From a wi^iter, quoted by Eusebius, of about the year 
 200, it is apparent that they who at that time contended for 
 the mere humanity of Christ, argued from the Scriptures ; 
 for they are accused by this writer, of making alterations in 
 their copies, in order to favor their opinions.* 
 
 VII. Origen's sentiments excited great controversies, — the 
 bishops of Rome and Alexandria, and many others, condemn- 
 ing, the bishops of the east espousing, them ; yet there is not 
 the smallest question, but that both the advocates and adversa- 
 ries of these opinions acknowledged the same authority of 
 Scripture. In his time, which the reader will remember was 
 about one hundred and fifty years after the Scriptures were 
 published, many dissensions subsisted amongst Christians, 
 with which they were reproached by Celsus ; yet Origen, 
 who has recorded this accusation without contradicting it, 
 nevertheless testifies, that the four Gospels were received 
 without dispute^ by the whole church of God under heaven, f 
 
 VIII. Paul of Samosata, about thirty years after Origen, 
 so distinguished himself in the controversy concerning the 
 nature of Christ, as to be the subject of two councils or syn- 
 ods, assembled at Antioch, upon his opinions. Yet he is 
 not charged by his adversaries with rejecting any book of the 
 New Testament. On the contrary, Epiphanius, who wrote a 
 history of heretics a hundred years afterwards, says, that 
 Paul endeavored to support his doctrine by texts of Scrip- 
 ture. And Vincentias Lirinensis, A. D. 434, speaking of 
 Paul and other heretics of the same age, has these words : 
 " Here, perhaps, some one may ask, whether heretics also 
 urge the testimony of Scripture. They urge it indeed, ex- 
 plicitly and vehemently ; for you may see them flying through 
 every book of the sacred law."J 
 
 A controversy at the same time existed with the Noetians 
 
 * Lardner, vol. iii. p. 46. f lb., vol. iv. p. 642. 
 
 X lb., vol. xi. p. 158. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 179 
 
 or Sabellians, who seem to have gone into the opposite ex- 
 treme from that of Paul of Samosata and his followers. 
 Yet, according to the express testimony of Epiphanius, Sabel- 
 lius received all the Scriptures. And with both sects Catho- 
 lic writers constantly allege the Scriptures, and reply to the 
 arguments which their opponents drew from particular texts. 
 We have here, therefore, a proof, that parties who were 
 the most opposite and irreconcilable to one another, acknowl- 
 edged the authority of Scripture with equal deference. 
 
 X. And as a general testimony to the same point, may be 
 produced what was said by one of the bishops of the council 
 of Carthage, which was holden a little before this time : — " I 
 am of opinion that blasphemous and wicked heretics, who 
 pervert the sacred and adorable words of the Scriptures, 
 should be execrated."* Undoubtedly what they perverted, 
 they received. 
 
 XI. The Millennium, Novatianism, the baptism of heretics, 
 the keeping of Easter, engaged also the attention and divided 
 the opinions of Christians, at and before that time (and, by 
 the way, it may be observed, that such disputes, though on 
 some accounts to be blamed, showed how much men were in 
 earnest upon the subject) ; yet every one appealed for the 
 grounds of his opinion to Scripture authority. Dionysius of 
 Alexandria, who flourished A. D. 247, describing a confer- 
 ence or public disputation, with the Millennarians of Egypt, 
 confesses of them, though their adversary, " that they em- 
 brace whatever could be made out by good arguments from 
 the Holy Scriptures."f Novatus, A. D. 251, distinguished 
 by some rigid sentiments concerning the reception of those 
 who had lapsed, and the founder of a numerous sect, in his 
 few remaining works quotes the Gospel with the same respect 
 as other Christians did ; and concerning his followers, the 
 testimony of Socrates, who wrote about the year 440, is pos- 
 itive, viz, " That in the disputes between the Catholics and 
 
 * Lardner, vol. xi. p. 839. •(■ lb., vol. iv. p. 666. 
 
180 .EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 them, each side endeavored to support itself by the authority 
 of the Divine Scriptures."* 
 
 XII. The Donatists, who sprung up in the year 328, used 
 the same Scriptures as we do. " Produce," saith Augustine, 
 " some proof from the Scriptures, whose authority is com- 
 mon to us both."f 
 
 XIII. It is perfectly notorious, that, in the Arian contro- 
 versy, which arose soon after the year 800, both sides appeal- 
 ed to the same Scriptures, and with equal professions of def- 
 erence and regard. The Arians, in their council of Antioch, 
 A. D. 341, pronounce, that, "if any one, contrary to the 
 sound doctrine of the Scriptures, say, that the Son is a crea- 
 ture, as one of the creatures, let him be an anathema."J 
 They and the Athanasians mutually accuse each other of 
 using unscriptural phrases ; which was a mutual acknowledg- 
 ment of the conclusive authority of Scripture. 
 
 XIV. The Priscillianists, A. D. 378,§ the Pelagians, A. D. 
 405,11 received the same Scriptures as we do. 
 
 XV. The testimony of Chrysostom, who lived near the 
 year 400, is so positive in affirmation of the proposition 
 which we maintain, that it may form a proper conclusion of 
 the argument. " The general reception of the Gospels is a 
 proof that their history is true and consistent ; for since the 
 writing of the Gospels, many heresies have arisen, holding 
 opinions contrary to what is contained in them, who yet re- 
 ceive the Gospels either entire or in part."^ I am not moved 
 by what may seem a deduction from Chrysostom's testimony, 
 the words " entire or in part ;" for, if all the parts, which 
 were ever questioned in our Gospels, were given up, it would 
 not affect the miraculous origin of the religion in the smallest 
 degree : e. g, 
 
 Cerinthus is said by Epiphanius to have received the Gos- 
 pel of Matthew, but not entire. What the omissions were, 
 
 * Lardner, vol. v. p. 105. f lb., vol. vii. p. 243. 
 
 • X lb., vol. yii. p. 2'7'7. § lb, vol. ix. p. 325. 
 
 I lb., vol. xi. p. 52. ^ lb., vol. x. p. 316. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 181 
 
 does not appear. The common opinion, that he rejected the 
 first two chapters, seems to have been a mistake.* It is 
 agreed, however, by all who have given any account of Ce- 
 rinthus, that he taught that the Holy Ghost (whether he 
 meant by that name a person or a power) descended upon 
 Jesus at his baptism ; that Jesus from this time performed 
 many miracles, and that he appeared after his death. He 
 must have retained therefore the essential parts of the history 
 Of all the ancient heretics, the most extraordinary was 
 Marcion.f One of his tenets was the rejection of the Old 
 Testament, as proceeding from an inferior and imperfect 
 deity ; and in pursuance of this hypothesis, he erased from 
 the New, and that, as it should seem, without entering into 
 any critical reasons, every passage which recognized the Jew- 
 ish Scriptures. He spared not a text which contradicted his 
 opinion. It is reasonable to believe that Marcion treated 
 books as he treated texts : yet this rash and wild controver- 
 sialist published a recension, or chastised edition, of Saint 
 Luke's Gospel, containing the leading facts, and all which is 
 necessary to authenticate the religion. This example affords 
 proof, that there were always some points, and those the 
 main points, which neither wildness nor rashness, neither the 
 fury of opposition, nor the intemperance of controversy, 
 would venture to call in question. There is no reason to be- 
 lieve that Marcion, though full of resentment against the 
 Catholic Christians, ever charged them with forging their 
 books. " The Gospel of Saint Matthew, the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, with those of Saint Peter and Saint James, as well 
 as the Old Testament in general," he said, " were writings not 
 for Christians but for Jews. "J This declaration shows the 
 ground upon which Marcion proceeded in his mutilation of the 
 
 * Lardner, vol. ix. ed. I'? 88, p. 322. 
 
 f lb., sect. ii. c. x. Also Michael., vol. i. c. i. sect, xviii. 
 
 :j: I have transcribed this sentence from Michaelis (p. 38), who has 
 not, however, referred to the authority upon which he attributes 
 these words to Marcion. 
 
182 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 Scriptures, viz. his dislike of the passages or the books. 
 Marcion flourished about the year 130. 
 
 Dr. Lardner, in his General Review, sums up this head of 
 evidence in the following words : " Noetus, Paul of Samosata, 
 Sabellius, Marcellus, Photinus, the Novatians, Donatists, 
 Manicheans,* Priscillianists, beside Artemon, the Audians, the 
 Arians, and divers others, all received most or all the same 
 books of the New Testament which the Catholics received ; 
 and agreed in a like respect for them as written by apostles, 
 or their disciples and companions."! { 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 The four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Saint 
 Paul, the First Epistle of John, and the First of Peter, were re- 
 ceived without doubt by those who doubted concerning the other 
 books which are included in our present Canon. 
 
 I STATE this proposition, because, if made out, it shows 
 that the authenticity of their books was a subject amongst 
 the early Christians of consideration and inquiry ; and that, 
 where there was cause of doubt, they did doubt ; a circum- 
 stance which strengthens very much their testimony to such 
 books as were received by them with full acquiescence. 
 
 I. Jerome, in his account of Caius, who was probably a 
 presbyter of Eome, and who flourished near the year 200, 
 records of him, that, reckoning up only thirteen epistles of 
 Paul, he says the fourteenth, which is inscribed to the He- 
 
 * This must be with an exception, however, of Faustus, who lived 
 so late as the year 384. 
 
 I Lardner, vol. xii. p. 12. — I>r. Lardner's future inquiries supplied 
 him with many other instances. 
 
 J For an account of Early Heretics and Heresies see Mosheim's 
 Ecclesiastical History. That work is more generally accessible than 
 Lardner's History of the Heretics, from which this section is mainly 
 compiled. — JSd. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 183 
 
 brews, is not his : and then Jerome adds, " With the Eomans 
 to this day it is not looked upon as Paul's." This agrees in 
 the main with the account given by Eusebius of the same 
 ancient author and his work ; except that Eusebius delivers 
 his own remark in more guarded terms ; " And indeed to 
 this very time by some of the Romans, this epistle is not 
 thought to be the apostle's."^ 
 
 II. Origen, about twenty years after Caius, quoting the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, observes that some might dispute 
 the authority of that epistle ; and therefore proceeds to quote 
 to the same point, as undoubted books of Scripture, the Gos- 
 pel of Saint Matthew, the Acts of the Apostles, and Paul's 
 First Epistle to the Thessalonians.f And in another place, 
 this author speaks to the Epistle to the Hebrews thus : — " The 
 account come down to us is various ; some saying that Clem- 
 ent, who was bishop of Rome, wrote this epistle ; others, 
 that it was Luke, the same who wrote the Gospel and the 
 Acts." Speaking also, in the same paragraph, of Peter, 
 " Peter," says he, " has left one epistle, acknowledged ; let 
 it be granted likewise that he wrote a second, for it is doubt- 
 ed of." And of John, " He has also left one epistle, of a 
 very few lines ; grant also a second and a third, for all do 
 not allow them to be genuine." Now let it be noted, that 
 Origen, who thus discriminates, and thus confesses his own 
 doubts, and the doubts which subsisted in his time, expressly 
 witnesses concerning the four Gospels, " that they alone are 
 received without dispute by the whole church of God under 
 heaven. "J 
 
 III. ^ Dionysius of Alexandria, in the year 247, doubts con- 
 cerning the Book of Revelation, whether it was written by 
 Saint John ; states the gi'ounds of his doubt, represents the 
 diversity of opinion concerning it, in his own time, and be- 
 fore his time.§ Yet the same Dionysius uses and collates 
 the four Gospels in a manner which shows that he entertained 
 
 * Lardner, vol. iii. p. 240. f lb., p. 246. 
 
 :|: lb., vol. iii. p. 234. § lb., vol. iv. p. 670. 
 
184 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 not the smallest suspicion of their authority, and in a manner 
 also which shows that they, and they alone, w^ere received as 
 authentic histories of Christ.'^ 
 
 IV. But this section may be said to have been framed on 
 purpose to introduce to the reader two remarkable passages 
 extant in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. The first pas- 
 sage opens with these words : — " Let us observe the writings 
 of the apostle John which are uncontradicted ; and first of all 
 must be mentioned, as acknowledged of all, the Gospel ac- 
 cording to him, well known to all the churches under heaven." 
 The author then proceeds to relate the occasions of writing 
 the Gospels, and the reasons for placing Saint John's the 
 last, manifestly speaking of all the four as parallel in their 
 authority, and in the certainty of their original. f The second 
 passage is taken from a chapter, the title of which is, " Of 
 the Scriptures universally acknowledged^ and of those that are 
 not such." Eusebius begins his enumeration 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 Epistles 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, if it be thought fit, the Revelation of John, 
 about which we shall observe the different opinions at proper 
 seasons. Of the controverted, but yet wxll known or ap- 
 proved 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 they are written by the evange- 
 list, or another of the same name. "J - He then proceeds to 
 reckon up five others, not in our canon, which he calls in one 
 place spurious^ in another controverted^ meaning, as appears 
 to me, nearly the same thing by these two words. § 
 
 * Lardner, vol. iv. p. 661. f lb., vol. viii. p. 90. 
 
 X lb., vol. viii. p. 39. 
 
 § That Eusebius could not intend, by the word rendered "spuri- 
 ous," what we at present mean by it, is evident from a clause in this 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 185 
 
 It is manifest from this passage, that the four Gospels, and 
 the Acts of the Apostles (the parts of Scripture with which 
 our concern principally lies), were acknowledged without dis- 
 pute, even by those who raised objections, or entertained 
 doubts, about some other parts of the same collection. But 
 the passage proves something more than this. The author 
 was extremely conversant in the writings of Christians, 
 which had been published from the commencement of the 
 institution to his own time ; and it was from these writings 
 that he drew his knowledge of the character and reception of 
 the books in question. That Eusebius recurred to this me- 
 dium of information, and that he had examined with atten- 
 tion this species of proof, is shown, first, by a passage in the 
 very chapter we are quoting, in which, speaking of the books 
 which he calls spurious, " None," he says, *' of the ecclesias- 
 tical writers, in the succession of the apostles, have vouch- 
 safed to make any mention of them in their writings ;-' and 
 secondly, by another passage of the same work, wherein, 
 speaking of the First Epistle of Peter, "This," he says, " the 
 presbyters of ancient times have quoted in their writings as 
 undoubtedly genuine ;"* and then, speaking of some other 
 writings bearing the name of Peter, " We know," he says, 
 " that they have not been delivered down to us in the number 
 of Catholic writings, forasmuch as no ecclesiastical writer of 
 the ancients, or of our times, has made use of testimony out 
 of them." " But in the progress of this history," the author 
 proceeds, " we shall make it our business to show, together 
 with the successions from the apostles, what ecclesiastical 
 writers, in every age, have used such writings as these which 
 are contradicted, and what they have said with regard to the 
 
 very chapter, where, speaking of the Gospels of Peter, and Thomas, 
 and Matthias, and some others, he says, " They are not so much as 
 to be reckoned among the spurious^ but are to be rejected as alto- 
 gether absurd and impious." Yol. viii. p. 98. 
 * Lardner, vol. viii. p. 99. 
 
186 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 Scriptures received in the New Testament, and acknowledged 
 hy all^ and with regard to those which are not such."* 
 
 After this it is reasonable to believe, that when Eusebius 
 states the four Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles, as un- 
 contradicted, uncontested, and acknowledged by all ; and 
 when he places them in opposition, not only to those which 
 were spurious, in our sense of that term, but to those which 
 were controverted, and even to those which were well known 
 and approved by many, yet doubted of by some ; he repre- 
 sents not only the sense of his own age, but the result of the 
 evidence which the writings of prior ages, from the apostles' 
 time to his own, had furnished to his inquiries. The opinion 
 of Eusebius and his contemporaries appears to have been 
 founded upon the testimony of writers whom they then called 
 ancient ; and we may observe, that such of the works of 
 these writers as have come down to our times, entirely con- 
 firm the judgment, and support the distinction which Euse- 
 bius proposes. The books which he calls " books universally 
 acknowledged," are in fact used and quoted in the remaining 
 works of Christian writers, during the two hundred and fifty 
 years between the apostles' time and that of Eusebius, much 
 more frequently than, and in a different manner from, those, 
 the authority of which, he tells us, was disputed. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 Our historical Scriptures were attacked by the early adversaries of 
 Christianity, as containing the accounts upon which the Religion 
 was founded. 
 
 I. Near the middle of the second century, Celsus, a hea- 
 then philosopher, wrote a professed treatise against Christian- 
 ity. To this treatise, Origen, who came about fifty years 
 after him, published an answer, in which he frequently recites 
 * Lardner, p. 111. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 187 
 
 his adversary's words and arguments. The work of Celsus 
 is lost ; but that of Origen remains. Origen appears to have 
 given us the words of Celsus, where he professes to give 
 them, very faithfully, and, amongst other reasons for thinking 
 so, this is one, that the objection, as stated by him from Cel- 
 sus, is sometimes stronger than his own answer. I think it 
 also probable, that Origen, in his answer, has retailed a large 
 portion of the works of Celsus : " That it may not be sus- 
 pected," he says, " that we pass by any chapters, because we 
 have no answers at hand, I have thought it best, according to 
 my ability, to confute everything proposed by him, not so 
 much observing the natural order of things, as the order 
 which he has taken himself."* 
 
 Celsus wrote about one hundred years after the Gospels 
 were published ; and therefore any notices of these books 
 from him are extremely important for their antiquity. They 
 are, however, rendered more so by the character of the au 
 thor ; for, the reception, credit, and notoriety of these books 
 must have been well established amongst Christians, to have 
 made them subjects of animadversion and opposition by 
 strangers and by enemies. It evinces the truth of what 
 Chrysostom, two centuries afterwards, observed, that "the 
 Gospels, when written, were not hidden in a corner or buried 
 in obscurity, but they were made known to all the world, be- 
 fore enemies as well as others, even as they are now."f 
 
 1. Celsus, or the Jew whom he personates, uses these 
 words : — " I could say many things concerning the affairs of 
 Jesus, and those, too, different from those written by the dis- 
 ciples of Jesus ; but I purposely omit them. "J Upon this 
 passage it has been rightly observed, that it is not easy to 
 believe, that if Celsus could have contradicted the disciples 
 upon good evidence in any material point, he would have 
 omitted to do so, and that the assertion is, what Origen calls 
 it, a mere oratorical flourish. 
 
 * Orig. cont. Cels., 1. i. sect. 41. f In Matt. Horn. i. Y. 
 
 \ Lardner, Jewish and Heathen Test., vol. ii., p. 274. 
 
188 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 It is sufficient, however, to prove, that, in the time of Cel- 
 sus, there were books well known, and allowed to be written 
 by the disciples of Jesus, which books contained a history of 
 him. By the term disciple^ Celsus does not mean the fol- 
 lowers of Jesus in general ; for them he calls Christians, or 
 believers, or the like ; but those who had been taught by 
 Jesus himself, i. e. his apostles and companions. 
 
 2. In another passage^ Celsus accuses the Christians of 
 altering the Gospel.* The accusation refers to some varia- 
 tions in the readings of particular passages : for, Celsus goes 
 on to object, than when they are pressed hard, and one read- 
 ing has been confuted, they disown that, and fly to another. 
 We cannot perceive from Origen, that Celsus specified any 
 particular instances, and without such specification the charge 
 is of no value. But the true conclusion to be drawn from it 
 is, that there were in the hands of the Christians, histories, 
 which were even then of some standing : for, various read- 
 ings and corruptions do not take place in recent productions. 
 
 The former quotation, the reader will remember, proves 
 that these books wxre composed by the disciples of Jesus, 
 strictly so called ; the present quotation shows, that, though 
 objections were taken by the adversaries of the religion to 
 the integrity of these books, none were made to their gen- 
 uineness. 
 
 3. In a third passage, the Jew, whom Celsus introduces, 
 shuts up an argument in this manner : — " These things then 
 we have alleged to you out of your own writings^ not need- 
 ing any other weapons, "f It is manifest that this boast pro- 
 ceeds upon the supposition that the books, over which the 
 writer affects to triumph, possessed an authority by which 
 Christians confessed themselves to be bound. 
 
 4. That the books to which Celsus refers were no other 
 than our present Gospels, is made out by his allusions to va- 
 rious passages still found in these Gospels. Celsus takes notice 
 of the genealogies^ which fixes two of these Gospels ; of the 
 
 * Lardner, vol. ii. 276. f lb., p. 2*76. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 189 
 
 precepts, Resist not him that injures you, and, If a man strike 
 thee on the one cheek, offer to him the other also :* of the 
 woes denounced by Christ ; of his predictions ; of his saying, 
 that it is impossible to serve two masters ;f of the purple 
 robe, the crown of thorns, and the reed in his hand ; of the 
 blood that flowed from the body of Jesus upon the cross, J 
 which circumstance is recorded by John alone ; and (what is 
 instar omnium for the purpose for which we produce it) of the 
 difference in the accounts given of the resurrection by the 
 evangelists, some mentioning two angels at the sepulchre, 
 others only one.§ 
 
 It is extremely material to remark, that Celsus not only 
 perpetually referred to the accounts of Christ contained in the 
 four Gospels, jl but that he referred to no other accounts ; that 
 he founded none of his objections to Christianity upon any- 
 thing delivered in spurious Gospels. 
 
 II. What Celsus was in the second century. Porphyry be- 
 came in the third. His work, which was a large and formal 
 treatise against the Christian religion, is not extant. We 
 must be content therefore to gather his objections from Chris- 
 tian writers, who have noticed in order to answer them ; and 
 enough remains of this species of information, to prove com- 
 pletely, that Porphyry's animadversions were directed against 
 the contents of our present Gospels, and of the Acts of the 
 Apostles ; Porphyry considering to overthrow them was to 
 overthrow the religion. Thus he objects to the repetition of 
 a generation in Saint Matthew's genealogy ; to Matthew's call ; 
 to the quotation of a text from Isaiah, which is found in a 
 psalm ascribed to Asaph ; to the calling of the lake of Tibe- 
 rias a sea ; to the expression in Saint Matthew, " the abomi- 
 nation of desolation ;" to the variation in Matthew and Mark 
 upon the text, " the voice of one crying in the wilderness," 
 
 * Lardner, vol. ii. p. 276. f lb. p. 211. 
 
 i lb., p. 280, 281. § lb., p. 283. 
 
 II The particulars of which the above are only a few, are well col- 
 lected by Mr. Bryant, p. 140. 
 
190 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 Matthew citing it from Isaias, Mark from the Prophets ; to 
 John^s application of the term " Word ;" to Christ's change 
 of intention about going up to the feast of tabernacles (John, 
 vii. 8.); to the judgment denounced by Saint Peter upon 
 Ananias and Sapphira, which he calls an imprecation of 
 death.* 
 
 The instances here alleged, serve, in some measure, to show 
 the nature of Porphyry's objections, and prove that Porphy- 
 ry had read the Gospels with that sort of attention which a 
 writer would employ who regarded them as the depositaries 
 of the religion which he attacked. Beside these specifications, 
 there exists, in the writings of ancient Christians, general evi- 
 dence, that the places of Scripture upon which Porphyry had 
 remarked were very numerous. 
 
 In some of the above-cited examples. Porphyry, speaking 
 of Saint Matthew, calls him your evangelist ; he also uses the 
 term evangelists in the plural number. What was said of 
 Celsus, is true likewise of Porphyry, that it does not appear 
 that he considered any history of Christ, except these, as hav- 
 ing authority with Christians. 
 
 III. A third great writer against the Christian religion was 
 ' the emperor Julian, whose work was composed about a cen- 
 tury after that of Porphyry. 
 
 In various long extracts, transcribed from this work by Cy- 
 ril and Jerome, it appears,f that Julian noticed Jy name Mat- 
 thew and Luke, in the difference between their genealogies of 
 Christ ; that he objected to Matthew's application of the proph- 
 ecy, " Out of Egypt have I called my son " (ii. 15), and 
 to that of " a virgin shall conceive " (i. 23) ; that he recited 
 sayings of Christ, and various passages of his history, in the 
 very words of the evangelists ; in particular, that Jesus healed 
 lame and blind people, and exorcised demoniacs, in the vil- 
 lages of Bethsaida and Bethany ; that he alleged, that none 
 of Christ's disciples ascribed to him the creation of the world, 
 
 * Jewish and Heathen Test. vol. iii. p. 166, et seq. 
 f lb., vol. iv. p. 77, et seq. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 191 
 
 except John ; that neither Paul, nor Matthew, nor Luke, nor 
 Mark, have dared to call Jesus, God ; that John wrote later 
 than the other evangelists, and at a time when a great number 
 of men in the cities of Greece and Italy were converted ; that 
 he alludes to the conversion of Cornelius and of Sergius Pau- 
 lus, to Peter's vision, to the circular letter sent by the apostles 
 and elders at Jerusalem, which are all recorded in the Acts 
 of the Apostles : by which quoting of the four Gospels and 
 the Acts of the Apostles, and by quoting no other, Julian 
 shows that these were the historical books, and the only his- 
 torical books, received by Christians as of authority, and as 
 the authentic memoirs of Jesus Christ, of his apostles, and of 
 the doctrines taught by them. But Julian's testimony does 
 something more than represent the judgment of the Christian 
 church in his time. It discovers also his own. He himself 
 expressly states the early date of these records ; he calls them 
 by the names which they now bear. He all along supposes, 
 he nowhere attempts to question, their genuineness. 
 
 The argument in favor of the books of the New Testa- 
 ment, drawn from the notice taken of their contents by the 
 early writers against the religion, is very considerable. It 
 proves that the accounts, which Christians had then, were the » 
 accounts which we have now ; that our present Scriptures 
 were theirs. It proves, moreover, that neither Celsus in the 
 second. Porphyry in the third, nor Julian in the fourth cen- 
 tury, suspected the authenticity of these books, or ever insin- 
 uated that Christians were mistaken in the authors to whom 
 they ascribed them. Not one of them expressed an opinion 
 upon this subject different from that which was hold en by 
 Christians. And when we consider how much it would have 
 availed them to have cast a doubt upon this point, if they 
 could ; and how ready they showed themselves to be, to take 
 every advantage in their power ; and that they were all men 
 of learning and inquiry ; their concession, or rather their su^ 
 frage, upon the subject, is extremely valuable. 
 
 In the case of Porphyry, it is made still stronger, by the 
 
1^ EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 consideration that he did in fact support himself by this spe- 
 cies of objection when he saw any room for it, or when his 
 acuteness could supply any pretence for alleging it. The 
 prophecy of Daniel he attacked upon this very ground of 
 spuriousness, insisting that it was written after the time of 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, and maintains his charge of forgery by 
 some, far-fetched indeed, but very subtle criticisms. Con- 
 cerning the writings of the New Testament, no trace of this 
 suspicion is anywhere to be found in him.* 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 Formal catalogues of authentic Scriptures were published, in all 
 which our present sacred histories were included. 
 
 This species of evidence comes later than the rest ; as it 
 was not natural that catalogues of any particular class of 
 books should be put forth until Christian writings became 
 numerous ; or until some writings showed themselves, claim- 
 ing titles which did not belong to them, and thereby render- 
 ' ing it necessary to separate books of authority from others. 
 But, when it does appear, it is extremely satisfactory ; the 
 catalogues, though numerous, and made in countries at a wide 
 distance from one another, differing very little, differing in 
 nothing which is material, and all containing the four Gospels. 
 To this last article there is no exception. 
 
 I. In the writings of Origen which remain, and in some ex- 
 tracts preserved by Eusebius, from works of his which are 
 now lost, there are enumerations of the books of Scripture, 
 in which the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are 
 distinctly and honorably specified, and in which no books ap- 
 pear beside what are now received. f The reader, by this 
 
 * Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, vol. i p. 43 : 
 Marsh's Translation. 
 
 f Lardner, Cred., vol. iii. p. 234, et. seq. ; vol. viii. p. 196. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 193 
 
 time, will easily recollect that the date of Origen's works is 
 A. D. 230. 
 
 II. x\thanasius, about a century afterwards, delivered a 
 catalogue of the books of the New Testament in form, con- 
 taining our Scriptures and no others ; of which he says, " In 
 these alone the doctrine of Religion is taught ; let no man 
 add to them, or take anything from them,"* 
 
 III. About twenty years after Athanasius, Cyril, bishop of 
 Jerusalem, set forth a catalogue of the books of Scripture 
 publicly read at that time in the church of Jerusalem, exactly 
 the same as ours, except that the " Revelation " is omitted."f 
 
 IV. And fifteen years after Cyril, the council of Laodicea 
 delivered an authoritative catalogue of canonical Scripture, 
 like Cyril's, the same as ours, with the omission of the " Rev- 
 elation." 
 
 V. Catalogues now became frequent. Within thirty years 
 after the last date, that is, from the year 363 to near the con- 
 clusion of the fourth century, we have catalogues by Epipha- 
 nius,J by Gregory Nazianzen,§ by Philaster bishop of Bres- 
 cia in Italy, II by Amphilochius bishop of Iconium, all, as they 
 are sometimes called, clean catalogues (that is, they admit no 
 books into the number beside what we now receive), and all, 
 for every purpose of historic evidence, the same as ours.^ 
 
 VI. "Within the same period, Jerome, the most learned 
 Christian writer of his age, delivered a catalogue of the books 
 of the New Testament, recognizing every book now received, 
 with the intimation of a doubt concerning the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews alone, and taking not the least notice of any book 
 which is not now received.** 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. viii. p. 223. f lb., p. 270. 
 
 \ lb., p. 368. § lb., vol. ix. p. 132. j lb., p. S'ZS. 
 
 ^ Epiphanius omits the Acts of the Apostles. This must have 
 been an accidental mistake either in him, or in some copyist of his 
 work; for he elsewhere expressly refers to this book, and ascribes it 
 to Luke. 
 
 ** Lardner, Cred., vol. x. p. 77. 
 
 9 
 
194 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 VII. Contemporary with Jerome, who lived in Palestine, 
 was Saint Augustine, in Africa, who published likewise a 
 catalogue, without joining to the Scriptures, as books of au- 
 thority, any other ecclesiastical writing whatever, and without 
 omiting one which we at this day acknowledge.* 
 
 VIII. And with these concurs another contemporary writer, 
 Rufen, presbyter of Aquileia, whose catalogue, like theirs, is 
 perfect and unmixed, and concludes with these remarkable 
 words : " These are the volumes which the fathers have in- 
 cluded in the canon, and out of which they would have us 
 prove the doctrine of our faith."f 
 
 SECTION XL 
 
 These propositions cannot be predicated of any of those books which 
 are commonly called Apocryphal Books of the New Testament. 
 
 I DO not know that the objection taken from apocryphal 
 writings is at present much relied upon by scholars. But 
 there are many, who, hearing that various Gospels existed in 
 ancient times under the names of the apostles, may have 
 taken up a notion, that the selection of our present Gospels 
 from the rest, was rather an arbitrary or accidental choice, 
 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. x. p. 213. 
 
 f lb., p. 187. An excellent abridgment of the argument on the Can- 
 on of Scripture will be found in Alexander's Evidences. He has also 
 published a separate work on the Canon ; and in either, the student 
 will find numerous references to the principal authors who have writ- 
 ten on the subject. With respect to references generally, we may here 
 observe, that one of the most valuable portions of Home's Introduc- 
 tion to the Critical Study of the Scripture, are the lists of authors 
 which he furnishes on the various topics which are embraced in a 
 thorough knowledge of the Bible. In this respect the book is very 
 precious. An edition in 2 vols, has been published this year by Car- 
 ter <fe Brothers. — Ed. 
 
Chap. IX.] ' EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 195 
 
 than founded in any clear and certain cause of preference. 
 To these it may be very useful to know the truth of the case. 
 I observe, therefore, 
 
 I. That, beside our Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, 
 no Christian history, claiming to be written by an apostle or 
 apostolical man, is quoted within three hundred years after 
 the birth of Christ, by any writer now extant, or known ; or, 
 if quoted, is not quoted with marks of censure and rejection. 
 
 I have not advanced this assertion w^ithout inquiry ; and I 
 doubt not, but that the passages cited by Mr. Jones and Dr. 
 Lardner, under the several titles which the apocryphal books 
 bear ; or a reference to the places where they are mentioned 
 as collected in a very accurate table, published in the year 
 1773, by the Rev. J. Atkinson, will .make out the truth of 
 the proposition to the satisfaction of every fair and compe- 
 tent judgment. If there be any book which may seem to 
 form an exception to the observation, it is a Hebrew Gospel, 
 which was circulated under the various titles of the Gospel 
 according to the Hebrews, the Gospel of the Nazarenes, of 
 the Ebionites, sometimes called of the Twelve, by some 
 ascribed to Saint Matthew. This Gospel is once, and only 
 once, cited by Clemens Alexandrinus, who lived, the reader 
 will remember, in the latter part of the second century, and 
 which same Clement quotes one or other of our four Gospels 
 va. almost every page of his work. It is also twice mentioned 
 by Origen, A. D. 230 ; and both times with marks of dimin- 
 ution and discredit. And this is the ground upon which the 
 exception stands. But what is still more material to observe 
 is, that this Gospel, in the main, agreed with our present 
 Gospel of Saint Matthew.* 
 
 Now if, with this account of the apocryphal Gospels, we 
 
 * In applying to this Gospel, what Jerome in the latter end of the 
 fourth century has mentioned of a Hebrew Gospel, I think it proba- 
 ble that we sometimes confound it with a Hebrew copy of Saint 
 Matthew's Gospel, whether an original or version, which was then 
 extant. 
 
196 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. L 
 
 compare what we have read concerning the canonical Scrip- 
 tures in the preceding sections ; or even recollect that general 
 but well-founded assertion of Dr. Lardner, "That in the 
 remaining works of Irenseus, Clement of Alexandria, and Ter- 
 tullian, who all lived in the first two centuries, there are more 
 and larger quotations of the small volume of the New Testa- 
 ment, than of all the works of Cicero, by writers of all char- 
 acters, for several ages ;"* and if to this we add, that, not- 
 w^ithstanding the loss of many works of the primitive times 
 of Christianity, we have, within the above-mentioned period, 
 the remains of Christian writers, who lived in Palestine, 
 Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, the part of Africa that used the 
 Latin tongue, in Crete, Greece, Italy, and Gaul, in all which 
 remains, references are found to our evangelists ; I apprehend, 
 that we shall perceive a clear and broad line of division, be 
 tween those writings, and all others pretending to similar 
 authority. 
 
 XL But beside certain histories which assumed the names 
 of apostles and which were forgeries properly so called, there 
 were some other Christian writings, in the whole or in part 
 of an historical nature, which, though not forgeries, are de- 
 nominated apocryphal, as being of uncertain, or of no au- 
 thority. 
 
 Of this second class of writings, I have found only two 
 which are noticed by any author of the first three centuries, 
 without express terms of condemnation ; and these are, the 
 one, a book entitled the Preaching of Peter, quoted repeatedly 
 by Clemens Alexandrinus, A. D. 196 ; the other, a book en- 
 titled the Revelation of Peter, upon which the above-men- 
 tioned Clemens Alexandrinus is said, by Eusebius, to have 
 written notes ; and which is twice cited in a work still extant, 
 ascribed to the same author. 
 
 I conceive, therefore, that the proposition we have before ad- 
 vanced, even after it hath been subjected to every exception, 
 of every kind that can be alleged, separates, by a wide inter- 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. xii. p. 63. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 197 
 
 val, our historical Scriptures from all other writings which 
 profess to give an account of the same subject. 
 We may be permitted however to add, 
 
 1. That there is no evidence that any spurious or apocry- 
 phal books whatever existed in the first century of the Chris- 
 tian era, in which century all our historical books are proved 
 to have been extant. " There are no quotations of any such 
 books in the apostolical fathers, by whom I mean Barnabas, 
 Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, whose 
 writings reach from about the year of our Lord 70, to the 
 year 108 (and some of whom have quoted each and every 
 one of our historical Scriptures) ; I say this," adds Dr. Lard- 
 ner, " because I think it has been proved."* 
 
 2. These apocryphal writings were not read in the churches 
 of Christians ; 
 
 3. Were not admitted into their volume ; 
 
 4. Do not appear in their catalogues ; 
 
 5. Were not noticed by their adversaries ; 
 
 6. Were not alleged by different parties, as of authority 
 in their controversies ; 
 
 7. Were not the subjects, amongst them, of commentaries, 
 versions, collections, expositions. 
 
 Finally ; beside the silence of three centuries, or evidence, 
 within that time, of their rejection, they were, with a consent 
 nearly universal, reprobated by Christian writers of succeeding 
 ages. 
 
 Although it be made out by these observations, that the 
 books in question never obtained any degree of credit and 
 notoriety which can place them in competition with our Scrip- 
 tures ; yet it appears, from the writings of the fourth century, 
 that many such existed in that century, and in the century 
 preceding it. It may be difficult at this distance of time to 
 account for their origin. Perhaps the most probable explica- 
 tion is, that they were in general composed with a design of 
 making a profit by the sale. Whatever treated of the sub- 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. xii. p. 168. 
 
198 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 ject, would find purchasers. In was an advantage taken of 
 the pious curiosity of unlearned Christians. With a view to 
 the same purpose, they were many of them adapted to the 
 particular opinions of particular sects, which would naturally 
 promote their circulation amongst the favorers of those opin- 
 ions. After all, they were probably much more obscure than 
 we imagine. Except the Gospel according to the Hebrews, 
 there is none of which we hear more than the Gospel of the 
 Egyptians ; yet there is good reason to believe that Clement, 
 a presbyter of Alexandria in Egypt, A. D. 184, and a man 
 of almost universal reading, had never seen it.* A Gospel 
 according to Peter, was another of the most ancient books of 
 this kind ; yet Serapion, bishop of Antioch, A. D. 200, had 
 not read it, when he heard of such a book being in the hands 
 of the Christians of Rhossus in Cilicia ; and speaks of ob- 
 taining a sight of this Gospel from some sectaries who used 
 it.f Even of the Gospel of the Hebrews, which confessedly 
 stands at the head of the catalogue, Jerome, at the end of the 
 fourth century, was glad to procure a copy by the favor of 
 the Nazarenes of Berea. Nothing of this sort ever happened, 
 or could have happened, concerning our Gospels. 
 
 One thing is observable of all the apocryphal Christian 
 writings, viz. that they proceed upon the same fundamental 
 history of Christ and his apostles, as that which is disclosed 
 in our Scriptures. The mission of Christ, his power of work- 
 ing miracles^ his communication of that power to the apos- 
 tles, his passion, death, and resurrection, are assumed or as- 
 serted by every one of them. The names under which some 
 of them came forth, are the names of men of eminence in our 
 histories. What these books give, are not contradictions, but 
 unauthorized additions. The principal facts are supposed, 
 the principal agents the same ; which shows, that these points 
 were too much fixed to be altered or disputed. 
 
 If there be any book of this description, which appears to 
 have imposed upon some considerable number of learned 
 * Jones, vol. i. p. 243. f Lardner, Cred., vol. ii. p. 551. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. 199 
 
 Christians, it is the Sybilline oracles ; but, when we reflect 
 upon the circumstances which facilitated that imposture, we 
 shall cease to wonder either at the attempt or its success. It 
 was at that time universally understood, that such a prophetic 
 writing existed. Its contents were kept secret. This situa- 
 tion afforded to some one a hint, as well as an opportunity, 
 to give out a writing under this name, favorable to the already 
 established persuasion of Christians, and which writing, by 
 the aid and recommendation of these circumstances, would in 
 some degree, it is probable, be received. Of the ancient 
 forgery we know but little ; what is now produced could not, 
 in my opinion, have imposed upon any one. It is nothing else 
 than the Gospel history, woven into verse ; perhaps was at 
 first rather a fiction than a forgery ; an exerqise of ingenuity, 
 more than an attempt to deceive. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 EEOAPITULATIOU. 
 
 4^ 
 
 The reader will now be pleased to recollect, that the two 
 points which form the subject of our present discussion, are, 
 first, that the Founder of Christianity, his associates, and imme- 
 diate followers, passed their lives in labors, dangers, and suf- 
 ferings ; secondly, that they did so, in attestation of the mi- 
 raculous history recorded in our Scriptures, and solely in con- 
 sequence of their belief of the truth of that history. 
 
 The argument, by which these two propositions have been 
 maintained by us, stands thus : 
 
 No historical fact, I apprehend, is more certain, than that 
 the original propagators of Christianity voluntarily subjected 
 themselves to lives of fatigue, danger, and suffering, in the 
 prosecution of their undertaking. The nature of the under- 
 taking ; the character of the persons employed in it ; the op- 
 position of their tenets to the fixed opinions and expectations 
 of the country in which they first advanced them ; their un- 
 dissembled condemnation of the religion of all other coun- 
 tries ; their total want of power, authority, or force ; render 
 it in the highest degree probable that this must have been the 
 case. The probability is increased, by what we know of the 
 fate of the Founder of the institution, who was put to death 
 for his attempt ; and by what we also know of the cruel 
 treatment of the converts to the institution, within thirty 
 years after its commencement : both which points are attested 
 by Heathen writers, and, being once admitted, leave it very 
 
Chap. X.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 201 
 
 incredible that the primitive emissaries of the religion, who 
 exercised their ministry, first, amongst the people who had 
 destroyed their Master, and, afterwards, amongst those who 
 persecuted their converts, should themselves escape with im- 
 punity, or pursue their purpose in ease and safety. This 
 probability, thus sustained by foreign testimony, is advanced, 
 I think, to historical certainty, by the evidence of our own 
 books ; by the accounts of a writer who was the companion 
 of the persons whose sufferings he relates ; by the letters of 
 the persons themselves ; by predictions of persecutions as- 
 cribed to the Founder of the religion, which predictions would 
 not have been inserted in his history, much less have been 
 studiously dwelt upon, if they had not accorded with the 
 event, and which, even if falsely ascribed to him, could only 
 have been so ascribed because the event suggested them ; 
 lastly, by incessant exhortations to fortitude and patience, and 
 by an earnestness, repetition, and urgency upon the subject, 
 which were unlikely to have appeared, if there had not been, 
 at the time, some extraordinary call for the exercise of these 
 virtues. 
 
 It is made out also, I think, with sufficient evidence, that 
 both the teachers and converts of the religion, in consequence 
 of their new profession, took up a new course of life and 
 behavior. 
 
 The next great question is, what they did this for. That 
 it was for a miraculous story of some kind or other, is to 
 my apprehension extremely manifest; because, as to the 
 fundamental article, the designation of the person, viz,^ that 
 this particular person, Jesus of Nazareth, ought to be received 
 as the Messiah, or as a messenger from God, they neither 
 had, nor could have, anything but miracles to stand upon. 
 That the exertions and sufferings of the apostles were for the 
 story which we have now, is proved by the consideration that 
 this story is transmitted to us by two of their own number, 
 and by two others personally connected with them ; that the 
 particularity of the narrative proves, that the writers claimed 
 
 9* 
 
202 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. (Prop. L 
 
 to possess circumstantial information, that from their situa- 
 tion they had full opportunity of acquiring such information, 
 that they certainly, at least, knew what their colleagues, their 
 companions, their masters, taught ; that each of these books 
 contains enough to prove the truth of the religion ; that, if 
 any one of them therefore be genuine, it is sufficient ; that 
 the genuineness, however, of all of them is made out, as well 
 by the general arguments which evince the genuineness of the 
 most undisputed remains of antiquity, as also by peculiar 
 and specific proofs, viz., by citations from them in writings 
 belonging to a period immediately contiguous to that in 
 which they were published ; by the distinguished regard paid 
 by early Christians to the authority of these books (which 
 regard was manifested by their collecting of them into a vol- 
 ume, appropriating to that volume titles of peculiar respect, 
 translating them into various languages, digesting them into 
 harmonies, writing commentaries upon them, and, still more 
 conspicuously, by the reading of them in their public assem- 
 blies in all parts of the world) ; by an universal agreement 
 with respect to these books, whilst doubts were entertained 
 concerning some others; by contending sects appealing to 
 them ; by the early adversaries of the religion not disputing 
 their genuineness, but, on the contrary, treating them as the 
 depositaries of the history upon which the religion was found- 
 ed ; by many formal catalogues of these, as of certain and 
 authoritative writings, published in different and distant parts 
 of the Christian world ; lastly, by the absence or defect of 
 the above-cited topics of evidence, when applied to any other 
 histories of the same subject. 
 
 These are strong arguments to prove, that the books act- 
 ually proceeded from the authors whose names they bear 
 (and have always borne, for there is not a particle of evi- 
 dence to show that they ever went under any other) ; but the 
 strict genuineness of the books is perhaps more than is neces- 
 sary to the support of our proposition. For even supposing 
 that, by reason of the silence of antiquity, or the loss of rec- 
 
Chap. X.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 203 
 
 ords, we knew not who were the writers of the four Gospels, 
 yet the fact that they were received as authentic accounts of 
 the transaction upon which the religion rested, and were re- 
 ceived as such by Christians, at or near the age of the apos- 
 tles, by those whom the apostles had taught, and by societies 
 which the apostles had founded ; this fact, I say, connected 
 with the consideration, that they are corroborative of each 
 other's testimony, and that they are further corroborated by 
 another contemporary history, taking up the story where they 
 had left it, and, in a narrative built upon that story, account- 
 ing for the rise and production of changes in the world, the 
 effects of which subsist at this day ; connected, moreover, 
 with the confirmation which they receive, from letters written 
 by the apostles themselves, which both assume the same gen- 
 eral story, and, as often as occasions lead them to do so, 
 allude to particular parts of it ; and connected also with the 
 reflection, that if the apostles delivered any different story, 
 it is lost (the present and no other being referred to by a 
 series of Christian writers, down from their age to our own ; 
 being likewise recognized in a variety of institutions, which 
 prevailed early and universally, amongst the disciples of the 
 religion) ; and that so great a change as the oblivion of one 
 story and the substitution of another, under such circum- 
 stances, could not have taken place : this evidence would be 
 deemed, I apprehend, sufficient to prove concerning these 
 books, that, whoever were the authors of them, they exhibit 
 the story which the apostles told, and for which, consequently, 
 they acted, and they suffered. 
 
 If it be so, the religion must be true. These men could 
 not be deceivers. By only not bearing testimony, they 
 might have avoided all these suflTerings, and have lived quiet- 
 ly. Would men in sucli circumstances pretend to have seen 
 whftt they never saw ; assert facts which they had no knowl- 
 edge of ; go about lying, to teach virtue ; and, though not 
 pnly convinced of Christ's being an impostor, but having seen 
 the success of bis imposture in his crucifixion, yet persist in 
 
204 EVIDEIS^CES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 carrying it on ; and so persist, as to bring upon themselves, 
 for nothing, and with a full knowledge of the consequence, 
 enmity and hatred, danger and death ?* 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Proof that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are independent 
 narratives, and not borrowed one from another ; referred to in Note p. 
 113. The magnificent copy of the Greek Testament (Alford's Lon- 
 don and Cambridge) which contains this prolegomenon, did not come 
 into our possession till the printing of this edition of Paley was too 
 far advanced for its insertion in its proper place. — Ed. 
 
 1. "Different hypotheses of the mutual interdependence of the 
 ' three have been made, embracing every possible permutation of 
 
 their order. 1. That Matt, wrote first — that Mark used his Gospel — 
 and then Luke both these. 2. Matt., Luke, Mark. 3. Mark, Matt., 
 Luke. 4. Mark, Luke, Matt. 5. Luke, Matt., Mark. 6 Luke, Mark, 
 Matt. To support these hypotheses, the same phenomena have been 
 curiously and variously interpreted. What, in one writer's view, 
 has been a deficiency in one Evangelist which another has supplied, — 
 has been, in that of a second writer, a condensation on the part of 
 the one Evangelist of the full account of the other; — while a third 
 writer again has seen in the fuller account the more minute depict- 
 ing of later tradition. 
 
 2. "Let us, however, observe the evidence furnished by the Gospels 
 themselves. Each of the sacred Historians is, we may presume, anx- 
 ious to give his readers an accurate and consistent account of the 
 
 * Let any one peruse and reperuse the foregoing argument, and 
 then say if he desires, or can desire a stronger case of historical tes- 
 timony. Christ was born under Augustus and suffered under Tibe- 
 rius, and from that time forth his religion began to spread throughout 
 the Roman Empire. Is there any portion of the history of that em- 
 pire supported by stronger or more multifarious and continuous evi- 
 dence than that which relates to Christianity ? Is there any sup- 
 ported by evidence so good? Suppose a chain of proof as unexcep- 
 tionable were produced in any case but that of the Christian Relig- 
 ion, what sane man would not feel himself bound by it ? All history 
 is fable if Christianity be not true. — Ed. 
 
Chap. X.] ' EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 205 
 
 great events of Redemption. On either of the above hypotheses, 
 two of them respectively sit down to their work with one or two of 
 our present narratives before them. We are reduced then to adopt one 
 or other of the following suppositions ; either (a), thei^ found those 
 other Gospels insufficient^ and were anxious to supply what was wanting ; 
 or (b), they believed them to be erroneous, and proposed to correct what 
 was incorrect ; or (c), they wished to adapt their contejits to a different 
 class of readers, incorporating at the same time whatever additional 
 matter they possessed ; or (d), receiving them as authentic, they bor- 
 rowed from them such parts as they purposed to relate in common with 
 them. 
 
 3. " There is but one other supposition, which is plainly out of 
 the range of probability, and which I should not have stated, were 
 it not the only one, on the hypothesis of mutual dependency, which will 
 give any account of, or be consistent with, the various minute dis- 
 crepancies of arrangement and narration which we find in the Gos- 
 pels. It is (e) that (see last paragraph) they fraudulently plagiarized 
 from them, slightly disguising the coiumon matter so as to make it ap- 
 pear their own. One man, wishing to publish the matter of another's 
 work as his own, may be conceived as altering its arrangement and 
 minutisB, to destroy its distinctive character. But how utterly in- 
 applicable is any such view to either of our three Evangelists ! And 
 even supposing it for a moment entertained, — how imperfectly and 
 anomalously are the changes made, and how little would they be likely 
 to answer their purpose ! 
 
 4. "Let us consider the others in order. If (a) was the case, / 
 maintain that no possible arrangement of our Gospels will suit its re- 
 quirements. Let the reader refer to the six hypotheses in paragraph 
 1st, and follow me through them. (1), (2), (5), (6), are clearly out of 
 the question, because the shorter Gospel of Mark follows upon the 
 fuller ones of Matthew, or Luke, or both. We have, then, only to 
 examine those in which Mark stands first. Either, then, Luke sup- 
 plied Matthew, or Matthew, Luke. But first, both of these are incon- 
 ceivable as being expansions of Mark; for his Gospel, although 
 shorter, and narrating fewer events and discourses, is, in those which 
 he does narrate, the fullest and most particular of the three. And 
 again, Luke could not have supplied Matthew ; for there are most 
 important portions of Matthew which he has altogether omitted 
 (e. g. chap. xxv. much of ch. xiii. ch. xv) ; — nor could Matthew have 
 supplied Luke for the same reason, having omitted about all of the 
 important section, Luke ix. 51 — xviii. 15, besides very much matter 
 in other parts. I may also mention that this supposition leaves all 
 
206 EVIDE^t^CES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. I. 
 
 the difficulties of different arrangement and minute discrepancy unac- 
 counted for. 
 
 5. " "We pass to (b), on which much need not be said. If it were 
 80, nothing could have been done less calculated to answer the end than 
 that which our Evangelists have done. For in no material point do 
 their accounts differ, but only in arrangement and completeness ; — 
 and this latter difference is such, that no one of them can be cited as 
 taking any pains to make it appear that his own arrangement is 
 chronologically accurate. No fixed dates are found in those parts 
 where the differences exist; no word to indicate that any other 
 arrangement had ever been published. Does this look like the work 
 of a corrector ? Even supposing him to have suppressed the charge 
 of inaccuracy on others, — would he not have been precise and defi- 
 nite in the parts where his own corrections appeared, if it were 
 merely to justify them to his readers ? 
 
 6. " Neither does the supposition represented by (c) in any way 
 account for the phenomena of our present Gospels. For, — even tak- 
 ing for granted the usual assumption, that Matthew wrote for He- 
 brew Christians, Mark for Latins, and Luke for Gentiles in general, 
 — we do not find any such consistency in these purposes, as a revis- 
 ion and alteration of another's narrative would necessarily presup- 
 pose. We have the visit of the Gentile Magi exclusively related by 
 the Hebraizing Matthew ; — the circumcision of the child Jesus, and 
 his frequenting the passovers at Jerusalem, exclusively by the Gen- 
 tile Evangelist Luke. Had the above purposes been steadily kept in 
 view in the revision of the narratives before them, the respective 
 Evangelists would not have omitted incidents so entirely subservient 
 to their respective designs. 
 
 7. " Our supposition (d) is, that, receiving the Gospel or Gospels be- 
 fore them as authentic, the Evangelists borrowed from them such 
 parts as they purposed to narrate in common with them. But this 
 does not represent the tnatter of fact. In no one case does any Evan- 
 gelist borrow from another any considerable part of even a single 
 narrative. For such borrowing would imply verbal coincidence, 
 unless in the case of strong Hebraistic idiom, or other assignable 
 peculiarity. It is inconceivable that one writer, borrowing from 
 another, matter confessedly of the very first importance, in good faith 
 and with approval, should alter his diction so singularly and capric- 
 iously as, on this hypothesis, we find the text of the parallel sections 
 of our Gospels altered. Let the question be answered by ordinary 
 considerations of probability, and let any passage common to the 
 three Evangelists be put to the test. The phenomena presented will 
 
Chap. X.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 207 
 
 be much as follows: — first, perhaps, we shall have three, five, or 
 more words identical ; then as many wholly distinct ; then two clauses 
 or more, expressed in the sayne words but differing order: — then a 
 clause contained in 07ie or two, and not in the third: — then several 
 words identical : — then a clause not only wholly distinct, but appar- 
 ently inconsistent ; — and so forth ; — with recurrences of the same 
 arbitrary and anomalous alterations, coincidences and transpositions. 
 Kor does this description apply to verbal and sentential arrangement 
 only ; but also, with slight modification, to that of the larger por- 
 tions of the narratives. Equally capricious would be the disposition 
 of the subject-matter. Sometimes, while coincident in the things 
 related, the Gospels place them in the most various order, — each in 
 turn connecting them together with apparent marks of chronological 
 sequence. Let any one say, divesting himself of the commonly re- 
 ceived hypotheses respecting the connection and order of our Gospels, 
 whether it is within the range of probability that a writer should 
 thus singularly and unreasonably alter the subject-matter and dic- 
 tion before him, having (as is now supposed) no design in so doing, 
 but intending, fairly and with approval, to incorporate the work of 
 another into his own ? Can an instance be anywhere cited of un- 
 doubted borrowing and adaptation from another, presenting similar 
 phenomena ? 
 
 8. " I cannot, then, find in any of the above hypotheses a solution 
 of the question before us, how the appearances presented by our three 
 Gospels are to he accounted for J*^ And the learned writer sums up the 
 whole matter thus : — That these three Gospels contain the substance 
 of the Apostles' testimony, collected principally from their oral teaching 
 current in the church — partly also from written documents embodying 
 portions of that teaching ; that there is, however, no reason from 
 their internal structure to believe, but every reason to disbelieve, 
 that any one of the three Evangelists had access to either of the 
 other two Gospels in its present form. 
 
 The Gospel according to John is universally allowed to be a dis- 
 tinct and independent composition. The whole of this fine discuss- 
 ion will bear powerfully on the subject of those discrepancies in the 
 Evangelical history, which have caused so much trouble to comment- 
 ators, aff'orded so much triumph to sceptics and theorists, and yet 
 furnish such striking proof of the secure honesty of the Evangel- 
 ists, who narrate the truth, and leave it to its own vindication. — Ed, 
 
PROPOSITION II. 
 
 our first proposition was, '' that there is satisfac- 
 tory evidence that many, pretending to be 
 original witnesses of thk christian miracles, 
 passed their lives in labors, dangers, and suf- 
 ferings, voluntarily undertaken and under- 
 gone in attestation of the accounts which they 
 delivere:d, and solely in consequence of their 
 
 BELIEF OF the TRUTH OF THOSE ACCOUNTS; AND 
 THAT THEY ALSO SUBMITTED, FROM THE SAME 
 MOTIVES, TO NEW RULES OF CONDUCT.'^ 
 
 OUR SECOND PROPOSITION, AND WHICH NOW REMAINS 
 TO BE TREATED OF, IS, ''THAT THERE IS NOT SATIS- 
 FACTORY EVIDENCE, THAT PERSONS PRETENDING TO 
 BE ORIGINAL WITNESSES OF ANY OTHER SIMILAR 
 MIRACLES, HAVE ACTED IN THE SAME MANNER, IN 
 ATTESTATION OF THE ACCOUNTS WHICH THEY DE- 
 LIVERED, AND SOLELY IN CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR 
 
CHAPTEE I. 
 
 I ENTER upon this part of my argument, by declaring how 
 far my belief in miraculous accounts goes. If the reformers 
 in the time of WicklifFe, or of Luther ; or those of England, 
 in the time of Henry the Eighth, or of Queen Mary ; or the 
 founders of our religious sects since, such as were Mr. Whit- 
 field and Mr. Wesley in our own times ; had undergone the 
 life of toil and exertion, of danger and sufferings, which we 
 know that many of them did undergo, for a miraculous story ; 
 that is to say, if they had founded their public ministry upon 
 the allegation of miracles wrought within their own knowledge, 
 and upon narratives which could not be resolved into delusion 
 or mistake ; and if it had appeared, that their conduct really 
 had its origin in these accounts, I should have believed them. 
 Or, to borrow an instance which will be familiar to every one 
 of my readers, if the late Mr. Howard had undertaken his 
 labors and journeys in attestation, and in consequence, of a 
 clear and sensible miracle, I should have believed him also. 
 Or, to represent the same thing under a third supposition ; if 
 Socrates had professed to perform public miracles at Athens ; 
 if the friends of Socrates, Phsedo, Cebes, Crito, and Simmias, 
 together with Plato, and many of his followers, relying upon 
 the attestations which these miracles afforded to his pretensions, 
 had, at the hazard of their lives, and the certain expense of 
 their ease and tranquillity, gone about Greece, after his death, 
 to publish and propagate his doctrines ; and if these things 
 had come to our knowledge, in the same way as that in which 
 the life of Socrates is now transmitted to us, through the hands 
 
210 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. II. 
 
 of his companions and disciples, that is, by writings received 
 without doubt as theirs, from the age in which they were pub- 
 lished to the present, I should have believed this likewise. And 
 my belief would, in each case, be much strengthened, if the 
 subject of the mission were of importance to the conduct and 
 happiness of human life ; if it testified anything which it be- 
 hooved mankind to know from such authority ; if the nature 
 of what it delivered, required the sort of proof which it al- 
 leged ; if the occasion was adequate to the interposition, the 
 end worthy of the means. In the last case, my faith would 
 be much confirmed, if the effects of the transaction remained ; 
 more especially, if a change had been wrought, at the time, 
 in the opinion and conduct of such numbers, as to lay the 
 foundation of an institution, and of a system of doctrines, 
 which had since overspread the greatest part of the civilized 
 world. I should have believed, I say, the testimony, in these 
 cases ; yet none of them do more than come up to the apos- 
 tolic history. 
 
 If any one choose to call assent to its evidence credulity, it 
 is at least incumbent upon him to produce examples in which 
 the same evidence hath turned out to be fallacious. And this 
 contains the precise question which we are now to agitate. 
 
 In stating the comparison between our evidence, and what 
 our adversaries may bring into competition with ours, we will 
 divide the distinctions which we wish to propose into two 
 kinds, — those which relate to the proof; and those which re- 
 late to the miracles. Under the former head we may lay out 
 of the case, 
 
 I. Such accounts of supernatural events as are found only 
 in histories by some ages posterior to the transaction, and of 
 which it is evident that the historian could know little more 
 than his reader. Ours is contemporary history. This differ- 
 ence alone removes out of our way, the miraculous history of 
 Pythagoras, who lived five hundred years before the Christian 
 era, written by Porphyry and Jamblicus, who lived three 
 hundred years after that era ; the prodigies of Livy's history ; 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 211 
 
 the fables of the heroic ages ; the whole of the Greek and 
 Eoman, as well as of the Gothic mythology ; a great part of 
 the legendary history of Popish saints, the very best attested 
 of which is extracted from the certificates that are exhibited 
 during the process of their canonization, a ceremony which 
 seldom takes place till a century after their deaths. It ap- 
 plies also with considerable force to the miracles of Apollo- 
 nius Tyaneus, which are contained in a solitary history of his 
 life, published by Philostratus, above a hundred years after 
 his death ; and in which, whether Philostratus had any prior 
 account to guide him, depends upon his single unsupported as- 
 sertion. Also to some of the miracles of the third century, 
 especially to one extraordinary instance, the account of Greg- 
 ory, bishop of Neocesarea, called Thaumaturgus, delivered in 
 the writings of Gregory of Nyssen, who lived one hundred 
 and thirty years after the subject of his panegyric. 
 
 The value of this circumstance is shown to have been ac- 
 curately exemplified in the history of Ignatius Loyola, the 
 founder of the order of Jesuits.* His life, written by a com- 
 panion of his, and by one of the order, was published about 
 fifteen years after his death. In which life, the author, so fir 
 from ascribing any miracles to Ignatius, industriously states 
 the reasons why he was not invested with any such power. 
 The life was republished fifteen years afterwards, with the ad- 
 dition of many circumstances, which were the fruit, the au- 
 thor says, of further inquiry, and of diligent examination ; 
 but still with a total silence about miracles. When Ignatius 
 had been dead nearly sixty years, the Jesuits, conceiving a 
 wish to have the founder of their order placed in the Roman 
 calendar, began, as it should seem, for the first time, to at- 
 tribute to him a catalogue of miracles, which could not then 
 be distinctly disproved ; and which there was, in those who 
 governed the church, a strong disposition to admit upon the 
 slenderest proofs. 
 
 II. We may lay out of the case accounts- published in one 
 * Douglas' Criterion of Miracles, p. 74. 
 
212 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. II. 
 
 country, of what passed in a distant country, without any 
 proof that such accounts were known or received at home. 
 In the case of Christianity, Judea, which was the scene of the 
 transaction, was the centre of the mission. The story was 
 published in the place in which it was acted. The church of 
 Christ was first planted at Jerusalem itself. With that church 
 others corresponded. From thence the primitive teachers of 
 the institution went forth ; thither they assembled. The 
 church of Jerusalem, and the several churches of Judea, sub- 
 sisted from the beginning, and for many ages ;* received also 
 the same books and the same accounts, as other churches did. 
 
 This distinction disposes, amongst others, of the above- 
 mentioned miracles of Apollonius Tyaneus, most of which 
 are related to have been performed in India ; no evidence re- 
 maining that either the miracles ascribed to him, or the history 
 of those miracles, was ever heard of in India. Those of 
 Francis Xavier, the Indian missionary, with many others of 
 the Romish breviary, are liable to the same objection, viz., 
 that the accounts of them were published at a vast distance 
 from the supposed scene of the wonders, f 
 
 III. We lay out of the case transient rumors. Upon the 
 first publication of an extraordinary account, or even of an 
 article of ordinary intelligence, no one, who is not personally 
 acquainted with the transaction, can know whether it be true 
 or false, because any man may publish any story. It is in 
 the future confirmation, or contradiction, of the account ; in 
 its permanency, or its disappearance ; its dying away into si- 
 lence, or its increasing in notoriety ; its being followed up by 
 subsequent accounts, and being repeated in different and inde- 
 pendent accounts ; that solid truth is distinguished from fugi- 
 tive lies. This distinction is altogether on the side of Chris- 
 tianity. The story did not drop. On the contrary, it was 
 
 * The succession of many eminent bishops of Jerusalem in the 
 first three centuries, is distinctly preserved; as Alexander, A. D. 212, 
 who succeeded IS^arcissus, then 116 years old* 
 Douglas' Grit , p. 84. 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 213 
 
 succeeded by a train of action and events dependent upon it. 
 The accounts, which we have in our hands, were composed 
 after the first reports must have subsided. They were fol- 
 lowed by a train of writings upon the subject. The historical 
 testimonies of the transaction were many and various, and 
 connected with letters, discourses, controversies, apologies, 
 successively produced by the same transaction. 
 
 IV. We may lay out of the case what I call naked history. 
 It lias been said, that if the prodigies of the Jewish history 
 had been found only in fragments of Manetho, or Berosus, 
 we should have paid no regard to them ; and I am willing to 
 admit this. If we knew nothing of the fact, but from the 
 fragment ; if we possessed no proof that these accounts had 
 been credited and acted upon, from times, probably, as ancient 
 as the accounts themselves ; if we had no visible effects con- 
 nected with the history, no subsequent or collateral testimony 
 to confirm it ; under these circumstances, I think that it would 
 be undeserving of credit. But this certainly is not our case. 
 In appreciating the evidence of Christianity, the books are to 
 be combined with the institution ; with the prevalency of the 
 religion at this day ; with the time and place of its origin, 
 which are acknowledged points ; with the circumstances of its 
 rise and progress, as collected from external history ; with 
 the fact of our present books being received by the votaries 
 of the institution from the beginning ; with that of other books 
 coming after these, filled with accounts of effects and conse- 
 quences resulting from the transaction, or referring to the 
 transaction, or built upon it ; lastly, with the consideration of 
 the number and variety of the books themselves, the different 
 writers from which they proceed, the different views with 
 which they were written, so disagreeing as to repel the sus- 
 picion of confederacy, so agreeing as to show that they were 
 founded in a common original, ^. e. in a story substantially 
 the same. Whether this proof be satisfactory or not, it is 
 properly a cumulation of evidence, by no means a naked or 
 solitary record. 
 
214 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. II. 
 
 V. A mark of historical truth, although only in a certain way, 
 and to a certain degree, is particularity^ in names, dates, places, 
 circumstances, and in the order of events preceding or follow- 
 ing the transaction : of which kind, for instance, is the partic- 
 ularity in the description of Saint Paul's voyage and ship- 
 wreck, in the 27th chapter of the Acts, which no man, I think, 
 can read without being convinced that the writer was there ; 
 and also in the account of the cure and examination of the 
 blind man, in the 9th chapter of Saint John's Gospel, which 
 bears every mark of personal knowledge on the part of the 
 historian.* I do not deny that fiction has often the particular- 
 ity of truth ; but then it is of studied and elaborate fiction, 
 or of a formal attempt to deceive, that we observe this. 
 Since, however, experience proves that particularity is not 
 confined to truth, I have stated that it is a proof of truth only 
 to a certain extent; ^. e, it reduces the question to this, wheth- 
 er we can depend or not upon the probity of the relator ?f 
 which is a considerable advance in our present argument ; for 
 an express attempt to deceive, in which case alone particular- 
 ity can appear without truth, is charged upon the evangelists 
 by few. If the historian acknowledge himself to have re- 
 ceived his intelligence from others, the particularity of the 
 narrative shows, prima facie^ the accuracy of his inquiries, 
 and the fulness of his information. This remark belongs to 
 Saint Luke's history. Of the particularity which we allege, 
 many examples may be found in all the Gospels. And it is 
 very difficult to conceive, that such numerous particularities, 
 as are almost everywhere to be met within the Scriptures, should 
 bo raised out of nothing, or be spun out of the imagination 
 without any fact to go upon.;]; 
 
 * Both these chapters ought to be read for the sake of this very 
 observation. 
 
 f See note A, at the end of this Chapter. 
 
 \ " There is always some truth where there are considerable par- 
 ticularities related ; and they always seem to bear some proportion 
 to one another. Thus there is a great want of the particulars, of time, 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 215 
 
 It is to be remarked, however, that this particularity is only 
 to be looked for in direct history. It is not natural in refer- 
 ences or allusions, which yet, in other respects, often afford, as 
 far as they go, the most unsuspicious evidence. 
 
 VI. We lay out of the case such stories of supernatural 
 events, as require, on the part of the hearer, nothing more 
 than an otiose assent ; stories upon which nothing depends, in 
 which no interest is involved, nothing is to be done or chang- 
 ed in consequence of believing them. Such stories are cred- 
 ited, if the careless assent that is given to them deserve that 
 name, more by the indolence of the hearer, than by his judg- 
 ment ; or, though not much credited, are passed from one to 
 another without inquiry or resistance. To this case, and to 
 this case alone, belongs what is called the love of the marvel- 
 lous. I have never known it carry men further. Men do 
 not suffer persecution from the love of the marvellous. Of 
 the indifferent nature we are speaking of, are most vulgar er- 
 rors and popular superstitions ; most, for instance, of the cur- 
 rent reports of apparitions. Nothing depends upon their 
 being true or false. But not, surely, of this kind were the 
 alleged miracles of Christ and his apostles. They decided, if 
 true, the most important question upon which the human mind 
 can fix its anxiety. They claimed to regulate the opinions of 
 mankind, upon subjects in which they are not only deeply 
 concerned, but usually refractory and obstinate. Men could 
 iM)t be utterly careless in such a case as this. If a Jew took 
 up the story, he found his darling partiality to his own na- 
 tion and law wounded ; if a Gentile, he found his idol- 
 place, and persons, in Manetho's account of the Egyptian Dynasties, 
 Ctesias' of the Assyrian Kings, and those which the technical chro- 
 nologers have given of the ancient kingdoms of Greece ; and, agree- 
 ably thereto, the accounts have much fiction and falsehood, with some 
 truth ; whereas Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, and 
 Caesar's of the "War in Gaul, in both which the particulars of time, 
 place, and persons, are mentioned, are universally esteemed true to a 
 great degree of exactness." Hartley, vol. ii. p. 109. 
 
216 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. II. 
 
 atry and polytheism reprobated and condemned. Whoever 
 entertained the account, whether Jew or Gentile, could not 
 avoid the following reflection : — " If these things be true, I 
 must give up the opinions and principles in which I have been 
 brought up, the religion in which my fathers lived and died." 
 It is not conceivable that a man should do this upon any idle 
 report or frivolous account, or, indeed, without being fully satis- 
 fied and convinced of the truth and credibility of the narrative to 
 which he trusted. But it did not stop at opinions. They who 
 believed Christianity, acted upon it. Many made it the ex- 
 press business of their lives to publish the intelligence. It 
 was required of those who admitted that intelligence, to change 
 forthwith their conduct and their principles, to take up a dif. 
 ferent course of life, to part with their habits and gratifications, 
 and begin a new set of rules, and system of behavior. The 
 apostles, at least, were interested not to sacrifice their ease, 
 their fortunes, and their lives for an idle tale ; multitudes be- 
 side them were induced, by the same tale, to encounter oppo- 
 sition, danger, and sufferings. 
 
 If it be said, that the mere promise of a future state would 
 do all this ; I answer, that the mere promise of a future state, 
 without any evidence to give credit or assurance to it, would 
 do nothing. A few wandering fishermen talking of a resur- 
 rection of the dead, could produce no effect. If it be further 
 said, that men easily believe what they anxiously desire, I 
 again answer that, in my opinion, the very contrary of that is 
 nearer to the truth. Anxiety of desire, earnestness of ex- 
 pectation, the vastness of an event, rather causes men to dis- 
 believe, to doubt, to dread a fallacy, to distrust, and to examine. 
 When our Lord's resurrection was first reported to the apos- 
 tles, they did not believe, we are told, for joy. This was natu- 
 ral, and is agreeable to experience. 
 
 VII. We have laid out of the case those accounts which re- 
 quire no more than a simple assent ; and we now also lay out 
 of the case those which come merely in affirmance of opinions 
 already formed. This last circumstance is of the utmost im- 
 
Chap. L.] EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 217 
 
 portance to notice well. It lias long been observed, that Po- 
 pish miracles happen in Popish countries ; that they make no 
 converts : which proves that stories are accepted, when they 
 fall in with principles already fixed, with the public sentiments, 
 or with the sentiments of a party already engaged on the side 
 the miracle supports, which would not be attempted to be pro- 
 duced in the face of enemies, in opposition to reigning tenets 
 or favorite prejudices, or when, if they be believed, the belief 
 must draw men away from their preconceived and habitual 
 opinions, from their modes of life and rules of action. In 
 the former case, men may not only receive a miraculous ac- 
 count, but may both act and suffer on the side, and in the 
 cause, which the miracle supports, yet not act or suffer for the 
 miracle, but in pursuance of a prior persuasion. The mira- 
 cle, like any other argument which only confirms what was 
 before believed, is admitted with little examination. In the 
 moral, as in the natural world, it is change which requires a 
 cause. Men are easily fortified in their old opinions, driven 
 from them with great difficulty. Now how does this apply to 
 the Christian history 1 The miracles, there recorded, were 
 wrought in the midst of enemies, under a government, a 
 priesthood, and a magistracy, decidedly and vehemently ad- 
 verse to them, and to the pretensions which they supported. 
 They were Protestant miracles in a Popish country ; they 
 were Popish miracles in the midst of Protestants. They 
 produced a change ; they established a society upon the spot, 
 adhering to the belief of them ; they made converts ; and 
 those who were converted gave up to the testimony their 
 most fixed opinions and most favorite prejudices. They 
 who acted and suffered in the cause, acted and suffered /or 
 the miracles ; for there was no anterior persuasion to induce 
 them, no prior reverence, prejudice, or partiality, to take hold 
 of Jesus had not one follower when he set up his claim. 
 His miracles gave birth to his sect. No part of this descrip- 
 tion belongs to the ordinary evidence of Heathen or Popish 
 miracles. Even most of the miracles alleged to have been 
 
 10 
 
218 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. II. 
 
 performed by Christians, in the second and third century of 
 its era, want this confirmation. It constitutes indeed a line 
 of partition between the origin and the progress of Christian- 
 ity. Frauds and fallacies might mix themselves with the prog- 
 ress, which could not possibly take place in the commence- 
 , ment, of the religion ; at least, according to any laws of hu- 
 man conduct that we are acquainted with. What should 
 suggest to the first propagators of Christianity, especially to 
 fishermen, tax-gatherers, and husbandmen, such a thought as 
 that of changing the religion of the world ? what could bear 
 them through the difficulties in which the attempt engaged 
 them ? what could procure any degree of success to the at- 
 tempt ? are questions which apply, with great force, to the 
 setting out of the institution, with less, to every future stage 
 of it. 
 
 To hear some men talk, one would suppose the setting up 
 of a religion by miracles to be a thing of every day's expe- 
 rience : whereas the whole current of history is against it. 
 Hath any founder of a new sect amongst Christians pretended 
 to miraculous powers, and succeeded by his pretensions ? 
 " Were these powers claimed or exercised by the founders of 
 the sects of the Waldenses and Albigenses ? Did WicklifFe 
 in England pretend to it ? Did Huss or Jerome in Bohemia ? 
 Did Luther in Germany, Zuinglius in Switzerland, Calvin in 
 France, or any of the reformers advance this plea f* The 
 French prophets, in the beginning of the present century ,f 
 ventured to allege miraculous evidence, and immediately ru- 
 ined their cause by their temerity. " Concerning the religion 
 of ancient Rome, of Turkey, of Siam, of China, a single mira- 
 cle cannot be named, that was ever oflfered as a test of any 
 of those religions before their establishment. "J 
 
 We may add to what has been observed, of the distinction 
 which we are considering, that, where miracles are alleged 
 merely in affirmance of a prior opinion, they who believe the 
 
 * Campbell on Miracles, p. 120, ed 1766. 
 
 f The eighteenth, J Adams on Mir., p. 76. 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 219 
 
 doctrine may sometimes propagate a belief of the miracles 
 which they do not themselves entertain. This is the case of 
 what are called pious frauds ; but it is a case, I apprehend, 
 which takes place solely in support of a persuasion already 
 established. At least it does not hold of the apostolical his- 
 tory. If the apostles did not believe the miracles, they did 
 not believe the religion ; and, without this belief, where was 
 the inety^ what place was there for anything which could bear 
 the name or color of piety, in publishing and attesting mira- 
 cles in its behalf? If it be said that many promote the be- 
 lief of revelation, and of any accounts which favor that belief, 
 because they think them, whether well or ill founded, of pub- 
 lic and political utility, I answer, that if a character exist, 
 which can with less justice than another be ascribed to the 
 founders of the Christian religion, it is that of politicians, or 
 of men capable of entertaining political views. The truth is, 
 that there is no assignable character which will account for 
 the conduct of the apostles, supposing their story to be false. 
 If bad men, what could have induced them to take such pains 
 to promote virtue ? If good men, they would not have gone 
 about the country with a string of lies in their mouths. 
 
 In appreciating the credit of any miraculous story, these 
 are distinctions which relate to the evidence. There are other 
 distinctions, of great moment in the question, which relate to 
 the miracles themselves. Of which latter kind the following 
 ought carefully to be retained : 
 
 I. It is not necessary to admit as a miracle, what can be 
 resolved into a false perception. Of this nature was the dae- 
 mon of Socrates ; the visions of Saint Anthony, and of many 
 others ; the vision which Lord Herbert of Cherbury describes 
 himself to have seen ; Colonel Gardiner's vision, as related 
 in his life, written by Dr. Doddridge. All these may be ac- 
 counted for by a momentary insanity ; for, the characteristic 
 symptom of human madness is the rising up in the mind of 
 images not distinguishable by the patient from impressions 
 
220 EyiDE:N-CES of Christianity. [Prop. it. 
 
 upon the senses. =^ The cases, however, in which the possi- 
 bility of this delusion exists, are divided from the cases in 
 which it does not exist, by many, and those not obscure marks. 
 They are, for the most part, cases of visions or voices. The 
 object is hardly ever touched. The vision submits not to be 
 handled. One sense does not confirm another. They are 
 likewise almost always cases of a solitary witness. It is in 
 the highest degree improbable, and I know not, indeed, 
 whether it hath ever been the fact, that the same derangement 
 of the mental organs should seize different persons at the 
 same time ; a derangement, I mean, so much the same, as to 
 represent to their imagination the same objects. Lastly, 
 these are always cases of momentary miracles ; by which term 
 I mean to denote miracles, of which the whole existence is of 
 short duration, in contradistinction to miracles which are at- 
 tended with permanent effects. The appearance of a spectre, 
 the hearing of a supernatural sound, is a momentary miracle. 
 The sensible proof is gone, when the apparition or sound is 
 over. But if a person born blind be restored to sight, a no- 
 torious cripple, to the use of his limbs, or a dead man to life, 
 here is a permanent effect produced by supernatural means. 
 The change indeed was instantaneous, but the proof continues. 
 The subject of the miracle remains. The man cured or re- 
 stored is there : his former condition was known, and his 
 present condition may be examined. This can by no possi- 
 bility be resolved into false perception ; and of this kind are 
 by far the greater part of the miracles recorded in the New 
 Testament. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, he did 
 not merely move, and speak, and die again : or come out of 
 the grave, and vanish away. He returned to his home and 
 family, and there continued ; for we find him, some time af- 
 terwards, in the same town, sitting at table with Jesus and his 
 sisters ; visited by great multitudes of the Jews, as a subject 
 of curiosity ; giving, by his presence, so much uneasiness to 
 the Jewish rulers as to beget in them a design of destroying 
 * Batty on Lunacy. 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 221 
 
 him.* No delusion can account for this. The French proph- 
 ets in England, some time since, gave out that one of their 
 teachers would come to life again ; but their enthusiasm never 
 made them believe that they actually saw him alive. The 
 blind man, whose restoration to sight at Jerusalem is recorded 
 in the ninth chapter of Saint John's Gospel, did not quit 
 the place or conceal himself from inquiry. On the contrary, 
 he was forthcoming, to answer the call, to satisfy the scrutiny, 
 and to sustain the brow-beating of Christ's angry and power- 
 ful enemies. When the cripple at the gate of the temple was 
 suddenly cured by Peter,f he did not immediately relapse 
 into his former lameness, or disappear out of the city ; but 
 boldly and honestly produced himself along with the apostles, 
 when they were brought the next day before the Jewish coun- 
 cil. J Here, though the miracle was sudden, the proof was 
 permanent. The lameness had been notorious, the cure con- 
 tinued. This, therefore, could not be the effect of any mo- 
 mentary delirium, either in the subject or in the witnesses of 
 the transaction. It is the same with the greatest number of 
 the Scripture miracles. There are other cases of a mixed na- 
 ture, in which, although the principal miracle be momentary, 
 some circumstance combined with it is permanent. Of this 
 kind is the history of Saint Paul's con version. § The sudden 
 light and sound, the vision and the voice, upon the road to 
 Damascus, were momentary ; but Paul's blindness for three 
 days in consequence of what had happened ; the communica^ 
 tion made to Ananias in another place, and by a vision inde- 
 pendent of the former ; Ananias finding out Paul in conse- 
 quence of intelligence so received, and finding him in the con- 
 dition described, and Paul's recovery of his sight upon Ana- 
 nias laying his hands upon him ; are circumstances, which 
 take the transaction, and the principal miracle as included in 
 it, entirely out of the case of momentary miracles, or of such 
 as may be accounted for by false perceptions. Exactly the 
 
 * John, xii. 1, 2, 9, 10. f Acts, iii. 2. 
 
 X Acts, iv. 14. § lb., ix. 
 
222 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. II. 
 
 same thing may be observed of Peter's vision preparatory to 
 the call of Cornelius, and of its connection with what was im- 
 parted in a distant place to Cornelius himself, and with the 
 message despatched by Cornelius to Peter. The vision might 
 be a dream ; the message could not. Either communication, 
 taken separately, might be a delusion ; the concurrence of the 
 two was impossible to happen without a supernatural cause. 
 
 Besides the risk of delusion which attaches upon momen- 
 tary miracles, there is also much more room for imposture. 
 The account cannot be examined at the moment ; and when 
 that is also a moment of hurry and confusion, it may not be 
 difficult for men of influence to gain credit to any story which 
 they may wish to have believed. This is precisely the case 
 of one of the best attested of the miracles of Old Rome, the 
 appearance of Castor and Pollux in the battle fought by Post- 
 humius with the Latins at the lake Regillus. There is no 
 doubt but that Posthumius, after the battle, spread the report 
 of such an appearance. No person could deny it, whilst it 
 w^as said to last. No person, perhaps, had any inclination to 
 dispute it afterwards ; or, if they had, could say with positive- 
 ness, what w^as or what was not seen, by some or other of the 
 army, in the dismay and amidst the tumult of a battle. 
 
 In assigning false perceptions as the origin to which some 
 miraculous accounts may be referred, I have not mentioned 
 claims to inspiration, illuminations, secret notices or direc- 
 tions, internal sensations, or conciousnesses of being acted 
 upon by spiritual influences, good or bad ; because these, ap- 
 pealing to no external proof, however convincing they may be 
 to the persons themselves, form no part of what can be ac- 
 counted miraculous evidence. Their own credibility stands 
 upon their alliance with other miracles. The discussion, 
 therefore, of all such pretensions may be omitted.* 
 
 II. It is not necessary to bring into the comparison what 
 may be called tentative miracles ; that is, where, out of a 
 great number of trials, some succeed ; and in the accounts of 
 * See note B, at the end of the Chapter. 
 
Chap. I.] EAaDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 223 
 
 which, although the narrative of the successful cases be alone 
 preserved, and that of the unsuccessful cases sunk, yet enough 
 is stated to show that the cases produced are only a few out 
 of many in which the same means have been employed. 
 This observation bears, with considerable force, upon the an- 
 cient oracles and auguries, in which a single coincidence of the 
 event with the prediction is talked of and magnified, whilst 
 failures are forgotten, or suppressed, or accounted for. It is 
 also applicable to the cures wrought by relics, and at the 
 tombs of saints. The boasted efficacy of the king's touch, 
 upon which Mr. Hume lays some stress, falls under the same 
 description. Nothing is alleged concerning it, which is not 
 alleged of various nostrums, namely, out of many thousands 
 who have used them, certified proofs of a few who have re- 
 covered after them. No solution of this sort is applicable to 
 the miracles of the Gospel. There is nothing in the narrative, 
 which can induce, or even allow, us to believe, that Christ at- 
 tempted cures in many instances, and succeeded in a few ; 
 or that he ever made the attempt in vain. He did not profess 
 to heal everywhere all that were sick ; on the contrary, he told 
 the Jews, evidently meaning to represent his own case, that, 
 " although many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, 
 when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, 
 when great famine was throughout all the land, yet unto none 
 of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, 
 unto a woman that was a widow :" and that " many lepers 
 were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none 
 of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian."* By 
 which examples, he gave them to understand, that it was not 
 the nature of a divine interposition, or necessary to its pur- 
 pose, to be general ; still less to answer every challenge that 
 might be made, which would teach men to put their faith upon 
 these experiments. Christ never pronounced the word, but 
 the effect followed, f It was not a thousand sick that received 
 
 * Luke, iv. 25. 
 
 f One, and only one, instance may be produced in which the dis- 
 
224 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. IL 
 
 his benediction, and a few that were benefited ; a single par- 
 alytic is let down in his ted at Jesus' feet, in the midst of a 
 surrounding multitude : Jesus bid him walk, and he did so.* 
 A man with a withered hand is in the synagogue ; Jesus bid 
 him stretch forth his hand, in the presence of the assembly, 
 and it was " restored whole like the other."f There was no- 
 thing tentative in these cures ; nothing that can be explained 
 by the power of accident. 
 
 We may observe also that many of the cures which Christ 
 wrought, such as that of a person blind from his birth, also 
 many miracles besides cures, as raising the dead, walking 
 upon the sea, feeding a great multitude with a few loaves and 
 fishes, are of a nature which does not in anywise admit of the 
 supposition of a fortunate experiment. 
 
 III. We may dismiss from the question all accounts in 
 which, allowing the phenomenon to be real, the fact to be true, 
 it still remains doubtful whether a miracle were wrought. 
 This is the case with the ancient history of what is called the 
 thundering legion, of the extraordinary circumstances which 
 obstructed the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem by Julian, 
 the circling of the flames and fragrant smell at the martyrdom 
 of Polycarp, the sudden shower that extinguished the fire into 
 which the Scriptures were thrown in the Diocletian persecu- 
 tion ; Constantine's dream ; his inscribing in consequence of 
 it the cross upon his standard and the shields of his soldiers ; 
 his victory, and the escape of the standard-bearer ; perhaps 
 also the imagined appearance of the cross in the heavens, 
 
 oiples of Christ do seem to have attempted a cure, and not to have 
 been able to perform it. The story is very ingenuously related by 
 three of the evangelists.* The patient was afterwards healed by 
 Christ himself; and the whole transaction seems to have been in- 
 tended, as it was well suited, to display the superiority of Christ 
 above all who performed miracles in his name; a distinction which, 
 during his presence in the world, it might be necessary to inculcate 
 by some such proof as this. 
 
 * Mark, ii. 3. f Matt. xii. 10. 
 
 * Matt. xvii. 14. Mark, xi. 14. Luke, ix. 38, 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 225 
 
 though this last circumstance is very deficient in historical 
 evidence. It is also the case with the modern annual exhi- 
 bition of the liquefaction of the blood of Saint Januarius at 
 Naples. It is a doubt, likewise, which ought to be excluded 
 by very special circumstances, from these narratives which 
 relate to the supernatural cure of hypochondriacal and nerv- 
 ous complaints, and of all diseases which are much affected 
 by the imagination. The miracles of the second and third 
 century are, usually, healing the sick, and casting out evil 
 spirits, miracles in which there is room for some error and 
 deception. We hear nothing of causing the blind to see, the 
 lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the lepers to be cleansed."* 
 There are also instances in Christian writers, of reputed mira- 
 cles, which were natural operations, though not known to be 
 such at the time ; as that of articulate speech after the loss of 
 a great part of the. tongue. 
 
 IV. To the same head of objection nearly, may also be re- 
 ferred accounts, in which the variation of a small circumstance 
 may have transformed some extraordinary appearance, or 
 some critical coincidence of events, into a miracle ; stories, in 
 a word, which may be resolved into exaggeration. The mira- 
 cles of the Gospel can by no possibility be explained away in 
 this manner. Total fiction will account for anything ; but no 
 stretch of exaggeration that has any parallel in other histories, 
 no force of fancy upon real circumstances, could produce the 
 narratives which we now have. The feeding of the five thou- 
 sand with a few loaves and fishes surpasses all bounds of exag- 
 geration. The raising of Lazarus, of the widow's son at Nain, 
 as well as many of the cures which Christ wrought, come not 
 within the compass of misrepresentation. I mean, that it is 
 impossible to assign any position of circumstances however 
 peculiar, any accidental effects however extraordinary, any 
 natural singularity, which could supply an origin or foundation 
 to these accounts. 
 
 Having thus enumerated several exceptions, which may 
 
 * Jortin's Remai'ks, vol. ii. p. 51. 
 10* 
 
226 
 
 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. ^ [Prop. II. 
 
 justly be taken to relations of miracles, it is necessary when 
 we read the Scriptures, to bear in our minds this general re- 
 mark ; that, although there be miracles recorded in the New 
 Testament, which fall within some or other of the exceptions 
 here assigned, yet that they are united with others, to which 
 none of the same exceptions extend, and that their credibility 
 stands upon this union. Thus the visions and revelations, 
 which Saint Paul asserts to have been imparted to him, may 
 not, in their separate evidence, be distinguishable from the 
 visions and revelations which many others have alleged. But 
 here is the difference. Saint Paul's pretensions were attested 
 by external miracles wrought by himself, and by miracles 
 wrought in the cause to which these visions relate ; or, to 
 speak more properly, the same historical authority which in- 
 forms us of one, informs us of the other. This is not ordina- 
 rily true of the visions of enthusiasts, or even of the accounts 
 in which they are contained. Again, some of Christ's own 
 miracles were momentary ; as the transfiguration, the appear- 
 ance and voice from Heaven at his baptism, a voice from the 
 clouds on one occasion afterwards (John, xii. 28), and some 
 others. It is not denied, that the distinction which we have 
 proposed concerning miracles of this species, applies, in dim- 
 inution of the force of the evidence, as much to these in- 
 stances as to others. But this is the case, not with all the 
 miracles ascribed to Christ, nor with the greatest part, nor 
 with many. Whatever force therefore there may be in the 
 objection, we have numerous miracles which are free from it ; 
 and even these to which it is applicable, are little affected by 
 it in their credit, because there are few who, admitting the rest, 
 will reject them. If there be miracles of the New Testament, 
 which come within any of the other heads into which we have 
 distributed the objections, the same remark must be repeated. 
 And this is one way in which the unexampled number and 
 variety of the miracles ascribed to Christ strengthen the cred- 
 ibility of Christianity. For it precludes any solution, or con- 
 jecture about a solution, which imagination, or even which 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 227 
 
 experience, might suggest concerning some particular miracles, 
 if considered independently of others. The miracles of 
 Christ were of various kinds,* and performed in great varieties 
 of situation, form, and manner; at Jerusalem, the metropolis 
 of the Jewish nation and religion ; in different parts of Judea 
 and Galilee ; in cities and villages ; in synagogues, in private 
 houses ; in the street, in highways ; with preparation, as in the 
 case of Lazarus ; I5y accident, as in the case of the widow's 
 son of Nain ; when attended by multitudes, and when alone 
 with the patient ; in the midst of his disciples, and in the 
 presence of his enemies; with the common people around 
 him, and before Scribes and Pharisees, and rulers of the syna- 
 gogues. 
 
 I apprehend that, when we remove from the comparison 
 the cases which are fairly disposed of by the observations 
 that have been stated, many cases will not remain. To those 
 which do remain, we apply this final distinction : " that there 
 is not satisfactory evidence, that persons, pretending to be 
 original witnesses of the miracles, passed their lives in labors, 
 dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undertaken and undergone 
 in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and prop- 
 erly in consequence of their belief of the truth of those ac- 
 counts. 
 
 Note A. 
 
 I THINK that Paley underrates the strength of particularity as an 
 evidence of truth. He seems to express himself as if, previous to 
 
 * Not only healing every species of disease, but turning water into 
 wine (John, ii.) ; feeding multitudes with a few loaves and fishes 
 (Matt, xiv. 15; Mark, vi. 36; Luke, ix. 12; John, vi. 5); walking 
 on the sea Matt. xiv. 25 ; calming a storm (Matt. viii. 26 ; Luke, viii. 
 24) ; a celestial voice at his baptism, and miraculous appearance 
 (Matt. iii. 16; afterwards John, xii. 28); his transfiguration (Matt, 
 xvii. 1-8; Mark, ix. 2; Luke, ix. 28; 2 Peter, i. 16, 11); raising the 
 dead in three distinct instances (Matt. ix. 18 ; Mark, v. 22 ; Luke, 
 viii. 41 ; Luke, vii. 14 ; John, xi.) 
 
EVIDElSrCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. II. 
 
 the admission of it as a proof, we must have anterior and indepen- 
 dent ground for believing in the probity of the narrative. Now, it 
 appears to me, that without any conviction of this on separate rea- 
 sons at all, the particularity itself may be such as to furnish decisive 
 evidence of the probity — so that, though we know nothing from any 
 external source or testimony of the author, we might infer from par- 
 ticularity alone the general truth of the narration, and the trust- 
 worthiness of him who framed it. 
 
 It is true, as he himself says, that the author of a studied and 
 elaborated fiction might sustain — and for the sake of giving credi- 
 bility to his imposture — a most minutely circumstantial character 
 throughout his whole composition. But it is not at all likely that 
 he would frame any other coincidences than those which might 
 serve his purpose with the generality of readers ; or any other than 
 those which might flash their own broad and discernible evidence on 
 a cursory perusal. We should not, for example, from under the sur- 
 face of his narrative, be able to fetch such deep and hidden coinci- 
 dences, as one out of ten thousand readers would not think of going 
 in pursuit of. The truth of any complex or extended narrative does 
 furnish those less obvious agreements — those recondite harmonies, 
 such as will undergo a thorough sifting to the very bottom of the 
 subject. But they are such harmonies as no impostor would ever 
 think of laboriously constructing, seeing that he would not lay his 
 account with being so laboriously tracked through all the depths and 
 windings of his story ; and, accordingly, when the story is so track- 
 ed, and it leads to the discovery of many before latent adjustments, 
 which had hitherto and perhaps for whole centuries escaped obser- 
 vation, it gives such an impression of undesignedness and such evi- 
 dence of an original and well-founded truth in the history, as does 
 of itself, and independent of all argument from any other quarter, 
 warrant the conclusion of a substantial credibility in the narrative 
 and the substantial honesty of its author. A single writer, a single 
 book of the New Testament, may be compared with itself by the con- 
 fronting and cross-questioning, as it were, of its different passages, 
 and the argument I now speak of, for the probity of its author, be 
 elicited therefrom. Or it may be compared with other histories in 
 its allusions to the polity, and customs, and history of the time at 
 which it was published, and its minute coincidences in many nice and 
 delicate parts with these, as has been done by Lardner, may impress 
 the same conclusion. Or it may even be the sustained accuracy of 
 all its references to the localities of that land which is the scene 
 of its history, an accuracy made out perhaps by painful research 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 229 
 
 and interwoven with the whole texture of the composition, giving a 
 "well-grounded assurance of its being a record of actual doings and 
 actual travellings. It is not likely that one Evangelist would have 
 fabricated the circumstance of water issuing along with blood from 
 the side of Jesus, seeing that not one out of ten thousand of his 
 readers could know the consistency of this particular with anatomical 
 truth. It is not likely that another, in telling the journey from Naz- 
 areth to Capernaum, would have devised the insertion of the single 
 monosyllable, down, in the prospect of such a pleasing confirmation 
 as Dr. Clark has drawn from it when travelling through the Holy 
 Land, he remarked the striking graphical consistency of the places 
 with the narrative. There is nothing but truth, artless truth, which 
 could have generated such a host of symphonies as we gather from 
 the observations of Harmer. Nothing but truth, on the one hand, 
 could have stood the test of such a critical inquisition as the writ- 
 ings of the Evangelists and Apostles have been made to undergo ; 
 and it is utter extravagance, on the other hand, to imagine that an 
 impostor, in the anticipation of being so closely and laboriously 
 scrutinized, would, underneath that face of plausibility which he 
 spread over his performance, to deceive vulgar eyes, have carried 
 this work of unnatural violence downward among the arcana of the 
 subject, and that for the purpose of blinding the judgment of critics 
 and commentators for centuries to come. I will venture to say, that 
 in the New Testament history, there are made out thousands of co- 
 incidences with other things wherewith that history may be com- 
 pared, and which a fabricator would never have thought of; coinci- 
 dences of a very minute and statistical character with the geography 
 of the country, in which transactions are reported to have taken 
 place, or through which the actors in the history are represented to 
 have travelled, and that may still be verified in modern times, as by 
 Harmer, and Clarke, and others, who have explored those regions 
 which form the scene of the New Testament history ; coincidences 
 with sacred and general history, such as have been laboriously traced 
 by Gray, and Prideaux, and Shuckford and others; coincidences 
 with the known customs, and government, and economy, and vari- 
 ous sects or institutions of the times, such as the assiduous Lardner 
 has so amply supplied ; coincidences of the historical with the moral 
 and didactic pieces of the New Testament, as have been strikingly 
 brought out by Dr. Paley himself in one of his most original and 
 masterly performances, the Horse Paulinae, where he confronts the 
 Book of Acts with the Epistles of the great Apostle of the Gentiles; 
 coincidences of the historical pieces with each other, as has been 
 
230 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. II- 
 
 explained by Blunt : why, altogether they compose such a tissue and 
 ■ complication of evidence as, irrespective of any other proof for *he 
 integrity of the writers, is exceedingly difficult to resist, and which 
 creates not only a strong prepossession, but really a strong conviction 
 in favor of the general truth of the whole. I have already adverted 
 to another attempt for the eliciting of evidence from the comparison- 
 of Scripture with Scripture by Graves, who writes a book on the Pen- 
 tateuch, and who institutes a cross-examination between Exodus, 
 Leviticus, and Numbers on the one hand, and Deuteronomy on the 
 other. Neither he nor Blunt have made out so impressive an argu- 
 ment as Dr. Paley.* They did not possess such good materials as he 
 did ; but you will do well to remark, that, in as far as all three have 
 succeeded, they have brought out an evidence from the comparison 
 not of what is within the record with what is without, but from a com- 
 parison of one part of the record with another, so that, in as far as 
 they have succeeded, they have shown that there is a self-evidencing 
 power in the Bible. — Chalmers. 
 
 Note B. 
 
 To pass from the account of such visitations as those experienced 
 by Colonel Gardiner to the account of an ordinary conversion, effect- 
 ed according to the doctrine of our Church, and, as we believe, ac- 
 cording to the doctrine of Scripture, by the influence of the Holy 
 Spirit on him who is the subject of it: it is well known that Dr. 
 Paley's sentiments underwent a change on the subject of this great 
 transition in the history of every Christianized mind, and one could 
 almost guess that the passage now before us was written previous 
 to that change. He admits, no doubt, that the faith which is 
 wrought by the influences of the Good Spirit, though resting on no 
 external proof, may be on grounds convincing to the persons them- 
 selves ; but in stating that the credibility of such revelations " stands 
 upon their alliance with other miracles," he expresses the thing too 
 generally. Their own credibility to others may not, but their credi- 
 bility in themselves, and to him who is the subject of the influence 
 in question, may, on strictly rational grounds, admit, we think, of 
 the fullest vindication. It is true, that in this process there is nothing 
 addressed to the outward senses, but there may be most satisfac- 
 tory notices addressed to a faculty which takes still more intimate 
 and immediate cognizance of things — we mean the faculty of con- 
 
 * Paley's "Horae Paulina? " and Blunt's "Coincidences" have been published in 
 one handsome volume, by the Messrs. Carter of New York. 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 231 
 
 sciousness, what Dr. Thomas Brown calls the faculty of internal ob- 
 servation. A man, for example, who wont, in the reading of his 
 Bible, to be nauseated by its phraseology, or repelled by the aspect 
 of hopeless and unmeaning mysticism which overspread its pages, 
 and, at the same time, a man, who, in a state of moral insensibility 
 and blindness to the guilt of living in the habitual disregard of God, 
 felt no responding echo in his heart either to the scriptural denun- 
 ciation of guilt or to the scriptural offers of reconciliation— just con- 
 ceive of such a man, that he was in the first instance made alive to 
 the enormity of his practical atheism, and that, when pursued by the 
 agonies of present remorse and the terrors of the coming vengeance, 
 he found in the Word of God both a faithful mirror of his own felt 
 sinfulness, and the manifestation of a remedy altogether suited to his 
 wants and to his fears ; suppose, after such a change of view and of 
 sentiment, brought about by no logical or laborious process that he 
 was conscious of, but landing him in this consequence, that he now 
 saw a pertinence, and a power, and a weight of application and 
 meaning in thousands of texts which had before escaped his observa- 
 tion, that he perceived a multiple light cast and reflected from one part 
 of the volume to another, and above all, a variety of most precious 
 adaptations to the state of his own heart and character, so as to 
 draw from it a never-failing comfort in all his spiritual distresses, 
 and the most applicable counsel and confirmation in the midst of 
 every difficulty ; the reality of such a change as this may be as pal- 
 pable to him as any of the realities of the outer world, because, 
 though not to be seen by the eye of the body, yet seen by the eye 
 of internal observation. Now, without the intermedium either of a 
 vision or of a voice, this felt revelation in himself may be, to him, 
 the most warrantable evidence of a visitation on his spirit by the 
 Spirit of God. It is very true that he is in contact with nothing but 
 the tablet of his own heart on the one hand, and the tablet of Scrip- 
 ture upon the other. But his power of consciousness has of late 
 been made so much more vivid and discerning, and he, in consequence, 
 knows himself so much better than before, and his power of appre- 
 hending the Bible has also been so much invigorated, and he can 
 now behold so many more of the wondrous things contained in 
 God's law, and the accordances between the former, which is the in- 
 ternal, and the latter, which is the outward tablet, have of course 
 multiplied so much upon his observation, that altogether he may be 
 impressed, and we think soundly and justly impressed, by a Divin- 
 ity in the book which all the historical and argumentative evidence 
 that accompanies it may have never before impressed upon him. 
 
232 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. IL 
 
 Now, in that boot we are told of the Spirit of God, and how he acts, 
 not directly but mediately, on the hearts of men ; how the Word is 
 the great instrument of all His demonstrations ; and how, in address- 
 ing the truth to the mind, He tells us not any truth which is placed 
 without the limits of the record, but illuminates and makes palpa- 
 ble the truth which has occupancy there. We believe that such will 
 be the fruit of all sustained and abiding moral earnestness when di- 
 rected to the study of the Bible, the result of your repeated perusals 
 and your persevering prayers, that in this way the truth, though not 
 argumented on literary or historical grounds, will become manifest 
 to your consciences ; and, as the effect of the good spiritual influ- 
 ence, not so available, we will admit, for the conviction of others, 
 but most completely and conclusively available for your own con- 
 viction, you will arrive, and justly arrive, at the same deliverance 
 respecting the Bible which the Corinthians of old pronounced on 
 some of its then living penmen : this book tells all the things that 
 are in the heart, and makes manifest the secrets which be within it; 
 verily God is in it of a truth. — Chalmers. 
 
CHAPTEE II.* 
 
 CONSIDERATION OF SOME SPECIFIC INSTANCES. 
 
 But they, with whom we argue, have undoubtedly a right 
 to select their own examples. The instances with which Mr. 
 Hume has chosen to confront the miracles of the New Testa- 
 ment, and which, therefore, we are entitled to regard as the 
 strongest which the history of the world could supply to the 
 inquiries of a very acute and learned adversary, are the three 
 following : 
 
 I. The cure of a blind and of a lame man of Alexandria, 
 by the emperor Vespasian, as related by Tacitus ; 
 
 II. The restoration of the limb of an attendant in a Spanish 
 church, as told by cardinal de Retz ; and, 
 
 III. The cures said to be performed at the tomb of the 
 abbe Paris, in the early part of the seventeenth century. 
 
 I. The narrative of Tacitus is delivered in these terms : 
 " One of the common people of Alexandria, known to be 
 diseased in his eyes, by the admonition of the god Serapis, 
 whom that superstitious nation worship above all other gods, 
 prostrated himself before the emperor, earnestly imploring 
 from him a remedy for his blindness, and entreating that he 
 would deign to anoint with his spittle his cheeks and the balls 
 of his eyes. Another, diseased in his hand, requested, by the 
 admonition of the same god, that he might be touched by the 
 foot of the emperor. Vespasian at first derided and despised 
 their application ; afterwards, when they continued to urge 
 
 * See note A, at the end of this Chapter. 
 
284 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. H. 
 
 their petitions, he sometimes appeared to dread the imputa- 
 tion of vanity ; at other times, by the earnest supplication 
 of the patients, and the persuasion of his flatterers, to be in- 
 duced to hope for success. At length he commanded an in- 
 quiry to be made by the physicians, whether such a blindness 
 and debility were vincible by human aid. The report of the 
 physicians contained various points ; that in the one, the 
 power of vision was not destroyed, but would return if the 
 obstacles were removed ; that in the other, the diseased joints 
 might be restored, if a healing power were applied ; that it 
 was, perhaps, agreeable to the gods to do this ; that the em- 
 peror was elected by divine assistance ; lastly, that the credit 
 of the success would be the emperor's, the ridicule of the 
 disappointment would fall upon the patients. Vespasian, be- 
 lieving that everything was in the power of his fortune, and 
 that nothing was any longer incredible, whilst the multitude, 
 which stood by, eagerly expected the event, with a counte- 
 nance expressive of joy, executed what he was desired to do. 
 Immediately the hand was restored to its use, and light 
 returned to the blind man. They who were present relate 
 both these cures, even at this time, when there is nothing to 
 be gained by lying."* 
 
 Now, though Tacitus wrote this account twenty-seven 
 years after the miracle is said to have been performed, and 
 wrote at Rome of what passed at Alexandria, and wrote also 
 from report ; and although it does not appear that he had ex- 
 amined the story, or that he believed it (but rather the con- 
 trary), yet I think his testimony sufficient to prove that such 
 a transaction took place : by which I mean, that the two men 
 in question did apply to Vespasian ; that Vespasian did touch 
 the diseased in the manner related; and that a cure was 
 reported to have followed the operation. But the affair la- 
 *bors under a strong and just suspicion, that the whole of it 
 was a concerted imposture brought about by collusion be- 
 tween the patients, the physician, and the emperor. This 
 
 * Tacit. Hist. lib. iv. 
 
Chap. II.J EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY 235 
 
 solution is probable, because there was everything to suggest, 
 and everything to facilitate, such a scheme. The miracle was 
 calculated to confer honor upon the emperor, and upon the 
 god Serapis. It was achieved in the midst of the emperor's 
 flatterers and followers ; in a city, and amongst a populace, 
 beforehand devoted to his interest, and to the worship of the 
 god ; where it would have been treason and blasphemy to- 
 gether, to have contradicted the fame of the cure, or even to 
 have questioned it. And what is very observable in the ac- 
 count is, that the report of the physicians is just such a 
 report as would have been made of a case, in which no ex- 
 ternal marks of the disease existed, and which, consequently, 
 was capable of being easily counterfeited, viz., that in the 
 first of the patients the organs of vision were not destroyed, 
 that the weakness of the second was in his joints. The 
 strongest circumstance in Tacitus' narration is, that the firs-t 
 patient was " notus tabe oculorum," remarked or notorious 
 for the disease in his eyes. But this was a circumstance 
 which might have found its way into the story in its prog- 
 ress from a distant country, and during an interval of thirty 
 years ; or it might be true that the malady of the eyes was 
 notorious, yet that the nature and degree of the disease 
 had never been ascertained ; a case by no means uncommon. 
 The emperor's reserve w^as easily affected ; or it is possible 
 he might not be in the secret. There does not seem to be 
 much weight in the observation of Tacitus, that they who 
 were present, continued even then to relate the story when 
 there was nothing to be gained by the lie. It only proves 
 that those who had told the story for many years persisted 
 in it. The state of mind of the witnesses and spectators at 
 the time, is the point to be attended to. Still less is there of 
 pertinency in Mr. Hume's eulogium on the cautious and pen- 
 etrating genius of the historian ; for, it does not appear that 
 the historian believed it. The terms in which he speaks of 
 Serapis, the deity to whose interposition the miracle was at- 
 tributed, scarcely suffer us to suppose that Tacitus thought 
 
236 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. II. 
 
 the miracle to be real : "by the admonition of the god Sera- 
 pis, whom that superstitious nation (dedita superstitionibus 
 gens) worship above all other gods." To have brought this 
 supposed miracle within the limits of comparison with the 
 miracles of Christ, it ought to have appeared that a person 
 of a low and private station, in the midst of enemies, with 
 the whole power of the country opposing him, with every 
 one around him prejudiced or interested against his claims 
 and character, pretended to perform these cur^s, and required 
 the spectators, upon the strength of what they saw, to give 
 up their firmest hopes and opinions, and follow him through 
 a life of trial and danger ; that many w^ere so moved, as to 
 obey his call, at the expense both of every notion in which 
 they had been brought up, and of their ease, safety, and rep- 
 utation ; and that by these beginnings, a change w^as produced 
 in the world, the effects of which remain to this day : a case, 
 both in its circumstances and consequences, very unlike any- 
 thing we find in Tacitus' relation. 
 
 II. The story taken from the Memoirs of Cardinal de 
 Eetz, which is the second example alleged by Mr. Hume, is 
 this : " In the church of Saragossa in Spain, the canons show- 
 ed me a man whose business it was to light the lamps ; tell- 
 ing me that he had been several years at the gate with one 
 leg only. I saw him with two."* 
 
 It is stated by Mr. Hume, that the cardinal, who relates 
 this story, did not believe it ; and it nowhere appears, that 
 he either examined the limb, or asked the patient, or indeed 
 any one, a single question about the matter. An artificial 
 leg^ wrought with art, would be sufficient, in a place where 
 no such contrivance had ever before been heard of, to give 
 origin and currency to the report. The ecclesiastics of the 
 place would, it is probable, favor the story, inasmuch as it 
 advanced the honor of their image and church. And if they 
 patronized it, no other person at Saragossa, in the middle of 
 the seventeenth century, would care to dispute it. The story 
 * Li v., iv.A. D. 1654 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 287 
 
 likewise coincided, not less with the wishes and preconceptions 
 of the people, than with the interests of their ecclesiastical 
 rulers : so that there was prejudice backed by authority, and 
 both operating upon extreme ignorance, to account for the 
 success of the imposture. If, as I have suggested, the con- 
 trivance of an artificial limb was then new, it would not occur 
 to the cardinal himself to suspect it ; especially under the 
 carelessness of mind with which he heard the tale, and the 
 little inclination he felt to scrutinize or expose its fallacy. 
 
 III. The miracles related to have been wrought at the tomb 
 of the abbe Paris, admit in general of this solution. The 
 patients who frequented that tomb, were so affected by their 
 devotion, their expectation, the place, the solemnity, and, 
 above all, by the sympathy of the surrounding multitude, 
 that many of them were thrown into violent convulsion-s, 
 which convulsions, in certain instances, produced a removal 
 of disorders depending upon obstruction. We shall, at this 
 day, have the less difficulty in admitting the above account, 
 because it is the very same thing as hath lately been expe- 
 rienced in the operations of animal magnetism ; and the 
 report of the French physicians upon that mysterious remedy 
 is very applicable to the present consideration, viz., that the 
 pretenders to the art, by working upon the imaginations of 
 their patients, were frequently able to produce convulsions ; 
 that convulsions so produced, are amongst the most powerful, 
 but, at the same time, most uncertain and unmanageable ap- 
 plications to the human frame which can be employed. 
 
 Circumstances, which indicate this explication in the case of 
 the Parisian miracles, are the following : 
 
 1. They were tentative. Out of many thousand sick, infirm, 
 and diseased persons, who resorted to the tomb, the professed 
 history of the miracles contains only nine cures. 
 
 2. The convulsions at the tomb are admitted. 
 
 3. The diseases were, for the most part, of that sort which 
 depends upon inaction and obstruction, as dropsies, palsies, 
 and some tumors. 
 
238 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. II. 
 
 4. The cures were gradual ; some patients attending many 
 days, some several weeks, and some several months. 
 
 5. The cures were many of them incomplete. 
 
 6. Others were temporary.* 
 
 So that all the wonder we are called upon to account for is, 
 that, out of an almost innumerable multitude which resorted 
 to the tomb for the cure of their complaints, and many of 
 whom were there agitated by strong convulsions, a very 
 small proportion experienced a beneficial change in their con- 
 stitution, especially in the action of the nerves and glands. 
 
 Some of the cases alleged, do not require that we should 
 have recourse to this solution. The first case in the catalogue 
 is scarcely distinguishable from the progress of a natural re- 
 covery. It was that of a young man, who labored under an 
 inflammation of one eye, and had lost the sight of the other. 
 The inflamed eye was relieved, but the blindness of the other 
 remained. The inflammation had before been abated by 
 medicine ; and the young man, at the time of his attendance 
 at the tomb, was using a lotion of laudanum. And, what is 
 a still more material part of the case, the inflammation after 
 some interval returned. Another case was that of a young 
 man who had lost his sight by the puncture of an awl, and 
 the discharge of the aqueous humor through the wound. 
 The sight, which had been gradually returning, was much im- 
 proved during his visit to the tomb ; that is, probably, in the 
 same degree in which the discharged humor was replaced by 
 fresh secretions. And it is observable, that these two are the 
 only cases which, from their nature, should seem unlikely to 
 be affected by convulsions. 
 
 In one material respect I allow, that the Parisian miracles 
 were different from those related by Tacitus, and from the 
 Spanish miracle of the cardinal de Retz. They had not, like 
 them, all the power and all the prejudice of the country on 
 
 * The reader will find these particulars verified in the detail, by 
 the accurate inquiries of the present bishop of Sarum, in his Crite- 
 rion of Miracles, p. 132, et seq. 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 239 
 
 their side to begin with. They were alleged by one party 
 against another, by the Jansenists against the Jesuits. These 
 were of course opposed and examined by their adversaries. 
 The consequence of which examination was, that many false- 
 hoods were detected, that with something really extraordinary 
 much fraud appeared to be mixed. And if some of the cases 
 upon which designed misrepresentation could not be charged, 
 were not at the time satisfactorily accounted for, it was be- 
 cause the efficacy of strong spasmodic affections was not then 
 sufficiently known. Finally, the cause of Jansenism did not 
 rise by the miracles, but sunk, although the miracles had the 
 anterior persuasion of all the numerous adherents of that 
 cause to set out with. 
 
 These, let us remember, are the strongest examples which 
 the history of ages supplies. In none of them was the mira- 
 cle unequivocal ; by none of them were estabL'shed prejudices 
 and persuasions overthrown ; of none of them did the credit 
 make its way, in opposition to authority and power ; by none 
 of them were many induced to commit themselves, and that 
 in contradiction to prior opinions, to a life of mortification, 
 danger, and sufferings ; none were called upon to attest them 
 at the expense of their fortunes and safety.* 
 
 Note A. 
 
 As to the instances of false miracles referred to in Chapter IL, I 
 must here refer you to Campbell. He gives a fuller and more satis- 
 factory account of those miracles than Dr. Paley does. I wonder 
 that our author takes no notice of him. I think that Campbell is 
 not sufficiently appreciated in England. His was a mind of a very 
 
 * It may be thought that the historian of the Parisian Miracles, 
 M. Montgeron, forms an exception to this last assertion. He presented 
 his book (with a suspicion, as it should seem, of the danger of what 
 he was doing) to the king ; and was shortly afterwards committed to 
 prison ; from which he never came out. Had the miracles been un- 
 
240 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Prop. XL 
 
 high order — shrewd, and subtile, and dexterous beyond most men in 
 the warfare of argument. He completely demolished Hume's false 
 argument, which is a different work, you will observe, from that of 
 setting up a true argument on its right and proper basis. I regard 
 him in calibre of intellect and talent to be the first name that the 
 Church of Scotland has to boast of, and think he is very far from 
 being treated with justice by the writers of our sister kingdom. He 
 is a man of prodigiously larger dimensions than Beattie, who was 
 80 idolized in the South as the restorer both of reason and Christian- 
 ity against the attacks of a philosophical and a religious scepticism. 
 Beattie's Essay on Truth is a performance, I do think, of great merit ; 
 but the author of the Philosophy of Rhetoric, of the Essay on Mira- 
 cles, and of the Preliminary Dissertations to the translation of the 
 Four Gospels, shines a greatly brighter star in our literary hemi- 
 sphere. I do not altogether comprehend the neglect and silence of 
 
 equivocal, and had M. Montgeron been originally convinced by them, 
 I should have allowed this exception. It would have stood, I think, 
 alone, in the argument of our adversaries. But, beside what has 
 been observed of the dubious nature of the miracles, the account 
 which M. Montgeron has himself left of his conversion, shows both 
 the state of his mind, and that his persuasion was .not built upon external 
 miracles. *' Scarcely had he entered the church yard, when he was 
 struck," he tell us, " with awe and reverence, having never before 
 heard prayers pronounced with so much ardor and transport as he 
 observed amongst the supplicants at the tomb. Upon this, throwing 
 himself on his knees, resting his elbows on the tomb-stone, and cov- 
 ering his face with his hands, he spake the following prayer : thou, 
 by whose intercession so many 7niracles are said to be performed, if it be 
 true that a part of thee surviveth the grave, and that thou hast influence 
 with the Almighty, have pity on the darkness of my understanding, and 
 through his mercy obtaifi the removal of it." Having prayed thus, 
 "many thoughts," as he sayeth, "began to open themselves to his 
 mind ; and so profound was his attention, that he continued on his 
 knees four hours, not in the least disturbed by the vast crowds of 
 surrounding supplicants. During this time, all the arguments which 
 he ever heard or read in favor of Christianity, occurred to him with 
 so much force, and seemed so strong and convincing, that he went 
 home fully satisfied of the truth of religion in general, and of the 
 holiness and power of that person, who," as he supposed, " had en- 
 gaged the Divine goodness to enlighten his understanding so sud- 
 denly." — Douglas' Crit. of Mir., p. 214. 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. 241 
 
 Paley in regard to him, nor yet the contempt, I had almost said the 
 insolence, of Bloomfield, a person who, notwithstanding the value in 
 many respects of his laborious compilation, the Recensio Synoptica^ 
 is infinitely beneath Campbell in the depth and the philosophy of 
 Scripture criticism. I suspect that England feels as if it owed him 
 a grudge, for he has exposed, with singular felicity and power, its 
 own favorite doctrine of the indelibility of the clerical character in 
 the transmission of it from one age to another since the days of the 
 Apostles. My own feeling of Campbell is, that in respect to the 
 wisdom of the letter, he was one of the greatest men that ecclesias- 
 tical literature can boast of. There is the wisdom of the Spirit, 
 which the Bible distinguishes from the wisdom of the letter. It be- 
 comes me not to pronounce on the personal Christianity of any indi- 
 vidual ; but I can discern few or no traces of warm and devoted 
 attachment on the part of Dr. Campbell to the peculiar doctrines of 
 the gospel. — Chalmers. 
 
 11 
 
REMARKS BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 This is that HISTORICAL ARGUMENT which, in our preliminary 
 observations on the claims of Divine Revelation, we said was one of 
 the strongest and clearest that ever has been delivered on any histor- 
 ical question whatever. Dr. Paley draws from it the conclusion that 
 the Religion must be TRUE. The early propagators of Christianity 
 could not be deceivers. "By only not bearing testimony, they 
 might have avoided all their sufferings, and have lived quietly. 
 "Would men in such circumstances pretend to have seen what they never 
 saw ; assert facts which they had no knowledge of ; go about lying to 
 teach virtue ; and, though not only convinced of Christ's being an 
 impostor, but having seen the success of his imposture in his crucijix- 
 ion, yet persist in carrying it on ; and so persisty as to bring upon 
 themselves for nothing, and with a full knowledge of the consequence, 
 enmity and hatred, danger and death ?" We take for granted that 
 the argument has been read and studied. The subject is surely worth 
 the trouble. And now, it is the reader's business to declare honestly 
 if the argument is good. Let him sit in judgment on it as a juror, 
 and render his verdict according to the facts. 
 
 Deism once asserted that the Bible is a lie. Is the Deist answered? 
 Is the Bible a lie? If it is, then what other events in the records of 
 the past can you believe? Can you produce, on any point from the 
 beginning of history to its latest eras, a proof better and stronger ? 
 We boldly aver you cannot. 
 
 nationalism, or Naturalism, once asserted that miracles are impos- 
 sible, and that the signs and wonders of the Bible are mythological 
 legends not more credible than the labors of Hercules, or the meta- 
 morphoses of Ovid. The assumption of the former proposition — and we i 
 have seen that it is a mere assumption — necessitated the assertion of the 
 latter. The only resource left was to resolve History into fable. Some 
 portions of History were known to be fabulous ; therefore, miracles 
 being impossible, the New Testament History must be fabulous ; its 
 prodigies must be myths ; and Jesus Christ, a pious young Israelite 
 
REMARKS BY THE EDITOR. 243 
 
 of Nazareth, must be mythologically clothed with the attributes of 
 that Messiah whom the Jews expected. Christ, instead of being the 
 founder of Christianity, must actually be the creature of the church ; 
 and during the period of the ancient world's highest civilization, 
 Jews, whose countrymen crucified Christ as a blasphemer because he 
 claimed to be Messiah and the Son of God, and Gentiles, who scorned 
 bis religion as a pernicious superstition, and persecuted his followers 
 to the death, must combine to invest him with divine honors as the 
 Saviour promised to the fathers ! Assuredly that was not an age for 
 the invention and adoption of new mythological legends — especially 
 of legends which proclaimed open and irreconcilable war with all ex- 
 isting beliefs ; which denounced all gods of the heathen as abomina- 
 tions, and depreciated the law of Moses as an imperfect thing. In 
 ancient fabulous times, when history existed only in the shape of 
 ballad and tradition, myths took their rise ; but not surely in the 
 Empire of Rome during the height of its glory. Legendary and 
 mythological stories are expressly excluded by Paley as bearing no 
 comparison with the miracles of the Gospel, ju&t because the Gos- 
 pels were written by contemporaries of Christ, who had most perfect 
 knowledge of all they wrote. Are we to believe, after perusing the 
 foregoing proof, that the New Testament Histories arc of the same 
 kind with the history of Bacchus or of Hercules, because forsooth 
 the d priori assumption that miracles are impossible requires us thus 
 to dispose of the Gospels ? The actual cannot so far give way to the 
 ideal. We have great respect for the subjective ; but the objective 
 is entitled to respect as well, and we cannot allow the former so to 
 lord it over the latter. Perhaps too much reverence is paid to modern 
 wild theories on the subject of religion. They are propounded so 
 gravely, handled with such an air of philosophy, embellished some- 
 times with so many flowers of rhetoric and graces of sage reflection, 
 that, like children under the guidance of Lemuel Gulliver, we fail to 
 discern the absurdity of dreams that are told with all the soberness 
 of truth. Surely the men must be in earnest, we think ; and seri- 
 ousness alone is deserving of consideration. Not always. Has Ger- 
 man criticism convinced any man, other than a Teutonic visionary, 
 that Homer's Iliad is a collection of Ballads, and not a grand whole, 
 the creation of one glorious mind ? The best answer to such an 
 hypothesis is that it is nonsense. Had it not been German, no one 
 would have listened to it for an instant. In like manner, the best, 
 and perhaps the only worthy answer to those who coolly drop such 
 an argument as Paley's into oblivion, or slur it over — ignore it — as 
 something worn out and contemptibly ecclesiastical, while they. 
 
244 REMARKS BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 allege that miracles never happened, and that Jesus is a mythological 
 personage — we say the best reply to such allegations is that, in the 
 face of HISTORY, they are false, and, therefore, worse than non- 
 sense. You may make a myth out of Theseus or Romulus because 
 they lived in fabulous ages, and the story of their lives was com- 
 mitted to writing long after it had been embellished by superstition. 
 But Christ did not live in a fabulous age. He was born within the 
 limits of the Roman Empire, in a region civilized before Rome was 
 heard of, and during the Augustan Age itself The memoirs of his 
 life were written by his own associates, in a style as far removed as 
 possible from that of legend or romance ; and without doing outrage 
 to common sense, you cannot make a myth of Him. You may as 
 easily make a myth of Washington or Bonaparte. 
 
 Again, the Spiritualist ventures to say — indeed, is decidedly of 
 opinion — that Christ and the Bible have too long stood in the way 
 of True Religion 1 — that they are idols — material objective forms ob- 
 scuring the absolute and divine. Man, they tell us, possesses a facul- 
 ty of spiritual intuition, which, of itself, discerns the absolute, holds 
 converse with the divine, and needs neither Christ nor Bible to aid 
 and direct him ; in fact, would do much better without Christ and 
 without the Bible. These, like other idols, ought to be cast to the 
 moles and bats, that man may come forth in the glory of his native 
 light — free, beautiful, and good ! And all this is alleged as Science^ 
 Philosophy^ Spiritualism, while the History which Paley has so ad- 
 mirably and conclusively drawn from genuine authentic documents, 
 is confidently set aside as something altogether objective and external! 
 "Well, it is objective — it is there ; and you — the spiritualist — can no 
 more get past it by all your talk about the subjective, than Bishop 
 Berkeley could have got past the great pyramid of Egypt by declar- 
 ing that there is no matter. There was matter — a whole pyramid 
 of matter ; and the Bishop's theory was nonsense. The Spiritualist, 
 we have said, holds to the existence of a faculty that discerns the 
 absolute ; and converses with the divine. So, also, does the Chris- 
 tian. He maintains that spiritual things are spiritually discerned. 
 He declares that he is endowed with a power of spiritual apprehen- 
 sion which lays hold on the invisible, and brings him into immediate 
 contact with God. He says that we all have access by one Spirit 
 unto the Father; that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the 
 evidence of things not seen ; and that God's Spirit witnesseth with 
 his own spirit that he is God's child. If the Spiritualist adduces his 
 own consciousness in proof of a spiritual faculty, so also does the 
 Christian ; and if the question is to be decided by the number of 
 
REMARKS BY THE EDITOR. 245 
 
 witnesses, the myriads of believers, who have lived and died in faith, 
 do still exceed the adherents of Spiritualism. But while the Spirit- 
 ualist and the Christian are thus at one in upholding a faculty of 
 spiritual discernment, it so happens that the revelations of the 
 Spiritualist's faculty are directly and irreconcilably contrary to 
 HISTORY, whereas those of the Christians are entirely coincident 
 with history. The Christian is as profoundly conscious that Christ 
 Jesus is the very and the only SAVIOUR whom he needs, as the 
 Spiritualist can be that Christ Jesus, or the Christian religion, is a 
 myth. In the one case we have the concurrent testiraony of con- 
 sciousness and history ; in the other a most hostile antagonism be- 
 tween consciousness and history. This being so, which of the two 
 consciousnesses is likely to be the reality, and which, the delusion. 
 My consciousness agrees with otherwise ascertained facts ; your con- 
 sciousness disagrees with the same. Are you the monomaniac, or 
 I ? Why should there be so much enmity to a Historical faith^ and 
 an objective revelation? Is it not that facts are stubborn things, 
 and that, till they are thrown out of the way, the theorist has not 
 a clear field for his extravagance, and cannot rove at large without 
 stumbling over them? In dreams, the objective world is excluded. 
 The moment it returns, on the awakening of the senses, the dreams 
 vanish. In sleep you may fly over an ocean, or walk through a 
 hill; but the dream does not prove that seas and mountains are 
 other than realities holding us to our peace. It is well they do, 
 else chaos would be come again. 
 
 We positively refuse to give up the Historical Argument. It is 
 too substantial to be overlooked. It can neither be pushed from its 
 place by violence nor avoided by loftiness of look. It may not be 
 exactly so spiritual as some idealistic persons may desire ; but in 
 this matter-of-fact existence of ours we think it more rational to deal 
 with realities, even though they should be objective, than to pass our 
 precious time in giving to airy nothing 
 
 *' A local habitation and a name,*' , 
 
PART II. 
 
 OF THE AUXILIARY EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 OHAPTEE I. 
 
 PEOPHEOT.* 
 
 Isaiah, lii ; 13. liii. " Behold, my servant shall deal pru- 
 dently ; he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. 
 As many were astonished at thee (his visage was so marred 
 more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men) : 
 so shall he sprinkle many nations ; the kings shall shut their 
 mouths at him : for that which had not been told them, shall 
 they see ; and that which they had not heard, shall they con- 
 sider. — Who hath believed our report ? and to which is the arm 
 of the Lord revealed ? For he shall grow up before him as a \ 
 tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground : he hath no 
 form nor comeliness ; and when we shall see him, there is no 
 beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and reject- 
 ed of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief : and 
 we hid as it were, our faces from him ; he was despised, and 
 we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and 
 carried our sorrows : yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten 
 of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgress- 
 ions, he was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our 
 peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed. All 
 we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to 
 his own way ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity 
 
 * See note A, at the end of the Chapter. 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 247 
 
 of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he open- 
 ed not his mouth : he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, 
 and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not 
 his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment ; 
 and who shall declare his generation ? for he was cut off out of 
 the land of the living : for the transgression of my people was 
 he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with 
 the rich in his death ; because he had done no violence, neither 
 was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to 
 bruise him ; he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make 
 his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall pro- 
 long his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in 
 his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be 
 satisfied : by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify 
 many ; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I di- 
 vide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil 
 with the strong ; because he hath poured out his soul unto 
 death : and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare 
 the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." 
 
 These words are extant in a book, purporting to contain 
 the predictions of a writer who lived seven centuries before 
 the Christian era. 
 
 That material part of every argument from prophecy, 
 namely, that the words alleged were actually spoken or writ- 
 ten before the fact to which they are applied took place, or 
 could by any natural means be foreseen, is, in the present in- 
 stance, incontestable. The record comes out of the custody 
 of adversaries. The Jews, as an ancient father well observed, 
 are our librarians. The passage is in their copies, as well as 
 in ours. With many attempts to explain it away, none has 
 ever been made by them to discredit its authenticity. 
 
 And, what adds to the force of the quotation is, that it is 
 taken from a writing declaredly prophetic ; a writing, professing 
 to describe such future transactions and changes in the world, 
 as were connected with the fate and interests of the Jewish 
 nation. It is not a passage in an historical or devotional com- 
 
248 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 position, which, because it turns out to be applicable to some 
 future events, or to some future situation of affairs, is presum- 
 ed to have been oracular. The words of Isaiah were deliver- 
 ed by him in a prophetic character, with the solemnity belong- 
 ing to that character ; and what he so delivered, was all along 
 understood by the Jewish reader to refer to something that 
 was to take place after the time of the author. The public 
 sentiments of the Jews concerning the design of Isaiah's writ- 
 ings, are set forth in the book of Ecclesiasticus:^ " He saw 
 by an excellent spirit, what should come to pass at the last, 
 and he comforted them that mourned in Sion. He showed 
 what should come to pass forever, and secret things or ever 
 they came." 
 
 It is also an advantage which this prophecy possesses, that 
 it is intermixed with no other subject. It is entire, separate, 
 and uninterruptedly directed to one scene of things. f 
 
 The application of the prophecy to the evangelic history is 
 plain and appropriate. Here is no double sense ; no figura- 
 tive language, but what is sufficiently intelligible to every 
 reader of every country. The obscurities (by which I mean 
 the expressions that require a knowledge of local diction, and 
 of local allusion) are few, and not of great importance. Nor 
 have I found that varieties of reading, or a different constru- 
 ing of the original, produce any material alteration in the 
 sense of the prophecy. Compare the common translation 
 with that of bishop Lowth, and the difference is not consider- 
 able. So far as they do differ, bishop Lowth's corrections, 
 which are the faithful result of an accurate examination, bring 
 the description nearer to the New Testament history than it 
 was before. In the fourth verse of the fifty-third chapter, 
 what our Bible renders " stricken," he translates " judicially 
 stricken :" and in the eighth verse, the clause, " he was taken 
 from prison and from judgment," the bishop gives, " by an 
 oppressive judgment he was taken off." The next words to 
 
 * Chap, xlviii. ver. 24. 
 
 f See Note B, at the end of this Chapter. 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 249 
 
 these, " who shall declare his generation f are much cleared 
 up in their meaning, by the bishop's version; "his manner 
 of life who would declare f i, e, who would stand forth in 
 his defence 1 The former part of the ninth verse, " and he 
 made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his 
 death," which inverts the circumstances of Christ's passion, 
 the bishop brings out in an order perfectly agreeable to the 
 event ; " and his grave was • appointed with the wicked, but 
 with the rich man was his tomb." The words in the eleventh 
 verse, "by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify 
 many," are, in the bishop's version, " by the knowledge of him 
 shall my righteous servant justify many." 
 
 It is natural to inquire what turn the Jews themselves give 
 to this prophecy.* There is good proof that the ancient 
 Eabbins explained it of their expe'cted Messiah :f but their 
 modern expositors concur, I think, in representing it as a 
 description of the calamitous state and intended restoration 
 of the Jewish people, who are here, as they say, exhibited 
 under the character of a single person. I have not discovered 
 that their exposition rests upon any critical arguments, or 
 upon these in any other than a very minute degree. The 
 clause in the ninth verse, which we render " for the trans- 
 gression of my people was he stricken," and in the margin, 
 " was the stroke upon him," the Jews read " for the trans- 
 gression of my people was the stroke upon themy And 
 what they allege in support of the alteration amounts only to 
 this, that the Hebrew pronoun is capable of a plural, as well 
 as of a singular signification ; that is to say, is capable of 
 
 * " Vaticinium hoc Esaise est carnificina Rabbinorum, de quo 
 aliqui Judsei mihi confessi sunt, Rabbinos suos ex propheticis scrip- 
 turis facile se extricare potuisse, 7nodd Esaias tacuisset." Hulse, 
 Theol. Jud., p. 318, quoted by Poole, in loc. 
 
 This prophecy of Isaiah is the torment of the Rabbins, respecting 
 which some Jews have confessed to me, that their Rabbins could 
 easily have extricated themselves from the prophetic scriptures, if 
 Isaiah had only held his peace. — £Jd. 
 
 \ Hulse, Theol. Jud., p. 430. 
 
 11* 
 
260 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part 11. 
 
 their construction as well as ours."* And this is all the varia- 
 tion contended for ; the rest of the prophecy they read as we 
 do. The probability, therefore, of their exposition, is a sub- 
 ject of which we are as capable of judging as themselves. 
 This judgment is open indeed to the good sense of every 
 
 * Bishop Lowth adopts in this place the reading of the Seventy, 
 which gives smitten to death. " for the transgression of my people 
 was he smitten to death." The addition of the words "to d<^ath," 
 makes an end of the Jewish interpretation of the clause. And the 
 authority, upon which this reading (though not given by the present 
 Hebrew text) is adopted, Dr. Kennicot has set forth by an argument 
 not only so cogent, but so clear and popular, that I beg leave to 
 transcribe the substance of it into this note: — "Origen, after hav- 
 ing quoted at large this prophecy concerning the Messiah, tells us, 
 that, having once made use of this passage, in a dispute against some 
 that were accounted wise among the Jews, one of them replied that 
 the words did not mean one man, but one people, the Jews, who were 
 smitten of God, and dispersed among the Gentiles for their conver- 
 sion ; that he then urged many parts of this prophecy, to show the 
 absurdity of this interpretation, and that he seemed to press them 
 the hardest by this sentence, — 'for the transgression of my people 
 was he smitten to death.' Now, as Origen, the author of the Ilexapla, 
 must have understood Hebrew, we cannot suppose that he would 
 have urged this last text as so decisive, if the Greek version had not 
 agreed here with the Hebrew text ; nor that these wise Jews would 
 have been at all distressed by this quotation, unless the Hebrew text 
 had read agreeably to the words "to death," on which the argument 
 principally depended ; for, by quoting it immediately, they would 
 have triumphed over him, and reprobated his Greek version. This, 
 whenever they could do it, was their constant practice in their dis- 
 putes with the Christians. Origen himself, who laboriously com- 
 pared the Hebrew text with the Septuagint, has recorded the neces- 
 sity of arguing with the Jews, from such passages only, as were in 
 the Septuagint agreeable to the Hebrew. Wherefore, as Origen had 
 carefully compared the Greek version of the Septuagint with tlie 
 Hebrew text ; and as he puzzled and confounded the learned Jews, 
 by urging upon them the reading " to death" in this place: it seems 
 almost impossible not to conclude, both from Origen's argument, and 
 the silence of his Jewish adversaries, that the Hebrew text at that 
 time actually had the word agreeably to the version of the Seventy." 
 Lowth's Isaiah, p. 242. 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 251 
 
 attentive reader. The application which the Jews contend 
 for, appears to me to labor under insuperable difficulties ; in 
 particular, it may be demanded of them to explain, in whose 
 name or person, if the Jewish people be the sufferer, does the 
 prophet speak, when he says, " He hath borne our griefs, and 
 carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten 
 of God, and afflicted ; but he was wounded for our trans- 
 gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement 
 of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are heal- 
 ed." Again, the description in the seventh verse, *' he was 
 oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth ; 
 he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep be- 
 fore her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth," 
 quadrates with no part of the Jewish history with which we 
 are acquainted. The mention of the " grave," and the 
 " tomb," in the ninth verse, is not very applicable to the for- 
 tunes of a nation ; and still less so is the conclusion of the 
 prophecy in the twelfth verse, w^hich expressly represents the 
 sufferings as voluntary^ and the sufferer as interceding for the 
 offenders ; " because he hath poured out his soul unto death, 
 and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the 
 sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." 
 
 There are other prophecies of the Old Testament, inter- 
 preted by Christians to relate to the Gospel history, which 
 are deserving both of great regard, and of a very attentive 
 consideration ; but I content myself with stating the above, 
 as well because I think it the clearest and the strongest of 
 all, as because most of the rest, in order that their value might 
 be represented with any tolerable degree of fidelity, require 
 a discussion unsuitable to the limits and nature of this work. 
 The reader will find them disposed in order, and distinctly ex- 
 plained, in bishop Chandler's treatise on the subject ; and he 
 will bear in mind, what has been often, and, I think, truly, 
 urged by the advocates of Christianity, that there is no other 
 eminent person, to the history of whose life so many circum- 
 stances can be made to apply. They who object that much 
 
252 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 has been done by the power of chance, the ingenuity of ac- 
 commodation, and the industry of research, ought to try 
 whether the same, or anything like it, could be done, if Ma- 
 homet, or any other person, were proposed as the subject of 
 Jewish prophecy. 
 
 II. A second head of argument from prophecy, is founded 
 upon our Lord's predictions concerning the destruction of Je- 
 rusalem, recorded by three out of the four evangelists. 
 
 Luke, xxi. 5-25. " And as some spake of the temple, 
 how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said. As 
 for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the 
 which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall 
 not be thrown down. And they asked him, saying. Master, 
 but when shall these things be ? and what sign will there be 
 when these things shall come to pass ? And he said. Take 
 heed that ye be not deceived, for many shall come in my name, 
 saying, I am Christ ; and the time draweth near : go ye not 
 therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of wars and 
 commotions, be not terrified : for these things must first 
 come to pass ; but the end is not by-and-by. Then said he 
 unto them. Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom 
 against kingdom ; and great earthquakes shall be in divers 
 places, and famines and pestilences ; and fearful sights, and 
 great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, 
 they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, deliver- 
 ing you .up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought 
 before kings and rulers for my name's sake. And it shall 
 turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, 
 not to meditate before, what ye shall answer : for I will give 
 you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall 
 not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed 
 both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends ; and 
 some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye 
 shall be h^ted of all men for my name's sake. But there 
 shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience pos- 
 sess ye your souls. And when ye shall see Jerusalem com- 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 253 
 
 passed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is 
 nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the moun- 
 tains ; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out ; 
 and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. 
 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are 
 written may be fulfilled. But wo unto them that are with 
 child, and to them that give suck, in those days : for there 
 shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. 
 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be 
 led away captive into all nations : and Jerusalem shall be 
 trodden down of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles 
 be fulfilled." 
 
 In terms nearly similar, this discourse is related in the 
 twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, and the thirteenth of Mark. 
 The prospect of the same evils drew from our Saviour, on 
 another occasion, the following affecting expressions of concern, 
 which are preserved by Saint Luke (xix. 41-44) : " And 
 when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 
 saying. If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy 
 day, the things which belong unto thy peace ! but now they 
 are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, 
 that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass 
 thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee 
 even with the ground, and thy children within thee ; and they 
 shall not leave in thee one stone upon another ; because thou 
 knewes-t not the time of thy visitation." These passages are 
 direct and explicit predictions. References to the same event, 
 some plain, some parabolical, or otherwise figurative, are 
 found in divers other discourses of our Lord.* 
 
 The general agreement of the description with the event, 
 viz. with the ruin of the Jewish nation, and the capture of 
 Jerusalem under Vespasian, thirty-six years after Christ's 
 death, is most' evident ; and the accordancy in various articles 
 of detail and circumstance has been shown by many learned 
 
 * Mat. xxi. 33 — 46; xxii. 1 — 7. Mark, xii. 1 — 12. Luke, xiii. 1—9; 
 XX. 9—20 ; xxi. 5—13. 
 
254 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Paut II. 
 
 writers. It is also an advantage to the inquiry, and to the 
 argument built upon it, that we have received a copious ac- 
 count of the transaction from Josephus, a Jewish and contem- 
 porary historian. This part of the case is perfectly free from 
 doubt. The only question which, in my opinion, can be raised 
 upon the subject, is, whether the prophecy was really delivered 
 hefore the event ; I shall apply, therefore, my observations to 
 this point solely. 
 
 1. The judgment of antiquity, though varying in the pre- 
 cise year of the publication of the three Gospels, concurs in 
 assigning them a date prior to the destruction of Jerusalem.* 
 
 2. This judgment is confirmed by a strong probability 
 arising from the course of human life. The destruction of 
 Jerusalem took place in the seventieth year after the birth of 
 Christ. The three evangelists, one of whom was his immedi- 
 ate companion, and the other two associated with his com- 
 panions, were, it is probable, not much younger than he was. 
 They must, consequently, have been far advanced in life 
 when Jerusalem was taken ; and no reason has been given 
 why they should defer writing their histories so long. 
 
 3. f If the evangelists, at the time of writing the Gospels, 
 had known of the destruction of Jerusalem, by which catas- 
 trophe the prophecies wefe plainly fulfilled, it is most proba- 
 ble that, in recording the predictions, they would have drop- 
 ped some word or other about the completion ; in like man- 
 ner as Luke, after relating the denunciation of a dearth by 
 Agabus, adds, " which came to pass in the days of Claudius 
 Cagsar :"f whereas the prophecies are given distinctly in one 
 chapter of each of the first three Gospels, and referred to in 
 several different passages of each, and, in none of all these 
 places, does there appear the smallest intimation that the 
 things spoken of had come to pass. I do admit, that it would 
 have been the part of an impostor, who wished his readers to 
 
 * Lardner, vol. xiii. See note C, at the end of the Chapter, 
 f Le Clerc, Diss. III. de. Quat. Evang. num., vii. p. 541. 
 X Acts, xi. 28. 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 255 
 
 believe that his book was written before the event, when in 
 truth it was written after it, to have suppressed any such in- 
 timation carefully. But this was not the character of the au- 
 thors of the Gospel. Cunning was no quality of theirs. Of 
 all writers in the world, they thought the least of providing 
 against objections. Moreover, there is no clause in any one 
 of them, that makes a profession of their having written prior 
 to the Jewish wars, which a fraudulent purpose would have 
 led them to pretend. They have done neither one thing nor 
 the other : they have neither inserted any words, which might 
 signify to the reader that their accounts were written before 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, which a sophist would have 
 done ; nor have they dropped a hint of the completion of the 
 prophecies recorded by them, which an undesigning writer, 
 writing after the event, could hardly, on some or other of the 
 many occasions that presented themselves, have missed of 
 doing. 
 
 4. The admonitions* which Christ is represented to have 
 given to his followers to save themselves by flight, are not 
 easily accounted for, on the supposition of the prophecy being 
 fabricated after the event. Either the Christians, when the 
 siege approached, did make their escape from Jerusalem, or 
 they did not : if they did, they must have had the prophecy 
 amongst them : if they did not know of any such prediction 
 at the time of the siege, if they did not take notice of any 
 such warning, it was an improbable fiction, in a writer pub- 
 lishing his work near to that time (which, on any, even the 
 
 * " When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know 
 that the desolation thereof is nigh ; then let them which are in Judea, 
 flee to the mountains ; then let them which are in the midst of it 
 depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto." 
 Luke, xxi. 20, 21. 
 
 " When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then let 
 them which be in Judea flee unto the mountains ; let him which is 
 on the house-top not come down to take anything out of his house ; 
 neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes." 
 Matt. xiv. 18. 
 
256 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 lowest and most disadvantageous supposition, was the case 
 with the Gospels now in our hands), and addressing his 
 work to Jews and to Jewish converts (which Matthew cer- 
 tainly did), to state that the followers of Christ had received 
 admonition, of which they made no use when the occasion ar- 
 rived, and of which experience then recent proved, that those 
 w^ho were most concerned to know and regard them, w^ere 
 ignorant or negligent. Even if the prophecies came to the 
 hands of the evangelists through no better vehicle than tra- 
 dition, it must have been by a tradition which subsisted prior 
 to the event. And to suppose that, without any authority 
 w^hatever, without so much as even any tradition to guide them, 
 they had forged these passages, is to impute to them a degree 
 of fraud and imposture, from every appearance of which their 
 compositions are as far removed as possible. 
 
 5. I think that, if the prophecies had been composed after 
 the event, there would have been more specification. The 
 names or descriptions of the enemy, the general, the emperor, 
 would have been found in them. The designation of the 
 time would have been more determinate. And I am fortified 
 in this opinion by observing, that the counterfeited prophecies 
 of the Sibylline oracles, of the twelve patriarchs, and I am in- 
 clined to believe, most others of the kind, are mere tran- 
 scripts of the history, moulded into a prophetic form. 
 
 It is objected, that the prophecy of the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem is mixed, or connected, with expressions which relate to 
 the final judgment of the world ; and so connected, as to lead 
 an ordinary reader to expect that these two events would not 
 be far distant from each other. To which I answer, that the 
 objection does not concern our present argument. If our 
 Saviour actually foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, it is 
 sufficient ; even although w^e should allow, that the narration 
 of the prophecy had combined what had been said by him on 
 kindred subjects, without accurately preserving the order, or 
 always noticing the transition of the discourse. 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 257 
 
 Note A. 
 
 It will be observed that, in the text, there is no formal abstract 
 statement of the argument from prophecy. Dr. Paley commences at 
 once with a case in point, namely, the celebrated prediction of Christ's 
 humiliation and exaltation, as recorded in the 62d and 53d Chapters 
 of Isaiah ; but in his exposition of this case, the heads of the general 
 argument are made clearly to appear. Of these the First is, that 
 the passage be undoubtedly prophetic, and not part of a devotional or 
 historical composition, which, because it turns out to be applicable 
 to some future events, or situation of affairs, is presumed to have 
 been oracular. It must be confessed that, both in the preaching and 
 publications of a certain class of clergymen, fancy has frequently 
 outrun discretion ; so that types and prophecies have been alleged 
 where none were intended, or, at least, where none are discoverable 
 by sober thinkers. Such a practice was utterly abhorrent to Paley's 
 unimaginative and logical mind ; and, perhaps, he carried his dislike 
 of it a little too far. We question very much if a treatise like that 
 of Bishop Home on the Psalms was at all to the taste of the less 
 Evangelical Archdeacon of Carlisle. Yet no Christian who devoutly 
 searches the scriptures, and no theologian who has read Venema or 
 Hengstenberg's more critical commentaries on the same book, will 
 allow that Bishop Home has made any unwarrantable application of 
 the "devotional compositions" of King David, to events in the life 
 of the Messiah. Be this as it may, however, we are on the safest 
 ground, when, in deducing from prophecy an argument in favor of 
 the Bible, we take for illustration those predictions which are de- 
 claredly prophetic. The Second requisite in the proof from prophecy 
 is, that the words alleged were actually written or spoken before the 
 fact to which they are applied took place, or could be foreseen by 
 any supposable effort of reason, or determined upon principles of 
 collusion derived from probability or experience. And the Third 
 requisite is, that the application of the prophecy to the alleged fulfil- 
 ment be plain and appropriate ; in other words, that the event indis- 
 putably correspond with the prediction. In all cases of this kind, it 
 is manifest that the foreknowledge and sovereignty which belong to 
 God alone, are produced in attestation of the divine origin of the 
 record which embodies them. In every such case we have the same 
 proof for the Deity's being concerned in the professed revelation to 
 which the prophecy belongs, as is afforded by an ordinary miracle ; 
 — the one, in fact, being a miracle of knowledge, just as the other 
 is a miracle of power ; or, upon the more transcendental hypothesis, 
 
258 EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 the one presenting a remote, just as the other presents an instanta- 
 neous, or paulo-post future, accomplishment of a prediction, which no 
 human sagacity could have foreseen. That all three requisites are 
 complied with in the two cases stated by our author — and he states 
 two only — cannot admit of a doubt. Hence the conclusion is inev- 
 itable, that God must have been with the respective prophets, and 
 that their commission was indeed divine. These predictions, in their 
 minute circumstantiality, their unambiguous language, their dignity, 
 their consistency with all we can conceive of the Divine character, 
 stand out in contrast as remarkable with the oracles of the heathen, 
 and the coincidences that superstition loves to lay hold of, as do the 
 miracles of the Bible with the pagan and popish wonders which 
 Hume parades as miracles in his notable comparison, and which 
 CampBell, even more decisively than Paley, proves to have been 
 either ordinary occurrences, or absolute deceptions. 
 
 The Bible, in the estimation of all who truly understand it, i^ the 
 history of Redemption ; and its grand central object is the personage 
 by whom Redemption was achieved. Of him, "Moses in the laWj 
 and the prophets did write." We are, therefore, to expect that the 
 largest number of the prophecies of the Old Testament — whether 
 these consist of significant types and ceremonies, or of verbal an- 
 nouncements — will have reference to him, and find their fulfilment 
 in his condition, character, and history. Let any candid man con- 
 eider the multitude of particulars foretold of the Messiah — many of 
 them in themselves so improbable, and apparently contradictory ^- 
 the circumstances of his descent, his nativity, his rank, his offices, 
 his miracles, his actions, his teaching, his dispositions, his honor and 
 dignity, his humiliation, his trial and death, his resurrection, his 
 ascension, and his spiritual supremacy over the nations ; let him re- 
 member, moreover, that all these have been preserved in the sacred 
 books of a people who rejected, and still do reject, Jesus of Kazareth, 
 and who, therefore, would not consciously be parties to anything 
 that might favor his pretensions, or substantiate his claims ; and 
 further, let him summon up, and retain before him, the exact accom- 
 plishment of the whole in Christ's person alone — an accomplishment 
 which requires no straining or distortion of language and history to 
 make it obvious— we say, let any man fairly give his attention to- 
 this marvellous train of predictions and fulfilments, and then declare 
 if it will possibly admit of any explanation save one ; namely, that 
 Jesus was all he proclaimed himself to be, and that his religion was 
 from heaven and not of men. Dr. Chalmers has sketched this view 
 of the prophetic testimony with his usual vigor. Speaking of the 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 259 
 
 multiplication of Evidence for the truth of Christianity — the number 
 of its different kinds — he says: "If the probability on the side of 
 the Christian religion, from its miracles alone, be as a thousand to 
 one, and, from its prophecies alone, be also as a thousand to one, the 
 coincidence of both gives the assurance of a million to one that 
 Christianity is true. But, on the other hand, you will remark, that 
 this multitude of evidence thus laid claim to, makes the case all the 
 ' more vulnerable. Should some glaring misprophecy, for example, 
 annihilate that branch of the evidence, it would effect a greater mis- 
 chief to the cause than the mere detraction of one part of the argu- 
 ment ; it, in fact, would reach a general blow to the religion itself. It 
 would have the same effect, for instance, on the argument from mira- 
 cles, that the occurrence of a something false or immoral in the sub- 
 stance of the revelation would have. Such a thing would not only 
 weaken or destroy the internal Evidence ; it would nullify all the 
 extertial Evidence together* And the mischief that could be done 
 by the inculcation of what we knew to be a false doctrine, or felt to 
 be a false principle of morality, would certainly be incurred also by 
 the deliverance of what we saw turned out to be a false prophecy. 
 So that the same diversity of Evidence which, if all made out, 
 strengthens inconceivably the case ; before it is made out, puts that 
 case on the proportionably greater hazard of a fearful precarious- 
 ness. It is a strong presumption in favor of Christianity that the 
 hazard is so fearlessly incurred. There is a striking contrast here, 
 between the simple, unembarrassed hianner of all Scripture, when 
 touching either on its miracles and prophecies, or precepts and prin- 
 ciples, and the anxious explanations of the Alkoran on the subject 
 of its own want of miraculous evidence. To hazard the ordeal of 
 such a multiple examination, and come out untouched, or rather vin- 
 dicated, in all the branches of it — to make so wide and open an ex- 
 posure, as it does, of itself, throwing itself abroad over the wide 
 domain both of nature and of history, and making itself liable to be 
 confronted at all hands with authors innumerable, and along such a 
 lapse, too, of many generations — to begin its narrative with the 
 commencement of the world, and shoot forward its predictions to 
 the end of it, and yet to have sustained such a marvellous accordancy 
 both with the certainties of the past, and the gradual developments 
 of the future, — there is certainly in all this a most impressive gen- 
 eral consideration on the side both of the Jewish and Christian rev- 
 elations, which, if they have incurred a thousand-fold risk by vary- 
 ing and multiplying their pretensions as they have done ; by sub- 
 
260 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 stantiating these pretensions, come forth with greatly more than a 
 thousand-fold strength of vindicated authority in consequence. 
 
 " But there is more than this. Not only does the case gain prodig- 
 iously by this complication of its evidences, when a distinct argu- 
 ment is gathered from each of its branches ; there is in some of these 
 separate branches, looked at singly, an immense accumulation of 
 proof, just from the number of distinct contingencies that must meet 
 in order to make out the evidence in question. Nowhere is this 
 more remarkable than in the evidence from prophecy. Take, for 
 example, the birth of our Saviour at Bethlehem — what a prodigious 
 evidence arises from the two parts of place and time ! That the 
 birth should have taken place anywhere in Judea, of a person who 
 might substantiate the claims of a Divine messenger, was, in itself, a 
 very hazardous position. But how the hazard is multiplied by the 
 mere specification of the town — multiplied a hundred-fold^ should 
 you only suppose the hundred towns or villages in the whole coun- 
 try. And, in like manner, there was risk in the prediction of such a 
 personage within five hundred years from the time of its utterance ; 
 but the risk is augmented, at least five hundred-fold by the ventur- 
 ing on a particular year for the fulfilment of this event. The com- 
 bination of the two gives immense force of evidence to both, when 
 they are thus found together. 
 
 " And then, just think of the many contingencies that meet together, 
 all of them beyond reach of the possibility of human forethought, 
 and each of them necessary to the determination of the birth at the 
 place where it happened. The politics of a distant government had 
 a share in this accomplishment. It hinged on a decree from Caesar 
 Augustus ; and when one recollects that the providence of God in 
 the affairs of the world was thus concerned, it seems strongly to mark 
 a common origin for the providence and for the prophecy. The multi- 
 ple evidence of combination is brought out with astonishing force 
 when a circumstantial prophecy quadrates with a narrative alike cir- 
 cumstantial. Take, for example, the account of our Saviour's cruci- 
 fixion, and though there were only ten circumstances of the narrative 
 in the New Testament that tallied with the pre-intimations of the 
 Old, what a mighty product of evidence may be grounded upon this ! 
 Let any man express in numbers the improbability that, without in- 
 spiration, any one should know, five hundred years before it hap- 
 pened, of the death that the teacher of the new revelation was to un- 
 dergo, of the vinegar that was to be administered to him, of the par- 
 tition of his vesture by lot, of the mockery that was to assail him on 
 all sides, nevertheless of the honorable burial that he was to receive ; 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 261 
 
 and finally, of some wondrous enlargement that, after all this deep 
 humiliation was to come upon him and his cause, with a number of 
 nicer circumstances, which, in very proportion to their nicety, enhance, 
 to an incalculable amount, the force of the argument. If there be 
 ten thousand chances against one human being knowing of a single 
 circumstance such as any of these respecting another, at the distance 
 of half a millennium, what a vast multiplication of chances against 
 his knowing them all ! What an evidence is thus aflforded for the 
 preternatural communications of a higher intelligence than his own — 
 what a miracle of knowledge is thus exhibited — what a hopeless su- 
 periority over all the anticipations of human sagacity and skill — 
 what a palpable demonstration that here must have been the sugges- 
 tion of Him who knoweth the end from the beginning, — here must 
 have been the omniscience of a God!" 
 
 In this passage will be discovered that fondness for numerical op- 
 erations which, his biographer informs us, was characteristic of its 
 author. Chalmers' favorite science, after theology, was the mathe- 
 matics ; and, like Pascal, he lost no opportunity of making such ap- 
 plications of them to sacred and moral subjects, as the nature of both 
 would permit. Those who are continually craving for mathematical 
 demonstration, even in Divinity, may occasionally have their whim 
 gratified; whereof the present is an instance. De Moivre and La- 
 place themselves must have been contented with Dr. Chalmers' ap- 
 plication of their own researches into the doctrines of chance. 
 
 But after all, it may be said that the fulfilment of the prophecies 
 concerning the crucifixion of Christ is detailed in the New Testament 
 itself; and consequently we must know the New Testament to be 
 true, hefore the argument from those prophecies can be of any avail in 
 the question. To this objection we answer: 1st. That the crucifixion 
 of Christ in the reign of Tiberius, under his Procurator, Pontius Pi- 
 late, is recorded by Tacitus. — Annals, book 15th, chap. 44th. 2d. 
 That the books of the New Testament are proved to be authentic iu 
 the self-same manner that the Annals of Tacitus are, without any 
 reference to their sacred character, but merely as portions of ancient 
 history ; and therefore the more minute record which they contain is 
 historically as trust-worthy as his very general statement. And 3d. 
 That the Gospel narratives were published very shortly after the 
 crucifixion took place — published by, and among, men of the exist- 
 ing generation, whose familiarity with all the circumstances of a 
 transaction so notorious must have rendered falsehood and imposture 
 in the matter impossible. This early publication and notoriety of 
 the Gospels is powerfully insisted on by Dr. Wardlaw, pp. 131-138. 
 
262 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 It is obvious that similar reasoning will apply to all the fulfilments 
 of prophecy afforded by the history of Christ. What Josephns is 
 to the predictions of Christ himself, the history of Christ is to the 
 predictions of the Old Testament. 
 
 In note C, at the end of Paley's preparatory considerations (p. 34) we 
 inserted a reference to note A, at the close of the chapter on prophecy. 
 Arguing for the possibility of miracles, we there appealed to the evi- 
 dence of successive creations disclosed by4;he researches of geology. 
 Creation is a miracle — a direct exertion of Divine power. Fulfilled 
 prophecy is also a miracle — an undeniable demonstration of Divine 
 knowledge and sovereignty. In the successive fulfilments of undoubted 
 predictions — -just as in the successive appearances of undoubted crea- 
 tions — we obtain proof that miracles have actually taken place. The 
 prophetic documents are in existence ; the historical documents are 
 also in existence ; and every traveller, whether Christian or infidel, 
 from the lands of prophecy, brings geographical accounts that as- 
 tonish the reader by their absolutely literal identity with the words 
 of seers who wrote thousands of years ago. This evidence cannot, 
 any more than the records engraven on the rocks, be sneered and 
 cavilled at as being " diluted by transmission through many ages." 
 The very antiquity of one set of the documents constitutes their 
 value in the demonstration, and the rest of the testimony is as fresh as 
 the most sceptical can desire. Let travellers continue to explore ; 
 let the state of Palestine, and Amnion, and Moab, and Edom, and 
 Babylon, and Tyre, be pictured on the traveller's page ; let Egypt and 
 Assyria reveal their sculptured secrets ; and every new accession to 
 our knowledge of these once proud but now prostrate lands, will be 
 an additional testimony to the divine origin of that book wherein 
 their destinies were foretold, while they were yet in the noon-day of 
 their power and grandeur. 
 
 But what renders this testimony in favor of miracles all the more 
 extraordinary is, that the very objection to miracles, which has been 
 derived from the constancy of nature, is itself the subject of express 
 prediction, and is refuted by the Apostle who delivers the prediction, 
 by an appeal to the very facts which modern geology has established. 
 The words are most remarkable : " There shall come, in the last 
 days, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying. Where is 
 the promise of his coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things 
 continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they 
 willingly are ignorant of, that hy the Word of God the heavens were of 
 old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water ; whereby 
 the world, that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 263 
 
 (2 Pet. iii. 3-6.) Here the work of Creation by the Word of God is 
 adduced as an example of immediate Divine interposition^ whereof the 
 sceptics that wqvq to arise in the last time would be willingly igno- 
 rant. The latest argument of the doubter is thus the newest demon 
 stration of the truth. 
 
 We had intended to add to this note several instances of fulfilled 
 prophecy, in order to supplement the deficiency of illustration in the 
 text, but the note has already run to such a length that we must 
 forbear, and refer the reader to those works where the subject is 
 handled, and which are most easily accessible. These are (1.) "Keith 
 on the Prophecies" — (Philadelphia Presbyterian Board of Publication) 
 — a popular treatise, embracing an account of those predictions 
 which demand little or no application of criticism to exhibit the cor- 
 respondence between the prophecy and its accomplishment. It 
 makes use of all the information furnished by modern travellers to 
 the East, and compares their descriptions with the prophetic record; 
 showing an agreement between them as interesting as it is wonder- 
 ful. It is a collection of palpable fulfilments of undoubted predic- 
 tions. (2.) " Home's Introduction," (Carter & Brothers,) chap, iv., sec. 
 3, which contains much valuable information on this subject, and 
 many references to standard works. (3.) " Discourses on Prophecy," 
 by John Davidson, B. D. ; "a writer," says Dr. Chalmers, " of great 
 originality and strength, and whom the high culture of the highest 
 English education has not chastened into feebleness." " Hill's Lectures 
 in Divinity," book i., chaps. 6th and 7th. The entire work of Dr. Hill 
 is one of the most luminous, dignified, candid, and academical per- 
 formances on the Science of Theology that we know. Had religious 
 discussion been always conducted in the same spirit, and with the 
 same ability, controversy would have lost far more than half its bit- 
 terness. We recommend all that he says of prophecy in the two 
 chapters above alluded to, as eminently worthy of perusal. The 
 coolness, clearness, and fairness of Hill are to us positively charm- 
 ing. The Lectures in Divinity have been republished in America by 
 Carter <fe Brothers, 1854. Nelson's "Cause and Cure of Infidelity" 
 (American Tract Society) — a work as popular as that of Dr. Keith, 
 but not the less valuable on that account. The remarks on Prophecy 
 will be found in chaps. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Read them; and if they 
 lack the dignity of Hill, men who are in quest of truth will not be 
 offended. In addition to these we recommend the whole library of 
 English Divines who have treated the subject of prophecy: Newton, 
 Warburton, Clarke, Chandler, Hurd, Sherlock, Faber, <fec., &c., &c. We 
 cannot sufiiciently wonder at the courage of those who would quietly 
 
264 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 set aside all this array of learning and ability without examination, 
 because it suits their purpose better, and is altogether more conve- 
 nient, to depend for knowledge of the truth upon Spiritual instinct 
 and intuitive perception. Intuitive perception, religious conscious- 
 ness, spiritual instinct, deny, of course, the possibility of prophecy, 
 as they do that of miracles. If they landed their lovers in the pos- 
 sibility and existence of both, the coincidence of result in the two 
 processes — objective and subjective — would be less, startling, and 
 much more assuring ; but to blot out ruthlessly the entire evidence 
 from history and accomplished prediction, on the faith of a spiritual 
 instinct, an inspiration of genius, an intuitive perception, or any 
 spiritual faculty revealing to us the "Absolute Religion" — to do 
 this without any further evidence that siich spiritual faculty exists 
 than the ipse dixits of Transcendentalism, is to the last ^degree cour- 
 ageous — some would say foolhardy — even in the most erudite ; but in 
 the shallow, it is impertinent and presumptuous. So mighty a mass 
 of evidence cannot thus be swept away, any more than the existence 
 of matter was got rid of by Berkeley and Hume. Matter was too 
 strong for their metaphysics. 
 
 Note B. 
 Dr. Paley, for reasons already assigned, prefers to rest the argu- 
 ment from prophecy on predictions that have no double reference. 
 He seems, indeed, to have doubted if there be any such in the Bible. 
 But we have before said that in this leaning he decidedly errs. 
 That some prophecies have a two-fold, or even a three-fold reference, 
 is no reason why the fancy of imaginative and illogical men should 
 be suffered to run riot in the interpretation of all prophecy, or why 
 sound thinkers should be afraid to face the truth. The scheme of 
 prophecy is one great whole, embracing the history of nations so far 
 as it is connected with the Redemption of the human race by the 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; and not a few of the events predicted are related 
 to each other as type and anti-type. The reign of Solomon, the son 
 of David, is a type of the reign of David's still greater Son. Hence 
 the double reference pf the prediction recorded in the 7 2d Psalm. 
 The destruction of Jerusalem, and the diffusion of the Gospel in the 
 apostolic age, are types of the end of the world and of the coming 
 of the Saviour's Kingdom. Hence the double reference in the second 
 example of prophecy given in the text. For full information on this 
 subject we refer the student to the works on prophecy recommended- 
 in the previous note. We subjoin the following remarks of Dr. 
 Chalmers : 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, 265 
 
 "There is another very interesting general question on the subject 
 of prophecy, and that is, whether in any instance it is susceptible of 
 a two-fold interpretation. I am aware of the startling appearance 
 which this theory has when first proposed, though I doubt not that 
 an actual examination among the actual instances, will convince 
 most people that there is a real ground for it in Scripture. 
 
 " It may perhaps serve to reconcile you more to the conception 
 of double prophecy, when you recollect that there is a meaning con- 
 veyed by action as well as by expression, and that in the early ages, 
 when i^he arbitrary or artificial language had not attained to the 
 copiousness and the power which it has in our present day^ its de- 
 fects were supplied by symbolical language. In point of fact, the 
 Prophets of the Old Testament were often commanded to prophecy 
 by action ; and on comparing the ritual of Moses with the explana- 
 tions of a Few Testament epistle, the Epistle to the Hebrews, we 
 learn that the whole ceremonial law of the Jews was a symbolical 
 language, which spoke to us of the future dispensation of the gospeL 
 Knowledge was conveyed in those days, not through the medium of 
 pronounced utterance alone, but through the medium of things, and 
 doings, and historical personages : hence the legal types of the Le- 
 vitical institute, which beautifully and expressively j)refigured the 
 realities of the Christian economy, after which, in fact, they were 
 fashioned by Moses, who made all things according to the pattern 
 showed him in the mount; hence, also, the prophetical types, of 
 which we have frequent instances in the Old Testament, as in Jere- 
 miah, making bonds and yokes to prefigure the destruction of the 
 kings against whom he prophesied ; and, last of all, historical types, 
 as when the persons, and characters, and fortunes of eminent indi- 
 viduals in the Old Testament, were the prefigurations of a like char- 
 acter or fortune of eminent individuals in the New, or rather of that 
 one eminent personage, even Christ Jesus, the testimony of whom 
 was the very spirit and design of all prophecy. 
 
 "Now, conceive that instead of an historical personage or thing 
 being declared a type at the time of their appearance, they had been 
 made the subjects of prophecy before their appearance, then two 
 futurities were involved in the prediction : first, the appearance of 
 a person or an event which was the type ; and, secondly, the ulterior 
 appearance of a person or an event which was the antitype. As, 
 for example, in the prophecies that respected Solomon, the type of 
 Christ, which occur in the Book of Psalms, or that remarkable 
 prophecy which respected the destruction of Jerusalem, a type of 
 the destruction of the world. The prophecy might glow and be 
 
 12 
 
266 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 animated in its representation of the nearer, with the prospect of 
 the greater and more distant that was to follow — the description 
 may be too exalted for the one, because it approximated to the sur- 
 passing greatness of the other. The prophet in his delineation of 
 the type may have caught a color and a glory from the antitype 
 which it shadowed, and this I believe to be a theory which one is at 
 length compelled to adopt, not from the mere plausibility which be- 
 longs to it in the statement, but from an actual examination of Scrip- 
 ture passages. 
 
 " You will observe that this twofold application of prophecy only 
 comprehends a certain number of the specific instances. If it be 
 thought to hurt the simplicity and fairness of the argument, it 
 should be remembered that many, I believe most of the predictions 
 in the Bible, have but one direct and primary application ; but even 
 when there is this double sense, it is really an utter mistake to imag- 
 ine that this necessarily opens a door for the fanciful and the gratui- 
 tous in prophetic interpretation. The truth is, that when rightly con- 
 ducted, it will be found that it fixes and ascertains a prediction more 
 determinately that it has to meet, as it were, two conditions instead 
 of one — that a harmony must be made out not only between it and a 
 single separate subject, but a treble harmony, as it were, first be- 
 tween it and the nearer or typical event, then between it and the 
 remote or an ti typical event, and last of all, between the type and 
 the antitype. It is diflScult to work a conviction of this in you 
 without a special examination of the instances. I predict, as the 
 fruit of that examination, that most of you will be experimentally 
 or observationally shut up to a faith in the reality both of those 
 double interpretations and of the typical significances between the 
 symbol and the subject on which they are founded, and that so far 
 from the evidence being impaired, it will grow of consequence both 
 in strength and in beauty." 
 
 Note C. 
 
 the voyage of st. paul. 
 
 Among the chameleon-like forms of infidelity, the most recent, and 
 perhaps the most dangerous at the moment, is the mythical hypothe- 
 sis, of which Strauss' Life of Christ is the fullest exposition. It de- 
 nies the historical character of the New Testament, and maintains 
 that the Gospels were formed gradually, toward the close of the first, 
 or beginning of the second century, out of vague recollectioEs of 
 Jesus, and floating impressions of the great Messianic idea, which 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 267 
 
 clothed themselves in a semblance of real history. The view is so 
 utterly opposed to the impression, which must strike every simple 
 and honest reader in perusing the Gospels, of their intense historical 
 reality, and perfect simplicity of direct narrative, that it is hard to 
 conceive how any show of learned research can disguise its gross ab- 
 surdity. Yet since learned men have been found who would publish 
 it, it is possible that many others may be found to believe it ; and 
 hence it is desirable to present a simple antidote to this new modi- 
 fication of unbelief, in itself ridiculously absurd. A recent able 
 work, by J. Smith, Esq., on " the Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul," 
 though written with an independent object, really supplies such an 
 antidote in a very tangible and impressive form. 
 
 The fourth Gospel, according to the constant testimony of early 
 writers, was written by St. John, near the close of the first century, 
 or about A. D. 96. The most extreme scepticism cannot place it 
 much later, since there are several allusions to it in the shorter Epis- 
 tles of Ignatius, a recognition of it by Papias and Justin Martyr, and 
 a direct testimony to its origin, near the end of Domitian's reign, by 
 Irenseus, who conversed with Polycarp, the disciple of St. John. 
 Again, this Gospel is so plainly supplementary to the others, that it 
 is quite clear they were written before it, as all early witnesses agree. 
 It is also allowed by nearly all, including the advocates of the mythi- 
 cal hypothesis, that St. Matthew's Gospel was earlier than the two 
 others ; and this is tolerably plain from a close observation of their 
 character, apart from external evidence. Hence, if it can be proved 
 that the third Gospel was written by St. Luke, that is, by a compan- 
 ion of the apostles, as early as the middle of the first century, the 
 mythical hypothesis is completely overthrown ; since two of the 
 three earlier Gospels will thus be fixed to a date within thirty years 
 from the close of our Lord's ministry, and during the lifetime of 
 hundreds who were, in the phrase of St. Luke, eye-witnesses and 
 ministers of the word. 
 
 Again : The third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, both pro- 
 fess to be the work of the same author ; and that the Gospel, which 
 he calls " the former treatise," was written earlier than the other. 
 This profession of a common authorship is confirmed by their resem- 
 blance in style. The writer professes also, in the Gospel, to have 
 gained a perfect knowledge of the facts from eye-witnesses ; and in 
 the Acts, to have been the companion of St. Paul in several journeys, 
 and to have witnessed himself the events recorded in ten chapters, or 
 more than one-third of the whole. If this latter statement can be 
 proved to be true, then it follows at once that the writer was really 
 
268 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part H, 
 
 a companion of several, and a contemporary of all the apostles ; that 
 he had the best opportunities of exact information ; that the Gospel 
 was written earlier than the other work ; that it was really derived 
 from the testimony of eye-witnesses, and written, as the usual tra- 
 dition asserts, in the middle of the first century, or little more than 
 twenty years after the ascension. And since the Gospel of St. Mat- 
 thew, as all agree, was written rather earlier, and the Gospel of St. 
 Mark at least not much later, it will be proved that these three Gos- 
 pels were all written thirty years after the ascension, and the mythi- 
 cal hypothesis is completely overthrown. 
 
 Now this proof we find in the narrative the writer has given of St. 
 Paul's voyage and shipwreck. Mr. Smith, in the above work, has 
 shown convincingly, by comparison with the actual geography of 
 Malta and the Levant, and all the best authorities, both ancient and 
 modern, on the navigation of those seas, that every statement is con- 
 sistent and accurate, so that the very direction of the winds, and the 
 course of the vessel, can be traced out by the sacred narrative almost 
 as minutely as the log-book enables us to trace the course of a modern 
 vessel. He shows also that the style of the narrative is precisely that 
 of an eye-witness, familiar with the sea, but not himself by profession 
 a seaman ; and that none but an actual eye-witness, who had been 
 a partner in the voyage, could, without a miracle, have given us a 
 description so vivid, faithful, and exact in every part. It may be in- 
 teresting to trace out a few particulars in which this faithfulness of 
 the description appears. The events here recorded are the latest 
 which occur in the history of the New Testament ; and hence the mi- 
 nute accuracy of the narrative is a pledge, the most impressive and 
 striking which could well be given, of the truth and accuracy of all 
 the previous parts of the same history. 
 
 1. The narrative begins at Csesarea, where the centurion embarked 
 Paul and the prisoners in a ship of Adramyttium. Csesarea, we learn 
 from Ant, xv. 9, 6, was then the chief seaport of Palestine, having 
 been fitted with an excellent harbor by Herod, at a vast expense. 
 Adramyttium was opposite Lesbos. " The ship was evidently bound 
 for her own port, and her course from Csesarea necessarily led her 
 close past the principal seaports of Asia. Now this is also the course 
 a ship would take on a voyage from Syria to Italy ; and in the great 
 commercial marts on that coast they would not fail to find opportuni- 
 ties for carrying them on to their destination." Just so, in a former 
 voyage, Acts, xx. 21, they had changed ship at Patara, as here at Myra ( 
 close by. 
 
 2. The next day they reached Sidon ; and the distance, sixty-seven \ 
 miles, is an easy day's voyage with a fair wind. 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 269 
 
 8. " "When we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus, 
 the winds being contrary." 
 
 Their track being towards Rhodes and Patara, where the writer 
 elsewhere places the beginning of the coasts of Asia, would pass close 
 by Paphos, at the west of Cyprus, in a line w. n. w. ; but the winds 
 were contrary, or blew probably from the north of west. Now the 
 sailing directions for the Mediterranean tell us that "through the 
 whole of that sea, but mostly on the eastern half, including the Adri- 
 atic and Archipelago, the north-west winds prevail in the summer 
 months." They consequently, " sailed under the lee of Cyprus," 
 (vTreTzlEvaa/iev,) or on its eastern side ; and this agrees with the next 
 verse, which tell us that they " sailed through the sea of Cilicia ;" for 
 that sea lay on the north side of Cyprus. " By standing to the north 
 till they reached the coast of Cilicia, they might expect to be favored 
 by the land breeze, as well as by the current, which constantly runs 
 to the westward, along the south coast of Asia Minor." Thus, in 
 Beaufort's Description, " From Syria to the Archipelago there is a 
 constant current westward." M. Pages, a French navigator, took the 
 same course, for the same reasons, after making Cyprus. " The winds 
 from the west, and therefore contrary, which prevail in these places 
 during the summer, forced us to run for the north. We made for the 
 coast of Caramania, (Cilicia,) to meet the northerly winds, which we 
 found accordingly. The westerly winds blow generally during the 
 summer, from the line as far as Candia (Crete.) I say generally, be- 
 cause we must except the time of the land breezes." 
 
 4. They changed ships at Myra, plainly a flourishing sea-port. Its 
 ruins, lately explored, confirm this fact, and exhibit "sepulchres 
 which, for their elegance of design, costliness of execution, and size, 
 seem more suited for the ashes of rulers and kings than of common 
 citizens." (Spratt and Forbes, vol. i. p. 132.) 
 
 6. They found a ship of Alexandria ; and its loading, as appears 
 incidentally, was wheat, (ver. 31.) Egypt was the granary of Rome, 
 and the corn-ships of Alexandria were celebrated for their size. This 
 one, accordingly, had 276 passengers. "The dimensions of one are 
 given by Lucian, and are quite as large as the largest merchant-ships 
 of modern times." In exact agreement, St. Luke tells us that another 
 corn-ship received these 276 souls, in addition to her own crew. 
 
 6. But why should this ship be at Myra, out of its direct course ? 
 Myra lay direct north from Alexandria, and the same westerly wind, 
 which compelled the other to " sail under the lee of Cyprus," or east- 
 ward, would prevent this from sailing nearer to its proper track than 
 directly north ; and Myra was the chief emporium in that route. 
 
270 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Paet II. 
 
 7. They sailed to Cnidus slowly, in several days, the wind being 
 adverse. The distance is only 130 miles, one day's voyage. But the 
 winds were contrary, since their course from Myra to Cnidus was 
 nearly direct west. With the prevailing north-west winds, " the ship 
 could work up from Myra to Cnidus, because she had the advantage 
 of a weather shore, and a westerly current ; but it would be slowly, 
 with difficulty. At Cnidus that advantage ceased ; and, unless she 
 had put into that harbor, and waited for a fair wind, her only course 
 was to run under the lee of Crete, in the direction of Salmone, its 
 eastern extremity." 
 
 8. The wind not favoring, " we sailed under Crete, over against 
 Salmone." To hinder them from their right course, the wind must 
 have been west of n. n. w. To allow them to reach Salmone, and the 
 lee side of Crete, it must have been north of w. n. w. The mean of 
 these limits is n. w. ; and, accordingly, " the north-west winds prevail 
 in the summer months .... the summer Etesias come from the 
 north-west." (Sailing direct. Meditt. Arist. de Mundo, c. iv.) Lord 
 de Saumarez, in September, 1798, after the battle of the Nile, was 
 compelled, in like manner, to abandon the northern passage by con- 
 trary winds. (Life, vol. i. c. 253.) 
 
 9. " Hardly passing it, (that is, with difficulty sailing close by the 
 lee shore of Crete,) we came to a place called the Fair Havens ; nigh 
 whereunto was the city of Lasea." 
 
 The wind being still adverse, the lee shore would enable them to 
 work westward, but with difficulty, as far as Cape Matala, where the 
 shore runs suddenly north, and its help abandons them. The Fair 
 Havens must naturally be the nearest roadstead to the eastward of 
 that Cape. Accordingly, four miles only from it is a double bay, 
 still called Kalous Limionas ; and described both in Dutch and French 
 sailing directions of the seventeenth century. " Right to the east of 
 Catra (an islet) lies a fair bay, {ein schoone bay,) where there is good 
 anchorage." It has no town, or ruin of a town, nearer than about 
 three miles. 
 
 10. The place " was not commodious to winter in." Accordingly, 
 besides the want of any town near, Calislimenes is open to most of 
 the southerly winds. 
 
 11. They endeavored to reach "Port Phenice, a haven of Crete, 
 that lieth toward the south-west and north-west." The more exact 
 rendering, as Mr. Smith has shown, is " in the direction of Libs and 
 Caurus," the winds which blow from the south-west and north-west, 
 
 " and therefore towards the north-east and south-east. The modern 
 harbor of Lutro, which Mr. Pashley identifies with Port Phenice, ex- 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDElSrCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 271 
 
 actly answers to this description. It has an islet in front, so that one 
 outlet is towards the north-east, the direction of Libs; and the other 
 towards the south-east, the direction of Caurus. The difference of 
 longitude of Port Phenice, in Ptolemy, and the two extremities of 
 Crete, agrees, within two miles, with the actual distance of Lutro 
 from those promontories, east and west. 
 
 12. " "When the south wind blew softly, supposing they had ob- 
 tained their purpose, loosing thence, they sailed close by Crete." 
 
 Their course, from the Fair Havens to Lutro, would be four miles 
 along the shore, rather south of west, and then thirty-four miles of 
 open sea, w. n. w. The south wind would favor them for the chief 
 part, but at first would only suffer them just to weather the shore, 
 when it blew softly, and they sailed close to the land, for the coast 
 inclines a little southward. 
 
 J 3. " But not long after there struck agaiust it {£J3a?iS kct* avrrjc) 
 a tempestuous wind, called Eurocly don," (Euracylon, or Euroaquilo.) 
 
 The direction of this wind is doubly marked. When they were 
 not halfway on their course fr^m Cape Matala to Phenice, it drove 
 them towards Clauda. This places its direction, as Mr. Smith shows, 
 between e. '7'^ n. and e. 43° n. "When at Clauda, it threatened to drive 
 them on the quicksands, or Syrtis, which also places its limits be- 
 tween E. 18° N. and e. 43° n. The mean is half a point north of 
 E. N. e. Now, two of the best and oldest manuscripts, and the Vul- 
 gate, read Euro-aquilo for the name of the wind. Eurus is the east 
 wind, and Aquilo the north-eas ; and hence, Euro-aquilo, as Bentley 
 infers, will be a wind e. n. e., the very same direction which is doubly 
 proved by the facts. It may be proved more generally thus : It was 
 northerly, since it blew them off from the island ; and it was easterly, 
 or it would not have hurried them through the Adriatic sea. This 
 sudden change is a feature of the Levant. Thus Captain Stewart 
 writes, on the Archipelago : " It is always safe to anchor under the 
 lee of an island with a northerly wind, as it gradually dies ; but it 
 would be extremely dangerous with southerly winds, as they almost 
 invariably shift to a violent northerly wind." 
 
 14. They ran under " a certain island, called Clauda." Accordingly, 
 the small island Gozzo lies just in the required direction, and there 
 is no other of the kind in that whole tract of sea. It is Claudos in 
 Ptolemy, Clauda in Pliny and Suidas, Gaudos in Mela ; and its Italian 
 name, Gozzo, is a contraction from Gaudonesi, its actual Greek name, 
 or the island Gaudos. " St. Luke exhibits here, as elsewhere, the ut- 
 most precision, and the most perfect command of maritime terms. 
 They ran before the wind to leeward of Clauda : hence it is 
 
272 EVIDEN-CES OF CHRISTIAlSriTY. [Paet II. 
 
 v7TodpafzovT£gy running under tlie lee. They sailed witli a sidewind 
 to leeward of Cyprus and Crete : hence it is vTreTzXevaa/jtev" 
 
 15. " We had much work to come by the boat." 
 
 " Their first care was to secure the boat, by hoisting it on board. 
 This they had not done at first, because the weather was moderate, 
 and the distance they had to go was short. It had now become nec- 
 essary. In running down upon Clauda, it could not be done on ac- 
 count of the ship's way through the water. To do it, the ship must 
 have been rounded-to, with her head to the wind, and her sails, if she 
 had any set at the time, trimmed, so that she had no headway. I 
 conclude that they passed round the east of Clauda, because it is 
 nearest, and there are dangers at the opposite end. In this case she 
 would be brought-to on the starboard tack, or with her right side to 
 windward." 
 
 15. "They used helps, undergirding the ship." 
 
 In modern times this expedient is more rarely used ; though Mr. 
 Smith adduces examples in the Jupiter^ a Russian ship brought from 
 the Baltic in 1815 ; and Captain Back, when returning from his Arc- 
 tic voyage, 1837 ; and several others. But the hypozomata were a 
 standing part of the ship's furniture with the ancients, as appears 
 from Aristoph. Eq. 278, and Plato, Rep. c. 10, where they are used to 
 supply a metaphor for the light of the Milky Wny. 
 
 16. "Fearing to fall into the quicksands, they strake sail, and so 
 were driven." 
 
 A more exact version would be : " They lowered the tackling." 
 To strike the sails entirely would be the very way to drift towards 
 the quicksands. " They had but one course to pursue by which they 
 could avoid the danger, which was to turn the ship's head off shore, 
 and set such sail as the violence of the gale would permit them to 
 carry. I have assigned my reasons for supposing that the ship must 
 have been brought-to on the starboard tack, under Clauda ; and only 
 on this tack could they avoid being driven on the African coast. Ail 
 that was now required, was to fill their storm-sail, probably already 
 set, and to stand on." The gear or tackling let down must thus have 
 been the fair-weather sails, and the suppara^ or topsails. 
 
 " The only question that remains is, which tack was the ship hove- 
 to upon ? The answer is not difiicult : if it had been with her left 
 side to the wind, she must inevitably have drifted upon the coast of 
 Africa with the wind at e. n. e., as we have proved it to have been, 
 and would, moreover, have been driven completely out of her course. 
 We are thus forced to the conclusion, when we are told thnt ' they 
 were thus borne along, Hhat it was not only wHh the ship undergird- 
 
CiiAP. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 273 
 
 ed, but with storm-sails set, on the starboard tack, which was the only 
 course to avoid falling into the Syrtis." 
 
 17. On the fourteenth night of being driven through the sea of 
 Adria, towards midnight the seamen suspected that some land was 
 nearing them [TzpooayeLv nva avroig ;j;6jpai'). 
 
 Calmet conjectures that they became aware of it, '* by the smell of 
 the land, or by the freshness, or the winds." But all these conjec- 
 tures require ofF-shore winds. The only other conjecture is that they 
 saw or heard the breakers on a rocky coast. If we assume that St. 
 Paul's Bay in Malta is the actual scene of the shipwreck, we can have 
 no difficulty in explaining these indications. No ship can enter it 
 from the east, without passing within a quarter of a mile of Koura 
 Point ; but before reaching it, the land is too low, though far from 
 the track of a ship driven from the east, to be seen in a dark night. 
 When she does come within this distance, it is impossible to avoid 
 seeing the breakers ; for with north-easterly gales the sea breaks 
 upon it with such violence, that Captain Smith, in his view of the 
 headland, has made the breakers its distinctive character, (p. '79.) 
 Mr. Smith then confirms this fact by the court-martial on the Lively 
 frigate, which was wrecked on this very spot in August 10, 1810. 
 " The quarter-master on the look-out gave alarm of rocks to leeward. 
 He states in his evidence that he did not see the land, but * the curl of 
 the sea upon the rock, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile.' 
 The order was given to anchor, and the man at the lead sounded and 
 found twenty-five fathoms" 
 
 Two points of inquiry remain, whether the direction and distance 
 will correspond. The probable direction of the wind, Mr. Smith has 
 shown from the facts of the narrative, was about e. n. e. quarter n. 
 " An ancient ship would not probably be nearer the wind than seven 
 points." The leeway of a ship in a gale varies from five and a half 
 to six and a half points (Falconer's Marine Diet.) Taking the mean, 
 the actual course would be thirteen points from the wind, or three- 
 quarters of a point north of west, which is the hearing of Malta to the 
 nearest degree. Again ; the rate of drift, as Mr. Smith was told by two 
 different captains of the royal navy, for a large ship in a gale of 
 wind, would be forty miles in twenty-four hours, or from three-quar- 
 ters to two miles an hour. The mean of these is thirty-six and a 
 half miles in twenty-four hours. Most of the first day would be past 
 when they left Clauda. But the distance thehce to Koura Point is 
 47 6 i miles, which at the above rate would require thirteen days, one 
 hour, and twenty minutes. 
 
 18. "They sounded and found it twenty fathoms; and when they 
 
 • 12* 
 
274 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen 
 fathoms." 
 
 From the accurate chart of St. Paul's Bay, in the Admiralty sur- 
 vey, it appears that a ship finds the depth of twenty fathoms, imme- 
 diately after passing Koura Point from the eastward. At the second 
 sounding they had made ready the four anchors, which implies an in- 
 terval of half an hour, or at the supposed rate, three-fourths of a 
 mile. At this distance w. by n. from the sounding twenty fathoms, 
 the chart shows the sounding to be fifteen fathoms. 
 
 19. ''Fearing lest she should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four 
 anchors from the stern, and wished for the day." 
 
 " This implies that there were rocks to leeward ; and the fifteen 
 fathom depth is nearly a quarter of a mile from the shore, which is 
 here girt with mural precipices, and on which the sea must have been 
 breaking with great violence. On the former alarm the ship weath- 
 ered the point ; here it was impossible. There only chance of safety 
 was to anchor ; but to do so successfully in a gale of wind, on a lee 
 shore, requires not only time for preparation, but holding ground of 
 extraordinary tenacity. In St. Paul's Bay, the anchorage is thus de- 
 scribed in the sailing directions : * The harbor is open to easterly and 
 north-east winds. It is, notwithstanding, safe for small ships, the 
 ground, generally, being very good ; and while the cables hold, there 
 is no danger, as the anchors will never start^ " 
 
 20. Before the ship was run ashore, " They fell into a place where 
 two seas met." Accordingly, a ship running before a north-easterly 
 wind from the point already defined, by the direction from Koura 
 Point and the sounding, would open out the channel between Malta 
 and Salmon etta islet, through which the sea rushes violently in those 
 winds. 
 
 For the other particulars, and more minute nautical details and 
 explanations on those already adduced, and many collateral illustra- 
 tions, relating to the extent of the Hadria in the geography of St. 
 Luke's age, the state of Melita, and the structure of the ancient ships, 
 we must refer the reader to the work itself, which forms a most val- 
 uable addition to our illustrations of sacred history. 
 
 The important bearing of the whole on the subject of the Christian 
 Evidences is very plain. It proves that the writer of the book of 
 Acts was actually present, and a passenger in the ship : whose voy- 
 age he has described with such minute accuracy as to enable a scien- 
 tific inquirer to construe it afresh, by the help of the best and latest 
 maps, and known principles of good seamanship and correct naviga- 
 tion. It proves at once thq,t St. Paul, who sailed in the vessel, pre- 
 
Chap. I] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 275 
 
 dieted the danger of inevitable shipwreck, announced to the crew his 
 vision of an angel, and promise of complete deliverance, and that 
 the promise was fulfilled, and that the writer was a witness to the 
 miraculous cures in the island. It gives us such a specimen of his 
 minute unpretending accuracy, joined with strict veracity, as assures 
 us that he was really present at the other scenes where he describes 
 himself to have been ; that he had really written the former treatise, 
 the Gospel, before he composed this book, probably before the ship- 
 wreck, which was about the year A. D. 68 ; and that he had learned 
 the facts of that Gospel, at that early date, from eye-witnesses and 
 ministers of the word, and had a perfect knowledge of the events 
 which he there relates in order from the beginning. It proves fur- 
 ther, that the Gospel of St. Matthew, which all confess to be some- 
 what earlier, was written within little more that twenty years 
 from the time of the resurrection. The mythical hypothesis, tried 
 even by this one test alone, suffers a shipwreck as total and com- 
 plete as the vessel of Alexandria ; while the historical authority 
 and truth of the Acts and St. Luke's Gospel, and by inference, of 
 the three others, is established on a firm basis of internal evidence. 
 —Bcv. T. E. Birks. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MOEALITY OF THE GOSPEL.^ 
 
 In stating the morality of the Gospel as an argument of its 
 truth, I am willing to admit two points ; first, that the teaching 
 of morality was not the primary design of the mission ; sec- 
 ondly, that morality, neither in the Gospel, nor in any other 
 book, can be a subject, properly speaking, of discovery. 
 
 If I were to describe in a very few words the scope of 
 Christianity, as a revelation,^ I should say, that it was to influ- 
 
 * Paley's ethical doctrines, as developed in his treatise on Moral 
 Philosophy, and which are nothing more than an extension of the 
 "Selfish System," have led him widely astray on the subject of this 
 Chapter. The only effect of these errors in the present argument, 
 however, is to diminish its strength. A more correct view of moral- 
 ity would have brought out the superiority of the gospel in brighter 
 colors. We give with this chapter the entire commentary of Paley's 
 latest English editor, the Rev. T. R. Birks, late fellow of Trinity Col- 
 lege, Cambridge. We think that Mr. Birks sometimes slightly mis- 
 apprehends our author, more especially in the interpretation of the 
 term accurate, as used by Paley with reference to the morality of the 
 Gospel. The epithet in the text does not appear to imply that any of 
 the precepts of the Gospel are inaccurate, but that the arrangement of 
 them is not systematic and strictly logical, as it would have been in a 
 philosophical treatise on morals. — ^d. 
 
 f Great and inestimably beneficial effects may accrue from the mis- 
 sion of Christ, and especially from his death, which do not belong to 
 Christianity as a revelation; that is, they might have existed, and they 
 might have been accomplished, though we had never, in this life, been 
 made acquainted with them. These effects may be very extensive ; 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 277 
 
 cnce the conduct of human life, by establishing the proof of 
 a future state of reward and punishment,* — " to bring life and 
 immortality to light." The direct object, therefore, of the 
 design is, to supply motives, and not rules ; sanctions, and 
 
 they may be interesting even to other orders of intelligent beings. I 
 think it is a general opinion, and one to which I have long come, that 
 the beneficial effects of Christ's death extend to the whole human 
 species. It was the Redemption of the world. " He is the propitia- 
 tion for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world ;" 
 1 John, ii. 2. Probably the future happiness, perhaps the future exist- 
 ence of the species, and more gracious terms of acceptance extended 
 to all, might depend upon it, or be procured by it. Now these effects, 
 whatever they be, do not belong to Christianity as a revelation ; be- 
 cause they exist with respect to those to whom it is not revealed.* 
 
 * This statement seems to be very defective. However important 
 a clear revelation of a future state, it is by no means the only, per- 
 haps hardly the chief object of the Gospel, as a Divine revelation. 
 It was a truth already held firmly by the great body of the Jews, 
 and was the popular creed even of the idolatrous Gentiles, with the 
 exception of a few Sadducees and free-thinking philosophers. Our 
 Lord himself had said, with reference to this very truth, " If they 
 hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, 
 though one rose from the dead." Even the very text here quoted 
 does not really bear the meaning which Paley ascribes to it. To 
 abolish death, and bring life and immortality to light, is something 
 more than a bare revelation of a future existence. It means clearly 
 a Divine provision for a happy existence, incorruptible and glorious. 
 The great object of Christianity, as a revelation, is to make known 
 the free grace of God in Christ to sinners, and thereby to redeem them 
 from lust, selfishness, and pride, to a life of holy love and obedience 
 on earth, and then to the full enjoyment of the Divine goodness for- 
 ever and ever. It was one essential part of this design, to establish 
 men in the belief of a future life. But this truth was already taught, 
 though less clearly, by Moses and the prophets, and widely received 
 among the Jewish people. It was confirmed and illustrated by the 
 Gospel, but not revealed for the first time. The peculiar glory of the 
 gospel is, first, that it reveals more clearly than ever before, the par- 
 doning mercy of God to sinners, through the death of the Saviour : 
 " The law was given by Moses ; but grace and truth came by Jesus 
 
 * See note A, ai the end of this Chapter. 
 
278 EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 not precepts. And these were what mankind stood most in 
 need of.* The members of civilized society can, in all ordi- 
 nary cases, judge tolerably well how they ought to act ; but 
 without a future state, or, which is the same thing, without 
 credited evidence of that state, they want a motive to their 
 duty ; they want at least strength of motive, -sufficient to bear 
 up against the force of passion, and the temptation of present 
 advantage. Their rules want authority. The most import- 
 ant service that can be rendered to human life, and that con- 
 sequently which, one might expect beforehand, would be the 
 great end and office of a revelation from God, is to convey to 
 the world authorized assurances of the reality of a future ex- 
 istence. And although in doing this, or by the ministry of 
 the same person by whom this is done, moral precepts or ex- 
 amples, or illustrations of moral precepts, may be occasional- 
 Christ." Secondly, that it exhibits more powerful motives for holy 
 obedience to the 'Divine will : "The love of Christ constraineth us." 
 ** Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and 
 gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so 
 loved us, we also ought to love one another." Thirdly, that it pre- 
 scribes a higher and more spiritual obedience : " That we should 
 serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." 
 Fourthly, that it raises the soul into nearer and closer fellowship 
 with God himself: "For through him we have access by one Spirit 
 unto the Father." And lastly, that it conveys, to all who believe, a 
 fuller assurance of a blessed immortality : " ISTow is Christ risen 
 from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept." 
 " Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us 
 also by Jesus, and shall present us with you " It is clear, therefore, 
 that a divine morality is one main object of the message, though not 
 the sole, or perhaps the chief object. — T. JR. JBirks. 
 
 * It is true that men in general know their duty far better than 
 they practice it. But it is also true, that the practical frequency of 
 sin tends to pervert the conscience, and to lower the actual standard 
 of obligation. Hence Gospel precepts were almost as necessary as 
 Gospel motives, and perhaps take precedence of them, in the natural 
 order of exhibition, as the sermon on the mount comes earlier than 
 the promises at the last supper, and the full proclamation of mercy 
 after the day of Pentecost. — T. H. Birks. 
 
Chap. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 279 
 
 ly given, and be highly valuable, yet still they do not form 
 the original purpose of the mission. 
 
 Secondly ; morality, neither in the Gospel, nor in any other 
 book, can be a subject of discovery, properly so called. By 
 which proposition, I mean that there cannot, in morality, be 
 anything similar to what are called discoveries in natural phi- 
 losophy, in the arts of life, and in some sciences ; as the sys- 
 tem of the universe, the circulation of the blood, the polarity 
 of the magnet, the laws of gravitation, alphabetical writing, 
 decimal arithmetic, and some other things of the same sort ; 
 facts, or proofs, or contrivances, before totally unknown and 
 unthought of. Whoever, therefore, expects, in reading the 
 New Testament, to be struck with discoveries in morals in the 
 manner in which his mind was affected when he first came 
 to the knowledge of the discoveries above mentioned ; or 
 rather in the manner in which the world was affected by them, 
 when they were first published ; expects what, as I apprehend, 
 the nature of the subject renders it impossible that he should 
 meet with. And the foundation of my opinion is this, that 
 the qualities of actions depend entirely upon their effects, 
 which effects must all along have been the subject of human 
 experience.* 
 
 * The statement in this paragraph is very defective, and the reason 
 given for it at the close is positively untrue. The moral quality of 
 actions does not depend upon their effects, but, on the contrary, their 
 real effects depend upon their moral quality. To see this plainly, 
 we have only to consider the difference between an occasion and a 
 cause. A good action may become an occasion of evil, and an evil 
 action the occasion of good; and the sequence of events is just the 
 same, as if, in each case, it had been the cause of what follows. How, 
 then, can we distinguish the true effects of any action, from those of 
 which it is merely the occasion, and which may be of the very op- 
 posite character? We cannot possibly from the events themselves, 
 and must refer back to the voice of conscience, and the moral quality 
 of the action. So far from human experience determining the moral 
 nature of human action by their complex results, we need first to 
 learn what is their moral nature, that we may know what conse- 
 
280 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 When it is once settled, no matter upon what principle, that 
 to do good is virtue, the rest is calculation. But since the 
 calculation cannot be instituted concerning each particular ac- 
 tion, we establish intermediate rules ; by which proceeding, 
 the business of morality is much facilitated, for then it is con- 
 cerning our rules alone that we need inquire, whether in their 
 tendency they be beneficial ; concerning our actions, we have 
 only to ask, whether they be agreeable to the rules. We re- 
 fer actions to rules, and rules to public happiness. Now, in 
 the formation of these rules, there is no place for discovery, 
 properly so called, but there is ample room for the exercise 
 of wisdom, judgment, and prudence.* 
 
 quences are justly ascribed to them, and which are due only to the 
 wickedness that turns food into poison, or to that wise providence 
 which educes good from evil. 
 
 Again ; there is no reason why there may not be discoveries in 
 morals, as in natural philosophy. The reason here assigned would 
 prove the very reverse ; for the effects cf moral actions are just as 
 complex and various as those of physical causes. Or, if we recur to 
 a sounder view of the true basis of morals, there is no reason why 
 the great law of love should not be as complex in its results, as the 
 law of physical gravitation. The physical law is equally simple in 
 its terms as the other, and yet the highest powers of mind have been 
 occupied for nearly two centuries in tracing out its results, and have 
 not yet succeeded in explaining them fully. The laws of morality, 
 it is true, must be always the same in their main substance ; but in 
 their application to the various relations of human life, and of Divine 
 Providence, they open a boundless field for growing discovery. The 
 opposite view is the result of a very superficial view, either of the 
 human conscience, or of the variety and fulness of the precepts in the 
 word of God. It is not the nature of the subject, but the too fre- 
 quent dulness of the conscience, through habits of worldlines and 
 sin, which can render the precepts of the New Testament less 
 striking than discoveries in natural sciences. — Rev. T. R. Birks. 
 
 * The first sentence of this paragraph is perhaps the greatest blot 
 in the whole work. It implies a theory of morals as superficial and 
 illogical as it is cold and heartless. Actions are to be tested by their 
 consequences, which is untrue ; and then their consequences are to 
 be calculated, which is impossible. The rest is calculation ; but what 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 281 
 
 As I wish to deliver argument rather than panegyric, I shall 
 treat of the morality of the Gospel, in subjection to these ob- 
 servations. And after all, I think it such a morality, as, con- 
 sidering from whom it came, is most extraordinary ; and such 
 as, without allowing some degree of reality to the character 
 and pretensions of the religion, it is difficult to account for ; 
 or, to place the argument a little lower in the scale, it is such 
 a morality as completely repels the supposition of its being 
 the tradition of a barbarous age or of a barbarous people, of 
 the religion being founded in folly, or of its being the produc- 
 tion of craft ; and it repels also, in a great degree, the suppo- 
 sition of its having been the effiision of an enthusiastic mind. 
 
 The division, under which the subject may be most conven- 
 iently treated, is that of the things taught, and the manner 
 of teaching. 
 
 Under the first head, I should willingly, if the limits and 
 nature of my work admitted of it, transcribe into this chapter 
 the whole of what has been said upon the morality of the 
 Gospel, by the author of The Internal Evidence of Christian- 
 ity ; because it perfectly agrees with my own opinion, and 
 because it is impossible to say the same things so well. This 
 acute observer of human nature, and, as I believe^ sincere 
 
 a calculation, for which omniscience is required ; and which, even, 
 if "we were omniscient, would require, as its first step, a previous de- 
 cision on the moral quality of the action, that we may know which 
 of all the events that follow are properly assigned to it ! The Jews 
 crucified our Lord, and their sin led to the redemption of a lost world. 
 Does this make their malice less sinful, because the result was so 
 blessed and glorious ? Our Saviour spoke the truth, and they hated 
 and murdered him on account of it. Does this render his faithful 
 teaching criminal, because it led to such evil results in almost the 
 whole nation ? There never was so short a sentence which contained 
 a more comprehensive, or a more dangerous error. And, besides, 
 the conclusion does not follow, if the premises were just ; for what is 
 the use of wisdom, judgment, and prudence, but .to discover and re- 
 veal what is unknown and unobserved by the foolish, imprudent, 
 and injudicious ? — Rev. T. R. Birks. 
 
282 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 convert to Christianity, appears to me to have made out sat- 
 isfactorily the two following positions, viz : 
 
 I. That the Gospel omits some qualities, which have usual- 
 ly engaged the praises and admiration of mankind, but which, 
 in reality, and in their general effects, have been prejudicial 
 to human happiness. 
 
 II. That the Gospel has brought forward some virtues, 
 which possess the highest intrinsic value, but which have com- 
 monly been overlooked and contemned. 
 
 The first of these propositions he exemplifies in the in- 
 stances of friendship, patriotism, active courage ; in the sense in 
 which these qualities are usually understood, and in the con- 
 duct which they often produce. 
 
 The second, in the instances of passive courage or endurance 
 of sufferings, patience under affronts and injuries, humility, 
 irresistance, placability. 
 
 The truth is, there are two opposite descriptions of charac- 
 ter, under which mankind may generally be classed. The 
 one possesses vigor, firmness, resolution ; is daring and active, 
 quick in its sensibilities, jealous of its fame, eager in its at- 
 tachments, inflexible in its purpose, violent in its resentments. 
 
 The other, meek, yielding, complying, forgiving ; not 
 prompt to act, but willing to suffer ; silent and gentle under 
 rudeness and insult, suing for reconciliation where others 
 would demand .satisfaction, giving way to the pushes of impu- 
 dence, conceding and indulgent to the prejudices, the w^rong- 
 headedness, the intractability of those with w^hom it has to deal. 
 
 The former of these characters is, and ever hath been, the 
 favorite of the world. It is the character of great men. 
 There is a dignity in it which universally commands respect. 
 
 The latter is poor-spirited, tame, and abject. Yet so it hath 
 happened, that, with the Founder of Christianity, this latter 
 is the subject of his commendation, his precepts, his example ; 
 and that the former is so, in no part of its composition.* 
 
 * This contrast is very groundless ; and if it were true, would con- 
 tradict the previous remark, since it would be a clear instance of a 
 
Crap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 283 
 
 This and nothing else, is the character designed in the follow- 
 ing remarkable passages : " Resist not evil : but whosoever 
 shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also : 
 
 great moral discovery, overlooked by nearly all mankind. Chris- 
 tianity commands and enforces both the active and passive virtues, 
 and not the latter only. Let us examine the statement more closely. 
 "The Gospel omits friendship from its catalogue of virtues :" yet, 
 where is a brighter example of it than in the words, " Greet Priscilla 
 and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus ; who have for my life laid 
 down their own necks "? Where is the principle more clearly recog- 
 nized than in the saying of our Lord : " Greater love hath no man 
 than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends ; ye are my 
 friends, if ye do what I have commanded you "? " It omits patriot- 
 ism." What, then, is the meaning of that affecting passage: "When 
 he beheld the city, he wept over it, saying : that thou hadst known, 
 even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy 
 peace" ? It omits active courage. What means, then, the conduct of 
 St. Paul, when he would have entered the theatre at Ephesus, but the 
 disciples sujffered him not ? Or his answer on another occasion : 
 " What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart ? for I am ready 
 not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of 
 the Lord Jesus" ? Where could we find clearer marks of active cour- 
 age than in his words to the Ephesian elders ? Acts xx. 22-24. 
 Where could we meet with greater vigor, firmness, and resolution, 
 than in St. Peter, St. Paul, and their fellow apostles ? Who more 
 daring and active than he who preached the Gospel from Jerusalem 
 unto Illyricum, though in every city bonds and afflictions awaited 
 him ? Who could be more quick in his sensibilities than the author 
 of the Epistle to Philemon, and the Second to the Corinthians ; or that 
 beloved disciple who leaned on the bosom of the Lord ? Who more 
 eager in attachment than St. Peter, and who more inflexible in pur- 
 pose than the utterer of those words : " But none of these things 
 move me, neither count I my life dear unto me, so that I may finish 
 my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the 
 Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God" ? Violence of 
 resentment is the only quality in the list, which is really excluded in 
 the morality of the New Testament. Again ; the quality here mingled 
 with the passive virtues of the Christian, " not prompt to act," is al- 
 most a verbal contrast to the apostolic admonition, " not slothful in 
 business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." 
 
 There is, in short, a Christian, no less than a worldly heroism. 
 
284 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 and if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy 
 coat, let him have thy cloak also : and whosoever shall com- 
 pel thee to go a mile, go with him twain : love your enemies, 
 bless them which curse you, do good to them that hate you, and 
 pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you." 
 This certainly is not common-place morality. It is very orig- 
 inal. It shows at least (and it is for this purpose we pro- 
 duce it) that no two things can be more different than the He- 
 roic and the Christian character. 
 
 Now the author, to whom I refer, has not only marked this 
 difference more strongly than any preceding writer, but has 
 proved, in contradiction to first impressions, to popular 
 opinion, to the encomiums of orators and poets, and even to 
 the suffrages of historians and moralists, that the latter char- 
 acter possesses the most of true worth, both as being most 
 difficult either to be acquired or sustained, and as contributing 
 most to the happiness and tranquillity of social life. The 
 state of his argument is as follows : 
 
 The latter is the blind activity of pride ; the former is the wise ac- 
 tivity of zeal and love, which have first humbled themselves tp^learn 
 the natural corruption of the human heart, and thus have begun to 
 repress its false and blind activity, and to look up for strength and 
 grace to the Most High. As they approach nearest to their full and 
 perfect exhibition, the one proves itself to be devilish, and the other 
 manifests itself, as in our Lord himself, to be truly Divine. True 
 heroism and true Christian holiness, are one and the same. The he- 
 roism of the world is a wretched counterfeit : it is only a more gigan- 
 tic selfishness, covered with a thin disguise. 
 
 The real argument to be drawn from this topic, for the Divine wis- 
 dom of the Gospel morality, lies in the perfect harmony which it es- 
 tablishes between these opposite aspects of real virtue. It teaches 
 men to be patient of injuries, but unweariedly zealous in doing good, 
 even to those who hate them. It inculcates a profound humility, 
 and yet propounds a view of the dignity of the Christian, which ap- 
 pears extravagant to worldy minds : '* Do ye not know that the saints 
 shall judge the world ? Know ye not that we shall judge angels ?" 
 " All things are yours ; whether life or death, or things present, or 
 things to come." — T. R. Birks. 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 285 
 
 T. If this disposition were universal, the case is clear ; the 
 world would be a society of friends. Whereas, if the other 
 disposition were universal, it would produce a scene of uni- 
 versal contention. The world could not hold a generation of 
 such men. 
 
 II. If, what is the fact, the disposition be partial ; if a few 
 be actuated by it, amongst a multitude who are not ; in what- 
 ever degree it does prevail, in the same proportion it prevents, 
 allays, and terminates quarrels, the great disturbers of human 
 happiness, and the great sources of human misery, so far as 
 man's happiness and misery depend upon man. Without this 
 disposition, enmities must not only be frequent, but, once be- 
 gun, must be eternal : for, each retaliation being a fresh injury, 
 and, consequently, requiring a fresh satisfaction^ no period can 
 be assigned to the reciprocation of affronts, and to the progress 
 of hatred, but that which closes the lives, or at least the inter- 
 course of the parties. 
 
 I would only add to these observations, that although the 
 former of the two characters above described may be occa- 
 sionally useful ; although, perhaps, a great general, or a great 
 statesman, may be formed by it, and these may be instru- 
 ments of important benefits to mankind, yet is this nothing 
 more than what is true of many qualities which are acknowl- 
 edged to be vicious. Envy is a quality of this sort ; I know 
 not a stronger stimulus to exertion ; many a scholar, many an 
 artist, many a soldier, has been produced by it ; nevertheless, 
 since in its general effects it is noxious, it is properly condemn- 
 ed, certainly is not praised, by sober moralists. 
 
 It was a portion of the same character as that we are de- 
 fending, or rather of his love of the same character, which 
 our Saviour displayed, in his repeated correction of the am- 
 bition of his disciples ; his frequent admonitions, that great- 
 ness with them was to consist in humility ; his censure of that 
 love of distinction, and greediness of superiority, which the 
 chief persons amongst his countrymen were wont, on all oc- 
 casions, great and little, to betray. "They (the Scribes and 
 
286 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL 
 
 Pharisees) love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief 
 seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to 
 be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi, 
 for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren : 
 and call no man your father upon the earth, for one is your 
 Father, which is in heaven ; neither be ye called masters, for 
 one is your Master, even Christ ; but he that is greatest 
 among you^ shall be your servant : and whosoever shall ex- 
 alt himself, shall be abased ; and he that shall humble himself, 
 shall be exalted."* I make no farther remark upon these 
 passages (because they are, in truth, only a repetition of the 
 doctrine, different expressions of the principle, which we have 
 already stated), except that some of the passages, especially 
 our Lord's advice to the guests at an entertainment,f seem to 
 extend the rule to what we call manners ; which was both reg- 
 ular in point of consistency, and' not so much beneath the dig- 
 nity of our Lord's mission, as may at first sight be supposed, 
 for bad manners are bad morals. 
 
 It is sufficiently apparent, that the precepts we have cited, 
 or rather the disposition which these precepts inculcate, re- 
 late to personal conduct from personal motives ; to cases in 
 which men act from impulse, for themselves, and from them- 
 selves. When it comes to be considered, what is necessary 
 to be done for the sake of the public, and out of a regard to 
 the general welfare (which consideration, for the most part, 
 ought exclusively to govern the duties of men in public sta- 
 tions), it comes to a case to which the rules do not belong. 
 This distinction is plain ; and if it were less so, the conse- 
 quence would not be much felt : for, it is very seldom that, 
 in the intercourse of private life, men act with public views. 
 The personal motives, from which they do act, the rule reg- 
 ulates. 
 
 The preference of the patient to the heroic character, which 
 we have here noticed, and which the reader will find explain- 
 
 * Matt, xxiii. 6. See also Mark, xii. 39. Luke, xx. 46. ; xiv. '7. 
 j Luke, xiv. 7. 
 
Chap. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. 287 
 
 ed at large in the work to which we have referred him, is a 
 peculiarity in the Christian institution, which I propose as an 
 argument of wisdom very much beyond the situation and 
 natural character of the person who delivered it. 
 
 II. A second argument, drawn from the morality of the 
 New Testament, is the stress which is laid by our Saviour 
 upon the regulation of the thoughts. And I place this con- 
 sideration next to the other, because they are connected. 
 The other related to the malicious passions ; this, to the 
 voluptuous. Together, they comprehend the whole character. 
 
 " Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adult- 
 eries, fornications," &c. — " These are the things which defile 
 a man."* 
 
 " Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
 make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but 
 within they are full of extortion and excess. Ye are like 
 unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful out- 
 ward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all un- 
 cleanness ; even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto 
 men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."f 
 
 And more particularly that strong expression,^ '^ Whoso- 
 ever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed 
 adultery with her already in his heart." 
 
 There can be no doubt with any reflecting mind, but that 
 the propensities of our nature must be subject to regulation ; 
 but the question is, where the check ought to be placed, upon 
 the thought, or only upon the action ? In this question, our 
 Saviour, in the texts here quoted, has pronounced a decisive 
 judgment. He makes the control of thought essential. In- 
 ternal purity with him is everything. Now I contend that 
 this is the only discipline which can succeed ; in other words, 
 that a moral system, which prohibits actions, but leaves the 
 thoughts at liberty, will be ineffectual, and is therefore un- 
 wise. I know not how to go about the proof of a point, 
 which depends upon experience, and upon a knowledge of the 
 * Matt. XV. 19. f Matt, xxiii. 25, 27. % Ih., v. 28. 
 
288 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 human constitution, better than by citing the judgment of 
 persons, who appear to have given great attention to the sub- 
 ject, and to be well qualified to form a true opinion about it. 
 Boerhaave, speaking of this very declaration of our Saviour, 
 " Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath al- 
 ready committed adultery with her in his heart," and under- 
 standing it, as we do, to contain an injunction to lay the 
 check upon the thoughts, was wont to say, that, " our Saviour 
 knew mankind better than Socrates." Haller, who has re- 
 corded this saying of Boerhaave, adds to it the following 
 remarks of his own :* " It did not escape the observation of 
 our Saviour, that the rejection of any evil thoughts was the 
 best defence against vice : for when a debauched person fills 
 his imagination with impure pictures, the licentious ideas 
 which he recalls, fail not to stimulate his desires wdth a de- 
 gree of violence which he cannot resist. This will be follow- 
 ed by gratification, unless some external obstacle should pre- 
 vent him from the commission of a sin, w^hich he had inter- 
 nally resolved on." " Every moment of time," says our au- 
 thor, " that is spent in meditations upon sin, increases the 
 power of the dangerous object which has possessed our 
 imagination." I suppose these reflections will be generally 
 assented to. 
 
 III. Thirdly, had a teacher of morality been asked concern- 
 ing a general principle of conduct, and for a short rule of 
 life ; and had he instructed the person who consulted him, 
 " constantly to refer his actions to w^hat he believed to be 
 the will of his Creator, and constantly to have in view not 
 his own interest and gratification alone, but the happiness and 
 comfort of those about him," he would have been thought, I 
 doubt not, in any age of the w^orld, and in any, even the most 
 improved, state of morals, to have delivered a judicious an- 
 swer ; because, by the first direction, he suggested the only 
 motive which acts steadily and uniformly, in sight and out 
 of sight, in familiar occurrences and under pressing tempta- 
 * Letters to his Daughter. 
 
Chap. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 289 
 
 tions ; and in the second, he corrected, what of all tendencies 
 in the human character stands most in need of correction, 
 selfishness^ or a contempt of other men's conveniency and sat- 
 isfaction. In estimating the value of a moral rule, we are to 
 have regard not only to the particular duty, but the general 
 spirit ; not only to what it directs us to do, but to the char- 
 acter which a compliance with its direction is likely to form 
 in us. So, in the present instance, the rule here recited will 
 never fail to make him who obeys it considerate^ not only of 
 the rights, but of the feelings of other men, bodily and men- 
 tal, in great matters and in small ; of the ease, the accommo- 
 dation, the self-complacency, of all with whom he has any 
 concern, especially of all who are in his power, or dependent 
 upon his will. 
 
 Now what, in the most applauded philosbpher of the most 
 enlightened age of the world, would have been deemed 
 worthy of his wisdom, and of his character to say, our Sa- 
 viour hath said, and upon just such an occasion as that which 
 we have feigned : 
 
 " "Kien one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a 
 question, tempting him, and saying. Master, which is the 
 great commandment in the law ? Jesus said unto him. Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
 thy soul, and with all thy mind ; this is the first and great 
 commandment ; and the second is like unto it. Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbor as thyself; on these two commandments 
 hang all the law and the prophets."* 
 
 The second precept occurs in Saint Matthew (xix. 16) on 
 another occasion similar to this ; and both of them, on a 
 third similar occasion, in Luke (x. 27). In these two latter in- 
 stances, the question proposed was, "What shall I do to 
 inherit eternal life V 
 
 Upon all these occasions, I consider the words of our Sa- 
 viour as expressing precisely the same thing as what I have 
 put into the mouth of the moral philosopher. Nor do I think 
 
 * Matt. xxii. 35—40. 
 13 
 
290 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL 
 
 that it detracts much from the merit of the answer, that these 
 precepts are extant in the Mosaic code ; for his laying his 
 finger, if I may so say, upon these precepts ; his drawing 
 them out from the rest of that voluminous institution ; his 
 stating of them, not simply amongst the number, but as the 
 greatest and the sum of all the others ; in a word, his pro- 
 posing of them to his hearers for their rule and principle, was 
 our Saviour's own.* 
 
 And what our Saviour had said upon the subject, appears 
 to me to have fixed the sentiment amongst his followers. 
 
 Saint Paul has it expressly, " If there be any other com- 
 mandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying. Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ;"f and again, "For all the 
 law is fulfilled in one word, even in this. Thou shall love thy 
 neighbor as thyself. "J 
 
 Saint John, in like manner, " This commandment have we 
 from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also."§ 
 
 Saint Peter, not very differently : " Seeing that ye have 
 purified your souls in obeying the truth, through the Spirit, 
 unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one 
 another with a pure heart fervently." 1| 
 
 And it is so well known, as to require no citations to ver- 
 ify it, that this love, or charity, or, in other words, regard to 
 
 * In St. Luke, the words are not spoken by our Saviour, but by 
 the lawyer who questioned him. And, indeed, the first and great 
 commandment has a marked prominence, even in the law of Moses 
 itself. Hence, although the remark is substantially just, it seems 
 hardly to recognize so fully as truth requires, the excellency of the 
 law, as an earlier revelation from God. The wisdom of our Saviour, 
 as a Divine teacher of morality, was seen in reclaiming that law from 
 the corrupt glosses of the Pharisees, and unfolding the real spirit of 
 its precepts. But there were, probably, some few among the Jews 
 themselves, who could discern, from the Old Testament alone, the ex- 
 cellency and eminence of these two great commandments, and who 
 are declared, on this account, to be " not far from the kingdom of 
 God." See Mark, xii. 32-34.-7! R. Birks. 
 
 f Rom., xiii. 9. • % ^*1* ^' ^^• 
 
 § 1 John, iv. 21. || 1 Peter, i. 22. 
 
Chap. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 291 
 
 the welfare of others, runs in various forms through all the 
 preceptive parts of the apostolic writings. It is the theme 
 of all their exhortations, that with which their morality be- 
 gins and ends, from which all their details and enumerations 
 set out, and into which they return. 
 
 And that this temper, for some time at least, descended in 
 its purity to succeeding Christians, is attested by one of the 
 earliest and best of the remaining writings of the apostolical 
 fathers, the epistle of the Eoman Clement. The meekness 
 of the Christian character reigns throughout the whole of that 
 excellent piece. The occasion called for it. It w^as to com- 
 pose the dissensions of the church of Corinth. And the ven- 
 erable hearer of the apostles does not fall short, in the dis- 
 play of this principle, of the finest passages of their writings. 
 He calls to the remembrance of the Corinthian church its 
 former character, in which " ye were all of you," he tells them, 
 " humble-minded, not boasting of anything, desiring rather 
 to be subject than to govern, to give than to receive, being 
 content with the portion God had dispensed to you, and 
 hearkening diligently to his word ; ye were enlarged in your 
 bowels, having his sufferings always before your eyes. Ye 
 contended day and night for the whole brotherhood, that witTi 
 compassion and a good conscience the number of his elect 
 might be saved. Ye were sincere, and without offence, to- 
 wards each other. Ye bewailed every one his neighbor's sins, 
 esteeming their defects your own."* His prayer for them 
 was for the " return of peace, long-suffering, and patience."f 
 And his advice to those who might have been the occasion 
 of difference in the society, is conceived in the true spirit, 
 and with a perfect knowledge, of the Christian character : 
 " Who is there among you that .is generous ? who that is 
 compassionate ? who that has any charity ? Let him say, If 
 this sedition, this contention, and these schisms, be upon my 
 account, I am ready to depart, to go away whithersoever ye 
 
 * Ep. Clem. Rom., c. 2 ; Abp. Wake's Translation, 
 f lb., c. 53 ; Abp. Wake's Translation. 
 
292 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 please, and do whatsoever ye shall command me ; only let 
 the flock of Christ be in peace with the elders who are set over 
 it. He that shall do this, shall get to himself a very great 
 honor in the Lord ; and there is no place but what will be 
 ready to receive him ; for the earth is the Lord's, and the 
 fulness thereof These things they, who have their conversa- 
 tion towards God, not to be repented of, both have done, and 
 will always be ready to do."* 
 
 This sacred principle, this earnest recommendation of for- 
 bearance, lenity, and forgiveness, mixes with all the writings 
 of that age. There are more quotations in the apostolical fa- 
 thers, of texts which relate to these points, than of any other. 
 Christ's sayings had struck them. " Not rendering," said 
 Polycarp,. the disciple of John, " evil for evil, or railing for 
 railing, or striking for striking, or cursing for cursing, "f 
 Again, speaking of some, whose behavior had given great of- 
 fence, " Be ye moderate," says he, " on this occasion, and look 
 not upon such as enemies, but call them back as suffering and 
 erring members, that ye save your whole body."J 
 
 " Be ye mild at their anger," saith Ignatius, the companion 
 of Polycarp, " humble at their boastings, to their blasphemies 
 return your prayers, to their error your firmness in the faith ; 
 when they are cruel, be ye gentle ; not endeavoring to imitate 
 their ways, let us be their brethren in all kindness and moder- 
 ation : but let us be followers of the Lord ; for who was ever 
 more unjustly used, more destitute, more despised ?" 
 
 IV. A fourth quality, by which the morality of the Gospel 
 is distinguished, is the exclusion of regard to fame and repu- 
 tation. 
 
 " Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be 
 seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father 
 which is in heaven. "§ 
 
 "When thou pray est, enter into thy closet, and when thoU' 
 
 * Ep. Ciem. Rom., c. 54; Abp. Wake's Translation. ;^.,j 
 
 t Pol. Ep. ad Phil., c. 2. X lb., c. 11. § Matt. vi. 1. 
 
Chap. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 293 
 
 hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and 
 thy Father which s^th in secret, shall reward thee openly."* 
 
 And the rule, by parity of reason, is extended to all other 
 virtues. 
 
 I do not think, that either in these, or in any other passage 
 of the New Testament, the pursuit of fame is stated as a vice ; 
 it is only said that an action, to be virtuous, must be indepen- 
 dent of it. I would also observe, that it is not publicity, but 
 ostentation, which is prohibited ; not the mode, but the motive 
 of the action, which is regulated. A good man will prefer 
 that mode, as well as those objects of his beneficence, by 
 which he can produce the greatest effect ; and the view of this 
 purpose may dictate sometimes publication, and sometimes 
 concealment. Either the one or the other may be the mode 
 of the action, according as the end to be promoted by it ap- 
 pears to require. But from the motive^ the reputation of the 
 deed, and the fruits and advantage of that reputation to our- 
 selves, must be shut out, or, in whatever proportion they are 
 not so, the action in that proportion fails of being virtuous. 
 
 This exclusion of regard to human opinion, is a difference, 
 not so much in the duties, to which the teachers of virtue 
 would persuade mankind, as in the manner and topics of per- 
 suasion. And in this view the difference is great. When we 
 set about to give advice, our lectures are full of the advan- 
 'tages of character, of the regard that is due to appearances and 
 to opinion ; of what the world, especially of what the good 
 or great, will think and say ; of the value of public esteem, 
 and of the qualities by which men acquire it. Widely differ- 
 ent from this was our Saviour's instruction ; and the difference 
 Iwas founded upon the best reasons. For, however the care 
 jof reputation, the authority of public opinion, or even of the 
 opinion of good men, the satisfaction of being well received 
 and well thought of, the benefit of being known and distin- 
 guished, are topics to which we are fain to have recourse in 
 our exhortations ; the true virtue is that which discards these 
 * Matt. vi. 6. 
 
294 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 considerations absolutely, and which retires from them all to 
 the single internal purpose of pleasing Qod. This at least 
 was the virtue which our Saviour taught. And in teaching 
 this, he not onlj confined the views of his followers to the 
 proper measure and principle of human dut^, but acted in 
 consistency with his office as a monitor from heaven. 
 
 Next to what our Saviour taught, may be considered the 
 manner of his teaching ; which was extremely peculiar, yet, I 
 think, precisely adapted to the peculiarity of his character 
 and situation. His lessons did not consist of disquisitions ; 
 of anything like moral essays, or like sermons, or like set 
 treatises upon the several points which he mentioned. When 
 he delivered a precept, it was seldom that he added any proof 
 or argument ; still more seldom, that he accompanied it with, 
 what all precepts require, limitations and distinctions. His 
 instructions were conceived in short, emphatic, sententious 
 rules, in occasional reflections, or in round maxims. I do 
 not think that this was a natural, or would have been a proper 
 method for a philosopher or a m.oralist ; or that it is a method 
 which can be successfully imitated by us. But I contend that 
 it was suitable to the character which Christ assumed, and 
 to the situation in which, as a teacher, he was placed. He 
 produced himself as a messenger from God. He put the 
 truth of what he taught upon authority.* In the choice, 
 therefore, of his mode of teaching, the purpose by him to be 
 consulted was impression : because conviction, which forms 
 the principal end of our discourses, was to arise in the minds 
 of his followers, from a different source, from their respect to 
 his person and authority. Now, for the purpose of impress- 
 ion singly and exclusively (I repeat again, that we are not 
 here to consider the convincing of the understanding), I know 
 nothing which would have so great force as strong ponderous 
 
 * I say unto you, Swear not at all ; I say unto you, Resist not 
 evil; I say unto you, Love your enemies.* 
 * Matt. V. 34, 39, 44. 
 
Chap. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANIT^'. 295 
 
 maxims, frequently urged, and frequently brought back to 
 the thoughts of the hearers. I know nothing that could in 
 this view be said better, than " Do unto others as ye would 
 that others should do unto you :" " The first and great com- 
 mandment is, Tliou shalt love the Lord thy God ; and the 
 second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
 self." It must also be remembered, that our Lord's ministry, 
 upon the supposition either of one year or three, compared 
 with his work, was of short duration ; that, within this time, 
 he had many places to visit, various audiences to address ; 
 that his person was generally besieged by crowds of follow- 
 ers : that he was, sometimes, driven away from the place 
 where he was teaching by persecution, and at other times, 
 thought fit to withdraw himself from the commotions of the 
 populace. Under these circumstances, nothing appears to 
 have been so practicable, or likely to be so efficacious, as 
 leaving, wherever he came, concise lessons of duty. These 
 circumstances at least show the necessity he was under of 
 comprising what he delivered within a small compass. In 
 particular, his Sermon upon the Mount ought always to be 
 considered with a view to these observations. The question 
 is not, whether a fuller, a more accurate, a more systematic, 
 or a*more argumentative discourse upon morals might not 
 have been pronounced ; but whether more could have been 
 said in the same room, better adapted to the exigences of the 
 hearers, or better calculated for the purpose of impression ?* 
 
 * The writer here departs from the dignity of a Christian advo- 
 cate. Modern treatises on moral philosophy may profess to be more 
 systematic and argumentative, but in fulness, simplicity, and power, 
 how very far they come short of this Divine composition ! To reckon 
 the Sermon on the Mount inaccurate, and then to lay down the maxim 
 that virtue is only a calculation of consequences, is indeed to strain at 
 a gnat and swallow a camel. It may be well to cite one eiiample of 
 the Divine power of this discourse, as described recently by a Jewish 
 convert : 
 
 " I was prevailed on to accompany some friends to church, and for 
 the first time heard a portion of the New Testament read. The sixth 
 
296 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part n, 
 
 Seen in this light, it has always appeared to me to be admir- 
 able. Dr. Lardner thought that this discourse was made up 
 of what Christ had said at different times, and on different 
 occasions, several of which occasions are noticed in Saint 
 Luke's narrative. I can perceive no reason for this opinion. 
 I believe that our Lord delivered this discourse at one time 
 and place, in the manner related by Saint Matthew, and that 
 he repeated the same rules and maxims at different times, 
 as opportunity or occasion suggested ; that they were often 
 in his mouth, and were repeated to different audiences, and in 
 various conversations. 
 
 It is incidental to this mode of moral instruction, which 
 proceeds not by proof but upon authority, not by disquisi- 
 tion but by precept, that the rules will be conceived in abso- 
 lute terms, leaving the application, and the distinctions that 
 attend it, to the reason of the hearer. It is likewise to be 
 expected that they will be delivered in terms by so much the 
 more forcible and energetic, as they have to encounter natural 
 or general propensities. It is further also to be remarked, 
 
 chapter of the book of Matthew was one of the lessons. It was with 
 extreme admiration and surprise, not to say uneasiness, that I intent- 
 ly listened to this continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. I was 
 touched with the love that manifestly breathed through every sen- 
 tence, the just censure of hypocrites, the necessary cautio^ ; but my 
 heart thrilled at the simple but eloquent appeal to our senses respect- 
 ing the goodness and care of God towards his smallest creatures. I 
 was indeed astonished at the simplicity, beauty, and comfort of the 
 passage, so replete with zeal for God and love to man. What I heard 
 took such hold of me, that I could not resist till I had read more of 
 this novel and beautiful doctrine. My soul seemed to relish it, and 
 to desire a more copious draught. I longed to read that chapter ; 
 and shortly after, when I got possession of a New Testament, it was 
 the first portion to which I referred. I need scarcely say with what 
 eagerness I devoured the contents of this blessed book. I anxiously 
 searched and compared different passages of Scripture, till in a very 
 short time, in the solitude of ray chamber, I was mourning over Him 
 who was wounded for my transgressions, and bruised for my iniqui- 
 ties." — HerschelVs Jewish Witnesses, p. 42. — Rev. T. E. BirJcs. 
 
Chap. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 297 
 
 that many of those strong instances, which appear in our 
 Lord's sermon, such as, " If any man will smite thee on the 
 right cheek, turn to him the other also :" " If any man will 
 sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy 
 cloak also :" " Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, 
 go with him twain :" though they appear in the form of spe- 
 cific precepts, are intended as descriptive of disposition and 
 character. A specific compliance with the precepts would be 
 of little value, but the disposition which they inculcate is of 
 the highest. He who should content himself with waiting 
 for the occasion, and with literally observing the rule when 
 the occasion offered, would do nothing, or worse than no- 
 thing ; but he who considers the character and disposition 
 which is hereby inculcated, and places that disposition before 
 him as the model to which he should bring his own, takes, 
 perhaps, the best possible method of improving the benevo- 
 lence, and of calming and rectifying the vices, of his temper. 
 
 If it be said that this disposition is unattainable, I answer, 
 so is all perfection : ought therefore a moralist to recommend 
 imperfections ? One excellency, however, of our Saviour's 
 rules, is, that they are either never mistaken, or never so 
 mistaken as to do harm. I could feign a hundred cases, in 
 which the literal application of the rule, " of doing to others 
 as we would that others should do unto us," might mislead 
 us ; but I never yet met with the man who was actually mis- 
 led by it. Notwithstanding that our Lord bade his followers, 
 " not to resist evil," and " to forgive the enemy who should 
 trespass against them, not till seven times, but till seventy 
 times seven," the Christian world has hitherto suffered little 
 by too much placability or forbearance. I would repeat once 
 more, what has already been twice remarked, that these rules 
 were designed to regulate personal conduct from personal 
 motives, and for this purpose alone. 
 
 I think that these observations will assist us greatly in 
 placing our Saviour's conduct, as a moral teacher, in a proper 
 point of view ; especially when it is considered, that to de- 
 
 13* 
 
298 EVIDENCES OF CIIIIISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 liver moral disquisitions was no part of his design, — to teach 
 morality at all was only a subordinate part of it ; his great 
 business being to supply, what Avas much more wanting than 
 lessons of morality, stronger moral sanctions, and clearer as- 
 surances of a future judgment.* 
 
 The parables of the New Testament are, many of them, 
 such as would have done honor to any book in the world : I 
 do not mean in style and diction, but in the choice of the sub- 
 jects, in the structure of the narratives, in the aptness, pro- 
 priety, and force of the circumstances woven into them ; and 
 in some, as that of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, 
 the Pharisee and the Publican, in an union of pathos and 
 simplicity, which, in the best productions of human genius, is 
 the fruit only of a much exercised and well-cultivated judg- 
 ment. 
 
 The Lord^s Prayer^ for a succession of solemn thoughts, 
 for fixing the attention upon a few great points, for suitable- 
 ness to every condition, for sufficiency, for conciseness with- 
 out obscurity, for the weight and real importance of its peti- 
 tions, is without an equal or a rival. 
 
 From whence did these come ? Whence had this man his 
 wisdom ? Was our Saviour, in fact, a well-instructed philos- 
 
 * Some appear to require a religious system, or, in the books which 
 profess to deliver that system, minute directions for every case and 
 occurrence that may arise. This, say they, is necessary, to render a 
 revelation perfect, especially one which has for its object the regula- 
 tion of human conduct. Now, how prolix, and yet how incomplete 
 and unavailing, such an attempt must have been, is proved by one 
 notable example : "The Indoo and Mussulman religion are institutes 
 of civil law, regulating the minutest questions both of property, 
 and of all questions which come under the cognizance of the magis- 
 trate. And to what length details of this kind are necessarily car- 
 ried, when once begun, may be understood from an anecdote of the 
 Mussulman code, which we have received from the most respectable 
 authority, that not less than seventy-five thousand traditional precepts 
 have been promulgated." (Hamilton's Translation of the Hedaya, 
 or Guide.) 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. 299 
 
 opher, whilst he is represented to us as an illiterate peasant 1 
 Or shall we say that some early Christians of taste and edu- 
 cation composed these pieces and ascribed them to Christ ? 
 Beside all other incredibilities in this account, I answer, with 
 Dr. Jortin, that they could not do it. No specimens of com- 
 position, which the Christians of the first century have left 
 us, authorize us to believe that they were equal to the task. 
 And how little qualified the Jews, the countrymen and com- 
 panions of Christ, were to assist him in the undertaking, may 
 be judged of from the traditions and writing of theirs which 
 were the nearest to that age. The whole collection of the 
 Talmud is one continued proof, into what follies they fell 
 whenever they left their Bible ; and how little capable they 
 were of furnishing out such lessons as Christ delivered. 
 
 But there is still another view, in which our Lord's dis- 
 courses deserve to be considered ; and that is, in their nega- 
 tive character, — ^not in what they did, but in what they did 
 not, contain. Under this head, the following reflections ap- 
 pear to me to possess some weight. ^ 
 
 I. They exhibit no particular description of the invisible 
 world. The future happiness of the good, and the misery of 
 the bad, which is all we want to be assured of, is directly and 
 positively affirmed, and is represented by metaphors and 
 comparisons, which were plainly intended as metaphors and 
 comparisons, and as nothing more. As to the rest, a solemn 
 reserve is maintained. The question concerning the woman 
 who had been married to seven brothers, " Whose shall she 
 be on the resurrection ?" was of a nature calculated to have 
 drawn from Christ a more circumstantial account of the state 
 of the human species in their future existence. He cut short, 
 however, the inquiry by an answer, which at once rebuked 
 intruding curiosity, and was agreeable to the best apprehen- 
 sions we are able to form upon the subject, viz. : " That they 
 who are accounted worthy of that resurrection, shall be as 
 the angels of God in heaven." I lay a stress upon this re- 
 serve, because it repels the suspicion of enthusiasm : for en- 
 
300 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL 
 
 thusiasm is wont to expatiate upon the condition of the 
 departed, above all other subjects ; and with a wild particu- 
 larity. It is moreover a topic which is always listened to 
 with greediness. The teacher, therefore, whose principal 
 purpose is to draw upon himself attention, is sure to be full 
 of it. The Koran of Mahomet is half made up of it. 
 
 II. Our Lord enjoined no austerities. He not only en- 
 joined none as absolute duties, but he recommended none as 
 carrying men to a higher degree of Divine favor. Place 
 Christianity, in this respect, by the side of all institutions 
 which have been founded in the fanaticism, either of their au- 
 thor, or of his first followers : or rather compare, in this 
 respect, Christianity as it came from Christ, with the same 
 religion after it fell into other hands ; with the extravagant 
 merit very soon ascribed to celibacy, solitude, voluntary pov- 
 erty ; with the rigors of an ascetic, and the vows of a monas- 
 tic life ; the hair shirt, the watchings, the midnight prayers, 
 the obmutescence, the gloom and mortification of religious 
 orders, and of those who aspired to religious perfection. 
 
 III. Our Saviour uttered no impassioned devotion. There 
 was no heat in his piety, or in the language in which he ex- 
 pressed it ; no vehement or rapturous ejaculations, no violent 
 urgency, in his prayers. The Lord's Prayer is a model of 
 calm devotion. His words in the garden are unaffected ex- 
 pressions of a deep, indeed, but sober piety. He never ap- 
 pears to have been worked up into anything like that elation, 
 or that emotion of spirits, which is occasionally observed in 
 most of those to whom the name of enthusiast can in any 
 degree be applied. I feel a respect for Methodists, because I 
 believe that there is to be found amongst them much sincere 
 piety, and availing, though not always well-informed, Chris- 
 tianity ; yet I never attended a meeting of theirs, but I came 
 away with the reflection, how different what I heard was 
 from what I read ! I do not mean in doctrine, with which 
 at present I have no concern, but in manner ; how differ- 
 ent from the calmness, the sobriety, the good sense, and, 
 
Chap. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHIIISTIANITY. 801 
 
 I may add, the strength and authority, of our Lord's dis- 
 courses !* 
 
 IV. It is very usual with the human mind, to substitute 
 forwardness and fervency in a particular cause, for the merit 
 of general and regular morality ; and it is natural, and poli- 
 tic also, in the leader of a sect or party, to encourage such a 
 disposition in his followers. Christ did not overlook this 
 turn of thought ; yet, though avowedly placing himself at the 
 head of a new institution, he notices it only to condemn it. 
 " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
 into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of 
 my Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in 
 that day. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name 1 
 and in thy name have cast out devils ? and in thy name done 
 
 * The remark here seems to be a lowering of Christian faith and 
 practice to meet the taste of a very cold and lifeless age of the church. 
 Compare those words of the apostle respecting our Lord's devotion, 
 " Who in the days of his flesh — offered up prayers and supplications 
 with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save him 
 from death." Or those of St. Luke: "And being in an agony he 
 prayed the more earnestly : and his sweat was as it were great drops 
 of blood falling down to the ground." Our Saviour did utter im- 
 passioned devotion. There was fervor in his piety, vehement ejacu- 
 lation and violent urgency in his prayers. The description here 
 given of the agony in the garden reverses all its actual features. Not 
 coolness and sobriety, but intense feeling, deep emotion, and vehe- 
 ment earnestness, are the characters most conspicuous in the whole 
 narrative. But then, on the other hand, our Lord's deepest emotions 
 were either veiled in solitary retirement, or in the presence of three, 
 at the most of twelve disciples only. Calmness, authority, and a 
 quiet dignity, are the features which mark all his public intercourse 
 with men. Even in his intense emotion, there is a Divine calmness, 
 which separates it widely from mere animal excitement. The writer 
 himself, and the early Methodists to whom he alludes, would be likely 
 to deviate, in an opposite way, from this Divine pattern. To " calm- 
 ness, sobriety, and good sense," we must add earnestness, fervor, and 
 even a holy vehemence, and then only shall we approach to the stand- 
 ard of spiritual devotion that is set before us in the gospel history. 
 —Hev. T. B, Birks. 
 
302 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 many wonderful works ? And then will I profess unto you I 
 never knew you ; depart from me, ye that work iniquity. "^"^^ 
 So far was the Author of Christianity from courting the at- 
 tachment of his followers by any sacrifice of principle, or by 
 a condescension to the errors which even zeal in his service 
 might have inspired ! This was a proof both of sincerity 
 and judgment. 
 
 V. Nor, fifthly, did he fall in with any of the depraved fash- 
 ions of his country, or with the natural bias of his own educa- 
 tion. Bred up a Jew, under a religion extremely technical, 
 in an age and amongst a people more tenacious of the cere- 
 monies than of any other part of that religion, he delivered 
 an institution, containing less of ritual, and that more simple, 
 than is to be found in any religion which ever prevailed 
 amongst mankind. We have known, I do allow, examples 
 of an enthusiasm, which has swept away all external ordi- 
 nances before it. But this spirit certainly did not dictate our 
 Saviour's conduct, either in his treatment of the religion of 
 his country, or the formation of his own institution. In both, 
 he displayed the soundness and moderation of his judgment. 
 He censured an overstrained scrupulousness, or perhaps an 
 affectation of scrupulousness, about the Sabbath ; but how 
 did he censure it? not by contemning or decrying the insti- 
 tution itself, but by declaring that " the Sabbath was made 
 for man, not man for the Sabbath;" that is to say, that the 
 Sabbath was to be subordinate to its purpose, and that that 
 purpose was the real good of those who were the subjects of the 
 law. The same concerning the nicety of some of the Phari- 
 sees, in paying tithes of the most trifling articles, accompanied 
 with a neglect of justice, fidelity, and mercy. He finds fault 
 with them for misplacing their anxiety. He does not speak 
 disrespectfully of the law of tithes, nor of their observance of 
 it ; but he assigns to each class of duties its proper station in 
 the scale of moral importance. All this might be expected 
 perhaps from a well-instructed, cool, and judicious philoso- 
 * Matt. vii. 21, 22. 
 
Chap. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 803 
 
 pher, but was not to b* looked for from an illiterate Jew ; 
 certainly not from an impetuous enthusiast. 
 
 VI. Nothing could be more quibbling, than were the com- 
 ments and expositions of the Jewish doctors, at that time ; 
 nothing so puerile as their distinctions. Their evasion of the 
 fifth commandment, their exposition of the law of oaths, are 
 specimens of the bad taste in morals which then prevailed. 
 Whereas, in a numerous collection of our Saviour's apoph- 
 thegms, many of them referring to sundry precepts of the 
 Jewish law, there is not to be found one example of sophistry, 
 or of false subtilty, or of anything approaching thereunto. 
 
 VII. The national temper of the Jews was intolerant, nar- 
 row-minded, and excluding. In Jesus, on the contrary, 
 whether we regard his lessons or his example, we see not only 
 benevolence, but benevolence the most enlarged and compre- 
 hensive. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the very 
 point of the story is, that the person relieved by him, was 
 the national and religious enemy of his benefactor. Our Lord 
 declared the equity of the Divine administration, when he 
 told the Jews (what, probably, they were surprised to hear), 
 " That many should come from the east and west, and should 
 sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of 
 heaven ; but that the children of the kingdom should be cast 
 into outer darkness."* His reproof of the hasty zeal of his 
 disciples, who would needs call down fire from heaven to re- 
 venge an affront put upon their Master, shows the lenity of 
 his character, and of his religion ; and his opinion of the man- 
 ner in which the most unreasonable opponents ought to be 
 treated, or at least of the manner in which they ought not to 
 be treated. The terms in which his rebuke vras conveyed, 
 deserve to be noticed : — " Ye know not what manner of spirit 
 ye are off 
 
 VIII. Lastly, amongst the negative qualities of our relig- 
 ion, as it came out of the hands of its Founder and his apos- 
 tles, we may reckon its complete abstraction from all views 
 
 * ]\ratt. viii. 11. f Luke, ix. 65. 
 
804 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IT. 
 
 either of ecclesiastical or civil policy ; or, to meet a language 
 much in fashion with some men, from the politics either of 
 priests or statesmen. Christ's declaration, that " his kingdom 
 was not of this world," recorded by Saint John ; his evasion 
 of the question, whether it was lawful or not to give tribute 
 unto Caesar, mentioned by the three other evangelists ; his 
 reply to an application that was made to him, to interpose 
 his authority in a question of property ; " Man, who made 
 me a ruler or a judge over you f ascribed to him by Saint 
 Luke ; his declining to exercise the office of a criminal judge 
 in the case of the woman taken in adultery, as related by 
 John, are all intelligible significations of our Saviour's senti- 
 ments upon this head. And with respect to politics^ in the 
 usual sense of that word, or discussions concerning different 
 forms of government, Christianity declines every question 
 upon the subject. Whilst politicians are disputing about 
 monarchies, aristocracies, and republics, the Gospel is alike ap- 
 plicable, useful, and friendly to them all ; inasmuch as, 1st, 
 it tends to make men virtuous, and as it is easier to govern 
 good men than bad men under any constitution ; as, 2dly, it 
 states obedience to government in ordinary cases, to be not 
 merely a submission to force, but a duty of conscience ; as, 
 3dly, it induces dispositions favorable to public tranquillity, 
 a Christian's chief care being to pass quietly through this 
 world to a better ; as, 4thly, it prays for communities, and 
 for the governors of communities, of whatever description or 
 denomination they be, with a solicitude and fervency propor- 
 tioned to the influence which they possess upon human hap- 
 piness. All which, in my opinion, is just as it should be. 
 Had there been more to be found in Scripture of a political 
 nature, or convertible to politital purposes, the worst use 
 w^ould have been made of it, on whichever side it seemed 
 to lie. 
 
 When, therefore, we consider Christ as a moral teacher 
 (remembering that this was only a secondary part of his office ; 
 and that morality, by the nature of the subject, does not ad- 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 305 
 
 mit of discovery, properly so called) ; — when we consider 
 either what he taught, or what he did not teach, either the sub- 
 stance or the manner of his instruction ; his preference of solid 
 to popular virtues, of a character which is commonly de- 
 spised to a character w^hich is universally extolled ; his plac- 
 ing, in our licentious vices, the check in the right place, viz. 
 upon the thoughts : his collecting of human duty into two 
 well-devised rules, his repetition of these rules, the stress he 
 laid upon them, especially in comparison with positive duties, 
 and his fixing thereby the sentiments of his followers ; his ex- 
 clusion of all regard to reputation in our devotion and alms, 
 and, by parity of reason, in our other virtues ; — when we 
 consider that his instructions were delivered in a form calcu- 
 lated for impression, the precise purpose in his situation to be 
 consulted ; and that they were illustrated by parables, the 
 choice and structure of which would have been admired in 
 any composition whatever ; — when we observe him free from 
 the usual symptoms of enthusiasm, heat and vehemence in de- 
 votion, austerity in institutions, and a wild particularity in the 
 description of a future state ; free also from the depravities of 
 his age and country ; without superstition amongst the most 
 superstitious of men, yet not decrying positive distinctions or 
 external observances, but soberly calling them to the principle 
 of their establishment, and to their place in the scale of hu- 
 man duties ; without sophistry or trifling, amidst teachers re- 
 markable for nothing so much as frivolous subtilties and quib- 
 bling expositions ; candid and liberal in his judgment of the 
 rest of mankind, although belonging to a people who affected 
 a separate claim to Divine favor, and, in consequence of that 
 opinion, prone to uncharitableness, partiality, and restriction ; 
 — when we find, in his religion, no scheme of building up a 
 hierarchy, or of ministering to the views of human govern- 
 ments ; — in a word, when we compare Christianity, as it came 
 from its Author, either with other religions, or with itself in 
 other hands, the most reluctant understanding will be induced 
 to acknowledge the probity, I think also the good sense, of 
 
306 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 those to whom it owes its origin ; and that some regard is 
 due to the testimony of such men, when they declare their 
 knowledge that the religion proceeded from God ; and when 
 they appeal, for the truth of their assertion, to miracles which 
 they wrought, or which they saw. 
 
 Perhaps the qualities which we observe in the religion, may 
 be thought to prove something more. They would have been 
 extraordinary, had the religion come from any person ; from 
 the person from whom it did come, they are exceedingly so. 
 What was Jesus in external appearance ? A Jewish peasant, 
 the son of a carpenter, living with his father and mother in a 
 remote province of Palestine, until the time that he produced 
 himself in his public character. He had no master to instruct 
 or prompt him ; he had read no books, but the works of Mo- 
 ses and the Prophets ; he had visited no polished cities ; he 
 had received no lessons from Socrates or Plato, — nothing to 
 form in him a taste or judgment different from that of the 
 rest of his countrymen, and of persons of the same rank of 
 life with himself Supposing it to be true, which it is not, 
 that all his points of morality might be picked out of Greek 
 and Roman writings, they were writings which he had never 
 seen. Supposing them to be no more than what some or other 
 had taught in various times and places, he could not collect 
 them together. 
 
 Who were his coadjutors in the undertaking, — the persons 
 into whose hands the religion came after his death ? A few 
 fishermen upon the lake of Tiberias, persons just as uneducat- 
 ed, and, for the purpose of framing rules of morality, as un- 
 promising as himself. Suppose the mission to be real, all 
 this is accounted for ; the unsuitableness of the authors to the 
 production, of the characters to the undertaking, no longer 
 surprises us ; but without reality^ it is very difficult to explain, 
 how such a system should proceed from such persons. Christ 
 was not like any other carpenter ; the apostles were not like 
 any other fishermen. 
 
 But the subject is not exhausted by these observations. 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 307 
 
 That portion of it, which is most reducible to points of argu- 
 ment, has been stated, and, I trust, truly. There are, how- 
 ever, some topics, of a more diffuse nature, which yet deserve 
 to be proposed to the reader's attention. 
 
 The character of Christ is a part of the morality of the 
 Gospel : one strong observation upon which is, that, neither 
 as represented by his followers, nor as attacked by his ene- 
 mies, is he charged with any personal vice. This remark is 
 as old as Origen : " Though innumerable lies and calumnies 
 had been forged against the venerable Jesus, none had dared 
 to charge him with an intemperance."* Not a reflection 
 upon his moral character, not an imputation or suspicion of 
 any offence against purity and chastity, appears for five hun- 
 dred years after his birth. This faultlessness is more peculiar 
 than we are apt to imagine. Some stain pollutes the morals 
 or the morality of almost every other teacher, and of every 
 other law-giver, f Zeno the stoic, and Diogenes the cynic, 
 fell into the foulest impurities ; of which also Socrates him- 
 self was more than suspected. Solon forbade unnatural 
 crimes to slaves. Lycurgus tolerated theft as a part of edu- 
 cation. Plato recommended a community of women. Aris- 
 totle maintained the general right of making war upon bar- 
 barians. The elder Cato was remarkable for the ill usage of 
 his slaves ; the younger gave up the person of his wife. One 
 loose principle is found in almost all the Pagan moralists ; is 
 distinctly, however, perceived in the writings of Plato, Xeno- 
 phon, Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus ; and that is, the allowing, 
 and even the recommending to their disciples, a compliance 
 with the religion, and with the religious rites, of every coun- 
 try into which they came. * In speaking of the founders of 
 new institutions, we cannot forget Mahomet. His licentious 
 transgressions of his own licentious rules ; his abuse of the 
 
 * Or. Ep. Cels., 1. 8, num. 36, ed. Bened. 
 
 f See many instances collected by Grotius, de Veritate Chris- 
 tianse Religionis, in the notes to his second book, p. 116, Pocock's 
 edition. 
 
808 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 character which he assumed, and of the power which he had 
 acquired, for the purposes of personal and privileged indul- 
 gence ; his avowed claim of a special permission from heaven, 
 of unlimited sensuality, is known to every reader, as it is 
 confessed by every writer, of the Moslem story. 
 
 Secondly, in the histories which are left us of Jesus Christ, 
 although very short, and although dealing in narrative, and 
 not in observation or panegyric, we perceive, beside the ab- 
 sence of every appearance of vice, traces of devotion, humil- 
 ity, benignity, mildness, patience, prudence. I speak of traces 
 of these qualities, because the qualities themselves are to be 
 collected from incidents ; inasmuch as the terms are never 
 used of Christ in the Gospels, nor is any formal character of 
 him drawn in any part of the New Testament. 
 
 Thus we see the devoutness of his mind, in his frequent 
 retirement to solitary prayer ;* in his habitual giving of 
 thanks ;f in his reference of the beauties and operations of 
 nature to the bounty of Providence ;J in his earnest addresses 
 to his Father, more particularly that short but solemn one 
 before the raising of Lazarus from the dead;§ and in the 
 deep piety of his behavior in the garden, on the last evening 
 of his life ; || his humility, in his constant reproof of conten- 
 tions for superiority ;•([ the benignity and affectionateness of 
 his temper, in his kindness to children :** in the tears which 
 he shed over his falling country,f f and upon the death of his 
 friend ; J J in his noticing of the widow's mite ;g§ in his parables 
 of the good Samaritan, of the ungrateful servant, and of the 
 Pharisee and publican, of which parables no one but a man 
 of humanity could have been the author : the mildness and 
 lenity of his character is discovered, in his rebuke of the for- 
 ward zeal of his disciples at the Samaritan village ; || || in his 
 
 * Matt. xiv. 23. Luke, ix. 28. Matt. xxvi. 36. 
 
 f Matt. xi. 25. Mark, viii. 6. John, vi. 23. Luke, xxii. 17. 
 
 X Matt. vi. 26—28. § John, xi. 41. | Matt. xxvi. 36 — iY. 
 
 T[ Mark, ix. 33. ** Mark, x. 16. ff Luke, xix. 41. 
 
 XX John, xi. 35. §§ Mark, xii. 42. || || Luke, ix. 55. 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 809 
 
 expostulation with Pilate ;* in his prayer for his enemies at 
 the moment of his sufFering,f which, though it has been since 
 very properly and frequently imitated, was then, I apprehend, 
 new. His 'prudence is discerned, where prudence is most 
 wanted, in his conduct on trying occasions, and in answers to 
 artful questions. Of these, the following are examples : — 
 His withdrawing, in various instances, from the first symp- 
 toms of tumultjj and with the express care, as appears from 
 Saint Matthew,§ of carrying on his ministry in quietness : 
 his declining of every species of interference with the civil 
 affairs of the county, which disposition is manifested by his 
 behavior in the case of the woman caught in adultery, || and 
 in his repulse of the application which was made to him, to 
 interpose his decision about a disputed inheritance \\ his judi- 
 cious, yet, as it should seem, unprepared answers, will be 
 confessed in the case of the Roman tribute :** in the difficulty 
 concerning the interfering relations of a future state, as pro- 
 posed to him in the instance of a woman who had married 
 seven brethren ;f f and, more especially, in his reply to those 
 who demanded from him an explanation of the authority by 
 which he acted, which reply consisted in propounding a ques- 
 tion to them, situated between the very difficulties into which 
 they were insidiously endeavoring to draw MmW 
 
 Our Saviour's lessons, beside what has already been re- 
 marked in them, touch, and that oftentimes by very affecting 
 representations, upon some of the most interesting topics of 
 human duty, and of human meditation : upon the principles, 
 by which the decisions of the last day will be regulated ;§§ 
 upon the superior, or rather the supreme importance of relig- 
 ion ; II II upon penitence, by the most pressing calls and the 
 most encouraging invitations ;T"*[ upon self-denial,*** watch- 
 
 * John, ix. 11. \ Luke, xxiii.34. 
 
 X Matt. xiv. 22. Luke, v. 16, 16. John, v. 13, vi. 15. 
 
 § Chap. xii. 19. || John, viii. 1. ^ Luke, xii. 14. 
 
 ** Matt. xxii. 19. \\ lb., 28. 
 
 XX Matt. xxi. 23, et. seq. §§ Matt. xxv. 31, et seq. 
 
 li Mark, viii. 35. Matt. vi. 31—33. Luke, xii. 4, 6, 16—21. 
 
 tt Luke, XV. *** Matt. v. 29. 
 
310 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Paeo: IL 
 
 fulness,* placability,! confidence in God, J the value of spirit- 
 ual, that is, of mental worship,§ the necessity of moral obe- 
 dience, and the directing of that obedience to the spirit and 
 principle of the law, instead of seeking for evasions in a 
 technical construction of its terms. || 
 
 If we extend our argument to other parts of the New Tes- 
 tament, we may offer, as amongst the best and shortest rules 
 of life, or, which is the same thing, descriptions of virtue, that 
 have ever been delivered, the following passages : 
 
 " Pure religion, and undefiled, before God, and the Father, 
 is this ; to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, 
 and to keep himself unspotted from the world. "^ 
 
 " Now the end of the commandment is, charity, out of a 
 pure heart and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."** 
 
 " For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath ap- 
 peared to all men, teaching us, that, 'denying ungodliness and 
 worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, 
 in this present world. "ff 
 
 Enumerations of virtues and vices, and those sufficiently 
 accurate, J J and unquestionably just, are given by Saint Paul to 
 his converts in three several epistles. §§ 
 
 * Mark, xiii. 37. Matt. xxiv. 42. — xxv. 13. 
 
 f Luke, xvii. 4. Matt, xviii. 33, et seq. 
 
 X Matt. vi. 25—30. § John, iv. 23, 24. | Matt. v. 21. M 
 
 ^ James, i. 27. ** 1 Tim. i. 5. ff Tit. ii. 11, 12. * 
 
 J J This cold and cautious epithet seems very much misplaced. Could 
 Dr. Paley really believe that he himself, or the other writers of his 
 age, had improved on the accuracy of St. Paul's ethical instructions ? 
 This false candor implies a want of due reverence for the Word of 
 God, and only betrays the cause of Divine truth. It were well if 
 Paley's own Treatise on Moral Philosophy had approached to the 
 soundness and accuracy of the apostolic precepts. Our country 
 might then, perhaps, have escaped the long infection of a false and 
 heartless theory, which would blight all the real beauty and glory of 
 genuine and Divine morality ; which keeps up a refined and calcu- 
 lating selfishness, and then calls it Christian virtue. If there be a de- 
 fect, it is certainly in the discernment of the writer himself, and not 
 in the inaccuracy of the holy apostle. — Hev. T, R. Birks. 
 88 Gal. V. 19. Col. iii. 12. 1 Cor. xilL 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 811 
 
 The relative duties of husbands and wives, of parents and 
 children ,• of masters and servants, of Christian teachers and 
 their flocks, of governors and their subjects, are set forth by 
 the same writer,* not indeed with the copiousness, the detail, 
 or the distinctness, of a moralist, who should, in these days, 
 sit down to write chapters upon the subject, but with the leading 
 rules and principles in each ; and, above all, with truth, and 
 with authority. 
 
 Lastly, the whole volume of the New Testament is replete 
 ^ith piety ; with, what were almost unknown to Heathen mor- 
 alists, devotional virtues^ the most profound veneration of the 
 Deity, and habitual sense of his bounty and protection, a firm 
 confidence in the final result of his councils and dispensations, 
 a disposition to resort, upon all occasions, to his mercy, for 
 the supply of human wants, for assistance in danger, for re- 
 lief from pain, for the pardon of sin.f 
 
 Note A. 
 
 In the beginning of this chapter, Paley says, " If I were to de- 
 scribe in a very few words the scope of Christianity as a revelation, 
 I should say that it was to influence the conduct of human life by 
 establishing the proof of a future state of rewards and punishments, 
 * to bring life and immortality to light.' " 
 
 I do not object to the prominence, or, in one view, the pre-eminence 
 he gives to the doctrine of a future life. No orthodoxy in all other 
 respects would have compensated for the want of its revelation. No 
 system of religion, however faultless in everything else, could have 
 stood without it: for take away the doctrine of immortality, and 
 
 * Eph. v. 33 ; vi. 1, 5. 2 Cor. vi. 6, 7. Rom. xiii. 
 
 f The morality of the ancients was more defective and erroneous in 
 the matter of our duty to God than in that of our duty to man. Did the 
 gospel make no discovery in this ? And is this not by far the most 
 important department of morals ? — Ed. 
 
812 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 thoTigli it may have remained as a system of truth, yet as a system 
 of religion it would have been annihilated. « 
 
 But while we fully admit that the great business of religion is to 
 prepare for immortality, he, I greatly fear, wholly misrepresents the 
 practical influences under which it is that this preparation is carried ^ 
 forward. According to his representation, it might appear that no- 
 thing more was wanted to put us in a right state of preparation than 
 just a reward great enough to lure us into virtue, and a punishment 
 great enough to deter ns from vice. I can conceive no other impress- 
 ion to be taken from his account of the matter than this, that all 
 which was needed for giving a right impulse to humanity was to 
 furnish it with an adequate motive, and that motive was made ade- 
 quate simply by sufficiently enhancing the remuneration for obe- 
 dience, and sufficiently aggravating the penalty for transgression. It 
 appears to me as if in the mind both of Butler and Paley upon this 
 subject, the great charm and efficacy of the doctrine of immortality 
 lay in the multiple power which eternal had over temporal sanctions, 
 and in that it proposed to man a better bargain for his services, a 
 higher wage for the work which God put him to, a severer and more 
 appalling chastisement, should he prove a remiss or an unfaithful 
 laborer. At this rate, you will observe, the whole spirit of the legal 
 economy is kept entire. There is no account taken of Christian- 
 ity as a restorative system, or of that mediatorial economy under 
 which the guilt of sin is expiated, and the power of sin is done away. 
 All the anxieties and fears which attach to the condition of "Do this 
 and live," abide in full force after such a statement ; and I do think 
 that with no other guidance to the scope of the gospel than what is 
 furnished in this passage by our author, we should miss altogether 
 the great characteristic and leading peculiarity of the gospel. 
 
 "What I should call the essence of the gospel is the revelation of 
 that great event by which, after man had forfeited all his rights and 
 incurred the penalties of a broken law, these penalties were borne 
 for him, and those rights again earned for him, by Him on whom the 
 chastisement of his peace was laid, and who brought in an everlast- 
 ing righteousness. He does not now work to make out his claim to 
 heaven, but heaven, already his by gift, offers the powerfulest incite- 
 ments to work and to watch with all perseverance. He is distinctly 
 informed that it is a place of holiness, and that none but those of 
 congenial character and feelings can be happy there. His business 
 is not to make out his title-deed by his virtues, but by his virtues to 
 make out his meetness for that inheritance of glory. You will find 
 a difi^erence, as wide as the east is from the west, between the condi- 
 
Chap. 11.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 313 
 
 tion of him who toils for heaven as a recompense, and of him who, 
 already regarding heaven as his own, prepares himself, with all the 
 alacrity which faith and hope can inspire, for its pure delights, for 
 its holy services. 
 
 In the note at the beginning of the chapter on the subject of the 
 extent of those benefits which have been achieved by the death of 
 Christ, if Paley does not enter into the region of conjecture, he at 
 least plants a footstep on the very margin of it I can scarcely say 
 he goes too far, though he certainly could not with safety or pru- 
 dence have gone further. There is one passage, and but one which 
 I at present recollect, in Scripture, which seems however to warrant 
 the length to which he has actually proceeded — I mean that where 
 it ie said that Christ reconciled all things to God, whether they be 
 things in earth or things in heaven,* intimating that there is a some- 
 thing, we know not what, connected with the enterprise of redemp- 
 tion which has a bearing on other orders of being, and a relation 
 with distant parts of the universe — a grandeur in it commensurate 
 with the greatness of Him by whom it was accomplished, and in vir- 
 tue of which, instead of being limited in its effects to the destiny of 
 but one planet and one species, it seems as if involved with larger 
 and higher interests, thus having a scope wide as infinity, even as it 
 has a consequence that will last forever. 
 
 But the most practically interesting part of this rather adventur- 
 ous speculation, is that which relates to the people of our own world, 
 in regard to whom Dr. Paley seems to intimate that the benefit of 
 Christ's death may extend to those who never heard of it. And so 
 it may, for aught we know. With this qualification I would not 
 quarrel with the conjecture, and would only interpose a caution, lest 
 we should regard the people who lie without the limits of Christen- 
 dom to be so benefited already by the mysterious and untold influ- 
 ence which the redemption by Christ has had upon them, as at all to 
 slacken or supersede the ardor of missionary benevolence. Certain 
 it is, that whatever unknown advantage the death of the Saviour 
 may have obtained for those to whom the tidings of it never have 
 been borne, there is unspeakable enlargement — there is all the mag- 
 nitude of a greatly overpassing good represented in Scripture as 
 resulting from the knowledge of the Saviour. We lie, indeed, under 
 an express and imperative obligation to spread these tidings all over 
 the Avorld, " Go and preach the gospel to every creature ;" and let us 
 not, therefore, find any apology for that inertness which is so prev- 
 alent among Christians in regard to missionary exertion, in any 
 * C0I088. i. 20. 
 
 14 
 
314 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 imagined good which we may conceive is already wrought for them by 
 some nnrevealed channel of conveyance. Throughout the whole of 
 the New Testament the main benefit of Christ's death is represented 
 to descend upon men through the intermedium of faith ; and " how 
 can they believe except they hear ? how can they hear without a 
 preacher ?" 
 
 As to the text which Dr. Paley quotes, that Christ died for the 
 whole world, let it well be understood that his death is not repre- 
 sented as having achieved an actual pardon for the whole world, 
 but as having achieved an amnesty which might be proposed to the 
 whole world. But to receive the benefit of the amnesty, we must 
 hear of it ; we must understand the footing on which it is held out, 
 and comply with the terms of it. I for one do not object to the ex- 
 pression of eternal life being yours in offer, but in order that it may 
 be yours in possession, there must be an acceptance on your part, 
 and that it is your faith in the reality of the offer which constitutes 
 this acceptance. Christ died for the whole world, because now and 
 in consequence of his death the offer of the remission of sins may be 
 made to the whole world ; and when the expression is thus under- 
 stood, so far from superseding, it enhances to the utmost the obliga- 
 tion which lies upon us to bear this precious overture of reconcilia- 
 tion among all the families of earth. They whom that overture 
 never reached lie, in consequence, we have every reason to believe, 
 under a heavy destitution, which tells on their state through eter- 
 nity ; and they, again, whom it has reached, and who have never- 
 theless rejected it ; so far from experiencing the benefit and virtue 
 of the atonement by the Saviour, will entail upon themselves the 
 burden of a sorer condemnation. That atoning death is the savor 
 of life unto life to those only who accept of its offered benefits ; to 
 those who refuse, it will be the savor of death unto death. — Chalmers. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE OANDOE OF THE WEITEES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.* 
 
 I MAKE this candor to consist, in their putting down many 
 passages, and noticing many circumstances, which no writer 
 whatever was likely to have forged ; and which no writer 
 would have chosen to appear in his book, who had been care- 
 ful to present the story in the most unexceptionable form, or 
 who had thought himself at liberty to carve and mould the 
 particulars of that story, according to his choice, or according 
 to his judgment of the effect. 
 
 A strong and well-known example of the fairness of the 
 evangelists, offers itself in their account of Christ's resurrec- 
 tion, namely, in their unanimously stating, that, after he was 
 risen, he appeared to his disciples alone. I do not mean that 
 they have used the exclusive word alone ; but that all the in- 
 stances which they have recorded of his appearance, are in- 
 stances of appearance to his disciples ; that their reasonings 
 upon it, and allusions to it, are confined to this supposition ; 
 and that, by one of them, Peter is made to say, " Him God 
 raised up the third day, and showed him openly, not to all the 
 people, but to witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, 
 who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead."f 
 The most common understanding must have perceived, that 
 the history of the resurrection would have come with more 
 
 * See note A, at the end of this Chapter, 
 t Acts, X. 40, 41. 
 
816 EVir E^^CES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 advantage, if thej had related that Jesus appeared, after he 
 was risen, to his foes as well as his friends, to the scribes and 
 Pharisees, the Jewish council, and the Roman governor : or 
 even if they had asserted the public appearance of Christ in 
 general unqualified terms, without noticing, as they have done, 
 the presence of his disciples on each occasion, and noticing it 
 in such a manner as to lead their readers to suppose that none 
 but disciples were present. They could have represented in 
 one way as well as the other. And if their point had been 
 to have the religion believed, whether true or false ; if they 
 had fabricated the story ab initio ; or if they had been dispos- 
 ed either to have delivered their testimony as witnesses, or to 
 have worked up their materials and information as historians, 
 in such a manner as to render their narrative as specious and 
 unobjectionable as they could ; in a word, if they thought of 
 anything but of the truth of the case, as they understood and 
 believed it ; they would, in their account of Christ's several 
 appearances after his resurrection, at least have omitted 
 this restriction. At this distance of time, the account as we 
 have it, is perhaps more credible than it would have been the 
 other way ; because this manifestation of the historians' can- 
 dor, is of more advantage to their testimony, than the diffisr- 
 ence in the circumstances of the account would have been to 
 the nature of the evidence. But this is an effect which the 
 evangelists would not foresee ; and I think that it was by no 
 means the case at the time when the books were composed. 
 
 Mr. Gibbon has argued for the genuineness of the Koran, 
 from the confessions which it contains, to the apparent disad- 
 vantage of the Mahometan cause."* The same defence vindi- 
 cates the genuineness of our Gospels, and without prejudice to 
 the cause at all. 
 
 There are some other instances in which the evangelists 
 honestly relate what, they must have perceived, would make 
 against them. 
 
 Of this kind is John the Baptist's message, preserved by 
 * Vol. ix., c. 50, note 96. 
 
Chap. III.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 317 
 
 Saint Matthew (xi. 2) and Saint Luke (vii. 18): "Now 
 when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he 
 sent two of his disciples, and said unto him. Art thou he that 
 should come, or look we for another V To confess, still more 
 to state, that John the Baptist had his doubts concerning the 
 character of Jesus, could not but afford a handle to cavil and 
 objection. But truth, like honesty, neglects appearances. 
 The same observation, perhaps, holds concerning the apostasy 
 of Judas.* 
 
 John, vi. 66. " From that time, many of his disciples 
 went back, and walked no more with him." Was it the part 
 of a writer, who dealt in suppression and disguise, to put 
 down this anecdote ? 
 
 Or this^ which Matthew has preserved (xiii. 58) ? " He 
 did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief." 
 
 Again, in the same evangelist (v. 17, 18) : " Think not 
 that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not 
 come to destroy, but to fulfil : for, verily, I say untio you, till 
 heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle, shall in no wise 
 pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." At the time the Gos- 
 
 * I had once placed amongst these examples of fair concession, the 
 remarkable words of Saint Matthew, in his account of Christ's appear- 
 ance upon the Galilean mountain : " And when they saw him, they 
 worshipped him ; but some doubted."^ I have since, however, been 
 convinced by what is observed concerning this passage in Dr. Towns- 
 hend's discourse f upon the resurrection, that the transaction, as re- 
 lated by Saint Matthew, was really this : " Christ appeared first at a 
 distance ; the greater part of the company, the moment they saw him, 
 worshipped, but some, as yet, i. e. upon this first distant view of his 
 person, doubted ; whereupon Christ came up \ to them, and spake to 
 them," &c. : that the doubt, therefore, was a doubt only at first, for a 
 moment, and upon his being seen at a distance, and was afterwards 
 dispelled by his nearer approach, and by his entering into conversa- 
 tion with them. 
 
 * Chap, xxviii. 17. t Page 177. 
 
 X Saint Matthew's words are, Kui tt/joctsX^coi/ 6 'Iryaouf, t\a\ria-£v avTOig. This inti- 
 mates that, when he first appeared, it was at a distance, at least from many of the 
 spectators. lb., p. 197. 
 
318 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 pels were written, the apparent tendency of Christ's mission 
 was to diminish the authority of the Mosaic code, and it was 
 so considered by the Jews themselves. It is very improb- 
 able, therefore, that, without the constraint of truth, Matthew 
 should have ascribed a saying to Christ, which, primo intuitu^ 
 militated with the judgment of the age in which his Gospel 
 was written. Marcion thought this text so objectionable, that 
 he altered the words, so as to invert the sense.* 
 
 Once more (Acts, xxv. 19) : " They brought none accusa^ 
 tion against him, of such things as I supposed, but had cer- 
 tain questions against him of their own superstition, and of 
 one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." 
 Nothing could be more in the character of a Eoman governor 
 than these words. But that is not precisely the point I 
 am concerned with. A mere panegyrist, or a dishonest nar- 
 rator, would not have represented his cause, or have made a 
 great magistrate represent it in this manner, i. e, in terms 
 not a little disparaging, and bespeaking, on his part, much 
 unconcern and indifference about the matter. The same ob- 
 servation may be repeated of the speech, which is ascribed to 
 Gallio (Acts, xviii. 15) : " If it be a question of words and 
 names, and of your law, look ye to it ; for I will be no judge 
 of such matters." 
 
 Lastly, where do we discern a stronger mark of candor, 
 or less disposition to extol and magnify, than in the conclu- 
 sion of the same history ? in which the evangelist, after relat- 
 ing that Paul, on his first arrival at Rome, preached to the 
 Jews from morning until evening, adds : " And some believed 
 the things which were spoken, and some believed not." 
 
 The following, I think, are passages which were very unlikely 
 to have presented themselves to the mind of a forger or a 
 fabulist : 
 
 Matt. xxi. 21. "Jesus answered and said unto them. Ver- 
 ily I say unto you. If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall 
 not only do this which is done unto the fig-tree, but also, if 
 * Lardner, Cred., vol. xv. p. 422. 
 
Chap. III.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 319 
 
 ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be 
 thou cast into the sea, it shall be done ; all things whatsoever 
 ye shall ask in prayer, believing, it shall be done."* It ap- 
 pears to me very improbable that these words should have been 
 put into Christ's mouth, if he had not actually spoken them. 
 The term " faith," as here used, is perhaps rightly interpreted 
 of confidence in that internal notice, by which the apostles 
 were admonished of their power to perform any particular 
 miracle. And this exposition renders the sense of the text 
 more easy. But the words, undoubtedly, in their obvious 
 construction, carry with them a difficulty, which no writer 
 would have brought upon himself officiously. 
 
 Luke, ix. 59. " And he said unto another. Follow me : 
 but he said. Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 
 Jesus said unto him. Let the dead bury their dead, but go 
 thou and preach the kingdom of God."f This answer, though 
 very expressive of the transcendent importance of religious 
 concerns, was apparently harsh and repulsive ; and such as 
 would not have been made for Christ, if he had not really 
 used it. At least some other instance would have been 
 chosen. 
 
 The following passage I, for the same reason, think impos- 
 sible to have been the production of artifice, or of a cold 
 forgery : — " But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with 
 his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judg- 
 ment ; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be 
 in danger of the council ; but whosoever shall say. Thou fool, 
 shall be in danger of hell-fire (Gehennae)." Matt. v. 22. It 
 is emphatic, cogent, and well calculated for the purpose of 
 impression ; but is inconsistent w^ith the supposition of art or 
 wariness on the part of the relater. 
 
 The short reply of our Lord to Mary Magdalen, after his 
 resurrection (John, xx. 16, 17), "Touch me not, for I am not 
 yet ascended unto my Father," in my opinion, must have 
 
 * See also chap. xvii. 20. Luke, xvii. 6. 
 f See also Matt. viii. 21. 
 
320 EVIDEJSrCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part H. 
 
 been founded in a reference or allusion to some prior conver- 
 •sation, for the want of knowing which, his meaning is hidden 
 from us. This very obscurity, however, is a proof of gen- 
 uineness. No one would have forged such an answer. 
 
 John, vi. The whole of the conversation, recorded in this 
 chapter, is, in the highest degree, unlikely to be fabricated, 
 especially the part of our Saviour's reply between the fiftieth 
 and the fifty-eighth verse. I need only put down the first 
 sentence : " I am the living bread which came down from 
 heaven : if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever ; 
 and the bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I will 
 give for the life of the world." Without calling in question 
 the expositions that have been given of this passage, we may 
 be permitted to say, that it labors under an obscurity, in 
 which it is impossible to believe that any one who made 
 speeches for the persons of his narrative, would have volun- 
 tarily involved them. That this discourse was obscure, even 
 at the time, is confessed by the writer who had preserved it, 
 when he tells us, at the conclusion, that many of our Lord's 
 disciples, when they had heard this, said, " This is a hard say- 
 ing ; who can bear it V 
 
 Christ's taking of a young child, and placing it in the midst 
 of his contentious disciples (Matt, xviii. 2), though as deci- 
 sive a proof, as any could be, of the benignity of his temper, 
 and very expressive of the character of the religion which he 
 wished to inculcate, was not by any means an obvious 
 thought. Nor am I acquainted with anything in any ancient 
 writing which resembles it. 
 
 The account of the institution of the eucharist bears strong 
 internal marks of genuineness. If it had been feigned, it 
 would have been more full ; it would have come nearer to 
 the actual mode of celebrating the rite, as that mode obtained 
 very early in Christian churches ; and it would have been 
 more formal than it is. In the forged piece, called the Apos- 
 tolic Constitutions, the apostles are made to enjoin many parts 
 of the ritual which was in use in the second and third centu- 
 
Chap. III.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 821 
 
 ries, with as much particularity as a modern rubric could 
 have done. Whereas, in the history of the Lord's supper, as 
 we read it in Saint Matthew's Gospel, there is not so much 
 as the command to repeat it. This, surely, k)oks like unde- 
 signedness. I think also that the difficulty arising from the 
 conciseness of Christ's expression, " This is my body," would 
 have been avoided in a made-up story. I allow that the ex- 
 plication of these words, given by Protestants, is satisfactory ; 
 but it is deduced from a diligent comparison of the words in 
 question with forms of expression used in Scripture, and 
 especially by Christ upon other occasions. No writer would 
 arbitrarily and unnecessarily have thus cast in his reader's 
 way a difficulty, which, to say the least, it required research 
 and erudition to clear up.* 
 
 * The whole of these remarks are just and striking. The argu- 
 ment, however, is very difficult to present in a definite form. Like 
 the impression of honesty in an open countenance, it cannot be 
 reduced to rule, nor brought out fully by a few quotations, but spreads 
 over every part of the Gospel narratives : yet a few more instances 
 of it may be given. 
 
 John, vii. 6. '*For neither did his brethren believe in him." This 
 admission that our Lord's own brethren did not believe in him as 
 the Messiah, without any mention by the Evangelist of their later 
 conversion, is another evidence of candor and simplicity in the his- 
 torian. 
 
 Acts, vi. 1. "And in those days there arose a murmuring of the 
 Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected 
 in the daily ministration." The cause here assigned for the institu- 
 tion of the seven deacons is not a little humiliating — a murmuring 
 and dissension in the infant church, from the partial distribution of 
 its funds in the relief of the widows. It is a fact never likely to 
 have been mentioned, unless by a truthful and honest writer. 
 
 Acts, iv. 13. "And they perceived that they were unlearned and 
 ignorant men." St. Luke has recorded the call of these two apos- 
 tles from being fishermen. The admission, in itself, cannot then be 
 very remarkable ; but that after the descent of the Spirit, their un- 
 lettered character should be so legible in one short interview, and 
 observed by their enemies, and yet that the writer should record 
 the fact, without even pausing to explain it, or to shield the apos- 
 
 14* 
 
S22 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL 
 
 Now it ought to be observed, that the argument which is 
 built upon these examples, extends both to the authenticity 
 of the books and to the truth of the narrative ; for it is im- 
 probable that the forger of a history in the name of another 
 should have inserted such passages into it ; and it is improb- 
 able also, tliat the persons whose names the books bear should 
 have fabricated such passages ; or even have allowed them a 
 place in their work, if they had not believed them to express 
 the truth. 
 
 The following observation, therefore, of Dr. Lardner, the 
 most candid of all advocates, and the most cautious of all 
 inquirers, seems to be well-founded : — " Christians are induced 
 
 ties from contempt, is one proof amongst many, of simplicity and 
 candor. 
 
 Acts, ix. T. " And the men which journeyed with him stood speech- 
 less, hearing a voice, but seeing no man." 
 
 Acts, xxii. 9. "And they that were with me saw^ indeed, the light, 
 and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake 
 to me." 
 
 These two statements, at first sight, appear contradictory ; but 
 St. Luke neither fits his narrative to the words of the speech, nor 
 alters the speech, tliat it may seem to agree with his own previous 
 narrative. This is a mark of simple honesty and truth. The fact 
 seems to have been, that Saul's companions saw the light and heard 
 a voice, but they beheld no human appearance, and could distinguish 
 no articulate sounds. 
 
 Acts, XV. 36 — 40. The account of this contention between Paul 
 and Barnabas is another proof of the same candor. The history 
 would have seemed just as complete if their separation had been 
 assigned to any other cause. It is the more striking, because the 
 history does not mention their reconciliation, and we only gather it 
 from some allusions in the Epistles of St. Paul, written after this 
 time. 
 
 Acts, XV. 10 ; xvi. 3. The conduct of Paul here, and the reason 
 assigned for it, seem at first to be an open contradiction to the prin- 
 ciple for which he contended so recently in the council. A writer 
 ' who was not conscious of his own accuracy, and who meant to use 
 any artifice, would certainly have paused to explain the seeming 
 contradiction. — Rev. T. R. Birhs. 
 
Chap. III.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 323 
 
 to believe the writers of the Gospels, by observing the evi- 
 dences of piety and probity that appear in their writings, in 
 which there is no deceit, or artifice, or cunning, or design." 
 "No remarks," as Dr. Beattie hath properly said, "are 
 thrown in, to anticipate objections ; nothing of that caution, 
 which never fails to distinguish the testimony of those who 
 are conscious of imposture ; no endeavor to reconcile the 
 reader's mind to what may be extraordinary in the narrative." 
 
 I beg leave to cite also another author,"^ who has well ex- 
 pressed the reflection which the examples now brought for- 
 ward were intended to suggest. " It doth not appear that 
 ever it came into the mind of these writers to consider how 
 this or the other action would appear to mankind, or what 
 objections might be raised upon them. But without at all 
 attending to this, they lay the facts before you, at no pains to 
 think whether they would appear credible or not. If the 
 reader will not believe their testimony, there is no help for 
 it : they tell the truth, and attend to nothing else. Surely 
 this looks like sincerity, and that they published nothing to 
 the world but what they believed themselves." 
 
 As no improper supplement to this chapter, I crave a place 
 here for observing the extreme naturalness of some of the 
 things related in the New Testament. 
 
 Mark, ix. 23. " Jesus said unto him. If thou canst believe, 
 all things are possible to him that believeth. And straight- 
 way the father of the child cried out, and said with tears. 
 Lord, I believe ; help thou mine unbelief." This struggle in 
 the father's heart, between solicitude for the preservation of 
 his child, and a kind of involuntary distrust of Christ's power 
 to heal him, is here expressed with an air of reality, which 
 could hardly be counterfeited. 
 
 Again (Matt. xxi. 9.), the eagerness of the people to intro- 
 duce Christ into Jerusalem, and their demand, a short time 
 afterwards, of his crucifixion, w^hen he did not turn out what 
 they expected him to be, so far from affording matter of ob- 
 * Duchal, pp. 97, 98. 
 
324 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 jection, represents popular favor in exact agreement with na- 
 ture and with experience, as the flux and reflux of a wave. 
 
 The rulers and Pharisees rejecting Christ, whilst many of 
 the common people received him, was the effect which, in the 
 then state of Jewish prejudices, I should have expected. And 
 the reason with which they who rejected Christ's mission kept 
 themselves in countenance, and with which also they answer- 
 ed the arguments of those who favored it, is precisely the rea- 
 son which such men usually give : — " Have any of the scribes 
 or Pharisees believed on him f (John, vii. 48.) 
 
 In our Lord's conversation at the well (John, iv. 29), Christ 
 had surprised the Samaritan woman with an allusion to a sin- 
 gle particular in her domestic situation, " Thou hast had five 
 husbands ; and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband." 
 The woman, soon after this, ran back to the city, and called 
 out to her neighbors, " Come, see a man which told me all 
 things that ever I did." This exaggeration appears to me very 
 natural ; especially in the hurried state of spirits into which 
 the woman may be supposed to have been thrown. 
 
 The lawyer's subtilty in running a distinction upon the 
 word neighbor, in the precept, " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bor as thyself," w^as no less natural, than our Saviour's an- 
 swer was decisive and satisfactory (Luke, x. 29.) The lawyer 
 of the New Testament, it must be observed, was a Jewish di- 
 vine. 
 
 The behavior of Gallio (Acts, xviii. 12-17), and of Fes- 
 tus (xxv. 18, 19), have been observed upon already. 
 
 The consistency of Saint Paul's character throughout the 
 whole of his history (viz. the warmth and activity of his zeal, 
 first against, and then for, Christianity), carries with it very 
 much of the appearance of truth. 
 
 There are also some properties, as they may be called, ob- 
 servable in the Gospels ; that is, circumstances separately 
 suiting with the situation, character, and intention of their re- 
 spective authors. 
 
 Saint Matthew, who was an inhabitant of Galilee, and did 
 
Chap. III.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 825 
 
 not join Christ's society until some time after Christ had come 
 into Galilee to preach, has given us very little of his history 
 prior to that period. Saint John, who had been converted 
 before, and who wrote to supply omissions in the other Gos- 
 pels, relates some remarkable particulars, which had taken 
 place before Christ left Judea, to go into Galilee.* 
 
 Saint Matthew (xv. 1) has recorded the cavil of the Phar- 
 isees against the disciples of Jesus, for eating " with unclean 
 hands." Saint Mark has also (vii. 1) recorded the same trans- 
 action (taken probably from Saint Matthewf ) but with this 
 addition : " For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they 
 wash their hands often, eat not, holding the tradition of the 
 elders : and when they come from the market, except they 
 wash, they eat not : and many other things there be which 
 they have received to hold, as the washing of cups and pots, 
 brazen vessels, and of tables." Now Saint Matthew was not 
 only a Jew himself, but it is evident, from the whole struc- 
 ture of his Gospel, especially from his numerous references 
 to the Old Testament, that he wrote for Jewish readers. The 
 above explanation, therefore, in him, would have been unnatu- 
 ral, as not being wanted by the readers whom he addressed. 
 But in Mark, who, whatever use he might make of Matthew's 
 Gospel, intended his own narrative for a general circulation, 
 and who himself travelled to distant countries in the service 
 of the religion, it was properly added. 
 
 Note A. 
 
 The New Testament may be regarded altogether as a striking and 
 wonderful phenomenon when viewed in connection with the age and 
 the circumstances under which it was produced. The various char- 
 
 * Hartley's Observations, vol, ii. p. 103. 
 f See appendix to Prop. I, of part I. 
 
826 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part H. 
 
 acteristics which belong to it, whether as a moral or literary com- 
 position, go to prove that it at least borders on the miraculous, if 
 they do not fully establish its claims to this designation. Or should 
 it fail in reaching the distinct and definite character of a miracle, so 
 as to constitute a finished proof, it at least approximates so nearly 
 to this as to constitute a likelihood or a promise of veracity. There 
 may not be enough in the argument to overbear the conviction, but 
 there is enough in it to invest it with a rightful and a challengeable 
 power over the attention. It is a mistake to imagine that the collat- 
 eral, or the auxiliary, or the subordinate evidences of our faith 
 might all have been dispensed with. They subserve a high purpose, 
 even though they should fall short of fully satisfying the mind that 
 Christianity is true. They, in fact, secure in many cases, and ought 
 to secure in all cases, a hearing for Christianity. They first invite 
 and then prolong the regards of the inquirer toward it, and they 
 often prolong his regards until he come within sight of those creden- 
 tials which at length compel a full and final verdict in its favor. 
 And it is of prime importance to observe that many of those symp- 
 toms of veracity which Paley in this chapter has expounded to us, 
 present themselves to the very early notice of observers. They give 
 a prima facie aspect of credibility to the New Testament. They 
 announce themselves on the instant even of a first perusal ; for one 
 cannot mistake the artlessness, and the sincerity, and the high moral 
 tone wherewith the volume from beginning to end is so obviously 
 pervaded. And it must now be familiar fco you, that to feel the force 
 of these arguments it is not necessary that they should ever have 
 been stated, or that you should ever have recognized them as argu- 
 ments at all. They work an impression in favor of the Bible, with- 
 out the impression being ever once reflected upon — they carry the 
 judgment ; and though they have the actual grounds on which that 
 judgment rests, yet thousands there are, as you already know, capa- 
 ble of forming the judgment, yet wholly incapable either of stating 
 the grounds, or even perhaps of understanding the statement of them 
 when made by another. It is not necessary, first, that a Paley 
 should remark on the naturalness of this one passage or that other, 
 ere a peasant should feel the naturalness. The truth is, that this 
 pervading naturalness has been felt by thousands and thousands more 
 of homely understandings, and wrought its appropriate effects in 
 conciliating and helping on to decided convictions, ere any learned 
 expounder arose and remarked it as a peculiar and characteristic 
 excellence of the New Testament. There is thus the evidence work- 
 ing its direct influence on minds that never cast a reflex eye toward 
 
Chap. Ill] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 327 
 
 it. I have no doubt that the naturalness is felt by many a cottage 
 reader, and has its effect, a warrantable effect, though he may never 
 have looked reflexly upon it, and begetting a general confidence in 
 the truth of the whole. The honesty of the writers he can also rec- 
 ognize. He can read in their testimony the natural tones or marks 
 of integrity, and be impressed by them. To the many nameless indi- 
 cations of their truth, he yields the sympathy of his trust ; and we 
 doubt not, that in various ways there is a certain evidence or faith- 
 working power in the Bible far beyond what they who take up the 
 subject philosophically have ever yet been, or perhaps ever will be 
 able to analyze. 
 
 There is an exceeding naturalness in the conduct of Gallio — refer- 
 red to among other instances by Paley — who cared for none of these 
 things, and the moment he understood that the question related 
 to some sectarian points of controversy among themselves, drove 
 both the parties from the judgment seat. There is the utmost dra- 
 matic justness of representation in the contemptuous impatience 
 wherewith he put away from him the matter that did not belong to 
 his legitimate province, and which he felt to be either nauseous or 
 insignificant. And it is far from being a solitary exhibition, for we 
 think he exhibited the very spirit which might be detected in almost 
 all that has come down to us of the sayings or sentiments of the 
 heathen respecting Christianity. It was a matter of obscure secta- 
 rianism that lay beyond their cognizance, and they spoke of it ac- 
 cordingly, ignorantly but scornfully, condemning it with as great 
 decision as if they knew it all, and yet plainly discovering that they 
 knew nothing about it. "We see this plainly in Tacitus, and Pliny, 
 and Suetonius, and Lucian ; and it so accords in fact with what we 
 might conceive or might have witnessed in the present day, that we 
 cannot fail to be impressed by it with the identity of human nature 
 in all ages. We can easily figure how a high official personage, 
 occupied with his own engrossing topics, would feel or express him- 
 self in regard to any ignoble sect, with a perfect ignorance of all its 
 peculiarities, and yet a perfect sense and impression of the littleness 
 of them all. I remember being much struck with this about some 
 sixteen years ago, when the question of Missions to India was dis- 
 cussed in Parliament, and a great deal of evidence was taken on both 
 sides of the controversy. The preponderance of the testimony was 
 altogether on the side of the missionary cause, and it was found, ac- 
 cordingly, that its success was not incompatible with the safety of 
 the British interests in that distant region of the globe. Among 
 other witnesses, Warren Hastings was examined, and nothing could 
 
328 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 exceed the utter incompetence of his evidence, discovering as it did 
 a glaring misapprehension of all the facts of the case, and evincing 
 him to be an utter stranger to transactions which took place in his 
 own vicinity, and throughout the country where he both resided and 
 reigned. Yet nothing could be more natural than his total misin- 
 formation on the matter ; and it was really not to be marvelled at, 
 that in the multiplicity of his official cares, a matter so fractional as 
 the incipient efforts of a few missionaries among the mighty popu- 
 lation who were under him, should have altogether escaped his ob- 
 servation. The confidence that marked his hostility to the enter- 
 prise is not so easily justified ; but it is the very confidence coupled 
 with the very ignorance discovered by many who bring home from 
 India the most hostile misrepresentations of the missionary cause, 
 and claim the authority of having been residents on the spot. A 
 little reflection might suffice to demonstrate how insufficient the plea 
 of residence is. It is truly a possible thing to live in the busy en- 
 grossment of one's own afi*airs, and to be scarcely aware of the exist- 
 ence of many important transactions and things which are going on 
 almost at our very door. There is great room for the fellow-subjects 
 of the empire, nay, even for the fellow-citizens of a populous town, 
 losing sight of each other. In such a city as the one we live in, for 
 example, how many hundreds are there in the highest and most fash- 
 ionable circles who know little or nothing of the state of its relig- 
 ious sects or religious societies! How little would a mere contigu- 
 ous residence in this case avail as a plea for being listened to ! What 
 superior weight would the written statement of one having a part 
 in these transactions have over the careless and conversational depo- 
 sitions of men who, though living on the spot, were at almost an 
 infinite moral distance from the matter in question ! And thus it is, 
 that the reports of progress and success by such men as Carey and 
 others, the accredited missionaries from Britain to India, far out- 
 weigh the random assertions, whether of civil or military gentlemen 
 from that part of the world. — Chalmers, 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 IDENTITY OF CHEIST S CHARACTEE. 
 
 The argument expressed by this title, I apply principally 
 to the comparison of the first three Gospels with that of St. 
 John. It is known to every reader of Scripture^ that the pas- 
 sages of Christ's history, preserved by St. John, are, except 
 his passion and resurrection, for the most part different from 
 those which are delivered by the other evangelists. And I 
 think the ancient account of this difference to be the true one, 
 namely, that St. John wrote after the rest, and to supply 
 what he thought omissions in their narratives ; of which the 
 principal were, our Saviour's conferences with the Jews of 
 Jerusalem, and his discourses to his apostles at his last sup- 
 per. But what I observe in the comparison of these several 
 accounts is, that, although actions and discourses are ascribed 
 to Christ by St. John, in general different from what are 
 given to him by the other evangelists, yet, under this diver- 
 sity, there is a similitude of manner^ which indicates that the 
 actions and discourses proceeded from the same person. I 
 should have laid little stress upon the repetition of actions 
 substantially alike, or of discourses containing many of the 
 same expressions, because . that is a species of resemblance 
 which would either belong to a true history, or might easily 
 be imitated in a false one. Nor do I deny, that a dramatic 
 writer is able to sustain propriety and distinction of charac- 
 ter, through a great variety of separate incidents and situa- 
 
330 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 tions , But the evangelists were not dramatic writers ; nor 
 possessed the talents of dramatic writers ; nor will it, I be- 
 lieve, be suspected, that they studied uniformity of character, 
 or ever thought of any such thing, in the person who was the 
 subject of their histories. Such uniformity, if it exist, is on 
 their part casual ; and if there be, as I contend there is, a 
 perceptible resemblance of manner^ in passages, and between 
 discourses, which are in themselves extremely distinct, and are 
 delivered by historians writing without any imitation of, or 
 reference to, one another, it affords a just presumption that 
 these are what they profess to be, the actions and the dis- 
 courses of the same real person ; that the evangelists wrote 
 from fact, and not from imagination. 
 
 The article in which I find this agreement most strong, is 
 in our Saviour's mode of teaching, and in that particular 
 property of it which consists in his drawing of his doctrine 
 from the occasion ; or, which is nearly the same thing, raising 
 reflections from the objects and incidents before him, or turn- 
 ing a particular discourse, then passing, into an opportunity 
 of general instruction. 
 
 It will be my business to point out this manner in the first 
 three evangelists ; and then to inquire whether it do not ap- 
 pear also in several examples of Christ's discourses, preserved 
 by St. John. 
 
 The reader will observe in the following quotations, that 
 the. Italic letter contains the reflection ; the common letter, 
 the incident or occasion from which it springs : 
 
 Matt. xii. 47-50. " Then they said unto him. Behold, thy 
 mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak 
 with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him. 
 Who is my mother ? and who are my brethren ? And he 
 stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold 
 my mother and my brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will 
 of my Father which is in heaven^ the same is my brother^ and 
 sister, and mother.''^ 
 
 Matt. xvi. 5. " And when his disciples were come to the 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 381 
 
 other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus 
 said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the 
 Pharisees and of the Sadducees, And they reasoned among 
 themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. 
 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you 
 concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the 
 Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they 
 how that he hade them not beware of the leaven of hread^ but 
 of the DOCTRINE of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees^ 
 
 Matt. XV. 1, 2, 10, 11, 15-20. "Then came to Jesus 
 Scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why 
 do thy disciples transgress the traditions of the elders ? for 
 they wash not their hands when they eat bread. And he 
 called the multitude, and said unto them. Hear, and under- 
 stand : not that which goeth into the mouth deflleth a man ; 
 but that which cometh out of the mouthy this deflleth a man. 
 Then answered Peter and said unto him. Declare unto us this 
 parable. And Jesus said, are ye also yet without understand- 
 ing ? Do ye not yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in 
 at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the 
 draught? but those things which proceed out of the mouth 
 come forth from the heart ; and they defile the man. For 
 out of the heart proceed evil thoughts^ murders^ adulteries^ for- 
 nications^ thefts^ false witness^ blasphemies ; these are the things 
 which defile a man : but to eat with unwashen hands defil- 
 ETH NOT a man." Out SaviouT, on this occasion, expiates 
 rather more at large than usual, and his discourse also is more 
 divided ; but the concluding sentence brings back the whole 
 train of thought to the incident in the first verse, namely, the 
 objurgatory question of the Pharisees, and renders it evident 
 that the whole sprang from that circumstance. 
 
 Mark, X. 13, 14, 15. "And they brought young children 
 to him, that he should touch them ; and his disciples rebuked 
 those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was 
 much displeased, and said unto them. Suffer the little children 
 to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the 
 
832 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIAKITY. [Part II. 
 
 Jcingdom of God. Verily I say unto you^ Whosoever shall not 
 receive the hingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter 
 therein^ 
 
 Mark, i. 16, 17. '' Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, 
 he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the 
 sea, for they were fishers ; and Jesus said unto them, Come 
 ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men P 
 
 Luke, xi. 27. " And it came to pass as he spake these 
 things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, 
 and said unto him. Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the 
 paps which thou hast sacked : but he said. Yea, rather blessed 
 are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.^"^ 
 
 Luke, xiii. 1-3. " There w^ere present at that season, some 
 that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled 
 with their sacrifices ; and Jesus answering, said unto them, 
 Suppose ye, that these Galileans were sinners above all the Gal- 
 ileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you. Nay : 
 but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'''^ 
 
 Luke, xiv. 15. " And when one of them that sat at meat 
 with him, heard these things, he said unto him. Blessed is he 
 that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said he 
 unto him, A certain man made a great supper, andbade many,^'' 
 &;c. The parable is rather too long for insertion, but affords 
 a striking instance of Christ's manner of raising a discourse 
 from the occasion. Observe also in the same chapter two 
 other examples of advice, drawn from the circumstances of 
 the entertainment and the behavior of the guests. 
 
 We will now see, how this manner discovers itself in Saint 
 John's history of Christ. 
 
 John, vi. 25. " And when they had found him on the other 
 side of the sea, they said unto him. Rabbi, when earnest thou 
 hither ? Jesus answered them, and said. Verily I say unto 
 you, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because 
 ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labor not for the 
 meat which perisheth.^ but for that meat which endureth unto 
 everlasting life, ivhich the Son of man shall give unto youP 
 
Chap. IV.] J^VIDENCES OF CHRISTllNITY. 833 
 
 John, iv. 12. " Art thou greater than our father Abraham, 
 who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his chil- 
 dren, and his cattle ? Jesus answered, and said unto her (the 
 woman of Samaria), Whosoever drinketh of this water shall 
 thirst again ; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
 give him^ shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give 
 him, shall be in him a well of water, springing up into ever- 
 lasting life.'''' 
 
 John, iv. 31. "In the meanwhile, his disciples prayed 
 him, saying. Master, eat ; but he said unto them, I have meat 
 to eat that ye know not of Therefore said the disciples one 
 to another. Hath any man brought him aught to eat 1 Jesus 
 saith unto them. My meat is, to do the will of Him that sent 
 me, and to finish his work.^^ 
 
 John, ix. 1-5. " And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man 
 which was blind from his birth : and his disciples asked him, 
 saying. Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born 
 blind ? Jesus answered. Neither hath this man sinned, nor 
 his parents, but that the works of God should be made man- 
 ifest in him. / must work the works of Him that sent me, 
 while it is day ; the flight cometh, when no man can work. 
 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.'''' 
 
 John, ix. 85-40. " Jesus heard that they had cast him 
 (the blind man above mentioned) out : and when he had 
 found him, he said unto him. Dost thou believe on the Son 
 of God ? And he answered, and said. Who is he. Lord, that 
 I might believe on him ? And Jesus said unto him. Thou hast 
 both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he 
 said. Lord, I believe ; and he worshipped him. And Jesus 
 said, For judgment I have come into this world, that they which 
 see not, might see ; and that they which see, might be made 
 blind:' 
 
 All that the reader has now to do, is to compare the se- 
 ries of examples taken from Saint John, with the series of ex- 
 amples taken from the other evangelists, and to judge whether 
 there be not a visible agreement of manner between them. 
 
334 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL 
 
 In the above-quoted passages, the occasion is stated, as well as 
 the reflection. They seem, therefore, the most proper for the 
 purpose of our argument. A large, however, and curious col- 
 lection has been made by different writers,* of instances, 
 in which it is extremely probable that Christ spoke in allu- 
 ion to some object, or some occasion, then before him, though 
 the mention of the occasion, or of the object, be omitted in 
 the history. I only observe, that these instances are common 
 to Saint John's Gospel with the other three. 
 
 I conclude this article by remarking, that nothing of this 
 manner is perceptible in the speeches recorded in the Acts, or 
 in any other but those which are attributed to Christ, and 
 that, in truth, it was a very unlikely manner for a forger or 
 fabulist to attempt ; and a manner very difficult for any 
 writer to execute, if he had to supply all the materials, both 
 the incidents and the observations upon them, out of his own 
 head. A forger or a fabulist would have made for Christ, 
 discourses exhorting to virtue and dissuading from vice in 
 general terms. It would never have entered into the thoughts 
 of either, to have crowded together such a number of allu- 
 sions to time, place, and other little circumstances, as occur 
 for instance, in the Sermon on the Mount, and which nothing 
 but the actual presence of the objects could have suggested. f 
 
 II. There appears to me to exist an affinity between the 
 history of Christ's placing a little child in the midst of his 
 disciples, as related by the first three evangelists,J and the 
 history of Christ's washing his disciples' feet, as given by 
 Saint John.§ In the stories themselves there is no resem- 
 blance. But the affinity which I would point out consists in 
 these two articles : First, that both stories denote the emula- 
 tion which prevailed amongst Christ's disciples, and his own 
 care and desire to correct it : the moral of both is the same. 
 
 * Newton on Daniel, p. 148, note A. Jortin, Dis., p. 213. Bishop 
 Law's Life of Christ. 
 
 f See Bishop Law's Life of Christ. 
 
 X Matt, xviii. 1. Mark, ix. 38. Luke, ix, 46. § Chap. xiii. 3. 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 885 
 
 Secondly, that both stories are specimens of the same manner 
 of teaching, viz, : by action ; a mode of emblematic instruc- 
 tion extremely peculiar, and, in these passages, ascribed, we 
 see, to our Saviour, by the first three evangelists, and by 
 Saint John, in instances totally unlike, and without the small- 
 est suspicion of their borrowing from each other. 
 
 III. A singularity of Christ's language, which runs through 
 all the evangelists, and which is found in those discourses of 
 Saint John, that have nothing similar to them in the other 
 Gospels, is the appellation of " the Son of man ;" and it is in 
 all the evangelists found under the peculiar circumstance of 
 being applied by Christ to himself, but of never being used 
 of him, or towards him, by any other person. It occurs sev- 
 enteen times in Matthew's Gospel, twenty times in Mark's, 
 twenty-one times in Luke's, and eleven times in John's, and 
 always with this restriction. 
 
 IV. A point of agreement in the conduct of Christ, as rep- 
 resented by his different historians, is that of his withdraw- 
 ing himself out of the way, whenever the behavior of the 
 multitude indicated a disposition to tumult. 
 
 Matt. xiv. 22. " And straightway Jesus constrained his dis- 
 ciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other 
 side, while he sent the multitude away. And when he had sent 
 the multitude away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray." 
 
 Luke, V. 15, 16. " But so much the more went there a 
 fame abroad of him, and great multitudes came together to 
 hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities : and he 
 withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed." 
 
 With these quotations, compare the following from Saint 
 ! John : 
 
 Chap. V. 13. "And he that was healed, wist not who it 
 was ; for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being 
 in that place." 
 
 Chap. vi. 15. " When Jesus therefore perceived that they 
 would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he 
 departed again into a mountain himself alone." 
 
336 EYIDEITCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 In this last instance, Saint John gives the motive of Christ's 
 conduct, which is left unexplained by the other evangelists, 
 who have related the conduct itself. 
 
 V. Another, and a more singular circumstance in Christ's 
 ministry, was the reserve which, for some time, and upon 
 some occasions at least, he used in declaring his own char- 
 acter, and his leaving it to be collected from his works rather 
 than his professions. Just reasons for this reserve have been 
 assigned.* But it is not what one would have expected. We 
 meet with it in Saint Matthew's Gospel (chap. xvi. 20) : 
 *' Then charged he his disciples, that they should tell no man 
 that he was Jesus the Christ." Again, and upon a different 
 occasion, in Saint Mark's (chap. iii. 11) : "And unclean spir- 
 its, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, say- 
 ing, Thou art the Son of God : and he straltly charged them 
 that they should not make him known." Another instance 
 similar to this last is recorded by Saint Luke (chap. iv. 41). 
 What we thus find in the three evangelists, appears also in a 
 passage of Saint John (chap. x. 24, 25) : " Then came the 
 Jews round about him, and said unto him. How long dost 
 thou make us to doubt ? If thou be the Christ, tell us plain- 
 ly." The occasion here was different from any of the rest ; 
 and it was indirect. We only discover Christ's conduct 
 through the upbraidings of his adversaries. But all this 
 strengthens the argument. I had rather at any time surprise 
 a coincidence in some oblique allusion, than read it in broad 
 assertions. 
 
 VI. In our Lord's commerce with his disciples, one very 
 observable particular is the difficulty which they found in un- 1 
 derstanding him, when he spoke to them of the future part 
 of his history, especially of what related to his passion or 
 resurrection. This difficulty produced, as was natural, a wish 
 in them to ask for further explanation ; from which, however, 
 they appear to have been sometimes kept back, by the fear 
 of giving offence. All these circumstances are distinctly 
 
 * See Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity. 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 337 
 
 noticed by Mark and Luke, upon the occasion of his inform- 
 ing them (probably for the first time), that the Son of man 
 should be delivered into the hands of men. " They under- 
 stood not," the evangelists tell us, " this saying, and it was 
 hid from them, that they perceived it not ; and they feared 
 to ask him of that saying." Luke, ix. 45 ; Mark, ix. 32. In 
 Saint John's Gospel we have, on a different occasion, and in 
 a different instance, the same difficulty of apprehension, the 
 same curiosity, and the same restraint ; — " A little while and 
 ye shall not see me : and again, a little while and ye shall see 
 me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his dis- 
 ciples among themselves, VV^hat is this that he saith unto us ? 
 A little while and ye shall not see me : and again, a little 
 while and ye shall see me : and. Because I go to the Father ? 
 They said, therefore. What is this that he saith, A little 
 while ? We cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that 
 they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, — " &c. 
 John, xvi. 16, et seq. 
 
 VII. The meekness of Christ during his last sufferings, 
 which is conspicuous in the narratives of the first three 
 evangelists, is preserved in that of Saint John under separate 
 examples. The answer given by him, in Saint John,^ when 
 the high priest asked him of his disciples and his doctrine ; 
 " I spake openly to the world ; I ever taught in the syna- 
 gogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort ; 
 and in secret have I said nothing ; why askest thou me ? ask 
 them which heard me, what I have said unto them ;" is very 
 much of a piece with his reply to the armed party w^hich 
 seized him, as we read it in Saint Mark's Gospel, and in Saint 
 Luke's :f " Are you come out as against a thief, with swords 
 and with staves to take me ? I was daily with you in the 
 temple teaching, and ye took me not." In both answers, we 
 discern the same tranquillity, the same reference to his public 
 teaching. His mild expostulation with Pilate, on two several 
 
 * Chap, xviii. 20, 21. j Mark, xiv. 48. Luke, xxii. 52. 
 
 15 
 
338 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 occasions, as related by Saint John,* is delivered with the 
 same unruffled temper, as that which conducted him through 
 the last scene of his life, as described by his other evangel- 
 ists. His answer in Saint John's Gospel, to the officer who 
 struck him with the palm of his hand, " If I have spoken evil, 
 bear witness of the evil ; but if well, why smitest thou me f'f 
 was such an answer as might have been looked for from the 
 person who, as he proceeded to the place of execution, bid 
 his companions (as we are told by Saint Luke),j; weep not for 
 him, but for themselves, their posterity, and their country ; 
 and who, whilst he was suspended upon the cross, prayed for 
 his murderers, " for they know not," said he, " what they do." 
 The urgency also of his judges and his prosecutors to extort 
 from him a defence to the accusation, and his unwillingness 
 to make any (which was a peculiar circumstance), appears in 
 Saint John's account, as well as in that of the other evangel- 
 ists.! 
 
 Tliere are, moreover, two other correspondences between 
 Saint John's history of the transaction and theirs, of a kind 
 somewhat different from those which we have been now men- 
 tioning. 
 
 The first three evangelists record what is called our Sa- 
 viour's agony, i, e. his devotion in the garden immediately be- 
 fore he was apprehended ; in which narrative, they all make 
 him pray, " that the cup might pass from him." This is the 
 particular metaphor which they all ascribe to him. Saint 
 Matthew adds, " O my Father, if this cup may not pass away 
 from me, except I drink it, thy will be done."|| Now Saint 
 John does not give the scene in the garden : but when Jesus 
 was seized, and some resistance was attempted to be made by 
 Peter, Jesus, according to his account, checked the attempt 
 with this reply : "Put up thy sword into the sheath ; the cup 
 
 * Chap, xviii. 34, xix. 11. f Chap, xviii. 23. 
 
 X Chap, xxiii. 28. 
 
 § See John, xix. 9. Matt, xxvii. 14. Luke, xxiii. 9. 
 
 I Chap. xxvi. 42. 
 
Chap. IY.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 839 
 
 Trhich my Father hath given me shall I not drink it f* This 
 is something more than consistency ; it is coincidence : be- 
 cause it is extremely natural that Jesus, who, before he was 
 apprehended, had been praying his Father, that " that cup 
 might pass from him," yet with such a pious retraction of his 
 request, as to have added, " If this cup may not pass from me, 
 thy will be done ;" it was natural, I say, for the same person, 
 w^hen he actually was apprehended, to express the resignation 
 to which he had already made up his thoughts, and to express 
 it in the form of speech which he had before used, " The cup 
 which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it f This 
 is a coincidence between writers, in whose narratives there is 
 no imitation, but great diversity. 
 
 A second similar correspondency is the following : Matthew 
 and Mark make the charge, upon which our Lord was con- 
 demned, to be a threat of destroying the temple ; " We heard 
 him say, I will destroy this temple, made with hands, and, 
 within three days, I will build another made without hands :"f 
 but they neither of them inform us, upon what circumstance 
 this calumny was founded. Saint John, in the early part of 
 the history, J supplies us with this information ; for he relates, 
 that, on our Lord's first journey to Jerusalem, when the Jews 
 asked him, " What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou 
 doest these things ? he answered, Destroy this temple, and in 
 three days I will raise it up." This agreement could hardly 
 arise from anything but the truth of the case. From any 
 care or design in Saint John, to make his narrative tally with 
 the narratives of other evangelists, it certainly did not arise, 
 for no such design appears, but the absence of it. 
 
 A strong and more general instance of agreement, is the 
 following. — The first three evangelists have related the ap- 
 pointment of the twelve apostles ;§ and have given a cata- 
 logue of their names in form. John, vrithout ever mention- 
 ing the appointment, or giving the catalogue, supposes, through- 
 
 * Chap, xviii. 11. f Mark, xiv. 58. J Chap. ii. 19. 
 
 § Matt. X. 1. Mark, iii. 14. Luke, vi. 12. 
 
840 
 
 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 [Part IL 
 
 out his whole narrative, Christ to be accompanied by a select 
 party of disciples ; the number of these to be twelve ;* and 
 whenever he happens to notice any one as of that number,f 
 it is one included in the catalogue of the other evangelists ; 
 and the names principally occurring in the course of his his- 
 tory of Christ, are the names extant in their list. This last 
 agreement, which is of considerable moment, runs through 
 every Gospel, and through every chapter of each. 
 All this bespeaks reality. J 
 
 * Chap. vi. '70. t ^^^p. xx. 24, vi. 71. 
 
 J We think there is much power in this chapter. The evidence it 
 contains of the Evangelists having drawn their pictures from the 
 same living person is fatal to the mythical hypothesis. — Ed. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 OEIGINALITY OF OTJR SAVIOUR's OHARACTEE. 
 
 The Jews, whether right or wrong, had understood their 
 prophecies to foretell the advent of a person, who by some 
 supernatural assistance should advance their nation to inde- 
 pendence, and to a supreme degree of splendor and prosper- 
 ity. This was the reigning opinion and expectation of the 
 times. 
 
 Now, had Jesus been an enthusiast, it is probable that his 
 enthusiasm would have fallen in with the popular delusion, and 
 that, whilst he gave himself out to be the person intended by 
 these predictions, he would have assumed the character to 
 which they were universally supposed to relate. 
 
 Had he been an impostor, it was his business to have flat- 
 tered the prevailing hopes, because these hopes were to be the 
 instruments of his attraction and success. 
 
 But, what is better than conjectures, is the fact, that all the 
 pretended Messiahs actually did so. We learn from Jose- 
 phus, that there were many of these. Some of them, it is 
 probable, might be impostors, who thought that an advantage 
 was to be taken of the state of public opinion. Others, per- 
 haps, were enthusiasts, whose imagination had been drawn to 
 this particular object, by the language and sentiments which 
 prevailed around them. But, whether impostors or enthusi- 
 asts, they concurred in producing themselves in the character 
 which their countrymen looked for, that is to say, as the re- 
 
842 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 storers and deliverers of the nation, in that sense in which 
 restoration and deliverance were expected by the Jews. 
 
 Why therefore Jesus, if he was, like them, either an en- 
 thusiast or impostor, did not pursue the same conduct as they 
 did, in framing his character and pretensions, it will be found 
 difficult to explain. A mission, the operation and benefit of 
 which was to take place in another life, was a thing unthought 
 of as the subject of these prohecies. That Jesus, coming to 
 them as their Messiah, should come under a character totally 
 different from that in which they expected him ; should devi- 
 ate from the general persuasion, and deviate into pretensions 
 absolutely singular and original ; appears to be inconsistent 
 with the imputation of enthusiasm or imposture, both which, 
 by their nature, I should expect, would, and both which, 
 throughout the experience which this very subject furnishes, 
 in fact have, followed the opinions that obtained at the time. 
 
 If it be said that Jesus, having tried the other plan, turned 
 at length to this ; I answer, that the thing is said without evi- 
 dence ; against evidence ; that it was competent to the rest 
 to have done the same, yet that nothing of this sort was 
 thought of by any.* 
 
 * This Chapter also deals a blow to the mythical hypothesis. 
 The Messianic character, as conceived of by the Jews, was alto- 
 gether different from that of Christ as described in the New Testa- 
 ment. — Ed, 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 One argument, which has been much relied upon (but not 
 more than its just weight deserves), is the conformity of the 
 facts occasionally mentioned or referred to in Scripture, with 
 the state of things in those times, as represented by foreign 
 and independent accounts ; which conformity proves, that the 
 writers of the New Testament possessed a species of local 
 knowledge, which could only belong to an inhabitant of that 
 country, and to one living in that age. This argument, if well 
 made out by examples, is very little short of proving the ab- 
 solute genuineness of the writings. It carries them up to the 
 age of the reputed authors, to an age in which it must have 
 been difficult to impose upon the Christian public, forgeries 
 in the names of these authors, and in which there is no evi- 
 dence that any forgeries were attempted. It proves at least, 
 that the- books, whoever were the authors of them, were 
 composed by persons living in the time and country in which 
 these things were transacted ; and consequently capable, by 
 their situation, of being well informed of the facts which they 
 relate. And the argument is stronger when applied to the 
 New Testament, than it is in the case of almost any other 
 writings, by reason of the mixed nature of the allusions which 
 this book contains. The scene of action is not confined to a 
 single country, but displayed in the greatest cities of the Ro- 
 man empire. Allusions are made to the manners and princi- 
 ples of the Greeks, the Romans, and the Jews. This variety 
 renders a forgery proportion ably more difficult, especially to 
 
344 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 writers of a posterior age. A Greek or Eoman Christian, 
 who lived in the second or third century, would have been 
 wanting in Jewish literature ; a Jewish convert in those ages 
 would have been equally deficient in the knowledge of Greece 
 and Rome.* 
 
 This, however, is an argument which depends entirely upon 
 an induction of particulars ; and as, consequently, it carries 
 with it little force, without a view of the instances upon which 
 it is built, I have to request the reader's attention to a detail 
 of examples, distinctly and articulately proposed. In collect- 
 ing these examples, I have done no more than epitomize the 
 first volume of the first part of Dr. Lardner's Credibility 
 of the Gospel History. And I have brought the argument 
 within its present compass, first, by passing over some of his 
 sections in which the accordancy appeared to me less certain, 
 or upon subjects not sufficiently appropriate or circumstantial ; 
 secondly, by contracting every section into the fewest words 
 possible, contenting myself for the most part with a mere aj»- 
 position of passages ; and, thirdly, by omitting many disqui- 
 sitions which, though learned and accurate, are not absolutely 
 necessary to the understanding or verification of the argu- 
 ment. 
 
 The writer principally made use of in the inquiry, is Jose- 
 phus. Josephus was born at Jerusalem four years after 
 Christ's ascension. He wrote his history of the Jewish war 
 some time after the destruction of Jerusalem, which happen- 
 ed in the year of our Lord lxx., that is, thirty-seven years 
 after the ascension ; and his history of the Jews he finished 
 in the year xciii., that is, sixty years after the ascension. 
 
 At the head of each article, I have referred, by figures in- 
 cluded in brackets, to the page of Dr. Lardner's volume, 
 where the section, from which the abridgment is made, begins. 
 The edition used, is that of 174 L 
 
 I. [p. 14.] Matt. ii. 22. " When he (Joseph) heard that 
 
 * Micliaelis' Introduction to the New Testament (Marsh's trans- 
 lation), c. ii. sect. xi. 
 
Chap. VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 845 
 
 Archelaus did reign in Judea, in the room of his father 
 Herod, he was afraid to go thither : notwithstanding, being 
 w^arned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of 
 Galilee." 
 
 In this passage it is asserted, that Archelaus succeeded 
 Herod in Judea ; and it is implied, that his power did not ex- 
 tend to Galilee. Now we learn from Josephus, that Herod 
 the Great, whose dominion included all the land of Israel, ap- 
 pointed Archelaus his successor in Judea^ and assigned the rest 
 of his dominions to other sons ; and that this disposition was 
 ratified, as to the main parts of it, by the Roman Emperor.* 
 
 Saint Matthew says, that Archelaus reigned^ was Icing in Ju- 
 dea. Agreeably to this, we are informed by Josephus, not 
 only that Herod appointed Archelaus his successor in Judea, 
 but that he also appointed him with the title of King ; and 
 the Greek verb ^ocadsvei which the evangelist uses to denote 
 the government and rank of Archelaus, is used likewise by Jo- 
 sephus. f 
 
 The cruelty of Archelaus' character, which is not obscurely 
 intimated by the evangelist, agrees with divers particulars in 
 his history, preserved by Josephus : — " In the tenth year of 
 his government, the chief of the Jews and Samaritans, not 
 being able to endure his cruelty and tyranny, presented com- 
 plaints against him to Caesar."! 
 
 II. [p. 19.] Luke, iii. 1. "In the fifteenth year of thereign 
 of Tiberius Cesar, — Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his 
 brother Philip, tetrarch of Iturea and of the region of Tra- 
 chonitis, — the word of God came unto John." 
 
 By the will of Herod the Great, and the decree of Augus- 
 tus thereupon, his two sons were appointed, one (Herod An- 
 tipas) tetrarch of Galilee and Persea, and the other (Philip) 
 tetrarch of Trachonitis and the neighboring countries. § We 
 have therefore these two persons in the situations in which 
 Saint Luke places them ; and also, that they were in these 
 
 * Ant., lib. xvij. c. 8, sect. 1. f De Bell, lib. i. c. 38, sect. T. 
 
 ^ t Ant., hb. xvii. c. 13, sect. 1. § Ant., lib. xvii. c. 8, sect. 1. 
 
346 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 situations in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, in other words, 
 that they continued in possession of their territories and titles 
 until that time, and afterwards, as appears from a passage of 
 Josephus, which relates of Herod, " that he was removed by 
 Caligula, the successor of Tiberius ;* and of Philip, that he 
 died in the twentieth year of Tiberius, when he had governed 
 Trachonitis and Batanea and Gaulanitis thirty-seven years."f 
 
 III. [p. 20.] Mark, vi, 17,1 " Herod had sent forth, and 
 laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison, for Herodias' 
 sake, his brother Philip's wife ; for he had married her." 
 
 With this compare Joseph. Antiq., 1. xviii. c. 6, sect. 1 : — 
 " He (Herod the tetrarch) made a visit to Herod his brother. 
 Here, falling in love with Herodias, the wife of the said 
 Herod, he ventured to make her proposals of marriage. "§ 
 
 Again, Mark, vi. 22. " And when the daughter of the said 
 Herodias came in and danced " 
 
 With this also compare Joseph. Antiq., 1. xviii. c. 6, sect. 
 4. "Herodias was married to Herod, son of Herod the 
 Great. They had a daughter, whose name was Salome ; after 
 whose birth, Herodias, in utter violation of the laws of her 
 country, left her husband, then living, and married Herod the 
 tetrarch of Galilee, her husband's brother by the father's side/' 
 
 * Ant., lib. xviii., c. 8, sec. 2. 
 
 f Ant., lib. xviii., c. 5, sec. 6. 
 
 X See also Matt. xiv. 1 — 13 ; Luke, iii. 19. 
 
 § The affinity of the two accounts is unquestionable ; but there is 
 a difference in the name of Herodias' first husband, which, in the 
 evangelist, is Philip ; in Josephus, Herod. The difficulty, however, 
 will not appear considerable, when we recollect how common it was 
 in those times, for the same person to bear two names. " Simon, 
 which is called Peter ; Lebbeus, whose surname is Thaddeus ; Thomas, 
 which is called Didymus ; Simeon, who was called Niger ; Saul, who 
 was also called Paul." The solution is rendered likewise easier in 
 the present case, by the consideration, that Herod the Great had 
 children by seven or eight wives; that Josephus mentions three of 
 his sons under the name of Herod : that it is nevertheless highly 
 probable, that the brothers bore some additional name, by which 
 they were distinguished from one another. Lardner, vol. ii. p. 897. 
 
CiTAP. VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 847 
 
 IV. [p. 29.] Acts, xii. 1. " Now, about that time, Herod the 
 king stretched forth his hands, to vex certain of the Church." 
 In the conclusion of the same chapter, Herod's death is rep- 
 resented to have taken place soon after this persecution. The 
 accuracy of our historian, or, rather, the unmeditated coinci- 
 dence, which truth of its own accord produces, is in this in- 
 stance remarkable. There was no portion of time, for thirty 
 years before, nor ever afterwards, in which there was a king 
 at Jerusalem, a person exercising that authority in Judea, or 
 to whom that title could be applied, except the three last 
 years of this Herod's life, within which period the transaction 
 recorded in the Acts is stated to have taken place. This 
 prince was the grandson of Herod the Great. In the Acts, 
 he appears under his family -name of Herod ; by Josephus he 
 was called Agrippa. For proof that he was a king^ properly 
 so called, we have the testimony of Josephus in full and 
 direct terms : — "Sending for him to his palace, Caligula put 
 a crown upon his head, and appointed him king of the tetrar- 
 chie of Philip, intending also to give him the tetrarchie of 
 Lysanias."* And that Judea was at least, but not until the 
 last, included in his dominions, appears by a subsequent pas- 
 sage of the same Josephus, wherein he tells us, that Claudius, 
 by a decree, confirmed to Agrippa the dominion which Calig- 
 ula had given him ; adding also Judea and Samaria^ in the 
 utmost extent^ as possessed by his grandfather Herod.j 
 
 V. ^. 32.] Acts, xii. 19—23. "And he (Herod) went 
 down from Judea to Cesarea, and there abode. And on a 
 set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, 
 and made an oration unto them ; and the people gave a shout, 
 saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man ; and im- 
 mediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave 
 not God the glory ; and he was eaten of worms, and gave up 
 the ghost." 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., lib. xix. c. 8, sec. 2. " He went to the city 
 of Cesarea. Here he celebrated shows in honor of Caesar. 
 * Antiq., xviii. c. 1, sec. 10. f Antiq., xix. c. 6, sec. 1. 
 
348 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 On the second day of the shows, early in the morning, he 
 came into the theatre, dressed in a robe of silver, of most 
 curious workmanship. The rays of the rising sun, reflected 
 from such a splendid garb, gave him a majestic and awful ap- 
 pearance. They called him a god ; and entreated him to be 
 propitious to them, saying, Hitherto we have respected you 
 as a man ; but now we acknowledge you to be more than 
 mortal. The king neither reproved these persons, nor reject- 
 ed the impious flattery. Immediately after this, he was 
 seized with pains in his bowels, extremely violent at the very 
 first. He was carried therefore with all haste to his palace. 
 These pains continually tormenting him, he expired in five 
 days' time." 
 
 The reader will perceive the accordancy of these accounts 
 in various particulars. The place (Cesarea), the set day, the 
 gorgeous dress, the acclamations of the assembly, the pecu- 
 liar turn of the flattery, the reception of it, the sudden and 
 critical incursion of the disease, are circumstances noticed in 
 both narratives. The worms, mentioned by Saint Luke, are 
 not remarked by Josephus ; but the appearance of these is a 
 symptom, not unusuall}^, I believe, attending the disease which 
 Josephus describes, viz.^ violent affections of the bowels. 
 
 VI. [p. 41.] Acts, xxiv. 24. " And after certain days, when 
 Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he 
 sent for Paul." 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., lib. xx. c. 6, sec. 1, 2. " Agrippa gan^e his 
 sister Drusilla in marriage to Azizus, king of the Emesenes, 
 when he had consented to be circumcised. But this marriage 
 of Drusilla with Azizus was dissolved in a short time after, 
 in this manner : — When Felix was procurator of Judea, hav- 
 ing had a sight of her, he was mightily taken with her. She 
 was induced to transgress the laws of her country, and marry 
 Felix." 
 
 Here the public station of Felix, the name of his wife, and 
 the singular circumstance of her religion, all appear in per- 
 fect conformity with the evangelist. 
 
Chap. VL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 849 
 
 VII. [p. 46.] " And after certain days, king Agrippa and 
 Bernice came to Cesarea to salute Festus." By this passage 
 we are in effect told, that Agrippa was a king, but not of 
 Judea ; for he came to salute Festus, who at this time admin- 
 istered the government of that country at Cesarea. 
 
 Now, how does the history of the age correspond with this 
 account ? The Agrippa here spoken of, was the son of Herod 
 Agrippa, mentioned in the last article ; but that he did not 
 succeed to his father's kingdom, nor ever recovered Judea, 
 which had been a part of it, we learn by the information of 
 Josephus, who relates of him that, when his father was dead, 
 Claudius intended, at first, to have put him immediately in 
 possession of his father's dominions ; but that, Agrippa being 
 then but seventeen years of age, the emperor was persuaded 
 to alter his mind, and appointed Cuspius Fadus prefect of 
 Judea and the whole kingdom ;* which Fadus was succeeded 
 by Tiberius Alexander, Cumanus, Felix, Festus. f But that, 
 though disappointed of his father's kingdom, in which was in- 
 cluded Judea, he was nevertheless rightly styled King Agrip- 
 pa, and that he was in possession of considerable territories 
 bordering upon Judea, we gather from the same authority ; 
 for, after several successive donations of country, " Claudius, 
 at the same time that he sent Felix to be procurator of Judea, 
 promoted Agrippa from Chalcis to a greater kingdom^ giving 
 to him the tetrarchie which had been Philip's ; and he added 
 moreover the kingdom of Lysanias, and the province that had 
 belonged to Varus."J 
 
 Saint Paul addresses this person as a Jew : " King Agrippa, 
 believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest." 
 As the son of Herod Agrippa, who is described by Josephus 
 to have been a zealous Jew, it is reasonable to suppose that 
 he maintained the same profession. But what is more mate- 
 rial to remark, because it is more close and circumstantial, 
 is, that Saint Luke, speaking of the father (Acts, xii. 1 — 3), 
 
 * Antiq^ xix. c. 9, ad fin. f lb., xx. De Bell., lib. ii. 
 
 X DeBell., lib. ii., c. 12. ad fin. 
 
850 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 calls him Herod the king, and gives an example of the exer- 
 cise of his authority at Jerusalem ; speaking of the son (xxv. 
 13), he calls him king, but not of Judea; which distinction 
 agrees correctly with the history. 
 
 VIII. [p. 51.] Acts, xiii. 6. "And when they had gone 
 through the isle (Cyprus) to Paphos, they found a certain sor- 
 cerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus, 
 which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a 
 prudent man." 
 
 The word, which is here translated deputy, signifies 'pro- 
 consul^ and upon this word our observation is founded. The 
 provinces of the Roman empire were of two kinds ; those be- 
 longing to the emperor, in which the governor was called pro- 
 praetor ; and those belonging to the senate, in which the gov- 
 ernor was called proconsul. And this was a regular distinc- 
 tion. Now it appears from Dio Cassius,* that the province 
 of Cyprus, which in the original distribution was assigned to 
 the emperor, had been transferred to the senate, in exchange 
 for some others ; and that, after this exchange, the appropriate 
 title of the Roman governor was proconsul. 
 
 lb. xviii. 12, [p. 55.] "And when Gallio was deputy 
 ( proconsul) of Achaia. " 
 
 The propriety of the title " proconsul" is in this passage 
 still more critical. For the province of Achaia, after passing 
 from the senate to the emperor, had been restored again by 
 the emperor Claudius to the senate (and consequently its gov- 
 ernment had become proconsular) only six or seven years be- 
 fore the time in which this transaction is said to have taken 
 place.f And what confines with strictness the appellation to 
 the time is, that Achaia under the following reign ceased to 
 be a Roman province at all. 
 
 IX. [p. 152.] It appears, as well from the general consti- 
 tution of a Roman province, as from what Josephus delivers 
 concerning the state of Judea in particular,^ that the power 
 
 * Lib. liv. ad. A. U. '732. f Suet, in Claud., c. xxv. Dio, lib. Ixi. 
 X Antiq., lib. xx. c. 8, sect. 5, c. 1, sect. 2. 
 
Chap. VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 851 
 
 of life and death resided exclusively in the Roman governor ; 
 but that the Jews, nevertheless, had magistrates and a coun- 
 cil, invested with a subordinate and municipal authority. 
 This economy is discerned in every part of the Gospel narra- 
 tive of our Saviour's crucifixion. 
 
 X. [p. 203.] Acts, ix. 31. "Then had the churches rest 
 throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria." 
 
 This rest synchronizes with the attempt of Caligula to place 
 his statue in the temple of Jerusalem ; the threat of which 
 outrage produced amongst the Jews a consternation that for a 
 season diverted their attention from every other object.* 
 
 XI. [p. 218.] Acts, xxi. 30. "And they took Paul and 
 drew him out of the temple ; and forthwith the doors were 
 shut. And as they went about to kill him, tidings came to 
 the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an 
 uproar. Then the chief captain came near, and took him, 
 and commanded him to be bound with two chains, and de- 
 manded who he was, and what he had done ; and some cried 
 one thing, and some another, among the multitude ; and, when 
 he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded 
 him to be carried into the castle. And when he came upon 
 the stairs^ so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the 
 violence of the people." 
 
 In this quotation, we have the band of Roman soldiers at 
 Jerusalem, their office (to suppress tumults), the castle, the 
 stairs, both, as it should seem, adjoining to the temple. Let 
 us inquire whether we can find these particulars in any other 
 record of that age and place. 
 
 Joseph, de Bell, lib. v. c. 5, sect. 8. " Antonia was situ- 
 ated at the angle of the western and northern porticoes of the 
 outer temple. It was built upon a rock fifty cubits high, steep 
 on all sides. On that side where it joined to the porticoes of 
 the temple, there were stairs reaching to each portico, by 
 which the guard descended ; for there was always lodged here 
 a Roman legion^ and posting themselves in their armor in sev- 
 * Joseph, de Bell , lib. xi. c. 18, sect, 1, 8, 4. 
 
352 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIAIsnTY. [Part II. 
 
 eral places in the porticoes, they kept a watch on the people 
 on the feast-days to prevent all disorders ; for, as the temple 
 was a guard to the city, so was Antonia to the temple." 
 
 XII. [p. 224.] Acts, iv. 1. "And as they spake unto the 
 people, the priests, and the captain of the temple^ and the Sad- 
 ducees, came upon them." Here we have a public officer, 
 under the title of captain of the temple, and he probably a 
 Jew, as he accompanied the priests and Sadducees in appre- 
 hending the apostles. 
 
 Joseph, de Bell., lib. ii. c. 17, sect. 2. " And at the temple^ 
 Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high-priest, a young man of a 
 bold and resolute disposition, then captain^ persuaded those 
 who performed the sacred ministrations, not to receive the 
 gift or sacrifice of any stranger." 
 
 XIII. [p. 225.] Acts, XXV. 12. "Then Festus, when he had 
 conferred with the council^ answered. Hast thou appealed unto 
 Caesar ? unto Caesar shalt thou go." That it was usual for the 
 Eoman presidents to have a council, consisting of their friends, 
 and other chief Romans in the province, appears expressly in 
 the following passage of Cicero's oration against Verres : 
 " Illud negare posses, aut nunc negabis, te, concilio tuo dimisso, 
 viris primariis, qui in consilio C. Sacerdotis fuerant, tibique 
 esse volebant, remotis, de re judicata judicasse ?"* 
 
 XIV. [p. 235.] Acts, xvi. 13. " And (at Philippi) on the 
 Sabbath, we went out of the city by a river-side, where prayer 
 was wont to be made," or where a nooaevxi], oratory, or 
 place of prayer, was allowed. The particularity to be re- 
 marked, is the situation of the place where prayer was wont 
 to be made, viz.^ by a river -side. 
 
 Philo, describing the conduct of the Jews of Alexandria, 
 on a certain public occasion, relates of them, that, " early in 
 the morning, flocking out of the gates of the city, they go to 
 
 * Could you deny, or will you now deny, that you, having dis- 
 missed your council, — having removed the distinguished men who 
 had been the advisers of Caius Sacerdos, and were willing to be 
 yours, you judged a matter already decided ? — Ed. 
 
Chap. VL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 353 
 
 the neighboring shores (for the nQoaevxai, were destroyed), 
 and, standing in a most pure place, they lift up their voices 
 with one accord."* * 
 
 Josephus gives us a decree of the city of Halicarnassus, 
 permitting the Jews to build oratories ; a part of which de- 
 cree runs thus : — '• We ordain, that the Jews, who are will- 
 ing, men and women, do observe the Sabbaths, and perform 
 sacred rites according to the Jewish laws, and build oratories 
 by the sea-side. ''''\ 
 
 Tertullian, aaiong other Jewish rites and customs, such as 
 feasts, sabbaths, fasts, and unleavened bread, mentions " ora- 
 tion es litorales^^'' that is, prayers by the river-side. J 
 
 XV. [p. 255.] Acts, xxvi. 5. "After the most straitest 
 sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." 
 
 Joseph, de Bell., lib. i. c. 5, sec. 2. " The Pharisees were 
 reckoned the most religious of any of the Jews, and to be 
 the most exact and skilful in explaining the laws." 
 
 In the original, there is an agreement not only in the sense 
 but in the expression, it being the same Greek adjective, 
 which is rendered " strait " in the Acts, and " exact " in Jo- 
 sephus. 
 
 XVI. [p. 255.] Mark, vii. 3, 4. " The Pharisees and all 
 the Jews, except they wash, eat not, holding the tradition of 
 the elders ; and many other things there be which they have 
 received to hold." 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., lib. xiii. c. 10, sect. 6. "The Pharisees 
 have delivered to the people many institutions, as received 
 from the fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses." 
 
 XVII. [p. 259.] Acts, xxiii. 8. " For the Sadducees say, 
 that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit : but 
 the Pharisees confess both." 
 
 Joseph, de Bell., lib. ii. c. 8, sect. 14. " They (the Phari- 
 sees) believe every soul to be immortal, but that the soul of 
 the good only passes into another body, and that the soul of 
 
 * Philo in Elacc, p. 382. f Joseph. Antiq., lib. xiv. c. 10, sect. 24. 
 t Tertull. ad Nat., lib. i. c. 13. 
 
354 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 the wicked is punished with eternal punishment." On the 
 other hand (Antiq., lib. xviii. c. 1, sect. 4), "It is the opinion 
 of the Sadducees, that souls perish with the bodies." 
 
 XVIII. [p. 268.] Acts, V. 17. " Then the high priest rose 
 up, and all they that were with him (which is the sect of the 
 Sadducees), and were filled with indignation." Saint Luke 
 here intimates, that the high priest was a Sadducee ; which is 
 a character one would not have expected to meet with in that 
 station. This circumstance, remarkable as it is, was not how- 
 ever without examples. 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., lib. xiii. c. 10, sect. 6,7. "John Hyrcanus, 
 high priest of the Jews, forsook the Pharisees upon a disgust, 
 and joined himself to the party of the Sadducees." This 
 high priest died • one hundred and seven years before the 
 Christian era. 
 
 Again, (Antiq., lib. xx. c. 8. sect. 1): "This Ananus the 
 younger, who, as we have said just now, had received the 
 high-priesthood, was fierce and haughty in his behavior, and, 
 above all men, bold and daring, and, moreover, was of the 
 sect of the Sadducees.'''' This high priest lived little more than 
 twenty years after the transaction in the Acts. 
 
 XIX. [p. 282.] Luke, ix. 51. "And it came to pass, when 
 the time was come that he should be received up, he stead- 
 fastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers 
 before his face. And they went, and entered into a village 
 of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did 
 not receive him, because his face was as though he would go 
 to Jerusalem." 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., lib. xx. c. 5, sect. 1. "It was the custom 
 of the Galileans, who went up to the holy city at the feasts, 
 to travel through the country of Samaria. As they were in 
 their journey, some inhabitants of the village called Ginasa, 
 which lies on the borders of Samaria and the great plain, 
 falling upon them, killed a great many of them." 
 
 XX. [p. 278.] John, iv. 20. "Our fathers," said the 
 Samaritan woman, "worshipped in this mountain; and ye 
 
Chap. YI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 855 
 
 say, that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to wor- 
 ship." 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., lib. xviii. c. 5, sect. 1. "Commanding them 
 to meet him at Mount Gerizzim^ which is by them (the 
 Samaritans) esteemed the most sacred of all mountains." 
 
 XXI. [p. 312.] Matt. xxvi. 3. "Then assembled together 
 the chief priests, and the elders of the people, unto the pal- 
 ace of the high priest, who was called CaiajphasP That Caia- 
 phas was high priest, and high priest throughout the presi- 
 dentship of Pontius Pilate, and consequently at this time, 
 appears from the following account : — He was made high 
 priest by Valerius Gratus, predecessor of Pontius Pilate, and 
 was removed from his office by Vitellius^ president of Syria, 
 after Pilate was sent away out of the province of Judea. 
 Josephus relates the advancement of Caiaphas to the high- 
 priesthood in this manner : " Gratus gave the high-priesthood 
 to Simon, the son of Camithus. He, having enjoyed this 
 honor not above a year, was succeeded by Joseph, who is also 
 called Caiaphas,^ After this, Gratus went away for Rome, 
 having been eleven years in Judea; and Pontius Pilate came 
 thither as his successor^ Of the removal of Caiaphas from 
 his office, Josephus, likewise, afterwards informs us ; and con- 
 nects it with a circumstance which fixes the time to a date 
 subsequent to the determination of Pilate's government. 
 " Vitellius," he tells us, " ordered Pilate to repair to Rome ; 
 and after that^ went up himself to Jerusalem, and then gave 
 directions concerning several matters. And having done 
 these things, he took away the priesthood from the high priest 
 Joseph, who is called Caiaphas^^ 
 
 XXII. (Michaelis, c. xi. sect. 11.) Acts, xxiii. 4. "And 
 they that stood by, said, Revilest thou God's high priest ? Then 
 said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest." 
 Now, upon inquiry into the history of the age, it turns out, 
 that Ananias, of whom this is spoken, was, in truth, not 
 the high priest, though he was sitting in judgment in that 
 * Antiq., lib. xviii. c. 2, sect. 2. f Antiq., lib. xvii. c. 5, sect. 3. 
 
356 EYIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.. [Part II. 
 
 assumed capacity. The case was, that he had formerly holden 
 the office, and had been deposed ; that the person who suc- 
 ceeded him had been murdered ; that another was not yet 
 appointed to the station ; and that, during the vacancy, he 
 had, of his own authority, taken upon himself the discharge 
 of the office.* This singular situation of the high-priesthood 
 took place during the interval between the death of Jonathan, 
 who was murdered by order of Felix, and the accession of 
 Ismael, who was invested with the high-priesthood by Agrip- 
 pa ; and precisely in this interval it happened that Saint Paul 
 was apprehended, and brought before the Jewish council. 
 
 XXIII. [p. 323.] Matt. xxvi. 59. "Now the chief priests 
 and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against 
 him." 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., lib. xviii. c. 15, sect. 3, 4. "Then might 
 be seen the high priests themselves^ with ashes on their heads, 
 and their breasts naked." 
 
 The agreement here consists in speaking of the high priests 
 or chief priests (for the name in the original is the same), 
 in the plural numher^ when, in strictness, there was only one 
 high priest : which may be considered as a proof, that the 
 evangelists were habituated to the manner of speaking then 
 in use, because they retain it when it is neither accurate nor 
 just. For the sake of brevity, I have put down, from Jo- 
 sephus, only a single example of the application of this title 
 in the plural number ; but it is his usual style. 
 
 lb. [p. 871.] Luke, iii. 1. " Now in the fifteenth year of 
 the reign of Tiberius Csesar, Pontius Pilate being governor 
 of Judea, and Herod being tetrarcb of Galilee, Annas and 
 Caiaphas being the high priesis^ the word of God came unto 
 John." There is a. passage in Josephus very nearly parallel 
 to this, and which may at least serve to vindicate the evangel- 
 ist from objection, with respect to his giving the title of high 
 pries't specifically to two persons at the same time : " Quad- 
 ratus sent two others of the most powerful men of the Jews, 
 * Joseph. Antiq., 1. xx. c. 5, sect. 2 ; c. 6, sect. 2 ; c. 9, sect. 2. 
 
Chap. VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 357 
 
 as also the high priests Jonathan and Ananias.''"' -^ That An- 
 nas was a person in an eminent station, and possessed an au- 
 thority co-ordinate with, or next to, that of the high priest 
 properly so called, may be inferred from Saint John's Gos- 
 pel, which, in the history of Christ's crucifixion, relates that 
 " the soldiers led him away to Annas first."f And this might 
 be noticed as an example of undesigned coincidence in the two 
 evangelists. 
 
 Again, [p. 870.] Acts, iv. 6, Annas is called the high 
 priest, though Caiaphas was in the office of the high-priest- 
 hood. In like manner, in Josephus,J "Joseph, the son of 
 Gorion, and the hight priest Ananus, were chosen to be su- 
 preme governors of all things in the city." Yet Ananus, 
 though here called the high priest Ananus, was not then in 
 the office of the high-priesthood. The truth is, there is an 
 indeterminateness in the use of this title in the Gospel ; some- 
 times it is applied exclusively to the person who held the office 
 at the time ; sometimes to one or two more, who probably 
 shared with him some of the powers or functions of the office ; 
 and, sometimes, to such of the priests as were eminent by 
 their station or character ;§ and there is the very same inde- 
 terminateness in Josephus. 
 
 XXIV. [p. 347.] John, xix. 19, 20. "And Pilate wrote a 
 title, and put it on the cross." That such was the custom of 
 the Romans on these occasions, appears from passages of Sue- 
 tonius and Dio Cassius : " Patrem familias — canibus objecit, 
 cum hoc titulo^ Impie locutus parmularius."|| Suet. Domit., 
 cap. X. And in Dio Cassius we have the following : " Hav- 
 ing led him through the midst of the court or assembly, with a 
 writing signifying the cause of his death^ and afterwards cruci- 
 fying him." Book liv. 
 
 lb. " And it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin." 
 
 * De Bell., lib. ix. e. 12, sect. 6. f xviii. 13. 
 
 X Lib. ii. c. 20, sect. 3. § Mark, xiv. 53. 
 
 II He exposed the father of the family to dogs with this title, 
 " A gladiator who spoke impiously." — Ed. 
 
858 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL 
 
 That it was also usual about this time, in Jerusalem, to set 
 up advertisements in different languages, is gathered from the 
 account which Josephus gives of an expostulatory message 
 from Titus to the Jews, when the city was almost in his hands ; 
 in which he says. Did ye not erect pillars with inscriptions 
 on them, in the Greek and in our language^ " Let no one pass 
 beyond these bounds" ? 
 
 XXV. [p. 352.] Matt, xxvii. 26. '' When he had scourged 
 Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified." 
 
 The following passages occur in Josephus : 
 " Being beaten^ they were crucified opposite to the citadel."* 
 " Whom, having ^r5^ scourged with whips, he crucified."f 
 "He was burnt alive, having been Jirst beaten.^^^ 
 To which may be added one from Livy, lib. xi. c. 5. 
 " Productique omnes, virgisque ccesi, ac securi percussi."§ 
 
 A modern example may illustrate the use we make of this 
 instance. The preceding of a capital execution by the cor- 
 poral punishment of the sufferer, is a practice unknown in 
 England, but retained, in some instances at least, as appears 
 by the late execution of a regicide in Sweden. This circum- 
 stance, therefore, in the account of an English execution, pur- 
 porting to come from an English writer, would not only 
 bring a suspicion upon the truth of the account, but would, 
 in a considerable degree, impeach its pretensions of having 
 been written by the author whose name it bore. Whereas 
 the same circumstance, in the account of a Swedish execution, 
 would verify the account, and support the authenticity of the 
 book in which it was found ; or, at least, would prove that 
 the author, whoever he was, possessed the information and 
 knowledge which he ought to possess. 
 
 XXVI. [p. 353.] John, xix. 16. " And they took Jesus, 
 and led him away, and he, bearing his cross, went forth." 
 
 * p. 1247, edit. 24, Huds. f P- 1080, edit. 45. 
 
 X p. 132Y, edit. 43. 
 
 § All were bronglit out, beaten with rods, and beheaded with the 
 axe. — JEJd. 
 
Chap VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 859 
 
 Plutarch De iis qui sero puniuntur, p. 554 : a Paris. 1624.* 
 " Every kind of wickedness produces its own particular tor 
 ment, just as every malefactor, when he is brought forth to 
 execution, carries his oivn cross. ^'' 
 
 XXVII. John, xix. 32. " Then came the soldiers, and brake 
 the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with 
 him." 
 
 Constantine abolished the punishment of the cross; in 
 commending which edict, a heathen writer notices this very- 
 circumstance of breaking the legs : E6 pius, ut etiam vetus 
 veterrimumque supplicium, patibulum, et cruribus suffrin- 
 gendis, primus removerit."f Aur. Vict. Ces., cap. xli. 
 
 XXVIII. [p. 457.] Acts, iii. 1. " Now Peter and John went 
 up together into the temple, at the hour of prayer, being the 
 ninth hour." 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., lib. xv. c. 7, sect. 8. " Twice every day, 
 in the morning and at the ninth hour, the priests perform their 
 duty at the altar." 
 
 XXIX. [p. 462.] Acts, XV. 21. "For Moses, of old time, 
 hath, in every city, them that preach him, being read in the 
 synagogues every Sabbath day.'''' 
 
 Joseph, contra Ap., 1. ii. " He (Moses) gave us the law, the 
 most excellent of all institutions ; nor did he appoint that it 
 should be heard, once only, or twice, or often, but that, laying 
 aside all other works, we should meet together every week to 
 hear it read, and gain a perfect understanding of it." 
 
 XXX. [p. 465.] Acts, xxi. 23. " We have four men, which 
 have a vow on them ; them take, and purify thyself with them, 
 that they may shave their heads.'''' 
 
 Joseph, de Bell., 1. xi. c. 15. "It is customary for those 
 who have been afflicted with some distemper, or have labored 
 under any other difficulties, to make a vow thirty days before 
 
 * Plutarch " On those whom punishment at last overtakes." — Ed. 
 
 f He was so pious that he was the first to abolish that ancient 
 and most painful punishment, the cross, and the breaking of the 
 legs. — Ed. 
 
360 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 they offer sacrifices, to abstain from wine, and shave the hair 
 of their heads ^ 
 
 lb., V. 24. " Them take, and purify thyself with them, and 
 he at charges with them^ that they may shave their heads.'''' 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., 1. xix. c. 6. " He (Herod Agrippa) coming 
 to Jerusalem, offered up sacrifices of thanksgiving, and omitted 
 nothing that was prescribed by the law. For which reason 
 he also ordered a good number of Nazarites to be shaved.'''' We 
 here find that it was an act of piety amongst the Jews, to de- 
 fray for those who were under the Nazaritic vows the expenses 
 which attended its completion ; and that the phrase was, " that 
 they might be shaved." The custom and the expression are 
 both remarkable, and both in close conformity with the Scrip- 
 ture account. 
 
 XXXI. [p. 474.] 2 Cor. xi. 24. " Of the Jews, five times 
 received I forty stripes, save one.'''' 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., iv. c. 8, sect. 21. " He that acts contrary 
 hereto, let him receive forty stripes, loanting one^ from the 
 public officer." 
 
 The coincidence here is singular, because the law allowed forty 
 stripes : — " Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed." 
 Deut. XXV. 3. It proves that the author of the Epistle to the 
 Corinthians was guided not by books, but by facts ; because 
 his statement agrees with the actual custom, even when that 
 custom deviated from the written law, and from what he must 
 have learnt by consulting the Jewish code, as set forth in the 
 Old Testament. 
 
 XXXII. [p. 490.] Luke, iii. 12. "Then came also puhli- 
 cans to be baptized." From this quotation, as well as from 
 the history of Levi or Matthew (Luke, v. 29), and of Zac- 
 cheus (Luke, xix. 2), it appears that the publicans or tax- 
 gatherers were, frequently at least, if not always, Jews : 
 which, as the country was then under a Roman government, 
 and the taxes were paid to the Romans, was a circumstance 
 not to be expected. That it was the truth, however, of the 
 case, appears from a short passage of Josephus. 
 
Chap. YI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 361 
 
 De Bell., lib. ii. c. 14, sect 45. " But, Florus not restrain- 
 ing these practices by his authority, the chief men of the Jews, 
 among whom was John the publican, not knowing well what 
 course to take, wait upon Florus, and give him eight talents 
 of silver to stop the building." 
 
 XXXIII. [p. 496.] Acts, xxii, 25. '• And as they bound 
 him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, 
 Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and un- 
 condemned f 
 
 " Facinus est vinciri civem Romanum ; scelus verberari." 
 Cic. in Verr. 
 
 "Caedebatur virgis, in medio foro Messanse, civis Romanus, 
 Judices : cum interea nullus gemitus, nulla vox alia, istius m.i- 
 seri inter dolorem crepitumque plagarum audiebatur, nisi hsec, 
 (Jivis Romanus sum^^ 
 
 XXXIV. [p, 513.] Acts, xxii. 27. " Then the chief captain 
 came, and said unto him (Paul), Tell me. Art thou a Roman ? 
 He said, Yea." The circumstance here to be noticed is, that 
 a Jew was a Roman citizen. 
 
 Joseph. Antiq,, lib. xiv. c. 10, sect 13. "Lucius Lentulus, 
 the consul, declared, I have dismissed from the service the 
 Jewish Roman citizens, who observe the rites of the Jewish re- 
 ligion at Ephesus." 
 
 lb., ver. 28. " And the chief captain answered, With a great 
 sum obtained I this freedom,'''' 
 
 Dio Cassius, lib. Ix. "This privilege, which had been 
 bought formerly at a great price, became so cheap, that it was 
 commonly said, a man might be made a Roman citizen for a 
 few pieces of broken glass." 
 
 XXXV. [p. 521.] Acts, xxviii. IQ. "And when we came 
 
 * It is a wrong that a Roman citizen should he bound, a crime that 
 he should be beaten. 
 
 A Roman citizen, Judges, was beaten with rods in the market place 
 of Messana, while meantime no groan, no other cry was heard amid 
 the pain of that wretched man, and the noise of the blows, except 
 this, " / am « Roman Citizen'' — Ed. 
 
 i6 
 
362 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain 
 of the guard ; but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself, 
 with a soldier that kept him..^^ 
 
 With which join ver. 20. " For the hope of Israel, I am 
 bound with this chain,^^ 
 
 " Quemadmodum eadem catena et custodiam et militeyn cop- 
 ulat; sic ista, quae tarn dissimilia sunt, pariter incedunt." 
 Seneca, Ep. v. 
 
 " Proconsul ^estimare solet, utrum in carcerem recipienda 
 sit persona, an militi tradenday Ulpian., 1. i. sect. De Custod. 
 et Exhib. Eeor.* 
 
 In the confinement of Agrippa by the order of Tiberius, 
 Antonia managed that the centurion who presided over the 
 guards, and the soldier to whom Agrippa was to be hound^ might 
 be men of mild character. (Joseph. Antiq., lib. xxiii. c. 7, 
 sect 5.) After the accession of Caligula, Agrippa also, like 
 Paul, was suffered to dwell, yet as a prisoner, in his own 
 house. 
 
 XXXVI. [p. 531.] Acts, xxvii. 1. " And when it was de- 
 termined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul, 
 and certain other prisoners^ unto one named Julius." Since 
 not only Paul, but certain other prisoners^ were sent by the 
 same ship into Italy, the text must be considered as carrying 
 with it an intimation, that the sending of persons from Judea 
 to be tried at Rome, was an ordinary practice. That in truth 
 it was so, is made out by a variety of examples which the 
 writings of Josephus furnish ; and, amongst others, by the fol- 
 lowing, which comes near both to the time and the subject of 
 the instance in the Acts. " Felix, for some slight offence, 
 bound and sent to Borne several priests of his acquaintance, 
 and very good and honest men, to answer for themselves to 
 Caesar." Joseph, in Vit., sect. 3. 
 
 * As the same chain unites both the prisoner and the soldier ; so 
 these things, which are so unlike, move on abreast. 
 
 The proconsul is wont to decide whether a person is to be cast into 
 prison or entrusted to a soldier. — Ed, 
 
Chap. VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 363 
 
 XXXVII. [p. 539.] Acts, xi. 27. "And in these clays 
 came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch ; and there 
 stood up one of .them, named Agabus, and signified by the 
 Spirit that there should be a great dearth throughout all the 
 world (or all the country) ; which came to pass in the days of 
 Claudius Ccesar.^^ 
 
 Joseph. Antiq., 1. xx. c. 4, sect. 2. " In their time (^. e. 
 about the fifth or sixth year of Claudius) a great dearth hap- 
 pened in Judea." 
 
 XXXVIII. [p. 555.] Acts, xviii. 1,2. "Because that Clau- 
 dius had commanded all Jews to depart from Home." 
 
 •Suet. Claud., c. xxv. " Judasos, impulsore Chresto assidue 
 tumultuantes, Roma expulit.'"'^* 
 
 XXXIX. [p. 664.) Acts, v. 37. " After this man, rose 
 up Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and drew 
 away much people after him." 
 
 Joseph, de. Bell., 1. vii. " He {viz., the person, who in 
 another place is called, by Josephus, Judas the Galilean or 
 Judas of' Galilee) persuaded not a few not to enrol them- 
 selves, when Cy renins the censor was sent into Judea." 
 
 XL. [p. 942.] Acts, xxi. 38. "Art not thou that Egyp- 
 tian which, before these days, madest an uproar, and leddest 
 out into the wilderness four thousand men that were mur- 
 Iderers ?" 
 
 Joseph, de Bell., 1. ii. c. 13, sect. 5. "But the Egyptian 
 false prophet brought a yet heavier disaster upon the Jews.; 
 for this impostor, coming into the country, and gaining the 
 reputation of a prophet, gathered together thirty thousand 
 men, who were deceived by him. Having brought them 
 round out of the wilderness, up to the Mount of Olives, he 
 intended from thence to make his attack upon Jerusalem ; 
 but Felix, coming suddenly upon him with the Roman sol- 
 diers, prevented the attack. A great number, or (as it should 
 
 '' He expelled from Rome the Jews, who, at the instigation of one 
 phrestus, were continually raising tumults. — £Jd. 
 
364 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIAlSriTY. [Paiit IL 
 
 rather be rendered) the greatest part of those that were with 
 him, were either slain or taken prisoners." 
 
 In these two passages, the designation of the impostor, an 
 " Egyptian," without his proper name ; " the wilderness ;" 
 his escape, though his followers were destroyed ; the time of 
 the transaction, in the presidentship of Felix, which could not 
 be any long time before the words in Luke are supposed to 
 have been spoken ; are circumstances of close correspond- 
 ency. There is one, and only one, point of disagreement, 
 and that is, in the number of his followers, which in the Acts 
 are called four thousand, and by Josephus thirty thousand ; 
 but, beside that the names of numbers, more than any other 
 words, are liable to the errors of transcribers, we are, in the 
 present instance, under the less concern to reconcile the evan- 
 gelist with Josephus, as Josephus is not, in this point, consist- 
 ent with himself For whereas, in the passage here quoted, 
 he calls the number thirty thousand, and tells us that the 
 greatest part, or a great number (according as his words are 
 rendered) of those that were with him, were destroyed ; in 
 his Antiquities, he represents four hundred to have been killed 
 upon this occasion, and two hundred taken prisoners :* which 
 certainly was not the " greatest part," nor " a great part," 
 nor " a great number," out of thirty thousand. It is probable 
 also, that Lysias and Josephus spoke of the expedition in its 
 different stages ; Lysias, of those who followed the Egyptian 
 out of Jerusalem ; Josephus, of all who were collected about 
 him afterwards, from different quarters. 
 
 XLI, (Lardner's Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. iii. 
 p. 21.) Acts, xvii. 22. "Then Paul stood in the midst of 
 Mars-hill, and said. Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all 
 things ye are too superstitious ; for, as I passed by and be- 
 held your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription^ 
 TO THE UNKNO WN GOD, Whom therefore ye ignor- 
 antly worship, him declare I unto you." 
 
 Diogenes Laertius^ who wrote about the year 210, in his 
 * Lib. 20, c. '7, 3ect. 6. 
 
CriAP. YI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 865 
 
 history of Epimenides, who is supposed to have flourished 
 nearly six hundred years before Christ, relates of him the fol- 
 lowing story : that, being invited to Athens for the purpose, 
 he delivered the city from a pestilence in this manner ; — 
 '* Taking several sheep, some black, others white, he had them 
 11 j) to the Areopagus, and then let them go where they would, 
 and gave orders to those who followed them, wherever any 
 of them should lie down, to sacrifice it to the god to whom it 
 ])r' longed ; and so the plague ceased. Hence," says the his- 
 torian, "it has come to pass, that to this present time^ may he 
 found in the boroughs of the Athenians anonymous altars; 
 a memorial of the expiation then made."* These altars, it 
 may be presumed, were called anonymous^ because there 
 was not the name of any particular deity inscribed upon 
 them. 
 
 Pausanias, who wrote before the end of the second century, 
 in his description of Athens, having mentioned an altar of 
 Jupiter Olympius, adds, " And nigh unto it is an altar of 
 unknown godsy\ And in another place, he speaks " of altars 
 of gods called unknown y\ 
 
 Philostratus, who wrote in the beginning of the third cen- 
 tury, records it as an observation of Apollonius Tyanseus, 
 " That it was wise to speak well of all the gods, especially at 
 Athens, where altars of unknown demons were erected.^^^ 
 
 The author of the dialogue Philopatris^ by many supposed 
 to have been Lucian, who wrote about the year 170, by others 
 some anonymous Heathen writer of the fourth century, 
 makes Critias swear by the unknown god of Athens ; and, near 
 the end of the dialogue, has these words, " but let us find, out 
 the unknown god at Athens, and, stretching our hands to 
 heaven, offer to him our praises and thanksgivings." || 
 
 This is a very curious and a very important coincidence. 
 It appears beyond controversy, that altars with this inscrip- 
 
 * In Epimenide, 1. i. segm. 110. f Paus., 1. v. p. 412. 
 
 X Paus. 1. i. p. 4. § Philos., Apoll. Tyan., 1. vi. c. 3. 
 
 I Luciac. in Phil op., torn. ii. Grsev. p. ^767, 780. 
 
366 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 tion were existing at Athens, at the time when Saint Paul is 
 alleged to have been there. It seems also (which is very 
 worthy of observation), that this inscription was peculiar 
 to the Athenians. There is no evidence that there were altars 
 inscribed " to the unknown god " in any other country. Sup- 
 posing the history of Saint Paul to have been a fable, how is 
 it possible that such a writer as the author of the Acts of the 
 Apostles was, should hit upon a circumstance so extraordi- 
 nary, and introduce it by an allusion so suitable to Saint 
 Paul's office and character ?* 
 
 The examples here collected, will be sufficient, I hope, to 
 satisfy us, that the writers of the Christian history knew 
 something of what they were writing about. The argument 
 is also strengthened by the following considerations : 
 
 I. That these agreements appear, not only in articles of 
 public history, but sometimes in minute, recondite, and very 
 peculiar circumstances, in which, of all others, a forger is 
 most likely to have been found tripping. 
 
 II. That the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place 
 forty years after the commencement of the Christian institu- 
 tion, produced such a change in the state of the country, and 
 the condition of the Jews, that a writer who was unacquainted 
 with the circumstances of the nation before that event, would 
 find it difficult to avoid mistakes, in endeavoring to give de- 
 tailed accounts of transactions connected with those circum- 
 stances, forasmuch as he could no longer have a living exem- 
 plar to copy from. 
 
 III. That there appears, in the writers of the New Testa- 
 ment, a knowledge of the affairs of those times, which we 
 do not find in authors of later ages. In particular, " many of 
 the Christian writers of the second and third centuries, and 
 of the following ages, had false notions concerning the state 
 of Judea, between the nativity of Jesus and the destruction 
 
 * Some other very curious coincidences are pointed out in Horne 
 — Carter's edition, vol. 1. p. 50. — Ed. 
 
( iiAP. VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 367 
 
 I of Jerusalem."* Therefore they could not have composed 
 our histories. f 
 
 Amidst so many conformities, we are not to wonder that 
 we meet with some difficulties. The principal of these I will 
 put down, together with the solutions which they have receiv- 
 ed. But in doing this, I must be contented with a brevity 
 better suited to the limits of my volume than to the nature 
 of a controversial argument. For the historical proofs of 
 my assertions, and for the Greek criticisms upon which some 
 of them are founded, I refer the reader to the second volume 
 of the first part of Dr. Lardner's large work. 
 
 I. The taxing during which Jesus was born, was " first 
 made," as we read, according to our translation, in Saint Luke, 
 " whilst Cyrenius was governor of Syria."J Now it turns 
 out that Cyrenius was not governor of Syria until twelve, or, 
 at the soonest, ten years after the birth of Christ ; and that a 
 taxing, census, or assessment, was made in Judea in the be- 
 ginning of his government. The charge, therefore, brought 
 against the evangelist is, that, intending to refer to this tax- 
 ing, he has misplaced the date of it by an error of ten or 
 twelve years. 
 
 The answer to the accusation is found in his using the word 
 " first :" — " And this taxing was first made :" for, according 
 to the mistake imputed to the evangelist, this word could 
 have no signification whatever ; it could have had no place in 
 his narrative ; because, let it relate to what it will, taxing, 
 census, enrolment, or assessment, it imports that the writer 
 
 * Lardner, part i. vol. ii. p. 960. 
 
 f The conclusions here come to are likewise inconsistent with the 
 mythical hypothesis. The student will observe that this hypothesis 
 was invented by Strauss, as a matter of necessity. He set out with 
 the assumption that a miracle is an impossibility, and therefore was 
 compelled to resolve the Gospel histories into marvellous legends. But 
 they are not marvellous legends ; they are veritable histories written 
 under the most favorable circumstances imaginable; and therefore 
 the miracles are historical facts. — Ed. 
 
 X Chap. ii. ver. 2. 
 
368 EVIDEKCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 had more than one of those in contemplation. It acquits him 
 therefore of the charge : it is inconsistent with the supposition 
 of his knowing only of the taxing in the beginning of Cy ren- 
 ins' government. And if the evangelist knew (which this 
 word proves that he did) of some other taxing beside that, it 
 is too much, for the sake of convicting him of a mistake, to 
 lay it down as certain that he intended to refer to tJiat, 
 
 The sentence in Saint Luke may be construed thus : " This 
 was the first assessment (or enrolment) of Cyrenius, gover- 
 nor of Syria ;"* the words " governor of Syria" being used 
 after the name of Cyrenius as his addition or title. And this 
 title belonging to him at the time of writing the account, was 
 naturally enough subjoined to his name, though acquired after 
 the transaction which the account describes. A modern writer 
 who was not very exact in the choice of his expressions, in 
 relating the affairs of the East Indies, might easily say, that 
 such a thing was done by Governor Hastings ; though, in truth, 
 the thing had been done by him before his advancement to the 
 station from which he received the name of governor. And 
 this, as we contend, is precisely the inaccuracy which has pro- 
 duced the difficulty in Saint Luke. 
 
 At any rate, it appears from the form of the expression, 
 that he had two taxings or enrolments in contemplation. And 
 if Cyrenius had been sent upon this business into Judea, be- 
 fore he become governor of Syria (against which supposi- 
 tion there is no proof, but rather external evidence of an 
 enrolment going on about this time under some person or 
 other),! then the census on all hands acknowledged to have 
 
 * If the word which we render "first," be rendered "before," 
 which it has been strongly contended that the Greek idiom allows of, 
 the whole difficulty vanishes : for then the passage Y/oiild be, — " ;N"ow 
 this taxing was made before Cyrenius was governor of Syria ;" which 
 corresponds with the chronology. But I rather choose to argue, that, 
 however the word "first" be rendered, to give it a meaning at all, it 
 militates with the objection. In this I think there can be no mis- 
 take. 
 
 \ Josephus (Antiq., xvii. e. 2, sect. 6) has this remarkable passage : 
 
Chap. YI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 869 
 
 been made by him in the beginning of his government, would 
 form a second, so as to occasion the other to be called the 
 Jlrst. 
 
 II. Another chronological objection arises upon a date as- 
 signed in the beginning of the third chapter of Saint Luke.* 
 " Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, — 
 Jesus began to he about thirty years of age :" for, supposing Je- 
 sus to have been born, as Saint Matthew, and Saint Luke also 
 himself, relate, in the time of Herod, he must, according to 
 the dates given in Josephus, and by the Roman historians, 
 have been at least thirty-one years of age in the fifteenth year 
 of Tiberius. If he was born, as Saint Matthew's narrative in- 
 timates, one or two years before Herod's death, he would 
 have been thirty-two or thirty- three years old at that time. 
 
 This is the difficulty : the solution turns upon an alteration 
 in the construction of the Greek. Saint Luke's words in the 
 original are allowed, by the general opinion of learned men, 
 to signify, not " that Jesus began to be about thirty years of 
 age," but " that he was about thirty years of age when he be- 
 gan his ministry." This construction being admitted, the ad- 
 verb ''' about" gives us all the latitude we want, and more, 
 especially when applied, as it is in the present instance, to a 
 decimal number : for such numbers, even without this quali- 
 fying addition, are often used in a laxer sense than is here 
 contended for.f 
 
 " When therefore the whole Jewish nation took an oath to be faith- 
 ful to Csesar, and the interests of the king." This transaction corre- 
 sponds in the course of the history with the time of Christ's birth. 
 What is called a census, and which we render taxing, was delivering 
 upon oath an account of their property. This might be accompanied 
 with an oath of fidelity, or might be mistaken by Josephus for it. 
 
 * Lardner, part i. vol. ii. p. 768. 
 
 f Livy, speaking of the pea<?e which the conduct of Romulus had 
 procured to the State, during the whole reign of his successor (Numa), 
 has these words:* "Ab illo enim profectis viribus datis tan turn 
 valuit, ut, in quadraginta deinde annos, tutam pacem haberet:" yet 
 
 • * Liv. Hist., c. i. sect. 10. 
 
 16* 
 
870 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL 
 
 III. Acts, V. 36. " For before these days rose up Theudas, 
 boasting himself to be somebody ; to whom a number of 
 men, about four hundred, joined themselves : who was slain ; 
 and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought 
 to nought." 
 
 Josephus has preserved the account of an impostor of the 
 name of Theudas, who created some disturbances, and was 
 slain ; b ut according to the date assigned to this man's ap- 
 pearance (in which, however, it is very possible that Josephus 
 may have been mistaken),* it must have been, at the least, 
 seven years after Gamaliel's speech, of which this text is a 
 part, was delivered. It has been replied to the objection.f 
 that there might be two impostors of this name ; and it has 
 been observed, in order to give a general probability to the 
 solution, that the same thing appears to have happened in 
 other instances of the same kind. It is proved from Josephus, 
 that there were not fewer than four persons of the name of 
 Simon within forty years, and not fewer than three of the 
 name of Judas within ten years, who were all leaders of in- 
 surrections ; and it is likewise recorded by this historian, that, 
 upon the death of Herod the Great (which agrees very well 
 with the time of the commotion referred to by Gamaliel, and 
 with his manner of stating that time, " before these days "), 
 there were innumerable disturbances in Judea.J Archbishop 
 Usher was of opinion, that one of the three Judases above- 
 mentioned was Gamaliel's Theudas ;§ and that with a less 
 variation of the name than we actually find in the Gospels, 
 where one of the twelve apostles is called, by Luke, Judas ; 
 
 afterwards in the same chapter, " Romulus," he says, '* septem et 
 triginta regnavit annos. Numa tres et quadraginta."* 
 
 * Michaelis' Introduction to the New Testament (Marsh's transla- 
 tion), vol. i. p. 61. , 
 
 f Lardner, part. i. vol. ii. p. 922. if Antiq., 1. xvii c. 12, sect. 4. 
 § Annals, p. 191. 
 
 * For having gained strength from this commencement, it became so powerful, 
 that for forty years thereafter it enjoyed a secure peace. 
 
 Romulus reigned 37 years; Nucna 43.— Ed. 
 
Chap. YL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 371 
 
 and by mark, Thaddeus.* Origen, however he came at his 
 information, appears to have believed that there was an im- 
 postor of the name of Theudas before the nativity of Christ.-]- 
 
 IV. Matt, xxiii. 34. " Wherefore, behold, I send unto you 
 prophets, and wise men, and scribes ; and some of them ye 
 shall kill and crucify ; and some of them shall ye scourge in 
 your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city ; that 
 upon you may come all* the righteous blood shed upon the 
 earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of 
 Zacharias, son of Barachias^ whom ye slew between the temple 
 and the altar.'''' 
 
 There is a Zacharias, whose death is related in the second 
 book of Chronicles,^ in a manner which perfectly supports 
 our Saviour's allusions. But this Zacharias was the son of 
 Jehoiada. 
 
 There is also Zacharias the prophet ; who was the son of 
 Barachiah, and is so described in the superscription of his 
 prophecy, but of whose death we have no account. 
 
 I hg-ve little doubt, but that the first Zacharias was the per- 
 son spoken of by our Saviour; and that the name of the 
 father has been since added, or changed, by some one, who 
 took it from the title of the prophecy, which happened to be 
 better known to him than the history in the Chronicles. 
 
 There is likewise a Zacharias, the son of Baruch, related by 
 Josephus to have been slain in the temple a few years before 
 the destruction of Jerusalem. It has been insinuated, that 
 the words put into our Saviour's mouth contain a reference 
 to this transaction, and were composed by some waiter, who 
 
 * Luke, vi. 16. Mark, iii. 18. 
 
 f Orig. Cont. Cels., p. 44. 
 
 \ " And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoi- 
 ada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, 
 Thus, saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, 
 that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he 
 hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned 
 him with stones, at the commandment of the king, in the court of the house 
 of the Lord" 2 Chron., xxiv. 20, 21. 
 
872 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 either confounded the time of the transaction with our Sa- 
 viour's age, or inadvertently overlooked the anachronism. 
 
 Now suppose it to have been so ; suppose these words to 
 have been suggested by the transaction related in Josephus, 
 and to have been falsely ascribed to Christ ; and observe 
 what extraordinary coincidences (accidentally, as it must in 
 that case have been) attend the forger's mistake. 
 
 First, that we have a Zacharias in 'the book of Chronicles, 
 whose death, and the manner of it, corresponds with the 
 allusion. 
 
 Secondly, that although the name of this person's father be 
 erroneously put down in the Gospel, yet we have a way of 
 accounting for the error, by showing another Zacharias in the 
 Jewish Scriptures, much better known than the former, whose 
 patronymic was actually that which appears in the text. 
 
 Every one who thinks upon the subject, will find these to 
 be circumstances which could not have met together in a mis- 
 take, which did not proceed from the circumstances them- 
 selves. 
 
 I have noticed, I think, all the difficulties of this kind. 
 They are few ; some of them admit of a clear, others of a 
 probable solution. The reader will compare them with the 
 number, the variety, the closeness, and the satisfactoriness, of 
 the instances which are to be set against them ; and he will 
 remember the scantiness, in many cases, of our intelligence, 
 and that difficulties always attend imperfect information.^^ 
 
 * For other instances of these very curious and interesting con- 
 firmations see Prof. Blunt's Coincidences. — Ed. 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 UNDESIGNED OOINOIDENOES. 
 
 Between the letters which bear the name of Saint Paul in 
 our collection, and his history in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 there exist many notes of correspondency. The simple pe- 
 rusal of the writings is sufficient to prove that neither the his- 
 tory was taken from the letters, nor the letters from the his- 
 tory. And the undesignedness of the agreements (which un- 
 designedness is gathered from their latency, their minuteness, 
 their obliquity, the suitableness of the circumstances in which 
 they consist, to the places in which those circumstances occur, 
 and the ci]^cuitous references by which they are traced out) 
 demonstrates that they have not been produced by medita- 
 tion, or by any fraudulent contrivance. But coincidences, 
 from which these causes are excluded, and which are too close 
 and numerous to be accounted for by accidental concurrences 
 of fiction, must necessarily have truth for their foundation. 
 
 This argument appeared to my mind of so much value 
 (especially for its assuming nothing beside the existence of 
 the books), that I have pursued it through Saint Paul's thir- 
 teen epistles, in a work published by me four years ago, un- 
 der the title of Horse Paulinse. I am sensible how feebly 
 any argument which depends upon an induction of particu- 
 lars, is represented without examples. On which account, I 
 wished to have abridged my own volume, in the manner in 
 which I have treated Dr. Lardner's in the preceding chapter. 
 But, upon making the attempt, I did not find it in my power to 
 
374 EViDEisrcES of Christianity. [part ii. 
 
 render the articles intelligible by fewer words than I have 
 there used. I must be content, therefore, to refer the reader 
 to the work itself. And I would particularly invite his atten- 
 tion to the observations which are made in it upon the first 
 three epistles. I persuade myself that he will find the proofs, 
 both of agreement and undesignedness, supplied by these 
 epistles, sufficient to support the conclusion which is there 
 maintained, in favor both of the genuineness of the writings 
 and the truth of the narrative. 
 
 It remains only, in this place, to point out how the argu- 
 ment bears upon the general question of the Christian history. 
 
 First, Saint Paul in these letters affirms, in unequivocal 
 terms, his own performance of miracles, and, what ought par- 
 ticularly to be remembered, " That miracles were the signs of 
 an apostle.'''"^ If this testimony come from Saint Paul's own 
 hand, it is invaluable. And that it does so, the argument be- 
 fore us fixes in my mind a firm assurance. 
 
 Secondly, it shows that the series of action, represented in 
 the epistles of Saint Paul, was real ; which alone lays a foun- 
 dation for the proposition which forms the subject of the first 
 part of our present work, viz.^ that the original witnesses of 
 the Christian history devoted themselves to lives of toil, suf- 
 fering, and danger, in consequence of their belief of the truth 
 of that history, and for the sake of communicating the knowl- 
 edge of it to others. 
 
 Thirdly, it proves that Luke, or whoever was the author 
 of the Acts of the Apostles (for the argument does not de- 
 pend upon the name of the author, though I know no reason 
 for questioning it), was well acquainted with Saint Paul's his- 
 tory ; and that he probably was, what he professes himself to 
 be, a companion of Saint Paul's travels : which, if true, estab- 
 lishes, in a considerable degree, the credit even of his Gospel, 
 because it shows that the writer, from his time, situation, and 
 connections, possessed opportunities of informing himself truly 
 concerning the transactions which he relates. I have little 
 * Rom. XV. 18, 19. 2 Cor. xii. 12. 
 
Chap. VII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 375 
 
 difficulty in applying to the Gospel of Saint Luke what is 
 proved concerning the Acts of the Apostles, considering them 
 as two parts of the same history ; for, though there are in- 
 stances of second parts being forgeries, I know none where the 
 second part is genuine, and the first is not so. 
 
 I w^ill only observe, as a sequel of the argument, though 
 not noticed in my work, tha remarkable similitude between 
 the style of Saint John's Gospel, and of Saint John's Epistle. 
 The style of Saint John's is not at all the style of Saint Paul's 
 epistles, though both are very singular ; nor is it the style of 
 Saint James' or of Saint Peter's Epistle ; but it bears a re- 
 semblance to the style of the Gospel inscribed with Saint 
 John's name, so far as that resemblance can be expected to 
 appear which is not in simple narrative, so much as in reflec- 
 tions, and in the representation of discourses. Writings so 
 circumstanced, prove themselves, and one another, to be gen- 
 uine. This correspondency is the more valuable, as the epistle 
 itself asserts, in Saint John's manner indeed, but in terms 
 sufficiently explicit, the writer's personal knowledge of Christ's 
 history : " That which was from the beginning, which we have 
 heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have look- 
 ed upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life ; 
 that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you."* 
 Who would E»ot desire,-— who perceives not the value of an 
 account, delivered by a writer so well informed as this ? f 
 
 * Ch. i. ver. 1—3. 
 
 f Besides the Horse Paulinae, the student is referred to Blunt's Co- 
 incidences. The combined argument of the two books is irresistible. 
 We have already said that they have been published together in this 
 city. Hence we refrain from increasing the size of this volume by 
 quoting from them. — Ed. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 OF THE HISTORY OF THE EESUEREOTION. 
 
 The history of the resurrection of Christ is a part of the 
 evidence of Christianity; but I do not know whether the 
 proper strength of this passage of the Christian history, or 
 wherein its peculiar value, as a head of evidence, consists, be 
 generally understood. It is not that, as a miracle, the resur- 
 rection ought to be accounted a more decided proof of super- 
 natural agency than other miracles are ; it is not that, as it 
 stands in the Gospels, it is better attested than some others ; 
 it is not, for either of these reasons, that more weight belongs 
 to it than to other miracles, but for the following, viz, ; That 
 it is completely certain that the apostles of Christ, and the 
 first teachers of Christianity, asserted the fact. And this 
 would have been certain, if the four Gospels had been lost, or 
 never written. Every piece of Scripture recognizes the res- 
 urrection. Every Epistle of every apostle, every author 
 contemporary with the apostles, of the age immediately succeed- 
 ing the apostles, every writing from that age to the present, gen- 
 uine or spurious, on the side of Christianity or against it, concur 
 in representing the resurrection of Christ as an article of his 
 history, received without doubt or disagreement by all who 
 called themselves Christians, as alleged from the beginning by 
 the propagators of the institution, and alleged as the centre of 
 their testimony. Nothing, I apprehend, which a man does not 
 himself see or hear, can be more certain, to him than this point. 
 I do not mean, that nothing can be more certain, than that 
 Christ rose from the dead ; but that nothing can be more certain 
 than that his apostles, and the first teachers of Christianity, 
 
Chap. VIIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 377 
 
 gave out that he did so. In the other parts of the Gospel 
 narrative, a question may be made, whether the things related 
 of Christ be the very things which the apostles and first teach- 
 ers of the religion delivered concerning him ? And this ques- 
 tion depends a good deal upon the evidence we possess of the 
 genuineness, or rather, perhaps, of the antiquity, credit, and 
 reception of the books. On the subject of the resurrection, 
 no such discussion is necessary, because no such doubt can be 
 entertained. The only points which can enter into our con- 
 sideration are, whether the apostles knowingly published a 
 falsehood, or whether they were themselves deceived ; whether 
 either of these suppositions be possible. The first, I think, is 
 pretty generally given up. The nature of the undertaking, 
 and of the men ; the extreme unlikelihood that such men 
 should engage in such a measure as a scheme ; their personal 
 toils, and dangers, and sufferings, in the cause ; their appropri- 
 ation of their w^hole time to the object ; the warm and seem- 
 ingly unaffected zeal and earnestness with which they profess 
 their sincerity ; exempt their memory from the suspicion of 
 imposture. The solution more deserving of notice, is that 
 which would resolve the conduct of the apostles into enthusi- 
 asm ; which w^ould class the evidence of Christ's resurrection 
 with the numerous stories that are extant of the apparitions 
 of dead men. There are circumstances in the narrative, as it 
 is preslferved in our histories, which destroy this comparison 
 entirely. It was not one person, but many, who saw him ; 
 they saw him not only separately but together, not only by 
 night but by day, not at a distance but near, not once but sev- 
 eral times ; they not only saw him, but touched him, conversed 
 with him, ate with him, examined his person to satisfy their 
 doubts. These particulars are decisive : but they stand, I do ad- 
 mit, upon the credit of our records. I would anjwer, therefore, 
 the insinuation of enthusiasm, by a circumstance which arises 
 out of the nature of the thing ; and the reality of which must 
 be confessed by all who allow, what I believe is not denied, 
 that the resurrection of Christ, whether true or false, was 
 
378 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 asserted by his disciples from the beginning ; and that cir- 
 cumstance is, the non-production of the dead body. It is 
 related in the history, what indeed the story of the resur- 
 rection necessarily implies, that the corpse was missing out 
 of the sepulchre : it fs related also in the history, that the 
 Jews reported that the followers of Christ had stolen it away.* 
 And this account, though loaded with great improbabilities, 
 such as the situation of the disciples, their fears for their own 
 safety at the time, the unlikelihood of their expecting to suc- 
 ceed, the difficulty of actual success, f and the inevitable. con- 
 sequence of detection and failure, w^as, nevertheless, the most 
 credible account that could be given of the matter. But it 
 proceeds entirely upon the supposition of fraud, as all the 
 old objections did. What account can be given of the hody^ 
 upon the supposition of enthusiasm % It is impossible our 
 Lord's followers could believe that he was risen from the 
 dead, if his corpse was lying before them. No enthusiasm 
 ever reached to such a pitch of extravagance as that : a spirit 
 may be an illusion ; a body is a real thing, an object of sense, 
 in which there can be no mistake. All accounts of spectres 
 leave the body in the grave. And, although the body of 
 Christ might be removed hj fraud^ and for the purpose of 
 fraud, yet, without any such mtention, and by sincere but de- 
 
 * "And this saying," Saint Matthew writes, " is commonly reported 
 amongst the Jews until this day." (chap, xxviii. 15.) The erangel- 
 ist may be thought good authority as to this point, ev6n by those 
 who do not admit his evidence in every other point ; and' this point 
 is sufficient to prove that the body was missing. 
 
 It has been rightly, I think, observed by Dr. Townshend (Dis. upon 
 the Res., p. 126, that the story of the guards carried collusion upon 
 the face of it : " His disciples came by night, and stole him away, 
 while we slept." Men in their circumstances would not have made 
 such an acknowledgment of their negligence, without previous as- 
 surances of protection and impunity. 
 
 f "Especially at the full moon, the city full of people, many prob- 
 ably passing the whole night, as Jesus and his disciples had done, in 
 the open air, the sepulchre so near the city as to by now enclosed 
 within the walls." Priestley on the Resurr., p. 24. 
 
Chap. VIII] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 379 
 
 lucled men (which is the representation of the apostolic char- 
 acter we are now examining), no such attempt could be made. 
 The presence and the absence of the dead body are alike in- 
 consistent with the hypothesis of enthusiasm ; for, if present, 
 it must have cured their enthusiasm at once ; if absent, fraud, 
 not enthusiasm, must have carried it away. 
 
 But further, if we admit, upon the concurrent testimony of 
 all the histories, so much of the account as states that the re- 
 ligion of Jesus was set up at Jerusalem, and set up with as- 
 serting, in the very place in which he had been buried, and a 
 few days after he had been buried, his resurrection out of the 
 grave, it is evident that, if his body could have been found, 
 the Jews would have produced it, as the shortest and com- 
 pletest answer possible to the whole story. The attempt of 
 the apostles could not have survived this refutation a moment. 
 If we also admit, upon the authority of Saint Matthew, that 
 the Jews were advertised of the expectation of Christ's fol- 
 lowers, and that they had taken due precaution in consequence 
 of this notice, and that the body was in marked and public 
 custody, the observation receives more force still. For, not- 
 withstanding their precaution, and although thus prepared and 
 forewarned ; when the story of the resurrection of Christ 
 came forth, as it immediately did ; when it was publicly as- 
 serted by his disciples, and made the ground and basis of their 
 preaching in his name, and collecting followers to his religion, 
 the Jews had not the body to produce ; but were obliged to 
 meet the testimony of the apostles by an answer, not con- 
 taining indeed any impossibility in itself, but absolutely in- 
 consistent with the supposition of their integrity ; that is, in 
 other w^ords, inconsistent with the supposition which would 
 resolve their conduct into enthusiasm."^ 
 
 * We refer the student to Dr. Hill's Chapter on the Resurrection 
 of Christ. He there recommends four books on the subject, viz. : 
 Ditton on the Resurrection, Sherlock's Trial of the Witnesses, Gil- 
 bert West's Observations upon the History of the Resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ, and Cook's Illustration of the General Evidence of the 
 Resurrection of Christ. See also Wardlaw, chap. iv. — Ed. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE PEOPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY.* 
 
 In this argument, the first consideration is the fact, in what 
 degree, within what time, and to what extent, Christianity act- 
 ually was propagated. 
 
 The accounts of the matter, which can be collected from 
 our books, are as follows : A few days after Christ's disap- 
 pearance out of the world, we find an assembly of disciples 
 at Jerusalem, to the number of "about one hundred and 
 twenty ;"f which hundred and twenty were, probably, a little 
 association of believers, met together, not merely as believers 
 in Christ, but as personally connected with the apostles, and 
 with one another. Whatever was the number of believers 
 then in Jerusalem, we have no reason to be surprised that so 
 small a company should assemble : for there is no proof that 
 the followers of Christ were yet formed into a society ; that 
 the society was reduced into any order ; that it was at this 
 time even understood that a new religion (in the sense which 
 that term conveys to us) was to be set up in the world, or 
 how the professors of that religion were to be distinguished 
 from the rest of mankind. The death of Christ had left, we 
 may suppose, the generality of his disciples in great doubt, 
 both as to what they were to do, and concerning what was to 
 follow. 
 
 This meeting was holden, as we have already said, a few 
 * See also Hill, book i. chap. 9. — Ed. f Acts, i. 15. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 881 
 
 days after Christ's ascension : for, ten days after that event, 
 was the day of Pentecost, when, as our history relates,* upon 
 a single display of Divine agency attending the persons of 
 the apostles, there were added to the society " about three 
 thousand souls."f But here, it is not, I think, to be taken, 
 that these three thousand were all converted by this single 
 miracle ; but rather that many, who before were believers in 
 Christ, become now professors of Christianity ; that is to say, 
 when they found that a religion was to be established, a so- 
 ciety formed and set up in the name of Christ, governed by 
 his laws, avowing their belief in his mission, united amongst 
 themselves, and separated from the rest of the world, by vis- 
 ible distinctions; in pursuance of their former conviction, 
 and by virtue of what they had heard and seen and known of 
 Christ's history, they publicly became members of it. 
 
 We read in the fourth chapter J of the Acts, that, soon 
 after this, " the number of the men," i. e. the society openly 
 professing their belief in Christ, " was about five thousand." 
 So that here is an increase of two thousand within a very 
 short time. And it is probable that there were many, both 
 now and afterwards, who, although they believed in Christ, 
 did not think it necessary to join themselves to this society ; 
 or who waited to see what was likely to become of it. Ga- 
 maliel, whose advice to the Jewish council is recorded Acts, v. 
 34, appears to have been of this description ; perhaps Nico- 
 demus, and perhaps also Joseph of Arimathea. This class 
 of men, their character and their rank, are likewise pointed 
 out by Saint John, in the twelfth chapter of his Gospel : 
 " Nevertheless, among the chief rulers also, many believed 
 on him ; but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess 
 him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue, for they 
 loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." Per- 
 sons such as these, might admit the miracles of Christ, with- 
 out being immediately convinced that they were under ob- 
 ligation to make a public profession of Christianity, at the 
 
 * Acts, ii. 1. f Acts, ii. 41. t Verse 4. 
 
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 risk of all that was dear to them in life, and even of life 
 itself* 
 
 Qiristianity, however, proceeded to increase in Jerusalem 
 by a progress equally rapid with its first success ; for, in the 
 next f chapter of our history, we read that " believers were 
 the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and 
 women." And this enlargement of the new society appears 
 in the first verse of the succeeding chapter, wherein we are 
 told, that, " when the number of the disciples was multiplied^ 
 there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the He- 
 brews, because their widows were neglected ;"J and, after- 
 wards in the same chapter, it is declared expressly, that " the 
 number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and 
 that a great company of the priests were obedient to the 
 faith." 
 
 This I call the first period in the propagation of Christian- 
 ity. It commences with the ascension of Christ, and extends, 
 as may be collected from incidental notes of time,§ to some- 
 
 ■* "Beside those who professed, and those who rejected and op- 
 posed, Christianity ; there were, in all probability, multitudes be- 
 tween both, neither perfect Christians, nor yet unbelievers. They 
 had a favorable opinion of the Gospel, but worldly considerations 
 made them unwilling to own it. There were many circumstances 
 which inclined them to think that Christianity was a Divine revela- 
 tion, but there were many inconveniences which attended the open 
 profession of it ; and^hey could not find in themselves courage 
 enough to bear them, to disoblige their friends and family, to ruin 
 their fortunes, to lose their reputation, their liberty, and their life, 
 for the sake of the new religion. Therefore they were willing to 
 hope, that if they endeavored to observe the great principles of mo- 
 rality, which Christ had represented as the principal part, the sum 
 and substance, of religion ; if they thought honorably of the Gos- 
 pel ; if they offered no injury to the Christians ; if they did them all 
 the services that they could safely perform ; they were willing to 
 hope, that God would accept this, and that He would excuse and 
 forgive the rest." Jortin's Dis. on the Christ. ReL, p. 91, ed. 4. 
 
 f Acts, V. 14. X Acts, vi. 1. 
 
 § Vide Pearson's Antiq., 1. xviii. c. *1. Benson's History of Christ, 
 book i. p. 148. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 888 
 
 thing more than one year after that event. During which 
 term, the preaching of Christianity, so far as our documents 
 inform us, was confined to the single city of Jerusalem. And 
 how did it succeed there ? The first assembly which we meet 
 with of Christ's disciples, and that a few days after his 
 removal from the world, consisted of "one hundred and 
 twenty." About a week after this, "three thousand were 
 added in one day ;" and the number of Christians, publicly 
 baptized, and publicly associating together, was very soon 
 increased to " five thousand." " Multitudes both of men and 
 women continued to be added ;" " disciples multiplied great- 
 ly," and " many of the Jewish priesthood, as well as others, 
 became obedient to the faith ;" and this within a space of 
 less than two years from the commencement of the institu- 
 tion. 
 
 By reason of a persecution raised against the church at 
 Jerusalem, the converts were driven from that city, and dis- 
 persed throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.* 
 Wherever they came, they brought their religion with them ; 
 for, our historian informs us,f that " they, that were scattered 
 abroad, went everywhere preaching the word." The effect 
 of this preaching comes afterwards to be noticed, where the 
 historian is led, in the course of his narrative, to observe, that 
 then (i. e. about three yearsj posterior to this) " the churches 
 had rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and 
 were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the 
 comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." This was the 
 work of the second period, which comprises about four 
 years. 
 
 Hitherto the preaching of the Gospel had been confined to 
 Jews, to Jewish proselytes, and to Samaritans. And I cannot 
 forbear from setting down in this place, an observation of Mr. 
 Bryant, which appears to me to be perfectly well founded : — • 
 " The Jews still remain ; but how seldom is it that we can 
 make a single proselyte 1 There is reason to think, that there 
 
 * Acts, viii. 1. f Yerse 4. % Benson, book i. p. 207. 
 
384 EVIDENCES OF CHBISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 were more converted by the apostles in one day, than have 
 since been won over in the last thousand years."* 
 
 It was not yet known to the apostles, that they were at 
 liberty to propose the religion to mankind at large. That 
 " mystery," as Saint Paul calls it,f and as it then was, was 
 revealed to Peter by an especial miracle. It appears to have 
 been J about seven years after Christ's ascension, that the 
 Gospel was preached to the Gentiles of Cesarea. A year 
 after this, a great multitude of Gentiles were converted at 
 Antioch in Syria. The expressions employed by the histo- 
 rian are these : — " A great number believed, and turned to 
 the Lord ;" " much people was added unto the Lord ;" " the 
 apostles Barnabas and Paul taught much people."§ Upon 
 Herod's death, which happened in the next year,|| it is ob- 
 served, that " the word of God grew and multiplied."^ Three 
 years from this time, upon the preaching of Paul at Iconium, 
 the metropolis of Lycaonia, " a great multitude both of Jews 
 and Greeks believed ;"** and afterwards, in the course of this 
 very progress, he is represented as " making many disciples " 
 at Derbe, a principal city in the same district. Three yearsf f 
 after this, which brings us to sixteen after the ascension, the 
 apostles wrote a public letter from Jerusalem to the Gentile 
 converts in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, with which letter 
 Paul travelled through these countries, and found the churches 
 " established in the faith, and increasing in number daily."JJ 
 From Asia, the apostle proceeded into Greece, where, soon 
 after his arrival in Macedonia, we find him at Thessalonica ; 
 in which city " some of the Jews believed, and of the devout 
 Greeks a great multitude."§§ We meet also here with an 
 accidental hint of the general progress of the Christian mis- 
 
 * Bryant on the Truth of the Christian Religion, p. 112. 
 
 f Eph. iii. 3—6. J Benson, book ii. p. 236. 
 
 § Acts, xi. 21, 24, 26. jj Benson, book ii. p. 289. 
 
 ^ Acts, xii. 24. ** Ibid, xiv. 1. 
 
 f f Benson's History of Christ, book iii. p. 50. 
 
 J:j: Acts, xvi. 6. §§ Acts, xvii. 4. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 885 
 
 sion, in the exclamation of the tumultuous Jews of Thessa- 
 lonica, " that they, who had turned the world upside down, 
 were come thither also."* At Berea, the next city at which 
 Saint Paul arrives, the historian, who was present, informs 
 us that " many of the Jews believed. "f The next year and 
 a half of Saint Paul's ministry was spent at Corinth. Of his 
 success in that city, we receive the following intimations : 
 " that many of the Corinthians believed and were baptized ;" 
 and " that it was revealed to the apostle by Christ, that he 
 had much people in that city, "J Within less than a year 
 after his departure from Corinth, and twenty-five§ years after 
 the ascension. Saint Paul fixed his station at Ephesus, for the 
 space of two years || and something more. The effect of his 
 ministry in that city and neighborhood drew from the histo- 
 rian a reflection, how " mightily grew the word of God and 
 prevailed."^ And at the conclusion of this period, we find 
 Demetrius at the head of a party, who were alarmed by the 
 progress of the religion, complaining, that " not only at Ephe- 
 sus, but also throughout all Asia {i, e. the province of 
 Lydia, and the country adjoining to Ephesus,) this Paul hath 
 persuaded and turned away much people."** Beside these 
 accounts, there occurs, incidentally, mention of converts 
 at Rome, Alexandria, Athens, Cyprus, Cyrene, Macedonia, 
 Philippi. 
 
 This is the third period in the propagation of Christianity, 
 setting off in the seventh year after the ascension, and end- 
 ing at the twenty-eighth. Now, lay these three periods to- 
 gether, and observe how the progress of the religion by these 
 accounts is represented. The institution, which properly be- 
 gan only afler its author's removal from the world, before the 
 end of thirty years had spread itself through Judea, Galilee, 
 and Samaria, almost all the numerous districts of the Lesser 
 Asia, through Greece, and the islands of the ^Egean Sea, the 
 
 * Acts, xvii. 6. t Ih., xvii. 12. % Ih, xviii. 8—10. 
 
 § Benson, book iii. p. 160. | Acts, xix. 10. 
 
 ^ lb., xix. 20. ** lb., ver. 26. 
 
 n 
 
386 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL'j 
 
 seacoast of Africa, and had extended itself to Rome, and intOj 
 Italy. At Antioch in Syria, at Joppa, Ephesus, CorinthJ 
 Thessalonica, Berea, Iconium, Derbe, Antioch in Pisidia, at! 
 Lydda, Saron, the number of converts is intimated by the ex-^ 
 pressions, " a great number," " great multitudes," " much peo-i 
 pie." Converts are mentioned, without any designation ofi 
 their number,* at Tyre, Cesarea, Troas, Athens, Philippic 
 Lystra, Damascus. During all this time, Jerusalem continuedi 
 not only the centre of the mission, but a principal seat of the? 
 religion : for when Saint Paul turned thither at the conclusion! 
 of the period of which we are now considering the accounts,^ 
 the other apostles pointed out to him, as a reason for his com* 
 pliance with their advice, " how many thousands (myriads, te^ 
 thousands) there were in that city who believed." ' ^ 
 
 Upon this abstract, and the writing from which it is drawn,] 
 the following observations seem material to be made : 
 
 I. That the account comes from a person, who was himself J 
 concerned in a portion of what he relates, and was con tempo- 1 
 rary with the whole of it ; who visited Jerusalem, and fre-i 
 quented the society of those who had acted, and were actingj 
 the chief parts io the transaction. I lay down this point pos-i 
 itively ; for had the ancient attestations to this valuable reo-i 
 ord been less satisfactory than they are, the unaffectednessi 
 and simplicity with which the author notes his presence upon | 
 certain occasions, and the entire absence of art and design! 
 from these notices, would have been sufficient to persuade my 
 
 * Considering the extreme conciseness of many parts of the history, 
 the silence about the number of converts is no proof of their paucity ; 
 for at Philippi, no mention whatever is made of the number, yet St. 
 Paul addressed an epistle to that church. The churches of Galatia, 
 and the affairs of those churches, were considerable enough to be the 
 subject of another letter, and of much of St. Paul's solicitude : yet 
 no account is preserved in the history of his success, or even of his 
 preaching in that country, except the slight notice which these words 
 convey : " When they had gone throughout Phrygia, and the region | 
 of Galatia, they essayed to go into Bithynia." Acts, xvi. 6. I 
 
 •f Acts, xxi. 20. I 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 887 
 
 mind, that whoever he was, he actually lived in the times, and 
 occupied the situation, in which he represents himself to be. 
 When I say " whoever he was," I do not mean to cast a doubt 
 upon the name to which antiquity has ascribed the Acts of 
 the Apostles (for there is no cause that I am acquainted with, 
 for questioning it), but to observe, that, in such a case as this, 
 the time and situation of the author is of more importance 
 than his name ; and that these appear from the work itself, 
 and in the most unsuspicious form. 
 
 II. That this account is a very incomplete account of the 
 preaching and propagation of Christianity ; I mean, that, if 
 what we read in the history be true, much more than what 
 the history contains must be true also. For, although the nar- 
 rative from which our information is derived, has been enti- 
 tled the Acts of the Apostles, it is in fact a history of the 
 twelve apostles only during a short time of their continuing 
 together at Jerusalem ; and even of this period the account 
 is very concise. The work afterwards consists of a few im- 
 portant passages of Peter's ministry, of the speech and death 
 of Stephen, of the preaching of Philip the deacon ; and the 
 sequel of the volume, that is, two-thirds of the whole, is taken 
 up with the conversion, the travels, the discourses, and history 
 of the new apostle, Paul ; in which history also, large portions 
 of time are often passed over with very scanty notice. 
 
 III. That the account, so far as it goes, is for this very rea- 
 son more credible. Had it been the author's design to have 
 displayed the early progress of Christianity, he would un- 
 doubtedly have collected, or, at least, have set forth, accounts 
 of the preaching of the rest of the apostles, who cannot, with- 
 out extreme improbability, be supposed to have remained si- 
 lent and inactive, or not to have met with a share of that suc- 
 cess which attended their colleagues. To which may be added, 
 as an observation of the same kind, 
 
 IV. That the intimations of the number of converts, and 
 of the success of the preaching of the apostles, come out for 
 the most part incidentally ; are drawn from the historian by 
 
888 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part hJ 
 
 the occasion ; such as the murmuring of the Grecian converts ;| 
 the rest from persecution ; Herod's death ; the sending of .• 
 Barnabas to Antioch, and Barnabas calling Paul to his assist-J 
 ance ; Paul coming to a place, and finding there disciples ; the] 
 clamor of the Jews ; the complaint of artificers interested] 
 in the support of the popular religion ; the reason assignedl 
 to induce Paul to give satisfaction to the Christians of Jeru-i 
 salem. Had it not been for these occasions, it is probablej 
 that no notice whatever would have been taken of the number! 
 of converts in several of the passages in which that noticol 
 now appears. All this tends to reniove the suspicion of a de-^ 
 sign to exaggerate or deceive. i 
 
 Parallel testimonies with the history, are the letters of i 
 Saint Paul, ard of the other apostles, which have come down,^ 
 to us. Those of Saint Paul are addressed to the churches of j 
 Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, the church of Galatia, and,^ 
 if the inscription be right,* of Ephesus ; his ministry at alii 
 which places, is recorded in the history : to the church of Co-j 
 losse, or rather to the churches of Colosse and Laodicea joint-j 
 ly, which he had not then visited. They recognize by refer^ 
 ence the churches of Judea, the churches of Asia, and " all-^ 
 the churches of the Gentiles."f In the epistlej to the Ro-J 
 mans, the author is led to deliver a remarkable declaration! 
 concerning the extent of his preaching, its efficacy, and the^ 
 cause to which he ascribes it, " to make the Gentiles obedienti 
 by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the;] 
 power of the spirit of God ; so that from Jerusalem, and] 
 round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gos-i 
 pel of Christ." In the Epistle to the Colossians,§ we find an 
 oblique but very strong signification of the then general state 
 of the Christian mission, at least as it appeared to Saint Paul : 
 " If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not 
 moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have 
 heard, and which is preached to every creature which is under 
 
 * See Home, vol. ii. pp. 333, 339. 
 
 f 1 Thess. ii, 14. % Rom. xv. 18, 19. § Col. i. 23. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 889 
 
 heaven ;" which Gospel, he had reminded them near the be- 
 ginning* of his letter, " was present with them, as it was in 
 all the worlds The expressions are hyperbolical ; but they 
 are hyperboles which could only be used by a writer who en- 
 tertained a strong sense of the subject. The first epistle of 
 Peter accosts the Christians dispersed throughout Pontus, Ga- 
 latia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 
 
 It comes next to be considered, how far these accounts are 
 confirmed, or followed up, by other evidence. 
 
 Tacitus, in delivering a relation, which has already been 
 laid before the reader, of the fire which happened at Rome in 
 the tenth year of Nero (which coincides with the thirtieth 
 year after Christ's ascension), asserts, that the emperor, in 
 order to suppress the rumors of having been himself the au- 
 thor of the mischief, procured the Christians to be accused. 
 Of which Christians, thus brought into his narrative, the fol- 
 lowing is so much of the historian's account as belongs to 
 our present purpose : " They had their denomination from 
 Christus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was put to death as a 
 criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate. This pernicious 
 superstition, though checked for awhile, broke out again, and 
 spread not only over Judea, but reached the city also. At 
 first, they only were apprehended who confessed themselves 
 of that sect ; afterwards a vast multitude were discovered by 
 them." This testimony to the early propagation of Chris- 
 tianity is extremely material. It is from an historian of 
 great reputation, living near the time ; from a stranger and 
 an enemy to the religion ; and it joins immediately with th'e 
 period through which the Scripture accounts extend. It estab- 
 lishes these points : that the religion began at Jerusalem ; 
 that it spread throughout Judea ; that it had reached Rome,^ 
 and not only so, but that it had there obtained a great num- 
 ber of converts. This was about six years after the time that 
 Saint Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans, and something 
 more than two years after he arrived there himself. The 
 * Col. i. 6. 
 
390 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL^ 
 
 converts to the religion were then so numerous at Rome, that/i 
 of those who were betrayed by the information of the per-| 
 sons first persecuted, a great multitude' (multitudo ingens)j 
 were discovered and seized. j 
 
 It seems probable, that the temporary check which Tacitusi 
 represents Christianity to have received (repressa in prsesens)] 
 referred to the persecution at Jerusalem, which followed the^ 
 death of Stephen (Acts, viii.) ; and which, by dispersing thes 
 converts, caused the institution, in some measure, to disap-^ 
 pear. Its second eruption at the same place, and within a short! 
 time, has much in it of the character of truth. It was the firm-j 
 ness and perseverance of men who knew what they relied upon, j 
 
 Next, in order of time, and perhaps superior in import-'] 
 ance, is the testimony of Pliny the Younger. Pliny was^ 
 the Roman governor of Pontus and Bithynia, two consider- j 
 able districts in the northern part of Asia Minor. The situa-j 
 tion in which he found his province, led him to apply to thei 
 emperor (Trajan) for his direction as to the conduct he wasj 
 to hold towards the Christians. The letter in which this ap-j 
 plication is contained, was written not quite eighty years afterj 
 Christ's ascension. The president, in this letter, states thei 
 measures he had already pursued, and then adds, as his reason] 
 for resorting to the emperor's counsel and authority, the fol-1 
 lowing words : — " Suspending all judicial proceedings, I havej 
 recourse to you for advice ; for it has appeared to me a mat-j 
 ter highly deserving consideration, especially on account of i 
 the great number of persons who are in danger of suffering ; i 
 for, many of all ages, and of every rank, of both sexes like- J 
 wise, are accused, and will be accused. Nor has the conta-^ 
 gion of this superstition seized cities only, but the lesser i 
 •towns also, and the open country. Nevertheless it seemed i 
 to me, that it may be restrained and corrected. It is certain^ 
 that the temples, which are almost forsaken, begin to be more , 
 frequented ; and the sacred solemnities, after a long inter- j 
 mission, are revived. Victims, likewise, are everywhere] 
 (passim) bought up ; whereas, for some time, there were few i 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 391 
 
 to purchase them. Whence it is easy to imagine, that num- 
 bers of men might be reclaimed, if pardon were granted to 
 those that shall repent."* 
 
 It is obvious to observe, that the passage of Pliny's letter, 
 here quoted, proves, not only that the Christians in Pontus 
 and Bithynia were now numerous, but that they had subsisted 
 there for some considerable time. " It is certain," he says, 
 " that the temples, which were almost forsaken (plainly 
 ascribing this desertion of the popular worship to the preva- 
 lency of Christianity), begin to be more frequented ; and the 
 sacred solemnities, after a long intermission, are revived." 
 There are also two clauses in the former part of the letter 
 which indicate the same thing ; one, in which he declares that 
 he had " never been present at any trials of Christians, and 
 therefore knew not what was the usual subject of inquiry and 
 punishment, or how far either was wont to be urged." The 
 second clause is the following : " others were named by an in- 
 former, who, at first, confessed themselves Christians, and 
 afterwards denied it ; the rest said, they had been Christians, 
 some three years ago, some longer, and some above twenty 
 years." It is also apparent, that Pliny speaks of the Chris- 
 tians as a description of men well known to the person to 
 whom he writes. His first sentence concerning them is, " I 
 have never been present at the trials of Christians." This 
 mention of the name of Christians, without any preparatory 
 explanation, shows that it was a term familiar both to the, 
 writer of the letter, and the person to whom it was addressed. 
 Had it not been so, Pliny would naturally have begun his 
 letter by informing the emperor that he had met with a cer- 
 tain set of men in the province, called Christians. 
 
 Here then is a very singular evidence of the progress of 
 the Christian religion in a short space. It was not fourscore 
 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, when Pliny wrote this 
 letter ; nor seventy years since the apostles of Jesus began 
 to mention his name to the Gentile world. Bithynia and 
 * C. Plin. Trajano Imp., lib. x. ep. xcvii. 
 
• ,1 
 
 892 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 1 
 
 Pontus were at a s^reat distance from Judea, the centre from^ 
 
 . i 
 
 which the religion spread ; yet in these provinces, Christian- 1 
 ity had long subsisted, and Christians were now in such num- ] 
 bers as to lead the Roman governor to report to the emperor, ■ 
 that they were found not only in cities, but in villages and inj 
 open countries ; of all ages, of every rank and condition ; ' 
 that they abounded so much, as to have produced a visible : 
 desertion of the temples ; that beasts brought to market for' 
 victims, had few purchasers ; that the sacred solemnities were^' 
 much neglected : — circumstances noted by Pliny, for the ex-; 
 press purpose of showing to the emperor the effect and prev- \ 
 alency of the new institution. 
 
 No evidence remains, by which it can be proved that thei 
 Christians were more numerous in Pontus and Bithynia thaa^ 
 in other parts of the Roman empire ; nor has any reason | 
 been offered to show why they should be so. Christianity^ 
 did not begin in these countries, nor near them. I do noti 
 know, therefore, that we ought to confine the description in ' 
 Pliny's letter to the state of Christianity in those provinces,^ 
 even if no other account of the same subject had come down^ 
 to us ; but, certainly, this letter may fairly be applied in aid 
 and confirmation of the representations given of the general ; 
 state of Christianity in the world, by Christian writers of . 
 that and the next succeeding age. 
 
 Justin Martyr, who wrote about thirty years afler Pliny, j 
 and one hundred and six after the ascension, has these re-^ 
 mark able words : " There is not a nation, either of Greek or ; 
 Barbarian, or of any other name, even of those who wander i 
 in tribes, and live in tents, amongst whom prayers and thanks- 1 
 givings are not offered to the Father and Creator of the Uni- ; 
 verse by the name of the crucified Jesus."* Tertullian, who) 
 comes about fifty years after Justin, appeals to the governors i 
 of the Roman empire in these terms : "We were but of yes-^ 
 terday, and we have filled your cities, islands, towns, and bor-^ 
 oughs, the camp, the senate, and the forum. They (the hea- j 
 * Dial cum Tryph. \ 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 393 
 
 then adversaries of Christianity) lament, that every sex, age, 
 and condition, and persons of every rank also, are converts to 
 that name."* I do allow that these expressions are loose, and 
 may be called declamatory. But even declamation hath its 
 bounds ; this public boasting upon a subject which must be 
 known to every reader, was not only useless but unnatural, 
 unless the truth of the case, in a considerable degree, corre- 
 spond with the description ; at least, unless it had been both 
 true and notorious, that great multitudes of Christians, of all 
 ranks and orders, were to be found in most parts of the Ro- 
 man empire. The same Tertullian, in another passage, by 
 way of setting forth the extensive diffusion of Christianity, 
 enumerates as belonging to Christ, beside many other countries, 
 the " Moors and Gsetulians of Africa, the borders of Spain, 
 several nations of France, and parts of Britain, inaccesible to 
 the Romans, the Sarmatians, Daci, Germans, and Scythians ;"f 
 and, which is more material than the extent of the institution, 
 the number of Christians in the several countries in which it 
 prevailed, is thus expressed by him : " Although so great a 
 multitude that in almost every city we form the greater part, 
 we pass our time modestly and in silence."J Clemens Alex- 
 andrinus, who preceded Tertullian by a few years, introduces 
 a comparison between the success of Christianity, and that of 
 the most celebrated philosophical institutions : " The philoso- 
 phers were confined to Greece, and to their particular retain- 
 ers ; but the doctrines of the Master of Christianity did not 
 remain in Judea, as philosophy did in Greece, but is spread 
 throughout the whole world, in every nation, and village, and 
 city both of Greeks and barbarians, 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 
 * Tertull. ApoL, c. 87. \ Ad Jud., c. 7. % Ad Scap., c. 111. 
 
894 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 whole might to exterminate it, yet doth it flourish more and 
 more."* Origen, who follows Tertullian at the distance of 
 only thirty years, delivers nearly the same account: "In 
 every part of the world," says he, " throughout all Greece, 
 and in all other nations, there are innumerable and immense 
 multitudes, who, having left the laws of their country, and 
 those whom they esteemed gods, have given themselves up 
 to the law of Moses, and the religion of Christ ; and this not 
 without the bitterest resentment from the idolaters, by whom 
 they were frequently put to torture, and sometimes to death, 
 and it is wonderful to observe, how, in so short a time, the re- 
 ligion has increased, amidst punishment and death, and every 
 kind of torture."f In another passage, Origen draws the fol- 
 lowing candid comparison between the state of Christianity 
 in his time, and the condition of its more primitive ages : 
 " By the good providence of God, the Christian religion has 
 so flourished and increased continually, that it is now preached 
 freely without molestation, although there were a thousand 
 obstacles to the spreading of the doctrine of Jesus in the 
 world. But as it was the will of God that the Gentiles should 
 have the benefit of it, all the councils of men against the Chris- 
 tians were defeated ; and by how much the more emperors 
 and governors of provinces, and the people everywhere, 
 strove to depress them, so much the more have they increas- 
 ed and prevailed exceedingly."J 
 
 It is well known, that within less than eighty years after 
 this, the Roman empire became Christian under Constantine ; 
 and it is probable that Constantine declared himself on the 
 side of the Christians, because they were the powerful party ; 
 for Arnobius, who wrote immediately before Constantine's 
 accession, speaks of the whole world as filled with Christ's 
 doctrine, of its diflusion throughout all countries, of an in- 
 numerable body of Christians in distant provinces, of the 
 strange revolution of opinion of men of the greatest genius, 
 
 * Clem. Al. Strom., lib. vi. ad fin. f Orig. in Cels., lib. i. 
 1(. Orig. cont. Cels., lib. vii. 
 
 17* 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 895 
 
 orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, lawyers, physicians, hav- 
 ing come over to the institution, and that also in the face of 
 threats, executions, and tortures."* And not more than 
 twenty years after Constantine's entire possession of the em- 
 pire, Julius Firmicus Maternus calls upon the emperors Con- 
 stantius and Constans to extirpate the relics of the ancient 
 religion ; the reduced and fallen condition of which is de- 
 scribed by our author in the following words : " Licet adhuc in 
 quibusdam regionibus idololatrise morientia palpitent membra ; 
 tamen in eo res est, ut a Christianis omnibus terris pestiferum 
 hoc malum funditus amputetur ;" and in another place, " Mo- 
 dicum tantum superest, ut legibus vestris — extincta idolola- 
 trise pereat funesta contagio."f It will not be thought that 
 we quote this writer in order to recommend his temper or 
 his judgment, but to show the comparative state of Chris- 
 tianity and of Heathenism at this period. Fifty years after- 
 wards, Jerome represents the decline of Paganism in lan- 
 guage which conveys the same idea of its approaching extinc- 
 tion : " Solitudinem patitur et in urbe gentilitas. Dii quon- 
 dam nationum, cum bubonibus et noctuis, in soils culminibus 
 remanserunt."J Jerome here indulges a triumph, natural 
 and allowable in a zealous friend of the cause, but which 
 could only be suggested to his mind by the consent and uni- 
 versality with which he saw the religion received. "But 
 now," says he^ " the passion and resurrection of Christ are 
 
 * Arnob. in Gentes, 1. i. pp. 27, 9, 24, 42, 44, edit. Lug. Bat., 1660. 
 
 f De Error. Profan. Relig., c. xxi. p. 173, quoted by Lardner, vol. 
 viii. p. 262. 
 
 Although still in some districts the dying limbs of idolatry quiver; 
 nevertheless matters are in such a state that this pestiferous evil 
 ought to be cut off from all Christian lands. — Ed. 
 
 A small matter only remains, that by your laws the fatal conta- 
 gion of idolatry may be extinguished, and perish. -^-Sc?. 
 
 X Jer. ad. Lect., ep. 5, 7, 
 
 Paganism experiences solitude even in the city. They, who were 
 once Gods of whole nations, have remained alone upon the house- 
 tops with bats and owls. — Ed, 
 
396 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL 
 
 celebrated in the discourses and writings of all nations. I 
 need not mention Jews, Greeks, and Latins. The Indians, 
 Persians, Goths, and Egyptians, philosophize, and firmly be- 
 lieve the immortality of the soul, and future recompenses, 
 which, before, the greatest philosophers had denied, or doubt- 
 ed of, or perplexed with their disputes. The fierceness of 
 Thraciaus and Scythians is now softened by the gentle sound 
 of the Gospel ; and everywhere Christ is all in all."* Were 
 therefore the motives of Constantine's conversion ever so 
 problematical, the easy establishment of Christianity, and the 
 ruin of Heathenism under him and his immediate successors, 
 is of itself a proof of the progress which Christianity had 
 made in the preceding period. It may be added also, " that 
 Maxentius, the rival of Constantine, had shown himself friend- 
 ly to the Christians. Therefore of those who were contend- 
 ing for worldly power and empire, one actually favored and 
 flattered them, and another may be suspected to have joined 
 himself to them, partly from consideration of interest ; so 
 considerable were they become, under external disadvantages 
 of all sorts. "f This at least is certain, that throughout the 
 whole transaction hitherto, the great seemed to follow, not to 
 lead, the public opinion. 
 
 It may help to convey to us some notion of the extent and 
 progress of Christianity, or rather of the character and quality 
 of many early Christians, of their learning and their labors, 
 to notice the number of Christian writers who flourished in 
 these ages. Saint Jerome's catalogue contains sixty-six writ- 
 ers within the first three centuries, and the first six years of 
 the fourth ; and fifty-four between that time and his own, viz.^ 
 A. D. 392. Jerome introduces his catalogue with the follow- 
 ing just remonstrance : — " Let those who say the church has 
 had no philosophers, nor eloquent and learned men, observe 
 who and what they were who founded, established, and adorn- 
 ed it ; let them cease to accuse our faith of rusticity, and 
 
 * Jer., ep. 8, ad Heliod. f Lardner, vol. vii. p. 880. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 897 
 
 confess their mistake."* Of these writers, several, as Justin, 
 Irenseus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, Barde- 
 sanes, Hippolitus, Eusebius, were voluminous writers. Chris- 
 tian writers abounded particularly about the year 178. Alex- 
 ander, bishop of Jerusalem, founded a library in that city, 
 A. D. 212. Pamphilus, the friend of Origen. founded a 
 library at Cesarea, A. D. 294. Public defences were also 
 set forth, by various advocates of the religion, in the course 
 of its first three centuries. Within one hundred years after 
 Christ's ascension, Quadratus and Aristides, whose works, ex- 
 cept some few fragments of the first, are lost ; and, about 
 twenty years afterwards, Justin Martyr, whose works remain, 
 presented apologies for the Christian religion to the Eoman 
 emperors ; Quadratus and Aristides to Adrian, Justin to An- 
 toninus Pius, and a second to Marcus Antoninus. Melito, 
 bishop of Sardis, and Apollinaris, bishop of Hierapolis, and 
 Miltiades, men of great reputation, did the same to Marcus 
 Antoninus, twenty years afterwards ;f and ten years after 
 this, Apollonius, who suffered martyrdom under the emperor 
 Commodus, composed an apology for his faith, which he read 
 in the Senate, and which was afterwards published. J Four- 
 teen years after the apology of Apollonius, Tertullian ad- 
 dressed the work which now remains under that name to the 
 governors of provinces in the Roman empire ; and, about the 
 same time, Minucius Felix composed a defence of the Chris- 
 tian religion, which is still extant ; and, shortly after the con- 
 clusion of this century, copious defences of Christianity were 
 published by Arnobius and Lactantius. 
 
 * Jer. Prol. in Lib. de Ser. Eccl. 
 
 f Euseb. Hist., lib. iv. c. 26. See also Lardner, vol. ii. p. 666. 
 
 X Lardner, vol. ii. p. 68'7. 
 
398 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Paet U. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Keflections upon the preceding account. 
 
 In viewing the progress of Christianity, our first attention 
 is due to the number of converts at Jerusalem, immediately 
 after its Founder's death ; because this success was a success 
 at the time, and upon the spot, when and where the chief part 
 of the history had been transacted. 
 
 We are, in the next place, called upon to attend to the 
 early establishment of numerous Christian societies in Judea 
 and Galilee ; which countries had been the scene of Christ's 
 miracles and ministry, and where the memory of what had 
 passed, and the knowledge of what was alleged, must have 
 yet been fresh and certain. 
 
 We are, thirdly, invited to recollect the success of the 
 apostles and of their companions, and the several places to 
 which they came, both within and without Judea ; because it 
 was the credit given to original witnesses, appealing for the 
 truth of their accounts to what themselves had seen and 
 heard. The effect also of their preaching strongly confirms 
 the truth of what our history positively and circumstantially 
 relates, that they were able to exhibit to their hearers super- 
 natural attestations of their mission. 
 
 We are, lastly, to consider the subsequent growth and spread 
 of the religion, of which we receive successive intimations, 
 and satisfactory, though general and occasional, accounts, until 
 its full and final establishment. 
 
 In all these several stages, the history is without a parallel : 
 for it must be observed J that we have not now been tracing 
 the progress, and describing the prevajpncy, of an opinion, 
 founded upon philosophical or critical arguments, upon mere 
 deductions of reason, or the construction of ancient writings 
 (of which kind are the several theories which have, at different 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 899 
 
 times, gained possession of the public mind in various depart- 
 ments of science and literature ; and of one or other of which 
 kind are the tenets also which divide the various sects of Chris- 
 tianity) ; but that we speak of a system, the very basis and 
 postulatum of which was a supernatural character ascribed to 
 a particular person ; of a doctrine, the truth whereof depended 
 entirely upon the truth of a matter of fact then recent. " To 
 establish a new religion, even amongst a few people, or in one 
 single nation, is a thing in itself exceedingly difficult. To re- 
 form some corruptions which may have spread in a religion, 
 or to make new regulations in it, is not perhaps so hard, when 
 the main and principal part of that religion is preserved entire 
 and unshaken ; and yet this very often cannot be accomplish- 
 ed without an extraordinary concurrence of circumstances, 
 and may be attempted a thousand times without success. 
 But to introduce a new faith, a new way of thinking and act- 
 ing, and to persuade many nations to quit the religion in which 
 their ancestors have lived and died, which have been delivered 
 down to them from time immemorial, to make them for- 
 sake and despise the deities which they had been accustomed 
 to reverence and worship ; this is a work of still greater dif- 
 ficulty."* The resistance of education, worldly policy, and 
 superstition, is almost invincible. 
 
 If men, in these days, be Christians in consequence of their 
 education, in submission to authority, or in compliance with 
 fashion, let us recollect that the very contrary of this, at the 
 beginning, was the case. The first race of Christians, as well 
 as millions who succeeded them, became such in formal oppo- 
 sition to all these motives, to the whole power and strength 
 of this influence. Every argument, therefore, and every in- 
 stance, which seta forth the prejudice of education, and the al- 
 most irresistible effects of that prejudice (and no persons are 
 more fond of expatiating upon this subject than deistical writ- 
 ers) in fact confirms the evidence of Christianity. 
 
 But, in order to judge of the argument which is drawn from 
 * Jortin's Dis. on the Christ. Rel., p. 107, ed. iv. 
 
400 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part 11. 
 
 the early propagation of Christianity, I know no fairer way of 
 proceeding, than to compare what we have seen of the subject, 
 with the success of Christian missions in modern ages. In 
 the East India mission, supported by the Society for promot- 
 ing Christian Knowledge, we hear sometimes of thirty, some- 
 times of forty, being baptized in the course of a year, and 
 these principally children. Of converts properly so called, 
 that is, of adults voluntarily embracing Christianity, the num- 
 ber is extremely small. "Notwithstanding the labors of 
 missionaries for upwards of two hundred years, and the es- 
 tablishments of different Christian nations who support them, 
 there are not twelve thousand Indian Christians, and those al- 
 most entirely outcasts."^ 
 
 I lament, as much as any man, the little progress which 
 Christianity has made in these countries, and the inconsidera- 
 ble effect that has followed the labors of its missionaries ; but 
 I see in it a stronger proof of the Divine origin of the religion. f 
 
 * Sketches relating to the history, learning, and manners of the 
 Hindoos, p. 48 ; quoted by Dr. Roberson, Hist. Dis. concerning an- 
 cient India, p. 236. 
 
 \ Since the days of Paley, the zeal of Christians has revived, and 
 cheering success now attends the labors of missionaries to both Jews 
 and Heathens. Still the difference between the triumphs of the Gos- 
 pel in the apostolic age, and the progress of missions even now, is 
 sufficient for the argument which Paley has drawn in the text. We 
 may be permitted to add, however, that we are yet very far from 
 manifesting the earnestness and liberality of the primitive Christians. 
 With them the propagation of the faith was the primary consideration 
 of their lives. Their fortunes were devoted to the enterprise. With 
 us it is still quite a subordinate matter. We give to it just what we 
 can spare. Even yet we treat Christ as a pauper. Moreover, instead 
 of sending our most accomplished and eloquent men — men like Paul 
 and Apollos — to the missionary work, either in the home or foreign 
 field, we keep them to regale metropolitan auditories, and replenish, 
 by their popular attractions, the treasuries of congregational trus- 
 tees, while the men who might not prove so gainful are frequently 
 deemed good enough to labor by the high-ways and hedges. For an 
 exposure of this error, see Dr. Duff's speeches, passim. — jB^d, 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIAISTITT. 401 
 
 What had the apostles to assist them in propagating Chris- 
 tianity which the missionaries have not ? If piety and zeal 
 had been sufficient, I doubt not but that our missionaries pos- 
 sess these qualities in a high degree : for, nothing except piety 
 and zeal could engage them in the undertaking. If sanctity 
 of life and manners was the allurement, the conduct of these 
 men is unblamable. If the advantage of education and learn- 
 ing be looked to, there is not one of the modern missionaries, 
 who is not, in this respect, superior to all the apostles ; and 
 that not only absolutely, but what is of more importance, 
 relatively^ in comparison, that is, with those amongst whom 
 they exercise their office. If the intrinsic excellency of the 
 religion, the perfection of its morality, the purity of its pre- 
 cepts, the eloquence or tenderness or sublimity of various 
 parts of its writings, were the recommendations by which it 
 made its way, these remain the same. If the character and 
 circumstances under which the preachers were introduced to 
 the countries in which they taught, be accounted of import- 
 ance, this advantage is all on the side of the modern mission- 
 aries. They come from a country and a people to which the 
 Indran world look up with sentiments of deference. The 
 apostles came forth amongst the Gentiles under no other name 
 than that of Jews, which was exactly the character they de- 
 spised and derided. If it be disgraceful in India to become a 
 Christian, it could not be much less so to be enrolled amongst 
 those, " quos per flagitia invisos, vulgus Christianos appella- 
 bat."* If the religion which they had to encounter be con- 
 sidered, the difference, I apprehend, will not be great. The 
 theology of both was nearly the same : " what is supposed to 
 be performed by the power of Jupiter, of Neptune, of ^olus, 
 of Mars, of Venus, according to the mythology of the West, 
 is ascribed, in the East, to the agency of Agrio the god of 
 fire, Varoon the god of oceans, Vayoo the god of wind, Cama 
 
 * Whom, hateful for their crimes, the populace called Christians. 
 --Ed. 
 
402 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part H. 
 
 the god of love."* The sacred rites of the Western Polythe- 
 ism were gay, festive, and licentious ; the rites of the public 
 religion in the East partake of the same character, with a 
 more avowed indecency. " In every function performed in 
 the pagodas, as well as in every public procession, it is the of- 
 fice of these women {i. e., of women prepared by the Brah- 
 mins for the purpose), to dance before the idol, and to sing 
 hymns in his praise ; and it is difficult to say whether they 
 trespass most against decency by the gestures they exhibit, 
 or by the verses which they recite. The walls of the pagodas 
 were covered with paintings in a style no less indelicate."f J 
 
 On both sides of the comparison, the popular religion had 
 a strong establishment. In ancient Greece and Rome, it was 
 strictly incorporated with the State. The magistrate was the 
 priest. The highest officers of government bore the most dis- 
 tinguished part in the celebration of*the public rites. In India, 
 a powerful and numerous caste possess exclusively the admin- 
 istration of the established worship ; and are, of consequence, 
 devoted to its service, and attached to its interest. In both, 
 the prevailing mythology was destitute of any proper evi- 
 dence : or rather, in both, the origin of the tradition is run 
 up into ages long anterior to the existence of credible history, 
 or of written language. The Indian chronology computes 
 eras by millions of years, and the life of man by thousands ;§ 
 and in these, or prior to these, is placed the history of their 
 divinities. In both, the established superstition held the same 
 
 * Baghvat Geeta, p. 94, quoted by Dr. Robertson, Ind. Dis., p. 306. 
 
 f Others of the deities of the East are of an austere and gloomy 
 character, to be propitiated by victims, sometimes by human sacrifices, 
 and by voluntary torments of the most excruciating kind. 
 
 X Yoyage de Gentil., vol. i., p. 244-260. Preface to Code of Gentoo 
 Laws, p. 57, quoted by Dr. Robertson, p. 230. 
 
 § " The Suffec Jogue, or age of purity, is said to have lasted three 
 millions two hundred thousand years ; and they hold that the life of 
 man was extended in that age to one hundred thousand years ; but 
 there is a difference amongst the Indian writers of six millions of 
 years in the computation of this era." lb. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 403 
 
 place in the public opinion ; that is to say, in both it was 
 credited by the bulk of the people,* but by the learned and 
 philosophical part of the community, either derided, or re- 
 garded by them as only fit to be upholden for the sake of its 
 political uses.f 
 
 Or if it should be allowed, that the ancient heathens be- 
 lieved in their religion less generally than the present Indians 
 do, I am far from thinking that this circumstance would afford 
 any facility to the work of the apostles, above that of the 
 modern missionaries. To me it appears, and I think it ma- 
 terial to be remarked, that a disbelief of the established re- 
 ligion of their country has no tendency to dispose men for the 
 reception of another ; but that, on the contrary, it generates 
 
 * *' How absurd soever the articles of faith may be, which super- 
 stition has adopted, or how unhallowed the rites which it prescribes, 
 the former are received, in every age and country, with unhesitating 
 assent, by the great body of the people, and the latter observed with 
 scrupulous exactness. In our reasonings concerning opinions and 
 practices which differ widely from our own, we are extremely apt to 
 err. Having been instructed ourselves in the principles of a religion 
 worthy in every respect of that Divine wisdom by which they were 
 dictated, we frequently express wonder at the credulity of nations, 
 in embracing systems of belief which appear to us so directly repug- 
 nant to right reason ; and sometimes suspect, that tenets so wild and 
 extravagant do not really gain credit with them. But experience 
 may satisfy us, that neither our wonder nor suspicions are well 
 founded. No article of the public religion was called in question by 
 those people of ancient Europe with whose history we are best ac- 
 quainted ; and no practice, which it enjoined, appeared improper to 
 them. On the other hand, every opinion that tended to diminish 
 the reverence of men for the gods of their country, or to alienate 
 them from their worship, excited, among the Greeks and Romans, 
 that indignant zeal which is natural to every people attached to their 
 religion by a firm persuasion of its truth." Ind. Dis., p. 321. 
 
 f That the learned Brahmins of the East are rational Theists, and 
 secretly reject the established theory, and contemn the rites that were 
 founded upon them, or rather consider them as contrivances to be 
 supported for their political uses, see Dr. Robertson's Ind. Dis., p. 324 
 —334. 
 
404 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 a settled contempt of all religious pretensions whatever. 
 General infidelity is the hardest soil which the propagators of 
 a new religion can have to work upon. Could a Methodist or 
 Moravian promise himself a better chance of success, with a 
 French esprit fort^ who had been accustomed to laugh at the 
 popery of his country, than with a believing Mahometan or 
 Hindoo ? Or are our modern unbelievers in Christianity, for 
 that reason, in danger of becoming Mahometans or Hindoos ? 
 It does not appear that the Jews, who had a body of historical 
 evidence to offer for their religion, and who at that time un- 
 doubtedly entertained and held forth the expectation of a fu- 
 ture state, derived iiny great advantage, as to the extension of 
 their system, from the discredit into which the popular relig- 
 ion had fallen with many of their heathen neighbors. 
 
 We have particularly directed our observations to the state 
 and progress of Christianity amongst the inhabitants of India;- 
 but the history of the Christian mission in other countries, 
 where the efficacy of the mission is left solely to the convic- 
 tion wrought by the preaching of strangers, presents the same 
 idea as the Indian mission does, of the feebleness and inade- 
 quacy of human means. About twenty-five years ago, was 
 published in England, a translation from the Dutch of a His- 
 tory of Greenland, and a relation of the mission for about 
 thirty years carried on in that country by the Unitas Fratrum, 
 or Moravians. Every part of that relation confirms the opin- 
 ion we have stated. Nothing could surpass, or hardly equal, 
 the zeal and patience of the missionaries. Yet their historian, 
 in the conclusion of his narrative, could find place for no re- 
 flections more encouraging than the following : " A person 
 that had known the heathen, that had seen the little benefit 
 from the great pains hitherto taken with them, and considered 
 that one after another had abandoned all hopes of the conver- 
 sion of those infidels (and some thought they would never be 
 converted, till they saw miracles wrought as in the apostles' 
 days, and this the Greenlanders expected and demanded of 
 their instructors) ; one that considered this, I say, would not 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 405 
 
 so much wonder at the past unfruitfulness of these young be- 
 ginners, as at their steadfast perseverance in the midst of no- 
 thing but distress, difficulties, and impediments, internally and 
 externally ; and that they never desponded of the conversion 
 of these poor creatures amidst all seeming impossibilities."* 
 From the widely disproportionate effects which attend 
 the preaching of modern missionaries of Christianity, com- 
 pared with what followed the ministry of Christ and his apos- 
 tles under circumstances either alike, or not so unlike as to 
 account for the difference, a conclusion is fairly drawn, in sup- 
 port of what our histories deliver concerning them, viz,^ that 
 they possessed means of conviction which we have not ; that 
 they had proofs to appeal to, which we want. 
 
 THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Paley ascribes the less rapid progress of Christianity in our own 
 times to the evidences being not so strong. I think he is in error 
 here. It was not the miracles which formed the main instrument of 
 conversion even in the age of their performance. One thing, in the 
 first instance, is clear, that many were the cases in which the reality 
 of those supernatural performances was fully admitted by those who 
 stood their ground against them. No one would say of Nicodemus 
 that he was converted at the time of his conversation with our Sa- 
 viour, and yet he both acknowledged the miracles of our Saviour, 
 and acknowledged them as proofs, too, that God was with him. Our 
 Saviour did not, it is obvious, sustain this acknowledgment, sincere 
 and honest as it seems to have been, as enough to mark Nicodemus 
 as a Christian ; and he followed up this remark of his visitor by a 
 description of that which constitutes the very essence of conversion : 
 "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
 God." Except he be born of the Spirit, he cannot see that kingdom. 
 
 Let me here present you with as accurate a definition of a miracle 
 as I can frame. A miracle is an ostensible violation of some law of 
 nature, above the reach of human power to effect, or human intelli- 
 gence to foresee, and preceded by the command or the announcement 
 
 * History of Greenland, vol. ii., p. 876. 
 
406 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part 11. 
 
 of one who appeals to it as the manifestation of a Being whose power 
 and intelligence are superhuman. I call it an ostensible and not a 
 real violation, upon this principle, that, if a real violation, it would 
 offer to our notice a different consequent coming in train of the same 
 antecedent ; whereas the antecedent is not really the same, it is but 
 apparently or ostensibly the same. The intervention, in fact, of a 
 superhuman power, is that which makes it substantially a different 
 antecedent from before. You would not say there was any violation 
 of the law of gravity when a falling body is arrested in its descent 
 by a hand that intercepts it, and is there sustained at a distance from 
 the ground. But were there no hand stre1"ched forth, and the body 
 sustained by an invisible agency, and without, therefore, any visible 
 support, this is as little a real violation of the law of gravity as the 
 former. The invisible agency does now what the visible hand did 
 then, and it is just as much a different antecedent in the one case as 
 in the other. It is this, I think, which requires the term " ostensible " 
 to characterize the violation. And it is not without consideration 
 that I subjoin the latter half of the definition, preceded by the com- 
 mand or the announcement of a Being who appeals to it as a mani- 
 festation of such power. Here observe what is excluded by the 
 former half. Suppose another Roger Bacon to arise among us, and 
 discover some new force in nature, which, under peculiar circum- 
 stances brought together by himself, lands in a result the opposite of 
 all that we ever before observed in the apparent circumstances, and 
 to announce beforehand this result as an evidence of a superhuman 
 power ; why, such a case mu&t be guarded against in our definition 
 of a miracle, and it is done so by our alleging that the thing was 
 above the reach of human power ; else the first sight of an inflated 
 balloon might have been a miracle, and we bring it down from the 
 rank of a miracle by bringing it to the test of our definition. This 
 semblance of a miracle is but a semblance, because not above the 
 reach of human power, and lying within the reach of the power of 
 the experimentalist or discoverer who was concerned in it. But 
 suppose that, instead of announcing the ascent of a balloon, he were 
 to announce in the form of a command, if you choose, the miracle of 
 Mohammed, that the moon should split asunder, and it did so accord- 
 ingly. This is a miracle, and yet might not be so, were it not for the 
 announcement or command that came before it ; because, for aught 
 we know, there might have been not even any known law ostensibly 
 violated in this matter. There might be a chemistry going on within 
 the recesses of that planet, which, in virtue of certain known prin- 
 ciples, would explode at the time, even as the similar planets, recently 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 407 
 
 discovered, bear many evidences of their being the fragments of a 
 larger planet rent asunder by explosion. You would not call that 
 explosion a miracle; neither would I call this, but for the clause of 
 the definition. The thing is beyond the reach of human power; but 
 this is not enough for making it a miracle, yet if announced imme- 
 diately before, then, whether done by an immediate forth-putting of 
 power on the part of a living being or not, even though but done in 
 virtue of a natural process just on the eve of its consummation ; 
 then, although not a miracle because beyond the reach of human 
 power, it is a miracle because beyond the reach of human intelligence 
 to foresee ; and he who wrought it must either be superhuman himself, 
 or if announced by a man, that man must have had converse with 
 one who is superhuman. 
 
 We think that there is a power in the evidence of miracles which 
 would carry our minds. We have had no experimental verification 
 of this power upon ourselves. And we are really not sure whether, 
 apart from the explanation that Paley gives of the matter, apart 
 from the solution of magic or of demonry by which the Jews made 
 their escape from the conclusion that this man of undoubted miracles 
 must have come from God, we are not sure whether we might not 
 have persisted in our incredulity ourselves, even under the very ex- 
 hibition which they had. At all events, there is a strong testimony 
 here to the internal evidence of Scripture, or to the affirmation by 
 the Saviour to the greatness of the self-evidencing power of the 
 Bible, when he states, that resistance to the one species of evidence 
 is the token of an equal resistance to the other species of evidence. 
 * If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be- 
 lieve though a man should rise from the dead." 
 
 You will recollect the principles on which I insisted at great length 
 in the early period of our course. They are principles, I think, 
 which help to explain many of the peculiarities which belong to the 
 actual state of the Christian evidence. I have asked you repeatedly 
 to distinguish between the probability which amounts to a call upon 
 the attention, and the proof which amounts to the justification of a 
 verdict on the question attended to. It may perhaps surprise many, 
 but, as you know, I think with Paley, that the evidence of miracles 
 was not overpowering in these days. I would even carry the posi- 
 tion a little further ; I think that the great use of these miracles was 
 to accomplish the former and not the latter of the two functions. 
 They constituted a rightful call on the attention of those who wit- 
 nessed them ; and as the fruit of that attention, there was in reserve 
 a higher and a more effective evidence, even the internal. — Chalmers. 
 
408 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IL 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Of the Religion of Mahomet. 
 
 The only event in the history of the human species, which 
 admits of comparison with the propagation of Christianity, is 
 the success of Mahometanism. The Mahometan institution 
 was rapid in its progress, was recent in its history, and was 
 founded upon a supernatural or prophetic character assumed 
 by its author. In these articles, the resemblance with Chris- 
 tianity is confessed. But there are points of difference, which 
 separate, we apprehend, the two cases entirely. 
 
 I. Mahoniet did not found his pretensions upon miracles, 
 properly so called ; that is, upon proofs of supernatural agency, 
 capable of being known and attested by others. Christians 
 are warranted in this assertion by the evidence of the Koran, 
 in which Mahomet not only does not affect the power of work- 
 ing miracles, but expressly disclaims it. The following pas- 
 sages of that book furnish direct proofs of the truth of what 
 we allege : — " The infidels say, Unless a sign be sent down 
 unto him from his lord, we will not believe ; thou art a 
 preacher only."* Again ; " Nothing hindered us from send- 
 ing thee with miracles, except that the former nations have 
 charged them with imposture."f And lastly; "They say, 
 Unless a sign be sent down unto him from his lord, we will 
 not believe : Answer ; Signs are in the power of God alone, 
 and I am no more than a public preacher. Is it not sufficient 
 for them that we have sent down unto them the book of the 
 Koran to be read unto them f'J Beside these acknowledg- 
 ments, I have observed thirteen distinct places, in which Ma- 
 homet puts the objection (unless a sign, &c.) into the mouth 
 of the unbeliever, in not one of which does he allege a mira- 
 
 * Sale's Koran, c. xiii., p. 201, ed. quarto, 
 f C. xvii. p. 232. % C. xxix. p. 328. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 409 
 
 cle in reply. His answer is, " that God giveth the power of 
 working miracles, when and to whom he pleaseth ;"* " that if 
 he should work miracles, they would not believe ;"f " that 
 they had before rejected Moses, and Jesus, and the Prophets, 
 who wrought miracles ;"J " that the Koran itself was a mir- 
 acle."§ 
 
 The only place in the Koran in which it can be pretended 
 that a sensible miracle is referred to (for I do not allow the 
 secret visitations of Gabriel, the night-journey of Mahomet 
 to heaven, or the presence in battle of invisible hosts of an- 
 gels, to deserve the name of sensible miracles), is the begin- 
 ning of the fifty -fourth chapter. The words are these : — 
 " The hour of judgment approacheth, and the moon hath been 
 split in sunder ; but if the unbelievers see a sign, they turn 
 aside, saying, This is a powerful charm." The Mahometan 
 expositors disagree in their interpretation of this passage ; 
 some explaining it to be a mention of the splitting of the 
 moon, as one of the future signs of the approach of the day 
 of judgment ; others referring it to a miraculous appearance 
 which had then taken place. || It seems to me not improbable, 
 that Mahomet might have taken advantage of some extraor- 
 dinary halo, or other unusual appearance of the moon, which 
 had happened about this time ; and which supplied a founda- 
 tion both for this passage, and for the story which in after- 
 times had been raised out of it. 
 
 After this more than silence, after these authentic confess- 
 ions of the Koran, we are not to be moved with miraculous 
 stories related of Mahomet by Abulfeda, who wrote his life 
 about six hundred years after his death ; or which are found 
 in the legend of Al-Jannabi, who came two hundred years 
 later. T[ On the contrary, from comparing what Mahomet 
 
 * Sale's Koran, c. v. x. xiii. twice. f C. vi. 
 
 X C. iii. xxi. xxviii. § C. xvi. || Yide Sale, in loc. 
 
 ^ It does not, I think, appear, that these historians had any written 
 accounts to appeal to, more ancient than the Sonnah ; which was a 
 collection of traditions made by order of the Caliphs two hundred 
 
 18 
 
« 
 
 410 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 himself wrote and said, with what was afterwards reported 
 of him by his followers, the plain and fair conclusion is, that 
 when the religion was established by conquest, then, and not 
 till then, came out the stories of his miracles. 
 
 Now this difference alone constitutes, in my opinion, a bar 
 to all reasoning from one case to the other. The success of 
 a religion founded upon a miraculous history, shows the credit 
 which was given to the history ; and this credit, under the 
 circumstances in which it was given, ^. e. by persons capable 
 of knowing the truth, and interested to inquire after it, is 
 evidence of the reality of the history, and, by consequence, 
 of the truth of the religion. Where a miraculous history is 
 not alleged, no part of this argument can be applied. We 
 admit, that multitudes acknowledged the pretensions of Ma- 
 homet ; but, these pretensions being destitute of miraculous 
 evidence, we know that the grounds upon which they were 
 acknowledged, could not be secure grounds of persuasion to 
 his followers, nor their example any authority to us. Admit 
 the whole of Mahomet's authentic history, so far as it was of 
 a nature capable of being known or witnessed by others, to 
 be true (which is certainly to admit all that the reception of 
 the religion can be brought to prove), and Mahomet might 
 still be an impostor, or enthusiast, or a union of both. Ad- 
 mit to be true almost any part of Christ's history, of that, I 
 mean, which was public, and within the cognizance of his fol- 
 lowers, and he must have come from God. Where matter 
 of fact is not in question, where miracles are not alleged, 1 
 do not see that the progress of a religion is a better argu- 
 ment of its truth, than the prevalency of any system of opin- 
 ions in natural religion, morality, or physics, is a proof of tb.e 
 truth of those opinions. And we know that this sort of argu- 
 ment is inadmissible in any branch of philosophy whate\ er. 
 
 But it will be said. If one religion could make its \\".\\ 
 
 years after Mahomet's death. Mahomet died A. D. 632 ; Al-Bochari, 
 one of the six doctors who compiled the Sonnah, was boru A. D. 809 ; 
 died 869. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 193, ed. '7 th. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 411 
 
 without miracles, why might not another ? To which I reply, 
 first, that this is not the question ; the proper question is not, 
 whether a religious institution could be set up without mira- 
 cles, but whether a religion, or a change of religion, found- 
 ing itself in miracles, could succeed without any reality to 
 rest upon ? I apprehend these two cases to be very different ; 
 and I apprehend Mahomet's not taking this course, to be one 
 proof, amongst others, that the thing is difficult, if not impos- 
 sible, to be accomplished ; certainly it w^as not from an un- 
 consciousness of the value and importance of miraculous evi- 
 dence ; for it is very observable, that in the same volume, 
 and sometimes in the same chapters, in which Mahomet so 
 repeatedly disclaims the power of working miracles himself, 
 he is incessantly referring to the miracles of preceding proph- 
 ets. One would imagine, to hear some men talk, or to read 
 some books, that the setting up of a religion by dint of mirac- 
 ulous pretences was a thing of every day's experience ; 
 whereas, I believe that, except the Jewish and Christian relig- 
 ion, there is no tolerably well authenticated account of any 
 such thing having been accomplished. 
 
 II. The establishment of Mahomet's religion was effected 
 by causes which in no degree appertained to the origin of 
 Christianity. 
 
 During the first twelve years of his mission, Mahomet had 
 recourse only to persuasion. This is allowed. And there is 
 sufficient reason from the effect to believe that, if he had con- 
 fined himself to this mode of propagating his religion, we of 
 the present day should never have heard either of him or it. 
 " Three years w^ere silently employed in the conversion of 
 fourteen proselytes. For ten years, the religion advanced 
 with a slow and painful progress, within the walls of Mecca. 
 The number of proselytes in the seventh year of his mission 
 may be estimated by the absence of eighty-three men and 
 eighteen women, who retired to ^thiopia."=* Yet this prog- 
 ress, such as it was, appears to have been aided by some very 
 * Gibbon's Hist., vol. ix. p. 244, et seq. ; ed. Dub. 
 
412 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Paet II. 
 
 important advantages which Mahomet found in his situation, 
 in his mode of conducting his design, and in his doctrme. 
 
 1. Mahomet was the grandson of the most powerful and 
 honorable family in Mecca ; and although the early death of 
 his father had not left him a patrimony suitable to his birth, 
 he had, long before the commencement of his mission, repair- 
 ed this deficiency by an opulent marriage. A person consider- 
 able by his wealth, of high descent, and nearly allied to the 
 chiefs of his country, taking upon himself the character of a 
 religious teacher, would not fail of attracting attention and 
 followers. 
 
 2. Mahomet conducted his design, in the outset especially, 
 with great art and prudence. He conducted it as a politician 
 would conduct a plot. His first application was to his own 
 family. This gained him his wife's uncle, a considerable per- 
 son in Mecca, together with his cousin Ali, afterwards the 
 celebrated Caliph, then a youth of great expectation, and even 
 already distinguished by his attachment, impetuosity, and 
 courage.* He next expressed himself to Abu Beer, a man 
 amongst the first of the Koreish in wealth and influence. 
 The interest and example of Abu Beer drew in five other 
 principal persons in Mecca, whose solicitations prevailed upon 
 five more of the same rank. This w^as the work of three 
 years ; during which time, everything was transacted in secret. 
 Upon the strength of these allies, and under the powerful 
 protection of his family, who, however some of them might 
 disapprove his enterprise, or deride his pretensions, would 
 not suffer the orphan of their house, the relict of their favor- 
 ite brother, to be insulted, Mahomet now commenced his 
 
 * Of which Mr. Gibbon has preserved the following specimen : — 
 "When Mahomet called out in an assembly of his family, Who 
 among you will be my companion, and my vizir? Ali, then only in 
 the fourteenth year of his age, suddenly replied, prophet ! I am 
 the man ; — whosoever rises against thee, I will dash out his teeth, 
 tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his belly. O prophet ! I will 
 be thy vizir over them." Vol. ix. p. 245. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 413 
 
 public preaching. And the advance which he made during 
 the nine or ten remaining years of his peaceable ministry, 
 was by no means greater than what, with these advantages, 
 and with the additional and singular circumstance of there 
 being no established religion at Mecca at that time to contend 
 with, might reasonably have been expected. How soon his 
 primitive adherents were let into the secret of his views of 
 empire, or in what stage of his undertaking these views first 
 opened themselves to his own mind, it is not now easy to de- 
 termine. The event however was, that these, his first pros- 
 elytes, all ultimately attained to riches and honors, to the com- 
 mand of armies, and the government of kingdoms.* 
 
 3. The Arabs deduced their descent from Abraham through 
 the line of Ishmael. .The inhabitants of Mecca, in common 
 probably with the other Arabian tribes, acknowledged, as, I 
 think, may clearly be collected from the Koran, one supreme 
 Deity, but had associated with him many objects of idola- 
 trous worship. . The great doctrine with which Mahomet set 
 out, was the strict and exclusive unity of God. Abraham, 
 he told them, their illustrious ancestor ; Ishmael, the father 
 of their nation ; Moses, the lawgiver of the Jews ; and Jesus, 
 the author of Christianity ; had all asserted the same thing ; 
 that their followers had universally corrupted the truth, and 
 that he was now commissioned to restore it to the world. 
 Was it to be wondered at, that a doctrine so specious, and 
 authorized by names, some or other of which were holden in 
 the highest veneration by every description of his hearers, 
 should, in the hands of a popular missionary, prevail to the 
 extent in which Mahomet succeeded by his pacific ministry ? 
 
 4. Of the institution which Mahomet joined with this fun- 
 damental doctrine, and of the Koran in which that institution 
 is delivered, we discover, I think, two purposes that pervade 
 the whole, viz.^ to make converts, and to make his converts 
 soldiers. The following particulars, amongst others, may be 
 considered as pretty evident indications of these designs : 
 
 * Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 244. 
 
.414 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 1. When Mahomet began to preach, his address to the 
 Jews, the Christians, and to the Pagan Arabs, was, that the 
 religion which he taught, was no other than what had been 
 originally their own. — " We believe in God, and that which 
 hath been sent down iinto us, and that which hath been sent 
 down unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 the Tribes, and that which was delivered unto Moses and Jesus, 
 and that which was delivered unto the prophets from their Lord : 
 we make no distinction between any of them."* " He hath 
 ordained you the religion which he commanded Noah, and 
 which we have revealed unto thee, O Mohammed, and which we 
 commanded Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus, saying. Observe 
 this religion, and be not divided therein."f " He hath chosen 
 you, and hath not imposed on you any difficulty in the religion 
 which he hath given you, the religion of your father Abraham."J 
 
 2. The author of the Koran never ceases from describing 
 the future anguish of unbelievers, their despair, regret, peni- 
 tence, and torment. It is the point which he labors above all 
 others. And these descriptions are conceived in terms which 
 will appear in no small degree impressive, even to the modern 
 reader of an English translation. Doubtless they would op- 
 erate with much greater force upon the minds of those to 
 whom they were immediately directed. The terror which 
 they seem well calculated to inspire, would be to many tem- 
 pers a powerful application. 
 
 3. On the other hand, his voluptuous paradise ; his robes 
 of silk, his palaces of marble, his rivers and shades, his groves 
 and couches, his wines, his dainties ; and, above all, his sev- 
 enty-two virgins assigned to each of the faithful, of resplen- 
 dent beauty and eternal youth ; intoxicated the imaginations, 
 and seized the passions, of his Eastern followers. 
 
 4. But Mahomet's highest heaven was reserved for those 
 who fought his battles, or expended their fortunes in his cause. 
 — " Those believers who sit still at home, not having any hurt, 
 
 * Sale's Koran, c. ii. p. 17. f Ih., c. xlil p. 893. 
 
 X lb., c. xxii. p. 281. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 415 
 
 and those who employ their fortunes and their persons for the 
 religion of God, shall not be held equal. God hath preferred 
 those who employ their fortunes and their persons in that 
 cause, to a degree above those who sit at home. God had in- 
 deed promised every one Paradise ; but God had preferred 
 those yfho fight for the faith before those who sit still, by add- 
 ing unto them a great reward ; by degrees of honor conferred 
 upon them from him, and by granting them forgiveness and 
 mercy."* Again ; " Do ye reckon the giving drink to the 
 pilgrims, and the visiting of the holy temple, to be actions as 
 meritorious as those performed by him who believeth in God 
 and the last day, and fighteth for the religion of God ? They 
 shall not be held equal with God. — They who have believed 
 and fled their country, and employed their substance and their 
 persons in the defence of God's true religion, shall be in the 
 highest degree of honor with God ; and these are they who 
 shall be happy. The Lord sendeth them good tidings of mer- 
 cy from him, and good will, and of gardens wherein they shall 
 enjoy lasting pleasures. They shall continue therein forever ; 
 for with God is a great reward."f And, once more ; " Verily 
 God hath purchased of the true believers their souls and their 
 substance, promising them the enjoyment of Paradise, on con- 
 dition that iYiQ^Y fight for the cause of God ; whether they slay 
 or be slain, the promise for the same is assuredly due by the 
 Law and the Gospel and the Koran. "J § 
 
 5 His doctrine of predestination was applicable, and was 
 applied by him, to the same purpose of fortifying and of exalt- 
 ing the courage of his adherents. "If anything of the matter 
 
 * Sale's Koran, c. iv. p. 73. f lb., c. ix. p. 151. 
 
 :j: lb., c. ix. p. 164. 
 
 § " The sword," saith Mahomet, " is the key of heaven and of hell ; 
 a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of 
 more avail than two months' fasting or prayer. Whosoever falls in 
 battle, his sins are forgiven at the day of judgment ; his wounds shall 
 be resplendent as vermilion, and odoriferous as musk ; and the loss 
 of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim." 
 Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 256. 
 
416 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 had happened unto us, we had not been slain here. Answer ; 
 If ye had been in your ho^ises, verily they would have gone 
 forth to fight, whose slaughter was decreed, to the places where 
 they died."* 
 
 6. In warm regions, the appetite of the sexes is ardent, the 
 passion for inebriating liquors moderate. In compliance with 
 this distinction, although Mahomet laid a restraint upon the 
 drinking of wine, in the use of women he allowed an almost 
 unbounded indulgence. Four wives, with the liberty of chang- 
 ing them at pleasure, f together with the persons of all his cap- 
 tives,J; was an irresistible bribe to an Arabian warrior. " God 
 is minded," says he, speaking of this very subject, " to make 
 his religion light unto you ; for man was created weak." 
 How different this from the unaccommodating purity of the 
 Gospel! How would Mahomet have succeeded with the 
 Christian lesson in his mouth, " Whosoever looketh after a 
 woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her 
 already in his heart" ? It must be added, that Mahomet did 
 not venture on the prohibition of wine, till the fourth year of 
 the Hegira, or the seventeenth of his mission,§ when his mil- 
 itary successes had completely established his authority. The 
 same observation holds of the fast of the Ramadan, || and of 
 the most laborious part of his institution, the pilgrimage to 
 Mecca.^ 
 
 What has hitherto been collected from the records of the 
 Mussulman history, relates to the twelve or thirteen years of 
 Mahomet's peaceable preaching ; which part alone of his life 
 and enterprise admits of the smallest comparison with the ori- 
 gin of Christianity. A new scene is now unfolded. The city 
 
 * Sale's Koran, c. iii. p. 54. f lb., c. iv. p. 63. 
 
 X Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 225. § Mod. Univ. Hist., vol. i. p. 126. 
 
 1 lb., p. 112. 
 
 ■J" This latter, however, already prevailed amongst the Arabs, and 
 had grown out of their excessive veneration for the Caaba. Mahom- 
 et's law, in this respect, was rather a compliance than an innova- 
 tion.* 
 
 * Sale's Prelim. Disc, p. 122. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 417 
 
 of Medina, distant about ten days' journey from Mecca, was 
 at that time distracted by the hereditary contentions of two 
 hostile tribes. These feuds were exasperated by the mutual 
 persecutions of the Jews and Christians, and of the different 
 Christian sects by which the city was inhabited.* The relig- 
 ion of Mahomet presented, in some measure, a point of union 
 of compromise to these divided opinions. It embraced the 
 principles which were common to them all. Each party saw 
 ill it an honorable acknowledgment of the fundamental truth 
 -of their own system. To the Pagan Arab, somewhat imbued 
 with the sentiments and knowledge of his Jewish or Christian 
 fellow-citizen, if offered no offensive, or very improbable the- 
 ology. This recommendation procured to Mahometanism a 
 more favorable reception at Medina, than its author had been 
 able, by twelve years' painful endeavors, to obtain for it at 
 Mecca. Yet, after all, the progress of the religion was incon- 
 siderable. His missionary could only collect a congregation 
 of forty persons. f It was not a religious, but a political as- 
 sociation, which ultimately introduced Mahomet into Medina. 
 Harassed, as it should seem, and disgusted by the long con- 
 tinuance of factions and disputes, the inhabitants of that city 
 saw in the admission of the prophet's authority a rest from 
 the miseries which they had suffered, and a suppression of 
 the violence and fury which they had learned to condemn. 
 After an embassy, therefore, composed of believers and un- 
 believers,! and of persons of both tribes, with whom a treaty 
 was concluded of strict alliance and support, Mahomet made 
 his public entry, and was received as the sovereign of Me- 
 dina. 
 
 From this time, or soon after this time, the impostor 
 changed his language and his conduct. Having now a town 
 at his command, where to arm his party, and to head them 
 with security, he enters upon new counsels. He now pretends 
 that a divine commission is given him, to attack the infidelsj 
 
 * Mod. Univ. Hist., vol. i. p. 100. f Ih., p. 85. J lb., p. 86. 
 
 18* 
 
418 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part II. 
 
 to destroy idolatry, and to set up the true faith by the sword.* 
 An early victory over a very superior force, achieved by con- 
 duct and bravery, established the renown of his arms, and of 
 his personal character. f Every year after this was marked 
 by battles or assassinations. The nature and activity of Ma- 
 homet's future exertions may be estimated from the compu- 
 tation, that, in the nine following years of his life, he com- 
 manded his army in person in eight general engagements,! 
 and undertook, by himself or his lieutenants, fifty military 
 enterprises. 
 
 From this time we have nothing left to account for, but 
 that Mahomet should collect an army, that his army should 
 conquer, and that his religion should proceed together with 
 his conquests. The ordinary experience of human affairs 
 leaves us little to wonder at, in any of these effects ; and they 
 are likewise each assisted by peculiar facilities. From all 
 sides, the roving Arabs crowded round the standard of religion 
 and plunder, of freedom and victory, of arms and rapine. Be- 
 side the highly-painted joys of a carnal paradise, Mahomet 
 rewarded his followers in this world with a liberal division of 
 the spoils, and with the persons of their female capti ves.§ The 
 condition of Arabia, occupied by small independent tribes, 
 exposed it to the impression, and yielded to the progress, of a 
 firm and resolute army. After the reduction of his native 
 peninsula, the weakness also of the Roman provinces on the 
 north and the west, as well as the distracted state of the Per- 
 sian empire on the east, facilitated the successive invasion of 
 neighboring countries. That Mahomet's conquests should carry 
 his religion along with them, will excite little surprise, when 
 we know the conditions which he proposed to the vanquished. 
 Death or conversion was the only choice offered to idolaters. 
 " Strike off their heads ! strike off all the ends of their fin- 
 gers !|| kill the idolaters, wheresoever ye shall find them!"f 
 
 * Mod. Univ. Hist., vol. i. p. 88. f Victory of Bedr, ib., p. 106. 
 :[ Mod. Univ. Hist., vol. i. p. 255. § Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 255. 
 I h: ale's Koran, c. viii. p. 140. ^ lb., c. ix. p. 149. 
 
Chap. IX.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 419 
 
 To the Jews and Christians was left the somewhat milder al- 
 ternative, of subjection and tribute, if they persisted in their 
 own religion, or of an equal participation in the rights and 
 liberties, the honors and privileges, of the faithful, if they em- 
 braced the religion of their conquerors. '' Ye Christian dogs, 
 you know your option ; the Koran, the tribute, or the sword."* 
 The corrupted state of Christianity in the seventh century, 
 and the contentions of its sects, unhappily so fell in with men's 
 care of their safety, or their fortunes, as to induce many to 
 forsake its profession. Add to all which, that Mahomet's vic- 
 tories not only operated by the natural effect of conquest, but 
 that they were constantly represented, both to his friends 
 and enemies, as divine declarations in his favor. Success w^as 
 evidence. Prosperity carried with it, not only influence, but 
 proof. " Ye have already," says he, after the battle of Bedr, 
 " had a miracle shown you, in two armies w^hich attacked each 
 other ; one army fought for God's true religion, but the other 
 were infidels."f Again ; " Ye slew not those who were slain 
 at Bedr, but God slew them. If ye desire a decision of the 
 matter between us, now hath a decision come unto you. "J 
 
 Many more passages might be collected out of the Koran 
 to the same effect. But they are unnecessary. The success 
 of Mahometanism during this, and indeed every future period 
 of its history, bears so little resemblance to the early propa- 
 gation of Christianity, that no inference whatever can justly 
 be drawn from it to the prejudice of the Christian argument. 
 For, what are we comparing ? A Galilean peasant accom- 
 panied by a few fishermen, with a conqueror at the head of 
 his army. We compare Jesus without force, without power, 
 without support, without one external circumstance of attrac- 
 tion or influence, prevailing against the prejudices, the learn- 
 ing, the hierarchy, of his country ; against the ancient relig- 
 ious opinions, the pompous religious rites, the philosophy, 
 the wisdom, the authority, of the Roman empire, in the most 
 
 * Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 337. f Sale's Koran, c. iii. p. 36. 
 
 i lb., c. viii. p. 141 
 
420 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Paet IL 
 
 polished and enlightened period of its existence ; with Mahomet 
 making his way amongst Arabs ; collecting followers in the 
 midst of conquests and triumphs, in the darkest ages and 
 countries of the world, and when success in arms not only 
 operated by that command of men's wills and persons which 
 attends prosperous undertakings, but was considered as a 
 sure testimony of divine approbation. That multitudes, per- 
 suaded by this argument, should join the train of a victorious 
 chief; that still greater multitudes should, without any argu- 
 ment, bow down before irresistible power ; is a conduct in 
 which we cannot see much to surprise us ; in which we can 
 see nothing that resembles the causes by which the establish- 
 ment of Christianity was effected. 
 
 The success, therefore, of Mahometanism, stands not in the 
 way of this important conclusion ; that the propagation of 
 Christianity, in the manner and under the circumstances in 
 which it was propagated, is an unique in the history of the 
 species. A Jewish peasant overthrew the religion of the 
 w^orld. 
 
 I have, nevertheless, placed the prevalency of the religion 
 amongst the auxiliary arguments of its truth; because, 
 whether it had prevailed or not, or whether its prevalency 
 can or cannot be accounted for, the direct argument remains 
 still. It is still true that a great number of men upon the 
 spot, personally connected with the history and with the au- 
 thor of the religion, were induced by what they heard, and 
 saw, and knew, not only to change their former opinions, but 
 to give up their time, and sacrifice their ease, to traverse seas 
 and kingdoms without rest and without weariness, to commit 
 themselves to extreme dangers, to undertake incessant toils, 
 to undergo grievous sufferings, and all this solely in conse- 
 quence, and in support, of their belief of facts, which, if true, 
 establish the truth of the religion, which, if false, they must 
 have known to be so. 
 
PART III. 
 
 A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF SOME POPULAR OBJECTIONS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE DISOEEPANOIES BETWEEN THE SEVERAL GOSPELS. 
 
 I KNOW not a more rash or unphilosophical conduct of the 
 understanding, than to reject the substance of a story, by 
 reason of some diversity in the circumstances with which it 
 is related. The usual character of human testimony is sub- 
 stantial truth under circumstantial variety. This is what the 
 daily experience of courts of justice teaches. When accounts 
 of a transaction come from the mouths of different witnesses, 
 it is seldom that it is not possible to pick out apparent or real 
 inconsistencies between them. These inconsistencies are 
 studiously displayed by an adverse pleader, but oftentimes 
 with little impression upon the minds of the judges. On 
 the contrary, a close and minute agreement induces the sus- 
 picion of confederacy and fraud. When written histories 
 touch upon the same scenes of action, the comparison almost 
 always affords ground for a like reflection. Numerous, and- 
 sometimes important, variations present themselves ; not sel- 
 dom also, absolute and final contradictions ; yet neither one 
 nor the other are deemed sufficient to shake the credibility 
 of the main fact. The embassy of the Jews to deprecate the 
 execution of Claudian's order to place his statue in their tem- 
 ple, Philo places in harvest, Josephus in seed-time ; both con- 
 temporary writers. No reader is led by this inconsistency 
 
• 
 
 422 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 to doubt, whether such an embassy was sent, or whether 
 such an order was given. Our own history supplies exam- 
 ples of the same kind. In the account of the Marquis of 
 Argyle's death, in the reign of Charles the Second, we have 
 a very remarkable contradiction. Lord Clarendon relates 
 that he was condemned to be hanged, which was performed 
 the same day; on the contrary, Burnet, Woodrow, Heath, 
 Echard, concur in stating that he was beheaded ; and that he 
 was condemned upon the Saturday, and executed upon the 
 Monday.* Was any reader of English history ever sceptic 
 enough to raise from hence a question, whether the Marquis 
 of Argyle was executed, or not 1 Yet this ought to be left 
 in uncertainty, according to the principles upon which the 
 Christian history has sometimes been attacked. Dr. Middle- 
 ton contended, that the different hours of the day assigned to 
 the crucifixion of Christ, by John and by the other evangel- 
 ists, did not admit of the reconcilement which learned men 
 had proposed ; and then concludes the discussion with this 
 hard remark : " We must be forced, with several of the crit- 
 ics, to leave the difficulty just as we found it, chargeable with 
 all the consequences of manifest inconsistency."! But what 
 are these consequences ? By no means the discrediting of 
 the history as to the principal fact, by a repugnancy (even 
 supposing that repugnancy not to be resolvable into different 
 modes of computation) in the time of the day in- which it is 
 said fo have taken place. J 
 
 * See Biog. Britann. 
 
 f Middleton's Reflections answered by Benson, Hist. Christ., vol. 
 hi. p. 50. 
 
 ^ This is surely the common-sense and honest view of the ques- 
 tion. If there is satisfactory evidence that the narratives are authen- 
 tic and genuine, the reconcilement of discrepancies is an after con- 
 sideration. Any one who knows how much has been already done 
 in the explanation of such difficulties, will feel assured that, in the 
 progress of critical science and its application to the elucidation of 
 the Bible, all discrepancies will either be made to disappear, or 
 traced to their true source in the mistakes of transcribers, and such 
 
Chap. I.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 423 
 
 A great deal of the discrepancy observable in the Gospels, 
 arises from omission ; from a fact or a passage of Christ's 
 life being noticed by one writer, which is unnoticed by 
 another. Now, omission is at all times a very uncertain 
 ground of objection. We perceive it, not only in the com- 
 parison of different writers, but even in the same writer, 
 when compared with himself. There are a great many par- 
 ticulars, and some of them of importance, mentioned by Jo- 
 sephus in his Antiquities, which, as we should have supposed, 
 ought' to have been put down by him in their place in the 
 Jewish Wars.* Suetonius, Tacitus, Dio Cassius, have, all 
 three, written of the reign of Tiberius. Each has mentioned 
 many things omitted by the rest,f yet no objection is from 
 thence taken to the respective credit of their histories. We 
 have in our own times, if there were not something indeco- 
 rus in the comparison, the life of an eminent person, written 
 by three of his friends, in which there is very great variety 
 in the incidents selected by them ; some apparent, and per- 
 haps some real contradictions ; yet without any impeachment 
 of the substantial truth of their accounts, of the authenticity 
 of the books, of the competent information .or general fidelity 
 of the writers. 
 
 But these discrepancies will be still more numerous, when 
 men do not write histories, but memoirs ; which is perhaps 
 the true name and proper description of our Gospels ; that 
 is, when they do not amdertake, or ever meant to deliver, in 
 order of time, a regular and complete account of all the 
 things of importance which the person, who is the subject of 
 
 like accidents. In such a work as the present it is out of the ques- 
 tion to expect, either in text or notes, a particular account of the 
 discrepancies referred to. The reader will find the books to he con- 
 sulted on this subject recommended by Home. Any good comment- 
 ary will be of service to the inquirer. One of the best and most ac- 
 cessible is Barnes' notes. Of more learned and elaborate works, we 
 recommend Alford's Greek Testament, in 3 vols., of which we hope 
 soon to see an edition published in this country. — Ed. 
 
 * Lardner, part i. vol. ii. p. V35, et seq. f lb., p. '743, 
 
424 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 their history, did or said ; but only, out of many similar 
 ones, to give such passages, or such actions and discourses, as 
 offered themselves more immediately to their attention, came 
 in the way of their inquiries, occurred to their recollection, 
 or were suggested by their particular design at the time of 
 writing. 
 
 This particular design may appear sometimes, but not 
 alw^ays, nor often. Thus I think that the particular design 
 which Saint Matthew had in view whilst he was writing the 
 history of the resurrection, w^as to attest the faithful perform- 
 ance of Christ's promise to his disciples to go before them 
 into Galilee ; because he alone, except Mark, who seems to 
 have taken it from him, has recorded this promise, and he 
 alone has confined his narrative to that single appearance 
 to the disciples which fulfilled it. It was the preconcerted, 
 the great and most public manifestation of our Lord's person. 
 It was the thing which dwelt upon Saint Matthew's mind, and 
 he adapted his narrative to it. But, that there is nothing in 
 Saint Matthew's language, w^hich negatives other appearances, 
 or which imports that this his appearance to his disciples 
 in Galilee, in pursuance of his promise, was his first or only 
 appearance, is made pretty evident by Saint Mark's Gospel, 
 which uses the same terms concerning the appearance in Gal- 
 ilee as Saint Matthew uses, yet itself records two other ap- 
 pearances prior to this : " Go your way, tell his disciples and 
 Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee, then shall ye see 
 him as he said unto you," (xvi. 7.) We might be apt to infer 
 from these words, that this was the first time they were to 
 see him ; at least, we might infer it, with as much reason as 
 w^e draw the inference from the same words in Matthew ; yet 
 the historian himself did not perceive that he was leading his 
 readers to any such conclusion ; for, in the twelfth and two 
 following verses of this chapter, he informs us of two ap- 
 pearances, which, by comparing the order of events, are 
 shown to have been prior to the appearance in Galilee. "He 
 appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, 
 
Chap. L] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 425 
 
 and went into the country ; and they went and told it unto 
 the residue, neither believed they them ; afterwards he ap- 
 peared unto the eleven, as they sat at meat, and upbraided 
 them with their unbelief, because they believed not them that 
 had seen him after he was risen." 
 
 Probably the same observation, concerning the particular 
 design which guided the historian, may be of use in compar- 
 ing many other passages of the Gospels. 
 
OHAPTEK II, 
 
 ERRONEOUS OPINIONS IMPUTED TO THE APOSTLES. 
 
 A SPECIES of candor which is shown towards every other 
 book, is sometimes refused to the Scriptures ; and that is, the 
 placing of a distinction between judgment and testimony. 
 We do not usually question the credit of a writer, by reason 
 of an opinion he may have delivered upon subjects uncon- 
 nected with his evidence ; and even upon subjects connected 
 with his account, or mixed with it in the same discourse or 
 writing, we naturally separate facts from opinions, testimony 
 from observation, narrative from argument. 
 
 To apply this equitable consideration to the Christian rec- 
 ords, much controversy and much objection has been raised 
 concerning the quotations of the Old Testament found in the 
 New; some of which quotations, it is said, are applied in a 
 sense, and to events, apparently different from that which 
 they bear, and from those to which they belong in the original. 
 It is probable, to my apprehension, that many of these quo- 
 tations were intended by the writers of the New Testament as 
 nothing more than accommodations. They quoted passages 
 of their Scripture which suited, and fell in with, the occasion 
 before them, without always undertaking to assert, that the 
 occasion was in the view of the author of the words. Such 
 accommodations of passages from old authors, from books es- 
 pecially which are in every one's hands, are common with 
 Wl'iters of all countries ; but in none, perhaps, were more to 
 be expected, than in the writings of the Jews, whose litera- 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 427 
 
 ture was almost entirely confined to their Scriptures.* . Those 
 prophecies which are alleged with more solemnity, and which 
 are accompanied with a precise declaration, that they origin- 
 ally respected the event then related, are, I think, truly alleged. 
 But were it otherwise ; is the judgment of the writers of the 
 New Testament, in interpreting passages of the Old, or some- 
 times, perhaps, in receiving established interpretations, so 
 connected either with their veracity, or with their means of 
 information concerning what was passing in their own times, 
 as that a critical mistake, even were it clearly made out, should 
 overthrow their historical credit ? Does it diminish it ? Has 
 it anything to do with it ?f 
 
 * The whole subject of quotation from the Old Testament by the 
 writers of the New, is very ably treated by Home, vol. i. chap. iv. 
 pp. 293-319. No one has any right to urge objections on this ground 
 until he has perused so much at least as Home has said in explanation 
 of the matter. — Ed. 
 
 f " A faith in Christianity, and in the plenary inspiration of the 
 New Testament Scriptures, is not the same thing. They may be 
 closely connected in the mind of the Christian who has studied the 
 Word of God, and felt its power, and discovered its beauty ; but no 
 one, who is honestly inquiring whether the Gospel be true, can as- 
 sume this connection as certain, in order to derive an argument from it 
 against the Christian faith. That these writers are honest, faithful, 
 credible witnesses, is enough to establish the truth of the Gospel ; but 
 that they are inspired messengers of Christ, infallibly preserved from 
 error in every part of their writings, is a secondary doctrine, highly im- 
 portant in its due place, but which can have no shadow of evidence 
 except such as implies a previous certainty that the message itself is 
 Divine." — Birks. We have italicised those portions of this valuable 
 statement on which we desire the reader to dwell. Mr. Birks con- 
 tinues : "Tfie answer in the text, then, is enough to silence every 
 just objection on the part of the sceptical inquirer. Viewed, how- 
 ever, as the language of a Christian speaking to Christians, it is the 
 proof of a very defective insight into all the deeper harmonies of the 
 Word of God. It is true that passages of the Old Testament are some- 
 times quoted for the sake of a general principle, applicable to many 
 similar events ; but in general, this theory of accommodation arises 
 from ignorance of the true and proper scope of the Old Testament 
 Scriptures. It is flatly opposed to the spirit of that affecting uarra- 
 
428 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 Anotner error imputed to the first Christians, was the ex- 
 pected approach of the day of judgment.* I would introduce 
 this objection by a remark upon what appears to me a some- 
 what similar example. Our Saviour, speaking to Peter of 
 John, said, " If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to 
 thee f'f These words, we find, had been so misconstrued, as 
 that a report from thence " went abroad among the brethren, 
 that that disciple should not die." Suppose that this had 
 come down to us amongst the prevailing opinions of the early 
 Christians, and that the particular circumstance, from which 
 the mistake sprang, had been lost, (which, humanly speaking, 
 was most likely to have been the case,) some, at this day, 
 would have been ready to regard and quote the error, as an 
 impeachment of the whole Christian system. Yet with how 
 little justice such a conclusion would have been drawn, or 
 rather such a presumption taken up, the information which 
 we happen to possess enables us now to perceive. To those 
 who think that the Scriptures lead us to believe that the 
 early Cliristians, and even the apostles, expected the approach 
 of the day of judgment in their own times, the same reflection 
 will occur, as that which we have made with respect to the 
 more partial, perhaps, and temporary, but still no less ancient, 
 error concerning the duration of Saint John's life. It was an 
 
 tive, where it is written of our Lord, 'Beginning at Moses and all 
 the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things 
 concerning himself.' And it equally sets aside that parting admo- 
 nition of the angel to St. John, ' The testimony of Jesus is the spirit 
 of prophecy.' — See our own note on the connection of Christianity 
 with the Jewish history, appended to the next chapter. — Ed. 
 
 * Saint Paul expressly refutes this error in his Secoifd Epistle to 
 the Thessalonians, chap. ii. ; which circumstance, while it shows the 
 prevalence of the mistake, proves that the near approach of the day 
 of judgment was no part of the apostolic doctrine. The remarks 
 made elsewhere on the double reference of some prophecies, and on 
 the connection as type and antitype between the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem and the end of the world, will explain the probable origin of 
 the error. — Ed. 
 
 f John, xxi. 22 
 
CiiAP. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 429 
 
 error, it may be likewise said, which would effectually hinder 
 those who entertained it from acting the part of impostors. 
 
 The difficulty which attends the subject of the present chap- 
 ter, is contained in this question ; If we once admit the falli- 
 bility of the apostolic judgment, where are we to stop, or in 
 what can we rely upon if? To which question, as arguing 
 with unbelievers, and as arguing for the substantial truth of 
 the Christian history, and for that alone, it is competent to the 
 advocate of Christianity to reply, Give me the apostle's testi- 
 mony and I do not stand in need of their judgment ; give me 
 the facts, and I have complete security for every conclusion 
 I want."* 
 
 But, although I think it is competent to the Christian apol- 
 ogist to return this answer ; I do not think that it is the only an- 
 swer which the objection is capable of receiving. The two fol- 
 lowing cautions, founded, I apprehend, in the most reasonable 
 distinctions, will exclude all uncertainty upon this head which 
 can be attended with danger. 
 
 First, to separate what was the object of the apostolic mis- 
 sion, and declared by them to be so, from what was extrane- 
 ous to it, or only incidentally connected with it. Of points 
 clearly extraneous to the religion, nothing need be said. Of 
 points incidentally connected with it, something may be added. 
 Demoniacal possession is one of these points : concerning the 
 reality of which, as this place will not admit the examination, 
 or even the production of the argument on eith^ side of the 
 question, it would be arrogance in me to deliver any judg- 
 ment. And it is unnecessary. For what I am concerned to 
 observe is,* that even they who think that it was a general, 
 but erroneous, opinion of those times ; and that the writers of 
 the New Testament, in common with other Jewish writers of 
 
 * Let the student observe that this answer is perfectly competent 
 when we argue with unbelievers. It is just and accurately limited ; 
 for with them the point in dispute is the historical truth of the mir- 
 acles. The inspiration and infallibility of the record are subsequent 
 considerations. — Ed. 
 
480 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 that age, fell into the manner of speaking and of thinking upon 
 the subject, which then universally prevailed, need not be 
 alarmed by the concession, as though they had anything to 
 fear from it, for the truth of Christianity. The doctrine was 
 not what Christ brought into the world. It appears in the 
 Christian records, incidentally and accidentally, as being the 
 subsisting opinion of the age and country in which his minis- 
 try was exercised. It w^as no part of the object of his revela- 
 tion, to regulate men's opinions concerning the action of spir- 
 itual substances upon animal bodies. At any rate it is un- 
 connected with testimony. If a dumb person was by a 
 word restored to the use of his speech, it signifies little to 
 what cause the dumbness was ascribed ; and the like of every 
 other cure wrought upon those who are said to have been 
 possessed. The malady was real, the cure was real, whether 
 the popular explication of the cause was well founded, or 
 not. The matter of fact, the change, so far as it was an object 
 of sense, or of testimony, was in either case the same.* 
 
 Secondly, that, in reading the apostolic writings, we dis- 
 tinguish between their doctrines and their arguments. Their 
 doctrines came to them by revelation, properly, so called ; yet 
 in propounding these doctrines in their writings or discourses, 
 they were wont to illustrate, support, and enforce them, by 
 
 * This argument is also well put ; but the illustration of it is un- 
 fortunate. The New Testament does sometimes seem to make use of 
 mere popular opinions without either refuting or endorsing them. 
 For example, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, our Lord 
 speaks of Hades, or the place of departed spirits, as situated in the 
 lieart of the earth, and consisting of two regions, one of torment, and 
 the other of happiness, within sight of each other. (See Campbell's 
 Dissertation on this subject, prefixed to his new translation of the 
 Gospels.) But the matter of demoniacal possessions is stated with re- 
 markable particularity in Scripture. It cannot be looked upon as a 
 mere accident or circumstance of the Revelation. It is really a doc» 
 trine of Revelation, and must not be explained away, because we 
 may happen to have a distaste for it. The action of spirits inferior 
 to God is one of the clearest points disclosed in the Bible. — Ed 
 
Chap. II.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 431 
 
 such analogies, arguments, and considerations as their own 
 thoughts suggested. Thus the call of the Gentiles, that is, 
 the admission of the Gentiles to the Christian profession with- 
 out a previous subjection to the law of Moses, was imparted 
 to the apostles by revelation, and was attested by the mira- 
 cles which attended the Christian ministry among them. The 
 apostles' own assurance of the matter rested upon this foun- 
 dation. Nevertheless, Saint Paul, when treating of the sub- 
 ject, offers a great variety of topics in its proof and vindica- 
 tion. The doctrine itself must be received ; but it is not 
 necessary, in order to defend Christianity, to defend the pro- 
 priety of every comparison, or the validity of every argu- 
 ment, which the apostle has brought into the discussion. The 
 same observation applies to some other instances ; and is, in 
 my opinion, very well founded ; " When divine writers argue 
 upon any point, we are always bound to believe the conclu- 
 sions that their reasonings end in, as parts of divine revela- 
 tion ; but we are not bound to be able to make out, or even 
 to assent to, all the premises made use of by them, in their 
 whole extent, unless it appear plainly, that they affirm the 
 premises as expressly as they do the conclusions proved by 
 them."* 
 
 * Burnet's Expos., art. 6. 
 
 " Of all views of inspiration, surely it is the most lame and unsat- 
 isfactory to suppose that the apostles were allowed to use bad argu- 
 ments, and yet always guided to right conclusions ; that they mis- 
 took the sense of what God had already revealed, while they were 
 employed to communicate a fresh revelation, and perverted one part 
 of Scripture from its true sense, in the very act of writing another 
 part. A person who uses premises which he does not believe, is dis- 
 "> honest. And hence the very fact that the apostles use such and such 
 premises to establish any doctrine of the faith, ought to be a full 
 warrant with every Christian, for believing those premises to be just 
 and true. On the opposite principle the forms of reasoning become 
 worse than useless, and indeed ridiculous." — Birks. See additional 
 remarks on Inspiration at the close of this volume.— j5(^. 
 
CHAPTEK III. 
 
 THE CONNECTION OF CHRISTIANITY WITH THE JEWISH HISTORY. 
 
 Undoubtedly our Saviour assumes the divine origin of the 
 Mosaic institution ; and, independently of his authority, I 
 conceive it to be very difficult to assign any other cause for 
 the commencement or existence of that institution ; especially 
 for the singular circumstance of the Jews' adhering to the 
 unity, when every other people slid into polytheism ; for their 
 being men in religion, children in everything else ; behind 
 other nations in the arts of peace and war, superior to the 
 most improved in their sentiments and doctrines relating to 
 the Deity.*^ Undoubtedly, also, our Saviour recognizes the 
 
 * "In the doctrine, for example, of the unity, the eternity, the 
 omnipotence, the omniscience, the omnipresence, the wisdom, and the 
 goodness, of God ; in their opinions concerning Providence, and the 
 creation, preservation, and government, of the world." Campbell 
 on Mir., p. 207. To which we may add, in the acts of their religion 
 not being accompanied either with cruelties or impurities ; in the 
 religion itself being free from a species of superstition which pre- 
 vailed universally in the popular religions of the ancient world, and 
 which is to be found perhaps in all religions that have their origin 
 in human artifice and credulity, viz.j fanciful connections between 
 certain appearances and actions, and the destiny of nations or indi- 
 viduals. Upon these conceits rested the whole train of auguries and 
 auspices, which formed so much even of the serious part of the relig- 
 ions of Greece and Rome, and of the charms and incantations which 
 were practiced in those countries by the common people. From 
 everything of this sort the religion of the Jews, and of the Jews 
 alone, was free. Vide Priestley's Lectures on the Truth of the Jew- 
 ish and Christian Revelation ; 1794. 
 
Chap. IL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 433 
 
 prophetic character of many of their ancient writers. So far, 
 therefore, we are bound as Christians to go. But to make 
 Christianity answerable with its life, for the circumstantial 
 truth of each separate passage of the Old Testament, the gen- 
 uineness of every book, the information, fidelity, and judgment, 
 of every writer in it, is to bring, I will not say great, but un- 
 necessary difficulties, into the whole system.* These books 
 were universally read and received by the Jews of our Sav- 
 iour's time. He and his apostles, in common with all other 
 Jews, referred to them, alluded to them, used them. Yet, ex- 
 cept where he expressly ascribes a divine authority to partic- 
 ular predictions, I do not know that we can strictly draw any 
 conclusion from the books being so used and applied, beside 
 the proof, which it unquestionably is, of their notoriety and 
 reception at that time. In this view, our Scriptures afford a 
 valuable testimony to those of the Jews, But the nature of 
 this testimony ought to be understood. It is surely very dif- 
 ferent from, what it is sometimes represented to be, a specific 
 ratification of each particular fact and opinion ; and not only 
 of each particular fact, but of the motives assigned for every 
 action, together with the judgment of praise or dis-praise be- 
 stowed upon them. Saint James, in his Epistle, f says, "Ye 
 have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of 
 the Lord." Notwithstanding this text, the reality of Job's 
 history, and even the existence of such a person, has been al- 
 ways deemed a fair subject of inquiry and discussion amongst 
 Christian divines. Saint James' authority is considered as 
 good evidence of the existence of the book of Job at that time, 
 and of its reception by the Jews ; and of nothing more. 
 Saint Paul, in his second Epistle to Timothy, J has this simili- 
 tude : " Now, as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do 
 these also resist the truth." These names are not found in 
 the Old Testament. And it is uncertairj whether Saint Paul 
 took them from some apocryphal vrriting then extant, or from 
 
 * See note A, at the end of this Chapter. 
 
 t Chap. V. 11. i Chap. ill. 8. 
 
 19 
 
434 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 tradition. But no one ever imagined that Saint Paul is here 
 asserting the authority of the writing, if it was a written ac- 
 count which he quoted, or making himself answerable for the 
 authenticity of the tradition ; much less, that he so involves 
 himself with either of these questions as that the credit of his 
 own history and mission should depend upon the fact, whether 
 Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, or not For what 
 reason a more rigorous interpretation should be put upon 
 other references, it is difficult to know. I do not mean, that 
 other passages of the Jewish history stand upon no better evi- 
 dence than the history of Job, or of Jannes and Jambres (I 
 think much otherwise) ; but I mean, that a reference in the 
 New Testament, to a passage in the Old, does not so fix its 
 authority, as to exclude all inquiry into its credibility, or into 
 the separate reasons upon which that credibility is founded ; 
 and that it is an unwarrantable, as well as unsafe rule to lay 
 down concerning the Jewish history, what was never laid down 
 concerning any other, that either every particular of it must 
 be true, or the whole false. 
 
 I have thought it necessary to state this point explicitly, be- 
 cause a fashion, revived by Voltaire, and pursued by the dis- 
 ciples of his school, seems to have much prevailed of late, of 
 attacking Christianity through the sides of Judaism. Some 
 objections of this class are founded in misconstruction, some 
 in exaggeration ; but all proceed upon a supposition, which 
 has not been made out by argument, viz.^ that the attestation, 
 which the Author and first teachers of Christianity gave to the 
 divine mission of Moses and the prophets, extends to every 
 point and portion of the Jewish history ; and so extends as to 
 make Christianity responsible in its own credibility, for the 
 circumstantial truth (I had almost said for the critical exact- 
 ness) of every narrative contained in the Old Testament. 
 
Chap. III.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 435 
 
 Note A. 
 
 The Bible, as we have elsewhere said, is a series of books, histori- 
 cal, didactic, poetical, prophetic, and epistolary, composed, at various 
 intervals, by persons of the Hebrew Nation, during the long period 
 of seventeen hundred years. In this view it may be regarded 
 merely as a collection of national literature. But, in another view, 
 it possesses a unity which does not belong to any other such collec- 
 tion. It is the INSPIRED WORD OF GOD— the HISTORY OF 
 HUMAN REDEMPTION. It contains no more either of general his- 
 tory, or even of the history of the Israelites themselves, than the 
 Omniscient saw was necessary for its specific purpose. Hence the 
 limitation and peculiarity of its details. It speaks incidentally of 
 other books written by Hebrew authors, but which are not included 
 in the canon of Scripture, because they were not requisite to its com- 
 pleteness, and, consequently, not composed under the same unerring 
 guidance. Its predictions constitute one grand scheme, extending 
 from that primeval epoch when the first promise of a REDEEMER 
 was given, down to the end of time, when the REDEMPTION shall 
 be completed by the general resurrection and judgment of the human 
 race. Even the prophecies that have already been fulfilled in the 
 history of the Jews and their enemies, were predictions concerning 
 the Church of God, which the Hebrew Nation represented, and 
 among whom the true church, or body of the faithful at the time, 
 chiefly or entirely subsisted. Nor has prophecy yet dropped the 
 Israelitish people. With the destiny of that people the Great Re- 
 demption is indissolubly bound up ; as St. Paul, himself at once an 
 expounder and a seer, has shown in the eleventh chapter of the Ro- 
 mans. So also the ethics, the poetry, and the epistles of the Bible 
 are all inseparably connected with the same Redemption. The Bible 
 is thus one and indivisible. Like all the operations of Divine Wis- 
 dom, the Revelation of religious truth has been a process of develop- 
 ment. Messiah or Christ, the seed of the woman and the Redeemer 
 of Sinners, is its grand central object. It is by faith in Him, (either 
 prospective or retrospective,) that men have been saved in all ages 
 that are past, and will be saved in all ages to come. The faith of 
 Abel had the same object as that of the believer who died yesterday. 
 The " Truth as it is in Jesus " dawned upon our first parents when 
 God declared "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and 
 between thy seed and her seed." It subsequently received accessions 
 through such men as Enoch and Noah. After the deluge, it was still 
 more fully disclosed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Still increasing 
 
486 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 disclosures, and more significant emblems, were granted to Moses and 
 the prophets. And last of all, in the fulness of time, came Jesus and 
 his apostles to consummate the work, by bringing life and immortal- 
 ity to perfect light in the Gospel. The Bible cannot be understood 
 unless studied under this conviction, and when so studied, the con- 
 nection and inter-dependence of its parts constitute a new and won- 
 derful proof of its divine original. Amid such a diversity of books, 
 referring to periods so various, and assuming so many diflPerent forms, 
 the same great plan is present, demonstrating that the Most High 
 must have inspired the whole. His guiding and informing spirit 
 permeates every member of the Revelation as an entire system, 
 even as the vital principle pervades and animates the human frame 
 in all its variety of parts, and in all its stages of development from 
 the embryo to the perfect man. 
 
 It is no doubt true that the evidence for the truth and divinity 
 of the New Testament revelation may be logically made a separate 
 affair ; and, in arguing with an infidel, it would probably be wise to 
 avoid complication and unnecessary difficulty by limiting the dis- 
 cussion and confining it to the claims of the New Testament, as Paley 
 has done. But no intelligent Christian — no man who really under- 
 stands the Bible — will dismiss the Old Testament from the Rule 
 of Faith in the light manner of our author. On the intimate con- 
 nection of the two. Dr. Wardlaw makes the following observations : 
 "No man can be a consistent believer in the New Testament, who 
 repudiates the Old : — nor can any one (we refer, of course, to Jews) 
 be a consistent believer in the Old, who refuses to admit the New. 
 The Jewish Revelation cannot be proved Divine apart from the 
 Christian:* — for without the Christian, its predictions, and promises, 
 and types, would have had no fulfilment ; and its grand ultimate de- 
 sign would have failed of being attained. Take away the New Tes- 
 tament, and the Mosaic Institutes acquire a twofold title to the 
 designation of 'beggarly elements;' for, in truth, they not only have 
 no power of salvation in themselves, — no virtue to take away sin, or 
 to renew the heart ; — but they become the * elements ' of nothing — 
 of no future disclosures to show their meaning and their end ; and 
 the search in them for the wisdom of the 'only wise God' becomes 
 a fruitless task. And, on the other hand, if the divine authority of 
 the New Testament can be satisfactorily established, the proof by 
 which the conclusion is arrived at will be equally valid and conclu- 
 sive for that of the Old. For, from beginning to end, the New bears 
 unceasing reference to the Old ; and, in many places, gives it its 
 * This is perhaps too strongly stated.— JKi. 
 
Chap. III.] EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIAXTTY. 437 
 
 most distinct and unqualified attestation. The Old is the introduc- 
 tion to the ISTew : — the New is the development of the Old ; the sub- 
 stance, of which the Old was the shadow ; the recorded fulfilment of 
 what the Old predicted, typified, and promised; the 'perfect day,' 
 of which the Old was the obscure and gradual dawn." 
 
 As Paley has spoken so rashly on the connection of the Old and 
 New Dispensations, we subjoin the strictures of his English Editor 
 upon the subject : 
 
 " The recognition, in the gospel, of the Old Testament Scriptures, 
 has been placed by Paley (Pt. iii. ch. 3) among those popular objec- 
 tions which require an answer. He argues, accordingly, that Chris- 
 tianity ' is not justly answerable with its life for the circumstantial 
 truth of every passage of the Old Testament, the genuineness of 
 •every book, and the information, fidelity, and judgment of every 
 writer.' This would bring, he says, unnecessary difficulties into the 
 whole system. He therefore deprecates, as utterly unwarrantable, 
 this fashion of attacking Christianity through the sides of Judaism, 
 the favorite policy of the school of Voltaire. 
 
 " These remarks, taken within ce;rtain limits, are true, and appro- 
 priate to the general argument. To dwell on secondary difficulties, 
 arising from the connection of the New with the Old Testament, in- 
 stead of inquiring first into the direct evidence of Christ's resurrec- 
 tion, and the Divine mission of his apostles, can be the proof only 
 of a dishonest mind. The external and internal proofs of the Chris- 
 tian revelation, drawn from the New Testament, are decisive and 
 complete in themselves. But to ascertain precisely its connection 
 with the law and the prophets, or to estimate the true weight of 
 difficulties thence arising, requires an intimate knowledge of the 
 Bible, and of Christian theology, which a mere sceptic, viewing them 
 from without, cannot possibly have attained. 
 
 " This barely defensive position, however, is not the best and 
 wisest for a Christian advocate to assume. He partly betrays the 
 cause of truth, if he lets his reader suppose that the Old Testament 
 only encumbers Christianity with real difficulties, instead of lending 
 it a vast accession of confirmatory evidence. Still less can it be law- 
 ful or wise to put a force on the plain statements of the gospel, as 
 Paley has certainly done, to separate its cause from that of Moses 
 and the prophets. Such a line of argument is a mischievous conde- 
 scension to the ignorant cavils of the school of Voltaire, and is more 
 likely to generate suspicion, than to promote a lively faith, in the 
 mind of a really honest and thoughtful inquirer. 
 
 " It is not true that our Lord and his apostles merely refer and 
 
438 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IH. 
 
 allude to the Jewish Scriptures, as the whole argument of the above 
 chapter implies. The testimony to their authority is almost as full 
 and various as language can possibly convey. We are told that ' one 
 jot or tittle shall not pass from the law till all be fulfilled;' that 'the 
 Scripture cannot be broken;' that 'if they hear not Moses and the 
 prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the 
 dead ;' that they are the lively oracles, the voice of the Holy Spirit, 
 the word of God ; and, in short, that they are all ' given by inspira- 
 tion of God,' and ' came not by the will of man, but holy men of 
 God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' Such passages 
 clearly prove far more than * the notoriety and reception at the time ' 
 of the Old Testament. To defend Christianity on such a ground, is 
 to create a difficulty where none exists ; and brings the veracity of 
 our Lord and his apostles into suspicion, in order to remove an ob- 
 jection which is itself an empty shadow. 
 
 " What, in reality, are the alleged difficulties ? Many of them are 
 only the senseless cavils of mere scorners ; of which a sufficient speci- 
 men may be seen, with a reply, remarkable for keen satire as for 
 sound judgment, in the 'Letters of certain Jews to Voltaire.' It 
 would be lost labor to dwell on such objections, which disappear of 
 themselves with the first dawning of moral honesty, and real desire 
 to know the will of God. But there are others, which may have a 
 real weight, and cause serious perplexity to thoughtful minds. They 
 will all of them, however, or nearly all, be removed by attending 
 carefully to three or four simple truths, which are plainly taught in 
 the Scriptures themselves. First, That the law of Moses was only a 
 preparatory, and, in one sense, an imperfect revelation. It was to 
 prepare the way for the bringing in of a better hope, by which we 
 might draw near to God. Secondly, That there is a designed con- 
 trast, in one main feature, between these two Divine messages. One 
 was to be marked by comparative rigor and severity, the other by 
 freedom and graciousness. ' The law was given by Moses ; but grace 
 and truth came by Jesus Christ.' Thirdly, That while holiness is as 
 truly a Divine attribute as mercy itself, its manifestation will natur- 
 ally be often more obnoxious to the tastes and feelings, perhaps even 
 to the darkened conscience, of fallen sinners. Fourthly, Thai the 
 faithfulness of an inspired record can never imply the absolute truth 
 or wisdom of every statement, or the perfection of every example, 
 which it records in the course of its narrative. Finally, That where 
 actions are of a mixed nature, it is quite consistent with the truth 
 and holiness of God sometimes to fix our attention on the evil, some- 
 times on the good elements, which are thus mingled ; and to leave 
 
Chap. III.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIAlsTITY. 439 
 
 us to supply for ourselves, from the whole tenor of Scripture, that 
 other moral aspect of the event which is passed by in silence. ThuF, 
 to the friends of Job, mention is made only of the patriarch's integ- 
 rity ; but to that patriarch himself, only of his rashness and pre- 
 sumption, for which he is brought to humble himself in the dust. 
 If any other . difficulties remain, they will be found to arise either 
 from direct misinterpretation, or from some false view of the Divine 
 character, and of the end for which a revelation is given. 
 
 " On the other hand, the confirmation of Christianity from the Old 
 Testament, as was seen and felt by all the early apologists, is of the 
 most powerful and convincing kind. It consists, not only in the 
 direct evidence of fulfilled prophecy, but in many other concurrent 
 proofs, hardly less striking. To develop them fully would require 
 a separate work, as large as the whole treatise of Paley ; it may be 
 enough here to point out their general nature, and refer to other 
 works for fuller information. 
 
 " I. There is, first, an argument from precedent and analogy. The 
 miraculous mission of the Jewish Lawgiver rests on direct and inde- 
 pendent proof, of the most ample nature, and sealed by the unwaver- 
 ing faith of a whole nation for more than three thousand years. In 
 Leslie's 'Short and Easy Method,' this proof will be seen unfolded in 
 a very pithy and conclusive form. But this truth once established, 
 all the abstract objections against Christianity, as a revelation, die 
 away of their own accord. If God has once revealed his will 
 through miracles and signs, there is precedent and analogy in favor 
 of a still further revelation of the same kind, whenever the state of 
 mankind shall be seen to require a moral remedy. Thus all the 
 proofs of the Mosaic miracles, from their publicity ; the public mon- 
 uments to perpetuate their memory ; the national rites founded upon 
 them, and continued for many ages, or even to this day ; and from 
 the internal truthfulness and consistency of the sacred narrative, 
 now confirmed by many fresh attestations in recent discoveries ; be- 
 come so many presumptions in favor of Christianity, which is a rev- 
 elation of the same kind, founded in miracles, and confirmed by the 
 faith of the whole church, and sacred ordinances that continue to the 
 present day. On this argument ample information will be found in 
 Home's 'Introduction,' vol. i.; Faber's 'Hor^e Mosaicse;' Graves' 
 ' Pentateuch ;' and Bishop Chandler's ' Vindications.' 
 
 " II. This argument from precedent is, however, chiefly negative. 
 It removes effectually all the abstract presumptions against the 
 Christian revelation, but lends it no positive and direct proof. But 
 the argument from analogy is more complete. There are many fea- 
 
440 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIAZSTITY. [Part HI. 
 
 tures of close resemblance between Christianity and Judaism, in the 
 mode of their origin, and their fundamental laws, which can scarcely 
 be found in any other religious system whatever. Both of them are 
 professedly founded on miraculous works, publicly wrought in the 
 sight of a whole nation. Both of them centre in the person of one 
 .distinguished leader, by whom these miracles were publicly wrought, 
 and by whose lips the whole constitution of Divine laws was first 
 uttered. Both of them perpetuate the memory of these Divine mir- 
 acles by sacred ordinances, instituted at the time of their occurrence, 
 and continuing ever since until now. Both of them enforce and 
 publish, with Divine authority, the same great maxims of morality, 
 embodied in the two great commandments. Both of them set apart 
 a chosen people, to be the witnesses before the world of the truth of 
 this miraculous revelation ; and then lead them forth to combat, in 
 the name of God, whether by righteous severity, or by messages of 
 pardon and grace, with the foul idolatry of the heathen world. Both 
 of them, finally, refer to each other, and mutually confirm each oth- 
 er's claims. The law announces the coming of a greater Prophet, 
 like unto Moses, to whose voice obedience is due ; and our Lord pro- 
 claims, in his turn, that if men hear not Moses and the prophets, 
 neither would they be persuaded though one were to rise from the 
 dead. These various analogies, and this mutual reference, make all 
 the proofs of the Divine mission of Moses a real and integral part 
 of the Christian evidence. * Had ye believed Moses, ye would have 
 believed me ; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writ- 
 ings, how shall ye believe my words?' 
 
 III. "The continuity of Divine Providence furnishes another 
 proof, derived from the same general source. Once let the mission 
 of Moses and the prophets be allowed, and we are embarked on a 
 mighty stream, which must land us in a cordial reception of the new 
 covenant of the gospel. "When we have contemplated the mighty 
 works of God, from the hour when Moses' rod was turned into a ser- 
 pent, to the deliverance of Daniel from the den of lions, and the 
 three children from the furnace, there will be found something more 
 than merely an analogy, to establish our faith in the miracles of the 
 New Testament. A spiritual law of Divine interposition will have 
 been revealed, lasting through a thousand years, which involves the 
 moral certainty of a later and fuller revelation. For who can be- 
 lieve that the all-wise God would set on foot and continue such a 
 mighty scheme of supernatural providence, and then let it suddenly 
 cease and die away ; so as to be followed only by the national ex- 
 tinction of the people to whom it was given ; and by a system of 
 
Chap. III.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIAISTITY. 441 
 
 enormous imposture, that vould ape all the characters, and even 
 borrow the morality and sacred ordinances, of that true and genuine 
 revelation, which is really dishonored, counterfeited, and cast aside ? 
 Christianity is only the fit and natural sequel to a course of miracu- 
 lous agency that had already continued for more than a thousand 
 years, and which rested on distinct and decisive evidence of its own. 
 
 " IV. The manifest incompleteness of the Mosaic economy becomes 
 a further argument for the truth and divinity of the gos-peL 'The 
 law made nothing perfect.' It was confined, almost exclusively, to a 
 single nation, and one of the smallest in the world. It was loaded 
 with a multitude of ceremonies, many of which would seem trivial 
 and unmeaning, unless they pointed to some higher and further ob- 
 ject, not included in the Levitical institution. It was marked by 
 many features of sternness and severity. There was a prospective 
 character in every part of its arrangements. It seemed as if the 
 ideal glory of the kingdom of Israel were only reached for a mo- 
 ment, under Solomon, when it was removed at once, to prepare the 
 way for a nobler dispensation. And hence, inasmuch as the law 
 teaches its own imperfection, while the gospel proclaims itself to be 
 only the fulfilment of * what Moses in the law and the prophets did 
 say should come,' all the proofs of the Christian religion ratify the 
 authority of the Old Testament, and all the direct evidence that eon- 
 firms the mission of Moses, confirms at the same time the Divine au- 
 thority of our Lord and his apostles. This branch of evidence will 
 be found treated of in most works on the Jewish controversy, from 
 the Dialogue of Justin Martyr down to the writings of Limborch, 
 AUix, Scott, and others in modern times. The Old Testament, in 
 fact, beside the express prophecies of Messiah, needs and presupposes 
 a further revelation, to remove from it the charge of a limited and 
 dwarfish design, unworthy of the God of heaven, and the majesty 
 of his universal dominion. 
 
 "To trace fully these links of connection, like the loops of the 
 Jewish tabernacle, which pro^- e the gospel to be only the predicted 
 completion of an earlier message from God, would require a volume. 
 But every lionest inquirer, who seriously compares the Old with the 
 New Testament, will find abundant proof of the fact ; and there is 
 no stronger part of the whole body of Christian evidence than what 
 results from this very connection, however superficial observers may 
 reckon it among the difficulties that encumber the direct argument. 
 The law, the prophets, the gospels, and the epistles, when thought- 
 fully compared, prove themselves to be a four-fold cord of Divino 
 truth, which cannot be broken. 
 
 19* 
 
442 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Paet III. 
 
 " Y. There is still one further branch of this argument, less accessi- 
 ble to sceptical minds, but most convincing and decisive to all who 
 search deeply into the word of God. It consisifcs in the various types 
 of the Mosaic history, and of the Levitical institutions, when com- 
 pared with their manifest antitypes in the gospel of Christ, and the 
 history, ordinances, and revealed hopes of the Christian church. Of 
 these it may be enough here to specify a few of the more striking : 
 Adam in paradise, compared with the final description of Christ and 
 the glorified church; the sacrifice of Isaac, (Gen. xxii,) with the 
 antitype, in the sacrifice and death of the Son of God ; the history 
 of Joseph, with its counterpart in the sufi'erings of our Lord and his 
 exaltation ; the passover, and its Christian antitype ; the brazen ser- 
 pent ; the scape-goat and annual atonement ; the tabernacle and its 
 apostolic interpretation ; and the history of David and his followers, 
 compared with that of Christ and his followers, the early Chris- 
 tians. To enter into the whole force of this argument, and distin- 
 guish it from the mere abuse of a sportive fancy, would plainly 
 require an enlarged knowledge of the Scriptures, and of the outlines 
 of Christian truth ; but the correspondence, in some of these cases, 
 is very apparent to any simple and candid inquirer. This whole 
 branch of Christian evidence, however, deserves a fuller and larger 
 development than it has ever received, though abundant materials 
 for such a work are scattered everywhere through the writings of 
 scriptural commentators on the Old Testament. One instance of this 
 striking relation between the early and later revelation may be seen 
 by comparing Dan. ix. and Mai. iii. iv. with the opening chapter of 
 St. Luke's Gospel, or the first chapter of Genesis with the two last 
 in the book of Revelation. Those who pursue the examination 
 thoughtfully, will see the proofs multiply upon them, that these are 
 indeed the words of God, and that a marvellous unity of design runs 
 through every part of the sacred message." 
 
 The student will find in Hill, book iii. chap. 6th, a most ingenious 
 and interesting criticism, introduced indeed for another purpose — 
 namely, to prove the Divinity of Christ — but bearing with equal 
 weight upon the unity of the whole Bible as containing God's entire 
 scheme of Revelation to mankind. Hill there proves, by a compari- 
 son of passages, 1st, That all divine appearances recorded in the Old 
 Testament are referred to one Person, called Angel and God; and 
 2d, That Christ was the Jehovah who appeared to the Patriarchs, was 
 worshipped in the Temple, and announced as the author of a new 
 Dispensation. Christ, the Redeemer, is thus seen to act, throughout 
 the whole plan, conducting it from its dawn to its perfect day. — Ed, 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 REJECTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 We acknowledge that the Christian religion, although it 
 converted great numbers, did not produce an universal, or 
 even a general conviction in the minds of men, of the age and 
 countries in which it appeared. And this want of a more 
 complete and extensive success, is called the rejection of the 
 Christian history and miracles ; and has been thought by some 
 to form a strong objection to the reality of the facts which 
 the history contains. 
 
 The matter of the objection divides itself into two parts ; as 
 it relates to the Jews, and as it relates to Heathen nations : be- 
 cause the minds of these two descriptions of men may have 
 been, with respect to Christianity, under the influence of very 
 different causes. The case of the Jews, inasmuch as our Sav- 
 iour's ministry was originally addressed to them, offers itself 
 first to our consideration. 
 
 Now, upon the subject of the truth of the Christian religion ; 
 with us^ there is but one question, viz.^ whether the miracles 
 were actually wrought ? From acknowledging the miracles, 
 we pass instantaneously to the acknowledgment of the whole. 
 No doubt lies between the premises and the conclusion. If 
 we believe the works or any one of them, we believe in Jesus. 
 And this order of reasoning is become so universal and famil- 
 iar, that we do not readily apprehend how it could ever have 
 been otherwise. Yet it appears to me perfectly certain, that 
 the state of thought in the mind of a Jew of our Saviour's 
 
444 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 age, was totally different from this. After allowing the real- 
 ity of the miracle, he had a great deal to do to persuade him- 
 self that Jesus was the Messiah. This is clearly intimated 
 by various passages of the Gospel history. It appears, that, 
 in the apprehension of the writers of the New Testament, the 
 miracles did not irresistibly carry, even those who saw them, 
 to the conclusion intended to be drawn from them ; or so com- 
 pel assent, as to leave no room for suspense, for the exercise 
 of candor, or the effects of prejudice. And to this point, at 
 least, the evangelists may be allowed to be good witnesses ; 
 because it is a point in which exaggeration or disguise would 
 have been the other way. Their accounts, if they could be 
 suspected of falsehood, would rather have magnified, than di- 
 minished, the effects of the miracles. 
 
 John, vii. 21-31. "Jesus answered, and said unto them, 
 I have done one work, and ye all marvel. If a man on the 
 Sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses 
 should not be broken ; are ye angry at me, because I have 
 made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day ? Judge 
 not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judg- 
 ment. Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he 
 whom they seek to kill ? But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and 
 they say nothing to him : do the rulers know indeed that this 
 is the very Christ ? Howheit we hnoiv this man^ whence he is : 
 but when Christ cometh^ no man knoweth whence he is. Then 
 cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying. Ye both know 
 me, and ye know whence I am : and I am not come of myself, 
 but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. But I know 
 him, for I am from him, and he hath sent me. They then 
 sought to take him : but no man laid hands on him, because 
 his hour was not yet come; • And many of the people believed 
 on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles 
 than those which this man hath done .^" 
 
 This passage is very observable. It exhibits the reason- 
 ing of different sorts of persons upon the occasion of a mira- 
 cle, which persons of all sorts are represented to have ac- 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 445 
 
 knowledged as real. One sort of men thought, that there 
 was something very extraordinary in all this ; but that still 
 Jesus could not be the Christ, because there was a circum- 
 stance in his appearance which militated with an opinion con- 
 cerning Christ, in which they had been brought up, and of the 
 truth of which, it is probable, they had never entertained a 
 particle of doubt, viz., that " when Christ cometh, no man 
 knoweth whence he is." Another sort were inclined to believe 
 him to be the Messiah. But even these did not argue as we 
 should ; did not consider the miracle as of itself decisive of 
 the question ; as what, if once allowed, excluded all further 
 debate upon the subject ; but founded their opinion upon a 
 kind of comparative reasoning, " When Christ cometh, will 
 he do more miracles than those which this man hath done f 
 
 Another passage in the same evangelist, and observable for 
 the same purpose, is that in which he relates the resurrection 
 of Lazarus : '* Jesus," he tells us (xi. 43, 44), " when he had 
 thus spoken, cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth : and 
 he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave 
 clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus 
 saith unto them. Loose him, and let him go." One might 
 have suspected, that at least all those who stood by the sepul- 
 chre, when Lazarus was raised, would have believed in Jesus. 
 Yet the evangelist does not so represent it : " Then many of 
 the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which 
 Jesus did, believed on him ; but some of them went their ways 
 to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done." 
 We cannot suppose that the evangelist meant by this account, 
 to leave his readers to imagine that any of the spectators 
 doubted about the truth of the miracle. Far from it. Un- 
 questionably, he states the miracle to have been fully allowed : 
 yet the persons who allowed it were, according to his repre- 
 sentation, capable of retaining hostile sentiments toward Je- 
 sus. " Believing in Jesus" was not only to believe that he 
 wrought miracles, but that he was the Messiah. With us, 
 there is no difference between these two things : with them, 
 
446 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 there was the greatest ; and the difference is apparent in this 
 transaction. If Saint John has represented the conduct of 
 the Jews upon this occasion truly, (and why he should not I 
 cannot tell, for it rather makes against him than for him), it 
 shows clearly the principles upon which their judgment pro- 
 ceeded. Whether he has related the matter truly or not, the 
 relation itself discovers the writer's own opinion of those 
 principles ; and that alone possesses considerable authority. 
 In the next chapter, we have a reflection of the evangelist, en- 
 tirely suited to this state of the case : " but though he had 
 done so many miracles before them, yet believed they not on 
 him."* The evangelist does not mean to imj)ute the defect 
 of their belief to any doubt about the miracles ; but to their 
 not perceiving, what all now sufficiently perceive, and what 
 they would have perceived, had not their understanding been 
 governed by strong prejudices, the infallible attestation which 
 the works of Jesus bore to the truth of his pretensions. 
 
 The ninth chapter of Saint John's Gospel contains a very 
 circumstantial account of the cure of a blind man ; a miracle 
 submitted to all the scrutiny and examination which a sceptic 
 could propose. If a modern unbeliever had drawn up the in- 
 terrogatories, they could hardly have been more critical or 
 searching. The account contains also a very curious confer- 
 ence between the Jewish rulers and the patient, in which 
 the point for our present notice is their resistance of the force 
 of the miracle, and of the conclusion to which it led, after 
 they had failed in discrediting its evidence. " We know that 
 God spake unto Moses : but as for this -fellow, we know not 
 whence he is." That was the answer which set their minds at 
 rest. And by the help of much prejudice, and great unwill- 
 ingness to yield, it might do so. In the mind of the poor man 
 restored to sight, which was under no such bias, and felt no 
 such reluctance, the miracle had its natural operation. " Here- 
 in," says he, " is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from 
 whence he is, yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know, 
 * Chap. xii. 37. 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 447 
 
 that God heareth not sinners ; but if any man be a worship- 
 per of God, ani doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the 
 world began, was it not heard, that any man opened the eyes 
 of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he 
 could do nothing." We do not find that the Jewish rulers 
 had any other reply to make to this defence, than that which 
 authority is sometimes apt to make to argument, " Dost thou 
 teach us ?" 
 
 If it shall be inquired, how a turn of thought, so different 
 from what prevails at present, should obtain currency with 
 the ancient Jews ; the answer is found in two opinions which 
 are proved to have subsisted in that age and country. The 
 one was, their expectation of a Messiah of a kind totally con- 
 trary to what the appearance of Jesus bespoke him to be ; the 
 other, their persuasion of the agency of demons in the pro- 
 duction of supernatural effects. These opinions are not sup- 
 posed by us for the purpose of argument, but are evidently 
 recognized in the Jewish writings, as well as in ours. And it 
 ought moreover to be considered, that in these opinions the 
 Jews of that age had been from their infancy brought up ; 
 that they were opinions, the grounds of which they had prob- 
 ably few of them inquired into, and of the truth of which they 
 entertained no doubt. And I think that these two opinions 
 conjointly afford an explanation of their conduct. The first 
 put them upon seeking out some excuse to themselves for not 
 receiving Jesus in the character in which he claimed to be 
 received ; and the second supplied them with just such an ex- 
 cuse as they wanted. Let Jesus work what miracles he would, 
 still the answer was in readiness, " that he wrought them by 
 the assistance of Beelzebub." And to this answer no reply 
 could be made, but that which our Saviour did make, by 
 showing that the tendency of his mission was so adverse to 
 the views with which this being was, by the objectors them- 
 selves, supposed to act, that it could not reasonably be sup- 
 posed that he would assist in carrying it on. The power dis- 
 played in the miracles did not alone refute the Jewish solu- 
 
448 EYIDEISrCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 tion, because the interposition of invisible agents being once 
 admitted, it is impossible to ascertain the fimits by which 
 their efficiency is circumscribed. We of this day may be dis- 
 posed, possibly, to think such opinions too absurd to have 
 been ever seriously entertained. I am not bound to contend 
 for the credibility of the opinions. They were at least as 
 reasonable as the belief in witchcraft. They were opinions 
 in which the Jews of that age had from their infancy been 
 instructed ; and those who cannot see enough in the force of 
 this reason, to account for their conduct towards our Saviour, 
 do not sufficiently consider how such opinions may sometimes 
 become very general in a country, and with what pertinacity, 
 when once become so, they are, for that reason alone, adhered 
 to. In the suspense which these notions, and the prejudices 
 resulting from them, might occasion, the candid and docile 
 and humble-minded would probably decide in Christ's favor ; 
 the proud and obstinate, together with the giddy and the 
 thoughtless, almost universally against him. 
 
 This state of opinion discovers to us also the reason of what 
 some choose to w^onder at, why the Jews should reject mira- 
 cles when they saw them, yet rely so much upon the tradition 
 of them in their own history. It does not appear, that it had 
 ever entered into the minds of those who lived in the time 
 of Moses and the prophets, to ascribe their miracles to the 
 supernatural agency of evil beings. The solution was not 
 then invented. The authority of Moses and the prophets be- 
 ing established, and become the foundation of the national 
 polity .and religion, it was not probable that the later Jews, 
 brought up in a reverence for that religion, and the subjects of 
 that polity, should apply to their history a reasoning which 
 tended to overthrow the foundation of both. 
 
 II. The infidelity of the Gentile world, and that more es- 
 pecially of men of rank and learning in it, is resolvable into 
 a principle which, in my judgmeni, will account for the ineffi- 
 cacy of any argument or any evidence whatever, viz.^ con- 
 tempt prior to examination. The state of religion amongst 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 449 
 
 the Greeks and Romans had a natural tendency to induce 
 this disposition. Dionysius Halicarnassensis remarks, that 
 there were six hundred diiferent kinds of religions or sacred 
 rites exercised at Rome.* The superior classes of the com- 
 munity treated them all as fables. Can we wonder then, that 
 Christianity was included in the number, without inquiry into 
 its separate merits, or the particular grounds of its preten- 
 sions ? It might be either true or false for anything they 
 knew about it. The religion had nothing in its character 
 which immediately engaged their notice. It mixed with no 
 politics. It produced no fine writers. It contained no curious 
 speculations. When it did reach their knowledge, I doubt 
 not but that it appeared to them a very strange system, — 
 so unphilosophical, — dealing so little in argument and discuss- 
 ion, in such arguments however and discussions as they were 
 accustomed to entertain. What is said of Jesus Christ, of 
 his nature, office, and ministry, would be, in the highest de- 
 gree, alien from the conceptions of their theology. The Re- 
 deemer and the destined Judge of the human race, a poor 
 young man, executed at Jerusalem with two thieves upon a 
 cross ! Still more w^ould the language in which the Christian 
 doctrine was delivered, be dissonant and barbarous to their 
 ears. What knew they of grace, of redemption, of justifica- 
 tion, of the blood of Christ shed for the sins of men, of rec- 
 oncilement, of mediation ? Christianity was made up of 
 points they had never thought of; of terms which they had 
 never heard. 
 
 It was presented also to the imagination of the learned 
 Heathen under additional disadvantage, by reason of its real, 
 and still more of its nominal, connection with Judaism. It 
 shared in the obloquy and ridicule with which that people and 
 their religion were treated by the Greeks and Romans. They 
 regarded Jehovah himself only as the idol of the Jewish na- 
 tion, and what was related of him, as of a piece with what 
 was told of the tutelar deities of other countries : nay, the 
 * Jortin's Remarks on Eccl. Hist., vol. i. p. 371. 
 
450- EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 Jews were in a particular manner ridiculed for being a credu- 
 lous race ; so that whatever reports of a miraculous nature 
 came out of that country, were looked upon by the Heathen 
 w^orld as false and frivolous. When they heard of Christian- 
 ity, they heard of it as a quarrel amongst this people, about 
 some articles of their own superstition. Despising, therefore, 
 as they did, the whole system, it was not probable that they 
 would enter, with any degree of seriousness or attention, into 
 the detail of its disputes, or the merits of either side. How 
 little they knew, and with what carelessness they judged, of 
 these matters, appears, I think, pretty plainly from an exam- 
 ple of no less weight than that of Tacitus, who, in a grave 
 and professed discourse upon the history of the Jews, states, 
 that they worshipped the effigy of an ass.* The passage is a 
 proof, how prone the learned men of those times were, and 
 upon how little evidence, to heap together stories which might 
 increase the contempt and odium in which that people w^as 
 holden. The same foolish charge is also confidently repeated 
 by Plutarch, f 
 
 It is observable, that all these considerations are of a nature 
 to operate with the greatest force upon the highest ranks ; 
 upon men of education, and that order of the public from 
 which writers are principally taken : I may add also, upon the 
 philosophical as well as the libertine character ; upon the An- 
 tonines or Julian, not less than upon Nero or Domitian ; and 
 more particularly, upon that large and polished class of men, 
 who acquiesced in the general persuasion, that all they had to 
 do was to practice the duties of morality, and to w^orship the 
 deity more patrio ; a habit of thinking, liberal as it may ap- 
 pear, which shuts the door against every argument for a new 
 religion. The considerations above mentioned, would acquire 
 also strength from the prejudice which men of rank and learn- 
 ing universally entertain against anything that originates with 
 the vulgar and illiterate ; which prejudice is known to be as 
 obstinate as any prejudice whatever. 
 
 * Tacit. Hist., lib. v. c. 2. f Sympos., lib. iv. qusest. 6. 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 451 
 
 Yet Christianity was still making its way ; and, amidst so 
 many impediments to its progress, so much difficulty in pro- 
 curing audience and attention, its actual success is more to be 
 wondered at, than that it should not have universally conquer- 
 ed scorn and indifference, fixed the levity of a voluptuous age, 
 or, through a cloud of adverse prejudications, opened for it- 
 self a passage to the hearts and understandings of the scholars 
 of the age. 
 
 And the cause which is here assigned for the rejection of 
 Christianity by men of rank and learning among the Heath- 
 ens, namely, a strong antecedent contempt, accounts also for 
 their silence concerning it. If they had rejected it upon ex 
 amination, they would have written about it; they would 
 have given their reasons. Whereas what men repudiate upon 
 the strength of some prefixed persuasion, or from a settled 
 contempt of the subject, of the persons who propose it, or of 
 the manner in which it is proposed, they do not naturally 
 write books about, or notice much in what they write upon 
 other subjects. 
 
 The letters of the Younger Pliny furnish an example of this 
 silence, and let us, in some measure, into the cause of it. 
 From his celebrated correspondence with Trajan, we know 
 that the Christian religion prevailed in a very considerable 
 degree in the province over which he presided ; that it had ex- 
 cited his attention ; that he had inquired into the matter, just 
 so much as a Roman magistrate might be expected to inquire, 
 mz.^ whether the religion contained any opinions dangerous to 
 government ; but that of its doctrines, its evidences, or its 
 books, he had not taken the trouble to inform himself with 
 any degree of care or correctness. But although Pliny had 
 viewed Christianity in a nearer position than most of his learn- 
 ed countrymen saw it in ; yet he had regarded the whole with 
 such negligence and disdain (farther than as it seemed to con- 
 cern his administration), that, in more than two hundred and 
 forty letters of his which have come down to us, the subject 
 is never once again mentioned. If, out of this number, the 
 
452 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 two letters between him and Trajan had been lost ; with what 
 confidence would the obscurity of the Christian religion have 
 been argued from Pliny's silence about it, and with how little 
 truth ! 
 
 The name and character which Tacitus has given to Chris- 
 tianity, " exitiabilis superstitio " (a pernicious superstition), 
 and by which two words he disposes of the whole question of 
 the merits or demerits of the religion, afford a strong proof 
 how little he knew, or concerned himself to know, about the 
 matter. I apprehend that I shall not be contradicted, when I 
 take upon me to assert, that no unbeliever of the present age 
 would apply this epithet to the Christianity of the New Tes- 
 tament, or not allow that it was entirely unmerited. Read 
 the instructions given, by a great teacher of the religion, to 
 those very Eoman converts, of whom Tacitus speaks; and 
 given also a very few years before the time of which he is 
 speaking ; and which are not, let it be observed, a collection 
 of fine sayings brought together from different parts of a large 
 work, but stand in one entire passage of a public letter, with- 
 out the intermixture of a single thought which is frivolous or 
 exceptionable j — " Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that 
 which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another, with 
 brotherly love ; in honor preferring one another ; not slothful 
 in business ; fervent in spirit ; serving the Lord ; rejoicing in 
 hope ; patient in tribulation ; continuing instant in prayer ; 
 distributing to the necessity of saints ; given to hospitality. 
 Bless them which persecute you ; bless and curse not. Re- 
 joice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. 
 Be of the same mind one towards another. Mind not high 
 things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in 
 your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. 
 Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possi- 
 ble, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 
 Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath : for 
 it is written. Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord : 
 therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 453 
 
 him drink : for, in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his 
 head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. 
 
 " Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For 
 there is no power but of God : the powers that be, are or- 
 dained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, re- 
 sisteth the ordinance of God : and they that resist, shall re- 
 ceive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror 
 to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid 
 of the power ? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have 
 praise of the same : for he is the minister of God to thee for 
 good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he 
 beareth not the sword in vain : for he is the minister of God, 
 a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 
 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but 
 also for conscience' sake. For, for this cause pay ye tribute 
 also : for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon 
 this very thing. Render therefore to all, their dues : tribute, 
 to w^hom tribute is due ; custom, to whom custom ; fear, to 
 whom fear ; honor, to whom honor. 
 
 " Owe no man anything, but to love one another : for he 
 that loveth another, hath fulfilled the law. For this. Thou 
 shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not 
 steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet ; 
 and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly compre- 
 hended in this saying. Thou shalt' love thy neighbor as thyself 
 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor : therefore love is the 
 fulfilling of the law. 
 
 " And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to 
 awake out of sleep ; for now is our salvation nearer than when 
 we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand ; let 
 us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on 
 the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day ; not 
 in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wanton- 
 ness, not in strife and envying."* 
 
 Read this, and then think of " exitiabilis superstitio" ! ! 
 * Romans, xii. 9; xiii. 13. 
 
454 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 Or if we be not allowed, in contending with Heathen author- 
 ities, to produce our books against theirs, we may at least be 
 permitted to confront theirs with one another. Of this " per- 
 nicious superstition," what could Pliny find to blame, when 
 he was led, by his office, to institute something like an exam- 
 ination into the conduct and principles of the sect ? He dis- 
 covered nothing, but that they were wont to meet together on 
 a stated day before it was light, and sing among themselves 
 a hymn to Christ as a God, and to bind themselves by an oath, 
 not to the commission of any wickedness, but, not to be guilty 
 of theft, robbery, or adultery ; never to falsify their w^ord, 
 nor to deny a pledge committed to them, when called upon 
 to return it. 
 
 Upon the words of Tacitus we may build the following ob- 
 servations : 
 
 First ; That we are well warranted in calling the view 
 under which the learned men of that age beheld Christianity, 
 an obscure and distant view. Had Tacitus known more of 
 Christianity, of its precepts, duties, constitution, or design, 
 however he had discredited the story, he would have respected 
 the principle. He would have described the religion differ- 
 ently, though he had rejected it. It has been very satisfac- 
 torily shown, that the " superstition" of the Christians con- 
 sisted in worshipping a person unknown to the Roman calen- 
 dar ; and that the " perniciousness" with which they were re- 
 proached, was nothing else but their opposition to the estab- 
 lished polytheism ; and this view of the matter was just such 
 an one as might be expected to occur to a mind which held the 
 sect in too much contempt to concern itself about the grounds 
 and reasons of their conduct. 
 
 Secondly ; We may from hence remark, how little reliance 
 can be placed upon the most acute judgments, in subjects 
 which they are pleased to despise : and which, of course, they 
 from the first consider as unworthy to be inquired into. Had 
 not Christianity survived to tell its own story, it must have 
 gone down to posterity as a " pernicious superstition ;" and 
 
Chap. IV.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 455 
 
 that upon the credit of Tacitus' account, much, I doubt not, 
 strengthened by the name of the writer, and the reputation 
 of his sagacity. 
 
 Thirdly ; That this contempt prior to examination, is an 
 intellectual vice, from which the greatest faculties of mind are 
 not free. I know not, indeed, whether men of the greatest 
 faculties of mind are not the most subject to it. Such men 
 feel themselves seated upon an eminence. Looking down 
 from their height upon the follies of mankind, they behold 
 contending tenets wasting their idle strength upon one an- 
 other, with the common disdain of the absurdity of them all. 
 This habit of thought, however comfortable to the mind which 
 entertains it, or however natural to great parts, is extremely 
 dangerous ; and more apt, than almost any other disposition, 
 to produce hasty and contemptuous, and, by consequence, er- 
 roneous judgments, both of persons and opinions. 
 
 Fourthly ; We need not be surprised at many writers of 
 that age not mentioning Christianity at all ; when they who 
 did mention it, appear to have entirely misconceived its na- 
 ture and character ; and, in consequence of this misconception, 
 to have regarded it Avith negligence and contempt. 
 
 To the knowledge of the greatest part of the learned Hea- 
 thens, the facts of the Christian history could only come by re- 
 port. The books, probably, they had never looked into. The 
 settled habit of their minds was, and long had been, an indis- 
 criminate rejection of all reports of the kind. With these 
 sweeping conclusions, truth hath no chance. It depends upon 
 distinction. If they would not inquire, how should they be 
 convinced ? It might be founded in truth, though they, who 
 made no search, might not discover it. 
 
 " Men of rank and fortune, of wit and abilities, are often 
 found, even in Christian countries, to be surprisingly ignorant 
 of religion, and of everything that relates to it. Such were 
 many of the heathens. Their thoughts were all fixed upon 
 other things ; upon reputation and glory, upon wealth and 
 power, upon luxury and pleasure, upon business or learning. 
 
456 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part HI. 
 
 They thought, and they had reason to think, that the religion 
 of their country was fable and forgery, a heap of inconsistent 
 lies ; which inclined them to suppose that other religions were 
 no better. Hence it came to pass, that when the apostles 
 preached the Gospel, and wrought miracles in confirmation of 
 a doctrine every way worthy of God, many Gentiles knew 
 little or nothing of it, and would not take the least pains to 
 inform themselves about it. This appears plainly from an- 
 cient history."* 
 
 I think it by no means unreasonable to suppose, that the 
 heathen public, especially that part which is made up of men 
 of rank and education, were divided into two classes ; those 
 who despised Christianity beforehand, and those who received 
 it. In correspondency of which division of character, the 
 writers of that age would also be of two classes ; those who 
 were silent about Christianity, and those who were Christians. 
 " A good man, who attended sufficiently to the Christian af- 
 fairs, would become a Christian ; after which his testimony 
 ceased to be pagan, and became Christian."! 
 
 I must also add, that I think it sufficiently proved, that the 
 notion of magic was resorted to by the heathen adversaries of 
 Christianity, in like manner as that of diabolical agency had 
 before been by the Jews. Justin Martyr alleges this as his 
 reason for arguing from prophecy, rather than from miracles. 
 Origen imputes this evasion to Celsus ; Jerome to Porphyry ; 
 and Lactantius to the heathen in general. The several pas- 
 sages, which contain these testimonies, will be produced in 
 the next chapter. It being difficult, however, to ascertain in 
 what degree this notion prevailed, especially amongst the su- 
 perior ranks of the heathen communities, another, and I think 
 an adequate, cause has been assigned for their infidelity. It is 
 probable that in many cases the two causes would operate to- 
 gether. 
 
 * Jortin'e Disc, on the Christ. Rel., p. 66, ed. 4th. 
 \ Hartley Obs., p. 119. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THAT THE CHRISTIAN MIRACLES ARE NOT RECITED, OR APPEALED TO, 
 BY EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITERS THEMSELVES, SO FULLY OR FRE- 
 QUENTLY AS MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED. 
 
 I SHALL consider this objection, first, as it applies to the 
 letters of the apostles, preserved in the New Testament ; and 
 secondly, as it applies to the remaining writings of other early 
 Christians. 
 
 The epistles of the apostles are either hortatory or argu- 
 mentative. So far as they were occupied in delivering les- 
 sons of duty, rules of public order, admonitions against cer- 
 tain prevailing corruptions, against vice, or any particular 
 species of it, or in fortifying and encouraging the constancy 
 of the disciples under the trials to which they were exposed, 
 there appears to be no place or occasion for more of these 
 references than we actually find. 
 
 So far as the epistles are argumentative, the nature of the 
 argument which they handle, accounts for the infrequency of 
 these allusions. These epistles were not written to prove the 
 truth of Christianity. The subject under consideration was 
 not that which the miracles decided, the reality of our Lord's 
 mission ; but it was that which the miracles did not decide, 
 the nature of his person or power, the design of his advent, 
 its effects, and of those effects the value, kind, and extent. 
 Still I maintain, that miraculous evidence lies at the bottom 
 of the argument. For nothing could be so preposterous as 
 for the disciples of Jesus to dispute amongst themselves, or 
 with others, concerning his office or character, unless they be- 
 
 20 
 
458 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 lieved that he had shown, by supernatural proofs, that there 
 was something extraordinary in both. Miraculous evidence, 
 therefore, forming not the texture of these arguments, but the 
 ground and substratum, if it be occasionally discerned, if it 
 be incidentally appealed to, it is exactly so much as ought to 
 take place, supposing the history to be true. 
 
 As a further answer to the objection, that the apostolic 
 epistles do not contain so frequent, or such direct and circum- 
 stantial recitals of miracles as might be expected, I would 
 add, that the apostolic epistles resemble in this respect the apos- 
 tolic speeches^ which speeches are given by a writer who dis- 
 tinctly records numerous miracles wrought by these apostles 
 themselves, and by the Founder of the - institution in their 
 presence ; that it is unwarrantable to contend, that the omis- 
 sion, or infrequency, of such recitals in the speeches of the 
 apostles, negatives the existence of the miracles, when the 
 speeches are given in immediate conjunction with the history 
 of those miracles ; and that a conclusion which cannot be in- 
 ferred from the speeches, without contradicting the whole 
 tenor of the book which contains them, cannot be inferred 
 from letters, which, in this respect, are similar only to the 
 speeches. 
 
 To prove the similitude which we allege, it may be remark- 
 ed, that although in Saint Luke's Gospel the apostle Peter is 
 represented to have been present at many decisive miracles 
 wrought by Christ ; and although the second part of the same 
 history ascribes other decisive miracles to Peter himself, par- 
 ticularly the cure of the lame man at the gate of the temple 
 (Acts, iii. 1), the death of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts, v. 1), 
 the cure of ^neas (Acts, ix. 34), the resurrection of Dorcas 
 (Acts, ix. 40) ; yet out of six speeches of Peter, preserved 
 in the Acts, I know but two in which reference is made to 
 the miracles wrought by Christ, and only one in which he re- 
 fers to miraculous powers possessed by himself In his 
 speech upon the day of Pentecost, Peter addresses his audi- 
 ence with great solemnity, thus : " Ye men of Israel, hear 
 
Chap. V.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 459 
 
 these words ; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God 
 among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God 
 did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know ;"* 
 &c. In his speech upon the conversion of Cornelius, he de- 
 livers his testimony to the miracles performed by Christ, in 
 these words : " We are witnesses of all things which he did, 
 both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem."! But in 
 this latter speech, no allusion appears to the miracles wrought 
 by himself, notwithstanding that the miracles above enumer- 
 ated all preceded the time in whicJi it was delivered. In his 
 speech upon the election of Matthias, J no distinct reference is 
 made to any of the miracles of Christ's history, except his 
 resurrection. The same also may be observed of his speech 
 upon the cure of the lame man at the gate of the temple ;§ 
 the same in his speech before the Sanhedrim ; || the same in 
 his second apology in the presence of that assembly. Ste- 
 phen's long speech contains no reference whatever to miracles, 
 though it be expressly related of him, in the book which pre- 
 serves the speech, and almost immediately before the speech, 
 " that he did great wonders and miracles among the people. "^f 
 Again, although miracles be expressly attributed to Saint 
 Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, first, generally, as at Ico- 
 nium (Acts, xiv. 3), during the whole tour through the Upper 
 Asia (xiv. 27, xv. 12), at Ephesus (xix. 11, 12); secondly, 
 in specific instances, as the blindness of Elymas at Paphos,*"* 
 the cure of the cripple at Lystra,f f of the pythoness at Phil- 
 ippi,JJ the miraculous liberation from prison in the same 
 city,§§ the restoration of Eutychus,|||| the predictions of his 
 shipwreck,^^ the viper at Melita,*** the cure of Publius' fa- 
 ther ; f f f at all which miracles except the first two, the historian 
 himself was present ; notwithstanding, I say, this positive 
 ascription of miracles to Saint Paul, yet in the speeches de- 
 
 * Acts, ii. 22. 
 
 t X. 39. 
 
 t I 15. 
 
 § iii. 12. 
 
 1 iv. 8. 
 
 IT vi. 8. 
 
 ** xiii. 11. 
 
 tt xiv. 8. 
 
 it xvi. 16. 
 
 §§ xvi. 26. 
 
 II 1 XX. 10. 
 
 TJt xxvii. 1. 
 
 «** xxviii. 6. 
 
 ff f xxviii. 8. 
 
 
 
460 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 livered by him, and given as delivered by him, in the same 
 book in which the miracles are related, and the miraculous 
 powers asserted, the appeals to his own miracles, or indeed 
 to any miracles at all, are rare and incidental. In his speech 
 at Antioch in Pisidia,* there is no allusion but to the resur- 
 rection. In his discourse at Miletus,f none to any miracle ; 
 none in his speech before Felix ; J none in his speech before 
 restus;§ except to Christ's resurrection, and his own con- 
 version. 
 
 Agreeably hereunto, in thirteen letters ascribed to Saint 
 Paul, we have incessant references to Christ's resurrection, 
 frequent references to his own conversion, three indubitable 
 references to the miracles which he wrought;! four other 
 references to the same, less direct yet highly probable ;^ but 
 more copious or circumstantial recitals we have not. The 
 consent, therefore, between Saint Paul's speeches and letters, 
 is in this respect sufficiently exact ; and the reason in both is 
 the same ; namely, that the miraculous history was all along 
 presupposed^ and that the question, which occupied the speak- 
 er's and the writer's thoughts, was this : whether, allowing 
 the history of Jesus to be true, he was, upon the strength of 
 it, to be received as the promised Messiah ; and, if he was, 
 what were the consequences, what was the object and benefit, 
 of his mission ? 
 
 The general observation which has been made upon the 
 apostolic writings, namely, that the subject of which they 
 treated, did not lead them to any direct recital of the Chris- 
 tian history, belongs also to the writings of the apostolic 
 fathers^ The epistle of Barnabas is, in its subject and gen- 
 eral composition, much like the epistle to the Hebrews ; an 
 allegorical application of divers passages of the Jewish his- 
 tory, of their law and ritual, to those parts of the Christian 
 dispensation in which the author perceived a resemblance. 
 
 * Acts, xiii. 16. f xx. 17. % xxiv. 10. § xxv. 8. ^ 
 
 I Gal. iii.-5 ; Rom. xv. 18, 19 ; 2 Cor. xii. 12. ^ 
 
 T[ 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5 ; Eph. iii. 1 ; Gal. ii. 8 ; 1 These, i. 5# 
 
Chap. V.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 461 
 
 The epistle of Clement was written for the sole purpose of 
 quieting certain dissensions that had arisen amongst the mem- 
 bers of the church of Corinth, and of reviving in their minds 
 that temper and spirit of which their predecessors in the Gos- 
 pel had left them an example. The work of Hermas is 
 a vision ; quotes neither the Old Testament nor the New ; 
 and merely falls now and then into the language, and the 
 mode of speech, which the author had read in our Gospels. 
 The epistles of Polycarp and Ignatius had for their principal 
 object the order and discipline of the churches which they 
 addressed. Yet, under all these circumstances of disadvan- 
 tage, the great points of the Christian history are fully recog- 
 nized. This hath been shown in its proper place.* 
 
 There is, however, another class of writers, to whom the 
 answer above given, viz., the unsuitableness of any such ap- 
 peals or references as the objection demands, to the subjects 
 of which the writings treated, does not apply ; and that is, the 
 class of ancient apologists, whose declared design it was to 
 defend Christianity, and to give the reasons of their adher- 
 ence to it. It is necessary, therefore, to inquire how the mat- 
 ter of the objection stands in these. 
 
 The most ancient apologist, of whose works we have the 
 smallest knowledge, is Quadratus. Quadratus lived about sev- 
 enty years after the ascension, and presented his apology to the 
 emperor Adrian. From a passage of this work, preserved in 
 Eusebius, it appears that the author did directly and formally 
 appeal to the miracles of Christ, and in terms as express and 
 confident as we could desire. The passage (which has been 
 once already stated) is as follows : " The works of our Sa- 
 viour were always conspicuous, for they were real ; both they 
 that were healed, and they that were raised from the dead, 
 were seen, not only when they were healed or raised, but 
 for a long time afterwards ; not only whilst he dwelled on 
 this earth, but also after his departure, and for a good while 
 after it ; insomuch as that some of them have reached to our 
 * Prop. i. Chap. vii. 
 
462 EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 times."* Nothing can be more rational or satisfactory than 
 this. 
 
 Justin Martyr, the next of the Christian apologists whose 
 work is not lost, and who followed Quadratus at the distance 
 of about thirty years, has touched upon passages of Christ's 
 history in so many places, that a tolerably complete account 
 of Christ's life might be collected out of his works. In 
 the following quotation, he asserts the performance of mir- 
 acles by Christ, in words as strong and positive as the lan- 
 guage possesses : " Christ healed those who from their birth 
 were blind, and deaf, and lame ; causing, by his word, one to 
 leap, another to hear, and a third to see ; and having raised 
 the dead, and caused them to live, he by his works excited 
 attention, and induced the men of that age to know him. 
 Who, however, seeing these things done, said that it was a 
 magical appearance, and dared to call him a magician, and a 
 deceiver of the people."f 
 
 In his first apology,^ Justin expressly assigns the reason 
 for his having recourse to the argument from prophecy, rather 
 than alleging the miracles of the Christian history ; which 
 reason was, that the persons with whom he contended would 
 ascribe these miracles to magic ; " lest any of our opponents 
 should say. What hinders, but that he who is called Christ by 
 us, being a man sprung from men, performed the miracles 
 which we attributed to him, by magical art ?" The sugges- 
 tion of this reason meets, as I apprehend, the very point of 
 the present objection ; more especially when we find Justin 
 followed in it, by other writers of that age. Irenaeus, who 
 came about forty years after him, notices the same evasion 
 in the adversaries of Christianity, and replies to it by the 
 same argument : " But, if they shall say, that the Lord per- 
 formed these things by an illusory appearance {^cpocpiaoicodibg), 
 leading these objectors to the prophecies, we will show from 
 them, that all things were thus predicted concerning him, and 
 
 * Euseb. Hist., 1. iv. c. 3. f Just. Dial., p. 258. ed. Thirlby. 
 X Apolog. prim., p. 48, ib. 
 
Chap. V.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 468 
 
 strictly came to pass."* Lactantius, who lived a century 
 lower, delivers the same sentiment, upon the same occasion : 
 " He performed miracles ; — we might have supposed him to 
 have been a magician, as ye say, and as the Jews then sup- 
 posed, if all the prophets had not with one spirit foretold that 
 Christ should perform these very things, "f 
 
 But to return to the Christian apologists in their order. 
 Tertullian :— " That person whom the Jews had vainly imag- 
 ined, from the meanness of his appearance, to be a mere man, 
 they afterwards, in consequence of the power he exerted, con- 
 sidered as a magician, when he, with one word, ejected devils 
 out of the bodies of men, gave sight to the blind, cleansed 
 the leprous, strengthened the nerves of those that had the 
 palsy, and, lastly, with one command, restored the dead to 
 life; when he, I say, made the very elements obey him, 
 assuaged the storms, walked upon the seas, demonstrating 
 himself to be the Word of God. "J 
 
 Next in the catalogue of professed apologists we may place 
 Origen, who, it is well known, published a formal defence of 
 Christianity, in answer to Celsus, a heathen, who had written 
 a discourse against it. I know no expressions, by which a 
 plainer or more positive appeal to the Christian miracles can 
 be made, than the expressions used by Origen ; " Undoubt- 
 edly we do think him to be the Christ, and the Son of God, 
 because he healed the lame and the blind ; and we are the 
 more confirmed in this persuasion, by what is written in the 
 prophecies : ' Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, 
 and the ears of the deaf shall hear, and the lame man shall 
 leap as an hart.' But that he also raised the dead, and that 
 it is not a fiction of those who wrote the Gospels, is evident 
 from hence, that, if it had been a fiction, there would have 
 been many recorded to be raised up, and such as had been a 
 long time in their graves. But, it not being a fiction, few 
 have been recorded ; for instance, the daughter of the ruler 
 
 * Iren., 1. ii. c, 57. f Lactant., v. 3. 
 
 X Tertull. Apolog., p. 20; ed. Priorii, Par. 1676. 
 
464 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Paet III. 
 
 of a synagogue, of whom I do not know why he said, She is 
 not dead but sleepeth, expressing something peculiar to her, 
 not common to all dead persons ; and the only son of a 
 widow, on whom he had compassion, and raised him to life, 
 after he had bid the bearers of the corpse to stop ; and the 
 third, Lazarus, who had been buried four days." This is pos- 
 itively to assert the miracles of Christ, and it is also to com- 
 ment upon them, and that with a considerabjp degree of ac- 
 curacy and candor. 
 
 In another passage of the same author we meet with the 
 old solution of magic applied to the miracles of Christ by 
 the adversaries of the religion. " Celsus," saith Origen, " well 
 knowing what great works may be alleged to have been done 
 by Jesus, pretends to grant that the things related of him are 
 true ; such as healing diseases, raising the dead, feeding mul- 
 titudes with a few loaves, of which large fragments were 
 left."* And then Celsus gives, it seems, an answer to these 
 proofs of our Lord's mission, which, as Origen understood it, 
 resolved the phenomena into magic ; for, Origen begins his 
 reply, by observing, "You see that Celsus in a manner allows 
 that there is such a thing as magic, "f 
 
 It appears also from the testimony of Saint Jerome, that 
 Porphyry, the most learned and able of the Heathen writers 
 against Christianity, resorted to the same solution : " Unless," 
 says he, speaking to Vigilantius, " according to the manner 
 of the Gentiles and the profane, of Porphyry and Eunomius, 
 you pretend that these are the tricks of demons. "J 
 
 This magic, these demons, this illusory appearance, this 
 comparison with the tricks of jugglers, by which many of 
 that age accounted so easily for the Christian miracles, and 
 which answers the advocates of Christianity often thought it 
 necessary to refute by arguments drawn from other topics, 
 and particularly from prophecy (to which, it seems, these 
 
 * Orig. Cont. Gels., lib. ii. sect. 48. 
 
 f Lardner's Jewish and Heath. Test., vol. ii. p. 294, ed. 4to. 
 
 X Jerome Cont. Yigil. 
 
Chap. V.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 465 
 
 solutions did not apply), we now perceive to be gross subter- 
 fuges. That such reasons were ever seriously urged, and 
 seriously received, is only a proof, what a gloss and varnish 
 fashion can give to any opinion. 
 
 It appears, therefore, that the miracles of Christ under- 
 stood, as we understand them, in their literal and historical 
 sense, were positively and precisely asserted and appealed to 
 by the apologists for Christianity ; which answers the allega- 
 tion of the objection. 
 
 I am ready, however, to admit, that the ancient Christian 
 advocates did not insist upon the miracles in argument, so 
 frequently as I should have done. It was their lot to contend 
 with notions of magical agency, against which the mere pro- 
 duction of the facts was not sufficient for the convincing of 
 their adversaries : I do not know whether they themselves 
 thought it quite decisive of the controversy. But since it is 
 proved, I conceive with certainty, that the sparingness with 
 which they appealed to miracles, was owing neither to their 
 ignorance, nor their doubt of the facts, it is, at any rate, an 
 objection, not to the truth of the history, but to the judgment 
 of its defenders. 
 
 20* 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 WANT OF UNIVERSALITY IN THE KNOWLEDGE AND EEOEPTION OF 
 CHRISTIANITY, AND OF GREATER CLEARNESS IN THE EVIDENCE. 
 
 Of a revelation which really came from God, the proof, 
 it has been said, would in all ages be so public and manifest, 
 that no part of the human species would remain ignorant of 
 it, no understanding could fail of being convinced by it. 
 
 The advocates of Christianity do not pretend that the evi- 
 dence of their religion possesses these qualities. They do not 
 deny that we can conceive it to be within the compass of di- 
 vine power, to have communicated to the world a higher de- 
 gree of assurance, and to have given to his communication a 
 stronger and more extensive influence. For anything we are 
 able to discern, God could have so formed men, as to have 
 perceived the truths of religion intuitively :* or to have car- 
 ried on a communication with the other world, whilst they 
 lived in this ; or to have seen the individuals of the species, 
 instead of dying, pass to heaven by a sensible translation. He 
 could have presented a separate miracle to each man's senses. 
 He could have established a standing miracle. He could 
 have caused miracles to be wrought in every different age and 
 country. These, and many more methods, which we may 
 imagine, if we once give loose to our imaginations, are, so 
 far as we can judge, all practicable. 
 
 The question, therefore, is not whether Christianity pos- 
 sesses the highest possible degree of evidence, but whether the 
 * This is the doctrine of Spiritualism. — Ed. 
 
Chap. YL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 467 
 
 not having more evidence be a sufficient reason for rejecting 
 that which we have. 
 
 Now there appears to be no fairer method of judging, con- 
 cerning any dispensation which is alleged to come from God, 
 when a question is made whether such a dispensation could 
 come from God or not, than by comparing it with other things 
 which are acknowledged to proceed from the same counsel, 
 and to be produced by the same agency. If the dispensation 
 in question labor under no defects but what apparently belong 
 to other dispensations, these seeming defects do not justify us 
 in setting aside the proofs which are offered of its authenticity, 
 if they be otherwise entitled to credit. 
 
 Throughout that order then of nature, of which God is the 
 author, what we find is a system of beneficence : we are sel- 
 dom or ever able to make out a system of optimism. I 
 mean, that there are few cases in which, if we permit ourselves 
 to range in impossibilities, we cannot suppose something more 
 perfect, and more unobjectionable, than what we see. The 
 rain which descends from heaven, is confessedly amongst the 
 contrivances of the Creator, for the sustentation of the ani- 
 mals and vegetables which subsist upon the surface of the 
 earth. Yet how partially and irregularly is it supplied ! 
 How much of it falls upon the sea, where it can be of no use ! 
 how often is it wanted where it would be of the greatest ! 
 What tracts of continent are rendered deserts by the scarcity 
 of it ! Or, not to speak of extreme cases, how much, some- 
 times, do inhabited countries suffer by its deficiency or delay ! 
 We could imagine, if to imagine were our business, the mat- 
 ter to be otherwise regulated. We could imagine showers to 
 fall, just where and when they would do good ; always sea- 
 sonable, everywhere sufficient ; so distributed as not to leave a 
 field upon the face of the globe scorched by drought, or even 
 a plant withering for the lack of moisture. Yet, does the 
 difference between the real case and the imagined case, or the 
 seeming inferiority of the one to the other authorize us to 
 say, that the present disposition of the atmosphere is not 
 
468 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IIL 
 
 amongst the productions or the designs of the deity ? Does 
 it check the inference which we draw from the confessed be- 
 neficence of the provision ? or does it make us cease to ad- 
 mire the contrivance? The observation, which we have 
 exemplified in the single instance of the rain of heaven, may- 
 be repeated concerning most of the phenomena of nature ; 
 and the true conclusion to which it leads is this : that to in- 
 quire what the Deity might have done, could have done, or, 
 as we even sometimes presume to speak, ought to have done, 
 or, in hypothetical cases, would have done, and to build any 
 propositions upon such inquiries against evidence of facts, is 
 wholly unwarrantable. It is a mode of reasoning which will 
 not do in natural history, which will not do in natural religion, 
 which cannot therefore be applied with safety to revelation. 
 It may have some foundation, in certain speculative a priori 
 ideas of the divine attributes ; but it has none in experience, 
 or in analogy. The general character of the works of nature 
 is, on the one hand, goodness both in design and effect ; and, 
 on the other hand, a liability to difficulty, and to objections, if 
 such objections be allowed, by reason of seeming incomplete- 
 ness or uncertainty in attaining their end. Christianity partic- 
 ipates of this character. The true similitude between na- 
 ture and revelation consists in^ this : that they each bear strong 
 marks of their original ; that they each also bear appearances 
 of irregularity and defect. A system of strict optimism may 
 nevertheless be the real system in both cases. But what I 
 contend is, that the proof is hidden from us ; that we ought 
 not to expect to perceive that in revelation, which we hardly 
 perceive in anything ; that beneficence, of which we can judge, 
 ought to satisfy us, that optimism, of which we cannot judge, 
 ought not to be sought after. We can judge of beneficence, 
 because it depends upon effects which we experience, and upon 
 the relation between the means which we see acting and the 
 ends which we see produced. We cannot judge of optimism, 
 because it necessarily implies a comparison of that which is 
 tried, with that which is not tried ; pf consequences which we 
 
Chap. VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 469 
 
 see, with others which we imagine, and concerning many of 
 which, it is more than probable we know nothing ; concerning 
 some, that we have no notion. 
 
 If Christianity be compared with the state and progress of 
 natural religion, the argument of the objector will gain nothing 
 by the comparison. I remember hearing an unbeliever say, 
 that, if God had given a revelation, he would have written it 
 in the skies. Are the truths of natural religion written in 
 the skies, or in a language which every one reads ? or is this 
 the case with the most useful arts, or the most necessary sci- 
 ences of human life ? An Otaheitean or an Esquimaux knows 
 nothing of Christianity ; does he know more of the principles 
 of deism or morality ? which, notwithstanding his ignorance, 
 are neither untrue, nor unimportant, nor uncertain. The ex- 
 istence of the Deity is left to be collected from observations, 
 which every man does not make, which every man, perhaps, 
 is not capable of making. Can it be argued, that God does 
 not exist, because, if he did, he would let us see him, or dis- 
 cover himself to mankind by proofs (such as, we may think, 
 the nature of the subject merited), which no inadvertency 
 could miss, no prejudice withstand ? 
 
 If Christianity be regarded as a providential instrument for 
 the melioration of mankind, its progress and diffusion resem- 
 bles that of other causes by which human life is improved. 
 The diversity is not greater, nor the advance more slow, in re- 
 ligion, than we find it to be in learning, liberty, government, 
 laws. The Deity hath not touched the order of nature in vain. 
 The Jewish religion produced great and permanent effects ; 
 the Christian religion hath done the same. It hath disposed 
 the world to amendment. It hath put things in a train. It 
 is by no means improbable, that it may become universal ; 
 and that the world may continue in that stage so long as that 
 the duration of its reign may bear a vast proportion to the 
 time of its partial influence."^ 
 
 * To the Christian this is certain, because predicted in the Bible ; 
 and even to the infidel it ought to suffice for an explanation of the 
 difficulty which infidelity suggests. — Ed. 
 
470 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Paet III. 
 
 When we argue concerning Christianity, that it must neces- 
 sarily be true, because it is beneficial, we go, perhaps, too far 
 on one side ; and we certainly go too far on the other, when 
 we conclude that it must be false, because it is not so effica- 
 cious as we could have supposed. The question of its truth is 
 to be tried upon its proper evidence, without deferring much 
 to this sort of argument, on either side. " The evidence," as 
 bishop Butler hath rightly observed, " depends upon the judg- 
 ment we form of human conduct, under given circumstances, 
 of which it may be presumed that we know something ; the 
 objection stands upon the supposed conduct of the Deity, un- 
 der relations with which we are not acquainted." 
 
 What would be the real effect of that overpowering evidence 
 which our adversaries require in a revelation, it is difficult to 
 foretell ; at least, we must speak of it as of a dispensation of 
 which we have no experience. Some consequences however 
 would, it is probable, attend this economy, which do not seem 
 to befit a revelation that proceeded from God. One is, that 
 irresistible proof would restrain the voluntary powers too 
 much ; would not answer the purpose of trial and probation ; 
 would call for no exercise of candor, seriousness, humility, in- 
 quiry ; no submission of passion, interests, and prejudices, to 
 moral evidence and to probable truth ; no habits of reflection ; 
 none of that previous desire to learn and to obey the will of 
 God, which forms perhaps the test of the virtuous principle, 
 and which induces men to attend, with care and reverence, to 
 every credible intimation of that will, and to resign present 
 advantages and present pleasures to every reasonable expec- 
 tation of propitiating his favor. " Men's moral probation 
 may be, whether they will take due care to inform themselves 
 by impartial consideration; and, afterwards, whether they 
 will act as the case requires, upon the evidence which they 
 have. And this we find by experience, is often our probation 
 in our temporal capacity."* 
 
 II. These modes of communication would leave no place 
 * Butler's Analogy, part ii. c. vi. 
 
Chap. VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 471 
 
 for the admission of internal evidence ;* which ought, perhaps, 
 to bear a considerable part in the proof of every revelation, 
 because it is a species of evidence, which applies itself to the 
 knowledge, love, and practice, of virtue, and which operates 
 in proportion to the degree of those qualities which it finds in 
 the person whom it addresses. Men of good dispositions, 
 amongst Christians, are greatly affected by the impression 
 which the Scriptures themselves make upon their minds. 
 Their conviction is much strengthened by these impressions. 
 And this perhaps was intended to be one effect to be produced 
 by the religion. It is likewise true, to whatever cause we as- 
 cribe it (for I am not in this work at liberty to introduce the 
 Christian doctrine of grace or assistance, or the Christian prom- 
 ise, that, " if any man will do his will, he shall know of the 
 doctrine, whether it be of God "f ), — it is true, I say, that 
 they who sincerely act, or sincerely endeavor to act, according 
 to what they believe, that is, according to the just result of 
 the probabilities, or, if you please, the possibilities in natural 
 and revealed religion, which they themselves perceive, and ac- 
 cording to a rational estimate of consequences, and, above all, 
 according to the just effect of those principles of gratitude and 
 devotion, which even the view of nature generates in a well- 
 ordered mind, seldom fail of proceeding further. This also 
 may have been exactly what was designed. 
 
 Whereas, may it not be said that irresistible evidence would 
 confound all characters and all dispositions ? would subvert, 
 rather than promote, the true purpose of the divine counsels ; 
 which is, not to produce obedience by a force little short of 
 mechanical constraint (which obedience would be regularity, 
 not virtue, and would hardly perhaps differ from that which 
 inanimate bodies pay to the laws impressed upon their nature), 
 but to treat moral agents agreeably to what they are ; which 
 is done, when light and motives are of such kinds, and are im- 
 parted in such measures, that the influence of them depends 
 upon the recipients themselves 1 " It is not meet to govern 
 * See note to Chap. IX. sect. l\.—Ed. \ John, vii. lY. 
 
472 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 rational free agents in via by sight and sense. It would be 
 no trial or thanks to the most sensual wretch to forbear sin- 
 ning, if heaven and hell were open to his sight. That spirit- 
 ual vision and fruition is our state in jpairiar (Baxter's Rea- 
 sons, p. 357.) There may be truth in this thought, though 
 roughly expressed. Few things are more improbable than 
 that wx (the human species) should be the highest Order of 
 beings in the universe : that animated nature should ascend 
 from the lowest reptile to us, and all at once stop there. If there 
 be classes above us of rational intelligences, clearer manifesta- 
 tions may belong to them. This may be one of the distinctions. 
 And it may be one to which we ourselves hereafter shall attain. 
 III. But may it not also be asked, whether the perfect dis- 
 play of a future state of existence would be compatible with 
 the activity of civil life, and with the success of human affairs ? 
 I can easily conceive that this impression may be overdone ; 
 that it may so seize and fill the thoughts, as to leave no place 
 for the cares and offices of men's several stations, no anxiety 
 for worldly prosperity, or even for a worldly provision, and, 
 by consequence, no sufficient stimulus to secular industry. 
 Of the first Christians we read, " that all that believed were 
 together, and had all things common ; and sold their possess- 
 ions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man 
 had need ; and, continuing daily with one accord in the tem- 
 ple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their 
 meat with gladness and singleness of heart."* This was ex- 
 tremely natural, and just what might be expected from mi- 
 raculous evidence coming with full force upon the senses of 
 mankind ; but I much doubt whether, if this state of mind 
 had been universal, or long-continued, the business of the 
 world could have gone on. The necessary arts of social life 
 would have been little cultivated. The plough and the loom 
 would have stood still. Agriculture, manufactures, trade, 
 and navigation, would not, I think, have flourished, if they 
 could have been exercised at all. Men would have addicted 
 * Acts, ii. 44—46. 
 
Chap. VI.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 473 
 
 themselves to contemplative and ascetic lives, instead of lives 
 of business and of useful industry. W^e observe that Saint 
 Paul found it necessary, frequently to recall his coijverts to 
 the ordinary labors and domestic duties of their condition ; 
 and to give them in his own example, a lesson of contented 
 application to their worldly employments.* 
 
 By the manner in which the religion is now proposed, a 
 great portion of the human species is enabled, and of these 
 multitudes of every generation are induced, to seek and to 
 effectuate their salvation through the medium of Christianity, 
 without interruption of the prosperity or of the regular course 
 of human affairs. 
 
 * These observations have been illustrated by the conduct of per- 
 sons who lately expected the second advent of Christ. — Ed, 
 
CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE SUPPOSED EFFECTS OF OHEISTIANITY. 
 
 That a religion, which, under every form in which it is 
 taught, holds forth the final reward of virtue and punishment 
 of vice, and proposes those distinctions of virtue and vice, 
 which the wisest and most cultivated part of mankind confess 
 to be just, should not be believed, is very possible ; but that, 
 so far as it is believed, it should not produce any good, but 
 rather a bad effect upon public happiness, is a proposition 
 which it requires very strong evidence to render credible. 
 Yet many have been found to contend for this paradox, and 
 very confident appeals have been made to history, and to ob- 
 servation, for the truth of it. 
 
 In the conclusions, however, which these writers draw from 
 what they call experience, two sources, I think, of mistake, 
 may be perceived. 
 
 One is, that they look for the influence of religion in the 
 wrong place. 
 
 The other, that they charge Christianity with many conse- 
 quences, for which it is not responsible. 
 
 I. The influence of religion is not to be sought for in the 
 councils of princes, in the debates or resolutions of popular 
 assemblies, in the conduct of governments towards their sub- 
 jects, or of states and sovereigns towards one another ; of 
 conquerors at the head of their armies, or of parties intrigu- 
 ing for power at home (topics which alone almost occupy the 
 attention, and fill the pages, of history) ; but must be per- 
 
Chap. VII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 475 
 
 ceived, if perceived at all, in the silent course of private and 
 domestic life. Nay more ; even there its influence may not 
 be very obvious to observation. If it check, in some degree, 
 personal dissoluteness, if it beget a general probity in the 
 transaction of business, if it produce soft and humane man- 
 ners in the mass of the community, and occasional exertions 
 of laborious or expensive benevolence in a few individuals, 
 it is all the eflect which can offer itself to external notice. 
 The kingdom of heaven is within us. That which is the sub- 
 stance of the religion, its hopes and consolations, its intermix- 
 ture with the thought by day and by night, the devotion of 
 the heart, the control of appetite, the steady direction of the 
 will to the commands of God, is necessarily invisible. Yet 
 upon these depend the virtue and the happiness of millions. 
 This cause renders the representations of history, with re- 
 spect to religion, defective and fallacious, in a greater degree 
 than they are upon any other subject. Eeligion operates 
 most upon those of whom history knows the least ; upon 
 fathers and mothers in their families, upon men-servants and 
 maid-servants, upon the orderly tradesman, the quiet villager, 
 the manufacturer at his loom, the husbandman in his fields. 
 Amongst such, its influence collectively may be of inestima- 
 ble value, yet its effects, in the meantime, little upon those 
 who figure upon the stage of the world. They may know 
 nothing of it ; they may believe nothing of it ; they may be 
 actuated by motives more impetuous than those which relig- 
 ion is able to excite. It cannot, therefore, be thought strange, 
 that this influence should elude the grasp and touch of public 
 history ; for, what is public history, but a register of the suc- 
 cesses and disappointments, the vices, the follies, and the quar- 
 rels, of those who engage in contentions for power ? 
 
 I will add, that much of this influence may be felt in times 
 of public distress, and little of it in times of public wealth 
 and security. This also increases the uncertainty of any 
 opinions that we draw from historical representations. The 
 influence of Christianity is commensurate with no effects 
 
476 EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANTTY. [Part III. 
 
 which history states. We do not pretend that it has any 
 such necessary and irresistible power over the affairs of nations, 
 as to surmount the force of other causes. 
 
 The Christian religion also acts upon public usages and in- 
 stitutions, by an operation which is only secondary and indi- 
 rect. Christianity is not a code of civil law. It can only 
 reach public institutions through private character. Now its 
 influence upon private character may be considerable, yet 
 many public usages and institutions repugnant to its princi- 
 ples may remain. To get rid of these, the reigning part of 
 the community must act, and act together. But it- may be 
 long before the persons who compose this body, be sufficiently 
 touched with the Christian character, to join in the suppress- 
 ion of practices, to which they and the public have been rec- 
 onciled by causes which will reconcile the human mind to 
 anything, by habit and interest. Nevertheless, the effects of 
 Christianity, even in this view, have been important. It has 
 mitigated the conduct of war, and the treatment of captives. 
 It has softened the administration of despotic, or of nominally 
 despotic governments. It has abolished polygamy. It has 
 restrained the licentiousness of divorces. It has put an end 
 to the exposure of children, and the immolation of slaves. 
 It has suppressed the combats of gladiators,* and the impuri- 
 ties of religious rites. It has banished, if not unnatural vices, 
 at least the toleration of them. It has greatly meliorated 
 the condition of the laborious part, that is to say, of the mass 
 of every community, by procuring for them a day of weekly 
 rest. In all countries, in which it is professed, it has produced 
 numerous establishments for the relief of sickness and pover- 
 ty ; and, in some, a regular and general provision by law. 
 It has triumphed over the slavery established in the Roman 
 
 * Lipsius affirms (Sat., b. i. c. 12), that the gladiatorial shows some- 
 times cost Europe twenty or thirty thousand lives in a month ; and 
 that not only the men, but even the women of all ranks, were 
 passionately fond of these shows. See Bishop Porteus' Sermon 
 XIII. 
 
Chap. VII.] EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. 477 
 
 empire : it is contending, and, I trust, will one day prevail, 
 against the worse slavery of the West Indies. 
 
 A Christian writer,* so early as in the second century, has 
 testified the resistance which Christianity made to wicked and 
 licentious practices though established by law and by public 
 usage : " Neither in Parthia, do the Christians, though Par- 
 thians, use polygamy ; nor in Persia, though Persians, do 
 they marry their own daughters ; nor among the Bactri, or 
 Galli, do they violate the sancity of marriage ; nor wherever 
 they are, do they suffer themselves to be overcome by ill- 
 constituted laws and manners." 
 
 Socrates did not destroy the idolatry of Athens, or pro- 
 duce the slightest revolution in the manners of his country. 
 
 But the argument to which I recur, is, that the benefit of 
 religion, being felt chiefly in the obscurity of private stations, 
 necessarily escapes the observation of history. From the 
 first general notification of Christianity to the present day, 
 there have been in every age many millions, whose names 
 were never heard of, made better by it, not only in their 
 conduct, but in their disposition ; and happier, not so much 
 in their external circumstances, as in tlf^t which is inter prce- 
 cordia, in that which alone deserves the name of happiness, 
 the tranquillity and consolation of their thoughts. It has 
 been, since its commencement, the author of happiness and 
 virtue to millions and millions of the human race. Who is 
 there that would not wish his son to be a Christian ? 
 
 Christianity also, in every country in which it is professed, 
 hath obtained a sensible, although not a complete influence, 
 upon the public judgment of morals. And this is very im- 
 portant. For without the occasional correction which public 
 opinion receives, by referring to some fixed standard of mo- 
 rality, no man can foretel into what extravagances it might 
 wander. Assassination might become as honorable as duel- 
 ling ; unnatural crimes be accounted as venial, as fornication 
 is wont to be accounted. In this way it is possible, that many 
 * Bardesanes, ap. Euseb. Prsep. Evang., vi. 10. 
 
478 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTllNITY. [Paet III. 
 
 may be kept in order by Christianity, who are not. themselves 
 Christians. They may be guided by the rectitude which it 
 communicates to public opinion. Their consciences may sug- 
 gest their duty truly, and they may ascribe these suggestions 
 to a moral sense, or to the native capacity of the human in- 
 tellect, when in fact they are nothing more than the public 
 opinion, reflected from their own minds ; an opinion, in a con- 
 siderable degree, modified by the lessons of Christianity. 
 " Certain it is, and this is a great deal to say, that the gener- 
 ality, even of the meanest and most vulgar and ignorant peo- 
 ple, have truer and worthier notions of God, more just and 
 right apprehensions concerning his attributes and perfections, 
 a deeper sense of the difference of good and evil, a greater 
 regard to moral obligations and to the plain and most neces- 
 sary duties of life, and a more firm and universal expectation 
 of a future state of rewards and punishments, than, in any 
 heathen country, any considerable number of men were found 
 to have had."* 
 
 After all, the value of Christianity is not to be appreciated 
 by its temporal effects. The object of revelation is to influence 
 human conduct in thif life ; but what is gained to happiness 
 by that influence, can only be estimated by taking in the 
 whole of human existence. Then, as hath ' already been ob- 
 served, there may be also great consequences of Christianity, 
 which do not belong to it as a revelation. The effects upon 
 human salvation, of the mission, of the death, of the present, 
 of the future agency of Christ, may be universal, though the 
 religion be not universally known, f 
 
 * Clarke, Ev. Nat. Rel., p. 208, ed. v 
 
 f We have already quoted some remarks of Dr. Chalmers on the 
 subject of this paragraph. Since a second opportunity offers itself, 
 we take the liberty of introducing a few sentences of our own, 
 which, although delivered as part of a different argument, yet bear 
 upon the effects that tlie Redemption of man appears to exercise 
 among the arrangements of the Almighty as Ruler of the universe, 
 and serve to extend the idea advanced in the text. 
 
 We learn from the demonstrated universality of that great law 
 
Chap. VII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 479 
 
 Secondly, I assert that Christianity is charged with many 
 consequences for which it is not responsible. I believe that 
 religious motives have had no more to do in the formation of 
 nine-tenths of the intolerant and persecuting laws, which in 
 
 which binds together, by a reciprocal attraction, all the matter in 
 creation, that even every grain of dust in the balance, and every 
 sand on the sea-shore makes its existence and its power felt through- 
 out immensity ; and by analogy we might infer that every human 
 spirit likewise exerts its allotted influence upon the entire spiritual 
 universe. Divine Revelation, however, assigns to the human Race a« 
 position of most peculiar moment in the government and well being- 
 of God's illimitable empire. Into the things which concern mankind 
 the angels of light desire, with special earnestness, to look ; by the 
 body of redeemed ones from our fallen species, the manifold wisdom 
 of God is made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly 
 places ; and the eternal Godhead itself has taken our manhood into 
 perpetual and mysterious union with itself, in order that, in the God- 
 man, all things might be gathered together in one, whether they be 
 things in heaven or things on earth — even in Him. Now, what mean 
 these wonderful disclosures as to the interest and importance of our 
 station in the universe — and many other similar hints, expressed or 
 implied, in the volume of inspiration ? Do they not assign to man's 
 nature a central and ruling position in the whole creation of intelli- 
 gent and responsible beings, the glory and the influence of which we 
 cannot now either appreciate or understand? They tell us that man- 
 hood — the true body and reasonable soul of a man, sits upon the 
 Almighty's throne — not as an usurper, but as an only son and heir of 
 all things ; they tell us that to Him who there presides, in twofold 
 nature, among the celestial hierarchies, every knee must bov in 
 heaven, and earth, and hell, and every tongue confess that He is 
 Lord — and all this, because he was found in fashion as a man, under- 
 went the trials of a man, and died the death of a man ; and they 
 further tell us that since He, who is thus made head over all things, 
 is invested with universal supremacy for the sake of man, they 
 whose nature He assumed, and who in covenant are to Him united, 
 become His brethren, sons of God, judges of Angels, and are put in 
 possession of an inheritance wide as the universe, everything being 
 theirs, both in the present world and in the world to come ; foras- 
 much as they are His and He is God's. It would not become me in 
 this place or presence, and although Divinity ought to be included 
 in the circle of the sciences — to enter into a theological discussion 
 
480 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part HI. 
 
 different countries have been established upon the subject of 
 religion, than they have had to do in England with the mak- 
 ing of the game-laws. These measures, although they have 
 the Christian religion for their subject, are resolvable into a 
 
 on the doctrine of the union of saints to the Saviour, and the conse- 
 quences that may flow to the entire world of spirits, from the scheme 
 of human redemption — ^but this I dare affirm, that neither in philoso- 
 phy nor divinity can the ways of God be explained and justified, by 
 looking on man as an individual, or even as a mere citizen of this 
 •earth. "We must regard God as the Ruler, and man as a citizen, of 
 the Universe. We must remember that God's duty — I use the word 
 advisedly — is to attend to the concerns of all worlds, and that His 
 acts towards any one member of His universal family, assuredly do 
 tell upon the interests of all. Were sciolists in theology to ponder 
 this truth carefully, it would save them from many an error with 
 respect to the Divine administration — the justice and mercy of the 
 Law-giver — the whole question of the atonement — and the issues of 
 the great plan of human salvation. They would then see, for exam- 
 ple, that to forgive a transgression of the law, without satisfaction, 
 might appear merciful, indeed, to the person so forgiven, but would 
 be unspeakably unjust and cruel to all free and accountable beings 
 besides, whose continued obedience may depend on the very fact 
 that, under God's infinitely perfect government, it is utterly impos- 
 sible to sin with impunity. One instance of such unconditional par- 
 don, by demonstrating the contrary, might open the flood-gates of 
 temptation and perdition to myriads of creatures who, since their 
 creation, have stood 
 
 " unshaken, from within 
 Or from without, to all temptations armed," 
 
 and might, in process of time, convert the grand Kosmos of Omnis- 
 cience into a very Chaos of the adversary ! I believe that the re- 
 covery of our fallen race, by a plan so wise and so astonishing as 
 that made known in the Bible, unfolds such views of God's character 
 and law, as not only augment the happiness of creation, but are some 
 way absolutely necessary to its safety. I believe that the moral im- 
 possibility of sin's entering in, and marring the felicity of the un- 
 fallen millions of intelligences in the boundless dominions of the 
 most High, is increased beyond all calculation by the marvellous 
 meeting of righteousness and peace in the atonement of Him who, in 
 man's nature, and for man's redemption, bled and died on the accurs- 
 
Chap. VIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 481 
 
 principle which Christianity certainly did not plant (and which 
 Christianity could not universally condemn, because it is not 
 universally wrong), which principle is no other than this, that 
 they who are in possession of power do what they can to keep 
 it. Christianity is answerable for no part of the mischief 
 which has been brought upon the world by persecution, ex- 
 cept that which has arisen from conscientious persecutors. 
 Now these perhaps have never been either numerous, or 
 powerful. Nor is it to Christianity that even their mistake 
 can fairly be imputed. They have been misled by an error 
 not properly Christian or religious, but by an error in their 
 
 ed tree. Indeed, who can tell but that this divine transaction is the 
 very key-stone of that majestic spiritual structure, which the Al- 
 mighty maker has reared — without which it would not have been 
 immoveably secure, and which, as precisely adapted to the constitu- 
 tion of responsible beings, has been inserted by His own hand, to 
 fix in ever-during order and harmony, the grand system of imma- 
 terial existence, even as the central orb, where He sits enthroned, 
 binds together, in eternal regularity, the spheres of the material 
 universe. If this be true — and that it is, both reason and revelation 
 seem to proclaim — then no wonder that the God-man occupies the 
 seat of supreme dominion — no wonder that the angels desire to look 
 into His marvellous work — and no wonder that there is joy among 
 their bright ranks over every successive evidence of its complete- 
 ness — every ascending trophy of His soul's mysterious travail ! Who 
 can add to the sublimities of the judgment-day? Yet it is not the 
 voice of the last trumpet, it is not the starting of the dead from 
 burial ground, and battle-field, and ocean-depth-— it is not the rend- 
 ing rocks and reeling mountains, — it is not even the agonies of the 
 damned, and the joyous welcome of the blest — it is not, we imagine, 
 on any, or on all of these — strangely awful as they are, that the 
 celestial hosts, around assembled, shall look with profoundeslr admi- 
 ration — but it is to the final consummation of that vast scheme, 
 which dooms and shuts up forever the angels that kept not their 
 first estate — which encompasses with a rampart of love, strong as 
 necessity, the innumerable millions of the holy — which finishes trans- 
 gression, and makes an end of sin, and brings in everlasting right- 
 eousness, and, by the triumphant blending of infinite justice and 
 mercy, in the Restoration of mankind, lays the perpetual foundation 
 of a new order, of tilings. — Man^^ Place in the Universe. 
 
 21 
 
482 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 moral philosophy. They pursued the particular, without ad- 
 verting to the general, consequence. Believing certain arti- 
 cles of faith, or a certain mode of worship, to be highly con- 
 ducive, or perhaps essential, to salvation, they thought them- 
 selves bound to bring all they could, by every means, into 
 them. And this they thought, without considering what 
 would be the effect of such a conclusion, when adopted 
 amongst mankind as a general rule of conduct. Had there 
 been in the New Testament, what there are in the Koran, pre- 
 cepts authorizing coercion in the propagation of the religion, 
 and the use of violence towards unbelievers, the case would 
 have been different. This distinction could not have been 
 taken, nor this defence made. 
 
 I apologize for no species nor degree of persecution, but I 
 think that even the fact has been exaggerated. The slave- 
 trade destroys more in a year, than the Inquisition does in a 
 hundred, or perhaps hath done since its foundation. 
 
 If it be objected, as I apprehend it will be, that Christian- 
 ity is chargeable with every mischief of which it has been 
 the occasion^ though not the motive ; I answer, that, if the 
 malevolent passions be there, the world will never want 
 occasions. The noxious element will always find a con- 
 ductor. Any point will produce an explosion. Did the ap- 
 plauded intercommunity of the Pagan theology preserve the 
 peace of the Roman world ? did it prevent oppressions, pro- 
 scriptions, massacres, devastations 1 Was it bigotry that car- 
 ried Alexander into the East, or brought Caesar into Gaul ? 
 Are the nations of the world, into which Christianity hath 
 not found its way, or from which it hath been banished, free 
 from contentions? Are their contentions less rumous and 
 sanguinary ? Is it owing to Christianity, or to the want of it, 
 that the finest regions of the East, the countries inter quatuor 
 maria^ the peninsula of Greece, together with a great part of 
 the Mediterranean coast, are at this day a desert ? or that the 
 banks of the Nile, whose constantly renewed fertility is not 
 
Chap. VII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 488 
 
 to be impaired by neglect, or destroyed by the ravages of 
 war, serve only for the scene of a ferocious anarchy, or the 
 supply of unceasing hostilities ? Europe itself has known 
 no religious wars for some centuries, yet has hardly ever 
 been without war. Are the calamities, which at this day 
 afflict it, to be imputed to Christianity ? Hath Poland fallen 
 by a Christian crusade ? Hath the overthrow in France of 
 civil order and security, been effected by the votaries of our 
 religion, or by the foes ? Amongst the awful lessons, which 
 the crimes and the miseries of that country afford to man- 
 kind, this is one, that, in order to be a persecutor, it is not 
 necessary to be a bigot ; that in rage and cruelty, in mischief 
 and destruction, fanaticism itself can be outdone by infi- 
 delity. 
 
 Finally, If war, as it is now carried on between nations, 
 produce less misery and ruin than formerly, we are indebted 
 perhaps to Christianity for the change, more than to any other 
 cause. Viewed therefore even in its relation to this subject, 
 it appears to have been of advantage to the world. It hath 
 humanized the conduct of wars; it hath ceased to excite 
 them. 
 
 The differences of opinion, that have in all ages prevailed 
 amongst Christians, fall very much within the alternative 
 which has been stated. If we possessed the disposition which 
 Christianity labors, above all other qualities, to inculcate, 
 these differences would do little harm. If that disposition be 
 wanting, other causes, even were these absent, would contin- 
 ually rise up to call forth the malevolent passions into action. 
 Differences of opinion, when accompanied with mutual char- 
 ity, which Christianity forbids them to violate, are for the 
 most part innocent, and for some purposes useful. They 
 promote inquiry, discussion, and knowledge. They help to 
 keep up an attention to religious subjects, and a concern 
 about them, which might be apt to die away in the calm and 
 silence of universal agreement. I do not know that it is in 
 
484 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part HI 
 
 any degree true, that the influence of religion is the greatest, 
 where there are the fewest dissenters. 
 
 In addition to what Paley has given on the ohjections to Divine 
 Revelation, let the student peruse and ponder sect. 6th of chap. v. 
 in Home's Introduction (vol. i pp. 180 — 183). It is there shown 
 that, even though some ohjections may be unanswerable by us, that 
 is no just cause for rejecting the Scriptures, and that unbelievers in 
 Divine Revelation are more credulous than Christians. The difficul- 
 ties of Infidelity are much greater than those of Belief. — E(L 
 
OHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE CONCLUSION. 
 
 In religion, as in every other subject of human reasoning, 
 much depends upon the order in which we dispose our inquir- 
 ies. A man who takes up a system of divinity with a pre- 
 vious opinion that either every part must be true, or the 
 whole false, approaches the discussion with great disadvan- 
 tage. No other system, which is founded upon moral evi- 
 dence, would bear to be treated in the same manner. Never- 
 theless, in a certain degree, we are all introduced to our 
 religious studies under this prejudication. And it cannot be 
 avoided. The weakness of the human judgment in the early 
 part of youth, yet its extreme susceptibility of impression, 
 renders it necessary to furnish it with some opinions, and 
 with some principles, or other. Or indeed, without much 
 express care, or much endeavor for this purpose, the tendency 
 of the mind of man to assimilate itself to the habits of think- 
 ing and speaking which prevail around him, produces the same 
 effect. That indifferency and suspense, that waiting and 
 equlibrium of the judgment, which some require in religious 
 matters, and which some would wish to be aimed at in the 
 conduct of education, are impossible to be preserved. They 
 are not given to the condition of human life. 
 
 It is a consequence of this institution that the doctrines of 
 religion come to us before the proofs ; and come to us with 
 that mixture of explications and inferences from which no 
 public creed is, or can be, free. And the effect which too 
 
486 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 frequently follows, from Christianity being presented to the 
 understanding in this form, is, that when any articles, which 
 appear as parts of it, contradict the apprehension of the per- 
 sons to whom it is proposed, men of rash and confident tem- 
 pers hastily and indiscriminately reject the whole. But is 
 this to do justice, either to themselves, or to the religion ? 
 The rational way of treating a subject of such acknowledged 
 importance is to attend, in the first place, to the general and 
 substantial truth of its principles, and to that alone. When 
 we once feel a foundation ; when we once perceive a ground 
 of credibility in its history, we shall proceed with safety to 
 inquire into the interpretation of its records, and into the doc- 
 trines which have been deduced from them. Nor will it 
 either endanger our faith, or diminish or alter our motives 
 for obedience, if we should discover that these conclusions 
 are formed with very different degrees of probability, and 
 possess very diflferent degrees of importance. 
 
 This conduct of the understanding, dictated by every rule 
 of right reasoning, will uphold personal Christianity, even in 
 those countries in which it is established under forms the 
 most liable to difficulty and objection. It will also have the 
 further effect of. guarding us against the prejudices which are 
 wont to arise in our minds to the disadvantage of religion, 
 from observing the numerous controversies which are carried 
 on amongst its professors ; and likewise of inducing a spirit 
 of lenity and moderation in our judgment, as well as in our 
 treatment of those who stand, in such controversies, upon 
 sides opposite to ours. What is clear in Christianity, we 
 shall find to be sufficient, and to be infinitely valuable ; what 
 is dubious, unnecessary to be decided, or of very subordinate 
 importance ; and what is most obscure, will teach us to bear 
 with the opinions which others may have formed upon the 
 same subject. We shall say to those who the most widely 
 dissent from us, what Augustine said to the worst heretics of 
 his age : " Illi in vos sasviant, qui nesciunt, cum quo labore 
 verum inveniatur, et quam difficile caveantur errores ; — qui 
 
Chap. VIII.] EVIDEISTCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 487 
 
 nesciunt, cum quanta difficultate sanetur oculus interioris hom- 
 inis ; — qui nesciunt, quibus suspiriis et gemitibus fiat ut ex 
 quantulacunque parte possit intelligi Deus."* 
 
 A judgment, moreover, which is once pretty well satisfied 
 of the general truth of the religion, will not only thus dis- 
 criminate in its doctrines, but will possess sufficient strength 
 to overcome the reluctance of the imagination to admit arti- 
 cles of faith which are attended with difficulty of apprehension, 
 if such articles of faith appear to be truly parts of the revela- 
 tion. It was to be expected beforehand, that what related to 
 the economy, and to the persons, of the invisible world, which 
 revelation professes to do, and which, if true, it actually does, 
 should contain some points remote from our analogies, and 
 from the comprehension of a mind which hath acquired all its 
 ideas from sense and from experience. 
 
 It hath been my care, in the preceding work, to preserve 
 the separation between evidences and doctrines as inviolable 
 as I could ; to remove from the primary question all consid- 
 erations which have been unnecessarily joined with it ; and to 
 offer a defence to Christianity, which every Christian might 
 read, without seeing the tenets in which he had been brought 
 up attacked or decried ; and it always afforded a satisfaction 
 to my mind to observe that this was practicable ; that few or 
 none of our many controversies with one another affect or re- 
 late to the proofs of our religion ; that the rent never descends 
 to the foundation. 
 
 The truth of Christianity depends upon its leading facts, 
 and upon them alone. Now of these we have evidence which 
 ought to satisfy us, at least until it appear that mankind have 
 ever been deceived by the same. We have some uncontested 
 and incontestable points, to which the history of the human 
 
 * Aug. contra Ep. Fund., cap. ii. n. 2, 3.* 
 
 * Those persons are the most bitterly hostile to you, who know not with what labor 
 truth is discovered, and with how much difHciilty errors are guarded against ;— who 
 know not how hard it is to purge tlie eye of the inner man ;^-who know not with 
 what sighs and groans a man can attain even to a small part of the knowledge of 
 God.-' Ed. 
 
488 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part HI. 
 
 species hath nothing similar to offer. A Jewish peasant 
 changed the religion of the world, and that, without force, 
 without power, without support ; without one natural source, 
 or circumstance of attraction, influence, or success. Such a 
 thing hath not happened in any other instance. The compan- 
 ions of this Person, after he himself had been put to death for 
 his attempt, asserted his supernatural character, founded upon 
 his supernatural operations ; and, in testimony of the truth 
 of their assertions, ^. e. in consequence of their own belief of 
 that truth, and in order to communicate the knowledge of it 
 to others, voluntarily entered upon lives of toil and hardship, 
 and, with a full experience of their danger, committed them- 
 selves to the last extremities of persecution. This hath not 
 a parallel. More particularly, a very few days after this Per- 
 son had been publicly executed, and in the very city in which 
 he was buried, these his companions declared with one voice 
 that his body was restored to life ; that they had seen him, 
 handled him, eaten with him, conversed with him ; and, in pur- 
 suance of their persuasion of the truth of what they told, 
 preached his religion, with this strange fact as the foundation 
 of it, in the face of those who had killed him, who were arm- 
 ed with the power of the country, and necessarily and natu- 
 rally disposed to treat his followers as they had treated him- 
 self; and having done this upon the spot where the event took 
 place, carried the intelligence of it abroad, in despite of diffi- 
 culties and opposition, and where the nature of their errand 
 gave them nothing to expect but derision, insult, and outrage. 
 This is without example. These three facts, I think, are 
 certain, and would have been nearly so, if the Gospels had 
 never been written. The Christian story, as to these points, 
 hath never varied. No other hath been set up against it. 
 Every letter, every discourse, every controversy, amongst the 
 followers of the religion ; every book written by them, from 
 the age of its commencement to the present time, in every 
 part of the world in which it hath been professed, and with 
 every sect into which it hath been divided (and we harve let- 
 
Chap. VIIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 489 
 
 ters and discourses written by contemporaries, by witnesses 
 of the transaction, by persons themselves bearing a share in 
 it, and other writings following that age in regular succession), 
 concur in representing these facts in this manner. A religion 
 which now possesses the greatest part of the civilized world, 
 unquestionably sprang up at Jerusalem at this time. Some 
 account must be given of its origin ; some cause assigned for 
 its rise. All the accounts of this origin, all the explications 
 of this cause, whether taken from the writings of the early 
 followers of the religion (in which, and in which perhaps alone, 
 it could be expected that they should be distinctly unfolded), 
 or from occasional notices in other writings of that or the ad- 
 joining age, either expressly allege the facts above stated as 
 the means by which the religion was set up, or advert to its 
 commencement in a ma-nner which agrees with the supposition 
 of these facts being true, and which testifies their operation 
 and effects. 
 
 These propositions alone lay a foundation for our faith ; for 
 they prove the existence of a transaction, which cannot even 
 in its most general parts be accounted for, upon any reason- 
 able supposition, except that of the truth of the mission. But 
 the particulars, the detail of the miracles or miraculous pre- 
 tences (for such there necessarily must have been), upon, which 
 this unexampled transaction rested, and for which these men 
 acted and suffered as they did act and suffer, it is undoubtedly 
 of great importance to us to know. We have this detail 
 from the fountain-head, from the persons themselves ; in ac- 
 counts written by eye-witnesses of the scene, by contempo- 
 raries and companions of those who were so ; not in one 
 book, but four, each containing enough for the verification of 
 the religion, all agreeing in the fundamental parts of the his- 
 tory. We have the authenticity of these books, established 
 by more and stronger proofs than belong to almost any other 
 ancient book whatever, and by proofs which widely distinguish 
 them from any others claiming a similar authority to theirs. 
 If there were any good reason for doubt concerning the names 
 
 21* 
 
490 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 to which these books are ascribed (which there is not, for they 
 were never ascribed to any other, and we have evidence not 
 long after their publication of their bearing the names which 
 they now bear), their antiquity, of which there is no question, 
 their reputation and authority amongst the early disciples of 
 the religion, of which there is as little, form a valid proof that 
 they must, in the main at least, have agreed with what the first 
 teachers of the religion delivered. 
 
 When we open these ancient volumes, we discover in them 
 marks of truth, whether we consider each in itself, or collate 
 them with one another. The writers certainly knew some- 
 thing of what they were writing about, for they manifest an 
 acquaintance with local circumstances, with the history and 
 usages of the times, which could only belong to an inhabitant 
 of that country, living in that age. In every narrative we 
 perceive simplicity and undesignedness ; the air and the lan- 
 guage of reality. When we compare the different narratives 
 together, we find them so varying as to repel all suspicion of 
 confederacy ; so agreeing under this variety, as to show that 
 the accounts had one real transaction for their common foun- 
 dation ; often attributing different actions and discourses, to 
 the person whose history, or rather memoirs of whose history, 
 they profess to relate, yet actions and discourses so similar, 
 as very much to bespeak the same character ; which is a co- 
 incidence that, in such writers as they were, could only be 
 the consequence of their writing from fact, and not from im- 
 agination. 
 
 These four narratives are confined to the history of the 
 Founder of the religion, and end with his ministry. Since, 
 however, it is certain that the affair went on, we cannot help 
 being anxious to know how it proceeded. This intelligence 
 hath come down to us in a work purporting to be written by 
 a person, himself connected with the business during the first 
 stages of its progress, taking up the story where the former 
 histories had left it, carrying on the narrative, oftentimes with 
 great particularity, and throughout with the appearance of 
 
Chap. VIIL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 491 
 
 good sense,* information, and candor ; stating all along the 
 origin, and the only probable origin, of effects which unques- 
 tionably were produced, together with the natural consequences 
 of situations which unquestionably did exist ; and confirmed^ 
 in the substance at least of the account, by the strongest pos- 
 sible accession of testimony which a history can receive, orig- 
 inal letters, written by the person who is the principal subject 
 of the history, written upon the business to which the history 
 relates, and during the period, or soon after the period, which 
 the history comprises. No man can say that this altogether 
 is not a body of strong historical evidence. 
 
 When we reflect that some of those from whom the books 
 proceeded, are related to have themselves wrought miracles, 
 to have been the subject of miracles, or of supernatural as- 
 sistance in propagating the religion, we may perhaps be led 
 to think, that more credit, or a different kind of credit, is due 
 to these accounts, than what can be claimed by merely hu- 
 man testimony. But this is an argument which cannot be ad- 
 dressed to sceptics or unbelievers, A man must be a Chris- 
 tian b'efore he can receive it. The inspiration of the histori- 
 cal Scriptures, the nature, degree, and extent of that inspira- 
 tion, are questions undoubtedly of serious discussion ; but 
 they are questions amongst Christians themselves, and not be- 
 tween them and others. The doctrine itself is by no means 
 necessary to the belief of Christianity, which must, in the first 
 instance at least, depend upon the ordinary maxims of histor- 
 ical credibility, f 
 
 In viewing the detail of miracles recorded in these books 
 we find every supposition negatived, by which they can be 
 resolved into fraud or delusion. They were not secret, nor 
 momentary, nor tentative, nor ambiguous ; nor performed 
 
 * See Peter's speech upon curing the cripple (Acts, iii. 18), the 
 council of the apostles (xv.), Paul's discourse at Athens (xvii. 22), 
 before Agrippa (xxvi.). I notice these passages, both as fraught with 
 good sense, and as free from the smallest tincture of enthusiasm. 
 
 f See Powell's Discourses, disc. xv. p. 245. 
 
492 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part III. 
 
 under the sanction of authority, with the spectators on their 
 side, or in affirmance of tenets and practices already estab- 
 lished. We find also the evidence alleged for them, and which 
 evidence was by great numbers received, different from that 
 upon which other miraculous accounts rest. It was contem- 
 porary, it was published upon the spot, it continued ; it in- 
 volved interests and questions of the greatest magnitude ; it 
 contradicted the most fixed persuasions and prejudices of the 
 persons to whom it was addressed ; it required from those 
 w^ho accepted it, not a simple, indolent assent, but a change, 
 from thenceforward, of principles and conduct, a submission 
 to consequences the most serious and the most deterring, to 
 loss and danger, to insult, outrage, and persecution. How 
 such a story should be false, or, if false, how under such cir- 
 cumstances it should make its way, I think impossible to be 
 explained ; yet such the Christian story was, such were the 
 circumstances under which it came forth, and in opposition to 
 such difficulties did it prevail. 
 
 An event so connected with the religion, and with the for- 
 tunes, of the Jewish people, as one of their race, one born 
 amongst them, establishing his authority and his law through- 
 out a great portion of the civilized world, it was perhaps to 
 be expected, should be noticed in the prophetic writings of that 
 nation ; especially when this Person, together with his own 
 mission, caused also to be acknowledged the divine original 
 of their institution, and by those who before had altogether 
 rejected it. Accordingly, we perceive in these writings, vari- 
 ous intimations concurring in the person and history of Jesus, 
 in a manner, and in a degree, in which passages taken from 
 these books could not be made to concur in any person arbi- 
 trarily assumed, or in any person except him who has been 
 the author of great changes in the affairs and opinions of man- 
 kind. Of some of these predictions the weight depends a 
 good deal upon the concurrence. Others possess great sepa- 
 rate strength : one in particular does this in an eminent de- 
 gree. It is an entire description, manifestly directed to one 
 
Chap.VIII.] evidences OF CHEISTIANITY. 493 
 
 character and to one scene of things : it is extant in a writing, 
 or, collection of writings, declaredly prophetic ; and it applies 
 to Christ's character, and to the circumstances of his life and 
 death, with considerable precision, and in a way which no di- 
 versity of interpretation hath, in my opinion, been able to 
 confound. That the advent of Christ, and the consequences 
 of it, should not have been more distinctly revealed in the 
 Jewish sacred books, is, I think, in some measure accounted 
 for by the consideration, that for the Jews to have foreseen the 
 fall of their institution, and that it was to merge at length 
 into a more perfect and comprehensive dispensation, would 
 have cooled too much, and relaxed their zeal for it, and their 
 adherence to it, upon which zeal and adherence the preserva- 
 tion in the world of any remains, for many ages, of religious 
 truth might in a great measure depend. 
 
 Of what a revelation discloses to mankind, one, and only 
 one, question can properly be asked. Was it of importance to 
 mankind to know, or to be better assured of? In this ques- 
 tion, when we turn our thoughts to the great Christian doc- 
 trine of the resurrection of the dead, and of a future judg- 
 ment, no doubt can possibly be entertained. He who gives 
 me riches or honors, does nothing ; he who even gives me 
 health, does little, in comparison with that which lays before 
 me just grounds for expecting a restoration to life, and a day 
 of account and retribution : which thing Christianity hath done 
 for millions. 
 
 Other articles of the Christian faith, although of infinite im- 
 portance when placed beside any other topic of human in- 
 quiry, are only the adjuncts and circumstances of this. They 
 are, however, such as appear worthy of the original to which 
 we ascribe them. The morality of the religion, whether 
 taken from the precepts or the example of its Founder, or 
 from the lessons of its primitive teachers, derived, as it should 
 seem, from what have been inculcated by their Master, is, 
 in all its parts, wise and pure ; neither adapted to vulgar 
 prejudices, nor flattering popular notions, nor excusing es- 
 
494 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Paet III. 
 
 tablished practices, but calculated, in the matter of its in- 
 struction, truly to promote human happiness, and in the form 
 in which it was conveyed, to produce impression and effect ; 
 a morality which, let it have proceeded from any person 
 whatever, would have been satisfactory evidence of his good 
 sense and integrity, of the soundness of his understanding 
 and the probity of his designs ; a morality, in every view of 
 it, much more perfect than could have been expected from 
 the natural circumstances and character of the person who 
 delivered it ; a morality, in a word, which is, and hath been, 
 most beneficial to mankind. 
 
 Upon the greatest, therefore, of all possible occasions, and 
 for a purpose of inestimable value, it pleased the Deity to 
 vouchsafe a miraculous attestation. Having done this for the 
 institution, when this alone could fix its authority, or give to 
 it a beginning, he committed its future progress to the natural 
 means of human communication, and to the influences of those 
 causes by which human conduct and human affairs are gov- 
 erned. The seed, being sown, was left to vegetate ; the 
 leaven, being inserted, was left to ferment ; and both accord- 
 ing to the laws of nature : laws, nevertheless, disposed and 
 controlled by that Providence which conducts the affairs of 
 the universe, though by an influence inscrutable, and generally 
 undistinguishable by us. And in this, Christianity is analo- 
 gous to most other provisions for happiness. The provision 
 is made ; and, being made, is left to act according to laws, 
 which, forming a part of a more general system, regulate this 
 particular subject, in common with many others. 
 
 Let the constant recurrence to our observation of contriv- 
 ance, design, and wisdom, in the works of nature, once fix 
 upon our minds the belief of a God, and after that all is easy. 
 In the counsels of a being possessed of the power and dispo- 
 sition which the Creator of the universe must possess, it is 
 not improbable that there should be a future state ; it is not 
 improbable that we should be acquainted with it. A future 
 state rectifies everything ; because, if moral agents be made, 
 
Ohap. yilL] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 495 
 
 in the last event, happy or miserable, according to their con- 
 duct in the station and under the circumstances in which they 
 are placed, it seems not very material by the operation of 
 what causes, according to what rules, or even, if you please 
 to call it so, by what chance or caprice, these stations are as- 
 signed, or these circumstances determined. This hypothesis, 
 therefore, solves all that objection to the divine care and good- 
 ness, which the promiscuous distribution of good and evil (I 
 do not mean in the doubtful advantages of riches and gran- 
 deur, but in the unquestionably important distinctions of 
 health and sickness, strength and infirmity, bodily ease and 
 pain, mental alacrity and depression) is apt on so many occa- 
 sions to create. This one truth changes the nature of things ; 
 gives order to confusion ; makes the moral world of a piece 
 with the natural. 
 
 Nevertheless, a higher degree of assurance than that to 
 which is is possible to advance this, or any argument drawn 
 from the light of nature, was necessary, especially to over- 
 come the shock which the imagination and the senses receive 
 from the effects and the appearances of death, and the ob- 
 struction which thence arises to the expectation of either a 
 continued or a future existence. This difficulty, although of a 
 nature, no doubt, to act very forcibly, will be found, I think, 
 upon reflection, to reside more in our habits of apprehension, 
 than in the subject ; and that the giving way to it, when we 
 have any reasonable grounds for the contrary, is rather an in- 
 dulging of the imagination, than anything else. Abstractedly 
 considered, that is, considered without relation to the difference 
 which habit, and merely habit, produces in our faculties and 
 modes of apprehension, I do not see anything more in the 
 resurrection of a dead man, than in the conception of a child ; 
 except it be this, that the one comes into his world with a 
 system of prior consciousnesses about him, which the other 
 does not ; and no person will say, that he knows enough of 
 either subject to perceive, that this circumstance make^uch 
 a difference in the two cases, that the one should be easy, and 
 
496 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. [Part IH. 
 
 the other impossible ; the one natural, the other not so. To 
 the first man, the succession of the species would be as in- 
 comprehensible, as the resurrection of the dead is to us. 
 
 Thought is different from motion, perception from impact : 
 the individuality of a mind is hardly consistent with the di- 
 visibility of an extended substance ; or its volition, that is, its 
 power of originating motion, with the inertness which cleaves 
 to every portion of matter which our observation or our ex- 
 periments can reach. These distinctions lead us to an imma- 
 terial principle : at least, they do this ; they so negative the 
 mechanical properties of matter, in the constitution of a sen- 
 tient, still more of a rational, being, that no argument drawn 
 from these properties, can be of any great weight in opposi- 
 tion to other reasons, when the question respects the changes 
 of which such a nature is capable, or the manner in which 
 these changes are effected. Whatever thought be, or what- 
 ever it depend upon, the regular experience of deejp makes 
 one thing concerning it certain, that it can be completely sus- 
 pended, and completely restored. 
 
 If any one find it too great a strain upon his thoughts, to 
 admit the notion of a substance strictly immaterial, that is, 
 from which extension and solidity are excluded, he can find no 
 difficulty in allowing, that a particle as small as a particle of 
 light, minuter than all conceivable dimensions, may just as 
 easily be the depositary, the organ, and the vehicle of con- 
 sciousness, as the congeries of animal substance which forms 
 a human body, or the human brain ; that, being so, it may 
 transfer a proper identity to whatever shall hereafter be united 
 to it ; may be safe amidst the destruction of its integuments ; 
 may connect the natural with the spiritual, the corruptible 
 with the glorified body. If it be said, that the mode and 
 means of all this is imperceptible by our senses, it is only 
 what is true of the most important agencies and operations. 
 The great powers of nature are all invisible. Gravitation, 
 elect^ity, magnetism, though constantly present, and con- 
 stantly exerting their influence ; though within us, near us, 
 
Chap. VIII.] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 497 
 
 and about us; though diffused throughout all space, over- 
 spreading the surface, or penetrating the contexture, of all 
 bodies with which we are acquainted, depend upon substances 
 and actions which are totally concealed from our senses. The 
 Supreme Intelligence is so himself. 
 
 But whether these or any other attempts to satisfy the im- 
 agination, bear any resemblance to the truth, or whether the 
 imagination, which, as I have said before, is the mere slave of 
 habit, can be satisfied or not ; when a future state, and the 
 revelation of a future state, is not only perfectly consistent 
 with the attributes of the Being who governs the universe ; 
 but when it is more ; when it alone removes the appearances 
 of contrariety which attend the operations of his will towards 
 creatures capable of comparative merit and demerit, of reward 
 and punishment ; when a strong body of historical evidence, 
 confirmed by many internal tokens of truth and authenticity, 
 gives us just reason to believe that such a revelation hath ac- 
 tually been made ; we ought to set our minds at rest with the 
 assurance, that in the resources of Creative Wisdom, expe- 
 dients cannot be wanted to carry into effect what the Deity 
 hath purposed : that either a new and mighty influence will 
 descend upon the human world to resuscitate extinguished 
 consciousness ; or that, amidst the other wonderful contrivances 
 with which the universe abounds, and by some of which we 
 see animal life, in many instances, assuming improved forms 
 of existence, acquiring new organs, new perceptions, and new 
 sources of enjoyment, provision is also made, though by 
 methods secret to us (as all the great processes of nature are), 
 for conducting the objects of God's moral government, 
 through the necessary changes of their frame, to those final 
 distinctions of happiness and misery, which he hath declared 
 to be reserved for obedience and transgression, for virtue and 
 vice, for the use and the neglect, the right and the wrong em- 
 ployment of the faculties and opportunities with which he 
 liatli been pleased, severally, to intrust, and to try us. 
 
INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 (editor.) 
 
 1. The foregoing argument of Dr. Paley is submitted to 
 all candid persons — and especially to all who are accustomed 
 to weigh evidence — as a demonstration of the HISTORICAL 
 EE ALITY of the New Testament miracles. The authenticity 
 and uncorrupted preservation of the Old Testament Scrip- 
 tures, and consequently the historical reality of the miracles 
 therein recorded, are supported by evidence of their own ; 
 for a summary of which the student is referred to Home's 
 Introduction. But besides this independent evidence, the 
 divine origin and authority of the Old Testament are certified 
 by the writers of the New ; and on that ground alone we are 
 entitled to assume that the former, no less than the latter, is 
 the Word of God. The divinity of both is founded on the 
 signs and wonders which were wrought in attestation of their 
 claims. 
 
 2. In order to meet all theoretical objections to this kind of 
 proof, we attempted, in Note C to Preparatory Considerations, 
 p. 42, to frame a definition of a miracle, and we also have given 
 Dr. Chalmers' definition in the extract from his works ap- 
 pended as a Note to Chap. IX. of Part II., pp. 405, 406. These 
 two definitions will not be found to conflict with each other. 
 The point of main importance to the question is, whether or 
 not the events which we call miraculous clearly indicate the 
 interposition of Almighty power, or of Omniscient wisdom — • 
 whether or not we can affirm, from the thing done or said, 
 that the hand of God is there outstretched to testify that the 
 attendant revelation is true — that the voice of God is there 
 
INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 499 
 
 uplifted to declare the prophetic messenger a messenger from 
 heaven. 
 
 8. The inquiry whether or not any work of superhuman 
 power has ever been performed by evil spirits in attestation 
 of a falsehood, or by any spirits inferior to God in attestation 
 even of a truth, will, if answered in the negative, strengthen 
 our position ; but, if answered in the affirmative, will not in- 
 validate it. This matter, therefore, although interesting in 
 itself, we dismiss as irrelevant to our present conclusion. It 
 is enough for us to know, not even that all, but that some of 
 the Bible miracles are such as can be explained only by the 
 intervention of divine power and knowledge. 
 
 4. Now, who but God can raise the dead, repair the limbs 
 of the maimed, create food for thousands, and foretell the 
 most unlikely occurrences centuries before they come to pass ? 
 And chiefly, by what other power than God's can we account 
 for that most stupendous, yet most infallibly attested of all 
 miracles, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead ? 
 We say it has been proved that these miracles are HIS- 
 TORICAL FACTS. Wherefore the^conclusion is inevitable 
 that the Revelation in support of which they were done is 
 true ; otherwise the God of truth is a deceiver, and works 
 wonders to maintain a lie. 
 
 5. The Revelation being true, its declarations with regard 
 to its own Inspiration must be accepted with all the rest. 
 It can no more be fallacious on that point than upon any 
 other which it discloses and upholds. Arguments may be 
 drawn — and in all treatises on the subject good arguments 
 have been drawn — from the nature of the case. Inspiration 
 was necessary for the work that was to be done. But laying 
 aside all a priori considerations, we prefer to take our views 
 of inspiration entirely from the evidence furnished by the 
 Scriptures themselves. This evidence may be very briefly 
 stated. 
 
 6. So far as the New Testament is concerned, the evidence 
 of its inspiration is threefold. I. It was proniised to the apos- 
 
500 INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ties by our Lord. 11. It is claimed by themselves. III. The 
 claim was admitted by their disciples. Besides the general 
 impression made on the mind of the reader by the whole 
 strain of the New Testament, which seems to take the gift of 
 inspiration for granted as a thing notorious, we cite in con- 
 firmation oi owe first proposition Matt. x. 19, 20 ; Luke, xxi. 
 15 ; John, xiv. 16, 17, 26, xvi. 12, 13, and xvii. 20, 21 ; 
 Matt, xxviii. 19, 20 ; Luke, x. 16 ; Acts, xxvi. 12-18. In 
 support of the second we cite 1 Cor. ii. 10, 12, 13 (see orig- 
 inal) ; 1 Cor. xiv. 37 ; 1 Thess. ii. 13 ; 2 Pet. iii. 15 ; 1 John, 
 ii. 6. It will be seen from Section VII. that the New Testa- 
 ment asserts, in the most unqualified terms, the inspiration 
 of the Old ; and both Paul and Peter rank their own writings 
 with the books of the Old Testament — the former command- 
 ing that his own epistles be read in the churches where none 
 but those books which the Jews believed to be inspired 
 were ever read. See Col. iv. 16 ; Ephes. ii. 20 ; 2 Pet. iii. 
 2. In support of the third we quote 2 Pet. iii. 16, and refer 
 to the early history of the Church, which proves the extreme 
 care and jealousy with which the first Christians discriminated 
 between the apostolic writings and the compositions of other 
 Christians, even the most distinguished for their piety and 
 gifts. 
 
 7. Propositions exactly similar may be predicated in the 
 case of the Old Testament writers ; and in addition to all, 
 these claims are most fully indorsed by our Lord and his 
 apostles. See John, x. 35 ; 2 Tim. iii. 16 ; 1 Pet. i. 11 ; 2 
 Pet. i. 21 ; Acts, i. 16, iv. 25, xxviii. 25. 
 
 8. But what does inspiration amount to ? Without enter- 
 ing into the discussion of this question, which would require 
 a volume to itself, and on which many volumes have been 
 written, we feel ourselves safe — certainly we do not go be- 
 yond the bounds of fair interpretation and deduction — in say- 
 ing, with Alford, that " The Inspiration of the Sacred Writers 
 consisted in the fulness of the influence of the Holy Spirit, 
 specially raising them to, and enabling them for, their work, 
 
INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 501 
 
 in a manner ivhich distinguishes them from all other writers in 
 the world, and their work from all other works. The men were 
 full of the Holy Ghost ; the books are the pouring out of that 
 fulness through the men — the conservation of the treasure is 
 in earthen vessels. The treasure is ours, in all its richness ; 
 but it is ours only as it can be ours — in the imperfection of 
 human speech, in the limitations of human thought, in the va- 
 riety incident, first to individual character, and then to mani- 
 fold transcription and the lapse of ages. The men were in- 
 spired ; the hooks are the result of that inspiration. This lat- 
 ter consideration, if all that it implies he duly weighed, will 
 furnish us with the key to the whole question." — Prolegom- 
 ena to New Testament, vol. i. 
 
 Many theologians go considerably further than the critic 
 whom we have just quoted, and uphold not only the inspiration 
 of the men, but the dictation of the very words. See Gaussen 
 on the Inspiration of the Bible, translated by the Rev. E. N. Kirk, 
 of Boston. But, as Paley has observed (p. 491), "The inspi- 
 ration of the Scriptures, the nature, degree, and extent of this 
 inspiration, are questions undoubtedly of serious discussion ; 
 but they are questions amongst Christians themselves, and 
 not between them and others. Tlie doctrine itself is by no 
 means necessary to the belief of Christianity, which must, in 
 the first instance at least, depend upon the ordinary maxims 
 of historical credibility." If the doctrine itself be not neces- 
 sary to the belief of Christianity, certainly either of the two 
 opinions as to the degree and extent of inspiration to which 
 we have alluded, will bear us out in the statement made in 
 our introductory chapter on the Claims of Divine Revelation, 
 namely, that the Bible is of supreme and decisive authority 
 in all questions of religious faith and practice — teaching us, 
 as from the throne of heaven, what man is to believe concern- 
 ing God, and what duty God requires of man. 
 
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