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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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