BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF 1S91 A. ^.^./..^.y. iX^"- Cornell University Library .B21 1B27 unaracter and conduct of the apostles co 3 1924 029 180 888 olln BOOKS PUBLISHED BY J. PARKER, OXFORD. SbPHOCLIS TRAGCEDIjE SEPTEM; ad optimorum exem- plarium fidem ac. praecipue Codicis vetustissimi Florentini emendatee, cum Annotatione tantum non integia Brunckii et Schaeferi, et aliorum selecta. Accedunt deperditarum Tragoe- diarum Fragmenta. 2 vols. 8vo. il. 4s. SCHOLIA IN SOPHOCLIS TRAGCEDIAS SEPTEM. E Codice MS. Laurentiano descripsit Petrus Elmsley S. T. P. 8s. 6d. SOPHOCLIS CEDIPUS TYRANNUS, -ex recensione Petri Elmsley,' J). D. qui et Annotationes suas adjecit. Editio au- ctior, Indicibusque instructa. Svo. 3s. 6d. SOPHOCLIS CEDIPUS COLONEUS e recensione Petri Elms- ley, A.M. accedit Brunckii et aliorum Annotatio selecta, cui et suam addidit Editor. los. 6d. SOPHOCLIS AJAX. Ad optimorum exemplar! um fidem ac praecipue Codicis vetustissimi Florentini emendatus, cum An- notatione tantum non Integra Brunckii et Schaeferi, et aliorum selecta. 3s. 6d. ANTIGONE. 3s. 6d. TRACHINI^. 3s. 6d. PHILOCTETES. 3s. 6d. ELECTRA. 3S. 6d. The TRAGEDIES of SOPHOCLES, translated by R.Potter. Svo. 8s. EURIPIDIS TRAGCEDI.ffi:, nova editio accurata, in usum PrsB- lectionum Academicarum et Scholarum, ex nova recognitione Aug. Matthiae. 2 vols, Svo. 1 8s. A selection of Notes to the above is, in thepressi Books published by J. Parker, Oxford. EURIPIDIS TRAGCEDIARUM Interpretatio Latina, ex ed. Musgravii. 8vo. 12s. EURIPIDIS ANDROMACHE, ex editione et cum annotation!:-' bus integris August! Matthiae. 8vo. 3s. 6d. The TRAGEDIES of EURIPIDES, translated by R. Potter. 2 vols. 8vo. il. THUCYDIDIS DE BELLO PELOPONNESIACO LibriVIII. Ex recensione Immanuelis Bekkeri. Accedunt Scholia Graeca, et Dukeri, Wassiiq. Annotationes. Greece et Latins. 4 vols. SVO. 2I. I2S. ^ THUCYDIDES, Bekkeri, Grace. Svo, 14s. LEXICON THUCYDID^UM: A Dictionary, in Greek and English, of the Words, Phrases, and Principal Idioms, con- tained in the History of the Peloponnesian War of Thucydides. los. 6d. TABULA THUCYDIDES, ex Gaillo praecipue desumptse. Svo. 2s. 6d. THUCYDIDES, translated by Thomas Hobbes, of Malmsbury : a new edition with an Analysis, &c. Svo. 12s. HERODOTI HISTORIARUM Libri IX. Codicem Sancroftii Manuscriptitm denuo contulit, reliquam Lectionis Varietatem cdmmodius digessit, Annotationes Variorum adjecit Thomas Gaisford, A.M. Gr.Ling. Prof. Reg. 4 vols. Svo. 3I. N.B. The Text and Various Readings, forming vols. i. and 2. are sold separately, price il. 4s. in boards. TABULA HERODOTES, ex Auctoribus variis desumptae. Svo. as. 6d. PORTI DICTIONARIUM lONICUM, Gr»co-Latinum, quod Indicem in omnes Herodoti libros continet, cum verborum et locutionum in his observatu dignarum accurata descriptione. Svo. 1 2S. LEXICON HERODOTEUM, Graeco-Latinum, instruxit J. Schweighaeuser. Svo. 14s. HERODOTUS translated; with Notes, by W.Beloe. Fourth edition. 4 vols. Svo. il. 16s. Books published by J. Parker, Oxfotd. LI VII HISTORIA, ex recensione A. Drakenborchii, Accedunt Notse integree ex editionibus J. B. L. Crevierii, cum Indice Rerum locupletissinid. 4 vols. 8vo. il. r6s. POLYBII MEGALOPOLITANI HISTORIARUM quidquid superest. Recensuit, digessit, emendatiore interpretatione, va- rietate lectionis, indicibus illustravit Johannes Schweighaeuser. 5 vols. 8vo. al. I2S. 6d. LEXICON POLYBIANUM, ab J. Schweighaeusero emendatum et auctura. 8vo. i6s. POLYBIUS, translated by Mr. Hampton. Fifth edition. 2 vols. Bvo. il. D. JUNII JUVENALIS SATlRJE XVI. perpettto commentario illustratae atque procEmio et argumentis instructse a G. A. Ru- perti. Bvo. los. JUVENAL and PERSIUS, translated by M. Madan. A new edition. 2 vdls, Bvo. i6s. INDICES ATTICI, or a Guide to the Quantity of the Greek Penultima, chiefly' with reference to the Attic Writers. 8vo. 5s. A COUNTRY PARSON'S OFFERINGS to his Mother Church, in twenty-seven Pastoral Sermons. By the Rev. G. Bevan, M. A. 3 vols. lamo. los. Each Volume, containing nine Pastoral Sermons, is sold separately. The W^ORKS of Bishop Beveridge. A new edition. 9 vols. Bvo. 4I. 1 6s. SERMONS preached before a Country Congregation. By the Rev. William Bishop, M. A. Second Series, containing twenty Sermons. i2mo. 5s. Also, the first Series, containing thirteen Sermons. lamo. 2S. 6d. The SERMONS of Bishop Bull, with his Life bjr R. Nelson. 3 vols. 8vo. il. 4s. ' A Description of the ANTIQUITIES and other CURIOSITIES of ROME. By the Rev. Edw. Burton, M. A. Bvo. i^s. The SACRED INTERPRETER, by David Collyer. 2 vols. Bvo, 15s. Books published by J. Parker, Oxford. The ENCYCLOPEDIA METROPOLITANA, or Universal Dictionary of Knowledge, on an original plan, comprising the twofold advantage of a Philosophical and Alphabetical Ar- rangement. Parts I — XVIIl. il. IS. each. This Work is divided into four principal divisions, i. Phi- losophy. 2. Science. 3. History and Biography, chrono- logically arranged. 4. Miscellaneous. SEVEN SERMONS on the course of CHRISTIAN LIFE. Second edition, izmo-. 2s. 6d. The SOCIAL CONDUCT of a CHRISTIAN considered, in Seven Sermons, addressed to an Individual. By the same Author. i2mo. 2S. 6d- PRAYERS to be used on Visiting the Sick: including the Offices of the Church, and_other Forms and Collects from the Liturgy. By the late Rev. T. Le Mesurier, B. D. i arao. 4s. 6d. The BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, according to the Use of the United Church of England and Ireland ; with Notes Ex- planatory, Practical, and Historical, from approved Writers of the Church of England. Selected and arranged by the Rev. Richard Mant, D. D. (now Lord Bishop of Down and Con- nor.) In 9 numbers, forming i vol. 4to. il. i6s. Royal paper, 3I. 12s. Third edition. An ABRIDGEMENT of the above in 2 vols. 8vo. il. 4s. Royal paper, il. i6s. SERMONS for Parochial and Domestic Use. By the same Au- thor. Third edition^ 3 vols. 8vo. il. 7s. The BOOK of PSALMS, in an English Metrical Version, with Notes, Critical and Illustrative. By the same Author. 8vo. 12s. ROMAN ANTIQUITIES, from Trajan's Column and other Au- thorities. 16 Plates drawn on stone. 6s. The BAMPTON LECTURES for 1826, on the Benefits an- nexed to a Participation in the two Christian Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, by W. Vaux, B. D. 8vo. 9s. The SCRIPTURE LEXICON, by P. Oliver, LL. D. A new edition corrected. 8vo. 8s. Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029180888 The Character and Conduct of the Apostles considered as an Evidence of Christianity, IN EIGHT SERMONS PREACHED BKFOKE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, IN THE YEAR MDCCCXXVII. AT THE LECTURE FOUNDED BY THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M. A. CANON OF SALISBURY. HENRY HART MILMAN, M. A. PROFESSOR OP POETRY, AND LATE FELLOW OP BRASEN NOSE COLLEGE OXFORD, AND VICAK OP ST. MABY'S READING. OXFORD, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE AUTHOR. SOLD BY JOHN MURRAY, LONDON; AND J. PARKER, OXFOBD. 1827. TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. Sire, THE gracious condescension, which per- mits me to dedicate this Volume to your Majesty, is peculiarly gratifying to one, whose father was honoured, during his pro- fessional career, by the distinguished favour of our late revered sovereigns. I trust that nothing in this Work may be found un- worthy of the learned body, before which the Discourses were delivered, still less of the exalted patronage under which they appear. a 2 iv DEDICATION. Should the Volume succeed in making any impression on the public mind, I am confi- dent that I shall be humbly instrumental in promoting a cause, in which your Majesty feels the liveliest interest — the advance- ment of Christianity among your subjects. I have the honour to be, Sire, Your Majesty's most dutiful subject, and most humble and devoted servant, HENRY HART MILMAN. Oxford, May 28th, 1827. CONTENTS. LECTURE I. Acts i. 13, 14. Arid when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, a/nd Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of AlphcEus, and Simon Ze- lotes, and Judas the brother of James, These all continued with one accord in prayer and sup- plication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. Contrast between the primitive assembly of the apostles, and the progress, extent, permanence, and influence of Christianity. Subject proposed ; The necessity of mi- racles for the dissemination of Christianity. First point. The apostles the first teachers of Christianity proved, 1. from general tradition, 2. from the history of the Acts. Credibility of the Acts, as far as its pri- mary and leading facts, from external and internal evidence. Object and utility of the inquiry. LECTURE II. 1 Cor. i. 27, 28. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confmind the wise; and God hath cJiosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty ; vi CONTENTS. And base things of the world, and things which are de- spised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are. Second point. Unfitness of the apostles for the propaga^ tion of a new religion. Their total despair, and ap- parent abandonment of the design. The number and constitution of the apostolic body. Their former jea- lousies. Their dependance on their Master. Charac- ters of individual apostles, of Peter, of John. Change in their doctrines as well as in their characters. Ne- cessity of the miracles of the resurrection and effusion of the Holy Ghost. LECTURE III. Acts v. 38, 39. And now I say unto you. Refrain Jrom these men, and let them alone : Jhr if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought : But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it ; lest haply ye bejbund even to fight against God. Progress of Christianity in Jerusalem improbable. Un- popularity of the Galilaeans. Christian doctrines ill adapted to succeed in Jerusalem. Jewish attachment to the temple. Expectation of the temporal Messiah. Opinions of prevailing sects. The Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots. Affair of Ananias and Sapphira. First persecution. Death of Stephen. Conduct of the apostles. Recapitulation. LECTURE IV. Acts xii. 24. But the word of God grew and multiplied. Progress of Christianity in Palestine. State of Judasa. Progress in Samaria. Difficulties of choosing coadjutors CONTENTS. vii in the enterprise. Simon Magus. His rejection. St. Paul. His conversion and reception into the apo- stolic body. His conversion miraculous, argued against Kuinoel and other German theologians. LECTURE V. 1 CoR. xii. 10, 11. To another divers hinds of tongues; to another the in- terpretation of tongues : AU these worJceth that one and the sesame Spirit, di- viding to every man severally as he will. Necessity of the gift of tongues. General belief of the Church. Vernacular language of Palestine, and ex- tent to which Greek was spoken. Literal belief in the gift necessary for the credibility of the scene on the day of Pentecost. Improbability of the apostles learn- ing Greek. Utility of the gift in other countries. Sketch of the languages spoken among those nations with which the apostles had intercourse. Affair at Lystra. Other passages, in which the gift of tongues is mentioned, discussed. Conclusion. LECTURE VI. 1 Con. i. S3. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stum- blingbloch, and unto the Greeks foolishness. Third point. Advantages and disadvantages arising from the actual state of the world at the time of the first propagation of Christianity. Prearrangement of the world. The fulness of time. I. Dispersion of the Jews. Their estimation in the world. Their recep- tion of Christianity. II. Universal dominion of the Romans. III. Religious state of the world. The viii CONTENTS. sensations 6f the apostles on entering an heathen city. The cross of Christ. LECTURE VII. Matthew x. 16. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless a* doves. Change of character required in a Christian convert. Proselytism of the .Jews and Christians compared. Wisdom and moderation of the apostles. Immortality of the soul. Heathen opinions on this subject. Jewish opinions. Manner in which it was taught by the apo- stles. Conduct of the apostles with regard to slavery. LECTURE VIII. 1 Cor. XV. 19. If in this world only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Fourth point. Possible motives of the apostles. General view of their conduct and life. Inquiry into cases analogous with theirs. Founders of other religions. Their suflFerings equalled. Soldiers. Gladiators. Mo- dern missionaries. Teachers of heresies and reformers. Actuating motives. Desire of gain, authority, post- humous celebrity. Uncertainty pf hupaan fame. Hu- mility of the apostles. The apostles believers or un- behevers. Difference between their miracles and those of Jesus. Conclusion. EXTRACT EXTRACT FROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, CANON OF SALISBURY. -" I give and bequeath my Lands and " Estates to the Chancellor, Masters, and Schor " lars of the University of Oxford for ever, to " have and to hold all and singular the said " Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the in- " tents and purposes hereinafter mentioned ; " that is to say, I will and appoint that the " Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford " for the time being shall take and receive all " the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and (after " all taxes, reparations, and necessary deduc- " tions made) that he pay all the remainder to " the endowment of eight Divinity Lecture " Sermons, to be established for ever in the said " University, and to be performed in the man- " ner following : " I direct and appoint, that, upon the first " Tuesday in Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly X EXTRACT FROM " chosen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by " no others, in the room adjoining to the Print- " ing-House, between the hours of ten in the " morning and two in the, afternoon, to preach " eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year fol- " lowing, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the " commencement of the last month in Lent " Term, and the end of the third week in Act " Term. " Also I direct and appoint, that the eight " Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be preached " upon either of the following Subjects — to con- " firm and establish the Christian Faith, and to " confute all heretics and schismatics — upon the " divine authority of the holy Scriptures — upon " the authority of the writings of the primitive " Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the pri- " mitive Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord " a:nd Saviour Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity " of the Holy Ghost^upon the Articles of the " Christian Faith, as comprehended in the " Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. " Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight " Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be always "printed, within two months after they are " preached, and one copy shall be given to the " Chancellor of the University, and one copy to " the Head of every College, and one copy to " the Mayor of the city of Oxford, and one CANON BAMPTON'S WILL. xi " copy to be put into the Bodleian Library ; and " the expense of printing them shall be paid " out of the revenue of the Land or Estates " given for establishing the Divinity Lecture " Sermons ; and the Preacher shall not be paid, " nor be entitled to the revenue, before they " are printed. "Also I direct and appoint, that no person " shall be qualified to preach the Divinity Lec- " ture Sermons, unless he hath taken the de- " gree of Mas'ter of Arts at least, in one of the " two Universities of Oxford or Cambridge ; " and that the same person shall never preach *' the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice." LECTURE I. LECTURE I. Acts i. IS, 14. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Barthohmew, and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. JixERE then were assembled in an ob- scure chamber, in a city the inhabitants of which were hated and despised by the ge- nerality of mankind, eleven men of humble birth, of sordid occupations, and of unculti- vated minds; peasants, publicans, fisher- men, with a few women, and the brethren of one, who had recently suffered an igno- minious death as a public malefactor. The eventual consequence of this meeting has been a moral and religious revolution, 2 LECTURE L equally unprecedented in earlier, and un- paralleled in later ages. The customs, the manners, the opinions, the laws and politi- cal institutions of vast nations ; the whole system of public and private life, in the more enlightened parts of the world, have undergone a change more or less rapid, complete, and permanent. Ancient modes of religious worship have vanished from the face of the earth ; a new code of mo- rality has gradually incorporated itself into the civil polity and domestic relations of innumerable people ; arts and letters, even war itself, have appeared to assume a new character, and to be directed on different principles. So entirely indeed has the whole framework of society been modified by the introduction of Christianity, that it is impossible to trace all its remote bearings Upon the habits and character of mankind. The philosophic observer of the human race can discover no event in the whole course of its history so extensively influen- tial, as the promulgation of that religion which was preached by the apostles of Christ. LECTURE I. S Nor is this revolution less remarkable for the dui-ation than the extent of its in- fluence. Having survived for centuries, the religious belief of these men exists, as the established faith of all those nations, which are particularly distinguished for civiliza- tion of manners, or the culture of the un- derstanding. Empires have risen and fallen, dynasties have flourished and sunk into ob- livion ; manners and opinions have under- gone in other respects the most complete and universal change ; commerce and arts and letters have migrated from one quarter to another : but amidst all the vicissitudes of human institutions, • and the perpetual fluctuation of political affairs, Christianity retains its power, adapts itself to every state of society, and every form of government. It has resisted alike every foreign invasion, and every domestic insurrection against its authority. Nor are the impediments over which it triumphed, or the hostility to which it has been perpetually exposed, to be lightly esti- mated. In all parts of the world the reli- gion of Christ had to supersede and eradi- B 2 4 LECTURE I. cate from the minds of men an ancient and inveterate paganism, which was incorpo- rated with every habit, and moulded up with every prejudice. When itself was at its weakest, through intestine discord, a new religion, singularly adapted to the pas- sions of mankind^ and to the state of so- ciety among the people with which it origi- nated, was propagated by the violent excite- ment of those passions ; and the fairest provinces of Christianity were wrested away by the irresistible invasion of the Ma- hometan. At a later period, a system of opinions, as flattering to the pride of the human intellect, and as indulgent to the sensuality of a more polished state of so- ciety, as the Mahometan doctrines to the habits and character of the predatory tribes of Arabia, recommended itself under the specious name of philosophy, so as to ac- quire an influence extensive, and far from completely counteracted, even within the pale of Christianity. Nevertheless succeed- ing generations and revolving ages have witnessed the irregular but continued pro- gress of this religion ; its losses in one LECTURE I 5 quarter have been amply repaid in others ; regions, which at its first publication were either impenetrable forests or unwholesome morasses, inhabited by a few naked savages, are now populous kingdoms crowded with the temples of Christian worship ; the most uncouth languages have become flexible to the enunciation of Christian doctrines ; the Gospel has visited shores, not merely un- discovered by the adventurous cupidity of ancient commerce or conquest, but the existence of which had not occurred to the most daring imagination. The arrogant prayer of the heathen conqueror has been, as it were, fulfilled in favour of Christianity, a new world, when we look to the southern hemisphere, we might say new worlds have been discovered, and laid open to the trium- phant banner of the Cross. Nor must the intellectual character of individual believers be omitted in this con- sideration. Christianity has not merely rested on prescription and authority ; it is not alone inculcated by education and maintained by law. It has endured the in- vestigation of the most profound arid subtle, b3 6 LECTURE I and extorted the homage, sometimes invo- luntary, of the most inquiring minds. Men who have been far beyond their own age, and have shaken off every prejudice, which em- barrassed their philosophical speculations, have not merely recognised the truth of the established religion by the decency of out- ward conformity, but by the unsuspicious testimony of inward obedience to its laws, and practical faith in its promises. In short, wherever civilization is most perfect, know- ledge most extended, reasoning most free, Christianity maintains its ground. Among the greatest discoverers in science, and the most acute reasoners on the common topics of life, it has reckoned many of the most eminent among its advocates, far the greater part among its believers. Thus then, having surveyed the progress and the perpetuity of the Christian reli- gion, look back upon that humble chamber, and that unpretending assembly, with which it originated. Compare its present extent and influence with its obscure beginning. Whence such disproportionate results from causes apparently so inadequate? The coun- LECTURE I. 7 sels of a few poors and almost illiterate men have changed the entire moral and reli- gious system of the world ; have maintained their authority over successive generations, and have controlled, with the excellence, of their precepts, and satisfied with the rea- sonableness of their doctrines, the wisest and most enlightened of mankind. This extraordinary revolution, according to the Christian scheme, was effected through the direct, immediate, and visible interposition of the Divinity. These men were endowed with supernatural gifts and faculties ; they were accompanied, wherever they went, with signs and wonders ; they were ac- tuated, guided, and inspired both in their oral and written language by the Holy Spi- rit : the whole, in short, was the declared purpose of the Almighty, who employed these men as his mediate instruments, not as his providence usually operates through secondary causes, which are regulated by general laws ; but openly and decisively espoused their cause by incontestable, re- peated, unprecedented infringements on the course of nature, impossible to less than B 4 8, LECTURE I. omnipotence, untraceable except to the un- seen but all ruling De^ty. But if this view of the propagation of Christianity be incorrect, either 1st, these men were not the original teachers of the new faith; or, 2dly, if they were, they de- signed, commenced, and established the new religion, with such casual assistance as they might obtain; or, Sdly, they were the slaves and creatures of circumstances, the undesigning agents in a revolution, the suc- cess of which was fortuitous, and dependant upon the favourable state of the world at the period in which they lived, for its ori- gin, progress, and completion. If then it shall appear on the fairest principles of mo- ral demonstration, that these men did in reality accomplish this acknowledged revo- lution ; if they undertook the enterprise with the avowed design of carrying it through, and did in fact both commence and conduct it with success, while it is abso- lutely incredible that they should either de- sign or commence it without welLgrounded reliance on supernatural assistance, still less succeed without the actual possession LECTURE I. 9 of miraculous powers : if, lastly, the circum- stances of the world at that period, far from accounting for the origin and success of Christianity, were at least as adverse as favourable to its reception, the conclusion of the Christian appears inevitable. Either, in the words of Chrysostom, the miracles themselves must be believed, or the greater miracle, that the world was converted with- out miracles ". * "Shrre otuv Xeyaxrj j«.^ yevea-ieu and illustrated by a number of cotem- porary documents, purporting to be the epistolary writings of the apostles. I shrink however from intruding upon ground al- ready occupied by Paley, and, while I refer to his unanswerable volume, the Horce Paulines, merely observe, that the accord- ance of separate accounts, which touch only incidentally and casually on the same topics, is the most unexceptionable test of historic truth. Hence, if the Acts of the Apostles were lost, the early events of Chris- tian history would be proved sufficiently for my purpose from the epistles alone. Unless then all the churches were in col- lusion to receive as the apostolic writings addressed to themselves, the bold forgeries of a later date, my argument will remain unshaken. III. Does there appear any discrepancy between the pagan accounts of the first appearance of Christianity, and the tradi- tion of the church, or the Acts of the Apo- stles ? The silence, as well as the imperfect intimation, to be gleaned from the Latin historians, strictly coincide with the Chris- LECTURE I. 17 tian account. They furnish a strong nega- tive evidence, that the new faith was not introduced in a manner less secret or ob- scure. Had the kingdom of heaven come with observation, it must have attracted the attention of pagan historians. Had kings taken counsel in favour of Christ, the annahsts of the times would have en- tered diffusely into the subject. The reeds from the lake of Gennesareth might be woven into an ark for the infant religion, unperceived or unregarded beyond the im- mediate borders of the land ; but the cedars of Lebanon could not be hewn into a tem- ple for the Lord, without exciting the asto- nishment, or at least commanding the no- tice, of all the Roman empire. Hence, in strict accordance with the vulgar account, Christianity is mentioned for some time merely as a modification of the Jewish be- lief. Now if the pagan writers had been accurately informed, even on the leading tenets of Judaism, we might expect them to have detected the points of difference : but the extraordinary misrepresentations which occur in their accounts of the Jewish 18 LECTURE I. religion and : polity, whether in Tacitui^ Strabo, Justin, or Dio CaSsius^, explain their ignorance as to the innovation produced by the new faith. Such writers were content with loose and inaccurate information on subjects beneath the majesty of Grecian or Roman eloquence. To a laborious investi- gator, or a diligent and faithful antiquarian, who would have endeavoured to ascertain the real tenets and laws of this extraor- dinary people, the Alexandrian translation of the scriptures must have been accessible. But it was probably rejected with contempt, as the fabulous '' chronicle of a superstitious people, and as little known even by men of letters as the Zendavesta of the Persians, or the Puranas of the Indians among ourselves. But while this is the case, no single pagan historian near to the times— for it is not often remarked that there is no cotempo- rary history extant^ — is without some allu- sion, more or less distinct, to the increasing sect ; and every allusion, either directly or s Tac. Hist. b. V. Strabo XVI. Justin XXXVI. 2. Dio. XXXVII. *> Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses. Juv. LECTURE I 19 by implkationi confirms the apostolic ac- count. There are three Roman historians, Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio Cassius; the former affectedly brief, the two latter im- perfect. It could not be expeeted that these writers should pause in their lofty narra- tive of the rise and fall of the imperial dynasties, and of the events which con- cerned the universal dominion of Rome, to notice every sectarian difference among a superstitious people. Unless then the Christians obtained notoriety, as disturb- ing the public peace, and coming into col- lision either with the laws or With the capricious tyranny of the emperor, they would remain in unregarded obscurity. They did give rise to popular disturbance in many places, being persecuted, by the Jews in Lystra, Iconium, Antioch in Pisi- dia, and Thessalonica: but directly the same scene tates place in Rome, they are ex- pelled the city, and then the first of these historians thinks them worthy of a brief and rapid notice '. They suffer dreadful i Judaeos, irapulsore Chresto, assidue tumultuantes Roma eXpulit. Suet. Claud. The best commentary on c 2 20 LECTURE I. persecution under Nero, and the same his- torian again condescends to mention them, but apparently, as if their sufferings were of little more importance than '' a police re- gulation of the market, and an ordinance which restrained the lower order of players. The same transaction, as tending to deve- lope the sanguinary character of the em- peror, extorts the memorable passage from this passage which I have met with is the following, ex- cepting of course one point : Quoniam praedicantes apo- stoli fidem Christi nuUo in populo vehementius quam a Judaea gente sunt impugnati, haud dubium est eosdem, adversus Petrum, Romse evangelium praedicantem, illud- que indies raagis inter Grentiles etiam propagantem, turbas saepius concitasse, rursumque alios Christianae religioni studentes, eisdem fortiter restitisse. Sicque invicem alter- eantibus assiduis concertationibus dissidentibus, quod ^ Christi fidri occasione concitatae sunt turbae, Christo impulsore id factum esse Suetonius existimat ; ratus ni- mirum, eos qui Christi fidem sectarentur ad id esse per- suasos, quem et sub Pilato in crucem actum, ac post mor- tem rursus vivere ejus sectatores judicarent. Baron. Ann. Eccles. ^ Interdictum ne quid in popinis cocti prseter legu- mina et olera venderent, cum antea nullum non obsonii genus proponeretur ; afflicti suppliciis Christiani, genus hominum superstitionis novae et maleficae ; vetiti quadri- gariorum lusus quibus inveterata licentia passim vaganti- bus fallere et^furari per jocum jus erat. Suet. Nero. LECTURE I. 21 Tacitus, of itself the most complete con- firmation of the apostolic history ; and the unhappy celebrity of their afflictions ob- tains the satiric notice of Juvenal '. The courtly Dio Cassius was still less likely to deviate into any details about the origin or character of so mean and plebeian a sect ; but when this " atheistic faith" had intruded into the bosom of the imperial family, he gives a vague account of the transaction, it is difficult to say whether obscure from ig- norance or intention "*. In Pliny's letter we, as it were, see the Gallio of the Acts again on the tribunal. The same contempts uous testimony is borne to the inoffensive character of the people. The difference is, that the sect having by this time increased most rapidly, Gallio appears more calmly su- ^ Juvenal Sat. 1. 155. ^evret vvxtsvovtoi, xaiirsp av£v(/iov ovret, xa) ymouKo. xal axtrrpi ffuyyev^ keanov A«/3iav Ao/iuTiXXav syovra, xareV^a^ev o AojU'iTiavo;. iveve)($ii le kfLfaiv eyxXi}[/M aAeoT^tOi, u(p' ^; xai SXMi Ij ra. Tm 'Ioo5«/a)v rfii\ e^oxeXKovre; TtoWo) I8»x«trflij(r«ii. Dio LXVII. 14. Compare Euseb. III. 18. Basnage Hist, des Juifs, vol. VII. 304. Lardner, Heath. Test. art. Dio. C 3 n LECTURE I. perqiliou^; Pliny betrays the wounded pride of the Roman governor, who resents the in- eflficacy of his severe measures, under the ^^umed disdain of the philosopher °. IV. If the Scattered information thus collected from profane historians harmo- nize, so exactly with the traditionary and written accounts of the Christians, there appea,rs an accordance still more precise and tenia,rkabl€ on those points which be- long to heathen history, and wjijch are in- cidentally mentioned in the Acts. This bpok necessai^ily abounds in allusions to public men, to places", to events, and to cus^ " Josephus is the only other historian who could have mentioned the Christians : his silence, if indeed he is silent, is easily accounted for; giving up tJie contested passage, he explicitly names John the Saptist and James the Just. o An author who has taken the pains to examine mi- nutely the geography of the Acts, writes thus ; " Of the "numerous places named therein we find but seven " which are omitted by Strabo, the chief of the ancient " gjepgraphers that are come down to us. The rest are " described by hlra in exact agreement with the history " of the Acts. Of the seven omitted by hiaa, five are " fully and^ cl^riy spoken of by other ancient authors. " There repiaiu only pso ijiereibr^, df which a doubt can " be admitted, whether they are mentioned by any of the LECTURE I. rs toms which prevailed in different nations ait the time in which it is supposed to have been written. On these, points it is correct to the most minute particular; wherever any apparetit discrepancy occurs, it has been explained in a manner as curious as satisfactory ; while there is just enough of this apparent discrepancy ^ to preclude the supposition of an artful and elaborate for- gery. It may be asserted, I think, without hesitation, that however ingeniously some ftctitious narratives have been fabricated, nevertheless some anachronism or local error, some mistated^ misunderstood, or misrepre- sented fact, some mistake as to the habits pf the peqple described, has invariably been ■' ancient writers now extant. And of these two one was " a, city that had been destroyed, and for that reason " probably neglected by the historians and geographers " that have reached onr age." The two are the Fair Havens and Lasea, of which the former is probably the »et}\^ pixr^ of Stephanus, the latter, the Lasos of Pliny. Biscoe on the Acts, p. 883. P See for instance the question about the Proconsulate of Sergius Faulus, in Lardner and Michaelis, or the in- genious and satisfactory manner in which the latter ac- counts for St. Paul's being ignorant that Ananias was the high priest. C 4 24 LECTURE I. detected. In this respect the Acts of the Apostles, as the author was more liable to error, affords even more conclusive evidence than the Gospels. The latter are only con- versant about the habits, language, and laws of the Jewish people, and the forms of the Roman provincial government in Judaea. The Acts take a wider, and consequently more dangerous range for an impostor. We are introduced to historical personages, some of whom are distinctly drawn by pa- gan writers, to Festus '', Felix, Agrippa, Gallio. We detect not the slightest incon- gruity in their offices, actions, or characters. We are placed in cities, better known than any other of the ancient world, Antioch, Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, Rome : every lo- cality, every custom, every opinion strictly coincides with our previous knowledge, 1 E quibus Antonius , Felix per omnem saBvitiam ac li- bidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit, Drusilla, Cleopatra, et Antonii nepte in matrimonium accepta. Tacit: Hist. V, And as he reasoned of temperance, righteousness, and the judgment to come, Felix trembled. Acts xxiv. 25. The rabbinical traditions confirm the remarkable cha- racters of Gamaliel and Ananias. See Biscoe. LECTURE 1. 25 The forms of the Roman law', a subject not likely to be familiar with such writers, are accurately observed. To do justice how- ever to this part of the subject would require a minute and copious induction, such as that of the indefatigable Lard- ner, or at least the skilful summary of Pa- ley. V. If this book, as it appears, was pub- lished during the lifetime of those who were cotemporary with the apostles, either Jews or Gentiles, converts or unbelievers, it was a direct appeal at once to the personal knowledge of eyewitnesses, and to the pub- lic records. The enemies of Christianity f M. Huber remarque fort bien, qu'il paroit, par toutes Jes circonstances du jugement de Pilate, que toutes les regies du droit humain y furent exacteraent observees, et que cela peut nous convalncre de la verity de cette his- toire. Des gens du petit peuple parmi les Juifs, tels qu'^- toient les EVangelistes, ne pouvoient pas Stre si bien in- struits de cela ; et s'ils n'avoient vu la chose, ou s'ils ne I'ayoient apprise de t^moins oculaires, ils n'auroient jamais pu la raconter comme ils ont fait, sans dire quelque chose qui se trouveroit contraire a I'usage des gouverneurs dans les provinces Romaines. Le Clerc, Bibl. anc. et mod. quoted by Jortin, Eccles. Hist. I. 50. The argument is still more conclusive from the frequent judicial proceed- ings which occur in the Acts. 26 LECTURE I. were neither few nor inactive, but the Christians not merely defied these impla- cable antagonists to disprove the existence and agency of the apostles, they gave them dates, facts, and places, to guide their inves- tigations, and facilitate their own jdetection. They named the cities in which the apostlss had founded churches, governors before whose tribunals they were led, prisons, into which they were cast, converts which they made, infidels who resisted their arguments. They stated where they began, where they succeeded, where they failed. Now if it could have been argued that neither the memory of man, nor traditionary informa^ tion, nor official documents preserved the slightest vestige of such transactions, would the Christians have dared to confront, or the heathens neglected to institute such an inquiry. Some of these events were not such as to obtain merely an ephemeral no- toriety. The Jews must have had some permanent tradition about the appearance of the new sect. Whether the Gospel was publicly announced on a high festival im- mediately after the death of Jesus ; whether LECTURE I. 27 it gained ground in the city, whether any of its converts suffered death in its defence, whether any remarkable man, like Paul', embraced the faith, these facts must have been undeniable, or they would have been denied The appearances of Christianity at Ephesus, Antioch, Corinth, or Athens, the conversion of Sergius Paulus, Paul's arguing before the Areopagus, were not, (according to his own phrase, things done in a corner. Even at a later period, when Trypho opposed, or when Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian wrote elaborate treatises against » Paul himself appeals to the personal knowledge of Agrippa : For the hing knoweth of these things before .whom also Ispeajcjreehffjbr I am- persuaded that none of these things are hiddenjrom him ; for the thvng was not done in a corner. Acts xxvi. 26. Jortin observes well on the particularity of the aposfto- lic writings : " A man of very ordinary abilities, who re- ." lates various things, of which he has been an ear or an *' eyewitness, is under no difficulty or pain ; but a forger, *' if he had the abilities of an angel, whose imagination ■ f' must supply him with materials, can never write in ' " such a manner ; and if he has tolerable sense, will avoid " entering into such a minute dptail, in which he must " perpetually expose his ignorance or dishonesty." JSccl. Hist. I. 60, ^8 LECTURE 1. Christianity, if the Christian accounts had been questionable on these primary points, they would have perceived and seized their advantage *. These antichristian writings indeed have perished; but as we know that the Christian controversialists " did not find it necessary to obviate such objec- tions, we may fairly conclude, that these leading facts of the apostolic history were attested by the consentient voice of pagan and Christian tradition. VI. Nor is the internal evidence of style and manner of composition less conclusive. The style of the Acts not only bears a re- markable similarity with that of the Gospel professedly written by the same author, but differs from the other evangelic writers precisely in those points and to that de- gree, which might be expected, from what t Lactantius affirms, thatHierocles,in his writings against the Christians, acknowledged the low and iUiterate state of the apostles : " Praecipue tamen Paulum Petrumque " laceravit, caeterosque discipulos tanquam fallacise semi- " natores, quos eosdem tamen rudes fuisse et indoctos " testatus est: nam quosdam eorum piscatorio artificio " fecisse quaestum." Inst. Div. V. 3. " Justin, Origen, Eusebius, Cyril. LECTURE I. 29 we collect of the education, life, and habits of the author. VII. But it is in the mode of compo- sition that forgery usually betrays itself It is elaborately artificial, studious about the arrangement and disposition of the parts, is complete, methodical, and never loses sight of the manifest object at which it aims. As a composition, the book of the Acts " is singularly inartificial ; it opens without pretension ; is loose in the arrange- ment a£ its facts, passes over considerable periods of time; and from one subject to another; the writer leaves us to collect from the change of persons, whether he speaks as an eyewitness or from hearsay''. The end is unaccountably abrupt, and it is al- ^ See Lardner, Supp. chap. VIII. sect. 9. Hist, of Apost. art. Sf. LuJce. Michaells by Marsh, vol. III. p. 328. y Le Clerc, above mentioned, thinks that Luke breaks off the history of St. Peter, of whom he had said so much, before, very abruptly in those words Acts xii. 17. Jnd he departed, and went to another place. Nevertheless St. Luke afterwards drops St. Barnabas in like manner, chap. XV. 39. And in the end he will take his leave of th^ apostle. Paul himself without much more ceremony. Lardner, Hist. Apost. 30 LECTURE I. most impossible to * ascertain the precise object for which the work was written, for it passes from one apostle to another, and has obviously omitted many material facts : some which would have given dignity to the apostolic history, such as the founda- tion of the church in Edessa, Egypt, Baby- lon ; others which would have tended to raise Paul in the estimation of the whole body, as suffering in an unprecedented man- ner ; Three times, says St. Paul% I suffered sMpwreelCy Luke mentions once only. He has omitted many persecutions to which, Paul distinctly alludes ; he preserves a mo- dest silence as to his own person ; though as the attendant of the great apostle, it is scarcely probable but that he must have (cooperated usefully in his labours, and par- tieipg.ted in his perils* The impartiality of the narrative is no less extraordinary than its artlessness. * The conflicting opinions on this subject, as stated by Kuinoel, (Proleg. in Acta,) are ample evidence on this point. * 2 Cor. xi. 25. Compare this whole passage with the Acts. LECTURE I. SI There is no chosen hero, no ostentatious c^splay of ma,gnanimity or devotion, no boast of self-sacrifice. The reader is left to form his own estimate of the characters from the circumstances related; differences of opinion, disputes, weaknesses, are neither disguised nor dissembled. If an undue de- gree of attention appear directed to St. Paulj it is because his actions were better known to his personal attendant. But Peter is not sacrificed, for he does not inform us, that at Antioch Paul *" withstood him to the face, because he was to he Maimed. The par- tisan of Paul would hardly have refrained from depressing Barnabas ", arid would not have passed so lightly over their remarkable contention. What could be the design of fbrging such a book ? It is not a complete history of the first propagation of Christi- anity ; it is not a panegyrical biography of any one of the early teachers ; it is not a pompous display of their sufferings or their success ; it is not a complete developement of their religion. If it had been worth b Gakt. ii. 11^ «= Acts xv. 39. 32 LECTURE I. while to invent, the invention would have been more skilful, and more to the purpose ; had the early Christians lied, they would have lied more splendidly. The greatness of the apostolic characters, the powers which they possessed, the rapidity with which they triumphed, would have been more prominently advanced ; the romance would have been more strongly coloured ; the miracles would not have been casually scattered about, but introduced in gradual succession, and rising artfully in their de- mands on our credulity; the adventures would have been selected either for their marvellous or impressive character. The forger would not have confined his wonder- ful tale to civilized countries ; he would have followed Paul into Arabia, and through the mist of unknown and fabulous regions, magnified the imposing figure of the apostle. He would not have been outdone by the boldness of subsequent tradition ; or rather, if the work had been compiled in a later period, he would have embodied the strik- ing though extravagant fictions, which were propagated concerning the authors of the LECTURE I. 38 faith in the second century''. But two points in particular make me conceive it imiiossible that the Acts should have been compiled later. I. The constant tradition of the church from the earliest times asserts that Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom. Would any compiler, whose object must have been to advance Christianity by decep- tion, have declined following these apostles to the glorious consummation of their la- bours ; refused them,^ as it were,, their crown and palms, and neglected such an opportu- nity of confirming the faith by the testis mony of their blood ? II. If the Acts, were compiled and published before the destruction of Jerusalem, multitudes \rho knew the facts must have been living; if stibisequently, their sdlence concerning that event is inexplicable. The enemies of Christ are scattered over the earth ; his murder awfully avenged; the guilty city '^ Dtenim si legas ea, quae caeteri qui feruntur fuisse vi* eini temporibus apostolorutn, literis prodiderunt, vel iit ab ipsis audita coirspectaque, vel ab iis qui viderint ae-^ cepta, videberis tibi fabulas, ut ita dixerim, legere, si eon- feras cum gravitate fideque hiijus historiae. Erasm. in Act. Apogt. D 34 LECTURE I. razed ; above all, the predictions of Jesus are fulfilled to the letter. The Christian writers deny themselves one word of triumph ; they betray by no hint or allusion their know- ledge of this event : they are too blind to perceive, or too generous to adduce this proof of the rejection of their adversaries. They describe Paul as dragged to prison, they forego the opportunity of claiming prophetic foreknowledge for him, by insert- ing in his address the slightest intimation of the imminent destruction. In short, their artful or prudential assumption of igno- rance is so complete, that we must give them credit either for more than human self-denial, or convict them of the most in- conceivable artfulness. Unless then we receive the history in the Acts, we are reduced to this alternative. We must believe that every record of the origin and early propagation of Christianity has perished, and a document been substituted false, not merely in some of its details, but in its primary and leading facts ; not merely in its marvellous, or, if you will, superstitious views, but in every single statement. Yet LECTURE I. 35 that this document has been so dexterously forged as to harmonize with all sacred and profane tradition, with all the circum- stances and events of the times, and with writings extant which purport to be the letters of the apostles; yet with all this skill and ability the record is at last incom- plete, and deficient in many of those argu- ments in favour of the new religion, which, humanly speaking, the forger could scarcely have omitted. While with singular felicity all the internal marks of authenticity in style, diction, and arrangement are scru- pulously preserved ; while many of the speeches display, if invented, remarkable art and propriety ; with all these proofs of consummate skill, there appears at last a simple narrative, which redounds by no means to the preeminent glory of the teachers, or places the new religion in a splendid or imposing light. Either the main outline of the Acts is true, or the Christians, with an ingratitude or an ab- sence of party-feeling, equally incredible, dismissed into entire oblivion those through whose instrumentality they had been con-^ D 2 36 LECTURE I. verted. Proud of their obscurity, boast- ful of the meanness of their origin, they ascribed their religion to persons whose names and characters bore neither weight nor authority. They forged, or permitted a forgery to be imposed upon them, incon- sistent with their own jrecoUections and knowledge, and not commended by any peculiarly flattering or exalting adapta- tion to the excited state of their feelings. Even during the lifetime of some, who were mentioned by name, they received as true, and stamped with their authority, a book of which every page, every verse, every letter might be contradicted. They read in their public assemblies, what, if untrue, multi- tudes on the authority of their fathers, ge^ neral tradition, or their own experience, must have known to be false. And all this to trace their ancestry to the fishing boat and the workshop, to fill up the roll of their spiritual genealogy, with peasants, publicans, and persecutors. Thus then to the personal agency of the apostles in the first promulgation of Chris- tianity, we have the accumulated evidence LECTURE I. 37 of Christian tradition, supported by hea- then ; we have cotemporary history, we have public and existing documents written by their own hands ; we have the tacit ad- mission of their adversaries. I think there- fore that I have a right to assume the main outline of the history, in the Acts of the Apostles, as unquestionable. But if the inain outline, if the primary and leading facts, as they are related in the most inar- tificial and unguarded manner, be true, I conceive that the truth of the miracles must follow as a necessary consequence. The miracles are so essentially and inse- parably identified with the history, that neither the general outline, nor scarcely a single detail in the transactions can be ac- counted for without them. It is a mass of effects with inadequate causes. In heathen historians, in Herodotus and Livy for in- stance, we may easily detach the marvellous from the narrative, in the apostolic history they must stand or fall together. Without confident trust in supernatural assistance, the apostles could not have undertaken the design of converting the world to- Chris- D 3 38 LECTURE I. tianity ; without the actual presence of su- pernatural agency, coneerning which, if they deceived others, it was impossible them- selves should be deceived, they could not have succeeded in their enterprise. With- out miraculous powers, their mode of act- ing in each separate transaction is directly at issue with every precedent in human ex- perience, extravagant beyond the excess of the wildest- fanaticism, indiscrete, so as to render impossible the success of the most daring imposture. However madness is sometimes modified by craft ; however men who commence by deluding others, end in deluding themselves; or by self-delusion are enabled to impart the contagion of their phrensy — such contradictions as appear in the character and conduct of the apostles, supposing them either impostors or fanatics, or the impostor mingled up with the fana- tic, transcend the possible varieties of hu- man inconsistency, and surpass every cre- dible deviation from the common principles of human action. Opening then the book of the Acts, I would take up the apostles,^ as they were LECTURE I. 39 left in the history of the four Gospels ; trace them from the obscure chamber in which they met, as far as the authentic scriptures will lead us ; rigidly examine every probar- bility, and endeavour to ascertain, whether it is possible that they should have been themselves deceived, or whether they were capable of deceiving others; whether the faith of Christ could have been established without the direct agency of God ; whether without a sober and 'rational conviction of their divine mission, the apostles would have attempted the conversion of the world, or could have succeeded in the attempt ? I enter upon the subject with less diffi- dence in my own argumentative powers, be- cause, even if this outwork of Christianity, through the incompetency of its defender, shall appear less impregnable than it is, I leave the rest of the citadel in its command- ing dignity, and maintained by its recog- nised guardians. The other evidences of Christianity are not in the least committed by my temerity. The miracles of our Lord, the prophecies, the character of the Re- deemer, remain, to convince, to awe, to con- D 4 40 LECTURE I. ciliafe. Jesus and his apostles will still speak to tRe reason and the heart. At the same time all subjects connected \vith Christian evidence appear peculiarly appropriate to my present.auditory. At that period of early manhood^ when the flesh and the spirit hold their desperate, possibly decisive struggle ; when on the determination the whole cha- racter of the future life, and consequently the immeasurable eternity, may depend ; when the reason, unless effectually strengthened, too often gives way to the more acceptable, doctrines preached by the passions; any argument which may, I will not say enforce conviction, but induce to sober and dili- gent investigation, may be of incalculable importance ; incalculable as the terrors of hell, in its precipitate course to which the soul by God's grace may be arrested; in- calculable as the joys of heaven, to which by the same gracious influence it may be excited and encouraged to press forward. Even to those far more mature in Chris- tian knowledge than the preacher himself, though such an investigation may not be wanting to instruct, or even to eoncfirm,. it LECTURE I. 41 may nevertheless conduce to invigorate the Christian feeling, and expand the Christian affections. For as the true philosopher, while unfolding the mysteries of the ma- terial world, will perpetually bear in mind and suggest to his readers, the superintend- ing providence of the one great Cause, so he that presumes to enlarge on the plan of the Almighty for the propagation of Chris- tianity, will of necessity develope the wis- dom of the Deity in the adaptation of its appointed means^ to the end proposed. And as the powers of divine grace will not merely be displayed in the external signs of mi- racles wrought, and enemies confounded, and multitudes converted, but in the ac- tions also and language, of the apostles, in their zeal and prudence, their devotion to their Redeemer, and their love to man- kind ; since we cannot believe the reality without feeling the excellence of such vir- tues, the more ejffectual eloquence of reli- gious example will melt, as it were, insen- sibly into the character. So that even if the faith be neither enlightened nor con- firmed, it may be won to shew forth more 42 LECTURE I. abundantly its fruits, and taught, by the study of apostoHc models, in what manner it is to work by love. May the God of truth and love make it equally operative on our understandings and our hearts-^that God to whom be ascribed all majesty, power, worship, and dominion, henceforth and for ever LECTURE II. 1 Cor. i. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to con- found the things which are mighty ; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which, are not, to bring to nought things that are. I HAVE adduced evidences I trust, suffi- ciently conclusive, that the apostles were the first teachers of Christianity, and that the Acts is a real and credible history, as far as its main outline and leading facts. I proceed to the more important question, how it came to pass, that these eleven men, with their followers, set themselves up as authors of a new religion, and persuaded so many converts to acquiesce in their claims, and submit to their authority ? I would ri- gidly examine their character and conduct, 44 LECTURE II. in order to ascertain how far they were qualified to undertake and conduct such an enterprise. But to form this estimate with correctness, we must divest ourselves of all that habitual veneration with which we have been accustomed io array their persons and sanctify their names. In the mind of the Christian, the apostles of Christ are associated with all that is bold and un- compromising, prompt in decision, vigorous in action, temperate yet firm, unshaken in their fixed resolutions, yet prudent and even pliant when circumstances required. These reverential opinions, however, formed on the general view of their characters, in- capacitate us in some degree from a dispas- sionate judgment on the question proposed. Fairly to consider their situation, at the juncture to which our attention is directed, we should cbse the history of the Acts, ob- literate every recollection of the miracles which they wrought, and takfi them up as eleven unlearned and ignorant Men, without attainments or connection, selected from the lowest orders of society, who had for some time followed, and implicitly obeyed. LECTURE 11. 45 the dictates of a teacher, whose character and doctrines they understood but imper- fectly. We must not behold in their per- sons the inspired and delegated missionaries of the Most High, men eloquent in every tongue under heaven, but the humble me- chanic, the unlettered fisherman, the un- popular and odious publican ; not consider them as men so intrepid as to confront alike the prefect on his throne, and the infu- riated populace in the streets, but as pu- sillanimous and irresolute deserters of their cause, now at the lowest state of depression and despondency, on account of the igno- minious death of him on whom all their hopes relied, and who had undergone with- out resistance the public execution of a common malefactor. Nothing appears more certain, than that the apostles themselves considered the death of Jesus the annihilation of their hopes *. The recollection of his former powers could only aggravate the sense of their present destitution. He saved others, a Compare Lardner, Serift. XXII. Kuinoel on Luke xxiv. 20, 21. 46 LECTURE II. himself he cannot save\ had been the bitter sarcasm of his enemies, the more bitter to their ears, because it appeared unanswer- able. We trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel", was the me- lancholy confession of total disappointment. The promise of the resurrection, by their own account, they had neither understood nor believed. When Jesus said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again% the disciples did not understand him. Some rumours of these prophecies seem to have crept abroad, sufficient to awaken the jealousy, and redouble the precautions of his enemies*, but not enough to reassure the despondency of his disciples. The lan- guage of Mary Magdalene is that of affec^^ tionate solicitude, lest the body of her Mas- ter might be treated with irreverence : Sir, if thou have home him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away ^. Hence it is evident, that far from expecting the resurrection, it had not b Mark xv. 31. "= Luke xxiv. 21. d John ii. 19. 22. Compare Mark ix. 32. Luke xviii. 34. «^ See Matt, xxvii. 63. f John xx. 15. LECTURE II. 47 entered her thoughts. When the first in- teUigence of the event reached the disciples, their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not s. And St. John ex- plicitly asserts, that as yet they knew not the scripture, that he should rise again from the dead ''. It is true, that the Lord had fore- told both his death and resurrection ; the accomplishment of the melancholy part of the prediction might have been received as a security for the completion of the trium- phant and glorious clause. But the apo- stles either originally misunderstood his language, and rejected its real meaning, as inconsistent with their national prejudices ; or at all events their present consternation overpowered their faith. The immediate pressing calamity absorbed all other feel- ings; sorrow for the loss of their Master, dis- appointment, personal apprehension, com- bined to prevent their remembering, or, if they remembered, their placing a favour- able construction on his ambiguous pro- phetic language. Their conduct is expli- s Luke xxiv. 11. '^ John xx. 9. 48 LECTURE II. cable on this principle,, and this alone. Every act and word marks their complete consternation and despair. They are scat- tered as sheep without a shepherd, without leader, without plan, without object, with- out bond of union. Above all, their tirai* dity in deserting, in one, the shame and dis- grace of having denied the Lord, would na- turally oppress their consciences, and in- stead of inducing them to court publicity, dismiss them to their usual avocations, with the painful conviction of their incapacity for any great undertaking. Their only re- quisite for the apostleship of a new religion^ their affection for their Master, had failed. The beloved Teacher was left without de^ fenders in the hall : when he was buffeted, no hand interposed; when they sought false witnesses against him, no one came forward to bear testimony to his innocence-. The draught of vinegar was administered by the hand of a stranger ; and it is not till his doom was sealed, and the wrath -of his enemies^ satiated, that their attachment faintly revives: they venture timidly, sepa- rately, and without hope, to approach the LECTURE II. 49 place consecrated to his remains, while even then, the pious office, which they are anxious to perform, proves indeed their af- fection, but acknowledges the frustration of all their hopes. The desire of embalm- ing the body shews that they contemplated no: change, except the usual process of hu- man decay. , But with the life of Jesus, the religion likewise might appear to come to an end. As it depended upon his personal author- ity, arid consisted in his personal preach- ing, at his departure the whole scheme was dissolved. If his followers should adhere to his purer morality, and observe his holy injunctions ; if he should assume his rank, as a commissioned teacher and benefactor of the Jewish people, as a wise and acknow- ledged prophet, this was the utmost that could be expected. If the expiring cry of their Master, It is finished, reached the ears of his disciples, their interpretation doubt- less was that of despair, as though it implied the termination of that mission, from which they had expected so much, the complete cessation of all the power and authority of 50 LECTURE II. Jesus, which could not, as it appeared, arrest or avert the triumphant malice of his ene- mies. So far their pusillanimity is consist-^ ent, and their conduct precisely such as we might expect from men of their st9.tion and character, under such trying circumstances. On a sudden, however, the disciples of Je- sus appear assembled together ; their views are entirely altered ; their courage restored; their hopes revived. A new and unexpected religion is at once proclaimed ; unprece- dented honours are demanded for their cru- cified and forsaken Master.. Jesus of Naza- reth is no longer announced as a teacher inspired by Heaven, as the worker of mi- racles, the Messiah who was about to re- deem Israel. The redemption is declared complete, the task of the Shiloh accom- plished, and himself having risen from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high. Now we must isuppose that these men^ who had so completely betrayed their own cause from apprehensions of personal dan- ger ; who had avowedly abandoned all their ambitious hopes, and ^icquiesced in the LECTURE II. 51 frustration of their schemes, within a few days, and without apparent reason, deter- mined upon turning this emergency tojtheir own advantage, shook off with one consent all their timidity, and renewed at their own peril, and for some purpose of their own, a design which for some time they had given up as lost. Either this was the case, or the resurrection of Jesus produced this alteration in their views. That mira- culous event, if unreal, they either invent- ed, or believed without sufficient evidence. Their number and unanimity render both suppositions improbable, their situation and conduct still more so. The coolness and audacity which would induce them to in- vent, the fanaticism which would lead them to believe on inconclusive testimony, are equally irreconcileable with their cha- racters and circumstances. That all with one accord should agree to adopt this- ex- traordinary fact as the groundwork of their new plan ; that there should be no differ^ ence of opinion, or if there were, that it should bfe overruled ; that they should lina- nimously consent to maintain, not only the E 2 52 LECTURE U, fact.itself, but the circumstantial evidence,- by which the fact was to be attested ; that liieither jealousy, nor" timidity, nor the hope; of reward, if another should take the part of Judas, and turn informer, should have tempted them to theleast deviation in their story ; that they should be betrayed inad- vertently into no contradiction, such as the vigilance of their enemies would doubtless have been ' sagacious and alert, enough to detect, each of these difficulties swells, the amount of improbability to an incalculable height. On the other hand, that all should at once be seized by the simultaneous trans- port of enthusiasm; ; be deceived by the same unreal appearance-, or permit their senses to be imposed upon by the same il- lusion : that all should imagine precisely at the same point of time, not once but re- peatedly, the presence of their well-known Master : or, if the fraud or the delusion ori- ginated in one or two of the leaders, that the rest, with unanimous imbecility should coalesce in adopting the fraud, or believing- the delusion on isuch questionable author- LECTURE II. 53 ity,— ^on each of these suppositions the dif- ficulties are equally insurmountable, and the incredibility of their, conduct equally apparent. In the exasperated state of Je- rusalem, which the determined persecution of Jesus clearly proves, exasperation which was not likely to be allayed by the revival of a sect, perhaps with more odious preten- sions, which its adversaries had considered entirely crushed, no one will assert that the design of the apostles could be enter- tained without serious apprehensions of im- minent personal danger. The Jews could not be expected to shew that disdainful mercyi attributed by the poet ' to the mur- derers of Caesar, who thought it beneath them, "having struck off the head, to hew "the limbs." The fury of the Jewish po- pulace once excited, knew no bounds ; and the contempt of human life with which the Romans piit down every indication of po- pular tumult would afford them no rea- sonable hope of security. At all events, to minds preoccupied with terror, such despe- ' SHakspeare^ Jul. Cass. E 3 54 LECTURE II. rate calculations on possible impunity would by no means occur. The dreadful cries of Crucify him, Crucify him, were still ringing in their ears. And if the personal majesty and gentleness, the acknowledged blamelessness, the prophetic reputation, the fame of his miracles, had not secured their Master against cruel, remorseless, and san- guinary persecution ; if the hold which he had evidently gained upon the public mind, when he entered the city in triumph among the hosannas of the people ; and the mys- terious sanctity with which the possibility of his being the Messiah environed him, had accelerated^ rather than retarded the vengeance of his enemies, the only chance of escape, open to the apostles, was the con- tempt and obscurity into which they had fallen. The frequency with which Peter was charged with being an acconjplice of JesuS^, and the anxiety with which he re- pelled the charge, indicate that the dis- ciples were exposed to danger ; and imme- diately they excited public attention, they would naturally excite public hostility : their renewed advocacy of their Master's LECTURE 11. 55 cause would necessarily awaken the stornj, which only slept because its fury had been satiated. ^ Let us however concede (a concession perfectly gratuitous) the possibility, that the extraordinary circumstances of that par- ticular exigency, the crucifixion of Christ, had paralysed the ordinary tone of their minds, and checked for a time their devo- tion to their Teacher's sepice, but that the usual vigour of their char9,cters, as they recovered from their sudden panic, rallied again ; and that upon mature deliberation they worked up their reviving courage to the renewal of their abandoned scheme ; that they began to recollect and put to- gether the obscure intimations of Jesus about his resurrection, and determined to make this story the basis of their future pretensions; or, if the supposition be not too incredible, that they began to imagine the reality of that which obviously had been so slightly impressed upon their mind. On either of these suppositions, however extravagant, were these men in their cor- porate capacity, or individually, as far as E 4 56 LECTURE II. we can judge from their previous conduct, likely to devise such a schiemie, as the pro- mulgation of a new religion, or qualified even to commence such an undertaking with success ? I. It appears to me, that the manner in which the apostolic body was constituted, and the number of which it consisted, were not merely irreconcileable with the original conception of the plan, either of imposture or delusion, but singularly ill suited to the successful advancement of such a design. It is remarkable, that their first object ap- pears to have been, to fill up their mystic number of twelve. Precisely at the period of their greatest consternation, or at least, when, if recovering from their panic, their minds must have been occupied with- the momentous undertaking which they were about to commence, in a tranquil and or- derly manner, they set about the comple- tion of their number ; though the treachery of Judas, a subject by no means calculated to awaken agreeable emotions, or encourage an open and confiding intercourse, must necessarily be introduced. The whole trans- LECTURE II. 57 action bears the appearance of a deliberate design, already conceived ; and shews that they had begun to look further than any present change in their circumstances would warrant. Possibly the number might be intended artfully to fall in with the popu- lar feelings, as ianswering to that of the twelve tribes ; or the recollection of the Lord's promise, that they should sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel^, m\^t mingle with their renewed aspirations after some temporal grandeur, of which, now that their courage was re- vived, they might not altogether despair. Still, either way, it is singular that- their first object should not be their security^ or the means of renewing the scheine with success; hnt, one must he ordained with them to be a witness of the resurrection^. ' Why another witness ? the fact is not ex- traordinary, but the time is ; and every in- dividual admitted into their intimate fel- lowship, and within their most secret coun- sels, added another chance of treacheryv or ^ Matt. xix. 28. • Acts i. 22. 58 LECTURE II. timidity, or rashness, or ill-timed and ob- stinate adherence to his upinioris, which might be fatal to the whole- design. For the equality of the infant republic bore within it the seeds of jealousy, mistrust, and rivalship ; the collision of interests, the struggles of personal ambition, the desire of obtaining, the mortification at not hav- ing attained, preeminence ; disputes about the appointment to the separate functions and offices ; even (for we must admit the possibility of the most unworthy motives) about the division of the spoils,'those uni- versal passions, which are as ungovernable in the most narrow and ignoble sphere, as in the imperial court, or the factious demo- cracy, might at any time betray the impos- ture, or split into hostile and irreconcile- able parties the jealous and ambitious fa- natics. That the apostles, if uncontrolled by the consciousness of superintending mi- raculous agency, tJbere of one mind, is by no means the least inexplicable part of the history. Unity of purpose, unity of interest, unity of sentiment and opinion were in- dispensable ; but was the coordinate au- LECTURE II. 59 thority of a board of twelve likely to secure this improbable unanimity? was so complex and unwieldy a machine likely to work without . perpetual jarring and dangerous collision ? Still more, was it calculated for the complete organization of a new reli- gion ? For we must bear in mind (a subject to which I shall hereafter advert) that the apostles had not to preach a religion al- ready defined, embodied in a single code, concentrated in one authorized volume, against which lay no appeal. The whole faith, doctrine as well as discipline, was without order or completeness; the great characteristic tenets of Christianity, the re^ demption, the atonement, the resurrection, the intercession of Christ, remained to be revealed, or at least had not been intelli- gibly announced. The creed of the apo- stles could consist only in the loose and scattered sayings of their departed Master ; in moral truths neither systematically ar,- ranged nor distinctly developed; in para- bles not always intelligible in their scope and application ; in prophetic speeches, the intent of which was avowedly obscure and 60 LECTURE II. ambiguous ; all these preserved by the pre- carious tenure o£ human memory, not com- mitted to writing, and liable to all the va- riations which the different interests, opin- ions, or understandings of the several in- dividuals might attach to their meaning. To illustrate this, suppose twelve men, taken from the midst of ourselves, of a similar station, and with the attainments usual in the class from which they are selected, and set them to form, not a new creed from these vague and precarious dataj but to in- terpret, without assistance, the written vo- lume of the Bible. Every probability, as well as every precedent, will induce us to ex- pect the most conflicting, contradictory, and irreconcileable confusion of opinions. I will take upon me to assert, that the paramount and acknowledged authority of one influ- iential leader would be absolutely necessary for the original developement, as well as for the successful conduct of a scheme, like that of propagating a new religion. II. Does the previous conduct of the apostles, as we receive it on their own au- thority, justify us in anticipating this strict LECTURE II. ai subordination, this unusual harmony, or this patient submission of individual opin- ion to the suffrage of the majority ? It appears indisputable from the Gospels, that before the resurrection, the seeds of mutual jealousy and mistrust subsisted among the twelve. Personal ambition mingled vv^ith their views of their Master's aggrandize- ment. And he came to Capernaum, and he-, ing in the house he, asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way 9 But they held their peace ; for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should he the greatest "'. Again, At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, say- ing. Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven''? Again, There came to him, the mother of Zehedee's children, with her sons worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her. What wilt thou? She saith unto him. Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, the other on thy left, in thy king- dom. And when the ten heard of it, they^ ™ Mark ix. 33. " Matt, ^iviii. 1. 62 LECTURE II. were moved with indignation against the brethren". In the parallel passage in St. Mark's Gospel, the ambitious request is at- tributed to the apostles themselves, but the result is the same ; And when the ten heard of it they began to be much displeased with James andJohn^. Even at the last passover there was a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest^. Now is it credible that these feelings, hardly restrained by the authority of their Master's presence, when that presence was withdrawn, should be entirely suppressed" ? When, if I may so speak, they began to play the game on their own account ; when every measure was either to be dictated by o Matt; XX. 20—24. p Mark x. 41. q Luke xxii. 24. ■■ The apostles had been exceedingly subject, in the lifetime of Christ, to qnarrelsoiHiq^ness and contention abqut priority, and who should be the chiefest ; y^, even at the very table of the Lord's last passover and suppa-. Arid therefore it hath its singular weight and signifi- candyi and sheweth a peculiar fruit of Christ's breathing the Holy Ghost upon thepi, when it is related, that they now so sweetly and unanimously converse together, with- out emulation, discord, or comparisons. Lightfoot on Acts i. 4. LECTURE II. 63 their leaders, or adopted > by a numerical majority of opinions, is it conceivable, that a federal body, thus composed, should be inspired with such unprecedented unity, and act together with such admirable corr diality and good faith, in transactions which above all others appear to excite jealous and conflicting passions. III. During the lifetime of our Saviour, the apostles appear dependent even to help- lessness, avowedly ignorant, and restrained in a state of subservient humility, little likely to qualify them for taking a lead, or relying on their own decision upon the most momentous questions ; for devising, in short, or executing such a scheme, as the conversion of tlie world. Their pre^ judices as Jews, their passions as men, their ignorance as low-born peasants,, are per- petually betrayed in their misapprehensions of the design and character of the Re- deemer. They misunderstand his doctrines', misapply his prophecies, are undecided as to his pretensions. Whenever they depart s See John xvi. 18. 64 LECTURE II. from their subordinate station, and pre-r sume to originate any thing, they are almost invariably in the wrong ; fall into some na- tional error, clash with the loftier views of their Teacher, and are repressed, sometimes with severity, sometimes with merciful com- passion for their infirmities, always with the strong and commanding energy of one, too superior to admit advice, remonstrance, or suggestion. When they would call down fire from heaven,' they are sternly rebuked'; when they would not suffer little children to come unto him", they are reproved; Get thee behind me, Satan % is the emphatic ex- pression of our Lord to Peter on one occa- sion : O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken^, is his lan- guage to*the whole assembly after his re- surrection. Yet these same apostles, who, up to a certain period, are precisely the unlearned and ignorant men, the a.ypa,/:if/.ci- Tsis xet) l^iuTAi, which they are described; men who appear summoned from humble ' Luke ix. ^5. " Mark x. 14. Luke xviii. 16. ^ Mark viii. 33. y Luke xxiv. 25. LECTURE II. 65 stations to undertake an office, for which they are obviously and consciously incom- petent, oppressed, indeed, with the sense of their incompetency ; who are, like those that are suddenly called out of darkness into overpowering light, dazzled, perplexed, confusted, and betray in every word and action their reverential astonishment at the unexpected novelty of their situation — ^yet these men, at the instant when their minds are unhinged by the unfavourable turn which their affairs have taken, suddenly deprived of their leader, depressed with sor- row for his loss, in manifest and acknow- ledged consternation, begin, nevertheless, to act for themselves with the utmost promp- titude % boldness, and prudence ; declare themselves the authorized preachers of a new religion ; assume the burden and re- sponsibility of converting the world ; and not merely commence, but carry through this stupendous undertaking. If then the Tsody, both from its numbers, ^ Compare, on the change of character in the apostles. South, vol. V. 30. Oxf. edit, and bishc^ Watson's sermon on " Christianity no Imposture." F 66 LECTURE II. and the manner in which it was consti- tuted, from the danger of internal dissen- sion, and the previous want of self-depend- ance, was ill calculated for the success of such a scheme, were those who appear to have taken the lead, characters so com- manding as to entitle them to the uncon- tested post of eminence ; and so authorita- tive, as to enforce implicit submission, or deference at least, to their determinations ? Can we discover in one or, more individuals the qualities requisite for the conception and conduct of the scheme, which were thus obviously deficient in the whole as- sembly? was it in fact a monarchy, under the form of a republic? were the rest mere subordinate accomplices in the fraud, or hurried away by the controlling fanaticism of a few ardent or artful leaders ? Not merely those who with Protestants of the highest distinction acknowledge in Peter a certain primacy", founded on pre- eminent zeal and ability, but even the candid member of the church of Rome*" a Barrow on the Pppe's Supremacy. '' Though the promise of building the church upon LECTURE 11. 67 must admit, I conceive, that this primacy was not established in such decisive and unambiguous terms, before the death of Jesus, as to silence all possible jealousy, and preclude all- contest. It must be rcr membered, that if his former zeal had entitled him to preeminence, his signal im- becility had in some degree endangered his claim. Nor, on the whole, tracing the life of Peter in the Gospels, and bearing in mind that one of the Gospels was unques- tionably written by the author of the Acts of the Apostles, am I prepared for the tacit concession of the first place to him, far less for the prudent as well as resolute, the firm as well as vigorous, the conciliatory as w6ll as daring conduct, which he displays in the subsequent history. Observe his ambi- tious claim of superiority", his presuming to rebuke his Master '', his incautious vio- lence in wounding the servant of the high the rock had already been made, the charge, Feed my sheep, was subsequent to the resurrection. <= Alifumgh all shall be offended, yet will not I. Mark xiv. 29. d Matt. xvi. 22, F 2 68 LECTURE II. priest, his boast of fidelity, his cowardly denial ; on the whole, he appears a man of strong and ardent character, but liable to be hurried away by his vehemence, ai^d checked by determined opposition; remarks ably deficient in that intuitive self-com- mand, which is never thrown off its guard by sudden emergency, which sees at once the course which is to be pursued, and ad- heres with unshaken resolution to the de- termination which it has formed. But if firmness and discretion appear wanting in the character of Peter*, the mild and affec- tionate disposition of the disciple whom our Lord loved, however persuasive, and likely to control the better feelings of those whom he addressed, does not, especially if we estimate his character from the gentle * Pro mitiori sane Joannis temperamento perorant tot judicia tenerrimi ejus erga Jesum amoris, qui innocua sua jucunditate optimum Sospitatorem nostrum ita occu- pavit, ut primum in familiaritate locum ei cpncesserit, eumque in sinum- suum non solum corporis sui in accu- bitu, sed etiairi animi receperat. Eodem quo erga Christum arsit amore, etiam fratres amplexum esse, sua- det ilia totiens totiensque scriptis, voce, viti inculcata Philadelphia. Lampe in Johcm. LECTURE II. 69 find contemplative' cast of his writings also, appear peculiarly suited for the daring and energetic course, with which the apostles commenced their undertaking. Such cha- racters, however heroic in enduring, are rarely bold and comprehensive in the con- ception of their plans ^; they will follow with the most enthusiastic fervour, and the most unshaken constancy, but they will not lead with irresistible energy, and fearless confidence in their own powers. The cha- racters of the other apostles are less dis- tinctly marked. James ^ the brother of f The fathers were fond of contrasting the vigorous and active character of Peter with the more profound and speculative disposition of John. Theophylact calls one wpa^ig and the other haigla, and explains himself thus : 2u 8e fioi .i(0£( IIsTpov [jiey tq wpaxTixoi/ xai Seppov. 'icaavvrjv 8s to flso^fujTixoi/ xaV e»s ■?revrjTOc' ourw TrevijTOf, cuj xa) TO05 italSais. sir5 t^v auT^v Ipyatriav. kyayfii. jffTe 8e airavTe; oVi ouSeij ;^Ejv j^pvjcr^of u(i,itai Iv Toll ispols EMpi]ju.6Vo; ypa.y.y.u For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ, Galat; i. 10. LECTURE I¥. 161 high priests. For he added to his crime of ^.postasy that wtieh would be construed into treachery to his employers. His life, ■as . it soon appeared, and since a furious persecution was still actually raging, could not be safe for an instant. He had to lurk among mistrustful friends; to fly into fo- reign regions, to conceal himself from thos^ on whose .estimation he had built his hopes of distinction. In every point of view the measure was desperate. While he aban- doned one party, he was not sure of a far vourable reception with the other: he in- curred the dangers of apostasy with no se- curity of the reward^f indeed the scourge and the prison whigh awajted the Christian convert may be entitled reward. In his straight forwg,rd path lay peace, the respect of his compatriots, wealth, esjtimatioaa; in the oblique road into which he struck, he had first to bend his spirit to hypocMsy and falsehood. He must impose on men, who either being impostors like himself would detect or hold off from him with the acuteness of jealous suspicion, or being ho- nest biiit foolish enthusiasts, offered no very M 162 LECTURE IV brilliant alliance to a man eager for dis- tinction, and unquestionably not wanting in sagacity and penetration. If the self- confidence of conscious ability already, an- ticipated his forcible seizure of the post of eminence ; if he contemplated no effec- tual resistance to his usurpation, would his prodigal courage have induced him to risk all his prospects upon this hazard? Had he joined the Christians before the persecution, he might have been unable or unwilling to recede ; now it had become clear, that the post of eminence was that of peril; he must have known how many among his kindred would proudly perform that part at his ex- ecution, which he had filled at that of Ste- phen. Suppose that he contemplated from the first the throwing down the barrier be- tween the Jews and Gentiles, and the exten- sion of his own influence by the indiscrimi- nate admission of proselytes from all quar- ters ; the difficulty of su<;h an enterprise, the opposition to be expected from the Ju- daizing Christians, the danger, that directly he attempted any innovation he would be denounced, disclaimed, and cast off, were LECTURE IV. 163 -equally evident. Strange ambition ! to quit the steady vessel, which was bound on its regular course to a rich and hospitable har- bour, in order to spring on board a sinking bark, whose way lay through quicksands and breakers, in the hope that he might be permitted to seize the helm, and guide it to «ome coast which at last might be imagi- nary and Utopian. So far on the supposition of Paul's in- sincerity. Could he be the victim of enthu- siastic self-delusion ? A singular theory has been suggested on this much canvassed to- pic by some of those, who, while they pro- fess to believe Christianity, invalidate all the testimony on which Christian belief is founded. Paul, it is said, a man of disor- dered imaginatioUj violently affected by the scenes of suffering which he had witnessed, and the fortitude with which these suffer^ ings were endured, accidentally encounters on his journey a tremendous thunderstormj, in the natural effects of which his alarmed fancy beholds the terrors of his offended God, and forms its confused and reverbe- rating sounds into the distinct and awful M 2 164 LECTURE IV. remonstrance of the injured Jesus ". But, I. the assumption on which all this rests is not merely unwarranted, but, as we have seen, in direct opposition to the narrative. Paul, when he set out, wajS as much exas- perated as ever against the Christians, and his only object at Damascus seems to have been the fulfilment of his persecuting com- mission. II. The several descriptions in the Acts bear no appearance of a thunder- storm. However rapid and sudden the at- mospheric changes in those sultry climates, there must he some gathering of clouds, some preparatory darjcness, some vehicle, if I may so speak, of the electric fluid, which must have induced the travellers to antici- pate the great light, which, according to Paul's expression, suddenly shone around them. But if Paul could l^e so far abstracted in his own meditations, as not to perceive the change in the atmosphere till the flash deprived him at once of sight and of sense, those around him must have been suffi- ciently familiar with the appearance of a " This notion is developed by Kuinoel with consider- able elegance and perspicuity. In loco. LECTURE IV. 165 thunderstorm, to have informed him that the cause of his consternation was by no means miraculous. If the other terrific circumstances of a storm had accompanied this extraordinary light, they would have appeared no less the indications of divine wrath ; and as the whole scene would ha^6 acted simultaneously on the guilty appre- hension of the persecutor, that single fact wotild scarcely have been selected, and the rest of the awful circumstances, which alike proclaimed the offended Deity and justified his terror, studiously and perpetually sup- pressed. Indeed the expressions used by Luke, and Paul himself, on the three differ- ent occasions in which the occurrence is re- lated, seem carefully to exclude any such supposition: At midde^, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the bright- ness of the sun'^, wep r^v hafj^vfoTvita. too vjKm. Words which appear to intimate, that the sun was not previously obscured, but out- shone by the more excessive brightness of the preternatural light. The unbeliever will not admit as an ar- ° Acts xxvi. is. M 3 166 LECTURE IV. gument, but must consider a curious Coinci- dence, the remarkable conformity of this transaction with the Jewish opinions of di- vine revelation. The light precisely corre- sponds with the Shechinah, or divine Pre- sence, the voice with the Bath-col; the usual mode by which the God of Israel addressed his people. ft' The last insuperable objection to this no- tion is the character of Paul. Neither the brief intimations of the former, nor the more copious delineation of the latter part of his life, authorize us to consider him a man of distempered imagination. Unless the mere fact of his becoming an itinerant teacher of Christianity convict him of this enthusiasm,, (which would be an assumption of the point in question,) his argumentative manner of teaching, his sobriety of demeanour, his cool self-command in. the most trying exi- gencies ; the extraordinary combination of vigour and prudence, of boldness and per- suasiveness, of pliancy in trivial matters, and unshaken perseverance in his main ob- ject, alike contradict this supposition. Ac- cording to this theory, once and once only LECTURE IV. 167 he is seized with a fit of melancholy en- thusiasm, which changes all his views, pros- pects, occupations, habits, opinions ; but in this all the extravagance of his imagination explodes as it were for ever, and leaves him a humble, discreet, resolute, and rational adherent to the cause which he has adopted. The gloomy and timid Saul trembles before a hurricane, the, cool and intrepid Paul con- fronts every terror of nature and of man. Popular tumult cannot deprive him of his self command, nor the pomp and awe of au- thority in the least appal him. If taken literally, he fights with beasts at Ephesus, if figuratively, he is exposed to dangers equally dreadful. He is tranquil upon the raging ocean, and while the mariners de- spair, he alone is firm. A iash of lightning causes him to apostatize from the syna- gogue, a whole life of terror, trial, and suf- fering attaches him only more closely to the Churph of Christ. Thus then the conduct and character of Paul are direct testimonies to the truth of his miraculous conversion, the former" is our guarantee for bis sincerity, the latter M 4 168 LECTURE IV. our security against his having been the victim of deception. If he invented this whole consistent and circumstantial story, he must have been a designing and amln- tious hypocrite ; his companions must have connived at his falsehood; Ananias have been in collusion with him ; all the Chris- tians at Damascus, and the apostles them- selves, the weakest and most unsuspicious dupes, to be imposed lipoH by so ungrounded a falsehood. He must have been this hy- pocrite for the sake of embracing poverty and self-denial, hatred and contempt, toil and suiFering, death itself, of which he was in perpetual danger; or he must have formed the splendid design of becoming the benefactor of mankind, by the publica- tion of a new religion — a design which it is impossible to conceive compatible either with the fraud to which he must have con- descended in order to obtain admission into the Christian brotherhoody or with reason, which must have recoiled at the hopeless improbability of converting the world to a belief in the divinity of a Jewish peasant, who had been publicly crucified. LECTURE W. 169 On the other hand, if Paul was deceived by. others, or by the warmth of his own imagination, he must have been a weak and fantastic dreamer. Yet he had the ability, the prudence, the resolution, to preach with success the extraordinary doctrine of Christ crucified over half the habitable world ; he had the address to conciliate the other apostles to an admission of his Aim to equality; in every public scene he could conduct himself with the coolest self'-eom- mand, and most intrepid courage ; finally, he could obtain for his writings an equal authority with the Gospels which recorded the teaching of their Master, or those of the elder stpOstles; writings not less dis- tinguished for the consecutive vigoiftf of their arguments, and the depth trf . theiir view's, than for the exquisite beauty with which they enforce and explain that truthj that humility, that meekness, holiness, and charity, of which the life and the teaching of Christ are the great example. If then neither hypocrite nor fanatic, Paul must have been, what he announces himself, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the 170 LECTURE IV. will of God; one to whom, as Peter de- clares among the assembled apostles, God, which knoweth the hearts, hare witness, giv- ing him the Holy Ghost, as he did unto us " by whom the signs of an apostle were wrought in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds ^ ; who asserts. The Gospel which was preached of me, is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ \ May that Gospel which Paul preached so convince onr understandings and purify our hearts, that we being followers of Paul, as Paul of Christ % may attain that everlast- ing life which is revealed through Christ Jesus. Acts XV. 8. PS Cor. xii, 12. also Rom. xv. 19. 1 Galat. i, 11» 13. "^ 1 Cor. xi. 1. LECTURE T. 1 CoK. xii. 10, 11. To another divers kinds of tongues ; to anotMts the interpretation of tongues: All these worheth that one and the selfsame Spi^^ rit, dividing to every man severally as he wilK In order to accomplish the vast system of proselytism, thus early announced and de- liberately proclaimed by the apostles of Christ, it was necessary that some mode of communication should exist, easy, perspicu- ous, and feimiliar between the teachers and their converts. A superficial acquaintance with some common medium of intercOur^se, and an imperfect and indistinct power of imparting their ideas, such for instance as would be sufficient for barter or less intri- cate commercial concerns, would have been inadequate to their purpose. For to tea,eh a new faith, to communicate new moral and religious notions, to persuade, to convince,, to exhortj to explain, a complete idiomati- 172 LECTURE V. cal intimacy with the language of those whom they addressed, and a free and un- embarrassed elocution would be indispensa^ ble. This difficulty must have occurred to the apostles at the very outset of their un- dertaking. An early writer on the evidence of Christianity thus exjpresses their con- sciousness of this impeditnent. "Was Hot * again his language (that of Christ) plainly ** divine; when he distinctly said to thdse " his very humble disciples, Ga and teach " all nations. And how is this possible ? (the " disciples would naturally say, replying " something after this manner to their Mas- " ter,) How, for instance, are we to preach " to the Romans ? how shall we converse " with the Egyptians ? of what language " shall we make use to the Greeks, men " who have been brought up in the Syrian " tongue alone ? how shall we address Per- " sians, and Armenians, and Chaldeans, and " Scythians,^ and Indians, and any other of " the barbarous nations* ?" This testimony ^"Ofio. e! j*^ ws aNijflaij ©sou ■koXw vpaifx.a.ro ipaiv^v,- aoTO- Xefei jv |;^«)v, t^v'Ioo- 8aB£^i/,7r«if rov SxJflijv, xa5 tov 'lySov, x«i'Sa(;pOju,ari]y, x«i rov P^axa Ijretj-s; — Oratio quod ChrisLus ^it Deus, vol. VI. p. 628. ed, Sav. •And again more explicitly : Ou8e yap ojmi^voi toI; nsido- ftmii^cruv, uMm ^iyiiV snot x«i ?r«pi)XA«yjXE'»i)i/ itapoL iraaai T«5 yKwTTUi xEXT»j/*6'vo» ffav^, Tijv 'Ej3pat8« ^eyaH-.Ibid. p. 635. 174 LECTURE V. The book called the Acts of the Apostles declares with distinctness, such as the inge- nuity of all those more recent critics, who have explained away, limited, and depreci- ated the miracle, so as to leave nothing mi- raculous, has been, in my opinion, unable to elude^ that this difficulty was surmounted ^ Middleton's Essay, I believe, first directed the atten- tion of theologians to the subject. . Ernesti interfered between Middletoli and his antagonist, bishop Warbur- ton, and abandoned the utility of the miracle, as a means of propagating the gospel. The later history of the con- troversy may be seen in Kuinoel. Mr. Townsend has condensed, I suppose from Kuinoel, the various opinions of those who would do away the miracle altogether. " Eichhom suggests, that to speak vith tongues means only that some of the apostlesi uttpf ed indistinct and in* articulate sounds, and those who uttered forei^ or new or other words, were Jews who had come to Jerusalem froiii the rernote provinces of the empire, and being ex- cited by the general fervour, united with them in prais- ing God in their own languages. Herder is of opinion that the word yX«jff(r« is used to express only obsolete, fo- reign, or unusual wordsi Paulus conjectures, that those who spoke with difierent tongues were foreign Jews, the hearers Galilaeans. Meyier, that they either spoke in terms or language not before used, in an enthusiastic manner, or imited Hebrew modes of expression with Greek or Latin words. Heinrichsius, or Heinrich, that the apostles suddenly spoke the pure .Hebrew language in a sublime and elevated style. Kleinius, that the apo^ LECTURE V. 175 by a supernatural communication of the power of expressing themselves in all those languages in which the gospel was to be preached. As however the question is of great importance, and by no means devoid of interest, it may be expedient, and is un- questionably essential to the argument for the credibility of Christianity from the con- sitles, excited by an extraordinary enthusiasm, expressed their feelings with more than usual warmth and elo- quence." Toztmsend, New Testament arranged, in loco. The notion of Kuinoel is as ingenious, but not more satisfactory. According te him, the rigid Jews would not endure that divine worship should be offered in any lan- guage but the Hebrew or Syrochaldaic, only the more liberal would tolerate Greek. But the whole assem- bly, struck with astonishment at the wonderful circum- stances which attended the effusion of the Holy Ghost, 'lost all self-command, and, each breaking out in the lan*- guage most familiar to him, began to magnify God. Thus he assumes, that Jews from all quarters were already enlisted among the ranks of the Christians, and sup- poses that the multitude mistook all this assemblage of foreign Jews for Galilseans'; the multitude themselves be. ing forsagn Jews from all quarters. Kuinoel's attempts to reconcile the other passages in the Acts, in which this gift is mentioned, with his system of interpretation, ap- pear to me among the most unfortunate specimens of the- ologic criticism into which an acute and learned mind has ever been betrayed by its attachment -to a precon- ceived theory. 176 LECTURE V: duct of the apostles, to examine into the manner in which they attained this qualifi- cation for the ministry, and to ascertain, if possible, whether tho miracle was necessary, or if not absolutely necessary, so adapted for the furtherance of the design, as to warrant, if I may so speak, this interference of the divine Prov^i^ence ; since the most pious Christian must acknowledge the Deity never to work miracles, except with a great and worthy object. The general opinion which militates against the literal belief in the gift of tongues is this, that the Greek language was of itself sufficient for the propagation of the Christian religion, and that Greek was so universally prevalent in Palestine, that the apostles probably spoke it without especial inspiration ". Now the first objec- tion which occurs to this statement is the extreme improbability that the miracle should have been invented or believed, especially by the Greek fathers, if it were thus entirely superfluous. If there are not *= Prom Erasmys downwards, the general current of theological opinion has run in this direction. LECTURE V. 177 Jews from all quarters in Jerusalem, speak- ing only the various languages of the coun- tries in which they usually resided, and possessing no common medium o£ inter- course ; if all, the apostles included, cduld speak and understand Greeks who would have thought of fabricating so unnecessary a woitder, one which might so easily be con- futed, and could produce no advdntftge whatever. Besides, of all peri^tis Lilkewas least likely to invent, or to record, unless authoritatively assured of its truth, a cir- cumstance so extraordinary; for he #as more of a Greek ihan any other of the Sa- cred \irr iters, and the follower Of Paulj to whom, if to any of thfe apostles, the gift of tongues was unnecessary. Still less would the evangelic writers have continued to speak of this gift as a standing miracle; if the apostles had no opportunity of exercis- ing it, nor would all the Greek ajld Latin Fathers have acquiesced in an interpreta- tion of Scripture, of which every one, espe- d'ally the Syrian Eusebius above quoted, must have perceived the futility ^ - •* It would not be dijBScUlt to trace the unanimdus con- N 178 LECTURE V. There is another curious confirmation, if not of the necessity, of the probable utility of this gift, or, to say the leastj a comment on the - general belief of the church in its reality, I mean the imitation of the mira- cle by those, who after the manner of the apostles, went about the world, converting their hearers to a new system of belief " And indeed," says Damis, addressing A- poUonius of Tyana, " as to the languages of " the Barbariansj as many as there are, and " there is one of the Armenians, another of "the Medes and Persians, another of the " Cadusians, I have a knowledge of them " all." " And I, my friendj" says ApoUo- nius, " understand them all, having learnt " none *." Alexander the false prophet in sent of all Christian writers in the common interpretation. In addition to the testimonies from Eusebius and Chrys- ostom I shall merely subjoin the following, as shewing the only difference of opinion which existed" on the sub- ject : " Unus fuit e nobis, qui, cum unam emitteret vo- " cem, ab diversis populis, et dissona oratione loquenti- " biis, familiaribus verborum sonis,' et suo cuique utens " existimabatur eloquio." Arnob. contra Gent. I. 46. Some others of the Fathers espoused this whimsical opin- ion. LECTURE V: 179 Liician, is likewise embarrassed with this difficulty ; for when any of the Barbarians came to him for oracles, he was obliged to keep them waiting a considerable time for his answers, in order that he might find persons qualified to interpret their ques- tions ^ To return to the Scripture. I can scarcely conceive what could constitute the broad line of demarcation between the Hellenist and native Jews, except the difference of language. The early church was evidently formed of two parties. In those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians, aAXi) ftsv 'Apfjisvliov, ecAAt] 8e M^^cev ts xai Uepircav, u^Kyj 8s KaSouo-joiv jt,eTa>Mft.^ava> 8g isa.v oiis(i.iav. Philost. Vita ApoU. I. 19. Compare Eusebius in Hieroclem c. IX. et c. XIV. where it appears that on one occasion Apollonius was obliged to have recourse to an interpreter. ^ 'AK\a xa) ^ap^apoi; woAXaxij ep^fiyjtrev, si tij t^ Trarplm epoiTO ^Mvy Sup/o-Ti, q KeATHTTi, ou pailm; IJeopiVxajv Ttvas Itti- 8ij/*oSi/Taf ofiosflvsTj roil Ss8«)xo'(n. iicl to'jto xa) ttoXos Iv fLeilac, li; l.v ToiouTB) x«ra (r^QhyjV Xuoivro ts oi ^pria-jio) m^o.'Km;, xai eupi- o-xotvTo oi kpfufivswai lvveiiJi.evoi sxaa-Tix. Lucian. Alex. Pseud. C.LI. :n 2 180 LECTURE V. s?^XfjvicrTm ^, against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministra- tion ^ Now nothing was so likely to pro- duce this misunderstanding as dissimilarity of language ' ; hence an argument adduced s I have not the slightest hesitation in assuming that the Hellenistae were Jews speaking the Greek language, and usually residing in Greek cities, not proselytes, or heathen converts. " The Jews to whom this (the Chal- " dee) was the mother tongue were called Hebrews ; " and from thence are distinguished from the Hellenists, " which every one linows." Lightfoot on John v. 2. Compare Schcetgen. Hor. Heb. in loco. For the differ- ent opinions of learned men on this point, see Fabricius Lux Evangel, c. IV. Notwithstanding the evasion of Salniasius, the distinction of Nicolas, as a proselyte of Antioch, is conclusive that the rest were Jews. ^ Acts vi. 1. ' The native Jews despised the Hellenists. Biscoe suggests that this was the origin of the murmurings of the Hellenists against the Jews, because bemg considered an inferior race, they might be jealous of every real or supposed neglect. On Acts, I. 90. According to the same author "EAXijviVtixi (Acts ix. 29.) is translated in the Syriac version, Jews speaking- the Greek tongue. I. 86. Another reason has been given for this jealousy. "E con- " tra videntur Judseorum multi banc versionem vitupe- " rasse, (vid. not.) et Hellenistas propter ejus usum odio " prosecutos esse. Unde discordiam inter Hebraeos et " Hellenistas, Act. vi. 1. licet ex aha causa profectam, ex " Bibliorum tum discrimine primo ortam, et postea con- " tinuatam observarunt multi, quibus assentit Jos. Scali- LECTURE V. 181 by Middleton ^ in support of the opinion, that Greek was generally spoken in Jerusa- lem, because the names of the seven dea- cons are almost all Greek, may be made to bear the other way. For, not to insist on the opinion of Grotius ' and RosenmuUer, that Luke sometimes Hellenised Hebrew names, nothing could be more natural, as nothing could more clearly evince the dis- interested views of the whole body, than the selection of these officers from the party complaining, that is to say, from the Hel- lenist converts. Some indeed have supposed that the deacons were not appointed to su- perintend the general distribution, but to watch over the particular interests of the Grecian converts. " ger, qui ex Benjaminis Itinerario notat Alexandria " duo fuisse Judaeorum genera,, Babyloniorum et Helle- " nistarum, quorum illi hos cane pejus et augue oderuHt, " legentes barbare, et Ifegentes ^Egyptiace, quum versio " ilia confecta fuit in^^gypto." B. Walton. Prolegomena. On the Hellenistae compare Lightfoot on John vii. 35. ^ Essay on the Gift of Tongues, Woisks, vol. II. 81. ' Nomina haec omnia sunt Grasca, quod non mirum in Alexandrinis, in Judaeis vero in Judaa natis credo no- mina fuisse Hebraea, quae Lucas Graece extulerit. Grotius in Acta. VI. 5. Compare HosenmuUer. Benson (in his N 3 182 LECTURE V. But the general prevalence of the Greek language in Palestine, after the closest in- vestigation which I have been able to in- stitute, appears to me to have been asserted in direct opposition to all authorities, and upon no grounds whatever, except an in- ference from its gradual extension in other countries. It is now almost universally al- lowed, that our Lord and his apostles usu- ally spoke the vernacular language of Pa- lestine ; a Syro-Chaldaic "", or, as it is some- history of the first planting of Christianity) has advanced an opinion similar to that in the text. "> This plain fact was not received without, consider- able resistance on the part of the more enthusiastic ad- mirers of the Greek language, and the more strenuous adherents to the Septuagint version. " An vero Christo et apostolis vernacula fuerit lingua Syriaca, a quibusdam quaeritur. Widmanstadius, qui primus in Europa Novum Testamentum Syriacum edidit, praefat. docet, banc lin- guam Redemptoris nostri ortu, educatione, doctrina, mira- culis, corporis et sanguinis sui confectione eucharistica, ac Patris etiam aeterni voce, bis ccelo ad eum emissa, con- secratam, ethac lingua scriptam esseantiquam versionem, quam ipse edidit. Cujus sententiae plerique suffragan- tur, Marius, Bodescanius, Trostius, Tremellius, Buxtorf." Walton. Proleg. The opponents indeed did not altogether deny that our Lord spoke Syriac, but that it was the same dialect with the Syriac version. Reiske however considered the LECTURE V. 183 times called, an Aramaic dialect, which, however corrupted from the purer language of the older Scriptures, is called Hebrew, both in the New Testament and in- Jose- phus. This appears evident, as well from the general idiom of their language, as from the Syro-Chaldaic words retained in several places, when the evangelists wished to pre- serve the precise expression which our Lord question set at rest : "Quam linguam Jesu CHristo, nostro Servatori optimo;. tandem vernaculam attribuemu^ ? Hie vero ancipiti dubitatione nulla distrahemur, neque anxio conatu occupabimur circa illud, quod citra laborem doceri posse 'dudumi Erpenius judicavit, sed Chaldaeo-Syriacam Servatori nostro benignissimo asseremus, quam historia, usus, et, communis doctorum opinio. hue usque iUi adse- ruerunt. Nostra equidem charta non patietur, ut in testi- moniis theologorum et philologorum conquirendis evage- mur : verumtamen intrepidi illud affirmamus, eruditissi- mos quosque viros in eandem sententiam concessisse." Reiske, Diss. Phil, de Img. vern. J.. C. Kuinoel has made a statement about the speeches of St. Peter, the accuracy of which, I leave to be decided by the learned orientalists, but which, if correct,, is of great importance. " Hag ipsae autem Petri orationes stilo et cha- ractere structuraque verborum baud parum discrepant ab orationibus Pauli .... singuli hci verbum de verba in Hebraicum sermonem possimt transfefri!" He argues from hence, that Luke must have written from some ear- lier Syro-Chaldaic document, at all events it is a strong proof that the apostle ordinarily spoke that language. N 4 184 LECTURE V. nsede, and which they generally explain or paraphrase in Greek. Not merely how- ever was this dialect their vernacular tongue, but a remarkable passage seems to intimate, that men of the class from which the apostles were selected spoke no other, certainly not Greek. Canst thou speak Greek "9 is the exclamation of the governor to St. Paul, mistaking him for a certain ^Egyptian, who had obtained an extensive influence over an insurrectionary multitude in Judsea. Upon which St. Paul immedi- ately commences his address to his coun- trymen in the Hebrew tongue". But he would scarcely have harangued the peo- ple in a language probably unknown to the governor, with whom his first object was to exculpate himself from every sus- picion of teaching seditious, doctrines, un- less it had been absolutely necessary, in order to make himself intelligible to the people P. n Acts xxi. 37. Acts xxi, 40. P Mr. Broughton, in his masterly reply to Pdlceo' ramaica, has proposed a version of this passage different from that in our common Bibles. It is certainly extraorr LECTURE V: 185 Next to the sacred writings is the unex- ceptionable authority of Josephus, who fur- nishes us with several incidental facts, which tend to the same conclusion. Josephus was a man of some rank, and of cultivated edu- cation ; but, 1. he distinctly states both the difficulty which he experienced in making himself master of the Greek language, dinary, that the governor should conclude that Paul was no ijgyptian from his speaking Greek, which to an Alex- andrian would have been his native dialect. I apprehend, however, that the governor thought more of the charac- ter than the birthplace of this Egyptian, whose elo- quence in the vernacular language of Palestine was proved by the success with which he preached rebellion to his numerous followers. But the main stress of my argument rests on St.Paurs transition from Greek, when he addressed the governor, to Hebrew, when he harangued the people ; a trgjisition which, if not necessary, would have excited suspiqion. I am inclined likewise to suspect, that among the rea- sons which induced the high, priests to employ Tertul- lus, apparently a professional orator, to accuse Paul, might have been their diffidence in their own ability to plead against a man equally skilled in both languages ; unless indeed Tertullus, whose name is clearly Latin, was employed in deference to the Koman practice, which required all judicial proceedings to be conducted in Latin. Indeed, the speech of Tertullus appears to me to have a remarkable Latin cast. 186 LECTURE V. especially as regards grammatical accuracy and correct pronunciation ; and the na- tional prejudice he had to overcome, which strongly discountenanced the learning fo- reign languages, so that scarcely one or two had attained to perfection in that study '' ; and even he himself, after he had composed his history, submitted it to certain critics, who were to correct the Greek style "■. 2. In another passage he mentions as a remark- able circumstance the proficiency of a cer- tain Justus in Greek literature'. 3. Jo- sephus himself first wrote his history in the SyrOrChaldaic language, and afterwards in Greek, for those readers who were under the dominion of the Romans *. But it 1 KaiTcov 'EWrjvtxcov ts ypaii,ji.a,rcav ej re, Stipcp, xa) 'A;^«ii'5» * It is worth observing, that John of Gischala and a gi'eat number of the besieged were Galilaeans. y E per non multiplicare testimonianze ed autbrita, llabbi Azaria de Rossi nel suo libro cui fece il titdlo di 190 LECTURE V. of the Greek tongue among the lower or- ders in Judaea^ as a gratuitous assumption, Meor enaim, lume degli occhi, apertamente attesta, come vedremo ailche in seguito, che il Caldeo era ora volgare e familiare alia plebe, e che la lingua usata in que tempi presso i Palestini, ed i Vangelisti, era la Caldea. Tale e la mente di tutti gli Ebrei, e tale la tradizione della sina- goga intera. De Rossi della lingua propria de Christo. ^ The distinguished critic however, quoted above, al- though in some degree inclined to lower the miracle of the gift of tongues, has in another place stated, with his usual perspicuity, what I conceive to have been the real state of the spoken language in Jerusalem and else- where. " Quod enim aliter sentientes de usu Grsecae et Latinae ' linguae in omnibus universi Romani imperii provinciis ' dicunt, id quidem est verum, sed restringendum tamen ' videtur ad lautioris conditionis homines, et alios qui ' negotiorum causa ssepe itinera faciebant, non extenden- dum ad omnes plebeios. Et fac, vernaculas fuisse lin- ' guas, Graecam et Latiham, in plerisque Romani imperii ' provinciis, vernacultB to/men ncmjhierivnt in Palmstina, ' nee vernaculcBjlterunt apostolis. Graecae quidem lin- ' guae peritiam sibi comparaverant lectione versionis ' Graecae Alexandrinae. Sed aliud est intelligere lin- ' guam exteram ita ut libros in ilia lingua scriptos legere ' et intelligere possis, aliud est in eadem loqui et scri- ' here. Iste apostolorum habitus animi sensus Graece et ' Latine proferendi, omnino ad Ilvsu/ia referendus est, ' quo bperarite ausi sunt Unguis peregrinis laudes Dei ' celebrare, et prorapte de rebus divinis disserere, in Act. ' ii." The apostles' early familiarity with the Septua- gint is assuredly an assumption which requires proof. LECTURE V. 191 unsupported by proof*. Greek was un- questionably vernacular in the numerous Macedonian colonies in Syria, and of course was that of the court and of public transac- tions throughout the kingdoms of the Syro- Grecian kings ''. But Judaea was hedged in by aiational prejudices and its own peculiar customs. The mercantile, the educated part of the community, those about the court of Herod, who affected to incorporate Gre- cian with Jewish customs", acquired a ^ Mr. Townsend has argued, that Greek was in general use in Judaea, because the Jewish writers have used many Greek words in their Hebrew : he might prove by the same argument that French is the vernacular language in London. I find from the very able preface to the translation of Schleiermacher's Essay on St. Luke, that professor Hug, in his introduction to the New Testament, has. discussed, at length the progress of. the Greek lan- guage in Judasa. I have not been able to obtain the ori- ginal work, and regret the delay of Dr. Waite's promised translation. I have seen however a compendium of Hug's work in French by Monsieur Cellerier, in which he professes to give the heads of Hug's argument on this subject : if he has fairly represented them, I see no reason for altering any statement that I have made. ^ See Brerewood, Inquiry touching Languages. <= Ala TOVTO Koti jM,aXX,ov h^e^aive raiv ■jroirptooov IflaJv, xa) -^s- vf)co*7j-l7riT>i8sujix.«(riv ilmhs^ietpe t^v iruKcti x«r«(rT«^wv lxju.ad£iv y\a>TTas, Toivirpo etvT^s ^aa'tXitav ouSs t^v Aiywrrtiav avao-^o- jttEVwv irepiAa^eTv hah,eKTOv, hla)v Is xu) t» Maxshvi^eiv kxhi- rnvToiv. Plutarch. Anton. 204 LECTURE V. "TTohhuVf an expression which intimates the common use of interpreters in the Roman armies p. Travelling eastward from Palestine, and leaving to the right a large tract of coun- try inhabited by the Arabians S who had their distinct language, the vernacular was what is called by the Greeks and Romans Syriac. Of this there were two branches bearing a close affinity; that of Judaea, East Aramaic, or Chaldee, that of Mesopota- P Plutarch, Sylla. The Carthaginian in Plautus is a great linguist : " Et is omnes lingiias scit, sed dissimulat " sciens, se scire." The military orders, if I rightly appre- hend a passage in Josephus, were given to the different troops in their native languajges. "O ts x^puj Sejio? rm %o- hsfLapp^co jrupaaras, si wpoi irohsfjiov e\]V(»v oi 'EXXijvej, fiap^apot; Se vuv 01 ^ap^apat o/xoyXcirroi SiaXeyovrai. Philo de Conf. Ling. St. Paul recognizes the distinction ; Therefore, if I know not the meanimg of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that spedketh shall be a, bwrbariajn unto me. 1 Gor. xiv. 11. Even Latin was a barbarous language ; " Philemo scripsit, Plautus vertit " barbare." Plaut. Trin. For the origin of the term see Strabo, lib. XIV. and Herodotus II. 158. LECTURE V. 209 did not speak their language ; partly p^a^ .^ap^etpoi, in \yhicli both languages coexisted; partly Asiatic Greeks, in which of course that tongue was universally spoken. Now of the barbarous countries > Cappadocia, one of those mentioned in the Acts, had its own language ", according to Jablonski a branch of the ancient Assyrian, and, if we may trust the authority of a Greek novelist, spoken over a very extensive region. It is said to have been a written language, and remained vernacular to the time of St. Ba- ^ Ephorus and Strabo that cites him make almost all the inland nations of Asia Minor to be barbarians. Bentley's Confut. of Atheism, Serm. VI. <^ 'loutri 8s odiToii Sia xw/acuv fieya^aiv, vavrcov ^v atpdovrnt^Ttay eTriTijSs/aJv. Ka) yap o'lwwoUsoj l/in-s/fcuj sl^e t^s Kait'ircSojiZv (pa)c%. Xenoph.Ephes. lib. III. in init. The Cappado- cians bordering on Paphlagonia had corrupted their own dialect with that of their neighbours. "Siuvriyopelv 8" av 8o?si5 Tw Xoyco TouTcif, 8(o't/ irSiy^, fetvepoi t t\nski's Dissertation. ' When Callirboe, in the romance, had travelled as far as Cilicia, she still heard the Greek language. — KaXKippotj V 2 212 r^ECTURE, V, the Greek had probably almost extermi- nated the native dialects. Strabp informs US) that the ancient Lydian was still spoken among the Cibyratae \ but was entirely ex- tinct in Lydia itself. The Carians' also, mingling much with the Greeks, though as in the days of Homer, they might still be jw.ev yap //.ep^pi .... jLiXuIas xoufie; efeps rijV a.'Kotr^it.'MV' xai yap -EXAaSoj^xouf (fsov^f, Chaerea. et Call. 105. 2 ^ The Cibyratae spoke four ra,nguages. Tetra-oip&i 8s yXcorray Ip^paivTO oi KljSuparai, tj IlKnSixji, tyi SoXu/acov,. tj 'EXXijviSi, Tj AtiBcov, rauT))s 8e ouS* Tj^voj loriv Iv tjj AuSia. Lib, XIII. ad fin. . 1 See Strabo lib. IV. p. 978. ed. Casaub. — A passage of considerable, importance to the subject has, perplexed me. TouTO 8e /xaAiCTTa eruvs^i^ toij Kapai' roav yap aWaiv. oux In- *A.exOjU.ei'«)V waif tripolpa ToTy ' EXXijeriv, ou8' STn)(^itpoviTtov 'EXX))- vjxaij Ijji', ^ (t.av^avsiv ty^v rjiLsrspctv SiaXexjov, wX^f e? tiKsf o;n'al'ifii, x«f Kara tu;^)]C e7rsfji,iy(Bria7rX)](n'a);' cvioi 8s xa) Si'yXcoTTo.' m&i. Strabo, lib: VII. p. 503. Thucydi- des III. 15. mentions the iEtolian language. p 3 214 LECTURE ¥- and the iEgean islands, those who spoke the different dialects of Greek were intelli- gible to each other ^ ; Crete alone is remark- able for a very peculiar dialect '. In Italy, P In Creta insula usitata erat dialectus quaedam linguae Graecae caeteris ignota, ut liquet ex grammaticis, qui plu- res ex ea Glossas protulerunt. Clericus in loco. Salmasius, from Fhiloponus, makes it out a Doric dia- lect. Salmasius has made a more hardy assertion. " Ne " eo quidem tempore, quo vixit et scripsit Demosthenes " ab omnibus Atticis suis, et multo minus a caeteris Grae " cis intelligebatur. Attid a communibus Graecis vix " poterant intelligi. Unius dialecti idioma non perci>- " piebatur ab altera, de Graecise lingiiag dialectis lo- " quor." Salm. de Hellenistica. This is not quite cor- rect ; the modem Italian, perhaps the Frenchj certainly our own provincial dialects, differ as much, yet they are mutually understood. To us indeed the Megaric and Spartan patois in Aristophanes are nearly unintelligible. We have also Scythiap. ." The Attic," says Xeno- phon, " was a selection of Graecisros and barbarisms," de Rep. Aih. — A singular confession for so pure an Attic writer \ Yet these varieties of dialects must have been in the way of itinerant teachers. q The language of Malta was Phoenician. " Senza fallo *' eglino erano nominati barbari, perche non parlavano ne " la Greca ne la Latina favella, e qual linguaggio usavano " eglino allora se non il fenicio, essendo descendenti dei " Fenici." Bres. Malta Antica. The learned prelate proves the Phoenician descent of the Maltese, and traces the i'emains of the Phoenician in their modern dialect. LECTURE V. 215 the old Oscan' remained to a late period among the common people ; Greek was the vernacular in that part originally called Magna Graecia, and was so generally under- stood by the upper classes, that dramatic exhibitions were represented in all the three languages '. Though the pride of Roman conquest endeavoured to establish ^ Quintus Ennius tria corda habere sese dicebat, quod loqui Graece, et Osce, et Latine scivit. Aulua Gell, XVII. 17. Qui Osce et Volsce fabulantur, nam Latine nesciunt. Titm. apudFestum. lib. XIII. In Italia stessa, centro e sede dei Romani, ove Tuso del Latino era in uso per publica autorita, mentre per le citta e par le provincie dai dotti, da public! e civili cittadini non si parlava altro linguaggio, non pote Timpero Ro- mano impedire, che le provincie particulari usassero co- tidianamente il dialetto proprio, che bene spesso discor- dava del altro. De Rossi della Lingua di C. ® Edidit (Caesar) ludps etiam regionatim urbe tota, et quidem per omnium linguarum histriones. Suei. Jul. XXXIX. Fecitque nonnunquam vicatim ac pluribus scenis per omnium linguarum histriones. Suet. Aug. XLIII, Lege proposita^ ut Romani Graecq, Graeci Romano habiitu et sermone uterentur. I^iA. Aug. Cicero however says, " Nostri Graece fere nesciunt, nee " Graeci Latine.'" Tusc. Queest. V. " Grsca leguntur in " om^^ibus fere gentibus, Latina suis finibus, exiguis '.'^ sane, continentur." Cic. pro Arch. XXV, p 4 216 LECTURE V. Latin as thfe general language of public affairs in all the subject provinces V yet in ' Magistratus vero prisci quantopere suam populique iElomam majestatem retinentes se gesserint, hinc cognosci potest, quod inter castera obtinendse gravitatis indicia, il-i lud quoque magna cum perseverantia custodiebant, ne Grsecis unquam, nisi Latine, responsa darent. Quinetiam ipsa linguae volubilitate, qua plurimum valent, excussa, per interpretem loqui cogebant; non in urbe tantum nostra, sed etiam in Gracia et Asia : quo scilicet Latinas vocis hones per omnes gentes venerabilior diflFunderetur. Val Max. lib. II. c. 2. Causes however were sometimes pleaded in Greek in the senate. " Quis ergo huic consuetudini, qua nunc Graecis " actionibus aures curiae exsurdantur, januam patefecit, " ut opinor, Molo rhetor, qui studia M. Ciceronis acuit. " Eum namque ante omnes exterarum gentium in senatu " sine interprete auditimi constat." Val. Max. ut supra. ' The emperors .however appear rather to have con- demned this practice. . Augustus did not himself speak Greek fluently, " non tamen ut aut loqueretur expedite " aut componere aliquid auderet." Suei. Jug: Tiberius discouraged Greek, and apologized for using Greek words in the senate. " Militem quendam quoque Grasce testi- " monium interrogatum, nisi Latine respondere vetuit.'- Suet. Tib. LXXI. But he was not consistent by Dio's representation proJ bably of the same transaction. 'ExuTovrap^ou 'EaAijvktti 6» Tcu (rtivelelca ^iMfrvpr^aui ti -gflsAjjcraKTOj, oix, ^vsir^sTO, xalirep troXKas [/.h lixui h rjj hakexTcp raury, xal exsi ^syo/tevaj a>io6iov,iToXKa; 8s xa) airh; sirepaniov. Dio Tib. LVII. 15. ' ' Claudius was more severe ; for though he granted as an especial privilege ;^apiv ol ''E\\rjviicoua'cbVTes. In the next place, if the apostles did not under- stand the Lycaonian, in what language had they taught the people, addressed the crip- ple whom they healed, and in what did they mak« their long and successful expos- tulation with the multitude? For they did LECTURE V. 228 not simply express their abhorrence of the proffered adoration by visible signs of in- dignation, by their offended looks, and by the rending their garments ; they did not remonstrate with the higher classes, and sor- licit their interference, but they rushed at once among the people, and argued with them on the grievous misapprehension into which they had fallen. Now is it probable that the mob of Lystra should so well under- stand one language and speak another ; that the lowest inhabitants of a town neither ma- ritime nor commercial should be so familiar with both languages, as to listen to one with pleasure on subjects so mysterious and profound as the principles of a new religion, and yet express themselves in a different one ; that whatever their dialect or tongue, the apostles should not comprehend their brief and repeated outcry, but that they should fully understand the arguments and remonstrances of the apostles ? Either the Lycaoniari^ was a dialect of Greek, or a lan- s Grotius, LightfooV and Jablonski think this lan- guage Cappadocian; Bentley, very different from Greek ; Guhlihgius, a corrupt Greek dialect. Crit. Sacr. Ste- phanufi Byzantinus quotes a word as Lycaonian. 224 LECTURE V. ^age entirely different ; if the latter, the apostles must have addressed them miracu- lously in their native tongue; if the former, Paul and Barnabas, however perplexed by the peculiarity of their jargon or pronunci- ation, could scarcely have been ignorant of their general meaning. But in fact we have no warrant in the text for concluding that the apostles heard the outcry of the multi- tude. Such is the observation of Bentley ^, who is decided in rejecting the interpreta- tion of Chrysostom. In truth, whatever exposition we adopt, a difficulty remains; it is not apparent why the writer should ex- pressly mention their exclamation to have been in the Lycaonian language. . It is not ^ When I consider the circumstances and nature of the affair, I am persuaded they did not hear that dis- course of the people. For I can hardly conceive, that inen under such apprehensions as the Lystrans then were, in the dread presence, and under the very nod of the almighty Jupiter, not an idol of wood and stone, should exclaim in his sight and hearing. This, I say, seems not probable nor nettural^ nor is it affirmed in the text. But they might whisper it to one another, and silently with- drawing from the presence of the apostles, they th^n lifi up their voice, and noised it about the city. Bentley, Conf, of Atheism. LECTURE V. 225 altogether satisfactory to account for this on the supposition that there was something peculiarly striking in the language itself; or even that it was the first time that the apostles came in contact with any of these barbarous dialects. I do not indeed see, why an advocate for the universality of the gift of tongues might not draw an inference in favour of his own system, and conclude that the object of the evangelist was to shew that the apostles could converse familiarly among the most barbarous people, and where the Greek language was not verna-. cular. At all events, it is sufficient for my argument, that the passage furnishes no de- cisive proof that the apostles were ignorant of the Lycaonian language ; or if they were, it was not of the slightest importance, be- cause it is clear, both from their previous harangue and froni their subsequent ex- postulation, that they spoke some language intelligible to the people of Lystra. Some other passages in the sacred writing!? are also adduced by those who wish to limit, or absolutely deny the miracle in question. Arguing that Providence does not 'work Q 2£6 LECTURE V. wonders of which the utihty is not great and evident, they conclude that where the gift is named, and the ohject is not appa- rent, it must either be explained away, or considered, as by Ernesti, merely as an evi- dence of the divine pjower, meant to vindi- cate the mission of the apostles. Among these cases, the history of Cornelius is one\ We read that when the church of Christ was' first opened to the Gentiles, and Corne- lius with .his kinsmen and near friends were accepted as. Christian Converts, while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were as- tonished, as many as came with Peter, be- cause that on the. Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God\ Here then at first sight appears no obvious utility in the miracle, yet, I con- ceive, if we consider more closely the im- portance of the transaction, we may be of a different opinion. In this great era, as I ' Acts X. '' Acts X. 44 — 46. . LECTURE V, 227 iriay justly call it, in the evangelic history, the first admission of Gentile converts into the pale of Christianity, the parties in the affair are Peter and his companions, whose native language was Syro-Chaldaic, and Cor- nelius with his kinsmen, who from his name, and as a Roman soldier of the Italian band, probably spoke Latin. They might indeed have met on the neutral ground of the Greek, which Peter even by natural means might have acquired, and which the family of Cornelius might have understood. But as it was of the utmost importance that a free and unrestrained intercourse should take place between the circumcised and uncir- cumcised converts, it would be difficult to fi^nd an occasion on which such an inter- vention of divine power, if it ever occurred, could more advantageously have been be- stowed. The second occasion on which this gift was conferred was the conversion of certain followers of John the Baptist. Now 1st, as these had not so much as heard whe- ther there was any Holy Ghost ', no demon- 1 Acts xix. 2. ^28 LECTURE V. stration of the power and agency of th*e Spirit would be misplaced ; and 2dly, as the followers of John the Baptisi were widely scattered abroad, their conversion, wherever they might reside, or whatever language they might speak, would be greatly facili- tated by the communication of this gift ". The strong hold, however, of the objectors is the remarkable passage in the Epistle to the Corinthians, in which certain Christians are rebuked for an ostentatious display of this gift ; arid St. Paul is thought to speak rather disparagingly of the gift itself, which, if what it is generally supposed, must rank among the most remarkable instances of almighty power. Warburton has antici- pated the first of these objections by his acute distinction between this and other gifts of the Holy Spirit. "The speaking " with tongues, when once the gift was con- " ferred, became from henceforth a natural " power ; just as the free and perfect use of " the members of the body, after they have " been restored by miracle to the exercise ™ On the followers of John the baptist, see Michaelis, and RosenmuUer, prefece to St. John. LECTURE V; 2^9 " of their natural functions. Indeed to " have lost the gift of tongues after the " temporary use of it, would imply another ^' miracle ; for it must have been by actual "deprivation, unless we suppose the apo- " sties mere irrational organs, through which " divine sounds were conveyed. In a word, " it was as much in the course of nature, " for an apostle, whom the Holy Spirit on " the day of Pentecost had enabled, to speak " a strange language, as it was for the crip- " pie whom Jesus had restored to the use of " his limbs on the Sabbath day, to walk, " run, and perform all the functions of a " man perfectly sound and whole"." As regards the second objection, from the remarkable expression of St. Paul, / would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied : for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues", evidently, it is not the gift itself, but the gift, diverted from its real purpose of Christian edification, which is depreciated. The apostle does not mean that it is a less valiiable or extraordi- " Warburton, Doctrine of <,evTsi iitto 'Pwfiaiaji'. Pausanias II. 1. Com- pare Diod. Sic. Fragment lib. XXXII. Strabo lib. VIII. p. 585. Die CassiusXLIII. 50. My attention was directed to this fact by the Palaeoromaica, one of those paradoxes, which ingenious men begin to support as an exercise of the LECTURE V. 231 very recent date, and peopled directly from Italy, Now though of course it would be rapidly increased by the confluence of set- tlers from the heighbourhddd, yet the Latin language was probably spoken by a large proportion of the inhabitants. But where the diversity of language permitted the use, it would also give occasion; for the idle dis^ play of the gift of tongues. It will have been observed, that the argu^ ment in this Lecture is directed against two distinct classes of opponents : 1st, those who, while they acknowledge the authority of the Scripture, reject the common opinion concerning the miracle of the gift of tongues. To these I urge its universal acceptance in its literal sense by the Christian church, the incredibility that it should have been invented, the still greater incredibility that it should have been fabricated by the igno- rance of the early expositors of Scripture, out of proverbial expressions bearing no reasoning powers, and end in almost persuading them- selves that, they are in ea,mest. It may be worth remarking that the Latin names of Jus- tus and Crispus appear among the Corinthian brethren, Acts xviii. 6. perhaps also Fortunatus, 1 Cor. xvi. 17. Q 4 232 LECTURE V. such meaning ; the obvious imitation of it by the biographers of false teachers, and its inestimable value to the apostles^ as a means of disseminating the religion of Christ. To those, Sdly,,, whom I suppose either willingly, or compelled by force of reason- ing, to admit the general truth of the lead>- ing facts in the^ apostolic history, I dwell only on the scene in Jerusalem upon the day of Pentecost. I strongly assert the im- possibility, that without this gift the apo- stles could have made the impression which they did on the assembled multitude ; that speaking in their native dialect they would have been unintelligible to the vast majority, and, instead of enfordng awe and amaze- ment, would either have been entirely disre- garded, or incurred contempt and ridicule. I do not adduce as an argument, 1 re- mark only as a singular coincidence, the agreement of this miracle with the course of divine Providence as recorded in the Old Testament. The curse pronounced at Ba- bel separated the human race into distinct nations; when mankind was to be invited to form one family in Christ, how admirably LECTURE V. 233 adapted for the purpose the ■ temporaTy suspension of this malediction '! '^ The tem- porary suspension, because when the reli- gion was established, resident teachers ap- pointed, the Scriptures compiled and trans- lated into various "tongues, the progress of the religion demanded no further miracu- lous interference. But remarkable as the analogy is, the writers of the New Testa- ment appear unconscious of it ; whence it is evident that the later miracle is not an in- vention suggested by the former. If tongues then were the credentials of the ambassadors of God ; if from the recep- tion of the apostles in this character we may infer the necessary production and ve- rification of their powers, let us listen with humble gratitude to the terms of peace and reconciliation with God, offered on their authority, and may that peace be ours, both now and evermore *! s Compare lord Barrington's Miscellanea Sacra, and Benson, Hist, of the planting of Christianity. t It is remarkable that the Roman Catholic church has rarely laid claim to this miracle ; the reason is obvious, the impossibility of imposture. After Irenaeus, there is hardly any mention made of 234 LECTURE V. the gift of tongues in ecclesiastical history. One who hath written the life of Pachomius, a monk in the fourth century, says, among other things equally marvellous and equally credible, that the saint had received a power to speak all sorts of languages. See BoUandus and Tille- mont. Jortin, Eccles. Hist. I. 318. Chrysostom distinctly denies that the gift was known in his time. A)« t< tots yKwa-a-uis e\aXo) iroipe\yi\66ei, x«i roirov wk IVti ^aSwoi sopsjv t^s oixoo/*e'v»ij, oi oi irapalehxrett touto to 90- Xov^jji^S' ^nKpetTsiTeu vw auTov. Straboapud Josephum,Ant. XIV. 7. 2. Compare Philo. Letter of Agrippa in the Leg. ad Caium, where he enumerates the nations among which they had spread; also Joseph. B. J. II. 16. R 2 244 LECTURE VL dispersed of their own accord, probably with '' commercial views. ' In Mesopotamia and the adjacent districts, to say' nothing as to the uncertain fate of the ten tribes, numerous families remained after the cap- tivity, who perpetuated the Jewish race and religion. At all events, whether from these causes, or subsequent migrations, their num- ber was so considerable, that Philo, proba- ]&ly with some rhetorical amplification % as^ serts that a general insurrection of the Jews might have endangered the Roman em- pire''- In Egypt, particularly at Alexan- ^ An interesting discussion might be written on the origin of the mercantile habits and trade of the Jews. They appear to have been lenders upon pledge in Alex- andria. T«f fih hS^tia; oi'jroXtoKsxoTcav riav, iropKTTm. Philp in Flacc. p. SSS'. A Jew merchant plays a conspicuoa^ part, in the curious story of the conversion of Heleiia, queen of the Adiabeni, to Judaism, in Joseph. Ant. XX. S. See RosenmuUer's note on Acts ix. 2. and Michaelis, vol. IV. p. 61. Justin says they traded in opobalsamutff. c "HSsl ycip Ba^u^aJva xa) woWa,; aXXn; .tSiv ^aTpAir.sta}i ujTo 'lovialwv xixTsx,o(isvas. Philo, Leg. ad Caium, vol. II. p. 578. ed. Man. '-'^ <1 TotyauTO.; nOpiaSas etpehxeaSeu itoXBji.tiav of ov - Tarov ; kK>Ji fJkri irore ysvoiTD o-vf/,^povri)v itapetntapTM roi; Ithj^w^/oj?" T\el(rTOV 8e rp "Siupla. HMta. triv yeiTvia,iareios exvixij(rai. Dio Cass. XXXVII. 17. 1 Suet. Julius 84. «» Juv. III. 13. ; " See for the Decree of Augustus Joseph. Ant. XVI. 6. 2. Philo Leg. in Caium,j). 569. R 4 248 LECTURE VI. to deny the great advantage which the early Christian teachers derived, from hav- ing those of their own nation and kindred, upon whose hospitable reception they might calculate on their first entrance into a fo- reign city ° ; from finding open synagogues and places of public assembly, in which they jnight announce their doctrines ; in shelter- ing themselves under the general habits of their people from the surprise or suspicion which their itinerancy might otherwise have excited, or the animosity which their unsocial religion, which refused to coalesce with other kinds of worship, might have provoked. As a sect of Judaism, Chris- tianity was enabled to gain some strength, before it encountered direct persecution. Still, however, the value of these advantages depended oh two material points: 1st, the estimation in which the Jews were held. For coming before the world, avowedly as-, sociated with the Jews, grounding their " Per illam tarn ample patentem Judaeorum in tot re- glonibus frequehtiam et facilior aditus datus apostolis, at- que vaticiniis prophetarum praenunciata evangelii lux fe- liciua eminere, et lon^us aciem suairi proferre petuit. Fa- bric. Lux Evangi c. 5. LECTURE VI. 249 doctrines on Hebrew records and tradi- tions, they would share in the respect or con- tempt, the favour or the hatred, in which that people was held. 2dly, On their reception among the Jews ; for if disclaimed by their own brethren, they would appear in the questionable predicament of being despised by the heathen as Jews, and detested by the Jews as apostates. Now it is certain that the toleration of the Jews, which was the policy of Augustus, and in the early part of his reign of Tibe- rius P, soon gave place to animosity which aifected to assume the dignity of contempt. Although at an earlier period Cicero spoke of them with scorn'', and when they are mentioned in the Augustan age, their ha- bits and rites provoked the sarcasm of the wits \ I think that I discover in subsequent writers increased acrimony even in their P Suet. Tiberius. XXXV. ^ Huic autem barbarse superstitioni resistere, severita- tis ; raukitudinem Judaeorum, flagrantem nonnunquam in condonibus, pro republica contemnere, gravitatis summae fuit. Cic. pro Flacco, 8,8. r Hot. Sat. I. 9. 70. I. 5. 100. 250 LECTURE VL brief notices of this unpopular race '. AH their later history shews them in collision with the Roman authorities, and their irre- concileable intolerance, the better it became known, appeared only the more odious. The resistance, to Caligula's frantic design of placing his statue in the temple, however impolitic the measure might appear to the wise and moderate, was likely nevertheless to woimd the pride of Rome. Insurrection provoked oppression, oppression inflamed insurrection, till the final capture of Jeru- salem, when with that union of savage ani- mosity with contempt, which characterizes s Juv. Sat. VI. 543. XIV. 101-4. Josephus says, just before tbe war, to 8s x«ra tu>v 'louSaiW jrairjv i^xnaile fi.i)(iiaTcov yevofji.evoi ^ijXajTai; trees 8* ou ftop^fl))- pla; ehen xai su^epelas keir history, their prophecies, their types, were alike strange and unintelligible ^. To th^ Jews, they might reason out of the Scrip- McreSi opening and attedging, that Christ must njeeds ham suffered, and risen agmn from the dead ^ ; bu^t iScriptures, Jesus, and Christ, were unknown and unmeaning words .to the hieathen. Thus, whilp they would necessarily share in all the odium which attached to >the Jewish name ;a^ ^religion, they appeared before the Gentjles under the stilL more dubious character of renegades from thefaith in which tj^eyhad been borsa, loudly denounced by the Jjeji^^ 5 The originality of the Christian doctrine^ and eha^ racter is urged in a most attractive and convincing man- ner by my* friend Mr. Sumner, in his volume pntlje E*i>- d^nqe of Christianity, a work, qf which the argument in some points runs parallel with mine, but which left much the larger part of my grourid entirely unoociijMed. h Acts xvii..;2, 3. 8 258 LECTURE VI. as impostors or fanatics, disclaimed by those, who alone were capable of deciding with justice on their pretensions. Thus far as to the advantages of their connection with the Jewish people. Suppose however, II. that they are neither disheartened by the uniform opposition of the Jews, and that they have contrived to reconcile the Gentiles both to their persons ias descended from that hateful racCj and to their still more questionable apostasy from the religion of their countrymen, let us fol- low them into the Gentile world, and exa- mine its fitness for the- reception of Chris- tianity. The question of the extent and probable limits of the Greek language hav- ing already been discussed, let us inquire how far the subjugation of the western world to the dominion of the Romans might advance or retard the progress of the new religion. Had the apostles gone forth at any previous period, either of foreign or ci- vil warfare, the messengers o/" peace, would have been perpetually liable to interruption or danger, to be cut oif by the indiscrimi- nate ravager, or seized, and sold into cap- LECTURE VI. 259 tivity '. Besides this, during the apprehen- sions and anxieties excited by a state of civil discord, when the sword of proscription was suspended over the heads of all the higher .orders by the slenderest threaj^, which might be snapt in an instant by the caprice of any one of either triumvirate ; when the dwellings of the lower orders were alter- nately depopulated by successive armies, the quiet, unworldly, and persuasive voice of religion would scarcely have commanded attention. All interest would have been absorbed in more pressing and urgent cour cerns. Now, however, that the able policy of the Romans had established an uniform system , of government throughout the em- pire, the public mind, no longer pxeoccu- pied by the agitations of war and faction, and precluded from political discussions, would welcome any excitement, and tajke [ 'AvsTetKS' yap ev tuI; ^ftepaij auroii 8«xa(0(7ui/i),.x«i irXi^Sog e'lprm; yiyavsv, ap^ajusvoi/ u'ln. tyu ysvea-eie; auroo, suTpe^'i'^sv,. TOj ToiJ &eou T^ hSad'naKia aww ra eivtj, h' inrb ha. ysvr(rai TC0V 'Vcoftaiwi Pa(ri\eu' xcd f/.^ ha to vfo^ourn toov 'bo>\.)\,{OV ^aan- Xeicov aiMXTOV Twv Iflvoof ^r^Of .aA^i]\«, ^aKsirairepov yevrjTai toTj airoo-ToXofj to5 'I)j(roi5 to woi^ffai oWep irpoo'eTa^sv. auTol; o 'Iij- ffov;. Orig. cont. Cels. II. 30. S 2 260 LECTURE VI. an interest in any speculations, attractive either from their baldness or novelty. The teachers of Christianity could pursue their itinerant system of proselytisra in se- curity. .The prophecy of Isaiah, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight \ might almost be taken literally. The pul>- lie roads were magnificent; the means of communication easy ; the passage from one province to another without obstacle. Still there is much to counterbalance these ad- vantages. In times of public Gonfusi6n the doctrines of Christianity might have crept abroad, if less rapidly, more imperceptibly. The whole attention of the government was directed to civil affairs. An uniform and active police watched every invasion of the public quiet*. The facility of commu- k Matt. iii. 2. 1 It appears from a curious passage in Petronius Ar- biter, that the regulation common in modiern times, pairti- cularly in Italy, that all strangers are to be reported to the police, is as old as the days of Nero. " Hac voce " perterritus, eo egi-esso ad sciendum quid esset, descehdi; '^ ttccepique, Praetoris lictbifem, qui pro officio curabat ex- " terorum nomina inscribi in publicis codicibus, duos vii- " disse advenas domum ingrediy quorum nomina nondum LECTURE VI. 261 xtication increased the facility of persecu- tion. Where the different provinces and cities were independent of each other, the advice, when they persecute you in one cityy flee unto another, would have been more practicable. Now, the reputation of being factious and quarrelsome persons, disturbers of the public peace, would fly before theipi and pursue them every where. They could not escape observation, however they might shelter themselves under the contempt of the ruling power, for the Acts of the diifer-i ent cities appear to have been kept with punctuality, and transmitted regularly to the seat of government '". The universal empire of the Romans endangered an uni- versal persecution. If they should once provoke the slumbering intolerance of their masters, a single edict from the Capitol " in acta tetujerat, et idcirco de illorum patria et occupa- " tione inquirere." Petr. Arb. Satyr. The imperial jealousy of haipeleii reminds us forcibly, of the suspicion in which all secret associations are held at the present day, See quotations on this subject ii^ Jordn, Disc. I. "■ See Fefurson on the Creed; note on art. IV. and Suetmiius Grqevii, note on Jul. XX. Tacitus mentions th^ diurna pppuli Ror^ani Ann. XVI. 28. s 3 262 LECTURE VI. would kindle the fires of extermination in every province of the West. The ap- peal of Paul to Caesar was in fact a 'most dangerous experiment \ It exposed the whole body to the caprice of the tyrant, or the jealousy of the politician. It provoked his cognizance of a people, avowedly hostile to all existing modes of worship, which, as Gibbon observes, were considered by the liegislator, as all equally useful. It thercT- fore implied an intrepid reliance on the goodness of his cause, inexplicable at least in an impostor. The apostles might have been ignorant of those intolerant laws which forbade the unauthorized introduc- tion of a new religion, and which in prac- tice had become obsolete. They might have calculated on the inoifensive character of their religion, and been lulled into secu- rity by the temperate conduct of the judges before whom they were led — Gallio for in- stance, or the town clerk of Ephesus". But " Lardtier is of opinion that Paul did actually plead before Nero; but it seems to me highly improbable. Hist. ofApost. ° On the tolerance of the heathens see Bentley on Free- thinking, c. 41. and especially Kshop Warburton's mas- terly view of the subject. Div. Leg. b. II. c. 6. The LECTURE yi. 263 experience must soon have convinced them, that there was no security against the exasperated populace; and it must have occurred to men whose foresight we can scarcely question, that their prosperity would inevitably excite the more active jealousy of those, whose tolerance was only grounded on their contempt. Yet, on the; whole, as far as the apostles were con- cerned, the advantages of the universal Roman dominion probably predominated; though they were advantages on which they could not fairly reckon, if they sate down deliberately to count the cost of their undertaking ; and which were so precarious, and so often turned against them, as to induce them Irather to recede in time, than to advance without hesitation. III. The ancient religions, it may be said, had lost their hold on the general belief; the progress of letters and philosophy had enlightened the public mind to such an ex- tent, that the fables of pagan mythology laws on the subject iriay be seen, briefly in Jortin's Dis- courses, more at length in Chr. Kortholt, Paganus ob^ trectator. S 4 264 LECTtXRE VI. were generally derided. The absurdity of the hea,then worship had' becewie apparent to the meanest Understanding. Christi* anity therefore appearing at this fortunate juncture^ took advantage of the religious propensities of human nature, now no longer preoccupied ; and easily planted in the va- cant heart of man th^e consolatory and ennobling principles of faith, the excellence of which, and theif superiority to the de- grading systems of prevailing belief, might appear suffieient evidence of their truth. But, ialtlioilgh we have sufficient proof thefi the philosophy of the Stoics, Aca- demics, or Epicureans had superseded the exploded religions in the higher classesj it is flot so easy to decide how low in society this scepticisHi had descended. We derive otir knotirledge of aneient opinioniS chiefly from poets, orators, or philosophers. But even thoUgli CicerO might publicly deride, or privately question the reality of a future state •■; though Lucan^ inight disdain;, or P Cic. pro Cliieht. c. 61. and the spfeifech of CsfeSat iii Sallust, B. C. 50. q Lucan IX. 379. Juv. II. 149. LECTURE VI. 265 Juvenal sarcastically depreciate the esta- blished faith, we cannot conclude that the superstitions of the mass of the people were not still deeply and firmly rooted'. Per- haps the moral and religious state of the world may be thus not unfairly stated. In the higher orders, a sovereign contempt for the creed of their forefathers, with a to- tal absence of religious principle ; theo- retical Epicureanism with practical profli- gacy. In the lower, equal vice and ferocity of character ', with an extravagant attach- ment to their local deities'. In both, a su- ' Et sciunt qui rerum humanarutn non ignari sunt, etiam infimse sortis homines non modo se suamque vitam et commoda naturae instinctu amare, verum etiam con- suetudines religionesque a majoribus acceptaa multo ve- hementius et acrius complecti et custodire, quam homi« nes ingenio, auctoritate, vitaeque bonis prseditos et ex- celso loco posi'tos. Mosheim de Reb. Chr, I. 21, Com- pare likewise the note on this passage. , ^ s Itettifla^tiosissime et prorsus impie supremi, medio^ ores, infimi vivebant, illorumque scelerum et criminum, quorum hodie nomen vix honestae aures ferunt, maxima erat impumtas, &e> Mosheim,, p. 15i ' See the curious discussion about the right of asylum, and the pertinacity with which the several cities urged the daimis of their r^ective deities. Tac. Ann. III. 61. 266 LECTURE VI. perstitious belief in magic, astrology,, ne- cromancy, divination ; incredulity as to the substance, the moral restraint, and obedi- ence to duty, with an obstinate fondness, either from policy or prejudice, for the es- tablished form of religion ". If, according tp Warburton's theory, more elevated doc- trines were taught in the mysteries, the secrecy of these had become depraved to the worst purposes. The priesthood in the various cities were sometimes opulent, al- ways powerful ; and the ceremonial of the heathen was most skilfully enwoven with the whole detail of life. If the religion of the Hindoo be more completely identified with the minutest circumstances of hourly practice, the food, the ablutions, the dis- tinction of ranks, that of the Greeks was as completely incorporated with their plea- sures, that of the Romans with their na- tional pride. Every thing on which the " Prodigies are as frequent in Tacitus as in Livy. The former describes Rome as " civitatem cuncta interpre- " tantem." Apuleius, Petronius, the satirists, and all the authors who throw light on the common life of the Romans, are full of their superstitions. LECTURE VI. 267 Greek rested his claim to superiority ovei* barbarous nations; every thing by which the Roman vindicated his political and military preeminence was indissolubly con- nected with, or rather an integral part of the ancient faith. As to the latter, even in the time of Augustih, the feeling which he seems to combat with the greatest energy, is the ingratitude of deserting those "gods under whose superintending providence Rome had attained to universal dominion*. With the Greeks, the language, the poetry, the arts, sculpture, painting, architecture, the spectacles of almost every description, were essentially religious. The abandon- ment of all these was the first inexorable demand of the new religion. Besides the total moral change, a revolution as com- plete in the occupations, amusements, and habits of life was imperiously required. » sunt qui nobis bella exprobrare sinistra Non dubitent, postquam templorum sprevimus aras, Affirmentque, Libyn CoUinse a cardine portae Hannibalem Jovis imperio, Martisque, repulsuin ; Victores Senonas Capitoii ex aede fugatos, Cum super e celso pugnarent Numina saxo. Prudent, cotitr. Symm. II. 683. S68 LECTURE VI The glowing description of the manner in which the heathen ceremonial pervaded the whole life, adorned every hour, mingled with every serious pursuit, and exhilarated with its festive influence every pastime, as it appears in the History of the Decline and Fall of Rome, is well known ^ But this opportunity of displaying the luxuri- ance of his diction, and the copiousness of his knowledge, is fktal to the theory which the writ&r would insinuate — the propaga- tion of Christianity by natural causes alone. For if the old religion, conjured up by the powers of the imagination, could so fasci-r nate the congenial mind of the historian, what must have been its influence, when incorporated with all the prejudices, incul^ cated with traditionary reverence, and ad-^ dressed directly and perpetually to the ar- dent passions of a gay and dissolute people. No topic of Christian evidence has been urged with greater frequency or success, than the contrast between the meaii,, indi- genty unpretending and selfdenying reli- , . y Gibbon, Hist. c. XV. LECTURE VI. m9 gion of the cross, and the splendour, opu^ lerice, the festive and indulgent ritual of paganism*. I shall endeavour therefore to throw the argument into another form, both that I may avoid dangerous competir tion, and, as I conceive, bring the state of affairs more immediately home to the com^ pfehiension. Conceive then the apostles of Jesus Christ, the tentmaker or the fisherman, en- tering, as strangers, into one of the splendid cities of Syria, Asia Minor, or Greece. Con- ceive them, I mean, as unendowed with miraculous powers, having adopted their itinerant system of teaching from human motives, and for human purposes alone. As they pass along to the remote and ob- sctire quarter, where they expect to meet with precarious hospitality among ' their countrymen, they survey the strength of the " It may be interesting to ti'ace the manner in which the great masters of English pulpit eloquence have treated the same subject : compare a passage in J. Tay- lor's Sermon on the Death of Abp. Bramhall ; BarroAv", v61.1V. 471. Oxford ed.; and Atterbury's third Sermon. Di". Canipbeirs Sermon, printed at the end of his Essay on Miracles, and Bp. Watson's " Christianity no Ira.- "'posturie," may be consulted. g70 LECTUEE VI. established religion, which it is their avowed purpose to overthrow. Every where they behold temples, on which the utmost extra- vagance of expenditure has been lavished by succeeding generations ; idols of the most exquisite workmanship, to which, even if the religious feeling of adoration is en- feebled, the people are strongly attached by national or local vanity. They meet pro- cessions, in which the idle find perpetual occupation, the young excitement, the vo- luptuous a continual stimulant to their passions. They behold a priesthood, nu- merous, sometimes wealthy ; nor are these alone wedded by interest to the established faith ; many of the trades, like those of the makers of silver shrines in Ephesus, are pledged to the support of that to which they owe their maintenance ". They pass. a a Publicus poyro et privatus tot numinum cultus im- mensam poiitificum, sacerdotum, augurum, haruspicum, aliorumque inferioris ordinis ministrorum multitudinem non commode ,tantum et Jaute alebat, varum etiam in magna existimitatione et auctoritate apud populos collp- cabat. .... Cum his sociabat sese innumerabilis varii generis turba, cui supe;rstitiones publicae quaestui erant, mercatores qui thura, bestias, aliaque vendebant deorum LECTURE VI. mi magnificent theatre, on the splendour and success of which the popularity of the ex- isting authorities mainly depends; and in which the serious exhibitions are essen- tially religious, the lighter as intimately with the indulgence of the baser passions. They behold another public building, where even worse feelings, the cruel and the san- guinary, are pampered by the animating contests of wild beasts and of gladiators, in which they themselves may shortly play a dreadful part, Butcher'd to make a Roman holyday ! ■^ Show and spectacle are the characteristic enjoyments of the whole people, and every ishow and spectacle is either sacred to the cultoribus necessaria, architect!, caupones, aurifices (Act. xix. 25.) fabri lignarii, statuarii, sculptores, tibicines, ci- tharaedi et alii, quibus omnibus dii, eorumque ministri, templa, casremoniae, dies fasti, magnas afferebant ad vitam beate ducendam opportunitates. Mosheim, ut supra, I. SI. *> The Fathers insist on the intimate connection be- tween all the public spectacles and idolatry. — Igitur si ex idololatria unlversam spectaculorum paraturam constare constiterit, indubitate praejudicatum erit etiam ad specta- cula pertinere renuntiationis nostras testimonium in lava- cro, quae Diabolo et angelis ejus sint mancipata, scilicet per idololatriam. Tert. de Sped. IV. 272 LECTURE VI. religious feelings, or incentive to the lusts of the flesh ; those feelings which must be entirely eradicated, those lusts which must be brought into total subjection to the law of Christ. They encounter likewise itine^ rant jugglers, diviners, magicians, who im- pose upon the credulous, and excite the contempt of the enlightened; in the first case, dangerous rivals to those who should attempt to propagate a new faith by impos- ture and deception ; in .the latter % natu- rally tending to prejudice the mind against all miraculous pretensions whatever : here, like Elymas, endeavouring to outdo the signs and wonders of the apostles, there throw- ing suspicion on all -asserted supernatural agency, by the frequency and clumsiness of their delusions. They meet philoso- phers ^ frequently itinerant like themselves ; or teachers of new religions, priests of Isis and Serapis, who have brought into equal discredit what might otherwise have ap- peared a proof of philanthropy, the perf c See Weston on Miracles. w«e«TuyyavovT«5 8i«X6yo;«.6voi, Orig. c. Cels. III. 50. LECTURE VI. ^73 fofmihg laborious journeys at the sacrifice t)f personal ease and comfort for the moral and religious improvement of mankind ; or at least have so accustomed the public mind to similar pretensions, as to tiake away every attraction from their boldness or no- velty. There are also the teachers of the different mysteries, which would engross all the anxiety of the inquisitive, perhaps excite, even if they did not satisfy, the hopes of the more pure and lofty minded. Such must have been among the obstacles which would force themselves on the calmer mo- ments of the most ardent ; such the over- powering diffieplties, of which it would be impossible to overlook the injportanee, or elude the force ; which required no sober calculation to estimate, no laborious enquiry to discover ; which met and confronte4 them wherever they went, and which, either in desperate presumption, or deliberate re^ liahce on their own preternatural powers, they must have contemned and defied. The commencement of their labours was usually disheartening, and ill calculated to keep alive the flame of ungrounded en thu- 276 LECTURE VI. siasm. . They begin their operations in the narrow and secluded synagogue of their own countrymen. The novelty of their doctrine, and curiosity secure them at first a patient attention ; but as the more offen- sive tenets are developed, the most fierce and violent passions are awakened. Scorn and hatred are seen working in the clouded brows and agitated countenances of the leaders: if here and there one is pricked to the heart, it requires considerable moral courage to acknowledge his conviction ; and the new teachers are either cast forth from the indignant assembly of their own people, liable to all the punishments which they are permitted to inflict, scourged and beaten; or, if they succeed in forming a party, they give rise to a furious schism ; and thus ap- pear before the heathen with the dangerous notoriety of having caused a violent tumult, and broken the public peace by their tur- bulent and contentious harangues: at all events, disclaimed by that very people on whose traditions they profess to build their doctrines, and to whose Scriptures they ap- peal in justification of their pretensions; LECTURE VI. 275 They endure, they persevere, they continue to sustain the contest against Judaism and paganism. It is still their deliberate, os- tensible, and avowed object^ to overthrow all this vast system of idolatry ; to tear up by the roots all ancient prejudices ; to si- lence shrines, sanctified by the veneration of agfes as oracular; to consign all those gorgeous temples to decay, and all those images to contempt ; to wean the people from every barbarous and dissolute amuse- ment. They must have anticipated the time, when the indignant priesthood should lament over the desertion of the luxurious Daphne, and see their unrepaired temples crumble away, while their own stipends are withheld, and their persons treated with contempt ^ For it was not the object ^ Already in the days of Trajan this complaint had commenced : " Certe satis constat, prope etiam desolate " templa coepisse celebrari, et sacra solemnia diu intermissa " repeti; passimque vaenire victimas, quarum adhuc ra- " rissimus emptor Inveniebatur." Flin. Trqjtm. The works of Julian and Libanius the sophist are full of tragical lamentations on this subject. " Quinimo, ut ye- " rius proloquar, haruspices hasfabulas,conjectoreSjarioli, " vates, et nunquam non vani concinnavere fanatici ; qui T 9. 276 LECTURE VI. of the apostles, that their religion should be received into the community of gods ; they enforce total and complete subversion, extermination, extinction. They will not be content that Christ be admitted into the Pantheon; the whole edifice must be cleared for his reception, and the whole quarry of gods cast to the moles and to the bats. That such men should attempt this, should persevere in attempting, thus against hope and against reason, yet at the same time display the prudence and promptitude, with which Paul, for instance, availed him- self of the inscription To the unknown god in Athens; that they should thus unite the desperate rashness of the fanatic, with the coolness of the impostor ; madness of de- sign, with policy of conduct ; all this is an anomaly in human action, which defies all " ne suae artesintereant, ac ne stipes exiguas consultoribiis '* excutiant jam raris, si quando vos velle rem venire in in- " vidiam compererunt, negliguntur dii, clamitsnt, atque " templis jam raritas summa est. Jacent antiquae derisui " caerimonise, et sacrorum quondam veterrimi ritus religio- " num novarum superstitionibus occiderunt ; merito hu- " manum genus tot miseriarum angustiis premitur, tot la- " borum excruciatur aerumnis." Arnob. contr. Gent. I. 24. LECTURE VI. 277 precedent, and disdains all comparison. What were their means of success ? Every prepossession was against their nation, their rank in life. If we accept the self-abasing testimony of Paul, their persons were de- ficient in commanding dignity, his bodily presence was weak^. Was it eloquence? But on the same authority, his speech was contemptible. Unquestionably his language is equally opposite to the florid and elabo- rate diction, which enchanted the Asiatics, and the perspicuous, vivid, harmonious rhe- toric, which would be demanded by the Athenian. Was it the sublimity of their arguments? but their arguments, without proof, were extravagant beyond all descrip- tion. What was their story, reduced to its simple elements? That the great God of the universe had sent his Son into a remote country among a barbarous and detested people; that this people had put him to death without resistance: and though ac- cording to his disciples he had risen again from the dead; did the Jews, the best qua- f 3 Cor. X. 10. T 3 278 LECTURE VI. Jified to judge, generally acknowledge the fact ? They reject, they execralte his name; ihey denounce, they persecute his people. Yet, continue the apostles, believe in this dhrist. To prove your belief, first forswear all those vices on which your former reli- gion looked, if not with approbation, with indulgence ; renounce all your amuse- ments ; cast off all your habits ; break all -the ties of kindred ; resist the claims of na- tural affection. But think not to do this -with impunity, calculate not on security ; misery awaits your choice of our creed; those who believe in Christ crucified must be prepared to take up their cross with Christ. This was the tale, thus argued, thus, UU" \es,s by signs and wonders, unsupported, with which the apostles, men otherwise sane, rational, and moderate, calculated on over- throwing the vast system of pagan idolatry; on changing the moral condition of the wbrld; on ejecting Jupiter and Apollo, ^s- culapius and Venus, from their fanes ; on convincing Gentile philosophy of foolish- ness ; on superseding Plato, and Zeno, and LECTURE VI. 279 Epicurus, the wickedness of the worst, the wisdom of the best. But in one respect it is impossible now to conceive the extent, to which the apo- stles of the crucified Jesus shocked all the feelings of mankind. The public establish- ment of Christianity, the adoration of ages, the reverence of nations, has thrown around the cross of Christ an indelible and in- alienable sanctity. No effort of the ima- gination can dissipate the illusion of dig- nity, which , has gathered round it ; it has been so long dissevered from all its coarse and humiliating associations, that it cannot be cast back and desecrated into its state of opprobrium and contempt. To the most daring unbeliever among ourselves, it is the symbol, the absurd, and irrational, he may conceive, but still the ancient and ve- nerable symbol of a powerful and influen- tial religion : what was it to the Jew and to the heathen ? the basest, the most degrad- ing punishment of the lowest criminal ! the proverbial terror of the wretched slave ! it was to them, what the most despicable and revolting instrument of public execution is T 4 28Q LECTURE VI. to us». Yet to the cross of Ghristj men turned from deities in whic^ Were em- bodied every attribute of strength^ power, and dignity ; in an in<5redibly short space of time, multitudes gave up the splendoui*^ the pride, and the power of paganism, to adore a being, who was thus hutoiliated beneath the meanest of mankind, who had becoime, according to the literal interpreta- tion of the prophecy, a vefy scorn of men, and an outcast of the people. I know not how to conclude, but in the words of Origen : " If we must give a pro- " bable i-eason for the first estahlishment " of Ghristianity, we must say, it is in- " credible, that the apostles, ignorant and " unlearned men, should have trusted in I The punishment of the cross was so proper untq servants, th^t -SeriUle supplicmin in the language of the Romans signifies the same, and though in the words of Vulcatius before cited, they both go together, a,s also in Capitolinus: " Nam et in crucem milites tulit, et servilibus " suppliciis semper affecit." In Macr. 'Ktl. Yet either is SKfiicient to express crucifixion, as in Tacitus, " Malam " potentiam servili supplicio expiavit." Hist. IV. 11. And again, " Sumptum de eo supplicium in servilem modum." Note to Pedr son on the ^ Creed, art. IV. See Plautus passim. LECTURE VI. 281 " any means of preaching Christianity, ex- " cept the miraculous powers conferred " upon them, and the grace of God, which " avouched their doctrine : or that their " hearers should have abandoned the an- " cient rites of their forefathers, and have " been converted to tenets so strange and " opposite to those in which they had been " educated, unless moved by some miracu- " lous power, and by preternatural won- " ders\" ^ K«} y«p el ^prj ku) tcb e(xoti y^^iy^ou Xiym wsp) rijf &p- X'l^^v Hpnyrtavaiv a'0(rTatrsa>s, (f^a'ojji.ev on ou m&eivov, ovre touj 'Iijirou SaroirToKovS} avdp«; aypafj.i/.ccrou; ka) 18icoT«f, afAXoi tivJ Tiiappiflteveu irpog to xaruyyelKai rolg etvipumot; rov 'X.pirrua.- vur/iov, ^ Ty SoflsiVij MUTOif.SuyajuElj.xMt r^ Iv TcaXoyta eijTa 8>j- Aou/xEVM vpay/ietTU y&pni' aKK' ouSs rou; axpoaiitevou; cturmv IJieTa.reieipioi; eSsatv axoXou- dodvTs;, tv re sirfl^ri xai SjaiTjj xai t«J \oiirca ^icp, flao/tao-T^i* xu) o/AoAoyoufiEi'tOf TcapaZo^ov evtelxvuvrai rijw xaTouyTcuriv t^j saivTMV iro^iTsla; yaiiootnv cosireivTs;' Tsxvoyovova-iv, aXX' ou p/ffTouffi T« yevvdiftsva: TpiitB^av xon^v wdpuT'iSevTai, «XX'. ... . •. xonif)V. hv (Tupx) Toyj^avooyiv, « AX' ou xara irapxet. i^c^o'iv Itti yrjs iiarpl^owriv, aXX' l» ovpavw iro^iTsuovrcti. ws/flbi/- TM Tol; topuriXevois voju.oi;, xou tol; iS/oi; |8/o<; vixwcri Toh; vb/mv;. Justin, Martyr. Epist. ad Diogneturo. 304 LECTURE VIi; mented the whole mass of humankind with its healthful and parifying influence. It may indeed be argued, that the nature of the doctrines was such, that they found the public mind naturally prepared for their acceptance. The apostles had the good fortune to oiFer to the belief of man, what his mind was only anxious to justify itself in believing. The dignity of hi^ being was so obviously exalted- by the revelation of the immortality of this soul, that his pride caught at it at once ; and without examin- ing the proofsUoo rigidly, embraced with all the fervour of spiritual ambition doc- trines, which flattered his loftiest aspira- tions, and satisfied that eager desire which is inseparable from his nature, of penetrat- ing into the secrets of futurity. Those who came to inform mankind of the resurrection to eternal life, and salvation through faith in the atonement of Christ, offered such splendid prospects on such easy terms, that it is no wonder if men crowded round a shrine, the oracles of which spoke in such explicit and exalting language. Nor is this argument without confirmation^ from the LECTURE VII. 305 state of the human mind at the particular juncture at which Christianity appeared. Of all the heathen fables, the most extrava- gant, and least satisfactory, even to the most superstitious, related to the state after death. Esse aliquod manes, et subterranea regna, Et contum, et Stygio ranas in gurgite nigras, Atque una transire vadum tot millia cymba. Nee pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum aere lavantur ». And the distinct denial of a future state by. Caesar and Cicero, in speeches delivered before public assemblies '', proves sufficiently that the mind of the people would by no means resent any attack on this part of their religious creed. In fact, the presence and power of the gods during this life was the only point which was of much advan- tage to the priesthood, and therefore they were generally content with threatening the immediate visible punishment of offences or ^ Juv. Sat. II. 149. The silent realm of disembodied ghosts. The frogs that croak along the Stygian coasts. The thousand souls in one crazed vessel steer'd, Not boys believe, save boys without a beard. y Caesar, apud Sallust. B. C. c. 50. Cic. pro Cluent. C.61. X 306 LECTURE Vll. neglddt. The gods revenged themselves with pestilence, famine, and conflagration, with earthquakes^ or defeat in war. Th6 oracles were rarely questioned, and never returned answer, except when consulted oM temporal affairs. Pluto received few heca- tombs?, and the inexorable Fates were pro- pitiated by no offerings. This deficiency in the popular creed philosophy had in vain attempted to supply, and legislation endeavoured in vain to establish by its edicts truths which were so loosely rooted in the hearts of the people. Here then, it is urged with considerable plausibility, the apostles fortunately intervened ; this space in the human mind bang vacant and un- occupied, they seized upon and secured it as their own. Here was the excitement ; it went deeper than the superficial bodily feelings ; the mental passions of curiosity and apprehension concerning the future, religious terror and religious hope, were the strings with which they governed the hearts of their followers. Death swallowed up in victory, and the promise of life eternal, needed no corroborative testimony; such LECTURE VII. 307 momentous truths carried conviction to the willing heart, immediately that they were boldly and distinctly announced^. But in the first place, however it may have operated in their intercourse With the Gentiles, the doctrine of the resurrection had no novelty which could command the attention or flatter the pride of the Jews, among whom, except the Sadducees, it was already an established and universal tenets It is good, says the martyred youth to his persecutor in the apocryphal book of the Maccabees, being put to death by men, to look for hope from God to be raised up again by him : as for thee, thou shalt have no re- surrection to life *. / know thai he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day\ are the words of Martha concerning Laza- rus, before she knew that Christ was the re- surrection and the life ". Of the hope and re- surrection of the dead, I am called in ques-, tion, exclaims Paul on one occasion; and immediately the Pharisaic part of his audi- ence, supposing that he alludes to the com- z Compare Gibbon, ch. 15. a % Mace. vii. 14. b John xi, "24. •= Acts xxiii. 6. x2 308 LECTURE VII. mon belief, espouse his cause. The apo- tles offered to their countrymen, only in a new and unpalatable manner, that which was already their patrimony and birthright. For while the looser supposed that as chil- dren of Abraham they were inevitably pre- destined to eternal life ■*, and the more rigid rested their security on their legal obedi- ence, the Christians annulled both claims ; and loaded the tenet, of itself so popular, with terms which made it both improbable and odious. Immortality brought to light by Jesus, was not the immortality on which they calculated. What constituted its soundest proof was to them a fatal ob- jection. They could see their way clearly into Abraham's bosom, but when it was ne- cessary to pass and adore the cross of Christ, they turned indignantly aside. Sealed al- ready for everlasting bliss by outward cir- cumcision, they would not hear of the in- ward circumcision of the heart. II. As concerns the Gentiles, we may in- quire how the earliest authoritative assur- ^ See note to Lecture VI. p. 255. LECTURE VII. 309 ance of this doctrine came to be received from a quarter so odious a:nd unpopular. How was it, that a tenet, which philosophy had in vain attempted to plant as an active principle in the mind, and which, by ap- pealing to the same pride and the same pas- sions, it had endeavoured to establish with the acuteness of its most subtle, and the exquisite elegance of its most polished writers, now, that it had been almost root- ed out by the more successful doctrines of the later Epicureanism, on the mere dog- matic assertion, the ipse dixit, of these ram- bling Jews, became the deliberate creed of multitudes ? How did Peter and Paul thus put to shame Socrates and Plato ? In Athens itself, this rude and unpolished orator not merely obtains a hearing, but makes prose- lytes. If the mind of man were so prone to this belief, w:hy was it obviously losing rather than gaining ground ? If the accept- ability secured the reception of the doctrine, how was this the period, and these obscure individuals the teachers, who fjrst governed the human mind by the inculcation of such notions, so as to convince men by thou- X S SIO LECTURE VII. sands, and retain them in the obedience imphed in their belief? Those writers, who, like Chubb and Bolingbroke, have pretend- ed to detect a discrepancy between the doc- trines of the primitive apostles and Paul, have never, I believe, asserted the resurrec- tion to ibe one of these adscititious tenets. Indeed without the resurrection, Chris- tianity is no religion at all. Neither the truth itself therefore, nor the manner of announcing it, was invented or first adopted by the enlightened scholar of Gamaliel. But where did the others learn it? From their master ? But clearly the fact on which the whole doctrine rested, as I have before shewn, was not believed by the apostles during the life-time of Christ. Did then this truth, perhaps I should say the mode of inculcating it successfully, after having eluded the grasp of the sages in the Ly- ceum, or the schools of Alexandria, sud- denly burst on these fishermen, as they were dragging their nets by the lake of Gennesareth, or the publican in the receipt of custom, or rather on the assemblage of such men, when they were lamenting their LECTURE VIL 311 murdered teacher, and trembling for their own lives ? Infidelity has heen accustomed, to, trace this doctrine in a strange circle. The Jews, it is said, either received it from their Platonizing brethren in Alexandria, or drew it, during the captivity, from the same fountain with Plato and Pythagoras, the oriental theology. Jesus and his apo- stles merely adopted the current belief of their country, and promulgated it with sue-, cess among the Greeks and other heathens. Thus then, a doctrine which either with its original inventors, or its earlier teachers, was ineffective, and comparatively uninflu- ential, from the suffrages of a few despised and odious Jews suddenly became the at-, tractive article of a creed, which convinced the reason, and subjugated the conscience of incalculable multitudes. Por, III. how- ever the doctrine itself might account for its being received speculatively, we have still to explain its practical triumph over the depraved and ungodly will. The re- surrection of the Christian was a resurrec- tion perhaps to eternal life, perhaps to eter- nal death. Human responsibility was inse- X 4 312 LECTURE VII. parable from human immortality. It is appoirfted unto men once to die, and after that the judgment.' It was no certain and secure paradise, rich with all the luxuries, and dependant on the unalterable fatalism of the Mahometan: it was not an aristo- cratic Elysium of the brave and mighty ; "\va. irsp Ttolaixs 'A;^(XXe«, TuSeJSijv Ts, psi(r), Ato[ji,^ha. It was attained, though purchased by the blood of Christ, by faithful, diligent, and incessant service on the part of man. I will assert further, it was assured by no sensible revelation of personal election ; no external rite secured it, no internal inspi- ration ratified it. Some did fall away, all were in danger of falling. It was a hope, but no more than a hope in the best; it was controlled and subdued even in the apostles themselves by the consciousness of human infirmity, and a profound sense of the magnitude of the temptations by which they were environed. It is not sufficient to prove that the rewards of the new reli- gion were attractive ; were the means of attaining these rewards equally so ? The LECTURE VII. 318 doctrine of a future state, which should offer a compromise for the strict fulfilment of the moral duties, would find, no doubt^ ready acceptance; Indulge the pride of the intellect, without controlling the pas- sions of the heart, and proselytes will crowd the temple. But the immortality of the soul, as taught by the apostles, was too unaccom- modating; too much encumbered with li- mitations ; jarred too much with other pro- pensities of our nature; required too se-- vere and too long a discipline : if it offered remission of sins for the past, it permitted no latitude for the future. The sacrifice was immediate and certain, the reward re- mote and contingent. But if the apostles, themselves designing men, foresaw or found by experience the extensive influence of this article in their creed, why did they load it with the demand of a purity, a disinterestedness, an humility, a charity, which while it was the most difficult test of sincerity, was neither attractive in itself, nor easily ascertained by their teachers. If authority over the minds of their follow- ers was their object, a pharisaic ceremonial, 314 LECTURE VII. or an asceticism, like that of the Es&e^ nes, would have given them a more entire sovereignty. Surely it is unreasonable to conclude that they governed men through their hopes and fears, unless we can shew, first, how they obtained that despotic do- minion; and secondly, the more extraor- dinary fact, how they came not to abuse or push their power into extremes. Gibbon has asserted, that, as taught by the Chris- tians, " the doctrine of a future life was " improved by every additional circum- " stance, which could give weight and effi- " cacy to that important truth ^" Was its inseparable connection with the sacrifice of Christ, the redemption through the blood of a crucified Redeemer, among the cir- cumstances which favoured its reception among Jews and heathens, to whom the cross was alike a scandal and rock of of- fence? Was the attainment to its rewards only by means of a strict and self-denying 4ife," what recommended it to a generation in the lowest state of depravity, and given up to the evil heart of unbelief 9 Or the resur- "= Ch. xv. LECTURE VII. ^15 rection of the body, a tenet in direct oppo- sition to every philosophical system, but which was the foundation, on which the whole Christian scheme rested? Gn this point bishop Watson has observed with his characteristic vigour, " that this corporeal " frame which is hourly mouldering away, " and resolved at last to the undistinguish- " ed elements from which it was at first " derived, should ever be clothed with im- " mortality, that this corruptible should put " on incorruption, is a truth so far removed " from the apprehension of philosophical re- " search, so dissonant from the common con- " ceptions of mankind, that amongst all ranks " and persuasions of men, it was esteemed an "impossible thing. At Athens, the philoso- " phers had listened with patience to Paul, " whilst they conceived him but a setter forth " of strange gods ; but as soon as they com- " prehended that by the avda-To^i^, he meant " the resurrection, they turned from him " with contempt ^" This effect, either from his natural penetration or from experience, Paul must have anticipated; but he will nei- f Apology, Letter III. 316 LECTURE VIL ther dissemble nor disguise it ; this is inva- riably the prominent topic of his teaching ; on this the glory of his Master is at stake, the whole religion of the crucified Re- deemer at issue. For, after all, IV. the immortality of the soUl, as preached by the apostles, was not a question of feeling or persuasion, but of fact. The apostles rea- soned, it is true, and moved the hearts of men by their reasoning'; but the validity of their conclusions avowedly depended on one plain circumstance, which either had or had not taken place. If Christ rose not from the dead, then is our preaching vain, and your hope also is vain. The most mi- serable and outcast being upon earth would scarcely have been content with the assur- ance of his equality in the sight of God, and his certainty of favourable acceptance with the Redeemer, without proof of the sincerity and credibility of those who thus addressed him : " Bear all your miseries with " patience, take up your cross with cheerful " resignation, thank God for your afflictions, " embrace the self-denying religion, and, if " you fulfil the conditions imposed by the LECTURE VII. 317 " pure and holy law of the Gospel, you will " obtain reward after this life." " But was " there such a person as Christ? did he work " miracles? did he rise from the dead ? are " these, who assure me that he did, credible " witnesses? have they proofs of their divine " mission ?" Unless these questions could be answered to his satisfaction, however high- ly bribed by the apparent sublimity, and the consolations imparted through these doctrines, would a rational being have em- braced the faith of Christ ? Or grant that here and there a dying man, under the vague apprehension of future retribution, might have desperately caught at this stayr that a few disappointed or suffering wretches might have fled to this asylum, and refused to question its privilege of protection ; that some enthusiastic visiona- ries might have felt, or fancied that they felt, internal emotions, which convinced them of their divine inspiration ; is it con- ceivable, that multitudes in the prime of life, the height of the passions, the period of mature and sober reason, in Jerusalem and Samaria, in Syria, and Babylonia, in the wild regions of Pontus and Galatia, in M8 LECTURE VII. Asia Minor and Greece, in Athens, in Co- rinth, in Rome, should believe what was demonstrable without demonstration, sim- ply because they wished to believe it ; that they should live like saints, and die like martyrs, for the sake, of a doctrine, which, if a certain man, within a few years, after having been publicly crucified, had not risen from the grave, the very teachers themselves of this future life declared to be groundless, unwarranted, and hopeless. Eithet way then, whether the apostles re- lied on this doctrine, as on the instrument by which they expected to overthrow the ancient superstition, designing men would never have chosen, or certainly would never have adhered to so unpopular a mode of enforcing it : or if we suppose their success a contingency, which accidentally arose out of their possession of this valuable secret, humanly speaking, the influence of the doc- trine mnst have been neutralized, consider- ing those to whom it was addressed^ by the strangeness of the fact, on which it de- pended, and the rigour of the terms on which it was offerfed. Nor was this the only point on whieh the LECTURE VII 319 uncompromising manner, in which the apo- stles announced their doctrines, implies their disregard of human assistance in the fur- therance of their views. The world offered other means of advancing their cause, which they either neglected- with unaccountable blindness, or refrained from with unaccount- able prudence. Indeed, among the tempta- tions incident to their mission, none could be more dangerous than that which would persuade them to run any risk, or adopt any line of conduct, however unworthy, for the establishment of their faith. By their own account they were still liable to hu- man passions ; from their history, we see that remarkable -collisions of opinion and differences of feeling rose up amongst them ; they make no needless display of, courage, Paul escapes persecution by asserting his right as a free-born Roman, and saves his life by an appeal to Caesar. He adopts the principle of expediency so far as an unne- cessary conformity both in his own person and that ..of Timothy to Jewish prejudice ; but beyond these points no prospect of ad- vantage, no hope of advancing their faith 320 LECTURE VIL induces them to court popularity, or be- trays them injto the least indiscretion. On one point especially it appears to me that these uneducated and ardent adventurers displayed remarkable sagacity, and ab- stained from a course of proceeding, which, however perilous, might have tempted men of equal intrepidity and zeal, but less pru- dence and moderation. To the lower or- ders of society, particularly that vast num- ber who groaned under the burden of ser- vitude ^, always oppressive, sometimes ex- tremely cruel, a religion which proclaimed equality in the sight of God, and an equal share in the posthumous rewards of the Christian, must have been peculiarly ac- ceptable. Here however was a most dan- gerous opening for intriguing men, deter- mined at all hazards to advance their cause ; here was a gulf into which blind fanatics would inevitably have plunged. The most ambiguous intimation of political, while they were openly announcing spiritual equal- ity, the least indiscretion of language, the s See Jortin, note to Discourse III. on the Treatment of the Slaves among the Romans. LECTURE VII. 3S1 slightest exaggeration of their avowed te- nets, might have thrown the whole sUve population into their scale. I do not mean that they were likely to raise the standard of insurrection ; though with their real or supposed pbv^6r of working wonders, they would have been no despicable leaders of such a sedition ; and it is lingular j that Florus relates of the great chief'tain in the sei'vile war, that he maintained his au- thority by the reputation of supernatural power ''. But that, touching as they did the verge of the most dangerous doctrines ', ^ Syrus quidem nomine Punus, (magnitude cladis facit, ut meminerimus,) fanatico furore simulato, dum Syriae dese comas jactat, ad libertatem et arma servos, quasi numinum imperio, concitavit ; idque, ut divinitus fieri pro- baret, in ore abdita nuce quam sulphure et igne stipave- rat, leniter inspirans, flammam inter vei-ba fundebat. Fhrm, Hist. III. 19. It is a curious coincidence that the Jewish rebel and false Messiah, Barchocab, (the son of the Stdr^ made use of a similar trick : " Atque ut ille Barchocebasj autor " seditionis Judaicse, stipulam in ore succensam anhelitu " ventilabat, ut flammas evomere putaretur." Hieron. Apdl. II. in Ruf. ■ Dicta est aliquaiido in senatu sentehtia, ut servos a liberis cultus distingueriet 5 deinde apparuit, quantum pe- riculum immineret, si servi nostri numerare nos coepis- sent. Seneca de Clem. I. 24. 322 LECTURE VII. they, should not even incur a suspicion of thdslkind from their watchful antagonists, considering how keenly; alive the minds of the higher orders were to their dangei:,; that the countryrfien of Theudas, and Ju- das the Galilaean, aiid a host of seditious re-: bels, should neither be misunderstood by their own converts, nor misrepresented by; their; enemies ; that they should preach to the poor, without inflaming their passions, and without exciting the jealousy of the rich ; that their philanthropy should so ri- gidly confine its views to the moral and re- ligious improvement of mankind, and look either with calm indifference, or the me- lancholy consciousness of their inability to afford any alleviation, on, the sufferings of this degraded class ^ ; that they should not See Tacitus, Ann. IV. 27. and the remarkable speech of C, Cassjus, XV. 23. who enlarges on the danger with the trembling anxiety of a modern West India proprietor. The wise laws of Hadrian, for the improvement of the condition of^ the slaves, were probably rather extorted from the fears of the politician, than voluntarily conceded by the benevolence of the philanthropist. ^ It would be an interesting inquiry, when and in what manner Christianity first interfered directly with the con- dition of slaves. St. Chrysostom, inveighing against the LECTURE VII. 323 merely hold out no hope of future eman- cipation, but enforce obedience to their masters on their own slave converts'; all this is remarkable, the more so, as their countrymen the Essenes, according to Phi- lo ", declared the unlawfulness of slavery, as an impious violation of the natural equal- ity of mankind. Prudence suggested pre^ cisely the course they followed ; but this prudence is by far the most inexplicable possession, of a number of slaves^ only repr&ves it as a mark of unchristian pomp and luxury. By the Apostolic Constitutions, Can. LXXXII. slaves could not be or- dained. Slaves of Christian masters were to be exhorted to obedience. Those of Christian masters, when con- verted, were to bring certificates from their masters, who were also laid under religious obligation to instruct their slaves, and bring them to baptism. See Bingham's Antiq. IV. 4. 2. Compare Grotius, de Jure Bell. III. 7, 9. 1 Servants, (slaves,) be obedient to them that are your masters^ according to thejlesh, with fear and tremblvng, in singleness qfyowr heart, as unto Christ, Ephes. vi. 5. Compare CoJ. iii. 22. Tit. ii. 9. 1 Pet. ii. 18. also Epist. to Philemon. " AoD^ioj 8s nap «otoij ou8s elf lorii/, a^\' eXeuispot wctVTs';, avkiitoupyouvTSi dW^Kat;. ■KaTevyivtoa-xoua-l re rcav h(Tieor&v, ou iMVOV to; aSi'xoiv, iroriiTat Aujuseivpju.svsui', oiKKa, xoii to; da-e^oov flso-ffov fuirewi avetipbuvTiW ij vavras o(tolais ysw^a-aifa xx) 9fie(l/«o-«, ftijTfios'Sixijv, cos aSsX^ohs yvvjirious "" AsyojttsWtff, «AA.' ovTU} SvTiii; dnetpy,^eiro. Philo quod omnis Probus Libir. Y 2 324 LECTURE VII. part of their character, if considered as without commission or guidance from Hea- ven. It could not be timidity; for to ad- vance their cause they would confront every peril, and cheerfully surrender them- selves to the dungeon, the scourge, and the stake. If it was wisdom^ it was incom- patible with blind enthusiasm ; if it, was craft, the same craft would have modified otjier parts of their conduct, repressed their burning zeal, and shewed them a less difficult and safer way to ease and distinc- tion. Here then I make my stand, and assert, that men, mad enough to embark without warrant in such an enterprise, would never have conducted it with so much dexterity and prudence. I argue that their disdain of these obvious means, of extending their influence, and increasing their sect, implies a confidence in othei* means of persuasion, concerning which, if they could delude others, they could not delude themselves. The impostor would not have been scrupu- lous, nor the enthusiast cautious in his choice of means : It is not lawful to do evil LECTURE VII. 325 that good may come, is too lofty a maxim for a knave, too wise for a fanatic. In all their continued path along the edge of a precipice, they never lose their balance. They are neither intoxicated by success, nor hurried into precipitancy by opposi- tion. But every instance of their pru- dence, their success itself, makes it more improbable that they should set forth as teachers of a new religion without rational grounds ; every proof of sane and sober conduct heightens their value, as credible witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. It is not enough to assert that the pru- dence of their conduct and the adaptation of their tenets to the mind of man forced their religion upon the world; we must reconcile their prudence with their unwarranted am- bition; explain how they came to strike out this new and triumphant system of doctrine. It is not satisfactory to prove that the world was in some degree prepared for their reception, unless we can provide them with adequate means for subduing the hostile array of vices, passions, opinions, prejudices, interests, superstitions, which it Y 3 S26 LECTURE VII. still opposed; and account for their avoiding all dangers and all temptations. What those means were, I am at a loss to conceive, unless the fulfilment of their master's pro- mise : These signs shall follow them that believe ; In my name shall they cast out de- vils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; they shall take t^up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover °. How they attained to that wisdom, of which their success is an irrefragable proof, unless by the constant illumination of the Holy Spirit, I am equally at a loss to con- jecture. Exclude the Deity, nothing is ex- plicable, conceivable, or credible ; acknow- ledge Christ the power of God and the wis- dom of God, all is at once clear, rational, and satisfactory. " Mark xvi. 17, 18. LECTURE VIII. 1 Cor. XV. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Even if we could have discovered human causes adequate to the success of the apo- stles ; if we could have made out a plausible case to account for their triumph, when once embarked in the undertaking, it Would still be necessary to divine adequate mo- tives, which could have induced them to commence and persevere in their design. I see not one daring and eccentric adven- turer set forth on a* dazzling though des- perate enterprise, but a number of men, suddenly seized with an unmeasured am- bition, confederated for a similar object, and proceeding with patient and resolute perseverance towards their end^ I see them -all sacrificing ease, comfort, useful occupa^ Y 4 328 LECTURE VIIL tions, the certainty of subsistence, even their domestic ties, some indeed more splendid prospects, to become itinerant teachers, inured to hardships, literally taking no thought for the morrow, committing them- selves to the care and to the uncertain support of strangers. I see them set forth, unless by divine inspiration, or by assiduous labour, ignorant, or imperfectly acquainted with the languages of those whom they are to address. I see them set forth, if blind to some of these difficulties, yet with these difficulties confronting them on the thresh- old of their undertaking, and multiplying on all sides as they advance. Not one, as far as we can ascertain, recedes ; no false, no irresolute, no perverse, no weary and dis- satisfied brotber is estranged or alienated. Their Master had selected twelve, and one of them was a devil; but Judas is the only traitor ; the memory of Jesus is of geater au- thority than his personal presence. While great and apparently uncontemplated inno- vations take place in the design, while old prejudices are violently called into action, while differences of opinion and direct op- LECTURE VIII. 329 position occur, there is no long or irrecon- cilable schism in the apostolic body. Their task appears to cease only with their lives ; having achieved victory to a certain point, they are not content to repose upon their trophies and enjoy either the well-earned relaxation or the pride of success. In in- cessant activity they press onward; their dangers by no means decrease, nor do their toils lighten. Their life is thus described by one of their body, addressing those who must have been so intimately acquaint- ed with his history and his usual mode of living, as to detect any falsehood, and refuse credit to any heightened or exaggerated statement : In journeyings ■ often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the hea- then, in perils in the city, in perils in the wild&rness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren ; in weariness and pamfnlness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold arid nakedness ^ All this is voluntarily braved, a.2Cor. xi.26,27. 330 LECTURE VIII. and undergone without hope of ' cessation, or rather with an acknowlet^M 4@t^ty of its continuance. But I see. alll, this intre- pidity and endurance united wit Vm odera- tion, common sense, and reasoJI|enessi^ no extravagance, no paroxysm^ of bodily emotion, no Bacchic fiiry, no propilMic agi- tation, no self-inflicted tortures, npflagellar- tions, no intoxication of the mindljby the high-wrought anguish of the body.* They affect no philosophic contempt of pain,tthey do not deny it to be an evil. Thg|[ calmly estimate their present suffering against their future reward ; For our UgM-affl%^^M which is but for a moment, worki^^for us a far more exceeding and eternal wei^m of glory *" ; they are fully alive to the wii edness of their situation ylfin this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all rr^; most miserable : they are not actuated by the desperate conviction that they have of- fended beyond all hope of impunity : it is in their, power at any instant to retract or recede; If the dead rise mt at all, why stand b 2 Cor. iv. 17. LECTURE VIII. SSI ^^j^s^^^'^f^y every hour? I see them, w&le thus "llie victims of persecution, ex- torting the ^admission of their purity and Ifl^elessness from their most inveteratie ^nemies. I see them converting thousands, yet Reserving their humility, as superior to the ptideof success as to the despondency of^^^plial failure. Finally, I see them, if all notWfttually submitting to martyrdom, i|fc6claMing aloud that they should consider it gain to die for Christ; and perpetually in^^piions where theif escape is far; more improbable, than their death. Nevertheless, they do hot with blind and obstinate zeal wantonly "and unnecessarily provoke the anger of 'their persecutors ; they do not de- cline Cny prudent or lawful means of extri- c^ng themselves from their dangers, nor Twh the 'rash and unwarrantable insolence of some among the later martyrs, do they irritate those who have the power of life and .death. Having seen all this, to the extreme extent of my information, I search the annals of mankind for precedent, to the utmost limits of my philosophy, I investi- gate the 'human mind to discover any 332 LECTURE VIII. possible actuating principle for such con- duct. I. In history I observe many cases in some respects analogous, none similar ; ap- parent precedents, which however, on closer examination, turn out to be totally opposite and contradictory. If I look to the religious ' revolution brought about by the apostles, I find men in different ages, like Zoroaster, Confucius, Budh, Numa, Mango Capac, who either by the superiority of 'their natural talents, or by pretended intercourse with the divinity, have wrought great and beneficial changes in the moral and religious condition of their countrymen- But these are eitheir in ob- scure or barbarous periods, or among na- tions but imperfectly civilized. I have no authentic records to inform me of the causes of their success, but still I have no difficulty in accounting for it. Whether these men assumed the character of delegates from heaven, for the purpose of thus establishing more firmly their useful institutions, or the blind admiration and gratitude of their age forced it upon them, the darkness of lyECTURE VIIL 333 the period, and the ignorance of the people among whom they respectively lived, justify me in attributing their success to causes purely natural. They were obviously men far superior to their age, and if by their mental preeminence, their virtue, know- ledge, or wisdom, they shall have succeeded in obtaining love and reverence, adoration, or even deification, would naturally foUow' But Christianity appears at a period of the world vehen civilization was far advanced. In this case it is the inferior in knowledge, letters, the useful arts, in every thing in short, except in the mysteries of their reli- gion, which converts the enlightened, the philosophic, the instructed part of the Com- munity. It is the barbarian teafching the civilized world; the odious and despised extorting submission from those who were in universal honour and estimation; the offscouring of the world bringing the world into subjection. Ifj on the other liand, I look to the improbability of the attempt, and the vo- luntary sufferings to which the apostles exposed themselves, I must acknowledge 334 LECTURE VIII. that I find the intensity of their afflictions surpassed, and apparently from motives as uhaccountabla But still there is the wid- est difference between the analogous cases and that of the primitive teachers of Chris- tianity ; every where else we find some com- mon principle of our nature at work ; some exciting passion adequate to the effect pro- duced. I see, for instance, men for an un- certain and indefinite reward enduring pri- vations and hardships, at least equal in du- ration and severity. The common soldier might often render up as full and dreadful an account of his sufferings. And, reasoning a priori, nothing can appear more extrava- gant and unnatural, than that multitudes of human beings should submit, at the discre- tion and for the advantage of a few, to be shot, spiked, mangled, mutilated, starved, parch- ed, frozen, massacred by ranks and squad- rons. But we know' that military glory, the spirit of emulation and adventure, the love of plunder, the exemption from the common toUs; of -industry, have at every period of human history, and in every state of human society stimulated men to this mode of life: LECTURE VIII. 335 even on the most forlorn hope, there is still a chance of escape, the possibility of dis- tinction and reward, above all, the animat- ing excitement of rivalry, and the dread of shame and contempt. I read of men en- during, defying, and provoking the most ex- cruciating bodily anguish. The North Ame- rican Indian laughs, while his skin is half torn off by his relentless enemies : but to this spirit he has been schooled from his earliest' infancy, inured by examplcj, strung by emulation, and taught to consider it as the height of personal' or national pride. The Roman was in the habit of seeing the gladiator daily endure agony equal to that of the Christian martyr, upon whose serene patience he thus learned to look with less surprise or admiration. He had seen the hired slave after hours of agonizing torture, without a shudder, and with a smile of tri- umph, receive the sword in his entrails.. But no recantation was offered to the gladiator, hie either died animated by the plaudits of the theatre, or was glad to escape from a life of disgraceful exhibition and reiterated misery. The Christian almost at any time 336 LECTURE VIII. might suspend his sufferings, or save his life, by a word or even a sign of submission; his fortitude was animated by no applause, for his sufferings were beheld with aversion or contempt; he had no reason to be ea- ger to shake off a wretched life, for it was his Christianity alone which stood in the way of his return to peace, to respect, or whatever worldly advantages his circum- stances might afford. The self-inflicted suf- ferings of the Faquir in India, and of the Stylites and other Christian fanatics of the fifth and sixth centuries, far transcend the most acute anguish which the apostles could have endured. Every sect, 'I might also say, every religion, can produce its martyrs. The renunciation of life, the enduran-ce of igno- minious and painful death, appears in every page at least of Christian history. If in the present day religious enthusiasm does not cast its victims to the beasts in the arena, or hang them up naked to the fiery pincers or melted lead of the torturer, yet it exposes them to the longj or even perpetual exile, the slow and malignant fever of pestilential climates, famine, and destitution : yet men LECTURE VIII. 387 are not wanting, who cheerfully undergo every, privation and hardship, abandon their country, sacrifice their lives in the same cause, and with the same zeal as the apostles. But here likewise the points of difference are obvious. The Faquir and the no less barbarous Christian were repaid by the ad- miration and reverence of multitudes. Ei- ther as impostors or fanatics, their conduct is intelligible; they act upon acknowledged principles. The hereditary creed of one, if he be in earnest, informs him that so much present pain is worth so much future bliss. The monkish self-tormentor was encircled by those who taught, and those who testi- fied by their applauses, their belief, that the pains of hell, or purgatory, were to be com- muted for misery in the flesh. It is possi- ble, though far be it from me, especially in this place, to question, that the grace of the Holy Ghost breathed peace and resignation into the dying hearts of Cranmer and Lati- mer ; far be it from me to depreciate the conscientious sincerity of those who may have taken up their cross in distant regions for a less apostolic faith ; but, arguing with 338 LECTURE VUI. the infidel, I could not deny the possibility that these men might be enthusiasts, in- flamed by the desire of emulating the pri- mitive apostles, in admiration of whose cha- racters they had been educated; the fer- vour, the saintliness, the humility, the re- signation of whose precepts may so have kindled their imagination, as to induce them to suppose themselves under the in- spiration, or especial protection, of divine Providence. For we must recollect that the apostles not only walked by faith, but by sight also. Faith in things unseen may have deluded more recent martyrs; but Peter and James and Paul €xposed them- selves to death, as witnesses of what they had seen and heard, and of facts which came under the unerring cognizance of their senses ^ The modern missionary is as imperfect an antitype of the apostles; lie goes forth, with all the sincere believers in his religion, imploring the blessings of Hea- c That which was Jrom the beginning, which we have hea/rd, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life. 1 John i. 1. LECTURE VIII. S39 ven on his undertaking. Those with whom the warmth of his zeal has associated him in his native country, if they deplore his loss, yet honour his motives. My mind natu- rally turns to one, well known in this place, who made a cheerful sacrifice of the high- est hopes of distinction; and if he set forth with the dignity of a Christian bishop, yet with the humble heart of the meanest mis*- sionary. Yet he, as all others, must have known, what great things God had done for his Christian people. He was the apostle of a tried and established faith, his was no unprecedented experiment. He was a wit- ness to the beneficial effects of Christianity on the social and moral character of men, and might think it his deliberate duty to look on all mankind as one brotherhood, and to communicate the blessings of his faith, to the utmost extent'in his power. But the apostles went forth without proof or experience of the power of their religion, without precedent or example ; they went out, pursued by the obloquy or hatred of their countrymen, to convert strangers, with whom they had nei- ther psirt nor lot, whom their education had z 2 340 LECTURE VIII. taught them to consider unclean, and with whom it had prohibited all communication as a crime. As little can we compare with that of the apostles the attempt or the suc- cess of those men, who from time to time, either as unwarranted innovators, or as holy reformers, have kindled the dormant religious enthusiasm of the Christian world, Montanus and Manes, St. Bernard and St. Francis, Arnold of Brescia, and Savonarola, Huss and Jerome of Prague, Wickliffe and Luther, down to John Fox and Wesley, have converted thousands to their peculiar opinions, and in many instances imparted a resolute and persevering zeal not inferior to tha,t of the early Christians. But it is one thing to renew an established, another to establish a new religion. In the former case, the religious feeling, instead of being preoccupied, is predisposed in favour of the zealous innovator. To fertilize an unpro- ductive field, of which the tillage has been neglected, and to clear a jungle in which the thick and obstinate roots have been for ages incorporated with the soil, and make it produce a vigorous and healthful harvest, LECTURE VIII. 341 requires a different process. The apostles^ it has been well observed, "raised Chris- " tianity out of nothing, and against every " thing ''." — The enthusiasm, which these men imparted to their followers, might have been of the same character with that of subsequent Christian zealots ; their own must have been either downright phrensy or divine inspiration. I have no scruple then in concluding, that there is no well authenticated record in history of a number of men, thus unanimously exposing them- selves to privations, hardships, and death, in testimony to facts of which they had the demonstrative evidence of their senses ; and thus in defiance of every prevailing opinion, passion, and prepossession of man- kind, establishing a new, influential, and permanent religion. Having failed then in my search after a precedent for the conduct of the primitive apostles, I attempt to ascertain whether any one, or any complication of human mo- tives will account for their undertaking, or carrying through such an enterprise. I ^ By Mr. Sumner, in his Evidences. Z3 342 LECTURE VIII. deny not the difficulty, I had almost said, the impossibility of reconciling, with any general system, the infinite variety of feel- ings, affections, and desires, the indefina- ble and contradictory impulses of the will, which excite and neutralize, modify and counterbalance each other. I will admit that the eccentricity of individual charac- ter defies alike the prescience of the most sagacious to anticipate, and the acuteness of the most subtle to trace its aberrations. But a body must be actuated by common principles, a complicated machine work by general rules. Survey then the passions of mankind; select those which could have sent forth designing or ardent men to con- vert the world to a new religion. Begin with the desire of gain. The apostles com- mence with the possession, or at least the direction of a charitable fund ; the control of this they abandon immediately, and of their own accord. They proclaim their right of maintenance by those whom they teach, in practice they renounce this right ^ e See 1 Cor. x. 13, 18. 2 Cor. xi. 9. xii. 13. Philipp. iv. 11, 17. 1 Thess'. ii. 9. ^ Thess. iii. 8. LECTURE VIIL 343 Thfey perpetually defy any charge of covet- ousness^; a subject wMch they would at least have been prudent enough to avoid, if their consciences had not. been clear. While acting and speaking as delegates of Heaven^ they continue to exercise their me- chanical craft ; they labour, working with their own hands^. He who almost per- suaded Agrippa to be a Christian, and who argued in the Areopagus, returns to his humble vocation, and joins himself with Aquila and Priscdlla, to gain his bread by tent-making''. There is good reason for believing, that the embracing Christianity rendered every convert liable to the for- feiture of all his property, a penalty at- tached to excommunication from the syn- agogue '. The Jews moreover had apostles, whose situations, although only agents to the high priests, could scarcely be other- f See 1 Thess. ii. 5. compare 1 Cor. v. 9, 10. 2 Pet. ii. 3. but particularly Acts xx. 33, 34. g 1 Cor. iv. 12. ^ See Acts xviii. 3. ' Those that were castout of the church they-dv aviyouin 6oir/aj, ffTsXXovTsj lepovoiMTOUs els to h 'Isf oroXtJ/toij Up6v, Philo de Legat. p. 59S. edit. Mangey. 1 Cum aurum, Judaeorum nomine, quotannis ex Italia, et ex omnibus provindis Hierosolyma exportari soleret, Flaccus sanxit edicto, ne ex Asia exportari liceret. Cic. pro Flac. XXVIII. Pessimus quisque, spretis religioni- bus' patriis, tributa et stipes illuc congerebant; unde auctse Judaeorum res. Tax;. Hist. V. 4. LECTURE VIII. 345 they died; and, if actuated by interested views, no men surely so completely coun- teracted their own object, by the precepfe which they inculcated, and the life to which, outwardly at least, they pledged themselves by the very first principles of their faith. It would be trifling to estimate the pos- sibility of their being actuated by a desire of ease and indulgence, men against whom their most rancorous opponents never ad- vanced the slightest charge of sloth or moral delinquency. But we may find perhaps a higher and more probable motive in the desire of authority. Nothing is more cap- tivating to the human mind than conscious superiority over our fellow-creatures. Whe- ther enslaving the passions, and directing the will of a crowded popular assembly by eloquence; whether influencing the civil or municipal affairs of a nation or district, by acknowledged sagacity in counsel ; whe- ther from deference to our wealth, author- ity, or good sense, men's opinions take their colour from ours, the mere sensation of power is its own reward. However obtained. 346 LECTURE VIII. on a wide or narrow scale, by base or noble means ; be our self-importance flattered by the submission of the wise^ or the unrea- soning assent of the vulgar, the love of do- mination is not fastidious ; if it cannot at- tain to the more valuable homage, it will content itself with the humblest gratifica- tion. The commonest impostor feels a vul- gar pride in deluding the gaping multi- tude, whose credulity, if they are once per- suaded of his preternatural power, always keeps pace with, often oversteps the ferti- lity of the impostor's invention. How much greater then and loftier the gratification of presiding over a moral people, and being looked up to by those, who, however in ge- neral undistinguished by rank or situation, by their exemplary virtues, commanded the respect, or at least repelled the obloquy of their bitterest antagonists. But the love of authority can rarely restrain itself within bounds ; it is invariably dictaterial, captious as to minute points of obedience, jealous of any infringement upon its enactments. The apostles in their writings assume no lofty or imperious tone, they exact no homage, LECTURE VIII. 347 they demand no peifsonal reverence. Every subsequent exaggeration of the priestly cha- racter, every usurpation on the undele- gated rights of Heaven, every encroachment on the uncommunicated office of the great Judge of all flesh, is the strongest testi- mony to the moderation of the apostles ; and such moderation is absolutely incom- patible with the influence of this inquisito- rial and despotic feeling, which endures no emancipation from its bonds, and resents the slightest resistance to its control, as ap, insult upon Heaven. Had authority been their motive, in such hands such authority must have been abused. At all events, it would have been the prominent and the perpetual object of their writings, to assert and vindicate this, which at present appears so doubtful and indefinite. Let us turn to the desire of posthumous celebrity " The assuring of a lasting re- " putation upon earth, a motive so conge- " nial to the vanity of human nature, often " served to animate the courage of the mar- " tyr." Thus Gibbon. And after tlie suc- cessful establishment of Christianity, when 348 LECTURE YIII. a numerous body enshrined in their recol- lection, embalmed in their hymns, sanctified the relics, visited the sepulchre of the de- parted Christian, this feeling might, and unquestionably did excite the indiscreet, I had almost said, unchristian ardour of thosfe who wantonly provoked the persecutor to the crime of judicial murder, in order that they might secure the palm-crown of the martyr. But when Christianity could scarcely be said to exist, when it had as yet no single record, when there was every human probability that it could not last a century, the mind must indeed have been ardent, which could anticipate an immor- tality of fame from being the victim of some desultory fray between two parties of Jews in some obscure city, or from being cast, one of a gladiatorial hecatomb, to the beasts of the arena. I cannot indeed but be awe-struck at the erring calculations of human ambition. The fate of the early Christians, and their more distinguished cotemporaries, preaches a forcible admo- nition on the uncertainty with which after- ages award their admiration, and disappoint LECTURE VIII. 349 the high-raised expectations of the most ce- lebrated in their own day. Doubtless, when Christianity fi^st appeared, those who con- sidered that their names would be perpe- tuated, and demand the homage of future generations, were the consuls, the patriots, the favourites, the philosophers, the poets of Rome. The Suetonii and Agricolas who had earned glory, immortal as it was esteemed, by subduing the Parthian, or ci- vilizing the Briton. The Helvidii and Thraseas, who kept alive the spirit of the old Roman republic, which, if it could not enable them to live with dignity, taught them to die with intrepidity. The Tigel- lini and Sejani, whose ce];ebrity, if less ho- nourable, would live in the lasting execra- tion of mankind, arraigned before the bar of posterity by the sententious sarcasm of the historian, or the sublime moral indignation of the satirist. The Senecas and Lucans, who had enriched with their wisdom, and ennobled with their stately verse, the de- clining days of Roman literature. Among these, as they led the triumph to the Ca- pitol, or toiled through crowding sycophants. 350 LECTURE VIIL were seen stealing about with cautious ti- midity, lest they should provoke the con- temptuous spurn, some pogr men of the most despicable race upon earth, dragged perhaps to prison, without exciting the commiseration, or even the notice of the multitude. Yet of the former, how large a portion of the world is entirely ignorant; while the names of Peter and Paul are spoken with signs of the profoundest re- verence in regions, rather I would say in worlds, unknown to Rome; hallow the most splendid edifices, and even cities; while their writings are multiplied into countless languages, and received as the authoritative moral laws of innumerable people. Little did Gallio think, when the destitute and friendless Paul stood before his throne, that the brother of Seneca "", and the object of the panegyric of Statins ", would be chiefly ■" Solebam tibi dicere, Gallionem fratrem meum (quem nemo non parum amat ; etiam qui amare plus non pot- est) alia vitia non nosse, hoc etiam odisse. Nemo enim mortalium uni tam dulcis est, quam hie omnibus. Senec, Prcsf. ad Nat. Qucest. Compare Dio Cass. lib. LX. " Hoc plusquara Senecam dedisse mundo Et dulcem generasse Gallionem. Stat. Sylo.ll. 7. LECTURE Vm. 351 known to posterity, as connected with the history of that disregarded criminal, whose cause appeared beneath his cognizance. To return from this digression. In the apostolic days, of all desires that of posthu- mous fame must have been the most ground- less and inconceivable. In^deed these two lat- ter motives are only different modifications of ambition ; but to the predominance of this motive, under any form, there is another insuperable objection. I mean their total sacrifice of their own celebrity to that of their Master, and the manner in which they sink every personal consideration. God for ^ bid, is their continuallanguage, that I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ. Am- bitious men! whose ambition made them submit to every sacrifice, endure every toil, confront every danger, yet the height of whose glory was to he considered faithful servants. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. Was this ostenta- tious humility? The title of the servant of the servants of God has been abused by the rankeist pride of the human heart, and pre- 352 LECTURE VIII. faced the anathema, which was to shake kings from their thrones. But with the apostles it was accompanied with every sign of the most profound and sincere abasement of heart, and the subordination of every thought, word, and action, to the single pur- pose of advancing their Master's glory. I aim at no paradox ; but when by their mi- raculous, or apparently miraculous powers, Paul and Barnabas had extorted divine ho- nours from the mistaken barbarians, if they had humoured the deception, and received the offered homage, they might have found precedents in the heathen annals for such conduct. They degrade themselves at once to the level of those that worship them, We are men of like passions with yourselves ; they renounce with devout horror every sign of personal respect ; in this, as in all instances, they are as inferior to the intox- ication of pride, as to that of power. Re- concile this unaffected modesty, this uni- form self-depression, this total disregard of personal aggrandizement, the abasing ac- knowledgement of their own infirmities and sins, with the daring love of distinc- LECTURE Vril. 353 tion, or any ambitious motive whatever, which could induce the apostles to travel through the world, announcing themselves the appointed ministers of the crucified Jesus". Thus we are equally baffled in our search for precedent, and in our endeavour to trace a possible human motive for the conduct of the apostles. The question then comes to this ; Did they believe, or did they not be- lieve? If they did not believe, what was their object? what induced them to rush on such dangers, to persevere through such trials, to confront such difficulties, with which, even if they did not foresee them^ they must iminediately have become ac- quainted by bitter experience? Why did they live and die, for no end, but that of establishing a new religion, of which all the o "Otuv Ss Tlav\ov TSijf oux e'&orx ovtov, tov ouk axou(roivrci ctuTOV, TOV oil (t-STUiyxovTa rijf Si8«(rxa^/ajj rov xet) fietx tov arauph, auTco iroXenovvTot, tov amxTivvuvTei tov; elf auTov Ttitr- Tsoovraj, tov ■huvtcc truyj^eovTa xa) TctpaTTovTct, toutov Ifai'^jVijs |«,ETa^s|3Xl)f«,evov, xai toTj msp toO xripuyii.ciTOi xa/Aaroif itaf- e\aa-avrac Touf rou Xfiio"ToS ioytp ; CHrys. Horn. ''On S«5Xof Iti lit-itvim. A a 354 LECTURE VIII. honour redounded to another, to whom Paul at least was absolutely a stranger, bound by no tie of recollection, by no kindly feeling or familiar intercourse? But, secondly, if they did not believe their own doctrines, did they likewise disbelieve the first princi- ples of natural religion, or those of the law in which they had been educated ? If they believed not Christ, they were impious in proclaiming his Atonement, his Redemp- tion, his Messiahship. The most ambiguous expression, which asserted his equality with the Father, the most remote allusion to his Godhead, was an offence not less heinous than the deification of the most worthless idol, or the most frantic orgies of paganism. There is no alternative; they believed or they blasphemed P. Every day they pro- voked the thunders of the God of heaven, whose name and authority they usurped. They were liars at the time that they ap- pealed to the God of truth. While they were preaching, and in their general conduct practising the most profound humility, all P Compare Houteville, Beli^on prouvde par les Fails, LECTURE VIII. 355 this was the rankest hypocrisy; for they were displaying in fact the most awful pre- sumption. They assumed the sovereign prerogative of the divinity over life and death. What was Peter's speech, when Ana- nias was struck dead; Thou hast not lied unto men, hut unto God. If unauthorized by the inspiration of Heaven, could daring impiety imagine a more dreadful profanation ? Had they, I will not say faith, but the slightest apprehension of the possible truth of their own religion? What was the crime of Ko- rah, Dathan, and Abiram, or that of Nadab and Abihu, to theirs, who were thus adding a new law to that which was delivered in thunder on Sinai ? Had they cast off with inconceivable intrepidity, when they would impose Jesus upon the world as the Christ, not merely the principles of faith, but every superstitious terror likewise, in which they had been nursed? Had they (men of that class and character, on whom the reli- gious terrors of popular belief usually re- tain the strongest hold) entirely expelled from their hearts the deep-rooted confi- dence of their couritrymen,^ that the Mes- A a 2 356 LECTURE VIII. siah was now at hand? Must not the ine- vitable consideration have occurred, that while they were thus daringly deluding, the real Messiah might appear in all his pro- phesied terrors. And, if he should find his place preoccupied by bold and designing men, who were converting the promise of his coming into a source of personal advan- tage or distinction! If they could for an in- stant have supposed the possibility, that while they were expounding Isaiah in fa- vour of their crucified Master, their better instructed countrymen might after all be more correct, in speaking of him as lite- rally comingfrom Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, and treading the winepress of his wrath alone! If he should suddenly come to his temple, and find his sanctuary defiled by the admission of the unclean heathen to the promised privileges of his redemp- tion ! If he should come, not merely as the Deliverer of his people, but the avenger of all blasphemous infringements on the law ! If even in the gloom of the dungeon, or the despondency of some severe afflic- tion, doubt and apprehension should sug- LECTURE, VUL 357 gest that this were still possible, how could they avoid or confront, if it should occur, this awful supposition? Add to this, that they walked on the brink of eternity. Every instant they were in danger of being hur- ried out of the world. And whither ? Into annihilation or a future state. Into the former ? But what reward would they find there for their labours? what consolation for their self-sought afflictions? what com- pensation for their shortened existence ? was it there that they were to prove that to die for Christ is gain? Into a future state? Then either before the tribunal of the great God of nature, whose name and authority they usurped, or the God of their fathers, whose predestined purposes they had presumed to accomplish according to their own will, and for their own advan- tage. Nor is this yet all. These very men, these impious, these presumptuous blas- phemers, teach a religion of the most exqui- site humility, the most noble self-denial, the most lovely holiness. They first make those discoveries in moral science which are recognized as true by the hieart of man : 358 LECTURE VIII. they degrade into vices the heathen virtueiS of pride and revenge ; and exalt in their stead meekness, patience, forgiveness of in- juries, the duty of suffering for our fel- low-creatures : they bring down, if I may so speak, divine charity from heaven. They draw, in short, the character of their Master in a light so amiable, they display so ad- mirable an impersonation of the Deity of love and mercy, that the world is awed, and the more the heart of man is improved and enlightened, the greater the love and ado- ration of God manifest in the flesh through Christ Jesus. Now take the converse; they believed, but were deluded into their belief. What all ? on matters of plain fact, which came directly under their senses ? False miracles might impose upon the people, they could not upon those who wrought them. Could the imagination of many men be so heated at once, as to suppose that they saw, and conversed, and eat with a well-known per- son, who had never appeared among them ? They believed that they could speak va- rious languages of which they had not LECTURE VIII. 359 learnt a word? They believed that they commanded cripples to walk and were obeyed ? That they proclaimed men under the wrath of God, who obsequiously con- formed to their wishes, and fell dead be- fore them ? Paul believed that he was struck to the earth at noon-day, and heard a dis- tinct and articulate voice, when nothing of the kind had taken place. If they were not liars, were they thus infatuated, and de- prived of their senses, men who at the same time could argue seriously, and con- duct themselves rationally ? For there ap- pears this remarkable diiference between the miracles of the apostles and those of our Lord. Except when wrought on in- animate objects, as on the sea which sup- ported him, the water changed into wine, or the fig-tree that withered at his com- mand, Jesus usually required faith as a pre- liminary to his gracious intervention. The wonderful works of the apostles were fre- quently wrought on those who, like the cripple, had no previous warning, and could not have expected a similar blessing : on Paul, who was in a state most opposite to S60 LECTURE VIII. confidence in the power of Jesus : on An- anias and Sapphira, and Elymas, who could have had no apprehension whatever of their miraculous punishment. If the apostles could persuade themselves to believe their own miraculous powers, how did they per- suade their antagonists, or persons at least indifferent, to favour their delusion, and maintain them in their continued state of hallucination and error? Thus then it is equally impossible, that, without believing their own doctrines, they should have preached them with success, or that they should have believed them on insufficient and unwarrantable evidence. But if they could not be deceivers or deceived, they must be recognized as the authorized and inspired delegates of the almighty God. We have now led forth the apostles from the obscure chamber in which they were met, traced them in their outset, and on their weary and dangerous pilgrimage ; but have found it impossible to urge them onward one step, to conceive their advanc- ing, either in Jerusalem or Judaea, far less to the ends of the earth, unless accompa- LECTURE VIII. 361 hied by signs and wonders! We cannot se- parate, wei cannot tear asunder the miracles from the narrative. That Christianity could not have existed without them, suppos- ing the main facts of its history true; and that these main facts are demonstrable, has been fully shewn. No part of their progress, no part of their conduct, no part of their success, is explicable on any other theory. We may be met by general insi- nuations On the credulity of mankind ; but to suppose credulity so great, as for these men to fancy themselves, or persuade others, that they were authorized, inspired, guaranteed ill their inspiration by peirpe- tual miracles, if in fact gifted with no such pov^ers, is to invalidate at once all moral demonstration. We have to choose be- tween the assumed improbability, that God should work miracles for the purpose of establishing a merciful and beneficent reli- gion, and the demonstrated impossibility, that, all other means of success, all prece- dents, and all motives being equally defi- cient, the apostles should have established Christianity without miracles. Bb 362 LECTURE VIII. But, O Almighty God, if thou didst indeed commission these men to publish abroad the religion of thy Blessed Son ; if thou didst inspire the Gospel, taught by Peter and John and Paul ; if thou didst ra- tify thy inspiration by signs and wonders impossible to less than thy omnipotence, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to he spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will '^? But if thy grace enable us to believe and practise the great truths of thy holy scrip- tures, how cordially and rapturously shall we take up the language of the evangelic prophet, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet o/" those that bring good tidings, that publish peace ; that bring good tidings of good, that publish salvation ; that say unto Zion, Thy God reigneth ' / For these were the good tidings which Peter announced, q Hebrews ii, 3, 4. " Isai. lii. 8. LECTURE VIIL 363 Through the name of Jesus, whosoever he- lieveth in him shall receive remission of sins". — This, says St. John, 2* the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life *. Finally, St. Paul has declared, JEi/e hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. — ^And may we re- member, that it is the language of our blessed Lord himself, If ye love me, keep my commandments " ; and, He that hath my com- wMndments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him ^. s Acts X. 43. 1 1 John ii. 25. " John xiv. IS. " John xiv. 21. THE END. mi