| guesesssssssorccasessong | + + THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, & eS ace Keg Nad: & Fi toe e a : bade , 8 Coenseneennensanen ite Ga Sumas Lenrovs | | = ii! | qoctittemees cae a =» BT 1095 .W9 Wrangham, Francis, 1769- 18427 The Pleiad ih of “yada Lo) re oe CONTENTS. PAGE I, Reasons or tux Cunistian’s Horr ; abridged from the conclusion of Dr Lenanp’s « View of the Principal Deistical Writers of Eng- land, of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Arettirieg oe vo a, Set Re NA II. Tue Trurs or rar ScRIPTURE History; a- bridged from Mr Lesuie’s “ Short and Easy Method with the Deists; and his « Truth of Christianity Demonstrated” . , . , - 3 Til, Tue Evrpences or Cunistianity ; abridged from Dr Dopprinex’s «Three Sermons ”” on Shae pubyect! so wet eee st i - 69 1V. Aw Arotocy ror tur Biste ; abridged from Bisnor Warson’s “ Answer to the Second Part of Paine’s Age of Reason,” . . . , 108 V. Tue Principar Parts or Bisuor Burier’s ‘‘Analogy of Religion, Natural and Reveal- ed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature,” abridged AE SYS Re oe Sa aT AW TY iV CONTENTS. PAGE VI. Tue Inrernart Evmence or Curistianity; a- bridged from Dr Paxey, and Mr Soame Fey eS co Re SE Sere igen ee VIL. Tue Inwarp Wrrvess To CHRISTIANITY ; a- bridged from Dr Warts’ “ Three Sermons ” upon that subject . 2 + + © + © = = 265 ADVERTISEMENT. Tue following compilation was drawn up from the writings of several eminent Divines, of different persuasions, at a period when atrocious attempts were made, in every pos- sible manner, to strip Christians of every persuasion of the blessings and promises of the Gospel, by undermining the stability of Revelation, and thus withdrawing at once the only sure stay of their happiness in this world, and of their hopes of a better. Its object was to present, in seven successive Tracts, a series of triumphant arguments for the truth of Christianity, in a shape which*might generally be understood, and easily circulated. The labour was, I own, of a humble de- scription. But it was not, on that account, an inglorious one. For, surely, it is not without honour to be even a door-keeper in a2 vi ADVERTISEMENT. the house of God. ‘To the serious attention of the Clergy, in particular, such an office is peculiarly entitled: as, if the theory of the Deist be true, then indeed is their preach- ing vain. ; Before I proceed, however, to give a slight introductory account-of the original works or their authors, * I would offer a short view of the train of argumentation which they jointly constitute. LELAND, in the Summary attached to his View of the Principal Deistical Writers of England, of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, has powerfully exhibited the ge- neral mischievousness of Deism as a sys- tem. In reasoning upon the chief miracles re- corded in the Old Testament, no one has surpassed the energy, or the conclusiveness of Lesiir’s Short and Easy Method with the Deists. Doppripcr’s Three Sermons, on the Ex- ternal Evidences of the New Testament, are ‘universally characterised as compositions evincing the utmost clearness of arrange- ment. - * These Introductory Notices will be found prefixed in succession to the respective Abridgements. ADVERTISEMENT. vii The objections alleged against both ‘Tes~ taments by the French Infidels (Voltaire, Volney, &c.), and repeated with character-~ istical scurrility and acrimony by their Eng- lish brethren, Paine and Carlisle, have re- ceived, in Bishop Watson’s Apology for the Bible, their plainest and most satisfactory confutation. The argument deduced from Analogy of Systems, as pointing to one common Author (often beautifully touched, rather than de- veloped, in the New Testament), has been admirably expanded by Bishop Butter. Patey, in his Chapter on the Morality of the Gospel, derived from Soamr Jenyns (as limited and qualified by Macrarne), pre- sents us with a most perspicuous view of the Internal Evidence of Christianity :— And, lastly, ‘ The Inward Witness to its Influences has been unanswerably stated in Three Sermons, by the excellent Dr Warts. In addition to such an accumulation of reasoning, if authority can be deemed ne- cessary, what names may be adduced more illustrious than those of Bacon, who affirmed, that “ there never Vili ADVERTISEMENT. was found in any age of the world, either philosopher, or sect, or law, or discipline, which did so highly exalt the public good as the Christian Faith; ” of SELDEN, who pronounced, that “ there is no book upon which we can rest in a dying moment, but the Bible; ” of Sir Marrurw Hatz, who pronounced, that ‘there is no book like the Bible, for excellent wisdom, learning, and use;” of Mixton, who asserted, that “there are no songs comparable to the Songs of Zion, no orations equal to those of the Prophets, and no politias like those which the Scrip- tures teach ;” of The Hon. Rosert Bove, who Nenited| that the Bible is a ‘matchless volume, which it is impossible we can study too much, or esteem too highly ;” of Locker, who proclaimed, that “it hath God for its Author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter ;”’ or of Sir Witiiam Jones, who stated, that *‘he had carefully, and regularly perused the Holy Scriptures; and was of opinion that the volume (independently of its Di- ADVERTISEMENT. ix yine origin), contains more sublimity, pure morality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all the books, in whatever language they may have been written.” Let these, the intrepid conclusions of our most illustrious English laymen, (to say no- thing of Newton, who spent much time in illustrating its contents), be contrasted with the frivolous or blasphemous levities of vul- gar scepticism; and the reader will find no difficulty in choosing between the blackness of darkness, which the latter offers to his acceptance, and the life and immortality brought to light by the Gospel. EF. WRANGHAM. Hunmanzy, Feervary 1828. es h aes ih Kes os aha hire ’ Be sess * RAN , Aims ees dt Was Sahat ang ei aate ae . Sse ifood pate” oS | ae te ek idbabeia se ee We: Senet OR Aaa. rena MES AAS hein ae Cha re. = mo Bh Ay hae) D4 aCe eae / pidge 2’ *) pba art RA, fa flea: os be hae Pith eagesini, isa a no ate aE abi, a hea ea ¥ Ge Hiya) pie Os fe ie vat with sf I. REASONS OF THE CHRISTIAN’S HOPE; ABRIDGED FROM THE CONCLUSION OF DR LELAND’S VIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL DEISTICAL WRITERS OF ENGLAND, OF THE « SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. I know in whom I have believed.—2 Tim. i. 12. nel BENE aaa ate ett es a hide x ‘e tk TRE: ane Bi - wushgl , 4408. ay Pee rata a oF : siete me tte i alec? mia bk a %; Riis ihe: * as rato - peed if fa Bey ees in enhae ak’ agp ah ise ee ore hg ? ee pepe isle hey) 7 v3 ey, a om at nee i es sae ert ae * a alent ay’ fo hind Ara ee a 2 Caml vi pilenenys: (88 ih Be 4 Ppionmaen sais pis Hl ay is sient ase pee es gor Sake Sal, opp air: i . Feat 7 ay Y INTRODUCTORY NOTICE OF THE REV. DR. LELAND. anne ee Tue learned Dr J. Leianp ably refuted the infidel saphis- tries of 'Tindal, Morgan, Henry Dodwell, and Lord Bo- lingbroke, as they successively made their appearance. His reply to Tindal’s Christianity as old as the Creation, was first published, in two volumes 8vo, in 1733, Four years afterwards, he gave consecutively to the world, his two vo- lumes 8vo, upon the Divine Authority of the Old and New Testament, in answer to Morgan’s Moral Philosopher. Thesé works justly procured for him marks of the highest respect from the most eminent members of the Establish- ed Church. In 1744, he exposed, in two letters separately printed, Dodwell’s anonymous pamphlet, entitled, Chris- tianity not founded on Argument ; and, in 1753, came out his Reflections upon the late Lord Bolingbroke’s Letter «‘On the Study and Use of History, ” &c. After having thus vanquislied the principal Anti- Chris tian writers in single combat, he proceeded, in 1754, to at- tack them collectively, inhis View of the Principal Deistical Writers of England of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Cen- iuries. In this he gave, not only a short analysis and ex- posure of their several schemes, as far as the cause of Re- velation was concerned, but also an account of their mos 10 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE, &c. powerful antagonists, and a valuable Appendix, which has supplied the substance of the first of the subjoined Tracts. A compressed summary of his previous productions, is fol- lowed by an examination of the illogical statements of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Hobbes, Charles Blount, To- land, the Earlof Shaftesbury, Antony Collins, Woolaston, Chubb, the authors of the Resurrection of Jesus Considered, and of Deism fairly stated, and fully vindicated ; and final- ly, (in a Supplement published in 1756), the three last vo- lumes of Bolingbroke’s Works, which had then recently been edited by Mallet, and the Philosophical Essays of Hume. Of these two insidious writers, the first, in addi-« tion to the attempt made in his Letters on History against God’s moral attributes, &c. had proceeded even to question the immortality of the soul, and a future state of retribu- tion ; and the latter, in his Essay on Miracles, had endea- youred to shake one of the main pillars of Christianity. He had the happiness of being spared to complete, in two volumes 4to, his last and greatest labour, The Advan. tage and the Necessity of the Christian Revelation, Ke. : and died in 1766, at the age of seventy-five. ae A collection of his Sermons was posthumously published in four volumes 8vo. REASONS CHRISTIAN’S HOPE, &c. ~ Deists may be divided, principally, into two classes. They are either such as, taking it for granted that Christianity has been proved to be an Imposition, reject it at a venture ; or at most, ac- quiesce in some slight objections, and, contenting themselves with general clamours against ‘ priest-. craft”»and ‘ imposture,” never think of examining the evidences and nature of the religion itself ; or, they are such as pretend to reject Christianity, be- cause, after what they deem due examination, they conceive that they have discovered in it marks of falsehood. There is ground to apprehend, that the greater part of our modern Deists are of the former description. But few are willing to own, that this is their case. Whether they have really made a free and diligent inquiry, or not, they would be thought to have done so, and not to have rejected the Christian revelation without good reasons. Of this sort professedly are those, who have ap- peared among us, under the character of Deistical A® > REASONS OF THE Writers. They have made a show of attacking Christianity by argument. But, though never writers expressed a greater admiration of themselves and contempt of others, it may truly be aflirmed that, taking them generally, they have had little to support their vain-glorious pretensions. ‘That no writers ever acted a part more disingenuous : That, while they have set up for advocates of Na- tural Religion, in opposition to Revealed, many of them have ‘endeavoured to subvert the main ar- ticles even of Natural Religion itself, and have used arguments which, if correct, would banish all religion out of the world: That they have often put on a show of great regard for genuine Christi- anity, whilst at the same time they have used their utmost efforts to subvert its authority: That in- stead of exhibiting it fairly as it is, they have, by mirepresentation and abuse, treated the Holy Serip- tures in a manner which would not have been en- dured, if put in practice against other ancient writ- ings gf any reputation whatever: That, with re- gard to the extraordinary attestations of Christi- anity, they have advanced principles, which would be accounted absolutely ridiculous, if applied to other facts, and which really tend to destroy the q@edit of all past facts altogether. And, finally, that never were there writers more inconsistent with themselves, and with one another, or more obviously tainted with obstinate prepossessions and prejudices. Now, should not all this natu- rally create suspicions with respect to the good- ness-of a cause, which stands in need of such ma- nagement? And yet it is to be apprehended, that many of these who laugh at others for relying. upon their Christian teachers, are ready to resign CHRISTIAN S HOPE. 13 themselves implicitly te their own Deistical guides, and to admit even their illiberal jests and indecent sarcasms as arguments not to be gainsaid ! Of the objections which have created some of the strongest prejudices against Christianity, seve- ral are such as cannet be properly urged against it with any appearance of reason at all. Such are those drawn from the abuses and corruptions which have been introduced contrary to its original de- sign, or from the ill conduct of many of its pro- fessors and ministers. Vor whilst the doctrines of the Gospel, as taught by Christ and his Apostles, and delivered in the Scriptures, may be demon- strated to be of a- most admirable nature and ten- dency, and the truth of its facts is sulliciently esta- blished, the reason for embracing it still holds good; and to reject what is in itself excellent, be- cause of abuses and cerruptions, which (as some of its very adversaries acknowledge) are not justly chargeable upon it, is a conduct irreconcileable with the dictates ef good sense. The same ob- servation may be made with regard to the objec- tion drawn from its not having been universally promulgated. Fer if the evidences brought to prove that it is a divine revelation are valid, then its not having been made known to all mankind can never prove the contrary. To assert this, in- deed, would be to argue from a thing, the reasons of which we do not know, against the truth and certainty of a thing which we do know, and of which we are able to bring suflicient testimony. The only objections, therefore, fairly adducible against Christianity, are either those which tend to show that the attestations given to its Facts are not to be depended upon, or those by which it is. 14 REASONS OF THE evinced from the Nature of the Revelation itself, that it is unworthy of God. And accordingly, both these have been attempted. But whosoever will impartially consider the writings of the Deists, and compare them with those of their opponents, will find how little the former have advanced on either of these heads, that is really to the purpose. The facts attesting Christianity carry in them such manifest proofs of supernatural interposition, that few, if any, have ever owned the truth of those facts, and yet denied the divine origin of the Ges- pel-revelation. Those’ facts, therefore, its adver- saries have chiefly laboured to discredit. But it has been clearly shown, that the evidence pro- duced in their favour is at least as great as could reasonably be expected for any past facts whatso- ever ; that never was there any evidence, all things considered, more worthy of belief; and that the accounts of it have been transmitted to us by a conveyance for sureness and uninterruptedness hardly to be paralleled. To all this, little has been opposed, except unproved charges of fraud, or general remarks upon the inconclusiveness of moral evidence, and the uncertainty of human tes- ~ timony ! | As to the arguments urged against Christianity from the Nature of the Revelation itself, these must relate either to its Doctrines, or to its Laws. Now, with respect to the latter, it cannot reason- ably be denied, that its Moral Precepts have a manifest tendency to promote the practice of piety and virtue, and the peace «nd good order of the world. And they are enforced by motives the most powerful in their operation, and the best fitted to work upon the nature of man. As there- CHRISTIAN S$ HOPE. 15 fore the moral precepts of Christianity cannot be justly censured, a clamour has been raised against its Positive Institutions. Yet it has often been proved, that these positive institutions, taken in their primitive purity, are admirably fitted to pro- mote the great end of all religion, by strengthen- ing our obligations to a holy life. And this some of the most noted Deistical writers have not been able to deny. The only objection, then, which remains, is a- gainst the Doctrines of Christianity. And before this can be properly brought to bear, two things are to be proved : 1. That the Doctrines objected against are doctrines of the original religion taught by Christ and his Apostles, and delivered in the Scriptures ; and, 2. That these Doctrines, as there taught, are really contrary to reason. For a doctrine may be attended with considerable difficulties and obscu- rity, and yet may really not be contrary to rea- son. ‘This is, evidently, the case with respect to several important principles of what is called “ Natural Religion.” , The difficulty attending _any doctrine, from our imperfect capacity of con- ceiving it, is no satisfactory argument against its truth, if we have otherwise sufficient evidence to convince us of its truth ; and that evidence is sup- _ plied by its being delivered in a revelation proved to be divine. For to acknowledge a divine reve- lation to have been given, and yet to receive no- thing upon the credit of it,—nothing but what we can prove to be true independently of that reve- lation, is most absurd and inconsistent. It is to pay no greater regard to a thing on account of its 16 REASONS OF THE being divinely revealed, than if it had not been revealed at all. In this case, what is said by a person, who cannot be supposed to have been prejudiced in favour of Christianity, appears to be very reasonable, viz. that “ when persons have received the Christian Revelation for genuine, after sufficient examination of its external and in- ternal. proofs, and have found nothing that makes it inconsistent with itself, nor that is repugnant to any of those divine truths which reason and the works of God demonstrate to them, such per- sons will never set up reason in contradiction to it, on account of things plainly taught, but incom- prehensible as to their manner of being ; if they did, their reason would be false and deceitful ; they would cease to be reasonable men.” * And elsewhere, after having observed that we cannot be obliged to believe against reason, he adds, that when a revelation has. passed through the neces- sary trials, “ it is to be received with the most profound reverence,—with the most entire sub- mission,—and with the most unfeigned thanks- giving. Reason has exercised her whole preroga- tive then, and delivers us over to faith. To be- lieve before all these trials, or to doubt after them, is alike unreasonable.” + Let me then seriously expostulate with the Deist, and beseech him to reflect whether, in en- deavouring to abolish Christianity, he acts a wise and reasonable part; and what is like to be the effect of his conduct, both with regard to himself and to the public ? And, first, with regard to himself: * Bolingbroke. + Ibid. CHRISTIAN’S HOPE. 17 Let him consider, that the case now before him is not a matter of mere indifference, or even of small importance. His own most essential inte- rests are nearly concerned. If the Gospel be di- vine, to reject it, will involve him in the greatest guilt, and expose him to the greatest danger. Should it in fact be found, that he has rejected a revelation attested by God himself, that he has poured contempt upon the Saviour of mankind, slighted the authority of his laws and the offers of his grace, despised his gracious promises, and set at nought his awful denunciations—surely he has reason, in that case, to apprehend the severest re- suits of the Divine displeasure. Whatever favour- able allowances may be made to those who have never heard of the Gospel, or have enjoyed no ob- portunity of receiving it in its original purity, it is obvious that such as have had its evidences plainly laid before them, and yet have shut their eyes a- gainst the heavenly light, are in a most perilous condition, And though it may be said, tliat this is immediately to be understood of those who liv- ed in the age when it was first published, it yet holds in proportion with respect to those of after- ages. It bears internal marks, indeed, of having been designed by-God for the blessing of all ages ; and accordingly he has provided, that both its doc- trines and Jaws, and an account of the supernatu- ral attestations given to it, should be transmitted downward in the most satisfactory manner. The obligation therefore incumbent upon all, to whom it is made known, to receive and submit to it, and consequently the guilt of rejecting it, still subsists. Examine the Revelation itself. Could you pos- sibly expect a Revelation given for nobler pur- 18 REASONS OF THE poses, than to instruct us to form the most worthy notions of the divine perfections, to set before us the whole of our duty in its just extent, to state to us the terms of our acceptance with God, and to assure us of his readiness to restore us to his favour upon our unfeigned repentance ? Could you possibly expect a Revelation containing pre- cepts more pure, OF enforced by weightier mo- tives, or more judiciously adapted to promote the cause of virtue and righteousness ? Or could any Revelation, supposing a Revelation really given, be attended with more illustrious attestations ? The accounts of the miracles wrought are accompanied with a degree of evidence sufficient to satisfy any unprejudiced mind, an evidence which must be ad- mitted, except all past facts are to be disbelieved, and which in any other case you would not yourselves hesitate to admit. If it contain some doctrines attended with difficulties relating to things which surpass our comprehension, it cannot be denied that there are also several things in philosophy which the wisest and most acute of scholars think ++ reasonable to believe, though they are liable to perhaps inexplicable objections. * With some, alas! it is to be feared, the true reason for rejecting the gospel is their hostility to its laws. This ts the condemnation, said our Sa- viour, that light is come into the world; but men have loved darkness rather than light, because their * Hume himself asserts, “ that no priestly dagmas ever shocked common sense so much as the infinite divisibility of matter, with its consequences. » Yet this has not hin- dered the ablest mathematicians from believing it to be demonstrably true. And he gives some other instances of the like kind. CHRISTIAN S HOPE. 19 deeds are evil. This, however, is to make the very excellence of the Gospel a reason for reject- ing it. The best of men in all ages have owned the necessity of keeping the appetites and pas- sions within proper bounds. And such is the great design of the Christian law. Yet its pre- cepts are not carried to an unreasonable de- gree of rigour: it allows those appetites and passions to be gratified within the bounds of temperance and innocence. A life, indeed, led in conformity to the gospel, would assuredly be the most delightful life in the world. It tends to im-. prove and enlarge the social affections, to inspire universal benevolence, to render man useful in eve- ty relation, and to control the baleful feelings of envy, hatred, and revenge, which carry torment and bitterness in their very nature. It inculcates a rational piety and devotion towards God, produ- ces an entire resignation to his will, and refreshes and cheers the soul with a consciousness of the di- vine approbation. To this add the joys arising from all the wonders of divine goodness, the charms of redeeming love, the glorious promises of the new covenant, the promised influences of the Holy Spirit, and the transporting prospects which are opened before us—a blessed resurrection, and im- mortal life! Oh! of what valuable privileges, what divine satisfactions, does the Deist deprive himself by his infidelity! And what has he in ex- change, but perplexing doubts and gloomy pros- pects, and (what he will hardly perhaps be able, under any circumstances, entirely to dismiss from his mind) anxious forebodings, marring all the com- fort and tranquillity of life ! B 20 REASONS OF THE And what must, in all probability, be the conse- quences of such conduct with regard to the pub- lic? There are great complaints of a dissoluteness of manners, which seems to be growing among us. In this, the interests of the community are very deeply concerned. When once corruption spreads through society, it must necessarily be attended with a perversion of all order, and sap the very foundation of the general glory and happiness. For, in proportion as vice prevails, it produces a neglect of honest industry ; trade consequently de- cays, fraud and violence increase, the reverence of oaths is lost, and all the ties which bind mankind together are in danger of being dissolved. Ma- chiavel himself has decided, that “a free govern- ment cannot be long maintained, when once a peo- ple are become generally corrupt. ” Every true friend, therefore, of public order and liberty must wish that the vicious appetites and passions of mankind may be kept under proper controul. And nothing so well answers this end as religion. With- out its influence, indeed, civil laws would be found feeble restraints: nor was there ever any civilized government, which did not adopt religion for its support. * Now, it may easily be proved, that * Lord Bolingbroke observes, that ‘‘ the good effects of maintaining, and the bad effects of neglecting religion, were extremely visible in the whole course of ‘the Roman government— That though the Roman religion established by Numa was very absurd, yet, by keeping up an awe of superior power, and the belief of a Providence ordering the course of events, it preduced all the marvellous effects which Machiavel (after Polybius, Cicero, and Plutarch) ascribes to it.” And he adds, that “ the negleet of reli- gion was a principal cause of the evils which Rome after- ward suffered. Religion decayed, and the state decayed CHRISTIAN S HOPE. 21 no religion is so well fitted for answering all these purposes as the Christian. Mr Hume himself, speaking of the received notion, that “ the Deity will inflict punishments on vice, and bestow re- wards on virtue,” says, that “ those who attempt to disabuse men of such prejudices, may for aught be knows be good reasoners, but he cannot allow them to be good citizens and politicians ; since they free men from one restraint upon their pas- sions, and make the infringement of the laws of equity and society in one respect more easy and secure.” And Bolingbroke, in his remarks on those who “ contrived religion for the sake of go- vernment,” observes, that “ they saw the public external religion would not answer their end, nor enforce effectually the obligations of virtue and morality, without the doctrine of future rewards and punishments.”” ‘That doctrine, he adds, “‘ has so great a tendency to enforce the civil laws, and restrain the vices of men, that reason, which (as he pretends) cannot decide for it on principles of natural theology, will not decide against it on prin- ciples of good policy.” Nay, he even goes so far as to say, that ‘“ if the conflict between virtue and vice, in the great commonwealth of mankind, was with her.” If, then, even a false religion, by “ keeping up an awe of superior power, and the belief of a Provi- dence,’ had so advantageous an influence on the prospe- rity of the state, and the “ neglect of religion ” brought such evils upon it; can these writers possibly be regar ded as true friends to the public, who take so much pains to subvert a religion established upon the most solid founda- tions, and to set men loose from “ the awe of superior power, and the belief of a Providence ordering the course of events,” and whose obvious object and endeavour is to leave us without any religion at all ? 22 REASONS OF THE not regulated by religious and civil institutions, human life would be intolerable. What real good to mankind, therefore, I may justly ask, can the Deist propose, by endeavouring to degrade the ministry and the ordinances of Christianity, to subvert its divine authority, and thus to destroy its influence on the consciences of mankind? Can he hope to benefit the cause of virtue, by taking away those motives which most forcibly engage men to the practice of it ? Or can he imagine that he shall best check licentiousness, by removing its most powerful restraints? If it be difficult to control human corruption, even with all the aids which religion supplies, what might be expected, if men were left to gratify their passions without any such aid at all? Surely, then, how- ever unfavourable to Christianity the private sen- timents of the Deist may be, he ought, for the sake of the public, to conceal them, if be would approve himself a true lover of his country ; and not, on the contrary, take pains to propagate prin- ciples, which in their consequences must have the worst influence on its comfort and welfare. If what Lord Bolingbroke asserts is true, that “ no religion ever appeared in the world, whose natural tendency was so much directed to promote the peace and happiness of mankind as the Christian religion, considered as taught by Christ and his Apostles ;” with what consistency can that man pretend to a concern for the general happiness, who uses his utmost efforts to subvert it, by repre- senting its most important motives to virtue as idle bugbears ? Let me now address myself to those, who pro- fess to value themselves upon the name of Christ- CHRISTIAN’S HOPE, 28 ians—a name expressive of the most sacred obli- gations, the most valuable privileges, and the most sublime hopes. But of little advantage will be the name, without the true spirit and practice, of Christianity. And it is impossible for any friend of mankind to observe without grief, what num- bers there are who would take it ill not to be ac- counted Christians, that yet seem little disposed to act suitably to that glorious character. Many nominal Christians, indeed, scarcely ever bestow a serious thought upon those things, which it is the great design of the Gospel to inculeate. How inconsistent is this conduct ? To profess to believe that God has sent his Son from Heaven with disclosures of the highest interest, in which our everlasting salvation is at stake, and yet to discard these things from their thoughts, and to prefer the veriest trifles before them! Surely no pretence of worldly business, though it is our duty to be diligent in it, can justify such a flagrant ne- glect. Much less will a hurry of diversions be admitted as a sufficient excuse. And yet how many are there, whose time is taken up in petty amusements, and who make what, at any rate, should only be the entertainment of a vacant hour the occupation of their lives! It is to be lament- ed, that this is too often the case with persons dis- _ tinguished by their birth, fortunes, and figure in the world. But can reasonable creatures persuade themselves, that by such a trifling away of their time they answer the end, for which the noble powers of reason were bestowed upon them? Much less can Christians believe, that they were formed for no higher purposes. How often are B2 24, REASONS OF THE the duties of the church and the closet, those of the social relations, the care of children and of fa- milies, and kind offices towards the indigent and the afflicted, postponed for the sake of low indul- gences ; an immoderate pursuit of which tends, even when it is least hurtful, to produce a disin- clination to serious thought, and to impair the re- lish for every thing truly excellent and improving ! But too often, alas! what are called ‘ diver- sions’ lay snares for innocence, and open the way to scenes of dissoluteness and debauchery ! Too often what is termed ‘ play’ is carried to such an excess as to squander fortunes, which might be employed to the most valuable purposes! To which may be added, its natural tendency to ex- cite unworthy passions, and to produce the habits of fraud and falsehood and an illiberal thirst of gain. Without actual observation one would scarcely think there could be persons, who profess to ac- knowledge the divine authority of the Gospel, and yet live in an habitual neglect of its public worship. There never was, assuredly, an institution more wisely calculated for advancing the interests of virtue, than that of setting apart one day in a week for the express purpose of instructing the people in the knowledge of their duty, and exhorting them to the practice of it; and yet many, who still however call themselves Christians, seem to affect an open disregard or even contempt of it. But it is not easy to conceive, what reasonable pretence can be alleged for such a conduct. Will they aver, that they deem it a reflection upon their sense, to pay their public homage to their Creator and Redeemer; and to make an open profession CHRISTIAN S HOPE. 25 of their regard for that religion, which yet they would be thought to believe ? Or, have they such an aversion from the exercises of religion, that the | spending of an hour or two in solemn acts of ado- ration, in prayer and thanksgiving, is a weariness which they cannot endure? What is this, but to avow the great degeneracy of their minds, and their want of a proper disposition for the employ- ment which best deserves the attention of reason- able beings? Or, do they affect a high regard fer moral virtue, as an excuse for neglecting positive in- stitutions ? And will any man, who knows the true state of things among us, take upon himself to de- elare that the growing neglect of the ordinances of religion has helped to promote the practice of virtue ; or that men’s morals are generally improv- ed, since they became more indifferent to those sacred solemnities ? Nothing is more evident to any one, who impartially considers the nature of those ordinances and solemnities, than that a due observance of them (besides being a public avowal of our faith in God, and in the Lord Jesus Christ) has a manifest tendency to exercise and strengthen in us those good affections; which naturally lead to a holy life. But there are also Christians, on the other hand, who seem to flatter themselves that a mere out- ward attendance on these ordinances will be alone sufficient, though they at the same time indulge themselves in habits contrary to the rules of virtue and morality. All expedients, however, fer re- conciling the practice of dissoluteness or dishones- ty with the faith and hope of the Gospel are ob- viously absurd. The most inconsistent of all cha- racters is, a wicked Christian ; which to any one 26 REASONS OF THE acquainted with the true nature of Christianity, must appear to be a contradiction in terms. For nothing can be more evident, than that a vicious life is the most manifest contradiction to the whole design of the Gospel. To profess to hope for sal- vation from the Redeemer, and yet to neglect the necessary terms, without which (we are assured ) salvation is not to be obtained! To believe that he came to destroy the works of the Devil, and yet to allow themselves in those very works ! What an unamiable representation would such persons afford of the Gospel, if a judgment were to be formed of it from their conduct ! You would per- haps conceive a horror at the thought of blasphem- ing Christ, and openly renouncing all hope of sal- vation from him: and yet the plain tendency of your practice is, to harden the hearts of infidels, and give occasion to the enemies of Christianity ¢o blaspheme. And should not you tremble to think of being charged as accessary to the indignities cast upon that dread name into which you were baptized, and on that excellent system, the divine origin of which you profess to believe? Surely it highly concerns you, for your own sakes and that of the Gospel, instantly to set about reforming a conduct irreconcileable at once to all the rules of reason, and to your own most evident interests. Implore the mercy of God through Jesus Christ, and the assistances of his grace, which shall not be wanting to the truly penitent ; and show your- selves to be Christians by endeavouring to get your souls effectually brought under the influence of that religion, the natural tendency of which is to inspire ingenuous hope, and confidence, and joy. I shall conclude, with laying a few advices be- CHRISTIANS HOPE. 27 fore those who take upon them the name of Chris- tians, and who profess to receive the Gospel as of divine authority. 1. And, first, let us be thankful to God for our glorious privileges. It is our unspeakable ad- vantage, that we are not left to the uncertain light of our own unassisted reason in a matter of such importance. We have God himself instructing us by his word concerning his perfections and his providence, displaying all the riches of his grace toward perishing sinners, setting our duty before us in its just extent, animating us to the practice of it by exceeding great and precious pro- mises, and assuring us of the aids of his Holy Spirit to assist our weak endeavours. A happiness is pro- vided for us, as the result of our patient continu- ance in well-doing, transcending all that we are now able to express, or even to conceive. These things certainly call for every return of love and gratitude within our power. Our civil liberties are justly to be valued; but our privileges, as Chris- tians, are of a far loftier and nobler character. 2. A natural consequence of this is, that we should treasure the faith whith we profess, and en- deavour to make ourselves well acquainted with it, as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures. here are to be found those discoveries, which God was pleased to make of his will at sundry times and in _ divers manners by the mouth of his holy prophets ; and there is that last and most perfect Revelation, which he gave by his well-beloved Son. The very discourses of that Son are there transmitted to us, with an account of his wonderful works, his pure Jife, and his most perfect example. Let us, there- fore, search the Scriptures, which are able to make 28 REASONS OF THE us wise unto salvation. And if we meet with dif- ficulties in them, as may justly be expected in an- cient writings relating to a great variety of matters (some of them of a most extraordinary nature) let not this discourage us. For beside that by care- fully examining the Holy Volume, and making a proper use of the helps afforded us, we may have many of those difficulties cleared up, it must be observed, that the things most necessary to be known are most plainly revealed ; and those are the things which we should especially labour to get impressed upon our consciences and our hearts. But it should be our principal concern, that our whole conversation be such as becometh the Gospel of Christ. He must be an utter stranger to Chris- tianity, who is not sensible that it both enjoins, and, in the highest degree, encourages a virtuous prac- tice. Let us, therefore, as we would secure our own salvation, and advance the glory of our Blessed Redeemer, endeavour to adorn its doctrines by a “ godly, righteous, and sober life.” A mere form of godliness will not be sufficient : the energy and beauty of religion must appear in our whole tem- per and demeanour. And oh! how amiable is the idea of a Christian acting up to the obligations of Christianity ! Consider him in the exercise of piety and devo- tion toward God, diligent in attending on the or- dinances of religion, filled with a profound rever- ence and devout.admiration of the Supreme Ex- cellence, his soul at one time rising in grateful emo- tions to his sovereign Benefactor, at another exer- cising an unrepining submission to his will, and a steady dependence on his providence, and always rejoicing in Christ Jesus as his Saviour, in the ° CHRISTIAN S HOPE. 29 wonders of his love and the beauties of his exam- ple. But the religion of a real Christian is not con- fined to immediate acts of devotion. It animates his whole conduct. It teaches him to be strictly just and honest, to behave suitably in the conjugal, the parental, and the filial relation, and to fulfil all the duties of civil and social life. It tends to suppress the malevolent affections, and to dif- fuse a sweetness and complacency throughout his whole behaviour. It makes him ready to bear with the infirmities of others, to rejoice in their happiness, and endeavour to promote it; and instead of being overcome of evil, to overcome evil with good. Behold him in another view, as exercising a noble self-government, keeping his appetites and passions under a regular subjection to the laws of reason and morality, disdaining to defile himself with vicious excesses ; yet partaking at the same time, with moderation and gratitude, of the innocent enjoyments of life, and having every enjoyment heightened by the glorious pro- spects before him. To which it may be added, that religion inspires him with a true sense of honour, as signifying an abhorrence of every thing base and impure, and with a constancy and forti- tude not to be bribed or terrified from the path of duty. Such a character, in every condition, as far as it has an opportunity of exerting itself, cannot but attract universal approbation. But when it is found in conjunction with nobility of extraction, dignity of station, and affluence of fortune, what a glory does it diffuse ! It may be observed, in the last place, that those 80 REASONS OF THE who have a true’ zeal for Christianity, are bound by every obligation to endeavour to promote it in their families, by carefully training up their child- ren to an early acquaintance with its doctrines and its precepts. It is of the utmost consequence to inspire the tender mind with a reverence for things sacred, a love of virtue, and an abhorrence of base- ness and impurity. The necessity of a pious edu- cation, and the benefits arising from it, have been acknowledged by the best and wisest of men in all ages. And great in this respect is the advan- tage of those who enjoy the light of the Gospel- revelation. Hence it highly concerns Christian parents, to labour that their children may have the sword of Christ dwelling richly in them. Young minds, thus filled with the great objects of religion, possess the most effectual preservative against the vanities and follies of a sinful world, and the most animating motives to the practice of every thing amiable and good. And for want of such an in- dispensable preparation it is, that many among us, though bearing the name of Christians, are shame- fully ignorant even of the first elements of Christi- anity. Is it to be wondered at, if such persons become an easy prey to seducers, and are speedily drawn into infidelity and debauchery, losing at once every noble sentiment and every generous affection ? And in that case, the higher their con- dition, the more pernicious is the contagion of their example. Instead of being the ornament and the support, indeed, they become the disgrace and thé pest of the community. On the contrary, how agreeable is it to behold children bred up in the fear of God, their minds carefully stored with sound principles and good CHRISTIAN S HOPE. 3] habits! Those of the one sex, not only formed under the influence of religion to a delicate sense of purity and virtue, and to that gentleness of man- ners and behaviour, which has always been esteem- ed their loveliest ornament, but also to the hope of an immortal inheritance: and those of the other, trained up by proper discipline to a rational piety, the due government of their appetites and passions, and a manly sense of whatever is honourable and excellent! In short, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report : of there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, —thinking on these things ! Ns ae Aaa nares atic GAs eae sa : peaaen ets © hy [eh Sager apnceene 08 Senile ; ae fers igh oe ce He nies: asauetrodn oir : +h > " ip. Aas ie Tee 4§ Us! wy a ae: a ea 2 pate é. iy ye a yeas eee r By “ panded i rig (Re Onie te i ht tig ab PR HAT i hay ahead sl ‘dere ai hain eereee <5 hats ial see ee pS eS te cat ; BS ay ance, ‘ay FMD ES mae 2 ag ver) Ly ~ Se arid Hi anvay- Ry ni =a *»y is ats enna ENE ecileababed RE, Poh pRaME OE ae Wrage, Way, an aan emeusian’ pane, ye h — a : we Bn Pate ag sae 2 “put a a eye oe ne rei “o aoe ait Loe 5 Ki pi? ce wae 4. tte oe fe ibe ama Ra 05 a ae t% ‘a yaad 7 by ue gat ec 8 Soe ne alike eee ie He Vikan Oe a EN nti me AE ae Lane's Fes any oon ah ie ‘jai sae er | ‘garernmove “eos oventy won | 7 ; Oe A ae ony ie, va "i Seige: fe! Miata eB am fe | rpeitigge ane iB abet én 4 DES Best St BARE VT AAR . \A eS i en) a Sng y” ha’ hae wt apse iw Ey et eres ie sa ve ’ . rg aa Tine haa eS “8 ad, aed ey wi oP hase the Mast 38 «NOES pean ae Ape Ree De Piates: 8 / . hea ae ae ened Se AL Kees re Melee 7 i il. Se THE TRUTH OF THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY ; ABRIDGED FROM MR LESLIE'S SHORT AND EASY METHOD WITH THE DEISTS 5 AND HIS TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY DEMONSTRATED. Let all the nations be gathered together, and all the people be assembled; Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear and say, ** IT is truth, "—Isa. xliii. 9. om ieee annryt s ei ah Bins Pe a ies lk ic 4 i fais Se shi ‘te Bin oss ae " saree) tty ings een 7 4 vn te sp nth hi haiee 8 sya eile hal ait i bh heat widae'g gab a) slate epi en i a ane al penne wmaiael ae. yok oi : % Ps ie ee ieeetesieae belated ht Hor: set A ; aay cal By “teil ry T sha oeiadtaeiti aay ah ae a4 . ihe Lea. t dlearveti ia: GSR AME See * Bevy ee: enliea ao Rk $e Parte bok Mant « adam ROR: 28 eA tees ncoanis es 33 tntlety party % pet aie it tidal +t eee RO We? waco aioe ae wish iat aes hess» tk nnd pooch: PP ; pe agian in HH: Sais” ce HMR Antes Auntpkion ts ", Seed penton hese Boat Hake etait ate amie oneness cial BIRR OE zy Ht seid fe ntoheanhowe is : rs re € ‘ 5 «a ns ie + phe ne? a i lie oon oj peer “y, EN INTRODUCTORY NOTICE OF MR LESLIE. Mr Cuaarres Leste was the son of a Bishop of Clogher, of a good Scottish family ; and, as Chancellor of the Dio- cess of Connor, rendered himself highly obnoxious to the Irish Roman Catholics, by his ardent and able disputations. Want of sympathy, however, in religion, did not alienate his allegiance from his infatuated Sovereign, James II., upon his abdication. He, consequently, lost all his pre- ferments at the Revolution. He afterwards joined the Pretender in France, and accompanied him into Italy, with the avowed purpose of converting him to Protestant- ism! But, finding his endeavours ineffectual, and his treatment less courteous than he actually expected, he re- tired to Ireland, and died therein 1722. Two bulky folios were the result of his theological and controversial labours. In the former of the Tracts here compressed, ‘ the ar- gument is so short and clear, ‘that the meanest capacity may understand it, and so forcible, that no man has yet been found able to resist it. When it was first published, some attempts were made ; but they soon came to nothing. It is briefly this: —The Christian religion consists of facts and of doctrines, each depending on the other ; so that if the facts are true, the doctrines also must be true. Thus, for example, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a fact ; our resurrection is a doctrine: admit the fact, and the doctrine cannot be denied. The ascension of Jesus Christ is an- other fact; his return to judge the world is a doctrine: if Chie 36 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE, &c. the fact is true, the doctrine must be so likewise. For (argues an Apostle) if the doctrine is not true, the fact must be false: if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. « Now, the facts are established in this Tract by four incontrovertible marks. ” The above passage is extracted from the preface to an edi- tion of it by the late Rev. W. Jones, who adds (on the au- thority of the late Dr Berkeley), that “* Dr Congers Mid- dleton, feeling how necessary it was to his principles, that he should some way rid himself of Mr Leslie’s argument, look~ ed out for some false facts, to which these four marks might be applied, for twenty years together, without success.” The second Tract contains four additional marks, “ such as no other facts, but those of Christ, how true soever (not even those of Moses), either have had, or can haye.” The former set establish the evidence of the Christian religion, the latter displays its glory. To those who take this work into their hands, I would offer the following brief warning:—If Christianity be true, it is tremendously true, All the great things which this world can show are as nothing in comparison of it. Heaven and hell are the issue. We have every reason to be- lieve, that its facts yet to come are as certain as those that are past: that the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised (1 Cor. xy. 52.), and that every one of us shall give account of himself to God. A man must be stupified, who can seriously think on these things, without anxiously striving to flee from the wrath to come. In my compendium, I have sought to divest the argu- ment of all extraneous matter, and thus to gain for it the attention of those whom amore prolix or perplexed pam- phlet might have fatigued or embarrassed in the perusal. It is gratifying to me to be able to add, that, seven years ago, twelve editions of it, of ten thousand copies each, had been circulated in different parts of the British empire. A SHORT AND EASY METHOD, &c. DEAR SIR, “You are desirous, (you inform me) to receive from me some one topic of reason, which shall de- monstrate the truth of the Christian Religion, and, at the same time, distinguish it from the impos- tures of Mauomer and the Heathen Deities: that our Deists may be brought to this test, and be obliged either to renounce their reason and the common reasen of mankind, cr to admit the clear proof from reason of the Revelation of Curist; which must be such a proof as no imposture can pretend to, otherwise it will not prove Christiani- ty not to be an imposture.” And “ you cannot but imagine (you add) that there must be such a proof, because every truth is in itself one: and therefore one reason for it, if it be a true reason, must be sufficient ; and, if sufficient, better than many : because multiplicity creates confusion, espe- cially in weak judgments. ” Sir, you have imposed a hard task upon me; I wish I could perform it. Tor, though every truth 38 THE TRUTH OF be one, yet our sight is so feeble that we cannot always come to it directly, but by many inferences and layings of things together. But I think that, in the case before us, there is such a proof as you desire, and I will set it down as shortly and plain- ly as I can. | I suppose, then, that the truth of the Christian Doctrines will be sufficiently evinced, if the mat- ters of fact recorded of Christ in the Gospels are proved to be true ; for his miracles, if true, esta- blish the truth of what he delivered. The same may be said with regard to Moses. If he led the children of Israel through the Red Sea, and did such other wonderful things as are recorded of him in the book of Exodus, it must necessarily follow that he was sent by God: these being the strongest evidences we can require, and which every Deist will confess he would admit, if he himself had witnessed their performance. So that the stress of this cause will depend upon the proof of the matters of fact. . With a view, therefore, to this proof, I shall pro- ceed, 1. To lay down such Marks, as to the truth of matters of fact in general, that where they all meet, such matters of fact cannot be false ; and, "2. To show that they all do meet in the matters of fact of Moses, and of Christ ; and do not meet in those reported of Mahomet and of the Heathen Deities, nor can possibly meet in any imposture whatsoever. 1. The Marks are these : (I.) That the fact be such, as men’s outward senses can judge of ; THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY. 39 - (UL) That it be performed publicly in the pre- sence of witnesses ; (III.) That there be public monuments and ae- tions kept up in memory of it ; and, (1V.) That such monuments and actions be established, and commence at the time of the fact. The two first of these Marks make it imposible for any false fact to be imposed upon men at the time, when it was said to be done, because every man’s senses would contradict it. For example : —Suppose I should pretend that yesterday I di- vided the Thames, in the presence of all the peo- ple of Londen, and led the whole city over te Southwark on dry land, the water standing like a wall on each side. It would be morally impossi- ble for me to convince the people of London, that this was true ; when every man, woman, and child could contradict me, and aftirm that they had not seen the Thames so divided, nor been led over to Southwark on dry land. I take it, then, for grant- ed (and, I apprehend, with the allowance of all the Deists in the world) that no such imposition could be put upon mankind at the time, when such mat- ter of fact was said to be dorie. “ But the fact might be invented, when the men of that generation, in which it was said to be done, were all past and gone ; and the credulity of after ages might be induced to believe, that things had been performed in earlier times, which had not |” From this the two Jatter Marks secure us, as much as the two first in the former case. For whenever such a fact was invented, if it were stat- ed that not only public monuments of it remained, but likewise that public actions or observances had been kept up in memory of it ever since; the de- 40 THE TRUTH OF ceit must be detected by no such monuments’ ap- pearing, and by the experience of every man, wo- man, and child, who must. know that no such ac- tions or observances had ever taken place. For example :—Suppose I should now fabricate a story of something done a thousand years ago, I might perhaps get a few persons to believe me; but if I were farther to add, that from that day to this every man at the age of twelve years had a joint of his little finger cut off in memory of it, and that (of course) every man then living actually wanted a joint of that finger, and vouched this institution in confirmation of its truth, it would be morally impossible for me to gain credit in such a case, because every man then living could contradict me, as to the circumstance of cutting off a joint of the finger ; and that being an essential part of my original matter of fact, must prove the whole to be false. 2. Let us row come to the second point, and show that all these Marks do meet in the matters of fact of Moses, and of Christ ; and do not meet in those reported of Mahomet and of the Heathen Deities, nor can possibly meet in any imposture whatsoever. As to Moses, he (I take it for granted) could not have persuaded six hundred thousand men, that he had brought them out of Egypt by the Red Sea, fed them forty years with miraculous manna, &e. if it had not been true: because the senses of every man, who was then alive, would have con- tradicted him. So that here are the two first Marks. For the same reason, it would have been equally impossible for him to have made them receive his THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY. 41 Five Books as true, which related all these things as done before their eyes, if they had not been so done. Observe, how positively he speaks to them (Deut. xi. 2—8.) “ And know you this day, for I speak not with your children, which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched-out arm, and his miracles ; —but your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord, which he did,” &c. Hence we must admit it to be impossible that these Books, if written by Moses in support of an imposture, could have been put upon the people who were alive at the time, when such things were said to be done. “* But they might have been written in some age after Moses, and published as his ! ” To this I reply, that, if it were so, it was im- possible they should have been received as such : because they speak of themselves as delivered by Moses, and kept in the ark from his time (Deut. xxxi. 24—26.), and state, that a copy of them was likewise deposited in the hands of the king, “ that he might learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them.” (Deut. xvii. 19.) Here these Books ex- pressly represent themselves as being not only the civil history, but also the established municipal law of the Jews, binding the king as well as the people. In whatever age, therefore, after Moses they might have been forged, it was impossible they should have gained any credit, because they could not then have been found either in the ark, or with the king, or any where else; and, when they were first published, every body must know that they had never heard of them before. 42 THE TRUTH OF And they could still less receive them as their book of statutes, and the standing law of the land, by which they had all along been governed. Could any man at this day invent a set of Acts of Par- liament for England, and make it pass upon the nation, as the only bock of statutes which they had ever known? As impossible was it for these Books, if written in any age after Moses, to have been received for what they declare themselves to be, viz. the municipal laws of the Jews; and for any man to have persuaded that people, that they had owned them as their code of statutes from the time of Moses, that is, before they had ever heard of them! Nay more—they must instantly have forgotten their former laws, if they could receive these Books as such ; and as such only could they receive them, because such they vouched them- selves tobe. Let me ask the Deists but one short question, “ Was a book of sham-laws ever palmed upon any nation, since the world began?” If not, with what face can they say this of the law- books of the Jews? Why will they affirm that of them, which they admit never to have happened in any other instance ? But they must be still more unreasonable. For the Books of Moses have an ampler demonstration of their truth, than even other law-books have ; as they not only contain tlre laws themselves, but give an historical account of their institution and regu- lar fulfilment—of the Passover, for instance, in memory of their supernatural protection, upon the slaying of the first-born of Egypt; the Dedication of the first-born of Israel, both of man and beast ; the preservation of Aaron’s Rod which budded, of — the pot of Manna, and of the brazen Serpent, whieh THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY. 43 remained till the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 4.), &c. And beside these memorials of particu- lar occurrences, there were other solemn observ- ances, in general memory of their deliverance out of Egypt, &c.; as their annual Expiations, their New Moons, their Sabbaths, and their ordinary Sacrifices ; so that there were yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily recognitions of these things. The same Books likewise farther inform-us, that the tribe of Levi was appointed and consecrated by God as his Ministers, by whom alone these insti- tutions were to be celebrated ; that it was death for any others to approach the altar; that their High-Priest wore a brilliant mitre and magnificent robes, with the miraculous Urim and Thummim in his breast-plate ; that at his word all the people were to go out, and to come in; that these Levites were also their judges, even in all civil causes, &c. Hence therefore, also, in whatever age after Moses they might have been forged, it was impos- sible they should have gained any credit: unless, indeed, the fabricators could have made the whole nation believe, in spite of their invariable expertence to the contrary, that they had received these Books long before from their fathers; had been taught them when they were children, and had taught them their own children ; that. they had been cir- cumcised themselves, had circumcised their fami- lies, and uniformly observed their whole minute detail of sacrifices and ceremonies ; that they had never eaten any swine’s flesh, or other prohibited meats ; that they had a splendid tabernacle, with a regular priesthood to administer in it (confined to one particular tribe) and a superintendent High. D AA. THE TRUTH OF Priest, whose death alone could deliver those that had fled to the cities of refuge ; that these priests were their ordinary judges, even in civil matters, &c. But this would surely have been impossible, if none of these things had been practised ; and it would consequently have been impossible to circu- late, as true, a set of Books which affirmed that they had practised them, and upon that practice rested their own pretensions to acceptance. So that here are the two latter Marks. “ But (to advance to the utmost degree of sup- position) these things might have been practised, prior to this alleged forgery ; and those Books only deceived the nation, by making them believe that they were practised in memory of such and such occurrences, a8 were then invented !” In this hypothesis (however groundless) the same impossibilities press upon our notice as before. For it implies, that the Jews had previously kept these observances in memory of nothing, or without knowing why they kept them ; whereas, in all their particulars, they strikingly express their original : as the Passover, instituted in memory of God’s passing over the children of the Israelites, when he slew the first-born of Egypt, &c. Let us admit, however, contrary both to proba- bility and to matter of fact, that they did not know why they kept these observances ; yet was it pos- sible to persuade them, that they were kept in me- mory of something, which they had never heard of before? For example :—Suppose I should now forge some romantic story of strange things done a long while ago: and, in confirmation of this, should endeavour to convince the Christian world, that they had regularly from that period to this THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY. 45 kept holy the first day of the week, in memory of such or such a man, a Cesar, or a Mahomet ; and had all been baptized in his name, and sworn by it upon the very book which I had then fabricated {and which, of course, they had never seen before) in their public courts of judicature ; that this book likewise contained their law, civil and ecclesiasti- cal, which they had ever since his time acknow- edged, and no other. I ask any Deist, whether he thinks it possible that such a cheat could be re- ceived as the Gospel of Christians, or not? The same reason holds with regard to the books of Moses ; and must hold with regard to every book, which contains matters of fact, accompanied by the above mentioned Four Marks. For these Marks conjunctively secure mankind from imposi- tion, with regard to any false fact, as well in after ages, as at the time when it was said to be done. Let me produce, as an additional and familiar illustratign, the Stonehenge of Salisbury- Plain. Almost every body has seen, or heard of it; and yet nobody knows by whom, or in memory of what, it was set up. , Now suppose I should write a book to-morrow, and. state in it that these huge stones were erect- ed by a Cesar or a Mahomet, in memory of such and such of their actions : and should farther add, that this book was written at the time when those actions were performed, and by the doers them- selys or by eye-witnesses ; and had been constant~ ly received as true, and quoted by authors of the greatest credit in regular succession ever since : that it was well known in England, and even en- joined by Act of Parliament to be taught our chil- dren, and that we accordingly did teach it our chil- A6 THE TRUTH OF dren, and had been taught it ourselves when we were children :—would this, I demand of any De- ist, pass current in England? or rather should not I, or any other person who might insist upon its reception, instead of being believed, be sent to Bedlam ? Let us compare then this rude structure with the Stonehenge, as I may call it, or “ twelve stones,’ set up at Gilgal. (Josh. iv. 6.) It is there said, that the reason why they were set up was that, when the children of the Jews in after aves should ask their meaning, it should be told them (iv. 20—22.)" And the thing, in memory of which they were set up (the passage over Jor- dan) was such, as could not possibly have’ been imposed upon that people at the time, when it was said to be done; it was not less miraculous, and from the previous notice, preparations, and other striking circumstances of its performance (iii. 5. 15.) still more unassailable by ‘the petty cavils of infidel sophistry, than their fisiee through the Red Sea. Now, to form our argument, let us suppose that there never was any such thing as that passage over Jordan; that these stones at Gilgal had been set up on some unknown occasion ; and that some designing man in an after age invented this book of Joshua, affirmed that it was written at the time of that imaginary event by Joshua himself, and ad- duced this Stonage as a testimony of its truth. Would not every body say to him, “ We know the Stonage very well, but we never before heard of this reason for it, nor of this book of Joshua ; where has it lain concealed all this while ? And where and how came you, after so long a period, THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY. A to find it? Besides, it informs us that this passage over Jordan was solemnly directed to be taught our children, from age to age; and to that end, that they were always to be instructed in the mean- ing of this particular monument: but we were ne- ver taught it ourselves, when we were children, nor did we ever teach it our children. And it is in the highest degree improbable, that such an em- phatic ordinance should have been forgotten, du- ring the continuance of so remarkable a pile of stones, set up expressly for the purpose of presery- ing its remembrance. ” If then, for these reasons, no such fabrication could be put upon us, as to the Stonage in Salis- bury-Plain ; how much less could it succeed, as to the Stonage at Gilgal? If, where we are igno- rant of the true origin of a mere naked monument, such a sham origin cannot be imposed, how much less practicable would it be to impose upon us in actions and observances, which we celebrate in me- mory of what we actually know; to make us for- get, what we have regularly commemorated ; and to persuade us, that we have constantly kept such and such institutions with reference to something, which we never heard of before; that is, that we knew something, before we knew it! And, if we find it thus impossible to practise deceit, even in cases which have not the above four marks, how much more impossible must it be, that any deceit should be practised in cases, in which all these Four Marks meet ! In the matters of fact of Christ likewise, as well as in those of Moses, these Four Marks are to be found. ‘The reasoning indeed, which has been al- . D2 AS THE TRUTH OF ready advanced with respect to the Old Testa- ment, is generally applicable to the New. The Miracles of Christ, like those of Moses, were such as men’s outward senses could judge of ; and were performed publicly, in the presence of those to whom the Gospel-history of them, was addressed. And it is related, that “ about three thousand ” at one time (Acts ii. 41.) and “ about five thousand” at another (iv. 4.) were converted in consequence of what they themselves saw achieved in matters, where it was impossible that they should have been deceived. Here, therefore, were the two first Marks. And, with regard to the two latter, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were instituted as memorials of certain things, not in after-ages, but at the time when these things were said to be done; and have been strictly observed, from that time to this, with- out interruption. Christ himself, also, ordained Apostles, &c. to preach and administer his Sacra- ments, and to govern his church “ even unto the end of the world.” Now the Christian clergy are as notorious a matter of fact amongst us, as the tribe of Levi were among the Jews; and as the éra and object of their appointment are part of the Gospel-narrative, if that narrative had been a fiction of some subsequent age, at the time of its fabrica- tion, no such order of men, deriving themselves from such an origin, could have been found; which would have effectually given the lie to the whole story. And the truth of the matters of fact of Christ being no otherwise asserted, than as there were at that time (whensoever the Deists will suppose the Gospel to have been fabricated) not only public Sacraments, but likewise a public THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY. 49 clergy of his institution to administer them, and it being impossible upon this hypothesis that there could be any such things then in existence, we must admit it to be equally impossible that the forgery should have been successful. Hence it was as impossible to have deceived mankind, in respect to these matters of fact, by inventing them in after ages, as at the time when they were said to be done. The matters of fact, reported of Mahomet and of the Heathen Deities, do all want some of these Four Marks, by which the certainty of facts is established. Mahomet himself, as he tells us in his Koran, (vi. &c.) pretended to no miracles ; and those, which are commonly related of him,’ pass even among his followers for ridiculous legends, and as such are rejected by their scholars and phi- losophers. They have not either of the two first Marks ; for his converse with the moon, his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to Heaven, &c. were not performed before any wit- nesses ; nor was the tour, indeed, of a nature to admit human attestation: and to the two latter they do not even affect to advance any claim. The same may be affirmed, with little variation, of the stories of the Heathen Deities ; of Mercury’s stealing sheep, Jupiter's transforming himself into a bull; &c., besides the absurdity of such degrad- ing and profligate adventures. And accordingly we find, that the more enlightened Pagans them- selves considered them as fables involving a mys- tical meaning, of which several of their writers have endeavoured to give us the explication. It is true, these Gods had their priests, their feasts, their games, and other public ceremonies; but 50 THE TRUTH oF all these want the fourth Mark, of commene- ing at the time when the things, which they commemorate, were said to have been done. Hence they cannot secure mankind in subsequent ages from imposture, as they furnish no internal means of detection at the period of the forgery. The Bacchanalia, for example, and other heathen festivals, were established long after the events to which they refer ; and the priests of Juno, Mars, &c. were not ordained by those imaginary deities, but appointed by others in some after age‘to their honour, and are, therefore, no evidence of the truth of their preternatural achievements. To apply what has been said. We may challenge all the Deists in the world to show any fabulous action, accompanied by these Four Marks. The thing is impossible. The his- tories of the Old and New Testament never could have been received, if they had not been true ; be- cause the priesthoods of Levi and of Christ, the observance of the Sabbath, the Passover, and Cir- cumcision, and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, &c. are there represented as de- scending uninterruptedly from the times of their respective institution. And it would have been as impossible to persuade men in after-ages, that they had been circumcised or baptized, had cir- cumcised or baptized their children, and celebrated Passovers, Sabbaths, and Sacraments under the ministration of a certain order of priests, if they had done none of those things; as to make them believe at the time, without any real foundation, that they had gone through seas on dry land, seen the dead raised, &c. But, without such a persua- sion, it was impossible that either the Law or the THE SCRIPTURE HISTORY. 51 Gospel could have been received. And the truth of the matters of fact of each being no otherwise asserted, than as such public ceremonies had been previously practised, their certainty is established upon the FULL CONVICTION OF THE SENSES OF MANKIND. I do not say that every thing, which wants these Four Marks, is false; but that every thing, which has them all, must be true. I can have no doubt that there was such a man as Julius Cesar, that he conquered at Pharsalia, and was killed in the Senate-house; though nei- ther his actions, nor his assassination, are com- memorated by any public observances. But this shows, that the matters of fact of Moses, and of Christ, have come down to us better certified than any other whatsoever. And yet our Deists, who would consider any one as hopelessly irrational that should offer to deny the existence of Cesar, value themselves as the only men of profound sense and judgment, for ridiculing the histories of Moses and of Christ, though guarded with infalli- ble marks which that of Czesar wants. Besides, the nature of the subject would of it- self lead to a more minute examination of the one, than of the other; for of what consequence is it to me, or to the world, whether there ever were such a man as Cesar; whether he conquered at Phar- salia, and was killed in the Senate-house, or not? But our eternal welfare is concerned in the truth of what is recorded in the Scriptures ; and, there- fore, they would naturally be more narrowly scru- tinized, when proposed for acceptance. How unreasonable, then, is it to reject matters of fact so important, so sifted, and so attested ; 52 THE TRUTH and yet to think it absurd, even to madness, to deny other matters of fact—which have not the thousandth part of their evidence, have had com- paratively little investigation, and are of no conse- quence at all! i ee a OF CHRISTIANITY. 53 THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY, &c. To the preceding Four Marks, which are common to the matters of fact of Moses and of Christ, I now proceed to subjoin four additional Marks; the three last of which, no matter of fact, how true soever, either has had or can have, except that of Christ. This will obviously appear, if it be considered, (V.) That the Book, which relates the facts, contains likewise the laws of the people to whom _ it belongs ; (VI.) That Christ was previously announced, for that very period, by a long train of Prophe- cies; and, (VII.) Still more peculiarly prefigured by Types, both of a circumstantial and a personal nature, from the earliest ages ; and, lastly, (VIII.) That the facts of Christianity are such, . as to make it impossible for either their relators or hearers to believe them, if false, without sup- _ posing an universal deception of the senses of man- hind, a4 THE TRUTH 5. The fifth Mark, which has already been dis- cussed, renders it (as was above observed ) impos- sible for any one te have imposed such a book upon any people. For example : — Suppose I should forge a code of laws for Great Britain, and publish it next term; could I hope to persuade the judges, lawyers and people, that this was their genuine statute-book, by which all their causes had been determined in the public courts for so many centuries past? — Before they could be brought to this, they must totally forget their established laws, which they had so laboriously committed to me- mory, and so familiarly quoted in every day’s prac- tice ; and believe that this new book, which they had never seen before, was that old book which had been placed so long in Westminster-Hall, which has been so often printed, and ef which the originals are now so carefully preserved in the Tower. | This applies strongly to the books of Moses, m which not only the history of the Jews, but like- wise their whole law, secular and ecclesiastical, was contained. And though, from the early ex- tension and destined universality of the Christian system, it could not, without unnecessary confu- sion, furnish an uniform civil code to all its vari- ous followers, who were already under the govern- ment of laws in some degree adapted to their re- spective climates and characters, yet was it intend- ed as the spiritual guide of the new Church. And in this respect the fifth Mark is still stronger with regard to the Gospel, than even to the Books of Moses ; inasmuch as it is easier (however hard) to imagine the substitution of an entire statute- book in one particular nation, than that all the OF CHRISTIANITY. 55 nations of Christendom: should have unanimously conspired in the forgery. But without such a conspiracy, such a forgery could never have suc- ceeded, as the Gospel universally formed a regu- lar part of their daily public offices. But I hasten to the siath Mark, of Prophecy. 6. The great fact of Christ’s coming was previ- ously announced to the Jews, in the Old Testa- ment, “ by all the holy Prophets, which have been since the world began.” (Luke i. 7 0.) The first promise upon the subject was made to Adam, immediately after the Fall. ( Gen. iii. 15, Compare Col. ii. 15. and Heb. ii. 14.) He was again repeatedly promised to Abraham (Gen. xii. 3. xviii. 18. and xxii. 18., applied Gad. iii. 16.), -to Isaac (Gen. xxvi. 4.), and to Jacob ( Gen. xxviii. 14.) Jacob expressly prophesied of him, under the appellation of “ Shiloh,” or him that was to be sent (Gen. xlix. 10.) Balaam also, with the voice of inspiration, pronounced him “ the Star of Jacob, and the Sceptre of Israel.” (Numb. xxiv. 17.) Moses spake of him, as One « greater than _ himself.” © (Deu. xviii. 15. 18, 19, applied Aets iii, 22.) And Daniel hailed his arrival, under the name of Messiah the Prince. ” (ix. 25.) It was foretold, that he should be born of a virgin (Isa. vii. 14), in the city of Bethlehem (Mie. vy. 2.), of the seed of Jesse (Lsas ‘xi. 10.)—that _ he should lead a life of poverty and suffering (Psal, _-Xxii.), inflicted upon him, not “ for himself ” _ (Dan. ix. 26.), but for the sins of others (Isa. liii.) . 3 and, after a short confinement in the grave, should ‘tise again (Psal. xvi. 10, applied Acts ii. 27, 31. E 56 THE TRUTH and xiii. 35-37.)—that he should “ sit upon the throne of David for ever, and be called the mighty God” (Isa. ix. 6, 7.), “ the Lord our Righteous- ness” (Jer. xxxiii. 16), “ Immanuel, that is, God with us” (Isa. vii. 14, applied Matt, i. 23.); and by David himself, whose son he was, according to the flesh, “ Lord” (Psal. cx. 1, applied to Christ by himself, Matt. xxii. 44, and by Peter (Acts. ii. 34.) The time of his incarnation was to be, before “the Sceptre should depart from Judah” (Gen. xlix. 10.), during the continuance of the second Temple ( Hagg. ii. 7. 9.), and within Seventy Weeks, or 490 days, i. e. according to the con- stant interpretation of prophecy, 490 years from its erection. (Dan. ix. 24.) From these and many other predictions, the coming of Christ was at all times the general ex- pectation of the Jews; and that it had ripened into full maturity, at the time of his actual advent, may be inferred, from the number of false Messiahs, who about that period made their appearance. That he was, likewise, the expectation of the Gentiles (in conformity to the prophecies of Gen. xxix. 10. and Hagg. ii. '7, where the terms “ Peo- ple,” and “ Nations,” denote the Heathen world), is evinced by the coming of the wise men from the East, &c.; a story which would, of course, have been contradicted by some of the individuals so disgracefully concerned in it, if the fact of their arrival, and the consequent massacre of the infants * * This is alluded to by Macrobius, who relates Augus- tus’s Greek pun upon the occasion, in a language in which it entirely loses its point; Cum audisset inter pueros, guos in Syria Herodes rev Judeorum intra bimatum jussit inter | OF CHRISTIANITY. 57 in and about Bethlehem, bad not been fresh in every one’s memory: By them, for instance, who afterward suborned false-witnesses against Christ, and gave large money to the soldiers to conceal (if possible) the event of his resurrection ; or them, who, in still later days, every where zealously spoke against the tenets and practices of his rising Church. - All over the East, indeed, there was a general tradition, that about that time a hing of the Jews would be born, who should govern the whole earth. This prevailed so strongly at Rome, a few months before the birth of Augustus, that the Senate made a decree to expose all the children produced that year; but the execution of it was eluded by a trick of some of the senators, who, from the preg- nancy of their wives, were led to hope that they might be the fathers of the promised Prince.+ Its currency is also recorded, with a remarkable iden- tity of phrase, by the pens of Suetonius ¢ and Ta- citus.§ Now, that in this there was no collusion between the Chaldeans, Romans, and Jews, is suf- fici, filium quoque ejus occiswm ; ait, “ Melius est Herodis porcum esse, quam filium,” (Saturn. II. 4.) i. e. dy » vv, *¢ It is better to be Herod’s swine than his son ;” on ace count of the abstinence of the Jews from that animal. t —regem populo Romano Naturam parturire: sena- tum exterritum censuisse, Ne quis illo anno genitus educa- retur; eos qui gravidas uxores baberent, quo ad se quisque spem traheret, curdsse ne senatus consultum ad @rarium deferretur. (Suet, Aug. 94.) $ Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in fatis ut eo tempore Judea profecti rerum potirentur. (Suet. Vesp. 4. ) § Pluribus persuasio inerat antiguis sacerdotum libris continert, eo ipso tempore fore ut valesceret Oriens, pro- fectique Judea rerum potirentur. (Tac. Hist. y. 13.) 58 THE TRUTH ficiently proved by the desperate methods suggest” ed, or carried into effect, for its discomfiture. Nor, in fact, is it practicable for whole nations of con- temporary (and still less, if possible, for those of successive) generations, to concert a story perfect- ly harmonious in all its minute accompaniments of time, place, manner, and other circumstances. In addition to the above general predictions of the coming, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, there are others which foretell still more striking- ly several particular incidents of the Gospel-nar- rative ; incidents unparalleled in the whole range of history, and which could have been foreseen by God alone. They were, certainly, not foreseen by the human agents concerned in their execu- tion; or they would never have contributed to the fulfilment of prophecies referred even by them- selves to the Messiah, and therefore verifying the divine mission of him, whom they crucified as an impostor. . Observe, then, how literally many of these pre- dictions were fulfilled. For example, read Psad. Ixix. 21. “ They gave me gall to eat, and vine- gar to drink ;” and compare Matt. xxvii. 34. They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. Again, it is said, Psal. xxii. 16-18. “ They pierced my hands and my feet—they stand staring and looking upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture ;” * * The soldiers did not tear his coat, because it was with- out seam, woven from the top throughout ; and, therefore, they cast lots for it. But this was entirely accidental, With the passage in the Psalms, as Romans, they were not very likely to be acquainted. The same remark ap- plies to the next instance, from Zechariah. pe mS a ee ee ee a I ee pee eer een one — ee OF CHRISTIANITY. 59. as if it had been written after John xix. 28, 24, It is said likewise, Zech. xi. 10., ** They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced ;” and we are told, John xix. 34, that one of the soldiers, with a spear, pierced his side, &c. Compare also Psal. xxii. 7,8. « All they that see me, laugh me to scorn; they shoot out their lips and shake their heads, saying, He trusted in God, that he would ‘deliver him; let him deliver him, if he will have him—with Mutt. xxvii. 39. 41.43. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Come down from the cross. Likewise also the Chief-priests mocking him, with the Scribes and Elders, said, He trust- And here it may be suggested (in reply to those who insidiously magnify « the power of chance, the ingenuity of accommodation, and the industry of research,” as chief- ly supporting the credit of obscure prophecy), that greater plainness would enable wicked men, as free agents, to pre- vent its accomplishment, when obviously directed against themselves. The Jews, not understanding what Christ meant by his ‘lifting up” (John viii. 28. xii. 32, 33); and not knowing that he had foretold his crucifixion to his Apostles (Matt. xx. 19.), instead of finally stoning him— the death appointed by their law (Levit. xxiv. 16.) for blasphemy ( Mati. xxvi. 65. }, more than once menaced a- gainst the Saviour (John viii. 59. x. 33. ), and actually in- flicted upon Stephen (Acts vii. 58.), for that offence—un- consciously delivered him to the predicted Roman cross. Again, the piercing of his side was no part of the Roman sentence, but merely to ascertain his being dead, previous- ly to taking him down from the cross, “ that the body might not remain there on the Sabbath-day,” which com- menced that evening, a few hours after the crucifixion, From his early giving up the ghost, however, it was not necessary that a “ bone of him should be broken” (£xode xii. 46. Num. ix. 12. Psal. xxxiv. 20.), like those of the two thieves, his fellow-sufferers, (John xix. 32, 36.) E 2 60 THE TRUTH ed in God ; let him deliver him now, tf he will have him; for he said, Iam the Son of God. His very price, and the mode of laying out the money, pre- viously specified, Zech. xi. 13., are historically stated, in perfect correspondence with the prophet. Matt. xxvii. 6, 7; And his riding into Jerusalem upon an ass, predicted Zech. ix. 9. (and referred, by one of the most learned of the Jewish Rabbies, to Messiah), is recorded by the same inspired his- torian, xxi. 9. Lastly, it was foretold that “he should make his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, ” (Zsa. liii. 9.) ; and this right- ly translated, * was precisely verified by the very improbable incidents of his being crucified between two thieves (Matt. xxvii. 38.), and afterwards laid in the tomb of the rich man of Arimathea (ib. 57. 60.) ’ Thus do the prophecies of the Old Testament, which had been constantly in the keeping of those bitter enemies of Christianity, the Jews, distinctly and harmoniously refer to the person and character of Christ. His own predictions, in the New, de- mand a few brief observations. Those relating to the destruction of Jerusalem, which specified that it should be “ laid even with the ground,” and not one stone left upon another ” (Luke xix. 44.) before “ that generation passed, ” (Matt. xxiv. 34.) were fulfilled in a most surpris- ingly-literal manner, the very foundations of the temple being ploughed up by Turnus Rufus. In * This passage, which in the common translation inverts the circumstances of Christ’s passion, is by Dr Lowth ren- dered perfectly agreeable to them. “ And his grave was appointed with the wicked, but with the rich man was his tomb, ”’ OF CHRISTIANITY. 61 another remarkable prophecy, he announced the many false Messiahs that should come after him, and the ruin in which their followers should be in- volved, (Matt. xxiv. 25, 26.): and that great num- bers actually assumed that holy character before the final fall of the city, and led the people into the wilderness to their destruction, we learn from Jo- sEPHUS. (Antiq. Jud. xviii. 12. xx. 6, and B. J. viii. 31.) Nay, such was their wretched infatua- tion, that under this delusion they rejected the of- fers of Titus, who courted them to peace. (B.J. vii. 12.) It will be sufficient barely to mention his fore- telling the dispersion of that unhappy nation, and the triumph of his Gospel over the gates of hell, under every possible disadvantage; himself low and despised, his associates only twelve (and those illiterate and unpolished), and his adversaries the allied powers, prejudices, habits, interests, and ap- petites of mankind. 7. But the seventh Mark is still more peculiar (if possible) to Christ, than even that of Prophecy. For whatever may be weakly pretended with re- gard to the oracular predictions of Delphi or Do- dona, the Heathens never affected to prefigure any future event by Types or resemblances of the fact, consisting of analogies either in individuals, or in sensible institutions directed to continue till the anti-type itself should make its appearance. These types, in the instance of Christ, were of a twofold nature, circumstantial and personal. Of the former kind (not to notice the general rite of sacrifice *) may be produced, as examples; 1. The * Among the heathen posterity of Noah likewise the principle, that “ evil was to be averted by vicarious atone- 62 THE TRUTH Passover appointed in memory of that great night when the Destroying Angel, who “ slew all the first-born of Egypt,” passed over those houses, upon whose door the blood of the Paschal Lamb was sprinkled ; and directed to be eaten with (what the Apostle, 1 Cor. v. 7, 8, calls) “ the unleaven- ed bread of sincerity and truth.” 2. The annual Expiation, in two respects: first, as the High Priest entered into the Holy of Holies (represent- ing Heaven, Hxod. xxv. 40. Wisd. ix. 8. Heb. ix. 24.) with the blood of the sacrifice, whose body was burnt without the camp—“ wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” (Heb. xiii. 12); and, ‘‘ after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God,” (x. 12): and, secondly, as “all the iniquities of the children of Israel were put upon the head” of the Scape-goat. (Zev. xvi. 21.) 3. The brazen Serpent, by looking up to which, the people were cured of the stings of the fiery serpents ; and whose “ lifting-up ” was, by Christ himself, interpreted as emblematical of his being lifted up on the cross. (John iii. 14.) 4, The Manna, which represented “the bread of life, that came down from Heaven.” (John vi. 31—35.) 5. The Rock, whence the waters flowed to supply drink in the wilderness ; ‘and that rock was Christ.” (1 Cor. x. 4.) 6. The Sabbath, “a shadow of Christ,” (Col. ii. 16, 17); and, as a figure of his eternal rest, denomi- nated “a sign of the perpetual covenant.” (Hyxod. xxxl. 16, 17, Ezek. xx. 12, 20.) And lastly, to ment,” was traditionally preserved: witness the self-devo-« tion of Curtius and the Decii, and the sacrifice of Iphige- nia and the son of the king of Moab. (2 Kings, iii. 27.) OF CHRISTIANITY. 63 omit others, 7. The Temple, where alone these shadowy sacrifices were to be offered, because Christ (“the body”) was to be offered there him- self. * Of personal types likewise, I shall confine my- self to such as are so considered in the New Tes- tament : 1. Adam, between whom and Christ a striking series of relations is marked, Rom. vy. 12. to the end,’ and 1 Cor. xv. 45—49, 2, Noah, who “saved by water: the like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth now save us, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. iii. 20, 21.) $8. Melchi- sedec, king of Salem, who was made “ like unto the Son of God, a priest continually.” (Heb. vii. 3.) 4. Abraham, “the heir of the world” (fom. iv. 13.), “in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed.” (Gen. xviii. 18.) 5. Isaac, in his birth and intended sacrifice, “ whence + also his father received him in a figure” (Heb. xi, 19.), i.e, of the resurrection of Christ. He, too, was the pro- * Hence the sin of the Jews (so often mentioned in the Old Testament) in that the high-places, where they used to sacrifice illegally, were not taken away. (1 Kings, xv. 14, xxii. 43. 2 Kings, xii. 3, xv. 4, 35, &c.) But they _ were removed by Hezekiah (2 Kings, xviii. 4,) and the people directed to worship and burn incense at Jerusalem only. (2 Chron, xxxii. 12. Isai. xxxvi, 7.) Hence, too, by the expatriation of the Jews, and the destruction of “their city and sanctuary, ” (predicted to take place soon after the death of the Messiah) (Dan. ix. 26, 27,) they have now ‘no more sacrifice’ for sins, ” (Heb. x. 26): for, when that which was perfect was come, that which was in part was done away. The types ceased _ when the anti-type appeared. * Moriah likewise, the scene of the enjoined oblation, is supposed to have been Mount Calvary. 64: THE TRUTH mised seed ( Gen. xxi. 12. and Gal. iii. 16.), “ in whom all the nations of the earth were to be bless- ed.” (Gen. xxii. 18.) 6. Jacob, in his vision of the ladder ( Gen. xxviii. 12, and John i. 51.), and his wrestling with the angel; whence he, and after him the Church, obtained the name of “ Israel.” (Gen. xxvii. 24., and Matt. xi. 12.) The Gentile world, also, like Jacob (i. e. a supplanter, Gen. xxvil. 36.), gained the blessing and heirship from their elder brethren the Jews. 7. Moses (Deut. xvii. 18, and John i. 45.), in redeeming the chil- dren of Israel out of Egypt. 8. Joshua (called also Jesus, Hed. iv. 8.), in acquiring for them the possession of the Holy Land, and as Lieutenant to “the Captain of the host of the Lord.” (Josh. v. 14.) 9. David (Psal. xvi. 10, and Acts ii. 25- 35.), upon whose throne Christ is said to sit (Isaiah ix. 7.), and by whose name he is frequently de- signated (Hos. iii. 5, &c.) in his pastoral, regal, and prophetical capacity. And, 10. Jonah, in his dark imprisonment of three days, applied by Christ to himself. (Matt. xii. 40.) 8. The Highth and last Mark is, That the facts of Christianity are such, as to make it impossible for either the relators or the hearers to believe them, if false, without supposing an universal de- ception of the senses of mankind. For they were related by the doers, or by eye- witnesses, to those who themselves likewise either were or might have been present (and, undoubt- edly, knew many that were present) at their per- formance; to this circumstance, indeed, both Christ and his Apostles often appeal. And they were of such a nature, as wholly to exclude ‘every chance of imposition. What juggler could have given OF CHRISTIANITY. 65 sight to him “that was born blind;” have fed five thousand hungry guests with “ five loaves and two fishes ;” or have raised one, who had been ‘four days buried,” from his grave ? When then we add to this, that none of the Jewish or Roman persecutors of Christianity, to whom its first teachers frequently referred as wit- nesses of those facts, ever ventured to deny them; that no apostate disciple, under the fear of punish- ment or the hope of reward (not even the artful and accomplished Julian himself), ever pretended to detect them ; that neither learning nor ingenui- ty, in the long lapse of eighteen hundred years, have been able to show their falsehood ; though, ' for the first three centuries after their promulga- tion, the civil government strongly stimulated hos- tile inquiry ; and that their original relators, after lives of unintermitted hardship, joyfully incurred death in defence of their truth—we can scarcely imagine the possibility of a more perfect, or more abundant, demonstration. It now rests with the Deists, if they would vin- dicate their claim to the self-bestowed title of Men of Reason, to adduce some matters of fact of for- mer ages, which they allow to be true, possessing evidence superior, or even similar to those of Christ. This, however, it must at the same time be ob- served, would be far from proving the matters of fact of Christ to be false ; but certainly, without this, they cannot reasonably assert that their own facts alone, so much more unfavourably circum- stanced with regard to testimony, are true. Let them, therefore, produce their Czsar, or their Mahomet, 66 THE TRUTH (1.) Performing a fact, of which men’s outward senses can judge. as (II.) Publicly, in the presence of witnesses ; (III.) In memory of which public monuments and actions are kept up, (IV.) Instituted and commencing at the time of the fact : (V.) Recorded likewise in a set of books, ad- dressed to the identical people before whom it was performed, and containing their whole code of Ci- vil and Ecclesiastical Law ; (VI.) As the work of one, previously announc- ed for that very period by a long train of Prophe- CieS, (VII.) And still more peculiarly prefigured by Types, both of a circumstantial and a personal na- ture, from the earliest ages; and, lastly, (V{II.) Of such a character, as made it im- possible for either the relators or hearers to believe it, if false, without supposing an wniversal decep- tion of the senses of mankind :— Again—Let them display in its relators, them- selves too eye-witnesses of the fact, the same proofs of veracity, evinced by an equally patient endurance of distress and death in its support ; and in some doctrine founded upon it (as unpopu- lar in its outset, and in its progress as little aided by arms, or learning, or oratory, or intrigue, the same triumph over the united prejudices and pas- sions of mankind :— Finally—Let them exhibit among its believers (unbiassed by any supposed professional partiality) the minutely-investigating spirit of a Boyle, the profound understanding of a Locke, the dispas- sionate reason of an Addison, the discriminating OF CHRISTIANITY. 67 judgment of a Hale, the sublime intellect of a Milton, and the only-not-divine sagacity of a Newton :— Or LET THEM SUBMIT TO THE IRRESISTIBLE CERTAINTY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. ie, Po oa] THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY: ABRIDGED FROM DR DODDRIDGE’S THREE SERMONS UPON THAT SUBJECT. © «“ We have not followed cunningly-devised fables, ” 2 Pet. i, 16, oro PROT TIAORTYT cad i gs ya 3 Za Sea fomiac: won ah os canine bib ge ot y Pegtita craven, ait ES | mentees hcharly borat heed nat Be extern if *eaSity BA io ge Ae ete Adie gad watt” teat “kites VERE oy heath de pulse . steel dyortgiicionad : cal, Qepabwlak: ey et Prep owoultes Dimade by ve eet ( iy Posh: Yiisoppeadiue dal opens eevee Sgetse dy vigil ema cod 3 nese Ww ott sud Maobgingt VO ah, Ea ete Ste 23 acthoreanaiity os Ha barney rey de bs bb Le ee | tee? Dae By wicneinh abs Ve tao tes be RRR Baked et signer sinhiasiiieiihics. "ear ‘Be ed wirabive at edsaz rane oe aM AE 7 ste eee Nae feyy 2e oad. tall, eat OF cttemmalss wernirr f eppue edt ovey a cebtlaps "hoy eetecan eo Bi < Moe gt IE ever 33 tet met POW RTE op. pre e orcs Shi Rae Hea 3 nite Wala T. Pte aid asec ‘ agit: tb Tad wie saath Wo eno iui -ractib ban gat poe jloqualy Hay ROG Iie sibs ov champeta” Y | : cra ten abtem igen derail ay WETS “toh -jhaiqesh bas beiish sae bad sel sedi dashed Satay ssh toe remneree-cante where wel wore yo A sasha asst shvdge Abies doqhaaing Onerg nia Seaihicigh tained ay biutarme) te” Shad ail shite ietoind Sa igh wrtird batten sadT ig it ARTE dd tshiovel Bh tw coro a ing |i ek mercer” soe wih sthiased ag INTRODUCTORY NOTICE OF Dr DODDRIDGE. Tux three admirable Discourses by Dr Dopprmer, which have furnished the materials for the third Tract, were, on their first publication in 1736, combined with seven others : but, at the request of one of the highest dignitaries of the Established Church, who thought it desirable that they should be thrown into the widest possible circulation, they were subsequently printed in a separate form. Our adversaries, it has been truly observed, never trou- ble themselves to sift the evidences of religion, but take all their knowledge of it from a few objections casually brought forward in light conversation. The true reasoner seeks for evidence, before he listens to objections. Secure of the first, he is not easily shaken by the latter. It gave the author, we are told, singular pleasure to learn, that those Sermons had been the means of convin- cing two gentlemen of a liberal education and distinguish- ed abilities, who had been ‘Deists, ‘ that Christianity was true and divine: and one of them, who had set himself Strenuously to prejudice others against the Gospel, became afterwards a zealous preacher and ornament of the religion which he had onee denied and despised. They are, also, made the subject of study and examina- tion in one of the two principal colleges in the University of Cambridge. Their lamented writer died at Lisbon, whither he had gone for the recovery of his health, in 1751, in the fiftieth - year of his age: but, by his works, ¢ though dead, he yet speaketh, ” E2 a | ROM aGou: ad. Yves aro rROTOUAORT TT” PR een Te a re ‘Geet WE 274 micepnaty ‘lila’ Peete vag - tee weer ives ott wi alpinaann ada boda R owed 4 mivdihtes wary wei Sulntidewern poe 1 ati aoigetghheg seal vied bf) to cohattigih dented o@s “to soo lo seampos.sdtite gad wpidd: tae “ofdwniee® Baan! te a i Path Pane 16) Teche awehote Fadi ict viet ey. 68 "lynet att Ie Pubioons ne, vat cee jativine aR a ‘ i INTRODUCTORY NOTICE OF THOMAS PAINE. Amonc the individuals actively employed in stemming the tide of blasphemy and impiety, is one who has spent a long life in such exertions. The subjoined statement is said, I know not however upon what authority, to be the production of her pen. * SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MR THOMAS PAINE. ‘¢ The life of this unhappy man affords a striking ex- ample of the effect of such principles as he professed, upon the moral conduct. He began his career in life with de- frauding a public office in London, in which he had been employed, and from which he was consequently obliged to fly. “‘ It isno less a fact, that his next employer was under the necessity of dismissing bim from his house, for loose and immoral conduct with his wife. After his escape from France, he took up his residence in America, where he is thus described by Mrs Dean, with whom he lodged : “He never failed to get drunk daily; and, even in his sober moments, constantly disturbed the peace, and de~ stroyed the comfort of the family, by his brutal violence and detestable filthiness.” On leaving her, he engaged 106 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE in a farm, hiring an old black woman to attend him, who lived with him only three weeks. Like her master, she was every day intoxicated ; and often would they lie pros trate on the same floor, swearing and threatening to fight, though incapable (from extreme intoxication) of approach- ing each other. His next servant, a poor old woman, was obliged to prosecute him for the amount of her wages. ‘«‘ During the whole of the week preceding his death, he never failed to get drunk twice a day. It appears like- wise, from a reproachful letter of a brother Jacobin and infidel, who had loaded him with favours which he repaid with the vilest ingratitude, and who had lent him money which he would never repay at all—that he had seduced a French woman from her husband, and afterwards refused to discharge the debt contracted for her board and lodg- ing, and exulted in having been the ruin of the man, who vainly sued him for it. The letter subsequently describes the nauseous and disgusting situation from which its writer had relieved him; in doing which, he witnessed scenes too detestable to be exposed to public view. « How far Paine maintained his principles to the end of his days, and what effect they produced upon him at the near approach of death, we shall gather from the following account given by Dr Manly, who attended him in his last illness: —During the latter part of his life, he would not allow his curtain to be closed at any time; and when it unavoidably happened, that he was left alone by day or by night, he would scream and halloo till some person came to him, There was something remarkable in his conduct 3 about this period (which comprises the fortnight imme- diately before his death), when we reflect that Thomas Paine was author of several books denying our Lord Jesus Christ, and deriding every part of Revealed Religion, He would call out during his paroxysms of distress, without intermis- sion, ‘ O Lord, help me! God help me! Jesus Christ, help LIFE AND DEATH OF THOMAS PAINE. 107 me!’ &c. repeating the same expressions without the least variation, and in a tone of voice that would alarm the house. Two or three days before his death, when he was constantly uttering the words above mentioned, Dr Manly said to him, ‘ What must we think of your present con- duct! Why do you call upon Jesus Christ to help you? Do you believe that he can help you? Do you believe in the Divinity of Christ ? Give me an answer, as from the lips of a dying man.’ Paine made no reply: but toa lady, who constantly visited and relieved him on his death- bed, after asking her ‘ If she had read one of his works? : and being answered, that ‘ she thought it one of the most wicked books she had ever seen, and had therefore burnt it;’ he replied, ¢ that he wished all who had read it had been equally wise,’ adding, ‘ If ever the Devil had an agent upon earth, J am that man /’ “On June 8, 1809, at the age of seventy-two, died this miserable reprobate, who, at the close of the eighteenth century, had endeavoured to persuade the common people of England that all was wrong in that government and that religion, which had been transmitted to them by their fore- fathers. For the sake of England and humanity, it is to be wished that his impostures and his memory may perish together. ” N\ ey ly ~ ~ ‘strats ihoree: ties unui se bat: ated ie ; oe Pea ibsatny: oid: Range cfbeel” ooo cee eile Saitoh oe wo sii sesthipedeest + ame roll by SUL ewiet, RO Mim - | [e ‘shay! ire id > Feebeoa baci ’ Hy a Pe ae ee ie! an! “ewias rane rasarce rama ‘ai chet Sh aw sarki: gehen i ele it enchanted ae epi i hen, NE nehonapabberions tvnatiecr ales mepais pte eideinnn'y- Ie, oni. ibaa gs ghd Keke: dea teht vir tases pee + Cintas Bape age that Had apiad> a ots, 3 AW: ay Diino at ie related sta eel Parts A od ‘Gist ott Aa bad: (3 for 50), at for a> (4 for 200), &c. ? ‘Upon the subject of an evil being, who, under the name “ Satan,” the Deist falsely asserts, is * only once mentioned in the Bible, and that in the book of Job, +” it may be remarked that the be- lief of such a being has prevailed universally. * Ezra, ii- 3—64. ¢ Job. i. 6. But see 2 Sam. xix. 22.1 Kings, v. 4, where the word rendered ‘¢ adversary” is in the original, Satan. Indeed, it seems probable that this root was in- troduced into the Hebrew and other Eastern languages, to denote “ an adversary,” from its having been the pro- per name of the great enemy of mankind. FOR THE BIBLE. 135 Hence the Egyptian Typho and Osiris, the Per- sian Arimanius and Oromasdes, the Celestial and Infernal Jove of the Greeks, &c. which apparently can only have arisen from a tradition of the fall of our first parents ; disfigured, indeed, and obscured (as all traditions must be) by many fabulous addi- tions. “ The Jews,” according to the Deist, ‘ never prayed but when they were in trouble!” Like all other men, they probably prayed most fervently under such circumstances. And “ they never prayed for any thing,” he adds, “ but for victory, vengeance, or riches. Let him read Solomon's prayer * at the dedication of the Temple, and blush for his uncharitable assertion ! The Deist says, “ It does not follow that the heathens worshipped the statues and images, which they set up.” Not worshipped them ! What does he think of Nebuchadnezzar’s Golden Image ; of the Statue of the Mother of the Gods fetched by a decree of the Roman Senate from Pessinus, or of the image (of the great goddess Diana) which fell down from Jupiter 2 Not worshipped them ! The worship was universal. + “‘ Tt is an error,” the Deist proceeds, “ to call the Psalms the Psalms of David.” This, as we have seen above (in the extract from Hartley) is no new discovery. It is admitted. If, however, he will have them to be “ a collection from diffe- rent song-writers,’ he must allow, from the spirit by which their writers were inspired, that in mat- ter as well as manner, they greatly excel every other collection. Let him compare it with the * 1 Kings viii, 23——55. ¢{ 2 Kings xyji. 30, 31. 136 AN APOLOGY Odes of Horace or Anacreon, the Hymns of Calli- machus, or the Choruses of the Greek Tragedies (no contemptible compositions, any of these) ; and he will quickly see how greatly in piety of senti- ment, in sublimity of expression, in purity of mo- rality, and in rational theology, it surpasses them all. In one who esteems the Psalms of David a “‘ song-book,” it is quite consistent to esteem the Proverbs of Solomon a “ jest-book.” What a pity that, instead of eight hundred of these jests, we had not the whole three thousand! Our mirth would, surely, be extreme. Let us take the very first of them, as a specimen of their jocoseness :— Lhe fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Is there any jest in this? What Lord does Solo- mon mean? He means that Lord, who took the posterity of Abraham to be his peculiar people, redeemed them by a series of miracles from Egyp- tian bondage, gave them the Law by the hands of Moses, and commanded them to exterminate the nations of Canaan; the Lord, whom the Deist re- jects. The jest proceeds to say, that in so doing he, despises wisdom and instruction. Again :— My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother. He, whose heart has ever been touched by parental feelings, will see no jest in this. Once more:—My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. § These are the three first proverbs in Solomon’s “ jest- book ;” the perusal of which, if it does not make the reader merry, is singularly adapted to make him wise. As to Solomon's sins, we have nothing § Proy, i. 7, 8, 10. FOR THE BIBLE. 137 to do with them, but to avoid them ; and to give full credit to his experience, when he preaches to us his admirable sermon on the vanity of every thing except piety and virtue. Lsaiah is abused by the Deist beyond any other book in the Old Testament, because his prophecies have received such a circumstantial completion, that unless he can persuade himself to consider them as “ one continued incoherent bombastical rant, without application and destitute of meaning,” he must necessarily allow their divine authority. Re compares the Burthen of Babylon, the Bur- then of Moab, &c.§ denouncing vengeance against cities and kingdoms, to the story of the Burning Mountain, the story of Cinderilla, &c. The sub- jects of the latter, which amuse the child, vanish out of the mind of the man. But whoever care- fully reads Isaiah’s Burthen of Babylon, and ae- -curately compares it with the subsequent state of that empire, must receive an impression never to be effaced from his memory. That Being alone, by whom things future are more distinctly known, than past or present things are by man, could have dictated to the prophet the Burthen of Babylon. The Deist next asserts, that “ the latter part of the forty-fourth chapter, and the beginning of the forty-fifth are an imposition practised upon the world by the audacity of church and priestly ig- norance ; being a compliment to Cyrus, who per- mitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity, at least a hundred and fifty years after the death of Isaiah.” Porphyry made a similar assertion respecting Daniel's prophecies, § Isai. xiii, 1]. xv. 1, &c., 138 AN APOLOGY and Voltaire on the prediction of Jesus, relative to the destruction of Jerusalem, because they saw no other means of evading the force of their evidence. But proof, proof is what we require, and not asser- tion, before we will give up our Bibles. Of this pas- sage at least the “ application” is circumstantial, and the “ meaning” obvious ; and in farther evidence of the absurdity of the Deist’s hypothesis, let him be told that Cyrus, as a Persian, was most probably addicted to the Magian superstition of two inde- pendent Beings, one the author of light and all good, the other of darkness and all evil. Would a captive Jew, meaning to compliment, the greatest sovereign in the world, be so stupid as to tell him, that his religion was a lie? I am the Lord, and there ts none else. I form the light, and create darkness : I make peace, and create evil: I, the Lord, do all these things. * But let him peruse the Burthen of Babylon. Was that, also, written after the event ? Was Ba- bylon then uninhabited? Was it then fit neither for the Arabian’s tent, nor for the shepherd’s fold? + Was it then a possession for the bittern, and pools of water ? t Above all, however, the Deist is to be blamed for attempting to lessen the authority of the Bible by ridicule, rather than by reason; for bringing forward every trite and petty objection, without any notice of the replies which they have repeat- edly received, and urging them as if they were both new and unanswerable. An honest man, on the other hand, sincere in his endeavours to search out truth, would, in reading the Bible—first, ex- * Isai. xlv.6, 7. f Isai. xiii, 20. $ Isai. xiv. 23. FOR THE BIBLE. 139 amine whether it ascribed to the Supreme Being any attributes repugnant to holiness, trath, good- ness, or justice. Finding in it nothing of this kind, he would next consider that, being a very ancient book, written by various authors at differ- ent and distant periods, it would probably contain some difficulties and apparent contradictions in its historical parts. These he would endeavour to remove by the rules of such sound criticism, as he would employ upon any other book: and if he discovered that most of them were of a trifling na- ture, arising from short supplemental or explana- tory insertions, or from the mistakes of transcribers, he would infer that the rest were presumptively of a similar description, though he might not per- haps be equally able to account for them all; especially, as he would remark, throughout the whole book, a degree of harmony and connexion utterly inconsistent with every idea of deceit. He - would, thirdly, observe that its miraculous and his- torical facts were so inseparably intermixed, that they must either both be true, or both false ; and perceiving that the historical parts were better au- thenticated than any other history, he would also readily believe the miraculous parts. In order to confirm himself in this belief, he would advert to the prophecies ; well knowing, that the prediction of things to come is as certain a proof of divine interposition as the performance of a miracle can be. And discovering that many prophecies had ac- tually been fulfilled in all their minutest cireum- "stances, and that some were apparently fulfilling at this very day, he would not suffer a few seem- ing or real difficulties to overbalance the weight : M 140 AN APOLOGY of this accumulated testimony of the truth of the Bible. Such would be the natural conduct of a person solicitous to form an impartial judgment on the subject of Revealed Religion. But to return. In answer to the Deist’s poor remark, that Isaiah’s style is “ what is properly called prose run mad,” let him hear the learned Bishop Lowth, who says, that “a poem translated literally from the Hebrew will still retain, even as far as relates to metre, much of its native dignity and a faint appearance of versification. ” His gross comment on the passage, Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,* intended to prove that Isiaiah was ‘‘ a lying prophet and an impostor, ” proves the direct contrary. Rezin, King of Syria, and Pekah, King of Israel, made war upon Ahaz, King of Judah, with the declared purpose of placing another family on his throne. The above sign was to assure Ahaz, that this pur- pose should not come to pass. ‘The Deist athrms, however, that it did come to pass; that Ahaz was “ destroyed,” and that ‘“ two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters, were carried into captivity.” Both these assertions are falsehoods : Ahaz was not “ destroyed;” and the two hundred thousand persons, though made captives, were not “ carried into captivity.” For the chief men of Samaria rose up, and took the captives, and brought them to Jericho, the city of Palm-trees, to their brethren.{ The kings (as it had been predicted), failed in their attempt to destroy the House of David, and to make a revolution. ‘They made no revolution: they did not destroy the House of * Tsai, vii. 14, { 2 Chron, xxviii, 15. FOR THE BIBLE. " yg David: for Ahaz slept with his fathers, and He- zehiah his son reigned in his stead. + VI. The Deist now passes on to Jeremiah. His ob- jection, that the book is in “the most confused and disordered condition,” no more affects its genu- ineness or its authenticity, than the blunder of a bookbinder in misplacing the sheets of a volume would lessen its authority. Whether the prophe- cies were originally ill arranged by Baruch, or have been misplaced since by accident or the careless- ness of transcribers, or whether they constitution- ally ditfer from history in not being subject to an accurate observance of time and order, is a matter of little moment. But the charges of duplicity and false prediction are of greater importance. And, first, as to the duplicity. Jeremiah, { on account of his having boldly pre- dicted the destruction of Jerusalem, had been thrust into a miry dungeon by the princes of Ju- dah, who sought his life. The king, however, or- dered him to be taken up out of it; sent for him to a private conference, in which he learned from him the purpose of God respecting Jerusalem ; and directed him, if the princes should require him to disclose what had passed betwen them, to reply ; “I presented my supplication before the hing, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house to die there.” “Thus,” the Deist asserts, “ this man of God (as he is called) could tell a lie, or very strongly prevaricate: for, certainly, he did not go to Zedekiah to make his supplication; nei- f 2 Chron. xxviii. 15, t Jer. xxxviii, 142 AN APOLOGY ther did he make it.” Now, it is not said, that he told the princes “ he went to make his supplica- tion,” but that he made it; and, as it is said in the preceding chapter, that he did make it on a for- mer occasion, is it improbable that in this confer- ence he renewed it? At all events, Jeremiah did not violate any law of nature, or of civil society, in- what he did. He told the truth only in part, to save his life; and he was under no obligation to his enemies to tell them the whole. The King of England cannot justly require a privy-counsellor to, tell a lie for him: but he may justly require him not to divulge his counsels to those who have no right to know them. Now for the false prediction. In Jeremiah xxxiv. 2—5, it is prophesied ;. Thus saith the Lord, “ Behold, I will give this, city into the hands of the King of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire: and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and de- livered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon. Yet thou shalt not die by the sword: but thou shalt die in peace, and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee.” ‘ Now, instead of all this, we are told” (exclaims the Deist) that the King of Babylon put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison 1ill the day of his death !* What can he then pronounce, he adds, of “ these prophets, but that they are in- * Jer. lii. 11. FOR THE BIBLE. 143 postors and liars?” It might be deemed extreme- ly improbable that the same writer should, in the short course of a few pages, record what he wish- ed to be deemed a prediction, and a fact absolutely falsifying that prediction. But setting aside this consideration, we find that the prophecy was ac- tually fulfilled in all its parts. What, then, shall we pronounce of those who call Jeremiah an “ im- postor and a liar?” Hear the history. They burnt all the palaces of Jerusalem with jire: + and they took the king, and brought him up to the hing of Babylon to Riblah ++ and he gave judg- ment upon him (or, more literally, “ spake judg- ment with him”) at Riblah, and put him in pri- son till the day of his death. || There he died peaceably, not by the sword: and presumptively, Daniel and the other Jews, who were men of great authority at the court of Babylon, would obtain permission to bury their deceased prince with the burnings of his fathers; or the king of Babylon himself, revering royalty even in its ruins, might order the Jews to inter and lament him after the manner of their country. So much for the Deist’s “ particularity in treat- ing of the books ascribed to Isaiah and Jeremiah.” He particularizes two or three passages, which have been proved to be not justly liable to his censure: and he omits every evidence of their probity and the intrepidity of their writers, and every instance of sublime composition and (what is of far more consequence) of prophetical vera- city ! t 2Chron, xxxyi,19, $2 Kings xxv. 5,6, || Jer, lii, 11, M2 144 : AN APOLOGY Proceeding to the rest of the prophets, whom he takes collectively, he in the very cutset con- founds prophets with poets and musicians ; and asserts, that “ the flights and metaphors of the Jewish poets have been foolishly erected into what are now called prophecies. ” That there were false prophets, witches, or for- tune-tellers, &c. among the Jews, no person will attempt to deny. No nation has been without them. But when the Bible-prophets are repre- sented as “ strollers spending their lives in casting: nativities, predicting riches, conjuring for lost. goods,” &c. their office and character are wholly misrepresented. Their office was, to convey to the children of Israel the commands, the promises, and the threatenings of God: their character, that of men bravely sustaining the bitterest persecu- tions in the discharge of it. False prophets, in- deed,Zare rep. ot ted in many parts’of Scripture. * But what is the chaff to the wheat ? what are the false prophets to the true ones? Every thing good is liable to abuse. Who argues against a physician, because there are pretenders to physic? Was Isaiah “ a fortune-teller predicting riches,” when he said to king Hezekiah, “ Behold, the days come, that nothing shall be left to thee, and thy sons shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon?” + This prophecy was delivered in the year before Christ 713: and above a hundred years afterwards it was accomplished, when Ne- buchadnezzar took Jerusalem, and carried away the treasures of the king’s house ; { and when he * See particularly, Jer.xxili. 9-32. + Isai, xxxix. 6, 7. j 2 Kings xxiv. 13, FOR THE BIBLE. 145 commanded the master of his eunuchs, to bring certain of the king’s seed, and nourish them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand be- fore the king. * When Jehoram the idolatrous king of Israel, on the march with his allies and their armies, was dis- tressed for want of water, and waited upon Elisha; he, with a courageous respect for the dignity of his character and the sacredness of his office, (and not, as the Deist asserts, like ‘“ a party-prophet, full of venom and vulgarity ”) said to Jehoram, “ Get thee to the prophets of thy father and to the prophets of thy mother.+ Regarding however the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, by whose advice he had been consulted, he ordered them ¢o make the valley full of ditches: not for the com- mon purpose of “ getting water, by digging for it;” but to hold the water when it should miraculous- ly come without wind or rain from another coun- try, as it did come by the way of Edom. As to Elisha’s cursing the little children who had mocked him, and their consequent destruction —they had insulted him, probably, not as a man, but as a prophet; and the Hebrew word trans- lated “ child,” it should be remembered, is applied to grown-up youths. Be this as it may, had the cursing been a sin, it would not have been followed by the miraculous death of the persons cursed : for God best knows who deserve punishment ; and such a judgment, it may be .goncluded, would not be inflicted, without a salutary ¢fect on the idola- trous witnesses of it. By admitting the genuineness of the books of * Dan, i. 3. + 2 Kings iil. 146 AN APOLOGY Ezekiel and Daniel, who lived during the Baby- Jonian Captivity, the Deist appears to cut up the very root of his whole performance. For how can any intelligent man, after sucn a concession, if he reads the book of Daniel in particular with impar- tiality, refuse his assent to the truth of Christiani- ty? In vain he may assert, that the interpreta- tions and applications, which commentators and priests have made of these books, only show the fraud er the extreme folly to which credulity or priestcraft can go! The scientific Ferguson, who was neither a commentator nor a priest, in bis Tract upon the “ Year of our Saviour’s Crucifixion, ” concludes his dissertation on the ninth chap- ter of Daniel by saying ; “ Thus we have an as- tronomical demonstration of the truth of this an- cient prophecy.” Dispassionately studied, indeed, it is adapted to make every body become Chris- tians. | The Deist’s strange hypothesis—that Ezekiel and Daniel only “ pretended to have dreamed dreams, and to have seen visions, by way of carry- ing on a disguised correspondence, relative to the rescuing of their country from the Babylonian yoke !—is wild and extravagant almost beyond belief; as is likewise his subsequent conjecture, that Jonah was “ a fable written by some Gentile to expose the nonsense, and satirize the vicious and malignant character, of a Bible-prophet or a pre- dicting priest.” - He next quotes from Ezekiel * a passage re- specting Egypt, in which it is said, No foot of man or of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be * Ezek, xxix. 11. FOR THE BIBLE. 147 inhabited forty years; and broadly, and briefly, asserts it to be “ false.” Now, we know too lit- tle of the history of Egypt, at that remote period, to be able to prove that it was not false. Perhaps only a part of Egypt is here spoken of: and, if not a literal accomplishment- of hyperbolical ex- pressions denoting great desolation, is hardly to be expected. But we are told by Megasthenes and Berosus, two heathen historians who lived about three hundred years before Christ, that “ Nebu- chadnezzar conquered the greater part of Africa,” and “ took captives in Egypt,’ which appears to imply the fulfilment of the prediction. At any rate, had the Deist looked four verses onward, he would have there found a prophecy (relative to the same country) delivered above two thousand years ago, which has been receiving its completion from that time to this: Lgypt shall be the basest of the kingdoms, &c.* This the Deist may, if he pleases, call “a dream, a vision, or a lie:” but surely, it is a wonderful prophecy ; for Egypt has been successively the prey of the Babylonians, the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Sara- cens, the Mamelucs, and the Turks. Another prediction also, concerning king Zedekiah, may here be adduced—ZJ will bring him to Babylon; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there. + What! not see Babylon, though he should de there! How, again, is this consistent with what Jeremiah had foretold, that he should see the eyes of the hing of Babylon? { This apparent con- tradiction induced Zedekiah, as Josephus informs us, to give no credit to either of the prophets; * Ezek. xxix, 1d. Ibid. xii. 13. ¢ Jer. xxxiv. 3, 148 AN APOLOGY and yet he, unhappily, experienced the truth of both. He saw the eyes of the king of Babylon, not at Babylon, but at Riblah ; his eyes were there put out; and he was carried to Babylon, yet he saw 1f not. tee). eee And thus the Deist imagines, that he has demo- lished, and for ever, the authority of the Old Tes- tament—a book, which Sir Isaac Newton esteemed the most authentic of all histories; which, by its celestial light, illumines the darkest ages of anti- quity ; which is the touchstone enabling us to dis- tinguish between the God of Israel, holy, and just and good, and the impure rabble of heathen deities ; which has been thought, by competent judges, to have afforded matter for the laws of Solon, and a foundation for the philosophy of Plato; which has been illustrated by the labour of learning, in all ages and countries; and admired and venerated for its sublimity, its piety, and its veracity, by all who were able to read and to understand it, * He has “ gone, indeed, through the * I cannot forbear adding, in a Note, the deliberate judgment of the late Sir William Jones, one of the pro- foundest of Eastern scholars, as well as one of the most excellent of men, who was as incapable of affirming what he did not fully believe, as of suppressing what he “did, — “ I, who cannot help believing the divinity of the Mes- siah, from the undisputed antiquity and manifest comple tion of many prophecies (especially of those of Isaiah), in’ the only person recorded by history to whom they are ap- plicable, am obliged of course to believe the sanctity of the venerable books, to which that sacred person refers as genuine. But it is not the truth of our national religion, as such, that I have at heart: it is truth itself.” “And again :—* I have carefully and regularly perused these FOR THE BIBLE. 149 wood,” as he says, and with the fullest intention to cut it down ; but he has only pointed out a few unsightly shrubs; he has entangled himself in thickets of thorns and briers, and has lost his way on the mountains of Lebanon ; the goodly cedar- trees whereof scorn the blunt edge and the base temper of his axe, and laugh unhurt at the feeble- ness of his stroke. Ridiculing things held most sacred, and calumniating characters esteemed most venerable, in order to excite the scoffs of the pro- fane, increase the scepticism of the doubtful, shake the faith of the unlearned, suggest cavils to the disputers of this world, and perplex the minds of honest men seeking to worship the God of their fathers in sincerity and truth; he has not so much as glanced at the great design of the whole volume, or the harmony and mutual dependence of its se- veral parts. He does not perceive, that, but for the selected people of God, and the truths deli- vered in their Scriptures, he and the whole world would have been at this day worshippers of idols. He has passed by all the prophecies respecting the Messiah—though they absolutely fixed the time both of his coming, and of his being cut off; and described his office, character, condition, sufferings, and death, in the most circumstantial manner, se- Holy Scriptures (N. B. This was written in his own copy of the Bible) ; and am of opinion that the volume, inde- pendently of its divine origin, contains more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever language they may have been written.” (Life by Lord Teignmouth, IT. 236, 24.5, 8vo edit.) Ina Dis- course likewise, addressed to the Asiatic Society in 1791, he declares his firm belief, that “ the prophecies were ge- nuine compositions, and having been fulfilled, were con- % quently inspired.” F, W. 150 AN APOLOGY yeral hundred years before the events themselves actually took place, in the person of Jesus of Na- zareth: and he has totally neglected noticing the testimony of the whole Jewish nation, to the truth both of the natural and the miraculous facts record- ed in the Old Testament ! Vu. THE NEW TESTAMENT. “ The New TesTAMENT, they tell us (asserts the Deist), is founded upon the prophecies of the Old; and if so, it must follow the fate of its foun- dation!” Undoubtedly, the fate of the two is inseparably linked together; though the New is not founded solely on the prophecies of the Old. Our Saviour, indeed, refers the Jews to Moses who wrote, and the Scriptures which testified of him; but he also adds, Though ye believe not me, believe the works. * Hence it appears, that the verification of his mission, even to the Jews, did not rest exclusively on the truth of the prophecies of the Old Testament ; so that, if some of those prophecies could even be proved to have been misapplied by commentators, Christianity would not thereby be overturned. ‘“¢ The mere existence of such a woman as Mary, and such men as Joseph and Jesus,” the Deist says, “is a matter of indifference.” He conde- scends, however, to think it probable that ‘“ there were sach persons ;” and only “ contends against the fable of Jesus Christ, as told in the New Tes- * John vy. 46, 39, x. 38. \ FOR THE BIBLE. 15] tament, and the wild and visionary doctrine raised thereon.” He does not then repute it “ a fable,” that Jesus Christ lived upwards of 1800 years ago in Judza, where he went about doing good, constantly attended by several disciples; who, a few years after he had been put to death by Pon- tius Pilate, became numerous, not only in that country, but throughout the whole Roman em- pire; that a particular day has been observed by them ever since in a religious manner, in comme- moration of his real or supposed resurrection ; and that the constant celebration. of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper may from the present time be traced back to him, as the author of both these institu- tions. Now, if these things be admitted to be fact, they involve so many other parts of the New Testament, that but scanty materials are left for the Deist’s “ fable.” The Miraculous Conception, however, he pre- nounces a fable “ blasphemously obscene.” Im- pure must that imagination be, which can discover any obscenity in the Angel’s declaration to Mary; ; the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. * As well might he find it in Genesis, where it is said, The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. + And now he comes to “a position, which (he says) cannot be controverted; namely, first, that the agreement of all the parts of a story does not prove that story to be true, because the parts may agree, and the whole may be false ; and, secondly, the disagreement of the parts of a story proves * Luke i, 33, +. Gen. i, 2 N 3 153 AN APOLOGY | that the whole—i. e. of course, the pith and mar- row of the story—cannot be true.” Yet, surely, it is scarcely possible for even two persons (for instance, Sir John Hawkins and Mr Boswell, in their Lives of Dr Johnson) and the difficulty is increased, if there are more than two—to draw up the biography of any one of their acquaintance, without considerable differences as to the exist- ence and succession of its several incidents. But these differences, in minute circumstances, will not invalidate their testimony as to all material trans- actions; much less will they render the whole of their narratives “ a fable.” If several independent witnesses of fair character should agree in testify- ing, that a murder or a robbery was committed at a precise time, in a particular place, and by a cer- tain individual ; every court of justice in the world would admit the fact, notwithstanding the abstract possibility of the whole being false. And again :— ff several such witnesses should agree in affirm- ing, that they saw the King of France beheaded, though they might disagree as to the figure of the guillotine, or the size of the executioner, &c. every court of justice in the world would think, that such minute differences did not overturn the evidence respecting the fact itself. This “ incontrovertible” position, then, as he terms it, the Deist applies to the genealogies of Christ given by Matthew and Luke. There is a disagreement between them, he says; and “ if Matthew speak truth, Luke speaks falsehood ; if Luke speak truth, Matthew speaks falsehood ;” and therefore, it seems neither of them is “ en- titled to be believed in any thing he says after- ¢ 7 wards!” Here both the premises and the conclu-. FOR THE BIBLE. 153 sion are inadmissible ; the conclusion—because two authors, who happen to differ in tracing back the pedigree of an individual for above a thousand years, cannot therefore be justly deemed incompe- tent to bear testimony to the transactions of his life, unless an intention to falsify can be proved against them; the premises—because Matthew speaks truth, and Luke speaks truth, though they do not speak the same truth; Matthew giving the genealogy of Joseph, the reputed father of Jesus, and Luke that of Mary, his real mother. If, in- deed, either of them had fabricated the genealogy in question, he must have been conscious, from knowing the care with which the public registers were preserved among the Jews, that he would necessarily have been exposed to immediate de- tection. In what the Deist says about “ forty years be- ing assigned by Matthew, contrary to all expe- rience, to each of twenty-seven successive genera- tions ;” about “ each being an old bachelor before he married,” &c. which he with his usual gross- ness pronounces “ not even a reasonable lie,” he is totally wrong. By inserting from 1 Chron. iii. 11. 12. three generations, through whatever mis- take omitted in the Evangelist, the average age of the fathers at the birth of the sons recorded is re- duced to thirty-six ; and the marriage might have preceded the birth of that son by many years, especially as it is not always the first-born son who succeeds his father in the list. David had at least six sons grown to manhood, before Solomon was born, and Rehoboam at least three elder than Abia, or Abijah. From the mention of some things in one Evan- 154 AN APOLOGY gelist, which are not mentioned by all or by any of the others, the Deist represents the Gospels “not as written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but by some unconnected individuals, each making his own legend.” Even if we admit this a single moment, for the sake of the inference, would it not, by removing every possible suspicion of fraud and imposture, very strongly confirm the gospel-history ? Had they agreed in nothing, their testimony ought to have been rejected as a legen- dary tale; had they agreed in every thing, it might have been surmised that, instead of being uncon- nected individuals, they were a set of associated impostors. As an instance of contradiction between the Evangelists, the Deist asserts that “‘ Mathew says the Angel announced the immaculate conception to Joseph; whereas, Luke says he appeared unto Mary.” The truth is (and it is so obvious, that only the blind could have missed it), he appeared unto both: to Mary, when he informed her, that she should by the power of God conceive a son ; and to Joseph, some months afterwards, when Mary had returned from her long visit to her cousin Eli- zabeth. What follows is too abominably indecent, too blasphemously profane, for any modest ear. The story of the destruction of the young chil- dren by the order of Herod, being mentioned only by Matthew, is therefore pronounced by the Deist “a lie.” Are we, then, to reject all facts record- ed by only one historian? Matthew was writing his gospel for the use of the Jews, who must have had a melancholy remembrance of the massacre referred to. The Gentiles were less interested in it; though there is reason to believe, from a pas- FOR THE BIBLE. 155 sage in Macrobius, * that it was known at Rome. As to what the Deist says of John, that “ he was under two years of age, and staid behind,” and yet escaped; it cannot be proved that John was at that time in the district to which the edict of Herod was confined, or that he had not exceeded the stated limit, which probably included only such children as had just completed their first year. John was, certainly, six months older than Jesus. “‘ Not any two of the Evangelists,” the Deist observes, “ agree in reciting (in exactly the same words) the inscription which, they tell us, was put over Christ when he was crucified.” But might not the unessential verbal difference have arisen. from that inscription being written in three lan- guages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin ; which (though all of the same meaning) would probably, when the Hebrew and the Latin were translated into Greek, involve a verbal difference in the transla- tions ? : “The only one (he adds) of the men called Apostles, who appears to have been near the place of crucifixion, was Peter.” This is not true. We do not know that Peter was present at all at the crucifixion ; but we do know that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was; for Jesus spoke to him from the cross. And why,” he asks, “ should we believe Peter, when he was convict- ed, by their own account, of perjury, in swearing that “ he knew not Jesus?” Why? Because he sincerely repented of his wickedness, and suffered martyrdom in attestation of the truth of the Chris- tian religion. * Saturn. IT, 4, N2 156 AN APOLOGY But the Evangelists disagree also, he asserts, as to the time of the crucifixion; Mark saying it was at the third hour (nine in the morning), and John at the sixth, i. e. according to the Deist’s hypo- thesis, at twelve at noon. Let us only admit, however, that John, writing his gospel ina Roman erovince of Asia, might have used the Roman method of computing time, which resembled our own, and the alleged contradiction vanishes : as in shat case the sixth hour, when Jesus (according to chat writer) was condemned, would be six in the morning; and the intermediate three hours from six to nine, when he was crucified, might be em- ployed in making preparations. And here we may notice some very natural in- cidents attending that event, particularly as to those who stood by Jesus in his last trying hour ; John the friend of his heart, his tender mother whom he consigned to John’s protection, and those who had gratefully followed him through life. Such a conformity of circumstances, to our proba- ble expectation, supplies an argument in favour of the truth of the Gospels, far outweighing a parcel of paltry objections, which arise perhaps solely out of our ignorance of the customs and manners of that remote age. ' “ The dashing writer of the book of Matthew,” _the Deist next asserts, is “ not supported by the writers of the other books in his account of the voiracles which attended the crucifixion—the pre- ternatural darkness, the rending of the veil of the Temple, the earthquake which rent the rocks, and the resurrection of the bodies of many saints that slept.” This is not true. Matthew is supported oth by Mark and Luke, with respect to the first FOR THE BIBLE. 157 two; and those two they probably thought abun- dantly sufficient to convince any person, as they convinced the Centurion, that Jesus was the son of God. These two, indeed, were better calcu- lated to produce conviction among the persons, for whose information Mark and Luke wrote, than the two latter; as the earthquake, even if not local, might have been pronounced by an objector a natural phenomenon; and those to whom the revived saints appeared, might be dead or scatter- ed abroad. But the darkness must have been ge- nerally known and remembered, and the veil of the temple could easily be preserved. John’s si- lence is accounted for, by the circumstance of his gospel being intended as a kind of supplement to the three others. One occurrence, however, of great importance, he has stated with peculiar dis- tinctness, relative to the blood and water which flowed through the wound made by the soldier's spear. The blood is easily accounted for; but whence came the water? The anatomist tells us, “ from the pericardium.” So consistent is evan- gelical testimony with the most curious researches of natural science. Without entering into the Deist’s jocose specu- lation upon what Matthew might have told us re- specting this “ army of saints,” as he calls them, suffice it for us to believe, that all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth. If none of these miracles had been true, or rather if any of them had been false, what motive could Matthew, writing to the Jews, have had for trump- ing up such wonderful stories? Every reader whom he met would have told him that he was ‘a liar and an impostor.” Would any writer, 158 AN APOLOGY who should now address to the French nation a History of Louis XVI., venture to athrm, that, when he was beheaded, there was darkness for three hours over all France; that there was an earthquake ; that rocks were split, and graves open- ed, and dead men brought to life, who actually ap- peared to many persons in Paris ? VII. “ The tale of the Resurrection,” the Deist says, “ follows that of the Crucifixion. If these writers had given their evidence, with respect to the alibi of the dead body, in a court of justice, in the same contradictory manner, they would have been in danger of having their ears cropped for perjury, and would have justly deserved it.” On the contrary, the seeming confusion is occasioned by the brevity of the accounts, and would have been cleared up at once, if the witnesses of the resurrection had been examined before any judica- ture whatever. As we cannot have this vivd voce examination of them all, let us question the Evan- gelists. @. Did you find the sepulchre of Jesus empty ? A. One of us actually saw it empty, and the rest heard it was so from eyewitnesses. @. Did you, or any of the followers of Jesus, take away the dead body from the sepulchre ? All. No. . @. Did the soldiers, or the Jews, take it away ? All. No. @. How are you certain of that ? h A. Because we saw the body when it was dead, and we saw it afterwards when it was alive. FOR THE BIBLE. 159 @. How are you certain, that what you saw was the body of Jesus ? A, We had been long and intimately acquainted with him, and knew his person perfectly. Q. Did you not, through terror, mistake a spirit for a body ? A. No: the body had flesh and bones: and we are sure that it was the very body, which hung upon the cross ; for we saw the wound in the side, and the print of the nails in the hands and feet. @. And all this you are ready to swear ? A. We are: and we are ready to die also, sooner than deny any part of it. Surely, this would satisfactorily establish the fact of the dead body’s being removed from the sepulchre by supernatural means. “ The Jews,” the Deist says, “ applied | to Pilate for a watch to be set over the sepulchre;” but he omits the reason alleged for the request, viz. be- cause that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, “ After three days I will rise again.” § Yet it is highly material: for at the very time that Jesus predicted his resurrection, he predicted also his crucifixion ; || and this part of the prophecy they knew had, through their own malignity, been ac- curately fulfilled: yet were they so infatuated as to suppose, that by a guard of soldiers they could prevent the completion of the other. That the rest say nothing about this application, &c. proves nothing against it. Omissions are not contradic- tions. The Deist proceeds to comment on what he deems the variations of the Evangelists, with re- § Matt. xxvii, 63, 64. | Matt. xvi. 21. 160 AN APOLOGY spect to the hour at which the women came to’ the sepulchre. But they agree as to the day ; and, as to the time of day, it was early in the morning. The degree of twilight, which lighted them on their way, is of little consequence. And John, who states that Mary Magdalene went to the se- pulchre, does not say (as the Deist makes him say) that she went alone: she might, for aught that ap~ pears, have been accompanied by all the women mentioned in Luke. Lastly, on the subject of his insinuation that she was a woman of bad character, it deserves to be considered whether there is any scriptural authority for the imputation ; and, at all events, whether a reformed woman of that deserip- tion ought to be esteemed an incompetent witness of a fact. The stone had obviously been rolled away, by the statement of all the Evengelists before the wo- man came to the sepulchre. Such of them as do not mention that this was done by an angel, who subsequently sat upon it, merely omit giving an account of a transaction which took place previ- ously to the women’s arrival. In the interval, the angel might have entered the sepulchre ; and from the first there might have been another within. Luke, says the Deist, affirms “ there were two, both standing up: and John affirms, they were both sitting down.’ * He chooses to forget, that they do not both speak of the same instant. Luke speaks of the appearance to the women, and John of the appearance to Mary Magdalene alone, who remained weeping at the sepulchre after Peter and John had left it. All his objections, in fact, are * Luke xxiv. 4. John xx, 12, 13. FOR THE BIBLE. 161 grounded upon the mistake of supposing, that the angels were seen at one precise moment, in one particular place, and by the same individuals. His inference from Matthew’s using the expres- sion until this day,* viz. that “the book must have been manufactured after a lapse of some genera- tions‘at least,” is inadmissible against the positive testimony of all antiquity. And for the bungling story about stealing away the body,+ the Chief Priests are answerable, not the Evangelists. The Deist now comes to “ that part of the evi- dence in those books, that respects the pretended appearance of Christ after his pretended resurrec- tion.” And his first blunder is misquoting Mat- thew xxviii. 7. for the purpose of creating a con- tradiction, and then condemning it. The passage is, “ Behold, he goeth before you into Galilee ;” which might properly be translated, “ He will £0,” and literally means, “ He is going.” This the Deist quotes, ‘“ Behold, he is gone!” Of sucha blunder even his dashing Matthew could not have been guilty ; since he adds immediately afterwards, that Jesus met the women as they departed quick- ly from the sepulchre. + If the passage in Matthew, THEN the eleven, &c.§ had been translated (as it might better have been) ann the eleven, all the difficulties about the anachronism of these disciples “marching to Galilee to meet Jesus in a moun- tain by his own appointment, at the very time when, according to John, they were assembled in another place for fear of the Jews, || totally vanish. Matthew, intent upon the purposed meeting in * Matt. xxviii. 15, ¢ Matt. xxviii. 13. ¢ Matt. xxviii. 8. | § Matt. xxviii. 16, || John xx, 19. 162 AN APOLOGY Galilee, omits the mention of many appearances recorded in John, and thus seems to connect the day of the resurrection of Jesus with that of the departure of the disciples. It should be also far- ther recollected, that the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which immediately followed the eating of the passover, lasted seven days; and that strict ob- servers of the law did not think themselves at li- berty to leave Jerusalem, till that feast was ended : which is a collateral proof, that the disciples did not set off for Galilee .on the day of the resurrec- tion.* The Deist asks, Why Jesus did not show him- self to all the people after his resurrection? So asked Spinoza. But God had given the Jews many opportunities of seeing the miracles of Jesus, though he did not oblige them to believe what they saw. The Chief Priests and the Pharisees, we know, admitting the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus, + persevered in their incredulity ; and so probably would the other Jews have persevered also after the resurrection of Jesus. Lazarus had been buried four days, Jesus only three: the body of Lazarus had begun to undergo cor- ruption, the body of Jesus saw no corruption.— If Jesus then had shown himself generally after his resurrection, the Chief Priests and the Pha- risees would probably have gathered another * It might be added, that the arch-deist, Paine, reckons uuke as one of the Eleven! and speaks of him as an eye- witness of what he relates,—though a person, who affects to write comments on the Bible, ought to have known that he was not an Apostle; and we learn from himself, that he wrote from the testimony of others. Chap, i. 2 ; John xi. 47. FOR THE BIBLE. 163 council, and have said a second time, “ What do we?” With respect to ourselves, the evidence of this great event is far more convincing, as it now stands, than if it had been said that Jesus showed himself to every man in Jerusalem. For then it would have had no sifting, and it might have been suspected that the whole story had been fabricated by the Jews. The Deist thinks Paul an improper witness of the resurrection ; whereas, surely he was, on the other hand, one of the fittest that could have been chosen ; because his testimony is that of a former enemy. Paul had, in his own miraculous conver- sion, sufiicient ground for believing that to have been a fact, which he had formerly, through ex- treme prejudice, considered as a “fable.” For the truth of the resurrection, he appeals to above two hundred and fifty living witnesses ;* and that in the face of those, who would not have failed to blast his character, if he had advanced an untruth. For Corinth was full of Jews, and contained many Christians, following teachers who were arrayed in opposition to Paul. He must have been an idiot —which no one can believe him to have been—if he had put it in the power of any of these to prove, from his own letter, that he was a “liar and an impostor. ” And now the Deist proceeds to the Ascension, about which he says, “ neither the writer of the book of Matthew, nor the writer of the book of John, has said a syllable! ” John has not, indeed, given an express narrative of it; but he has cer- * 1 Cor, xv. 6. oO 164 AN APOLOGY tainly said something about it. Go to my breth- ren, and say unto them, “ I ascend unto my fa- ther and your father, and to my God and your God.” If the fact itself be not detailed by either of them, it may reasonably be supposed, that it was on account of its notoriety. That it was no- torious, is justly to be collected, from the reference made to it by Peter in the hearing of all the Jews, a very few days after it had happened. This Je- sus hath God raised up, whereof we are all wit- nesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, &c.+ As to the difference of the statements of Mark and Luke, Mark only omits the particulars of Jesus going with his Apostles to Bethany, and blessing them there, which are men- tioned by Luke: and silence concerning a fact, the Deist must again be reminded, is not a denial of it. t ; {+ Acts ii. 32, 33. $ Paine likewise asserts, that ‘* the whole space of time, from the Crucifixion to what is called the Ascension, is but a few days, apparently not more than three or four! and that all the circumstances are reported to have hap- pened near the same spot, Jerusalem.” Yet, from John, we learn that Jesus appeared to his disciples on the day of his resurrection, when Thomas was not with them; and after eight days, he appeared to them again, when Thomas was with them (xx. 26.) He also afterwards showed him- self again to them at the sea of Tiberias, which was in Galilee, and certainly not less than sixty or seventy miles from Jerusalem (xxi. 1.) Nay, he was seen of the Apos- tles after his death forty days (Acts i. 3.) instead of “four.” Surely, after all this, the readers of Paine can- not but be upon their guard as to the credit due to his as- sertions, however bold and improper. ‘The Faustus whom he afterwards quotes with approbation, and whom Michaelis pronounces not only ignorant of the Greek lan- guage, but illiterate in the highest degree, contended a- FOR THE BIBLE. 165 Had the Evangelists been impostors, they would have written with more caution, and avoided every appearance of contradiction. The mention of their inspiration is here purposely omitted: both be- cause the Deist would reject such a suggestion with scorn; and the evidence contained in the Gospels is competent to prove the Christian re- ligion worthy of all acceptation, whether their writers were inspired or not. IX. ‘ There was no such book,” the Deist asserts, “ as the New Testament, till more than three hundred years after the time that Christ is said to have lived.” This is an assertion calculated to mislead common readers. The real case is as follows :—The New Testament consists of twenty- seven parts; concerning seven of which (viz. the Epistle to the Hebrews, that of James, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, that of Jude, and the Revelation) there being at first some doubts, the question, whether they should be re- ceived or not, was probably decided, like other questions concerning opinions, in a council con- sisting of the best theologians of their time, by vote. The other twenty parts were owned as canonical at all times, and by all Christians. Be- fore the middle of the second century, as we learn from Mosheim, the greatest part of the books of the New Testament were read in every Christian society throughout the world. The four Gospels mong other things (it seems) that “the Gospel of St Matthew could not have been written by St Matthew him- self, because he is always mentioned in it in the third person |’ 166 AN APOLOGY in particular, we are assured, were collected during the life of St John: and the others were, probably, gathered together about the same time; as the multiplication of spurious writings, full of pious frauds and fabulous wonders, rendered it necessary for the rulers of the Church to use all possible diligence in separating from them such works as were truly apostolical and divine. It might, in- deed, easily be shown, that presumptively the Gospels, and certainly some of St Paul’s Epistles, were known to Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp, the contemporaries of the Apostles; since these men could not, of course, quote or refer to books, which did not exist. Whether they were actually combined into one volume, or not, is a matter of no importance whatever. The Deist, before he finally relinquishes his at- tack upon the historical part of the New Testa- ment, objects to the phrase three days and three nights, * as applied to our Saviour’s being iz the heart of the earth. Yet this only means three days; as in Genesis the expression, forty days and forty nights, means only forty days (vii. 12. 17.) And Jesus was in the heart of the earth on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday ; in the first and last, a part of the day"(as usual=with_ writers of all nations) being’ put,for the'whole. ae In proceeding to the™Epistles of St Paul, the Deist says, “ that Apostle declares he had not be- lieved what was told of the Resurrection and the Ascension.” Where does he make this declara- tion? He had persecuted the disciples, it is true ; * Matt. xii, 40, FOR THE BIBLE. 167 but so did the High Priest, and all the senate of the children of Israel, * though they neither denied the reality of the miracles wrought by Peter and the Apostles, nor contradicted their testimony concerning the Resurrection and the Ascension. The Deist says, “ the writer of them, whoever he was, attempts to prove his doctrine by argu- ment.” He does not: on the contrary, he in many places affirms, that “ his doctrine was not taught him by man, or any invention of his own requiring the ingenuity of argument to support it.” The Deist says, “ that writer does not pretend to have been a witness of the story of the Resur- rection.” No: but he affirms that he was a wit- ness of the Resurrection itself ;—He was seen of me also as of one born out of due time. § © “ The story of his being struck to the ground, as he was journeying to Damascus,” the Deist says, “ has nothing in it miraculous or extraordi- nary.” But surely it is somewhat extraordinary at least, that a man even struck by lightning should retain atthe very time full possession of his un- derstanding ; should hear a voice issuing from the lightning, speaking to him in the Hebrew tongue, calling him by his name, and entering into con- versation with him.§ ‘ His companions,” it is added, “ appear not to have suffered in the same manner !”—the greater wonder, if it were a com- mon storm, that he alone should be hurt, and yet (with the exception of being struck blind) so little * Acts v. 21. { Gal. i. 11, &e. § 1 Cor. xv, 8. § Acts xxvi. 14 02 168 AN APOLOGY hurt as to be able immediately to walk into Da- mascus! So difficult is it to oppose truth by an hypothesis. Men, whose characters have in them a great deal of violence and fanaticism, like that of Paul, as the Deist asserts, are “ never good moral evi- dences of any doctrine they preach.” So says the Deist. Lord Lyttelton—not a lying Bible-prophet, a stupid Evangelist, or an a-b-ab Priest; but a learned layman, whose illustrious rank received splendour from his talents, says: “1 think the Conversion and Apostleship of St Paul alone, duly considered, is of itself a demonstration suffi- cient to prove Christianity to be a divine reve- lation.” The Deist asserts, the Apostle “sets out to prove the resurrection of the same body.” Let him produce the passage. Mr Locke, who had read his Epistles, with at least as much attention and acuteness as any Deist whatever, does “ not remember any place where the resurrection of the same body is so much as mentioned.” As a matter of choice, forsooth, the Deist had rather have a better body.” And so he will: his natu- ral body will be raised a spiritual body, and his corruptible will put on incorruption. || “ Every animal,” he adds, “ excels us in something.” On the contrary, does not the single circumstance of our exclusively having hands, give us an infinite superiority, even in a physical respect, over all the animals of the creation ? From a caterpillar’s passing into a torpid state, resembling death, and afterwards appearing a | Cor. xv. 44, 55. FOR THE BIBLE. 169 splendid butterfly, and from the (supposed !) con- sciousness of existence which the animal had in these different states, the Deist asks, “ Why must I believe that the resurrection of the same body is necessary to continue to me the conscious- ness of existence hereafter?” And where is it said in Scripture that it is? He next pronounces the sublime extract from 1 Cor. xv. introduced in our burial-service, which is one of the finest compositions that ever occupied the mind of man, a “ doubtful jargon, as desti- tute of meaning as the tolling of the bell at the funeral.” O ye men of low condition ! pressed down, as ye often are, by accumulated burthens of calamity, what thought you on hearing this passage read at the interment of your parent or your child? Did it appear to you a “ doubtful jargon?” No: you understood from it, that you would all be changed in a moment, in the twin- kling of an eye, at the last trump; and that, if (notwithstanding profane attempts to subvert your faith) you continue steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, your labour shall not be in vain. Proud of a wretched modicum of science, the Deist now presumes to correct St Paul for saying, one star differeth from another star in glory ; and informs us, he ought to have said, “ in distance.” Upon what basis does he rest his assumption, that the stars are equal in magnitude, and placed at different distances? He cannot prove that they are not different in magnitude, and placed at equal distances ; though none of them may be so near to the earth, as to have any sensible annual pa- rallax. It moves one’s indignation to see a little 170 AN APOLOGY smattering in philosophy set against the veracity of an apostle. “ Sometimes,” the Deist remarks, “ Paul af- fects to be a naturalist, and to prove (he might more properly have said, ilustrate) his system of resurrection from the principles of vege- tation. Thou fool, says he, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. To which one might reply, in the Apostle’s own language, “ Thou fool Paul, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die not.” Every husband- man in Corinth would indisputably understand St Paul’s phrase in a popular sense ; and would agree with him that, as from an apparently rotten grain of wheat God raises the root, the stem, the leaves, and the ear of a new plant, so from the apparently rotten corpse he might also raise a new body. Our Saviour’s expression about a corn of wheat, If it die it bringeth forth much fruit, * proves that the Jews thought the death of the grain necessary to its reproduction. V Whether the Fourteen Epistles ascribed to Paul were written by him or not, is, aceording to the Deist, “a matter of indifference.” Surely, on the other hand, their genuineness is a matter of the greatest importance. If indeed they were written by him, as there is unquestionable proof that they were, it will be difficult for any man, upon fair principles of sound reasoning, to deny that the Christian Religion is true. The argument stands thus :—St Paul wrote several letters to those whom in different countries he had converted to Christianity, in which he distinctly affirms two * Jobn xii. 24. FOR THE BIBLE. 171 things: first, that he had wrought miracles in their presence ; and, secondly, that many of themselves had received the gift of tongues, and other mira- culous gifts of the Holy, Ghost. These persons must have certainly known, whether in either re- spect he spoke the truth, or not. And would Paul, a man confessedly of good abilities, have sent pub- lic letters full of falsehoods, which could not fail to be detected immediately upon perusal? Yet, if either of these affirmations is correct, the Chris- tian religion must be true. + The Deist now closes his observations by re- marking, that “if the Bible (meaning the Old Testament) and Testament should hereafter fall, it is not he that has been the occasion.” The Bible, he may rest assured, which has withstood the learning of Porphyry and the pewer of Julian, the. genius of Bolingbroke, and the wit of Vol- taire, will not fall by the sophistries above adduced against it. He has barbed anew, indeed, the blunted arrows of former adversaries; he has feathered them with blasphemy and ridicule, dip- ped them in his deadliest poison, aimed them with his utmost skill, and shot them against the shield of faith with his greatest vigour ;—but, scarcely reaching the mark, they have fallen to the ground without a stroke. t See Gal. iii. 2.5. 1 Thess. i. 5. 1 Cor. ii. 4. And Corinth, in particular, was an enlightened city. How gladly would any of the factions, there opposed to him, have laid hold of declarations even of doubtful veracity ! The genuineness and authenticity of both the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles of St Paul, have been unanswer- ably established by one of the very ablest books in the English language, Paley’s Hore Pauline. F. W. 472 AN APOLOGY X. In conclusion, the Deist asserts, generally, that “ admitting revelation to be a possible thing, the thing so revealed is revelation to the person only to whom it is made. His account of it to another is not revelation. There is no possible criterion, whereby to judge of the truth of what he tells.” This is false. A real miracle, performed in at- testation of it, is a certain criterion. The reason why we believe Jesus speaking in the Gospel, and disbelieve Mahomet speaking in the Koran, is— that Jesus in the presence of thousands wrought numerous miracles, which the most bitter and watchful of his enemies could not disallow, and Mahomet wrought no miracles at all. Nor is a miracle the only criterion. For again, if a series of Prophets should, through a course of many cen- turies, predict the appearance of a certain person, at a precise time, for a particular end; and at the time predicted a person should appear, in whom all the circumstances previously announced were exactly accomplished ; such a completion of pro- phecy would be a criterion of the truth of the re- velation, which that person was commissioned to pro- mulge. Or if a person should now say, as many a false prophet is daily saying, that ‘“ he had a commission to declare the will of God;” and as a proof of his veracity, should predict, that “ after his death he would rise from the dead on the third day ; the completion of such a prophecy would be an indisputable criterion of the truth of his com- munications. “ What is it,” the Deist asks, “ that the Bible teaches us?” The prophet Micah shall answer FOR THE BIBLE. 173 him : it teaches us to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.* It inculeates justice, mercy, and piety ; not, as he asserts, “ ra- pine, cruelty, and murther ! ” And “ what is it,” he farther asks, “ that the Testament teaches us?” Not the gross lesson which he asserts ; but that all, who have done good, shall rise unto the resurrection of life; and all who have done evil, unto the resurrection of dam- nation. + The moral precepts of the Gospels are so well fitted to promote the happiness of mankind in this world, and to prepare human nature for the enjoyment of future blessedness, that one is surprised to hear the Deist object to what he calls the “ fragments of morality, irregularly and thinly scattered in these books.” As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. t Is this “a fragment of morality?” Is it not rather the vigorous root, from which every branch of so- cial obligation may be derived? It is from the Gospels, and from the Gospels alone, that we learn the importance of these obligations. Acts of be- nevolence and brotherly love may be to an unbe- lever voluntary acts: to a Christian, they are in- dispensable duties. Is a ew commandment no part of Revealed Religion? A new command- ment I give unto you, “ That ye love one an- other.” § Two precepts the Deist particularizes as incon- sistent with the dignity and the nature of man— that of not resenting injuries, and that of loving enemies. Yet who, but the Deist, ever interpret- * Micah vi. 8. { John v. 29, ¢ Luke vi, 31, § John xiii. 34. 174: AN APOLOGY ed literally the proverbial phrase—J/f a man smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also? || Did Jesus himself do so, when the officer of the High Priest smote him? Is it not evident, that only a proneness to exact revenge for every trif- ling offence is here forbidden? And as to loving enemies, is it not explained elsewhere to mean, doing them all the good in our power ? Instead of “ loving in proportion to the injury, which (if it could be done) would be offering a premium for a crime ;” is it not an injunction to emulate the be- nevolence of the Deity himself, who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good ? “Jt has been the scheme of the Christian church, ” the Deist asserts, “ to hold man in igno- rance of his Creator, as it is of government to hold him in ignorance of his rights.” Will any honest man of plain sense admit, that this representation in either particular is true? When he attends the service of the Church, are not the public prayers in which he joins, the lessons which are read to him, and the sermons which he hears—all calcu- lated to impress upon his mind a deep conviction of the mercy, the justice, the holiness, the wisdom, and the power of God? Should the Deist’s scheme indeed take place, and men no longer believe their Bible, they would soon become as ignorant of their Creator, as all the world was when Ged called Abraham from his kindred. They would bow dowa to stocks and stones, and their mouths would hiss their hands (as was Cone in the time of Job, and is done by the poor African at present) if they beheld the sun when tt shined, or the moon walk- || Matt. vy, 39. FOR THE BIBLE. 179 ing in brightness ; * or, returning to the worship of Jupiter and Bacchus and Venus, they would copy, in the profligacy of their own lives, the impurities of their gods. And what design has “ government,” especially in this empire, to “ hold man in ignorance of his rights?” None whatever. All wise statesmen are persuaded that, the more men know of their just rights, the better subjects they will become. En- lightened subjects are, not from necessity but choice, the firmest friends of good government. The people of Great Britain know that they have a right to be free, not only from the capricious ty- ranny of any one man’s will, but also from the far more afflicting despotism of republican factions ; and it is this very knowledge, which attaches the respectable and sensible majority of them to the constitution of their country. The government does not desire, that men should remain in ignorance of their rights: but it both desires and requires, that they shall not disturb the pub- lic peace under vain pretences; that they shall make themselves acquainted, not merely with the rights, but with the duties of men in civil socie- ty. Of these rights one of the principal is, the right of property. Does government “ hold any man in ignorance of this right?” On the contra- ry, is it not its chief care to ascertain and to de- fend it? Utterly hostile must every good man be to that spurious philosophy, that democratic insa- nity, which would equalize all fortunes and level all distinctions—fertunes and distinctions, arising * Job xxxi, 26, £7, Pp 176 AN APOLOGY from superior probity, learning, eloquence, skill, courage, or other excellences ; forming the very blood and nerves of the body politic; and abso- lutely essential, not only to its well-being, but to its actually being at all. We discern the wisdom and the power of God even in the little, which we are enabled to compre- hend, of the material system of the universe; and we trace his goodness in having filled so much of it, as lies within our limited ken, with sensitive beings capable (in their respective orders) of en- joying the comforts prepared for them by his pro- vidence. And why should we not contemplate this goodness in the redemption, as well as in the preservation, of the world? The Deist rejects with contempt the history of Man’s Fall, and his consequent liability to death. Yet he finds, by la- mentable observation, that death does reign univer- sally. Herefuses, likewise, to believe that Christ hath overcome death, and redeemed mankind.— Why ? Because, forsooth, he cannot account for the pro- priety of this redemption! But what is there, that he can account for? Not for the germination of a blade of corn, or the fall of a leaf of the forest. And will he refuse to eat of the fruits of the earth, because God has not given him wisdom equal to his own? What father of a family can make le- vel to the apprehension of his infant children all the views of happiness, which his paternal good- ness is preparing for them; the utility of reproof, correction, instruction, &c. in forming their minds to piety, temperance, and probity? We are, at present, in the very infancy of our existence. What discipline may be necessary to generate in us the qualities essential to our well-being through- FOR THE BIBLE. Le? out all eternity, we know not: whether God could or could not, consistently with the general good, have forgiven the transgression of Adam without any atonement, we know not: whether the malig- nity of sin be not so opposite to the general good that it cannot be forgiven so long as the mind re- tains a propensity to it, we know not. So that, even if there should have been greater difficulty in comprehending the mode of God’s moral govern- ment of mankind, there would have been no solid reason for doubting its rectitude. And, if we con- sider man but as one small member of an immense community of free and intelligent beings of differ- ent orders, regulated by laws productive of the greatest possible good to the whole system, still more justly may we suspect our capacity of com- prehending that moral government, as it refers to the universe at large. ‘ Even the naked creed of the Deist is not with- out depths unfathomable by its arrogant votary. What does he think, for instance, of an uncaused cause of every thing? What does he think of a Being, who has no relation to ¢ime, not being older to-day than he was yesterday; or to space, not being a part here and a part there, or a whole any where ? What. does he think of an omniscient Being, who cannot know the future actions of a man ; or, if he can know them, what of the con- tingency of human actions ; and, without this con- tingency, what of the distinction between vice and virtue, sin and duty? What, in short, does he think of the existence of evil, moral and natural, in the work of a Being infinitely powerful and wise and good? There would be no end of such per- plexing (but, happily, unimportant) questions. 178 AN APOLOGY What a blessing it is to creatures, with powers so narrow as those of man, to have that Being himself for their instructor, in every thing which if most concerns them to know—not as to the ori- gin of arts or the depths of science, the subtilties of logic or the mysteries of metaphysics, the sub- limities of poetry or the niceties of criticism ; but —what will become of them after death, and what they must do whilst they live here, in order to ren- der their life hereafter happy. ‘“ That thing called Christianity,” as the Deist scoffingly speaks, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, has brought life and im- mortality to light.* ‘These are tremendous truths to bad men: they cannot be received, and reflect- ed on, even by the best, with indifference. The generality of unbelievers, in the higher sta- tions of society, are such from want of due in- struction on the subject of religion. Engaged from their youth in the pursuits of worldly ho- nours, or wealth, or pleasure, they have neither leisure nor inclination to study the volume of a faith founded, not upon authority, but upon sober investigation. These men are soon startled by frivolous cavils, which they find themselves incom- petent to answer; and the loose morality of the age (so opposite to “ Christian perfection ”) co- operating with their want of scriptural knowledge, they presently get rid of the scanty relics of their nursery-creed. To them, I fear, this little book will never penetrate, or prove acceptable. But there is a numerous and respectable class, the ma- nufacturers and tradesmen of the kingdom, whe are in general desirous of information. If it should * 2 Tim. i. 10. FOR THE BIBLE. 179 chance to fall into their hands, and they should think any of the Deist’s objections imperfectly an- swered; they are entreated to impute the imper- fection to brevity, to the desire of avoiding learn- ed disquisitions, to inadvertency, to_inability—to any thing, in short, rather than the impossibility of perfectly answering them all. The youth like- wise of both sexes, who (unhappily for their pro- spects in the life that now is, as well as in that which is to come *) may have imbibed the poison of infidelity, are implored to believe that all their religious doubts may certainly be removed, whe- ther such a blessed result has been accomplished in these pages or not. God grant that the rising generation of this land, favoured as it is in most respects beyend all other lands, may be preserved from that evil heart of unbelief, which deluged France for so many years with blood; and that néither a neglected education, nor domestic irre- ligion, nor evil communication and the fashion of a licentious world, may ever induce them to tread under foot the Son of God, nor count the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were sancti- fied, an unholy thing, or do despite unto the Spirit of Grace ! + * 1 Tim. iv. 8. + Heb. x. 29. “2 V. AO REET ALIGN RTT THE PRINCIPAL PARTS OF BISHOP BUTLER’S * ANALOGY OF RELIGION, NATURAL AND REVEALED, TO THE CONSTITUTION AND COURSE OF NATURE,” ABRIDGED. All things are double one against another, and God hath made nothing imperfect.—Zcclesiasticus, xxii, 24. £ J } is A .* a 2? A Kirra ¥¢ as eit eer A: Padouee Apo ry iA be 5 » i. ’ ‘ a) =} , : 7. or 4 >| t ys rs : abst Mig | ps is ae os Lae ‘ ae i a sad Pa be ie ~ t - ni He 3 jaw th ig BAY ae , M ig til a j se ie As | A ? qt; viet : oh Maes - vies ea 4 } a ontte sete enters eee se agntioe hy, athafipgnbidnad lib) pt cred yvisevait aN (a ee ae a CM Ce ts | whole 9s eg ek ee | i i O Vd OR enllon ines CHET WH ae STEP Tei aE ae Soha ae apie ted rity ult. Sands SS yeti th 1 Leone ag engi Yel! girmteinen nie sil opi! o ‘inch let acs sabre al en AAT D- LORE aa li to, ‘eee he ware att Oe Mas: tie. eee thet 2h cogs tenes Dad KOU RA MOI Ed $0. HL ABR eeu oe erred aT OF Nitiniepslrrie on Ait ss Soy page 1 ) Peroni “ rata Bae War. uke visite | : seer “50 f , : : Cale ee ' St # in * A ae - st om ‘agll i. INTRODUCTORY NOTICE OF BISHOP BUTLER. Bisuor Butter, in his invaluable Analogy, (says his edi- tor, Bishop Hallifax,) instead of indulging in idle specu- lations, how the world might possibly have been better than itis; or, from a forgetfulness of the difference between hypothesis and fact, attempting to explain the divine eco- nomy with respect to intelligent creatures from precon- ceived notions of his own,—first inquires what the consti- tution of Nature, as made known to us in the way of ex- periment, actually is; and from this, now seen and ac- knowledged, endeavours to form a judgment of that large constitution which Religion discovers to us. If the Dis- pensation of Providence we are now under, considered as inhabitants of this world, and having a temporal interest to secure in it, be found, on examination, analogous to, and of a piece with that farther Dispensation which re» lates to us as designed for another world, in which we have an eternal interest depending on our behaviour here ; if both may be traced up to the same general laws, and ap- pear to be carried on according to the same plan of admi- nistration, the fair presumption is, that both proceed from one and the same author. And if the principal parts ob- jected to in this latter Dispensation be similar to, and of the same kind with, what we certainly experience under the former; the objections being clearly inconclusive in one case, because contradicted by plain fact, must in all reason be allowed to be inconclusive also in the other 184 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE This way of arguing from what is acknowledged to what is disputed, from things known to other things that resemble them, from that part of the divine establishment, which is exposed to our view, to that more important one which lies beyond it, is on all hands confessed to be just. By this method Sir Isaac Newton: has unfolded the System: of Nature: by the same method Bishop Burter has exe plained the System of Grace, and thus ‘* formed and con- cluded a happy alliance between Faith and Philosophy. ” It should be remarked, however, (with Bishop Halli- fax), that Morality and Religion, when treated as sciences, each accompanied with difficulty of its own, can neither of them be understood as they ought, without a very pecu- liar attention. But Morality and Religion are not merely to be studied as sciences, or as being speculatively true : they are to be regarded in another and a higher light, as the rule of life and manners, as containing authoritative directions by which to regulate our faith and _ practice. And, in this view,—the infinite importance of them consi- dered,—it can. never be an indifferent matter whether they be received or rejected. For both claim to be the voice of God; and whether they be so or not, cannot be known till their claims be impartially examined. If they indeed come from Him, we are bound to conform to them at our peril ; nor is it left to our choice, whether we will submit to the obligations which they impose upon us or not: for, submit to them we must, in such a sense, if guilty, as to incur the punishments denounced by both against wilful disobedience to their injunctions. We here presuppose, I need scarcely remark, that the Author of Nature, invested with a will and character, which our whole constitution necessarily leads us to deem moral and just and good, will act universally upon princi- ples in harmeny and consistency with each other. OF BISHOP BUTLER. 185 it may be added, that Archbishop Secker, in the first three of his Posthumous Sermons, did not think it unwor- thy of his time and talents to give clearness (as he has done, in a manner entirely his own) to arguments, which, in the Analogy itself, are sometimes above the comprehen- sion of common readers, And this, says a respectable writer, will “* not be thought surprising, when it isknown that he was perfectly familiar with that incomparable pro- duction, as well as intimately connected with the author of it; that he revised it, critically and carefully, before it was published ; and that, obscure as some parts of it may still remain, we now see it in a much more perfect and in- telligible form, than it would have appeared in without such review.” The Primate had previously rendered his friend a similar service, in assisting him to prepare for the press his Fifteen Sermons preached at the Rolls Chapel,— a volume, even by the concession of Dr Burzer himself, containing Discourses “ very abstruse and difficult, or, if you please, obscure ;” in the last of which, * Upon the Ignorance of Man,’ were introduced the rudiments of the principle, more copiously developed in his subsequent great work, That work, on its appearance, was justly received with the highest applause ; is, to this day, universally regarded as a masterpiece of the kind; and has been long recom- mended to students of divinity, both in the Universities and in Dissenting Academies, as the best exercise of their rea- soning powers. aa ree: Bist ae or Hala, pais od (rn te be oy Samia i dali ae ; eee ibe if ta Hes efonketltbved ‘tat panel . a i ae “reel te ; Poviv' hate «Bab oan dada ve side. — eet bat ef) acvieeeindt s iy “ot wntotey’ Baw sity CBS: ara Be iow eres re pied oo Cin vat als ialniiied soliters 31D goeiel a. oath iia owe hones tee at Bigrtids sien ee Matti x tot ott ai “ a i i) i) z gee rh 7) Py ice cesta yeh _srHed ia e: rent i 3 Sian ny segitenlt 46 fea oe Siew agi abit a ieee Tehiog es ibe tell ite nt wty ee aati oP vidal) a Hy Pia Bipw bebe i 0%, ¥ fy eit 4a leaw het sat Pi: Th hore | i eas mie cS Pare a ite ot * htt rahi VERT 22/4 4 fragt Sx: 2h ats y be Peis t EvAlbeteti a: Sages, PR Beat NSE eR itt eae os? vse Sor RT Me beri k he at Dee or Shad Reo “nat ana ei er a Prsegy: Yrs inte ts Api aie ay git Rae: ps Mod xo! is vy id ot Clb aoe yc OE Ae ee re a heart) shar 8Y Lite AU Cabsoety Liste REM cf ae ae, ie were f oy Wtf FRR pint) "LI BE PAY eet ani ene, oni ala a vm we aren 5 AY a Bestia, i eine rth. pit ake as be Lppinoneyseal seer sy Pe, abe : man TN Ain See NT aD IPE stat ar lay iL feed ¢ a! Om Hee SPI e ‘pee Ae bese: side ae e 5 Me ee BA Dusen sie yea my a RM atlas ks Pprcerinpeeseim nd " tH TE eS Nese UCR RT NR, (ah svamalicaniandigede alan a io ik i it ee di: Ns THE PRINCIPAL PARTS, &e. DIALOGUE I. Minister. I sm glad to meet with you, Neigh- bour. Ere this, I hope you have got rid of the scruples infused into your mind by the infidel pamphlets which have been lately circulated with so much mischievous industry, respecting the in- spiration of Scripture. In our former conversa- tion, you appeared to me to be forcibly impressed by the united evidence, external and internal, in its favour. Parishioner. So 1 was, Sir; yet still, to my great concern, I often feel myself harassed with new doubts, or rather with certain old objections of my evil companions. But I am almost asham- ed to mention them to you. M. O pray produce them, and put them in the strongest way you can. I never debate with ca- villers; but, as I believe you to be a sincere in- quirer after truth, I shall listen to what you have to say with the utmost attention. . Q 6 188 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, P. The Doctrines of Scripture are what I chief- ly allude to. Of these, several are plain and edi- fying; but, in general, they are mysterious (I had almost said, irrational), and treat upon subjects totally foreign to our observation and experience in common life. Now this, I own, staggers me ; and I cannot help asking, “ Why, if the Bible is indeed divinely inspired, its contents should be so little adapted to our capacities, and of course to our instruction ? ” 4. It certainly does contain many things, my friend, above our reason, but none contrary to it; and, as to our imperfect conceptions of the nature of spiritual things, this ought rather to humble us, and to make us thankful fer the help of Revela- tion, than to put us upon doubting of its trath. I hope, however, to satisfy you, that there is,a close resemblance between the concerns of the pre- sent life, and what the Bible teaches us about a. fu- Zure one. But first I must know, what are the particular Doctrines which appear to you so un- reasonable. P.. Well then, Sir, one thing taught in the Bible is the existence of our souls after death in a state of separation from our bodies. This seems to be absolutely incredible, when we reflect upon the intimate connexion between the soul and the body during life, and their apparently necessary depend- ence upon each other. | M. No, my friend, surely not “ absolutely in- credible.” For is it not quite as surprising, that we should now have a being, though once we had none ? Consider but the various changes, through which we pass from infancy to old age. Look at the transitions, which are continually occurring in NATURAL AND REVEALED. 189 other parts of the animal world—birds, for in- stance, bursting from their shells, worms becom- ing flies, &c.; and then say, why it is “ abso- lutely incredible,” that farther alterations should take place in man. P. But, Sir, the changes you mention are con- fined to bodies; and therefore prove nothing, in my opinion, with respect to the soul’s existing in a state of separation from the body. M. Can we not then argue, from the circum- stance of dreams, that the soul may be awake and active, while the body is sunk in sleep? By them we find, that we are at present possessed of a la- tent (and what would otherwise have been an un- imagined, unknown) power of perceiving sensible objects in as strong and lively a manner without our external organs of sense, as with them. In the case of dying persons, also, the soul is often strikingly vigorous, when the body is in its last stage of langour and decay: and we know, that lopping off the limbs—nay, destroying a consider- able part even of some of the most important por- tions of the body—does not injure, or affect, the soul. Both you and I have, in fact, already se- veral times over insensibly lost a great part, or perhaps the whole of our bodies, according to cer- tain established laws of nature : yet we remain the same living agents. Why then, may we not also remain the same, when we shall lose the whole by another established law of nature, death ? P. I must own, I do not see any satisfactory reason to conclude the contrary. But what can you point out in the world around us analogous to the doctrine, which teaches us that our happi- 190 ANALOGY. OF RELIGION, .- ness or misery in that future state of existence will depend on our conduct in this ? M. Much. Consider well the present state of things ; and you will perceive that all we enjoy, and much of what we suffer, is put in our own power. We are generally happy or miserable, as our behaviour is virtuous or vicious. Now, natural government by rewards and punishments as much implies natural trial, as moral government does moral trial. By “natural government, ’’ I mean the system, upon which God has annexed pleasure to some actions and pain to others, and given us notice of such his appointments beforehand. And we see accordingly that many, blinded and de- ceived by inordinate passion, are so taken up with present gratifications against every suggestion of prudence, as to have little or no feeling of inevit- able consequences, or regard to temporal interest : others are forcibly carried away, as it were, against their better judgment and feeble resolutions ; and not a few shamelessly avow their mere will and pieasure to be their law of life, though they fore- see that a course of vicious extravagance must in- fallibly be their ruin. Substitute now, in the a- bove paragraph, future for temporal, and virtue for prudence, and this description will equally fit our state of trial in our religious capacity. On the contrary, do we not find that, by a moderate de- gree of care, we may generally pass our days here on earth in tolerable ease and satisfaction ¢ P. Very true, Sir. 1 admit that, in the course of nature, it certainly is so: but I do not distinctly perceive the course of nature connected with a future state, in such a manner as to render it pre- NATURAL AND REVEALED. 191 bable that correspondent consequences will follow in the world to come. M. It you view the concerns of both worlds as under the control of One, with whom is no vari- abieness, neither shadow of turning, * you will dis- miss all doubt upon the subject: as his natural and moral government, we cannot but conclude, will necessarily be conducted upon uniform prin- ciples. ‘To this, indeed, our own consciences in some measure bear testimony. If these are not absolutely hardened, vicious practices will ever be accompanied by uneasiness of mind and appre- hension of punishment, while an upright behaviour as certainly produces security and peace. P. Yet men are not always happy or miser- able in this life, according to their moral conduct. Vice is often prosperous, and virtue pursued by suffering and disappointment. M. Man, my friend, sees a part, and only a part. Yet even in that part we frequently see enough of the general government of God, to convince us that he is not indifferent to human actions ; and to render it at least highly probable that a time will arrive, when his wisdom and justice will be cleared up, and men will be dealt with according to their present behaviour. There are, undoubtedly, the wisest reasons, why the world should be governed by general laws; and under such government, the results which you have stated, will now and then perhaps unavoid- ably follow. But all this cannot drown the voice of nature in the conduct of Providence, plainly * Jam, i. 17, Q2 192 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, declaring itself in favour of virtue. The natural conclusion of the human mind is, that the Go- vernor of the world will, in the bestowing of his rewards and punishments, proceed upon the prin- ciples of what we call “ distributive justice.” Ruling as he does by fixed principles and ordinan- ces, and having endued us with capacities of fore- seeing the good and bad consequences of our be- haviour, he obviously indicates to us some sort of moral government. From the natural course of things, vicious actions, we see, are to a great de- gree, punished as mischievous to society, not only by actual inflictions, but also by the fear and apprehension of them, which is itself frequently no inconsiderable suffering. But farther: Virtue, as. such, naturally procures considerable advan- tages to the virtuous; and Vice, as such, great inconvenience, and even misery, to the vicious. I might instance this, in the immediate effects re- spectively produced upon the mind and temper ; as also thé fear of future punishment, and the peaceful hopes of a better life, which generate present uneasiness and dissatisfaction in the mind, and cannot be got rid of even by those who have thought most deeply upon the subject. To these may, likewise, be added the countenance and dis- countenance of all the honest and geod, in public as well as private stations, with other minor con- siderations. If happiness and misery then are oc- casionally distributed by other rules, this may probably be in the way of mere discipline, or as the accidental consequences (to be eventually compensated) of the above-mentioned general Jaws. There is, lastly, in the very nature of things, a necessary tendency in virtue and vice to NATURAL AND REVEALED. 193 their being finally rewarded and. punished in a far more perfect degree than is at present the case ; as that tendency is now obstructed in various re- spects by hinderances artificial, accidental, and temporary. P. You have certainly, Sir, put the probabi- lity of such a conclusion in a very strong light. I begin to understand what the Bible says, about our being placed here, in a state of probation, to fit us for futurity. M. Yes; and you will perceive a great resém- blance between our situation in this respect, and what we experience in the concerns of ordinary life. A state of probation implies trial, diflicu!- ties, and danger; and we know that what is for our present interest, is generally offered to our ac- quisition in such sort, as that we are in danger of missing it, from temptations to.neglect, or act-con- trary to it; and that without attention and self-de- nial we often lose the advantages, which, by a dif- ferent conduct, we might probably have secured. A state of probation implies-also, moral disci- pline and improvement. In this respect, likewise, our preparation for a future state is extremely si- milar to what we undergo in the present one, Thus childhood is a state of trial for youth, youth for manhood, and manhood for old age. Strength ‘of body and mind are attained by degrees, and neither of them without the continued exercise of our powers from infancy. Nor, if we were un- able to discern how the present life could be our preparation for another, would this be any objec- tion against its credibility. We do not discern how food and sleep contribute to the growth of the body. Children never think, on the one 194 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, hand, that their darling sports give them health and strength ; nor, on the other, that these sports may be pursued to a hazardous excess, and there- fore require the hand of restraint ; nor, indeed, can they comprehend the use of many parts of discipline, which, however, are essential to qua- lify them for the business of mature age. We might also infer our present situation to be a state of discipline, in a religious sense, from the great wickedness of mankind; even from those im- perfections, of which the best are conscious ; from our proneness to desire forbidden gratifications, and from the various temptations by which we are surrounded, &c.—all strongly evincing the neces- sity of recollection and self-government. To be a little more distinct. Allurements to what is wrong, difficulties in the discharge of duty, our not being able to maintain a course of uniform rectitude without perpetual thought and care, and the opportunities (real or apparent) of indulging our passions by unlawful means, when lawful ones do not present themselves—all these things, with many others which might be mentioned, are what peculiarly adapt the world to be a school of disci- pline ; because they render watchfulness, resolu- tion, and self-denial, absolutely necessary to our improvement in virtue and piety. Neither can the fact, that the discipline of the world does not actual- ly improve the generality of mankind, be urged as a proof that it was not intended to doso. For, of the numerous seeds of vegetables and bodies of animals, which are put in the way of attaining to a certain state of natural perfection, we do not see perhaps that one in a million actually does attain to it. Far the ereater part of both decay in immaturity. Yet NATURAL AND REVEALED. 195 no one will therefore deny, that the rest, which do attain to it, were designed to do so. The appear- ance, indeed (it may be remarked), of such an amazing waste in nature, is to us as unaccountable as—what is much more terrible—the present and future ruin of so many moral agents by themselves, that is, by vice. P. But, surely, the whole of this trouble and danger might have been avoided, by our having been made at once the creatures and the characters which we were to be. M. It is in vain to object, what might have been. We are inquiring into facts; and we may perceive, from experience, that what we were to be, was to be the effect of what we would do. The general conduct of Nature is, not to save us from trouble or danger, but to make us capable of going through them, and to put it upon us to do so. Acquirements of our own experience and ha- bits are the natural supply to our deficiencies, and security against our dangers. P. But, Sir, if things have been thus contrived before hand, and could not have happened in any other way, of what use is Religion to mankind ? M. A little reflexion, neighbour, will teach you that this is an idle refinement, and has nothing to do with the subject. Even if we were to admit the doctrine of Necessity in its strongest sense, as speculatively true, we shall find the conclusion with respect to ourselves exactly the same; since that doctrine by no means implies, that God will not render his creatures happy or miserable, according to their conduct. So it is in God’s natural govern- ment of the world, in which happiness and misery are not our fate in any such sense, as not to be the 196 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, consequences of our behavionr. They are the consequences of it; and the common sense and experience of mankind show, that they feel it right it should be so. Men are rewarded, or punished, for their actions (punished for actions mischievous to society as such, for vicious actions as such), by the natural instrumentality of each other, under the conduct of Providence ; and it is reasonable to infer, that this will be the case in the course of his eternal government. Unless we are prepared to say, that God ought to have made man happy without means, we shall not deny him the choice of his own means. P. But still, Sir, when we see the evil and disorder which is permitted in the world, and the lamentable consequences which the Bible assures us will follow in their train, it is natural to distrust its doctrines, and even to dispute the wisdom and goodness of the government in question. M. Oh, no. The Bible relates matters of fact, and the truth of a fact has nothing to do with the wisdom and goodness of it. You must frequently have observed with surprise, in God’s natural go- vernment of the world, that things, seemingly the most insignificant, are necessary conditions to other things of the yreatest importance. This strongly shows the credibility, that his moral government may be of the same description. The chain of causes and consequences are both ways infinitely beyond human ken. Hence is supplied a general answer to all objections against the justice and goodness of that government. Again, in the ordi- nary events of life, means extremely undesirable often conduce to bring about ends so desirable as greatly to overbalance the disagreeableness of the NATURAL AND REVEALED. 197 means ; and in these cases it is not reason, but experience, which shows us that those means are thus conducive. In many cases, also, means are employed which, prior to experience, we should have expected to have had a quite opposite tend- ency. Is it not, then, equally credible, that what appears liable to objections in the moral dispensa- tions of Providence—such as, putting our misery to a considerable extent in each other’s power, making men to a certain degree liable to vice, &c., may, eventually, prove similarly productive of an overbalance of good? Neither is it any presump- tion against this, that we do not always foresee, or witness, such results. ‘The very things which we call “ irregularities,” may be merely means of accomplishing, in some mysterious way, wise and good ends—perhaps the only means, under existing arrangements, by which these wise and good ends are capable of being accomplished. P. I fear, indeed, Sir, I have been too hasty in my objections. We are poor short-sighted crea- tures at the best. M. Yes, my friend ; and our ignorance is, after all, the proper and satisfactory answer to these objections. Even in the common course of Na- ture, we cannot give the whole account of any one event. After tracing its causes, ends, and neces- sary adjuncts to the utmost of our power, we shall still find that, had it not been connected with some- thing else both past and present, it possibly could not have been at all. To say nothing, therefore, on the subject of the general laws regulating the divine administration, how much more difficult must it be to comprehend the system of God's moral government, which extends to both worlds ! 198 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, You see, then, 1. That many things prove the idea of our ceas- ing to exist at death to be palpably absurd. Our being destined to pass into another state of life, involves nothing paradoxical, any more than that the child in the womb should pass into this. Our being now, indeed, living existences, _pffords a strong probability that we shall continue so ; nor has the contrary conclusion any other ground than the idle imagination that our gross bodies are our- selves, or that, from the circumstance of the body and the soul mutually (though not invariably) af- fecting each other, the dissolution of the former must necessarily be the destruction of the latter. Even if that event could be supposed to suspend the exercise of the faculties of the soul, such sus- pension would by no means imply extinction, as we may be convinced by sleep or a swoon. 2. We find that, amidst this unbounded pros- pect of futurity opened to our hopes and fears, there is no presumption whatever against the in- ference of our eternal interests depending upon our present behaviour—as we perceive our present in- terest does so--and perceive, likewise, that the happiness and misery naturally annexed to our ac- tions, frequently follow those actions at a consi- derable distance. In what relates both to this world and the next, in short, we are equally trust- ed with ourselves—our own conduct, and our own welfare. 3. We discover, in the very confusion and dis- order of the world, the rudiments and beginnings of a moral government of it; as deducible, parti- cularly, from the comparative satisfaction and un- easiness which are the natural consequences of 2 NATURAL AND REVEALED. 199 virtuous and a vicious course of life, the love of good characters, and dislike of bad ones, &c. 4, We infer from the temptations to be unfaith- ful to our temporal interests, and our consequent difficulties and danger, arising out of the consti- tution of Nature (especially as coupled with that course of things which is owing to mankind), that there may be similar difficulties and danger, with regard to our chief and final good. o. That our present state was intended to be a school of moral discipline, is rendered highly cre- dible by the considerations that we are plainly made for improvement of all kinds; and that, by the general appointment of Providence, we are or- dained to cultivate practical principles, and form within ourselves habits of action (in our prepara- tory stages, for instance, of childhood and youth), in order to become fit for what we were unfit for before. 6. It is obvious, from the evidence as it were of experience, that all objections against Religion, founded on the scheme of Necessity, are delusive and vain. And, 7. It appears that God, in the incomprehen- sibleness of his natural government of the world, has supplied an answer to all our narrow and pur- blind objections against his moral government. Surely then the credibility of Religion, arising from experience and the facts above stated, is fully sufficient in reason to recommend to mankind the general practice of virtue and piety, under the se- rious apprehension of a righteous administration established in nature, and a future judgment in consequence of it: particularly, when we reflect R 200 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, how very questionable it is, whether any thing at all can be gained by vice; how unquestionably little, as well as precarious, the pleasures and pro- fits of it are at the best ; and how soon they must be parted with at the longest. P. Very true, Sir: but I will trespass upon your patience no longer at present. You have pointed out to me matter for much and serious re- flection ; and, if I do not profit from it, assuredly it must be my own fault. NATURAL AND REVEALED. 201 DIALOGUE II. Parishioner. Oh! Sir, lam glad to meet with you again. I have thought deeply upon the sub- jects of our last conversation ; and I am perfectly convinced, both from reason and observation, that the soul is immortal, and that there will be a fu- ture state of rewards and punishments. Minister. You would scarcely ever have doubt- ed either, my friend, but for the perverse and wick- ed interference of your infidel neighbours: for these points are connected with what is called “ Natural Religion,” and are therefore supposed to be discoverable by the light of reason—a light, however, so sadly obscured by our evil passions, that we ought to feel the utmost gratitude on find- ing them illustrated in Scripture with such a su- perior degree of brightness. P. Yet, alas! Sir, I am far from being relieved from all my difficulties on the head of Religion. Many still press heavily upon my mind. M. 1 do not wonder at it. I suppose you al- lude to these peculiarly Christian doctrines, which unfold the grand Dispensation carried on by the Son and the Spirit of God, in order to redeem mankind from their state of guilt and ruin. These are, indeed, purely the subject of Revelation, and 202 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, ~ could never have been discovered by the mere ex- ercise of our natural faculties. P. They do, certainly, seem to me to be wrap- ped up in mystery. M. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness !* But so far as these doctrines are propounded to our faith and practice, I think I can convince you that they are not more unaccountable than many occurrences, which arise in the course of God's natural government of the world. Pray, therefore, proceed to state your objections to me as fully and freely as before. ) P. 1 own then that, with respect to the gene- ral system of Christianity, I remark an inconsis- tency in its tenets and an obscurity in its language, which makes it appear to some persons to be foolish- ness. + It is also, as might have been easily fore- seen, the occasion of much enthusiasm and super- stition; and it is, frequently, made to serve the purposes of tyranny and wickedness. Again ; its evidences might have been rendered clearer, and more satisfactory ; and the knowledge of it might have been communicated more early, and diffused more universally. Such views as these are ex- tremely trying to one’s belief. M. But, upon the supposition of a Revelation, is it not likely beforehand, that we should, to a considerable extent, be incompetent judges of it, and that it would contain many things seemingly liable to great objections? We cannot be suth- ciently acquainted with the secrets of the Divine Government to decide on grounds of reason, pre- yiously to such Revelation, what degree of new * | Tim. iii. 16. 1 Cor. i. 8 NATURAL AND REVEALED. 203 knowledge it would please God to vouchsafe to mankind ; whether the evidence of this new know- ledge would be certain, or highly probable, or doubtful ; whether it would be unfolded at once, or gradually ; whether all men would receive it, with equal clearness and conviction, at the same period, or successively ; or even, whether it should have been committed to writing, or left to be hand- ed down (and, consequently, corrupted) by verbal tradition. For we are in no sort judges before- hand by what laws or rules, in what degrees, or by what means, it might be expected that God would have conveyed to us similar information upon natural subjects. , If men avill be regardless of these things, and pretend to judge of the Scripture by preconceived expectations, the analogy of Nature shows before- hand not only the high credibility that they may, but also the great probability that they will, ima- gine they have strong objections against it, how- ever really unexceptionable: for so, prior to ex- perience, they would think they had against the circumstances and degrees and whole manner of that instruction, which is afforded by the ordinary course of Nature. Were the instruction, which God affords to brute creatures by instincts and mere propensions, and to mankind by these in conjunction with reason, matter only of probable proof, and not of certain observation ; it would in many cases be rejected as incredible, simply from the seeming disproportions, limitations, and cir- cumstances of it. For instance: would it not have been thought highly improbable that men should have been so much more capable of discovering, R 2 204 ANALOGY OF BELIGION, even to certainty, the general laws of matter, and the precise magnitudes and motions of the heaven- ly bodies, than the occasions and cures of distem- pers, and many other things in which human life seems so much more nearly concerned than in as- tronomy ? And again; that brutes without reason should act, in many respects, with a sagacity and foresight vastly greater than what we have in these respects, would (as a subject of anticipation) have been thought impossible. Yet it is certain, that they do act with such superior foresight, from daily observation. Hence it is highly credible be- forehand that, upon supposition God should afford to men some additional instruction by Revelation, it would be in degrees and after. manners which we should be apt to fancy not a little objection- able. ' P. True, Sir; but surely a Revelation so very imperfect—one, for instance, not put into writing, and thus guarded against a principal source of cor- ruption—would never have answered its purpose. M. What purpose do you mean? It weuld not have answered all the purposes which it has now answered, and in the same degree ; but it would have answered others, or the same in dif- ferent degrees: and which of these was the pur- pose of God, and best fell in with his general go- vernment, we could not at all have pre-determin- ed. This shows that, however objections against the evidences of Christianity deserve to be se- riously considered, objections against Christianity itself are in a great measure frivolous, The only questions here are, whether Christianity be a real Revelation, not whether it be attended with every circumstance which we should have leoked for ; NATURAL AND REVEALED. 205 and whether Scripture be what it claims to be, not whether-it be a book of such sort and so pro- mulgated, as weak men are apt to fancy a book containing a divine Revelation should be. | And, therefore, neither obscurity, nor seeming inaccur- acy of style, nor various readings, nor early dis- putes about the authors of particular parts, nor any other things of the same kind (even though they bad been much more considerable in degree than they really are) could overthrow its authority— unless the Prophets, the Apostles, or our Lord himself had promised, that it should be secure from all these circumstances. P.. But Christianity being represented as an expedient to recover the world from its state of ruin, and-to help in those respects where Nature fails, is it credible that so many ages should haye been suffered to elapse before a matter of such in- finite importance was made known to mankind, and that then it should have been disclosed to so small a portion of it ? or that it should, after all, be so defective, so beset with doubts, and so liable te perversion ? M. Perfectly eredible, if we will only admit the light of Nature and that of Revelation to pro- ceed from the same author. Men are naturally liable to diseases, for which God in his good pro- vidence has provided natural remedies : but these remedies, though existing in Nature, lay concealed from mankind for ‘ many ages,” and are still known only to comparatively few. Their quali- ties, notwithstanding long and laborious investiga- tion, ave often undetected ; and their application is precarious. Some of the. most useful of them, indeed, have at one time or other incurred con- 206 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, tempt and rejection ; and, unskilfully or dishonest- ly administered, may bring on new diseases. Even when administered in the most judicious and up- right manner, their success is often doubtful. They are frequently imperceptible or tardy in their o- peration; and, from the regimen usually connec- ted with them, in a large plurality of instances they are disagreeable. Nor are the sick invariably so fortunate, as to be always in the way of them. Many never are so. In short, they are neither certain, perfect, nor universal; and, indeed, the same principle of arguing, which would lead us to conclude, from the Divine goodness, that they must necessarily be so, would lead us likewise to con- clude, with equal assurance, that there could be no occasion for them, i. e. no diseases at all; as the necessity of the Christian Dispensation, it may be contended, might also have been superseded by preventing the Fall of Man, so that-he should not have stood in any need of a Redeemer. But this mode of objecting i is resolvable into principles, and goes upon suppositions, which mislead us to think that God would not act, even in his natural go- vernment of the world, as we experience he does ; or would act, in such and such moral cases, as in like natural cases we experience he does not. P. If we are to reason from the course of Na- ture, I own it appears in the highest degree pro- bable, that a divine Revelation might contain many things apparently objectionable. Still, however, these impertections—for such I must call them— assuredly impeach its wisdom and goodness. M. Not, if our inability to comprehen... the whole of that Revelation be admitted. And since in the Christian Dispensation we perceive means NATURAL AND REVEALED. 207 used to accomplish ends, in the same manner as in God’s natural government, we may reasonably in- fer, that both are under the regulation of general laws; in which case, we can no more be author- ized to arraign the wisdom or goodness of the one system, than that of the other; for of these ge- neral laws, in either respect, we understand in a manner nothing. The laws by which storms and earthquakes, famme and pestilence, become the instruments of destruction to mankind ; by which persons, born at such a particular time and place, are of such and such talents, temper, and capaci- ties; by which thoughts, in many instances, come into eur minds, &c. &e. are so little known to us, that we call their results “ accidental;” though all reasonable men know certainly that there can- not in reality be any such thing as chance, and refer these results unhesitatingly to the operation ef some hidden general laws. This they do from analogy—from finding that general laws, as far as they can discern, regulate the ordinary course of Nature. Hence, it is at least credible, that God’s miraculous interpositions may have also been re- gulated by general laws of wisdom. ‘That mira- culous powers should have been exerted at such _ times, upon such occasions, in such degrees, and with regard to such persons, rather than others ; that the affairs of the world, after having gone on in their natural course to a certain point, should, just at that point, miraculously receive a new di- rection—all this may have been by geneval laws —laws unknown, indeed, to us, but not more un- known than those by which it is ordained that some individuals should die as soon as they are born, and others live to extreme old age; that one 208 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, man should, in understanding or bodily power, far surpass another; with innumerable other things which (though, as I befere observed, we capnot with certainty, or at all, pretend to assign their causes), we deem as much reducible to general laws, as the results of gravitation itself. P. But, in the plan formed for the redemption of mankind, a long series of intricate means is re- sorted to ; just as men, for want of understanding or power, not being able to come at their ends di- rectly, are forced to go round-about ways, and make use of many perplexed contrivances, to arrive at them. iM. And pray, does not the natural course of Providence exhibit similar appearances? In this, according to our manner of conception, God makes use of a variety of means (and, frequently, in our opi- nion, tedious means) for the accomplishment of all his ends. The whole of Nature, indeed, is a sys- tem—not a fixed, but a progressive one; a sys- tem, in which the operation of means often takes up a great length of time, before they produce the intended result. The change of seasons, the ripen- ing of the fruits of the earth, the very history of a flower, is an instance of this; and so, in its va- rious progresses, is human life. Vegetable and ani- mal bodies gradually attain to maturity. The ra- tional agents which animate the superior classes of these latter bodies, are naturally directed to form each his own character, by the gradual gaining of knowledge and experience, and by a long course of action. Our existence is not only successive, as it must of necessity be, but one state of it is appointed by God to be a preparation for another. Thus, in the daily course of nature, Providence NATURAL AND REVEALED. 209 eperates in the very same manner as in the Dis- pensation of Christianity. P. I must acknowledge you have removed my misgivings, as to the general plan of that Dispen- sation: but there are some particulars in it, which still haunt and harass me. iM. Pray mention them, by all means. P. The appointment of a Mediator between God and Man is one of them. That we are all involved in a state of guilt and ruin, I must with grief confess. Every thing within and around me confirms what the Bible states upon that head. But I cannot conceive why mercy and help might rot have been imparted at once, and without the interference of another. How much more simple would such a process have been! Whereas the mode of relief said to be actually adopted is con- trary, not only to every reasonable expectation which we could have formed on that subject, but also to every thing which we observe in the com- mon course of nature, or in human transactions. M. You surprise me, my friend, by this asser- tion: for to me it appears that the visible govern- ment which God exercises over the world, is almost entirely carried on by a system of mediation, whe- ther in the way of justice or of mercy ; nay, that all living creatures are produced, and their lives in infancy preserved, through the instrumentality of others. P. But, im this particular instance, is it not much more natural to suppose that the remission of our punishment, and our recovering of the Di- vine favour, would have been made to depend solely upon our own Repentance and Reforma- tien ? 210 ANALOGY OF RELIGION; M. Not, if we borrow our ideas from what we see passing in the world about us ; where misery and ruin are frequently the consequences of ixre- gular and disorderly behaviour, even in such cases of rashness and negligence as we scarcely call ‘ vicious.” Nor will repentance and reformation, or any degree of personal exertion, in many of these cases, prevent such consequences. It is sure- ly, then, not less credible that, under the same Di- vine government, the punishment of sin will be proportionally severe, and equally irretrievable. For only consider what it is for creatures, moral agents, presumptuously to rebel against a Being of infinite holiness and justice, and to introduce m- to his kingdom that confusion and wretchedness which mankind have in fact introduced + to blas- pheme their Sovereign Lord; to contemn his au- thority, and to be injurious in the degree they are to their fellow-creatures, the creatures of God! Under such circumstances, is it too much to affirm, that our repentance and reformation would, mest probably, be insufficient to avert the dreadful .con- sequences of our transgressions ? How shall be, think you, who can barely with his utmost efforts earn a subsistence, be able to liquidate the debt contracted by the negligence or the profligacy of one fatal day ? P. But don’t you lay too much stress, Sir, upor the inability of mankind to retrieve the effects of their misconduct in the common course of life ? Such cases are, surely, not sufficiently numerous to warrant the inference, which you would draw from them. M. Alas! the instances are but too frequent, in which we see persons ruin their fortunes by ex- NATURAL AND REVEALED. 211 travagance, and their health by intemperance, and incur the various penalties of the municipal laws. In these cases, will sorrow for the past, and good conduct for the future, alone, and of themselves, avail to prevent the ordinary consequences of such conduct ? On the contrary, men’s natural ability of helping themselves is often impaired ; or, if not, they are yet forced, in various ways, to be be- holden to the assistance of others. Why, then, is it not supposable that a similar result may take place in our more important capacity, as under God’s moral government, and having a more ge- nerat and future interest depending ? P. I own the force of your observations: and to creatures, involved as we are in the ruinous consequences of sin, such a provision must be de- sirable beyond measure. M. So at least the speculations of the wise, and the practice of the unwise among the very heath- ens, lead us to conclude. Hence Plato’s well- known wish, the wavering creed of ‘Tully, and the propitiatory sacrifices of the whole Pagan world, to which even a dying Socrates chose to conform. Happily for ourselves, in this exigency, Revelation removes every apprehension, which might other- wise lay hold upon us; and informs us, that al- though the Divine government will not admit of pardon immediately and directly upon repentance, or by the sole efficacy of it, yet God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him (not certainly in a spe- culative, but a practical sense) should not perish § § John iii. 16. 8 212 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, —gave him in the same way of goodness, though in degree infinitely heightened, as he provides for particular persons the friendly assistance of their fellow-creatures, when without it their temporal ruin would be the certain consequence of their follies. It elsewhere states, that the Son of God loved us, and gave himself for us, + with a love which he himself compares to human friendship, though in this instance all comparisons must fall infinitely short of the reality. He interposed in such a manner as was effectual to intercept that punishment, which, according to the general laws of the Divine government, must otherwise have followed the sins of the world. Some persons, indeed, profess to disbelieve the doctrine of Christ’s atonement and intercession, because they cannot (they say) comprehend it. But.as we could not have been judges, antece- dently to Revelation, whether a Mediator was or was not necessary to prevent the future punish- ment, and secure the final happiness, of fallen and offending man; so neither could we, as to the whole nature of his office, or what was requisite to be assigned to him in order to accomplish the ends of Providence in the appointment. Such objections are, therefore, of small account, un- less anv part of the mediatorial office of Christ could be positively shown not to be requisite or conducive to its proposed ends, or to be in itself unreasonable. P. One objection I recollect—I assure you, Sir, it is not my own—which seems to be of that posi- tive character, viz. that the doctrine of Christ's { Eph. v. 2. John xv. 12—14, Rom. v. 8. NATURAL AND REVEALED. 2138 being appointed to suffer for the sins of mankind, represents God the Father as indifferent, whether he punished the innocent or the guilty. M. But you must clearly see, my friend, that this objection points just as much against the whole natural government of the world; in which it is obviously appointed, that the innocent should suf- fer for the sins of the guilty, as in the instance of transmitted diseases, &c. Nay, if there were any force at all in the remark, it would be stronger in one respect against natural Providence, than a- gainst Christianity : because under the former we are in many cases commanded, and even necessi- tated, whether we will or not, to suffer for the faults of others ; whereas the sufferings of Christ were voluntary. Men by their follies frequently run themselves into difficulties, which would be abso- lutely fatal to them, were it not for the assistance of others: and this assistance God, by the law of nature, injoins us to afford—often, with great Ja- bour and sufferings to ourselves. So that such objections to the satisfaction of Christ arise, either from a total disregard of God’s settled and uniform appointments, or an entire forgetfulness that vica- rious punishment is a providential appointment of every day’s experience. That mankind are at present in a state of deora~ dation, different from that in which they were ori- ginally created, is the very ground of the Christian Revelation, as contained in the Scriptures. Whe- ther we acquiesce in the account that our being placed in such a state is owing to the crime of our first parents, or choose to ascribe it to any other cause, it makes no difference in our condi- 214 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, tion: the vice and unhappiness of the world are still there, notwithstanding all our suppositions ; nor is it Christianity that hath put us into this state. We learn also from the same Scriptures, what experience and the use of expiatory sacrifices from the most early times might have taught us, that repentance alone is not sufficient to prevent the fatal consequences of past transgressions : but that still there is room for mercy, and that repen- tance shall be available, though not of itself, yet through the mediation of a Divine Person (the Messiah), who from the sublimest principles of compassion died, the just for the unjust, | that we might have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.§ In what way, in- deed, the Death of Christ procured” this recon- ciliation of sinners, the Scriptures have not ex- plained. But it is enough, that. the doctrine is distinctly revealed; that it is not contrary to any truths, which reason and experience teach us; and that it accords in perfect harmony with the usual method of the Divine conduct in the govern- ment of the world. -P. I must confess this method of redemption has a strong apparent tendency to vindicate the authority of God’s laws, as well as to deter men from sin; and this, surely, ought to weigh as an argument with these, who are disposed to extol human reason. M. Yes; and it is an argument, which I have never heard refuted.—But, after all, the credibility of these doctrines is not to be tried at the bar of human reason; and I trust I have satisfied you of + 1 Pet, iii, 18, § Col. i. 1K NATURAL AND REVEALED. 215 the absurdity of disbelieving them, merely because we do not see their necessity or expediency. For though it is highly right, and the most pious exer- cise of our understanding, to inquire with due re- verence into the ends and objects of God’s Dispen- sations; yet, when these elude our research, to argue from our ignorance that such dispensations cannot be from God, is infinitely absurd. The presumption of such a conclusion, indeed, seems almost lost in the folly of it. And the folly of it is yet greater, when it is urged (as it usually is) against things in Christianity similar to these na- tural dispensations of Providence, which are mat- ter of experience. Let reason be kept to: and if any part of the Scripture-account of the redemp- tion of the world by Christ can be shown to be really contrary to reason, let the Scripture be given up: but let not such poor creatures as we are, ob- ject against an infinite plan, that we do not per- ceive the necessity or expediency of all its parts, and call this ‘ reasoning ’—particularly, when they are parts, in which we are not actively concerned. For not only the reason of the thing, but the whole analogy of Nature, should teach us not to expect to have the like information concerning the Di- vine conduct, as concerning our own duty. God instructs us by experience, not by reason, what good or bad consequences will follow from our acting in such and such a manner; and thus directs us, how we are to behave ourselves in the ondinary concerns of life: yet these are but an almost in- finitely small part of natural Providence. The case is the same with regard to Revelation. The doctrme of a Mediator between God and man, 258 216 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, against which it is objected, that ‘ the expediency of some of its parts is not understood, ’ relates only to what was done by God in the appointment, and by the Mediator in the execution of it. What is required of us, in consequence of this gracious Dis- pensation, is another subject, upoa which none can complain for want of information. ‘The constitu- tion of the world, and God's natural government over it, is all mystery, as much as Christianity it- self. Yet under the first, he has given men all things pertaining to life; and all things pertain- ing unto godliness, * under the latter. Placed therefore, as man is, with such prospects of futurity, and such responsibility, in such a state of trial, difficulties and: danger, and provided with such means of deliverance, he can have no doubt about his duty. P. Indeed, Sir, you have given me full satis- faction upon a most important subject, for which I cannet sufficjently thank you. * 2 Pet, i. 3, NATURAL AND REVEALED. 217 DIALOGUE Iil. Minister. Well, neighbour, I suppose, by this time, you are become a champion for the faith of the Gospel. Parishioner. Ah! Sir, you are disposed to be pleasant. The information, which you have so kindly given me, has indeed made a strong im- pression upon my mind: but, alas! my difticul- ties are not yet quite removed. I told you, I should try your patience. M. No, ne: besides, I recollect two objections made by you in our last conversation, which we have not yet discussed ; I mean, the circumstance of the Revelation of Christianity not having been made universal, and the imperfect evidence afford- ed us of the truth of, that Revelation, compared with what God might have afforded had he thought proper. P. These are the very things, to which I allud- ed. ‘They are, indeed, the only subjects of doubt, I think which remain: but they are, certainly, very serious ones. M. So they may appear to you; yet, in reali- ty, they amount to no more than this—viz. that it is incredible God should have bestowed any favour at all upon us, unless in the degree in which we 218 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, think he might (and, for our particular advantage, should) have done; and, also, that it cannot be supposed he would bestow a favour upon any, un- less he bestowed the same upon all. P. But you proposed, when we first entered upon this subject, to show me that, in general, the difficulties of which I complained were equally ap- parent in God’s natural government of the world. Now, does this hold in the present instance ? M. It certainly does: for, in the course of that government, we see the Almighty bestowing his gifts with the most promiscuous variety ; such as health and strength, capacities of knowledge, means of improvement, riches, and all external advan- tages. And, as there are not any two men form- ed exactly alike in shape and features, so there are probably not any two of an exactly like situation, temper, and constitution with regard to the goods and evils of life. P. But, in so important a matter as religious instruction, is there not some injustice shown to those who are suffered to labour under any disad- vantages ? WM. God forbid! Shall not the Judge of alé the earth do right? * We confess this in words: let us never forget it in fact, or try to explain it away. Had the Christian Revelation even been universal at first, yet, from the diversity of men’s abilities, both of mind and body, their various op- portunities, &c. some persons must soon have been in a situation, with respect to religious knowledge, much superior to that of others, as much perhaps as they are at present: just as, if ever the level- * Gen. xviii. 25. NATURAL AND REVEALED. 219 ling principle of an Agrarian law should (fatally for any country) be adopted, the properties which had been correctly equalized in the beginning of the week, would, by the operation of indolence, intemperance, incapacity, and a thousand other causes, have become widely unequal before the end of it. Neither would there have been the same room for the exercise of that peculiar duty, the diffusing of religious knowledge in unenlight- ened districts, which now (as in the case of the relative duties practised by the rich toward the poor) so honourably, and so advantageously, dis- tinguishes a large portion of the Christian commu- nity. Besides, we may rest assured that every merciful allowance will be made, and no more re- quired of any one, than what might be equitably expected from him under the circumstances in which he has been placed; or (to use Scripture- language) that every man will be accepted accord- ing to that he hath, and not according to that he hath not. + P. Admitting, however, the Divine wisdom and goodness as to the manner and measure of the Gospel-revelation, still I cannot get over my mis- givings as to the credibility of its evidences. Those evidences, I allow, are very weighty; and the oftener I consider them, the more they appear to be so: but then the objects, to which they apply, are remote ; and, at the best, they amount only to strong probabilities. How different is this from the certainties upon which we are enabled to act in the concerns of the present life ! M. I should be surprised at your misapprehens t 2 Cor, viii, 12, 220 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, sion on this subject, did I not perceive the same also in many other persons, whose minds are other- wise well disposed. ‘To detect the fallacy—for I can call it nothing better—you must allow me to be somewhat copious, where, perhaps on a super- ficial view, a few words might seem to suffice. P. It is too interesting atopic, not to make me all attention. M. I begin, then, with denying those certain- ties in life, which you so readily take for granted. We see the ebb and flow of the tide to-day. This affords a presumption, though the lowest imagin- able, that it may happen again to-morrow. But the observation of such an event for so many days and months and ages together, as it has been ob- served by mankind, gives us a full assurance that it will., So it is with respect to the common in- cidents of life. It is not certainty, but probability, in a higher or lower degree, which forms the mea- sure of our hopes and fears concerning the success of our pursuits in general. Now, you have admit- ted that there is a probability, and a strong one too, in favour of Religion ; and, if so, we are bound in,reason to act upon it. P. Perhaps I expressed myself too forcibly ; for in the case you put, and others which occur in life, the probability certainly rises higher than any upon which we can be supposed to form our re- ligious principles. M. It may do so, in a few instances; but in genéral we act upon very slight evidence indeed, in what relates to our temporal interests. It is riot only extremely difficult, but in many cases ab- solutely impossible, for us to balance pleasure and pain, satisfaction and uneasiness, so as to be able to es NATURAL AND REVEALED. 221 pronounce on which side the overplus lies. There are the like difficulties and impossibilities in mak- ing the due allowance for a change of temper and taste, for satiety, disgusts, ill health, &c. any of which render men incapable of enjoying, after they have obtained, what they most eagerly desired. Numberless, too, are the accidents, beside that one of untimely death, which may probably disappoint the best-concerted schemes ; and unanswerable ob- jections may be seen to lie against them, which seem however to be overbalanced by reasons on the other side. In such cases, the positive diffi- culties and dangers of a pursuit are by every one deemed justly disregarded, on account of the ap- parently greater advantages to accrue in the event of success, though of that success there be but little probability. We are liable, also, to be de- ceived by false appearances; and this danger must be greater, if there be a strong bias within (sup- pose, from indulged passion) to favour the deceit. Yet men do not therefore throw away life, or dis- regard its interests. On the contrary, they often engage in pursuits where the probability is greatly against them ; and this conduct is deemed so ra- tional, that in numberless instances a man would be thought in a literal sense distracted, who would not act—and with great application, too—not only upon what is called an “ even chance,” but upon much less, and where even the very lowest degree of presumption existed. Now, apply this to the evidences of Christianity, and our obligations to act upon them. P. The inference is, I own, irresistible. I find I was too hasty in forming my estimate of the evidence which influences human concerns. 222 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, M. Consider, also, that the wisdom or folly of aman’s conduct in life, in being influenced by pro- babilities, or the contrary, is generally measured by the importance of the good to be obtained, or the evil to be avoided. Thus he, who would be ridiculed for his credulity, in acting upon a vague rumour, or on the information of a person of doubt- ful veracity, in order merely to avoid some trivial inconvenience, or obtain some petty advantage, would be blamed for disregarding such rumour or information, where the exercise of a small degree of caution or activity, in consequence of it, might save the life of his child, or secure to him the pos- session of a valuable inheritance. P. Certainly. M. How much more, then, is it our wisdom and our duty, in a concern of such infinitely supe- rior consequence as our eternal welfare, to examine diligently the multiplied evidences in favour of Christianity ; and, if these be found probable, to be guided by the light of its doctrines ! P. Undoubtedly. M. But here I shall not rest the matter; for'I contend farther, that were the evidences of Christi- anity much weaker than they really are—nay, were they reduced to the very lowest degree of probability imaginable —it would be equally our duty to search into, and be influenced by them. P. This is indeed going very far; and yet, con- sidering the amazing importance of the Christian Doctrines, and the danger of our inattention when our all—and that for ever—is at a stake, I cannot help agreeing with you. M. Yes, my friend. The very supposition that these Doctrines may be true, ought, in all reason, NATURAL AND REVEALED. 223 to furnish matter of exercise for religious suspense and deliberation, for moral resolution and self-go- vernment ; because such supposition does as real- ly lay men under obligations, as a full conviction of their truth. It gives occasion and motives to consider farther the mighty subject, to preserve at- tentively upon their minds a general impiicit sense that they may be under divine moral government, an awful solicitude about Religion, whether Na- tural or Revealed. It ought, indeed, to turn men’s eyes to every degree of new light, from whatever side it comes. But especially are they bound to keep at the greatest distance from all dissolute profaneness, to treat with deep reverence a matter of which their whole interest and being, and the fate of nature, depend ; and this—even admitting the Evidences of Christianity to be as slight as we can possibly conceive. And if this duty be in- cumbent on all, it must be particularly so on those, who have a character of understanding, or a situa- tion of influence in the world, and consequently have it in their power to do infinite harm or good, by setting an example of profaneness and avowed disregard for Religion, or the contrary. P. In this point of view, it seems probable, that one end of our not being favoured with still clearer evidences of Christianity, may be, to try mankind, in the religious sense, by giving scope for a virtu- ous exercise or vicious neglect of their understand- ings in investigating those evidences, such as they are. ) M. So it appears. And I think we may as- suredly conclude, that the same inward principle which, after a man is convinced of the truth of T 7 224 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, Christianity, renders him obedient to its precepts, would (were he not thus convinced) infallibly set him about examining into the reality of Religion, upon its system and evidence being offered to his thoughts ; and that, in the latter case, his examina- tion would be made with an impartiality, serious- ness, and solicitude, proportioned to what his obe- dience would be in the former. The difficulties, indeed, in which this evidence is (as some apprehend) involved, is no more a just ground of complaint, than the external circum- stances of temptation or difficulties of practice, which beset men in common life. These give oc- casion for a more attentive and improving exercise of the virtuous principle ; and speculative perplexi- ties act in the very same way. For the evidence of Religion not appearing obvious, is, to some per- sons, a temptation to reject it without any consi- deration at all; and, therefore, requires such .an exercise of the virtuous principle, as without such a temptation would have been wholly unnecessary. After it has been in some sort considered, likewise, the same obscurity affords opportunity to an un- fair mind of explaining away and deceitfully hid- ing from itself that proof which it otherwise might perceive ; and also for men’s encouraging them- selves in vice from hopes of impunity, though they clearly see thus much at least, that such hopes are uncertain ; just as the common temptation to crimes and fates: which end in temporal infamy and ruin, is the hope of not being detected ; 7. e. the doubt- fulness of the proof beforehand, that this criminal or foolish behaviour will have such an infamous or ruinous issue. Whereas, the correct operation of this supposed doubtfulness would be, to call for a NATURAL AND REVEALED. 295 more careful exercise of the virtuous principle, in fairly yielding to the proper influence of any real evidence, though not conclusive ; and in practising conscientiously all virtue, though under some un- certainty; whether the government of the universe may not pessibly be such as that vice shall escape with impunity. And, in general, temptation of every kind and degree, as it calls forth some mo- ral efforts, which would otherwise have been want- ing, cannot but be an additional discipline and im- provement of virtue, as well as probation of it in the other senses of that word. So that the very same account is to be given, why the evidence of Religion should be left in such a manner as to re- quire in some a solicitous (and, perhaps, painful) exercise of their understandings about it; as why others should, after a full conviction of its truth, be placed in such circumstances as that the prac- tice of its ordinary duties should require pains and solicitude : why its apparent doubtfulness should afford matter of temptation to some, as why exter- nal difficulties and allurements should be per mitted to afford matter of temptation to others. P. TV used to look upon the evidences of Chris- tianity, as totally out of the reach of common un- standings: but it now appears to me quite other- wise, if men would only be impartial in consider- ing them. M. Yes: Surely even common men, were they but as much in earnest about Religion as about their worldly concerns, are fully capable of being convinced that there is a God who governs the world; there is also, undoubtedly, evidence sufh- ciently level to their comprehensions, of Miracles, and of many apparent completions of Prophecy 226 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, proving the truth of Christianity. This proof, in- deed (as I have already admitted) is liable to ob- jections, and may be refined into difficulties. Yet persons, who are capable of seeing these difficul- ties, are likewise capable of seeing through them ; z. e. not of clearing them up, in a way to satisfy their curiosity (for such knowledge is unattaina- ble, with respect to any one thing in nature) but capable of seeing that the proof is not lost in them, or destroyed by the objections upon which they are founded. P. I remember to have heard the Evidences of Religion cavilled at upon this ground, viz. that if a Prince or a Master were to send directions to a servant, he would take care that they should al- ways bear the certain indications whence they came ; and that their sense should be so plain, as to leave no possible doubt (if he could help it) concerning their authority, or their meaning. I see, in part, the fallacy of this: but you can, per- haps, expose it to me, Sir, still more fully. M. The proper answer to it seems to be, that we cannot argue from the imperfection of human precedents with respect to Him, who is the Go- vernor of the World; and that he does not, in fact (as we have seen), afford us such perfect informa- tion in our temporal affairs. But another and a very sufficient reply is suggested by the considera- tion, that Religion has peculiar regard to the mo- tive, or principle, upon which the Divine will is complied with: whereas, in the case referred to, the Prince or the Master, in ordering a thing to be done, is not so much guided by that circumstance as by his desire to have it done. Hence, he gives his directions plainly. Were he only disposed to > eee eel OO a re NATURAL AND REVEALED. 227 exercise the loyalty or the understanding of his servant, he would probably choose to render those directions more intricate or more obscure. P. I assure you, Sir, that all my doubts are completely removed ; and I hope ever to be grate- ful to you, more particularly for the very clear light in which you have placed the credibility of the Evidences of Christianity. iM. I am rejoiced to hear you say so ; especial- ly with respect to the last topic, which, beyond all others, appears to me to involve objections, slight indeed in themselves, but yet peculiarly harassing to the human mind. To guard you still farther against them, allow me, before we separate, to re- peat that—far from its being the method of Pro- vidence in other cases to supply such overbearing evidence, as some require in proof of Christianity, the evidence upon which we are generally appoint- ed to act in ordinary matters is perpetually doubt- ful in avery high degree; that the information, which we need in these cases, is by no means given as of course, without any care or pains of our own ; and that, in judging of that information, we are liable to self-deceit from secret prejudices, and also to the deceptions of others. Yet this does not excuse our incredulity, or neglect, in any thing which concerns our worldly interests: much less will similar difficulties justify our inattention or unbelief, in respect of things which are pro- pounded to us for our eternal welfare. Besides, the alleged doubtfulness of the Evidences of Chris- tianity may be men’s own fault ; or, if not, it may in part be accounted for in the same manner as trials and temptations with regard to practice T2 228 ANALOGY OF RELIGION, &c. However, doubting in any sense implies a degree of evidence for that, of which we doubt; and this degree of evidence as really lays us under obliga- tions, as demonstrative proof. If, then, there are persons in the world, who never set themselves in earnest to be informed in Religion, or who secretly wish it may not prove true ; and who, therefore, are less attentive to evi- dence than to difficulties, and more to objections than to what can be said in answer to them—we need not wonder, that such persons should fail to discover the evidences of Religion, even though it were most certainly true, and capable of being ever so fully proved. ‘ y " f b. ‘ Vi. THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY: ABRIDGED FROM DR PALEY AND MR SOAME JENYNS. ‘¢ Whence hath this man this wisdom ? ” Matt, xiii. 54. INTRODUCTORY NOTICE OF Dr PALEY anp Mr JENYNS. How little the writings of Dr Paury are susceptible either of abridgment, extension, or supplement, all who have read them must well know ; and his‘commendation of JeNyNs’ View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion, in the Chapter where principally the Sixth of the subjoined Tracts is derived, is highly flattering: —‘ I would will- ingly transcribe the whole of what he has said upon the Mo- rality of the Gospel; because it perfectly agrees with my own opinion, and because it is impossible to say the same thing so well,” He farther calls him an ‘* an acute ob- server of human nature, and a sincere convert to Christi- anity.”’* Even Dr Mactarnz (late minister of the Eng- lish Church at the Hague, and translator of Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History), in his Series of Letters addressed to Mr Jenyns, not only gives him credit for being in ear- nest, but also commends his descriptions of the writers that correspond with the great object and end of the Christian Religion, as judicious and sentimental:— They will force the assent of a good understanding ; but their truth and excellence will be best comprehended by the feelings of a good heart.’’ At the same time, he represents the general strain of reasoning which pervades the volume, as *¢ neither close nor accurate ;”—the illustrations intro- duced, as “ running wide of the principles which they are designed to explain and enforce ; ” and the work itself * See his Evidences of Christianity, ii. 2. in his Chapter upon the Morality of the Gospel. 232 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. as almost universally defective in “* luminous order and philosophical precisibn.’? Under this strong and just cen- sure, I have chiefly confined my abstracts to what regards the Morality of the Gospel. Dr Macraine says: —‘* What I call, and what are usually called, the ‘ Internal Characters’ of Christi- anity, that display its excellence, and (in conjunction with morality) show its divinity, are, the rational and su- blime representations it gives of the attributes in general, and particularly of the goodness and mercy of the Su- preme Being; the suitableness of its declarations of grace, succour, and immortality to the guilt, infirmity, and boundless. desires of the human mind ; the purity and goodness of its moral precepts, which are adapted to ennoble and improve human nature, and to lead it to true perfection and felicity; and the motives that it ex- hibits to enforce the practice of universal virtue.” But a system (as he elsewhere remarks) may be characterised by “* preatness, simplicity, utility, and importance ;”’ nay, be “ honourable to the perfections of God, for any thing we know to the contrary;” and by its happy influence in inspiring life, consolation, and humility, may “ tend to the real improvement of human nature; ” and still, un- accompanied with visible and extraordinary interposi- tions, may ‘‘ appear to many as not beyond the dictate of man’s wisdom.” To give to such a system the indubi- table marks of a Divine Revelation, it is necessary to contrast with those internal characters of excellence and sublimity, the rank or capacity of the persons by whom it was promulgated. ‘This totally changes the nature of the argument, and renders the proof complete. I had intended to avail myself of the late Mr Annrew Fuiuer’s Gospel its Own Witness, a work exhibiting the merits and harmony of the Christian Religion,—as it re- INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 233 veals a God glorious in Holiness, teaches us to devote ourselves to his Service, supplies an enlarged and im- maculate system of Morality, furnishes the strongest Mo. tives to practise it, has in reality, not only influenced the lives of individuals, but given a tone likewise to the mo- rals of society ; is strictly consistent with historic fact, as evinced by the fulfilment of prophecy ; agrees with the dictates of an enlightened conscience, and the result of the closest observation ; in its spirit and style, harmonising with its own professions ; and inculcating doctrines of Mediation and Redemption, consistent with sober reason and with the modern opinion of the magnitude of Crea- tion,—in all which respects, Deism is lamentably defi- cient. But inthe field with Parry and JENYNs, such an ally, however respectable, would have probably appeared to the greatest part of our readers superfluous, THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, &c. Tue Morality’ of the Gospel, considering from whom it came, must be admitted by all to be such as, without allowing reality to the pretensions of that Gospel, it is extremely difficult, not to say impossible, to account for. No one, who has given it under this reference, an impartial examination, will affect to regard it as the fruit of a religion founded in folly, contrived by craft, or propagated through enthusiasm, The apparent son of a Jew- ish carpenter expires upona cross. His followers, chiefly a few fishermen, remarkable for little (while he was with them upon earth) except striking ignorance, particularly in respect to his doctrine _ and intentions, record and publish the sublime truths committed .to their charge with the most unexampled plainness and perseverance, and with the most-extraordinary success! It is in this cir- cumstance, that the proof of a supernatural dispen- U 236 THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE sation, as inferable from what is called the “ In- ternal Evidence ” of the Gospel, consists. For this involves Divine Inspiration. Divine Inspira- tion is a Miracle ; and a Miracle is legitimate evi- dence, that the Doctrine which it accompanies is from God. Let us consider, then, I. The things taught ; Il. The manner of teaching. I. The former head, likewise, we may subdivide into two branches ; as it comprehends, negatively, the omission of those qualities—for instance, Active Courage, Patriotism, and Friendship—which have usually engaged the admiration of mankind, and in their purer acceptation deserve to do so ; but which, as they are commonly understood, have in their general effects been prejudicial to human happiness. While it posztively urges upon us Poorness of Spi- rit, Forgiveness of Injuries, and Universal Charity ; together with Repentance, Faith, Self-abasement, and a Detaching of ourselves from the world. The First argument, drawn from the distinctive Morality of the New Testament, is Toe PREFER- ENCE OF THE PATIENT TO WHAT IS USUALLY TERMED THE HEROIC CHARACTER. _ There isa description of mankind—meek, yield- ing, and forgiving ; not prompt to act, but patient to suffer; silent and gentle under rudeness and in- sult, suing for reconciliation when others would demand satisfaction, giving way to the pushes of impudence, and indulgent to the prejudices and in- tractability of those by whom they are surrounded. With the Founder of Christianity this description is the subject of his commendation, his precepts, i — . | OF CHRISTIANITY. 237 and his example. feesist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to goa mile, go with him twain——Love your ene- mies ; bless them that curse you, do good to them that haie you, and pray for them which despite- fully use you, and persecute you.§ This shows, that no two things can be more different than the Patient and the Heroic character. Without ob- jecting to the praises and honours bestowed upon the valiant, (the least tribute, which can be paid by such as enjoy safety and affluence through the intervention of their dangers and sufferings), it may truly be asserted, that mere Active Courage can never be a Christian virtue, because Christi- anity has nothing to do‘with it. Passive Courage is, indeed, frequently inculcated by this meek and suffering religion, under the titles of “ Patience” and ‘ Resignation.” And this is a real and sub- stantial virtue, arising from the noblest disposi- tions of the human mind—from a contempt of misfortunes, pain, and death, and a confidence in the protection of the Almighty; whereas Active Courage too often springs from the meanest—from passion, or vanity, or self-dependence. Passive Courage is generated by a zeal for truth, and per- severance in duty: