§ 177. The prevalence of Chriftianity an argument of its divinity. The establishment of the Chriftian religion among men is the greatest of all miracles. In fpite of all the power of Rome; in fpite of all the paffions, interefts, and prejudices of fo many rations; fo many philofophers; fo many different religions; twelve poor fifhermen, without art, without eloquence, without power, publish and spread their doctrine throughout the world. In fpite of a perfecution for three centuries, which feemed every moment ready to extinguish it; in fpite of continued and innumerable martyrdoms of perfons of all conditions, fexes, and countries; the truth in the end triumphs over error, purfuant to the predictions both of the old and new law. Let any one fhew fome other religion, which has the fame marks of a divine protection. A powerful conqueror may establish, by his arms, the belief of a religion, which flatters the fenfuality of men; a wife legiflator may gain himself attention and refpect by the usefulness of his laws; a fect in credit, and fupported by the civil power, may abuse the credulity of the people: all this is poffible: but what could victorious, learned, and fuperftitious nations fee, to induce them fo readily to Jefus Chrift, who promifed them nothing in this world but perfecutions and fufferings; who propofed to them the practice of a morality, to which all darling paffions muft be facrificed. Is not the converfion of the world to fuch a religion, without miracles, a greater and more credible one, than even the greatest of those which fome refufe to believe? Fenelon. § 178. A fummary of arguments for the truth of the Gospel. He that well confiders the force of thofe arguments which are brought to eftablish the truth of the Chriftian religion; that fees how they all (though drawn from different topics) confpire in the moft perfect manner to conving the world of the divine original of this faith; would fcarce think it poffible, that the reafon and understanding of mankind fhould ever oppofe it; will therefore conclude there is fomething more than pure infidelity at the bottom, and that they are not mere fcruples of the mind which create so long and violent contention. If he thinks on the excellency of the precepts of the Chriftian religion, he finds. them of the fitteft nature poffible to perfuade him to receive it as the contrivance of heaven. They are all fo worthy of God, fo beneficial and improving to human nature, and fo conducive to the welfare and happiness of fociety. When he confiders the ftrange and fpeedy propagation of this faith through the world, with its triumph over the wit and policy, the force and malice of its formidable enemies; and all this accomplified by fuch methods, as the reafon of mankind would have pronounced the most foolish and abfurd: he fees here the overruling hand of God, which alone could give it fuch aftonishing fucceffes, by thofe very ways and means from which its utter confufion was to be expected. The exact accomplishment of exprefs and unquestionable prophecies, concerning the most remarkable events of the world, is a folemn appeal to all reasonable nature, whether that revelation be not truly divine, which contains fuch plain and wonderful predictions. Laftly, The miracles wrought by Jefus Chrift and his apostles, in confirmation of this faith and doctrine, are fuch proofs of the near concern which heaven had therein; that he who confiders them, and at the fame time calls Chriftianity an impofture, mut either take pains to avoid knowing the finger of God, when he fees it, or else do infinitely worfe, by afcribing the manifeft effects thereof to mean artifice, or diabolical power. From thefe topics the truth of Chriftianity has been fo fubftantially argued, and fo clearly proved; that, by all the rules of right reafon in ufe amongft mankind, it is rendered plainly abfurd and irrational to reject it. One need not with to fee an adverfary reduced to worfe extremities, than one of thofe arguments well managed and preffed home would reduce him to; provided he were kept from excurfions, and obliged to return no answers but what were directly to the purpose. Humphrey Detton. ing; that he was put to death upon the crofs, after the Roman manner,under Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea; that after his death, his difciples went about into all, or most parts of the then known world, teaching and preaching, that this Jefus was the Chrift, the Son of God, and Saviour of the world, and that he was rifen from the dead, and gone into heaven; that in a few years they converted a very great number of people, in all places to this belief; that the profeffors of this belief were called Chriftians; that they were moft cruelly perfecuted, and many thousands of them put to death, and that with the moft exquifite torments, for no other reason, but because they were Chriftians; that thefe perfecutions were feveral times renewed against them, for the space of about three hundred years; and yet, for all this, that the number of Chriftians daily encreafed, and that not only idiots and unlearned men, but great fcholars and philofophers were converted to Christianity, even in the times of perfecution; all this, being merely matter of fact, was never yet denied by the greatest enemies of the Chriftian religion. And, indeed, these things are fo abundantly teftified by the hiflories, and other writings of thofe times; and have been fo generally received for truth, as well by the oppofers as believers of Christianity, by a constant, univerfal, and uninterrupted tradition, from thofe days, even unto this time; that a man may as well deny the truth of any, or of all, the hiftories of the world, as of this. Archbishop Synge. § 180. Superiority of the Gospel to all other writings, an argument of its truth. To what was it owing, that the Jewish writers thould have fuch lovely and great ideas of God, and fuch just notions of the worship due to him, far above any thing which we meet with in the writings of the greatest lights of the Heathen world; every one of which either patronized idolatry, or fell into errors of worfe confequence? Can it be accounted for by the force of natural or human affiftances? No, the eminent philofophers of Athens and Rome equalled them, it is certain, in natural abilities, and exceeded them confeffedly in the fuperftructures of acquired knowledge, and all the advantages of a refined education. It must be therefore owing to fome fupernatural or divine helps; and none, but he, in whom are contained all the treasures of wifdom, could have enriched their minds to fuch a degree, and furnished fuch a vaft expence of thought. If Judea was enobled by thefe exalted notions, of which other nations, who were funk into the dregs of polytheism and idolatry, were deftitute; if the kindly dew of heaven defcended on this fleece only, while all the earth around betrayed a want of refreshing moisture; this was the Lord's doing, and ought to be marvellous in our eyes. Had God revealed himself to the Greeks, or fome other nation famed for their curious refearches into every branch of literature, and for the depths of wisdom and policy; thofe truths, which were so many emanations from the great fountain of light, would have been looked upon as the result of their penetration, and their own difcoveries: but by communicating his will to a people of no inventive and enterprizing genius, of no enlarged reach and compafs of thought; fuch fufpicions are avoided, and the proofs of a revelation more confpicuous and illustrious. this may be one reafon among others, why, at a time when the reft of the world were bigoted to fuperftition, idolatry, and a falfe religion, God fingled out this nation, in that point not fo corrupt as others, to be the guardian and depofitary of the true. And If nothing recommended the Scripture but this fingle confideration, that all thofe collected beams of fpiritual light center in it alone, which were widely diffused amidst a variety of treatifes, and loft amidst a crowd of palpable abfurdities; even this would be no improbable argument of its divinity: but this is not all: let us, in order to compile an adequate, unerring ftandard of religious truths, take in all the affiftances we can get from all the philofophers in Greece, from Tully at Rome, nay even from Confucius as far as China; and yet, after all, the scheme will be defective in what the Scriptures have recommended, a pure, rational worthip of God only, in fpirit and in truth, a fulness of pardon for every fin upon repentance, and the noblenefs of the rewards hereafter. The love of God will not be required in fo high a degree, as it is in the Scriptures; nor enforced by fo ftrong a motive as our Saviour's dying for mankind has done; nor our charity and love to the diftrened re-. commended by fo powerful an incentive, as that our Redeemer has made them his. reprefentatives, and will place to his own. R 3 account account, whatever was done for his fake to them. One may challenge any man to produce, before Chriftianity, among the Heathen world, fuch a complete fyftem of morality, reaching all the duties of life, without any defect; and full without overflowing, or any redundancy, as the fcriptures contain. And it is needlefs to tell any man of plain fenfe, that there must be always a proportion between the cause and the effect. Now, if we exclude the divine power, what proportion can we find between the caufes of Chriftianity, and Christianity itfelf? Chriflianity is a religion, which has difabuted the world, and refcued it from thofe many vicious practices, fuch as the expofing of infants, polygamy, &c. which were univerfally defended among the Pagans, and from human facrifices, and from innumerable abominable and brutal rites; a religion fo perfective of human nature, and fo expreffive of the divine; that we want ideas to carry us to a conception of any thing beyond it. And who were the authors or caufes of this religion? Why, a fet of men bred up in low life to mean employments, which cramp the native powers of the mind. And can we ferioufly think, that a fet of unlettered, unenterprifing men, could open feveral rich mines of truth, which had efcaped the laborious researches of the profoundeft scholars, and the happy fagacity of the most penetrating wits? Since therefore every effect must have a competent and proportionable caufe; and fince the fuppofed natural caufes and authors of Chriftianity, confidered as mere men, exclufive of divine infpiration, were plainly unequal to the tafk, nor could ever have brought to light fuch doctrines, as exceeded whatever the philofophers before had done; though, laying afide their dregs, we should draw off the very flower and fpirit of their writings: it is evident, we muft have recourse to fome fupernatural and adequate cause which interefted itself in this affair. And to whom, but to the Father of Light, in whom there is no darkness at all, can we be indebted, that now, perfons of the flendereft capacities may view thofe elevated and beneficial truths in the ftrongest point of light, which the fineft fpirits of the gentile world could not before fully afcertain; that our meaneft mechanics, with a moderate fhare of application, may have jufter and fuller notions of God's attributes, of eternal happinefs, of every duty respecting their Maker, mankind, and God only knows, and God only can tell, whether he will forgive, and upon what terms he will forgive the offences done against him; what mode of worship he requires; what helps he will afford us; and what condition he will place us in hereafter. All this God actually has told us in the gofpel. It was to tell us this, he fent his Son into the world, whofe miffion was confirmed by the highest authority, by figns from heaven, and miracles on earth; whofe life and doctrine are delivered down to us by the most unexceptionable witneffes, who fealed their teftimony with their blood; who were too curious and incredulous to be themfelves impofed upon, too honest and fincere, too plain and artless, to impofe upon others. What then can be the reason that men ftill refuse to fee, and perfist in “ loving darknefs rather the light?" They will tell you perhaps th, because the gospel is full of incredible myfteries; but our Saviour tells you, and he tells you much truer, that it is" because their deeds are evil." The myfteries and difficulties of the gofpel can be no real objection to any man that confiders what myfteries occur, and what infuperable objections may be started, in almost every branch of human knowledge; and how often we are obliged, in our most important concerns, to decide and to act upon evidence, incumbered with far greater difficulties than any that are to be found in Scripture. If we can admit no religion that is not free from mystery, we muft, I doubt, be content without any religion. Even the religion of nature itself, the whole conftitution both of the natural and the moral world, is full of mystery; and the greatest mystery of all would be, if, with fo many irresistible marks of truth, Christianity fhould at laft prove falfe. It is not then because the gospel has too little light for these men that they reject it, but because it has too much. For "every one that doth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, left his deeds fhould be reproved." The light of the gofpel is too prying and inquifitive for fuch an one. It reveals certain things which he could wish to conceal from all the world, and if poffible from himself. Nor is is this all; it not only reveals, but it reproves them. It ftrikes him with an evidence he cannot bear; an evidence not only of its own truth, but of his unworthy conduct. The gofpel does indeed offend him; but it is not his understanding, it is his confcience, that is fhocked: he could eafily credit what it requires him to believe; but he cannot, or rather he will not, practice what it commands him to do. It is plain that fuch a man cannot poffibly admit a revelation that condemns him; and it is as plain that the man of virtue cannot fpurn the hand that is graciously ftretched out to reward him. If he is a truly virtuous man, that is, one who fincerely labours to know his duty, and fincerely intends to perform it, he cannot but with for more light to guide him in the investigation, more affiftance to fupport him in the discharge of it, more happiness to crown his perfeverance in it, than bare reafon alone can afford him. This is what all the best and wifeft Heathens most ardently defired, what nature has been continually looking out for with the utmost earneftnefs of expectation. When with a mind thus difpofed he fits down to examine the gospel, fuggeft to me the least shadow of a reafon why he fhould reject it? He finds in it a religion, pure, holy, and benevolent, as the God that gave it. He finds not only its moral precepts but even its fublimeft myfteries, calculated to promote internal fanctity, vital piety, univerfal philanthropy. He finds it throughout fo great and noble, fo congenial to the fineft feelings, and moft generous fentiments of his foul; that he cannot but wish it may be true, and never yet, I believe, did any good man wifh it to be true, but he actually found it fo. He fees in it every expectation of nature answered, every infirmity supported, every want fupplied, every terror diffipated, every hope confirmed; nay, he fees that God has done exceeding abundantly above all that he could either ask or think;" that he has given him, what reafon could hardly have the idea of, eternal happiness in a life to come. It is not a matter of indifference whether you embrace Chriftianity or not. Though reafon could anfwer all the purposes of revelation, which is far, very far from being the cafe, yet you are not at liberty to make it your fole guide, if there be such a thing as a true revelation. We are the fubjects of the Almighty; and whether we will acknowledge it or not, we live, and cannot but live, under his government. His will is the law of his kingdom. If he has made no exprefs declaration of his will, we must collect it as well as we can from what we know of his nature and our own. But if he has exprefly declared his will, that is the law we are to be governed by. We may indeed refuse to be governed by it; but it is at our peril if we do; for if it proves to be a true declaration of his will, to reject it is rebellion. But to reject or receive it, you may alledge, is not a thing in your own power. Belief depends not on your will, but your understanding. And will the righteous judge of the earth condemn you for want of understanding? No; but he may and will condemn you for the wrong conduct of your understanding. It is not indeed in your power to believe whatever you pleafe, whether credible or incredible; but it is in your power to confider thoroughly, whether a fuppofed incredibility be real or only apparent. It is in your power to beltow a greater or lefs degree of attention on the evidence before you. It is in your power to examine it with an earnest defire to find out the truth, and a firm refolution to embrace it wherever you do find it; or on the contrary, to bring with you a heart full of incorrigible depravity, or invincible prepoffeffions. Have you then truly and honeftly done every thing that is confeffedly in your power, towards forming a right judgment of revelation? Have you ever laid before yourself in one view the whole collective evidence of Chriftianity? The confiftence, harmony, and connection, of all its various parts; the long chain of prophecies undeniably compleated in it; the astonishing and well-attefted miracles that attended it; the perfect fanctity of its author; the purity of its precepts; the fublimity of its doctrines; the amazing rapidity of its progrefs; the illuftrious company of confefiors, faints, and martyrs, who died to confirm its truth; together with an infinite number of collateral proofs and fubordinate circumftances, all concurring to form such a body of evidence, as no other truth in the world can fhew; fuch as muft neceffarily bear down, by its own weight and magnitude, all trivial objections to particular parts? Surely these things are not trifles; furely they at leaft demand seriousness and attention. Have you then done the gofpel this common piece of juftice? Have you ever fat down to confider it with impartiality and candour; without any favourite vice or early prejudice, without any fondnesą R 4 for his diftinguished kindness, perfectly well informed and thoroughly interefted, in every tender fcene that it defcribes, foothing itself with the recollection of little domeftic incidents and familiar converfations, and tracing out not only the larger and more obvious features of the favourite character, but even thofe finer and more delicate ftrokes in it, which would have eluded a lefs obferving eye, or less faithful memory, than thofe of a beloved companion and friend. Our divine lawgiver fhowed his wif dom equally in what he enjoined, and what he left unnoticed. He knew exactly, what no Pagan philofopher ever knew, where to be filent and where to speak.. That which principally attracts our notice in St. John's writings, and in his conduct, is, a fimplicity and fingleness of heart, a fervent piety, an unbounded benevolence, an unaffected modefty, humility, meeknefs, and gentleness of difp fition. These are evidently the great characteristic virtues that took the lead in his foul, and break forth in every page of his gospel and his epistles.--To know what friendship really is, we must look for it in that facred repofitory of every thing great and excellent, the gofpel of Chrift.- for applaufe, or novelty, or refinement, to Our Saviour has affured us that he will confider every real Chriftian as united to him by clofer ties than even thofe of friendhip. This affurance is given us in one of thofe noble ftrains of eloquence which are fo common in the Sacred Writings. Our Lord being told that his mother and his brethren flood without, defiring to fpeak with him, he gives a turn to this little incident, perfectly new, and inexpreffibly tender and affectionate. "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And he ftretched forth his hands towards his difciples, and faid, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whofoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the fame is my brother, and fifter, and mother." Bishop Porteus. 182. Difficulties in the Word of God to be expected, with the duty of examining its evidence. Origen has obferved, with fingular fagacity, that he who believes the Scripture to have proceeded from him who is the Author of nature, may well expect to find the fame fort of difficulties in it, as are found in the conflitution of nature. And in a like way |