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imagination of his disciples, Lucian, in his Peregrinus, could not have called him "the great man crucified in Palestine;"* nor could he have said "that the Christians forsook the Pagan divinities, to adore their crucified Master." Had our Divine Master been no more than a grand sophist, (as Lucian insinuates,) Heaven would not have confirmed his prediction concerning the temple of Jerusalem by a striking prodigy. Behold the fact :-"The disciples of Christ (saith St. Matthew xxiv, 1) came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple; and Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." As if he had said, This fine temple is going to be destroyed, and with it shall end the continual sacrifice, offered by the Jewish priests to God. When the Emperor Julian had replunged himself in Pagan darkness, he burned with a crafiy zeal against the Christian religion; thinking to weaken it by proving that Jesus Christ was a false prophet; and imagining this would be sufliciently done by rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem, and enabling the Jews again to offer their sacrifices. But the attack was against the King of kings. Rufinus and Sozomen mention this business at large. (See what Ammianus Marcellinus says in his Annals, book 23.) "Julian, having a great desire to perpetuate the memory of his reign, by the grandeur of his enterprizes, formed the design of rebuilding the superb temple of Jerusalem, which having been taken by assault, after many bloody encounters, was destroyed, while Vespasian and Titus were carrying on the siege. To rebuild this temple would require immense sums. Julian charged Alipius of Antioch with the undertaking; him who had commanded in Britain under the governors. But when Alipius, seconded by the go vernor of the provinces, was eager to advance the work, globes of fire, bursting suddenly from the earth, near the foundations of the building, rendered the place inaccessible by the constant assaults which they made upon the workmen, many of whom perished by the flames. So that they were obliged to desist from pursuing the enterprise, to which fate and the element of fire were so strongly opposed." More than this could scarcely be expected from a heathen author, who had been a general in Julian's army; but he speaks sufficiently clear, so as not to leave any doubt of the truth of so remarkable an event.

If Pagan authors have only spoken of Jesus Christ indirectly, or slightly, it is not the same with the Mohammedans. Though in many respects they are Pagans, (saith the learned Dr. Moore,) their law contains many articles of the Old and the New Testament. The principal dogma of their faith, and which with ravishment they constantly confess in their mosques, is, "There is but one God." It is true, this is only what is believed by the Jews: but the Mohammedans go much farther, having a design to prove that they merit the name of semi-Christians, which is given them by a learned author: for in both their Koran and the Zuna it is declared, "That Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and that he was born of the Virgin Mary." "That the Gospel is the light, the way, and the salvation of men, and that such as reject

* Τον μέγαν εκείνον ανθρωπον τον εν Παλιστινη ανασκολοπισθεντα. * Τον ανασκολοπισμένον εκείνον σοφισήν αυτών προςκυνείν.

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it shall perish." "That Christ knew the thoughts of the heart, gave sight to the blind, and speech to the dumb, healed incurable diseases, and raised the dead." The Koran even attributes three advantages to Jesus Christ, which it refuses to Abraham, to Moses, and to Mohammed himself; the first is, "that he was translated soul and body into heaven," from whence (it is said in the Zuna) " he shall return to judge the world in righteousness." The second is, that he shall be called "The Word of God:" and the third, that he shall be named, "The Holy Spirit of God." (See Confusio Secta Mohammedana, by Johannes Andreas, and many others.)

I would remind my readers that the reason of the above quotations is first, to show, that though the Koran so much disfigures Christianity, for the chastising of disobedient and hypocritical Christians; yet it admits enough of our doctrines to overthrow idolatry, and the external empire of Satan upon earth; insomuch that in Africa and India, Mohammedanism prepares idolaters for the reception of Christianity: and secondly to nourish our hope, that the Mohammedans, who have already such exalted notions of Jesus Christ, will embrace the Gospel, when the great scandals of the Christian Churches shall be done away; the additions which Mohammed has made to the Gospel being founded only upon false miracles and absurd reveries. On the contrary, pure Christianity, contained in the Gospel, is so reasonable, that all who examine with candour are obliged to acknowledge the force of those proofs which demonstrate its truth. From the above citations it is evident, that both Jews, Pagans, and Mohammedans have acknowledged the existence of our grand Prophet in such a manner that it remains an indubitable fact. If you imagine that Jesus Christ was a false prophet, you believe that it was by mere chance that the temple and city of Jerusalem were destroyed, according to his prediction: and that it is mere accident which preserves the Jews in their dispersion and opprobrious condition, so clearly foretold by Moses. Or you suppose, against all probability, that the harmony of the Jewish and Christian prophecies, in this respect, is an imposture, plotted between Jews and Christians, to impose upon the world. Upon this supposition you likewise imagine, that when Jesus Christ said to his disciples, "I will make you fishers of men :" Lo, I am with you to the end of the world:" "The gates of hell shall not prevail against my Church;"-you imagine, I say, that when Jesus Christ spake thus, he saw by accident that his Gospel would spread through all the Roman empire, and that the most powerful monarchs, Diocletian and Julian, should not be able to overturn Christianity; that his holy doctrine would be disseminated through all parts of the known world, and would even civilize nations in a part of the globe not then discovered. You moreover think that it was by mere chance that Jesus Christ foretold, in these words, the vile hypocrisy and scandalous divisions of wicked Christians : "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold."

Notwithstanding this spiritual apostasy of Christians in our days, so

clearly foretold by Jesus Christ and his apostles, (compare Matt. xxiv, 10, with 2 Tim. iii, 1-5, and 2 Thess. ii, 3, and 1 John ii, 18,) we see the other part of our Lord's prediction accomplishing, and Christianity daily extending through Russia and Siberia, even unto China and the east; while in the west it is franchising the Americans from that savage ferocity so natural to them.

It is vain superstition, credulity, false philosophy, and the rank apostasy of baptized infidels and professing worldlings, which rush forward, like the raging waves of the boiling deep, to overwhelm the fair structure of Christianity and to sap its firm foundations. But all their waves are broken the Rock on which she stands remains immovable; and the prophecies of the Redeemer are daily advancing toward their full and complete accomplishment. "His fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into his garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire," Matt. iii, 10.

Twenty absurdities flow from the system of incredulity; for if you believe with some that the son of Mary was an impostor, you believe that a man whose character was the most modest and the most virtuous in the eyes of reason, through his whole life played a part the most abominable and diabolical. You suppose that an ambitious man (for such was Jesus if he was not the King of kings) was formed in a manner so different from other men, as openly to attack the prejudices of those among whom he was going to establish his reign; and that, contrary to appearances and to the springs of the human mind, he had formed the plan of bringing about his purpose by the cross, and rising to immortal honours by a death the most infamous.

If you say Jesus Christ was not an impostor, but a virtuous man, though a great enthusiast, you weave another web of absurdities. As a fanatic, could he conduct himself through his whole life with a wisdom and moderation which could never be impeached? As an illiterate man, with a brain deranged by folly, could he produce a system of morality more perfect than those of all legislators and of all philosophers? Beside, enthusiasts betray, at one time or other, such extravagances as shock right reason and manifest their folly; on the contrary, in the conduct of Jesus Christ, as well as in his morality, nothing is seen but a wisdom replete with sweetness, as far from fanaticism as moderation is from fury.

"One thing which charms me in the character of Jesus (says J. J. Rousseau) is not only the simplicity of his manners, but the facility, the grace, and even elegance. Although he was not the wisest of mortals, he was the most amiable." (His third letter to Montaigne.)

Moreover, as a man, who never showed himself but to attack all kinds of vice, could he have been an honest man if he had supported false pretensions by roguery, continual fraud, and imposture? There is no medium; either Jesus Christ is the incarnate Word; and as such he has confirmed his assertions by true miracles; or he was the most daring of impostors when he said, "I am the light of the world,""Verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am." "All men ought to honour the Son even as they honour the Father." hath seen me hath seen my Father also." "I have a greater witness than that of John; the works that I do bear witness that the Father

"He who

hath sent me." "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not: but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works." "Go and tell John what things ye have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised."

If, yielding to the force of this multiplied evidence, you acknowledge that Jesus Christ and his apostles sustained their mission by miraculous works, you do no more than was done by Caiaphas, Celsus, Porphyry, those ancient enemies of Christianity who examined these evidences even up to their source, and who wanted neither penetration to discover their falsity, nor judgment to demonstrate the same, had such a fraud existed. And in this case reason will oblige you either to receive the Gospel, or to say, with obstinate unbelievers, that Jesus Christ and his apostles performed their miracles by the power of magic. But is it not much easier to believe in the Gospel than in this occult science? Beside, is it not most unreasonable to suppose that devils would league with Jesus Christ and his apostles to destroy the empire of vice, to overturn idols, to enlighten mankind, and to carry all the moral virtues to their highest degree of perfection, both in theory and practice?

Your system involves you in the same embarrassment with regard to the apostles. You are obliged to acknowledge, that either they were the true envoys of God, or else that persons of the greatest simplicity in conduct and writing, wherein they have displayed the most shining virtues, were only a band of the most obstinate knaves and liars. For, in constantly attesting the resurrection of their Master as eye witnesses of the fact, and in persisting in their evidence even unto death, without ever recanting, they were deeply stained with the most palpable knavery, and sustained it with more guile than was ever found among sharpers, and with more stubbornness than was ever manifested by robbers, whereof one in twelve at least confess their imposture and guilt when conducted to the last place of punishment. On the contrary, here one of the twelve, who suffered himself to be seduced by the enemies of his Master, after having done justice to his character, took away his own life in despair, to which he resigned himself for having betrayed innocent blood.

And wherefore so much zeal and constancy? If truth, seconded by a series of clear and evident facts, and by supernatural succours from heaven, had not supported the disciples of Jesus Christ even to the last moment of their bold and unshaken confession, what motives, what rewards, could have so strongly attached them to a crucified Master, as every where to preach his cross, sharing his poverty, his troubles, and his death?

If Jesus Christ be not risen, as he foretold, and if he did not fulfil his promise in shedding upon the apostles miraculous gifts, our credulity must needs exceed all bounds, in believing that twelve ignorant, twelve poor Galilean fishermen, at the instigation of a knave who had deceived them, should take it into their heads to subvert all religions in the world, beginning with that of their fathers, and should have accomplished their project without any other support but that of lies and the cross of their Master; without any other arms than moral precepts which offend the passions; without any other bait than a doctrine which crucifies the

flesh; and without any other allurement than dogmas which subvert the pride of philosophers. Such are the notions of our infidels, who so justly merit the name of fine geniuses, critics, and connoisseurs, because they can digest opinions destitute of probability.

Ought one not to have a soul all credulity, and proof against every ray of sound reason, to persuade one's self that twelve blind persons, set out from London to go and sap all the foundations of all the strong cities in Europe and Asia; and that they had accomplished their design without being seconded by a supernatural power, and without any other weapons than their walking sticks? Monstrous as this absurdity may appear, it is no greater than to suppose that twelve Jewish fishermen, without miraculous succours, overturned the foundations of Judaism and of Paganism, throughout the known world, in spite of all efforts that were made by all the priests and princes to oppose the religion of Jesus Christ.

O ye Deists, ye may applaud yourselves for your incredulity! But remember, that if prejudice and passion favour your system, we have reason, experience, and facts; and, after all, the absurdities which you are obliged to swallow in rejecting revelation, are more difficult to digest than the dogmas at which you stumble without reason. And never forget that faith leads to a hope the most sweet, and to a charity the most perfect; while your opinions conduct you to gloomy despair, and to a license that, after having broken the yoke of revelation, will not fail to destroy that of conscience. Melancholy observation this! the truth of which might be easily demonstrated by a multitude of anecdotes upon your apostles, if these kinds of proofs had not something in them too odious.

THE THREE PRINCIPLES.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF THE REV. JOHN FLETCHER.

BY MR. MARTINDALE.

THE regenerated man who is created anew after the image of God, that is, in the image of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, feels in himself three principles of activity. First, a principle of life, which he hath in common with all other animals. Secondly, a principle of intelligence, which he hath in common with devils. And thirdly, a principle of love, which he hath in common with holy angels. These three principles, replaced in their natural order, and purified by grace, constitute what the sacred writers call "the new creature." The first, the most radical, the most central of the three principles, from whence the other two proceed, is particularly the image of the Father. The second, which flows from the first, is particularly the image of the Son. And the third, which proceeds from the other two, with which it harmonizes, though always perfectly distinct, is particularly the image of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, who is the Spirit of love, of peace, of joy, and of perfection, and

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