A NEW INTRODUCTION то тНЕ STUDY AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE NEW TESTAMEN T. CHAP. I. On the Divine Authority, Credibility, and Excellence of the NEW TESTAMENT. That there was fuch a Perfon as JESUS CHRIST. T HAT in the Auguftan age there flourifhed in Judea an extraordinary perfon called JESUS CHRIST, is a fact better fupported and authenticated than that there lived fuch men as Cyrus, Alexander, and Julius Cæfar. For there are more historical monuments to atteft his exift ence and character, and infinitely more numerous and incontestable veftiges in the present day to prove that there was fuch a person as Chrift, than that there ever lived in paft ages fuch potent Monarchs and illuftrious Conquerors. As certainly as Christianity is now exifting in the world, fo certainly did its founder and publisher fometime exift. The public monuments, which the renowned beroes of antiquity left behind, are long fince perished: the magnificent palaces they built, the fuperb ftructures they reared, the grand temples and * maufoleums they erected, the opulent + cities they founded, are now no more. Few remaining vifible traces are left of the battles they fought, the empires they established, the systems of laws they compiled, and the univerfal devastation they once spread around them. The kingdoms, they once conquered, have, by the inftability of human condition, undergone many revolutions, have repeatedly loft and repeatedly gained their liberty, and experienced all thofe reverfes to which terrestrial glory is fubjected ‡. The curious tra veller * Quandoquidem data funt ipfis quoque fata fepulchris. Juvenal. Sat. 10. b. 146. Νασσατ' εποιχομενΘ-, τα μεν η ποθι ναιεταεσιν Apollonii Rhodii Argon. Lib. 4. v. 275. Edit. 1641. This is very affectingly described by Sulpicius in a confolatory letter to Cicero. Ex Afiâ rediens, cum ab Æginâ Megaram verfus navigarem, coepi regiones circumcirca pro-. spicere veller explores large regions in fearch of standing records of the greatness of former princes, traverses immenfe countries, once the feat of science and liberty, now the abode of barbarism and slavery, once swarming with inhabitants, and variegated with unnumbered towns and villages, now a dreary inhospitable folitude-and even fearches, but in vain, for cities and temples and palaces in the very fituation where they once stood. Babylon is now fallen!-Perfepolis and Ecbatana are no more!—and travellers have long difputed, but not been able to ascertain, the fite of antient * B 2 picere. Poft me erat Ægina: antè Megara: dextrâ Piræus : finiftrâ Corinthus: quæ oppida quodam tempore florentiffima fuerunt, nunc proftrata, et diruta ante oculos jacent, cæpit egomet mecum fic cogitare: Hem nos homunculi indignamur, fi quis noftrûm interiit, aut occifus eft quorum vita brevior effe debet, cùm uno loco tot oppidûm cadavera projecta jaceant! Ciceronis. Epift. ad Famil. Lib. 4. Epift. 5. p. 667. Edit. Var, Schrevel. 4o. * Diodorus Siculus tells us, that only a small part of this once immenfe city was inhabited in his time, and that the greateft part within its walls was tilled. Αυτης της Βαβυλωνα τον βραχυ το μέρος οικείται, το δε πλείςον εντῷ τείχες γεωργείται. Diod. Sicul. p. 123. Edit. Weffeling Amft. 1746. Strabo alfo fays, that a great part of Babylon was a folitude, so that one might apply to it what the comic poet faid of Megalopolis in Arcadia, The great city was become a great folitude. Η δ' ερημΘ- ή πολλή, ως επ' αυτης μη αν οκνήσαι τινα ειπειν όπερ εφη τις των κωμικών επι των Μεγαλοπολίτων των εν Αρκαδία. Ερημία μɛyxλn ısı ǹ Mayλn woλs. Strabo, p. 738. Edit. Paris 1620. Babylon now lies proftrate, fays Maximus Tyrius. Babuλwr xes, Differt. 6. See alfo Rauwolf's travels, Part II. ch. 7. and Hanway's travels, Vol. 4. p. 78. tient Nineveh, that exceeding great city of three days journey. Few are the prefent fignatures in minor Afia and India, of Alexander's victorious armsfew are the standing memorials in Gaul and Britain to evince that there was fuch a perfon as Julius Cæfar, who fubdued the one, and invaded the other. But that there was such a person as JESUS CHRIST, who lived, died, and rofe again, and founded a spiritual empire of religion, the prefent ftate of all the republics and kingdoms in Europe demonftrates. The customs and ufeges, that obtain in every nation, neceffarily imply a caufe and reafon, to which they owe their origin, and fuppofe a dete, from which they commenced. Religious inftitutions univerfally regarded, religious folemnities univerfally celebrated, lead the enquiring mind through paft ages to the period at which they began-to the perfon or perfons who established them-and to the fources from which they flowed. All national usages are public monuments of fails-and are standing proofs, through all fucceffive times, that the perfons, whofe memory they thus embalm, and the events, whofe importance they thus record, once actually exifted. We fee great numbers of vast and The fituation of Nineveh was fought for in Lucian's. time. Ζητηθησομένη, ωσπερ η Νίνος. Lucian. Επιςκ. Nineveh, fays he, is now totally demolished. There are now no veftiges of it remaining. It is impoffible to fay where it stood. Η Νινος απολωλεν ήδη, και ουδίν ίχνος ετι λοιπον αυτής, ουδ' αν είπης we wor' ny. Lucian, ibid. and populous kingdoms around us, all unanimously agreed in baptifing their offspring in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-in commemorating the author and finifher of their faith by the memorials of bread and wine-in worshipping the Deity through a mediator-in appropriating the first day of the week to religious worship-and in folemnizing the nativity, death, refurrection, and afcenfion of the author of their religion. How fhall we account for inftitutions and usages universally received in Europe, and univerfally practifed by all the various churches, fects, and denominations every where exifting? They were not inftituted in the prefent age-they did not commence in the times of our immediate ancestorswe find we can follow the facred ftream even beyond its fource into ages, when no fuch cufftoms prevailed, when there was no fuch religion as christianity, and when pagan idolatry and judaifm univerfally reigned. As certainly, therefore, as the prefent state of the Jews, their tenets, their ceremonious obfervances, their peculiar customs, their difperfion into all the nations of the world, yet remaining a diftinct feparate body through all the infinite changes and revolutions that affect kingdoms and communities, is an inconteftible proof, that there was fuch a legiflator as Mofes: fo certain is the conclufion from the stated folemn rites, that now univerfally obtain among all chriftian countries, that there once flourifhed B 3 |