that he gathered disciples-taught the multitudeperformed many wonderful works, and at last suffered death through the malice of the Jews are facts better attested than the most notorious actions of the heroes and orators of antient Greece and Rome. For, 1st. We have the same authority for these as for those; namely, that of Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the younger, and other heathen historians of those times. 2d. We have the circumstantial narratives of the Evangelical historians, most of whom were eye-witnesses of the facts they relate, and (with a thousand others) confirmed this testimony with their blood. These writings also may be proved not only to have been written; but also dispersed, and read in public assemblies of christians, during the very age in which these events happened. - 3d. The principal facts (the resurrection excepted). were never denied by the early enemies of christianity, among either Jews or Heathens. It is true they attributed them to wrong causes, and endeavoured to evade the inferences naturally deducible from them -with what success we shall have occasion observe.. to 4th. The very being of christianity, and the existence of its institutions, as in particular, the christian sabbath and sacraments, are incontestable monuments of the facts to which they refer. These hints may suffice to shew the credibility of the leading facts on which christianity is founded; especially as not even Mr. Paine himself denies them. The The credibility of the facts will, in a great measure, establish the authority of the writers. For if the facts which they assert upon their own knowledge, are in themselves credible, it only remains to show that they were persons of common sense, and sincere in their testimony, to establish it so far as is necessary to our present purpose. For the former, we may appeal to the writings themselves; for assuredly, no man who does not wish his own capacity to be called in question, will venture to deny them a sufficient degree of understanding to relate the things of which they were both eye and ear witnesses. And for their sincerity, we may appeal to the simplicity, harmony and candour of their narrations, to the disinterestedness of their conduct, the unwearied assiduity of their labours, and their constant and severe sufferings in the cause of their divine master. And indeed it is utterly inconceivable that such a number of men should conspire in an imposture, not only at the expence of every thing dear in this life, and in the immediate prospect of death itself; but in the apprehension of being treated as impostors by posterity, and answering for their impositions in a future world. Having thus far established the credibility of the authors of the New Testament, we proceed to inquire into their account of the divine character and mission of Jesus Christ, which will lead us at the same time to review some of the grand evidences on which christianity is founded. Their Their professed design then, is, to shew that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Saviour of mankind; that he came into the world in consequence of a divine mission; and that he fulfilled that mission in his life, doctrine, sufferings, death, and resurrection. I. In order to demonstrate this, they represent him as FORETOLD by the Hebrew PROPHETS, and as exactly answering all their sublime predictions, both in his life and death. This is an extensive subject; we can only observe a few particulars.— They pointed out the place of his BIRTH, namely, Bethlehem, an obscure village, but to be made illustrious by this event*; and restricted the time of it during the existence of the second temple, and within a period which by every reasonable mode of calculation must have expired at its destruction f.His tribe and family are exactly marked † ; his conception of a virgin ||, and the circumstance of his being preceded by a forerunner § (namely, John the Baptist) are foretold with equal plainness.-The very manner of his preaching, that it should be meek and affectionate; the nature of his doctrine, that it should be full of divine wisdom and righteousness, and severe only to the hypocritical and impenitent; the miracles with which his doctrine should be confirmed, * Micah v. 2. compared with Matt. ii. 1—5. Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. § Isaiah xl. 3. Isaiah vii. 14. C the the healing the diseased, recovering the blind and deaf, and other works of kindness and benevolence.*The purity of his life; and, above all, the nature, degree, and variety of his sufferings, his accursed death, and glorious resurrection †, are described by the pro phets, in terms little less particular and exact than were used by the evangelical writers, after the actual accomplishment of the events themselves.. It is further observable, that these very prophesies were, most of them, applied to the expected Messiah by Jewish doctors, who preceded the time of his appearance; to these prophesies Jesus Christ himself appealed; and from them his apostles constantly reasoned with the Jews; and by this preaching, accompanied by the promised effusions of the Spirit, thousands were convinced and converted, and became the disciples and martyrs of a crucified Messiah. To give all conceivable strength to this evidence, and cut off the only pretence that future adversaries could raise, namely: That these predictions were forged subsequent to the events, the providence of God had so ordered it, that they were not only translated into Chaldee, but into Greek; whence many particulars became known to the Gentile philosophers, were interwoven with the Sibyline oracles, and even incorporated into the sublime numbers of Virgil; and all this before the New Testament was written. Thus a general expectation was formed at this time of a great deliverer, and the eyes of all men directed to look for his appearance. "O, son of mighty Jove! from heaven appear; "Come to thine honours-lo, the time draws near! "The barren hills proclaim the Deity; "A God! a God! the vocal rocks reply *." II. Let us review the Redeemer's MORAL CHARACTake a summary of it, in the language of the elegant but sceptical Rousseau †. TER. "I will confess to you, that the majesty of the scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel hath its influence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers, with all their pomp of diction: how mean, how contemptible are they, compared with the scripture! Is it possible that a book, at once so simple and sublime, should be merely the work of man? Is it possible that the sacred personage, whose history it contains, should be himself a mere man? Do we find that he assumed the tone of an enthusiast, or ambitious sectary? What sweetness, what purity in his manners! what an affecting gracefulness in his delivery! What sublimity in his maxims! What profound wisdom in his discourses! What presence of mind, what * Virgil's Pollio, compared with Mr. Pope's Messiah. See his Letter to the Archbishop of Paris. |