in the undoubted faith they bore among the numerous societies which they instituted. The concurrence of the apostolic fathers, and their immediate successors, forms a very strong and a very satisfying argument; but let it be further remembered, that

out of the materials which compose, if we may be allowed the expression, the original charter of our faith, we can select a stronger body of evidence than it is possible to form out of the whole mass of subsequent testimonies.

CHAPTER VI.

Remarks on the Argument from Prophecy.

VI. PROPHECY is another species of evi- fulfilled what was spoken by some of the dence to which Christianity professes an old prophets. If every event which enters abundant claim, and which can be estab-into the Gospel had been under the conlished on evidence altogether distinct from the testimony of its supporters. The prediction of what is future may not be delivered in terms so clear and intelligible as the history of what is past; and yet, in its actual fulfilment, it may leave no doubt on the mind of the inquirer that it was a prediction, and that the event in question was in the contemplation of him who uttered it. It may be easy to dispose of one isolated prophecy, by ascribing it to accident; but when we observe a number of these prophecies, delivered in different ages, and all bearing an application to the same events, or the same individual, it is difficult to resist the impression that they were actuated by a knowledge superior to human.

The obscurity of the prophetical language has been often complained of; but it is not so often attended to, that if the prophecy which foretels an event were as clear as the narrative which describes it, it would in many cases annihilate the argument. Were the history of any individual foretold in terms as explicit as it is in the power of narrative to make them, it might be competent for any usurper to set himself forward, and in as far as it depended upon his own agency, he might realize that history. He has no more to do than to take his lesson from the prophecy before him; but could it be said that fulfilment like this carried in it the evidence of any thing divine or miraculous? If the prophecy of a Prince and a Saviour, in the Old Testament, were different from what they are, and delivered in the precise and intelligible terms of an actual history; then every accomplishment which could be brought about by the agency of those who understood the prophecy, and were anxious for its verification, is lost to the argument. It would be instantly said that the agents in the transaction took their clue from the prophecy before them. It is the way, in fact, in which infidels have attempted to evade the argument as it actually stands. In the New Testament, an event is sometimes said to happen, that it might be

troul of agents merely human, and friends to Christianity, then we might have had reason to pronounce the whole history to be one continued process of artful and designed accommodation to the Old Testament prophecies. But the truth is, that many of the events pointed at in the Old Testament, so far from being brought about by the agency of Christians, were brought about in opposition to their most anxious wishes. Some of them were brought about by the agency of their most decided enemies; and some of them, such as the dissolution of the Jewish state, and the dispersion of its people among all countries, were quite beyond the controul of the apostles and their followers, and were effected by the intervention of a neutral party, which at the time took no interest in the question, and which was a stranger to the prophecy, though the unconscious instrument of its fulfilment.

Lord Bolingbroke has carried the objection so far, that he asserts Jesus Christ to have brought about his own death, by a series of wilful and preconcerted measures, merely to give the disciples who came after him the triumph of an appeal to the old prophecies. This is ridiculous enough; but it serves to show with what facility an infidel might have evaded the whole argument, had these prophecies been free of all that obscurity which is now so loudly complained of.

The best form, for the purposes of argument, in which a prophecy can be delivered, is to be so obscure, as to leave the event, or rather its main circumstances, unintelligible before the fulfilment, and so clear as to be intelligible after it. It is easy to conceive that this may be an attainable object; and it is saying much for the argument as it stands, that the happiest illustrations of this clearness on the one hand, and this obscurity on the other, are to be gathered from the actual prophecies of the Old Testament.

It is not, however, by this part of the argument, that we expect to reclaim the

enemy of our religion from his infidelity; has left the Jewish people; of the strong not that the examination would not satisfy prejudices, even of the first disciples; of him, but that the examination will not be the manner in which these prejudices given. What a violence it would be of were dissipated, only by the accomplishfering to all his antipathies, were we to ment; and of their final conviction in the land him, at the outset of our discussions, import of these prophecies being at last so among the chapters of Daniel or Isaiah! strong, that it often forms their main arHe has too inveterate a contempt for the gument for the divinity of that new reliBible. He nauseates the whole subject too gion which they were commissioned to strongly to be prevailed upon to accom- publish to the world. Now, assuming, pany us to such an exercise. On such a what we still persist in asserting, and ask subject as this, there is no contract, no ap- to be tried upon, that an actual comparison proximation between us; and we therefore of the prophecies in the Old Testament, leave him with the assertion, (an assertion with their alleged fulfilment in the New, which he has no title to pronounce upon, will leave a conviction behind it, that there till after he has finished the very examina- is a real correspondence between them; tion in which we are most anxious to en- we see, in the great events of the new disgage him,) that in the numerous prophe-pensation brought about by the blind incies of the Old Testament, there is such a strumentality of prejudice and opposition, multitude of allusions to the events of the far more unambiguous characters of the New, as will give a strong impression to finger of God, than if every thing had hapthe mind of every inquirer, that the whole pened with the full concurrence and anforms one magnificent series of communi- ticipation of the different actors in this hiscations between the visible and the invisible tory. world; a great plan over which the unseen God presides in wisdom, and which, beginning with the first ages of the world, is still receiving new developements from every great step in the history of the spe

cies.

There is another essential part of the argument, which is much strengthened by this obscurity. It is necessary to fix the date of the prophecies, or to establish, at least, that the time of their publication was antecedent to the events to which they refer. It is impossible to give a complete expo- Now, had these prophecies been delivered sition of this argument without an actual in terms so explicit, as to force the concurreference to the prophecies themselves; rence of the whole Jewish nation, the arand this we at present abstain from. But gument for their antiquity, would not have it can be conceived, that a prophecy, when come down in a form as satisfying, as that first announced, may be so obscure, as to in which it is actually exhibited. The be unintelligible in many of its circum-testimony of the Jews, to the date of their stances; and yet may so far explain itself sacred writings, would have been refused by its accomplishment, as to carry along as an interested testimony. Whereas, to with it the most decisive evidence of its be- evade the argument as it stands, we must ing a prophecy. And the argument may admit a principle, which, in no question of be so far strengthened by the number, and ordinary criticism, would be suffered for a distance, and independence, of the different single moment to influence your underprophecies, all bearing an application to standing. We must conceive, that two the same individual and the same history, parties, at the very time that they were inas to leave no doubt on the mind of the fluenced by the strongest mutual hostility, observer, that the events in question were combined to support a fabrication; that in the actual contemplation of those who they have not violated this combination; uttered the prediction. If the terms of the that the numerous writers on both sides of prophecy were not comprehended, it at the question have not suffered the slightest least takes off the suspicion of the event hint of this mysterious compact to escape being brought about by the controul or them; and that, though the Jews are galled agency of men who were interested in the incessantly by the triumphant tone of the accomplishment. If the prophecies of the Christian appeals to their own prophecies, Old Testament are just invested in such a they have never been tempted to let out a degree of obscurity, as is enough to dis- secret, which would have brought the arguise many of the leading circumstances gument of the Christians into disgrace, and from those who lived before the fulfilment, shown the world how falsehood and forwhile they derive from the event an ex-gery mingled with their pretensions. planation satisfying to all who live after it, In the rivalry which, from the very then, we say, the argument for the divinity commencement of our religion, has always of the whole is stronger, than if no such obtained between Jews and Christians, in obscurity had existed. In the history of the mutual animosities of Christian sects, the New Testament, we see a natural and in the vast multiplication of copies of the consistent account of the delusion respect- Scriptures, in the distant and independent ing the Messiah, in which this obscurity societies which were scattered over so

many countries, we see the most satisfying | day, and point to the accomplishment of pledge, both for the integrity of the sacred clear prophecies in the actual history of writings, and for the date which all par- the world. The present state of Egypt, ties agree in ascribing to them. We hear and the present state of the Jews, are the of the many securities which have been examples which we fix upon. The one is provided in the various forms of registra- an actual fulfilment of a clear prophecy; tions, and duplicates, and depositories; but the other is also an actual fulfilment, and neither the wisdom, nor the interest of forms in itself the likeliest preparation for men ever provided more effectual checks another accomplishment that is yet to against forgery and corruption, than we come. Nor do we conceive, that these have in the instance before us. And the clear and literal fulfilments exhaust the argument, in particular, for the antecedence whole of the argument from prophecy. of the prophecies to the events in the New They only form one part of the argument, Testament, is so well established by the but a part so obvious and irresistible, as concurrence of the two rival parties, that should invite every lover of truth to the we do not see, how it is in the power of examination of the remainder. They additional testimony to strengthen it. should secure such a degree of respect for the subject, as to engage the attention, and awaken even in the mind of the most rapid and superficial observer, a suspicion that there may be something in it. They should soften that contempt which repels so many from investigating the argument at all; or at all events, they render that contempt inexcusable.

But neither is it true, that the prophecies are delivered in terms so obscure, as to require a painful examination, before we can obtain a full perception of the argument. Those prophecies which relate to the fate of particular cities, such as Nineveh, and Tyre, and Babylon; those which relate to. the issue of particular wars, in which the kings of Israel and Judah were engaged; and some of those which relate to the future history of the adjoining countries, are not so much veiled by symbolical language, as to elude the understanding, even of the most negligent observers. It is true, that in these instances, both the prophecy and the fulfilment appear to us in the light of a distant antiquity. They have accomplished their end. They kept alive the faith and worship of successive generations. They multiplied the evidences of the true religion, and account for a phenomenon in ancient history that is otherwise inexplicable, the existence and preservation of one solitary monument of pure theism in the midst of a corrupt and idolatrous world.

The whole history of the Jews is calculated to allure the curiosity, and had it not been leagued with the defence and illustration of our faith, would have drawn the attention of many a philospher, as the most singular exhibition of human nature that ever was recorded in the annals of the world. The most satisfying cause of this phenomenon is to be looked for in the history which describes its origin and progress; and by denying the truth of that history, you abandon the only explanation which can be given of this wonderful people. It is quite in vain to talk of the immutability of Eastern habits, as exemplified in the nations of Asia. What other people ever survived the same annihilating processes? We do not talk of conquest, But to descend a little farther. We where the whole amount of the effect is in gather from the state of opinions at the general a change of dynasty or of governtime of our Saviour so many testimonies ment; but where the language, the habits, to the clearness of the old prophecies. The the denomination, and above all, the geotime and the place of our Saviour's appear- | graphical position, still remain to keep up ance in the world, and the triumphant pro- the identity of the people. But in the gress, if not the nature of his kingdom, history of the Jews, we see a strong inwere perfectly understood by the priests destructible principle, which maintained and chief men of Judea. We have it them in a separate form of existence amid from the testimony of profane authors, changes that no other nation ever survived. that there was, at that time, a general ex- We confine ourselves to the overthrow of pectation of a prince and a prophet all their nation in the first century of our over the East. The destruction of Jerusa- epoch, and appeal to the disinterested teslem was another example of the fulfilment timonies of Tacitus and Josephus, if ever of a clear prophecy; and this, added to the cruelty of war devised a process of other predictions uttered by our Saviour, more terrible energy for the utter extirpaand which received their accomplishment tion of a name, and a remembrance from in the first generation of the Christian the world. They have been dispersed church, would have its use in sustaining the faith of the disciples amidst the perplexities of that anxious and distressing period.

We can even come down to the present

among all countries. They have no common tie of locality or government to keep them together. All the ordinary principles of assimilation, which make law, and religion, and manners, so much a matter

of geography, are in their instance suspended. Even the smallest particles of this broken mass have resisted an affinity of almost universal operation, and remain undiluted by the strong and overwhelming admixture of foreign ingredients. And in exception to every thing which history has recorded of the revolutions of the species, we see in this wonderful race a vigorous principle of identity, which has remained in undiminished force for nearly two thousand years, and still pervades every shred and fragment of their widely scattered population. Now if the infidel insists upon it, we shall not rest on this as an argument. We can afford to give it up: for in the abundance of our resources, we feel independent of it. We shall say that it is enough, if it can reclaim him from his levity, and compel his attention to the other evidences which we have to offer him.

it is not to be wondered at, that in the multitude of observations, the defence of Christianity may often be made to rest upon ground, which, to say the least of it, is precarious or vulnerable. Now the injustice which we complain of is, that when the friends of our religion are dislodged from some feeble outwork, raised by an unskilful officer in the cause, its enemies raise the cry of a decisive victory. But, for our own part, we could see her driven from all her defences, and surrender them without a sigh, so long as the phalanx of her historical evidence remains impenetrable. Behind this unscaled barrier, we could entrench ourselves, and eye the light skirmishing before us with no other sentiment than of regret, that our friends should, by the eagerness of their misplaced zeal, have given our enemy the appearance of a triumph. We offer no opinion as to the two-fold interpretation of prophecy; but though it were refuted by argument, and disgraced by ridicule, all that portion of evidence which lies in the numerous examples of literal and unambiguous fulfilment remains unaffected by it. Many there are who deny the inspiration of the Song of Solomon. But in what possible way does this affect the records of the evangelical history? Just as much as it affects the lives of Plutarch, or the Annals of Tacitus. There are a thousand subjects on which infidels may idly push the triumph, and Christians be as idly galled by the severity, or even the truth of their observations. We point to the historical evidence of the New Testament, and ask them to dispose of it. It is there, that we call them to the onset; for there lies the It may not be out of place to expose a main strength of the Christian argument. species of injustice, which has often been It is true, that in the evidence of prophecy, done to the Christian argument. The de- we see a rising barrier, which, in the profence of Christianity consists of several dis-gress of centuries, may receive from time tinct arguments, which have sometimes been to time a new accumulation to the materials multiplied beyond what is necessary, and which form it. In this way, the evidence even sometimes beyond what is tenable. In of prophecy may come, in time, to surpass addition to the main evidence which lies in the evidence of miracles. The restoration the testimony given to the miracles of the of the Jews will be the fulfilment of a clear Gospel, there is the evidence of prophecy; prophecy, and form a proud and animating there is the evidence of collateral testimony; period in the history of our religion. "Now there is the internal evidence. The argu- if the fall of them be the riches of the world, ment under each of these heads, is often and the diminishing of them the riches of made to undergo a farther subdivision; and the Gentiles, how much more their fulness."

All we ask of him is to allow, that the undeniable singularity which is before his eyes, gives him a sanction at least, to examine the other singularities to which we make pretensions. If he goes back to the past history of the Jews, he will see in their wars the same unexampled preservation of their name and their nation. He will see them surviving the process of an actual transportation into another country. In short, he will see them to be unlike all other people in what observation offers, and authentic history records of them; and the only concession that we demand of him from all this, is, that their pretensions to be unlike other people in their extraordinary revelations from heaven, is at least possible, and deserves to be inquired into.

CHAPTER VII.

Remarks on the Scepticism of Geologists.

VII. THE late speculations in geology | of the argument. They give a higher an form another example of a distant and un-tiquity to the world than most of those who connected circumstance, being suffered to read the Bible had any conception of. Admit cast an unmerited disgrace over the whole this antiquity, and in what possible way

we ask him, how he would act, if the experiment, which he conducts under the most perfect sameness of circumstances, were to land him in opposite results? He would vary and repeat his experiments. He would try to detect the inconsistency, and would rejoice, if he at last found that the difficulty lay in the errors of his own observation, and not in the inexplicable nature of the subject. All this he would do in anxious and repeated endeavours, before he inferred that nature persevered in no law, and that that constancy, which is the foundation of all science, was perpetually broke in upon by the most capricious and unlooked for appearances, before he would abandon himself to scepticism, and pronounce philosophy to be an impossible attainment.

does it touch upon the historical evidence | we knew him to be forty, would not this of the New Testament? The credibility of have made us stumble at all his pretensions, the Gospel miracles stands upon its own and, in spite of every other argument and appropriate foundation, the recorded testi- appearance, would we not have withdrawn mony of numerous and unexceptionable our confidence from him as a teacher from witnesses. The only way in which we can God? This we allow would have been a overthrow that credibility is by attacking most serious dilemma. It would have been the testimony, or disproving the authenticity that state of neutrality which admits of of the record. Every other science is tried nothing positive or satisfying on either side upon its own peculiar evidence; and all we of the question; or rather, what is still more contend for is, that the same justice be done distressing, which gives me the most posito theology. When a mathematician offers tive and satisfactory appearances on both to apply his reasoning to the phenomena of sides. We could not abandon the truth of mind, the votaries of moral science resent the miracles, because we saw them. Could it as an invasion, and make their appeal to we give them up, we should determine on the evidence of consciousness. When an a positive rejection, and our minds would amateur of botany, upon some vague analo- find repose in absolute infidelity. But as gies, offers his confident affirmations as to the case stands it is scepticism. There is the structure and parts of the human body, nothing like it in any other department of there would be an instantaneous appeal to inquiry. We can appeal to no actual exthe knife and demonstrations of the anato- ample; but a student of natural science may mist. Should a mineralogist, upon the ex-be made to understand the puzzle, when hibition of an ingenious or well-supported theory, pronounce upon the history of our Saviour and his miracles; we would call it another example of an arbitrary and unphilosophical extension of principles beyond the field of their legitimate application. We would appeal to the kind and the quantity of testimony upon which that history is supported. We would suffer ourselves to be delighted by the brilliancy, or even convinced by the evidence of his speculations; but we would feel that the history of those facts, which form the ground-work of our faith, is as little affected by them, as the history of any storm, or battle, or warrior, which has come down to us in the most genuine and approved records of past ages. But whatever be the external evidence of testimony, or however strong may be its It is our part to imitate this example. If visible characters of truth and honesty, is Jesus Christ has, on the one hand, performed not the falsehood or the contradiction which miracles, and sustained in the whole tenor we may detect in the subject of that testi- of his history the character of a prophet, mony sufficient to discredit it? Had we and, on the other hand, asserted to be true been original spectators of our Saviour's what we undeniably know to be a falsemiracles, we must have had as strong a con-hood, this is a dilemma which we are called viction of their reality, as it is in the power of upon to resolve by every principle, that can testimony to give us. Had we been the eye- urge the human mind in the pursuit of witnesses of his character and history, and liberal inquiry. It is not enough to say, caught from actual observation the impres- that the phenomena in question do not fall sion of his worth, the internal proofs that within the dominion of philosophy; and we no jugglery or falsehood could have been therefore leave them as a fair exercise and intended, would have been certainly as amusement to commentators. The mathestrong as the internal proofs, which are now matician may say, and has said the same exhibited to us, and which consist in the thing of the moralist, yet there are moralists simplicity of the narrative, and that tone of in the world who will prosecute their specuperfect honesty which pervades, in a man-lations in spite of him; and what is more, ner so distinct and intelligible, every composition of the apostles. Yet, with all these advantages, if Jesus Christ had asserted as a truth, what we confidently knew to be a falsehood; had he for example, upon the strength of his prophetical endowments, pronounced upon the secret of a person's age, and told us that he was thirty, when

there are men who take a wider survey than either, who rise above these professional prejudices, and will allow that, in each department of inquiry, the subjects which offer are entitled to a candid and respectful consideration. The naturalist may pronounce the same rapid judgment upon the difficulties of the theologian; yet there