CHRISTIANITY. 



363 



The teni. 

 irony of 

 Cbriitian 

 writers vin- 

 dicated, 



By the uf- 

 feringi of 

 the writers 

 themselves, 



tings have come down to us, were the companions of the 

 apostles, and are even named in the books of the New 

 Testament. St Clement, bishop of Rome, is, with the 

 concurrence of all ancient authors, the same whom Paul 

 mentions in his epistle to the Philippians. In his epistle 

 to the church of Corinth, which was written in the name 

 of the whole church of Rome, he refers to the first epis- 

 tle of Paul to the former church. " Take into your 

 hands the epistle of the blessed Paul the apostle." He 

 then makes a quotation, which is to be found in Paul's 

 first epistle to the Corinthians. Could Clement have done 

 this to the Corinthians themselves, had no such epistle 

 been in existence ? And is not this an undoubted testi- 

 mony, not merely from the mouth of Clement, but on 

 the part of the churches both of Rome and Corinth, to 

 the authenticity of such an epistle ? There are in this 

 same epistle of Clement, several quotations of the second 

 kind, which confirm the existence of some other books 

 of th New Testament ; and a multitude of allusions or 

 references of the third kind, to the writings of the evan- 

 gelists, the Acts of the Apostles, and a great many of 

 these epistles which have been admitted into the New 

 Testament. We have similar testimonies from some more 

 of the fathers, who lived and conversed with Jesus Christ. 

 Besides many references of the second and third kind, we 

 have also other instances of the same kind of testimony 

 which Clement gave tp St Paul's first epistle to the Co- 

 rinthians, than which nothing can be conceived more in- 

 disputable. Ignatius, writing to the church of Ephesus, 

 takes notice of St Paul's epistle to that church ; and 

 Polycarp, an immediate disciple of the apostles, makes 

 the same express reference to St Paul's epistle to the 

 Philippians, in a letter addressed to that people. In car- 

 rying our attention down from the apostolical fathers, 

 vif follow an uninterrupted series of testimonies to the 

 authenticity of the canonical scripturee. They get more 

 numerous and circumstantial as we proceed, a thing to 

 be expected from the progress of Christianity, and the 

 greater multitude of writers, who come forward in its de- 

 fence and illustration. 



38. In pursuing the series of writers, from the days 

 of the apostles down to about 150 years after the 

 publication of the pieces which make up the New Tes- 

 tament, we come to Tertullian, of whom Lardner says, 

 ' that there are perhaps more and longer quotations of 

 the small volume of the New Testament in this one Chris 

 tian author, than of all the works of Cicero, though of 

 so uncommon excellence for thought and style, in the 

 writers of all characters for several ages." 



39. We feel ourselves exposed in this part of our investi- 

 gation, to the suspicion which adheres to every Christian 

 testimony. We have already made some attempts to 

 analyse that suspicion and its ingredients, and we con- 

 ceive, that the circumstance of the Christians being an 

 interested party, is only one, and not perhaps the princi- 

 pal of these ingredients. At all events, this may be the 

 proper place for disposing of that one ingredient, and for 

 offering a few general observations on the strength of 

 the Christian testimony. 



40. In estimating the value of any testimony, there 

 are two distinct subjects of consideration ; the person who 

 gives the testimony, and the people to whom the testi-. 

 mony ia addressed. It is quite needless to enlarge on the 

 resources which, in the present instance, we derive from 

 both these considerations, and how much each of them 

 contributes to the triumph and solidity of the Christian 

 argument. In as far 33 the people who give the testi- 

 mony are concerned, how could they be mistaken in their 

 account of the books of the New Testament, when some 



of them lived in the same age' with the original writers, Christiaai- 

 a-:d were their intimate acquaintances, and when all of *? 

 them had the benefit of an uncontrolled series of evidence, < ""~V" 

 reaching down from the date of the earliest publications 

 to their own times ? Or, how can we suspect that they 

 falsified, when there runs through their writings the same 

 tone of plainness and sincerity, which is allowed to stamp 

 the character of authenticity on other productions ; 

 and, above all, when, upon the strength even of heathen 

 testimony, we conclude, that many of them, by their suf- 

 ferings and death, gave the highest evidence that man 

 can give, of his speaking under the influence of a real and 

 honest conviction ? In as far as the people who received By thecoa- 

 the testimony are concerned, to what other circumstan- currence at 

 ces can we ascribe their concurrence, but to the truth of 'f 16 Ch f', 9 ." 

 that testimony ? In what way was it possible to deceive ' ' lc * 

 them upon a point of general notoriety ? The books of 

 the New Testament are referred to by the ancient fathers, 

 as writings generally known and respected by the Chris- 

 tians of that period. If they were obscure writings, or 

 had no existence at the time, how can we account for the 

 credit and authority of those fathers who appealed to 

 them, and had the effrontery to insult their fellow Chris- 

 tians by a falsehood so palpable, and so easily detected ? 

 Allow them to be capable of this treachery, we have still 

 to explain, how the people came to be the dupes of so 

 glaring an imposition ; how they could be permitted to 

 give up every thing for a religion, whose teachers were 

 so unprincipled as to deceive them, and so unwise as to 

 commit themselves upon ground where it was impossible 

 to elude discovery. Could Clement have dared to refer 

 the people of Corinth to an epistle said to be received by 

 themselves, and which had no existence ? or, could he 

 have referred the Christians at large to writings which 

 they never heard of? And it was not enough to maintain 

 the semblance of truth with the people of their own party. 

 Where were the Jews all the time ? and how was it pos- 

 sible to escape the correction of these keen and vigilant B X tlie *' 

 observers ? We mistake the matter much, if we think, lence . of 

 that Christianity at that time was making its insidious er 

 way in silence and in secrecy, through a listless and un- 

 concerned public. All history gives an opposite repre- 

 sentation. The passions and curiosity of men were quite 

 upon the alert. The popular enthusiasm had been exci- 

 ted on both sides of the question. It had drawn the at- 

 tention of the established authorities in -different provin- 

 ces of the empire, and the merits of the Christian cause 

 had become a matter of frequent and formal discussion in 

 courts of judicature. If, in these circumstances, the 

 Christian writers had the hardihood to venture upon 

 a falsehood, it would have been upon safer ground than 

 what they naturally adopted. They would never have 

 hazarded to assert what was so open to contradiction, 

 as the existence of books held in reverence among all the 

 churches, and which yet nobody either in or out of these 

 churches ever heard of. They would never have been 

 so unwise as to commit in this way a cause, which had 

 not a single circumstance to recommend it but its truth 

 and its evidences. 



11. The falsehood of the Christian testimony on this 

 point, carries along with it a concurrence of circumstan- 

 ces, each of which is the strangest and most unprece- 

 dented that ever was heard of. First, That men, who 

 sustained in their writings all the characters of sin- 

 cerity, and many of whom submitted to martyrdom, 

 as the highest pledge of sincerity which can possibly 

 be given, should have been capable of 'falsehood at all. 

 Second, That this tendency to falsehood should have 

 been exercised eo unwisely, as to appear in an assertion 



