ni 



CHRISTIANITY. 



testimonies it uo^ONtidBabk ; but it it only m the Ut- 

 :l of the tetimony follow* a a ne- 

 centry consequence of it* sincerity. An opinrni i-omei 

 dcr the cognisance of the understanding, ever liable, as 

 we U know, to error and delusion. "< under 



the cognisance of the senses, which have ever been 

 etcerocd a* infallible, when they give their teitimony to 

 such plain, and obvious, and palpable appearam 

 tho*f which make up the evangelical itory. We are stil 

 at liberty to question the philf suphy of Socrates, or the 

 orthodoxy of Cranmer and Servetus j but if we were told 

 by a Christian teacher, in the solemnity of hi dying 

 hour, and with the dreadful apparatus of martyrd. m be- 

 fore him, that he $aw Jesus after he had risen from the 

 dead ; that he conversed with him many days ; that he 

 put hit hand into the print of his sides ; and, in the ar- 

 . dour of his joyful conviction, exclaimed," My Lord, and 

 my God !" we should feel that there was no truth in the 

 world, if this language and this testimony could deceive 



us* 



7+. If Christianity be not true, then the first Chris- 

 tians must have been mistaken as to the subject of 

 their testimony. This supposition is destroyed by the 

 nature of the subject. It was not testimony to a doc- 

 gine which might deceive the understanding. It was 

 something more than testimony to a dream, or a trance, 

 or a midnight fancy, which might deceive the imagina- 

 tion. It was testimony to a multitude, and a succession 

 of palpable facts, which could never have deceived the 

 eases, and which preclude all possibility of mistake, 

 even though it had been the testimony only of one in- 

 dividual. But when in addition to this we consider, that 

 it is the testimony, not of one, but of many individuals ; 

 that it is a story repeated in a variety of forms, but sub- 

 stantially the same ; that it is the concurring testimony 

 of different eye-witnesses, or the companions of eye- 

 witnctse-. we may, after this, take refuge in the idea 

 of falsehood and collusion, but it is not to be admitted, 

 that those eight different writers of the New Testament, 

 could have afi blundered the matter with such method, 

 and such uniformity. 



75. We know that, in spite of the magnitude of their 

 sufferings, there are infidels who, driven from the se- 

 cond part of the alternative, have recurred to the first, 

 and have affirmed, that the glory of establishing a new 

 religion, induced the first Christians to assert, and to 

 persist in asserting, what they knew to be a falsehood. 

 But (though we should be anticipating the last branch 

 of the argument) they forget, that we have the concur- 

 rence of two parties to the truth of Christianity, and that 

 it it the conduct only of one of the parties, which can be 

 accounted for by the supposition in question. The two 

 parties are the teachers and the taught. The former may 

 aspire to the glory of founding a new faith ; but what 

 glory did the latter propose to themselves from being the 

 dupes of an imposition so ruinous to every earthly inte- 

 rest, and held in such low and disgraceful estimation by 

 the world at large ? Abandon the teachers of Christianity 

 to every imputation, which infidelity, on the rack for 

 conjectures to give plausibility to its system, can desire ; 

 how shall we explain the concurrence of its disciples ? 

 There may be a glory in leading, but we sec no glory 

 in bring led. If Christianity were false, and Paul had 

 the effrontery to appeal to his 500 living witnesses wli "m 

 he allege- to have seen Christ after his resurrection ; the 

 subsntMive acquiescence of his disciples remains a very 

 iticxphc :ble circumstance. The same Paul, in his epistles 

 .e Corinthians, tells them that some of them had the 

 gift of healing, and the power of working mirages ; and 



that the sign of an apostle had been wrought among 

 them in wonders and mighty deeds. A i. piling to ( 



ry of an actrni r, would nev> i have com- 



mitted hinuelf on a subject, where his falsehood could 

 have been so readily exposed. And in the veneration 

 with which we know his epistles to have been preserved 

 by the church of Corinth, we have not merely the testi- 

 mony of thtir writer to the truth of the Christian mi- 

 racles, but the testimony of a whole people who had n 

 interest in being deceived 



76. Had Christianity been false, the reputation of its 

 first teachers lay at the mercy of every individual among 

 the numerous proselytes which tl.ey had gamed to their 

 system. It may not be competent for an unlettered pea- 

 sant to detect the absurdity of a doctrine ; but he can at 

 all times lift his testimony against a fact, said to have 

 happened in his presence, and under the observation of 

 his senses. Now it so happens, that in a number of the 

 epistles, there arc allusions or express intimations of the 

 miracles that had been wrought in the different churches 

 to which these epistles are addressed. How comes it, 

 if it be all a fabrication, that it was never exposed ? We 

 know that some of the disciples were driven by the ter- 

 rors of persecuting violence to resign their profession. 

 How should it happen, that none of them ever attempt- 

 ed to vindicate their apostacy, by laying open the arti- 

 fice and insincerity of their Christian teachers? We 

 may be sure that such a testimony would have been 

 highly acceptable to the existing authorities of that pe- 

 riod. The Jews would have made the most of it ; and 

 the vigilant and discerning officers of the Roman govern- 

 ment would not have failed to turn it to account. The 

 mystery would have been exposed and laid open, and the 

 curiosity of latter ages would have been satisfied as to 

 the wonderful and unaccountable steps, hy which a reli- 

 gion could make such head in the world, though it rest- 

 ed its whole authority on facts ; the falsehood of which 

 was accessible to all who were at the trouble to enquire 

 about them. But no ! We hear of no such testimony 

 from the apostates of that period. We read of some, 

 who, agonised at the reflection of their treachery, re- 

 turned to their first profession, and expiated, by martyr- 

 dom, the guilt which they felt they had incurred by 

 thur dereliction of the truth. This furnishes a strong 

 example of the power of conviction, and when we join 

 with it, that it is conviction in the integrity of those 

 teachers who appealed to miracles which had been 

 wrought among them, it appears to us a testimony in 

 favour of our religion which is altogether irresistible. 



77. IV. But this brings us to the last division of the 

 argument, viz. that the leading facts in the history of the 



Uruuiuciiii *i* ti**i mi- **- o --- j 



gospel are corroborated by the testimony of others. 



78. The evidence we have already brought forward for 

 the antiquity of the New Testament, and th veneration 

 in which it was held from the earliest ages of tiie church, 

 is an implied testimony of all Christians to the truth of 

 the gospel history. By proving the authenticity of J>t 

 Paul's epistles to the Corinthians, we not merely esta 

 blish his testimony to the truth of the Christian miracles; 

 we establish the additional testimony of the whole church 

 of Corinth, who would never have respected these 

 epistles, if Paul had ventured upon a falsehood so open 

 to detection, as the assertion, that miracles wcr- wrought 

 amoiiff them, which not a single individual ever \v 

 ed. By proving the authenticity of the New Testament 

 at large, we secure, not merely that argument which is 

 founded on the testimony and concurrence ot those im- 

 mense multitudes, who in distant countries submitted t 

 the New Testament as the rule of their faith. 1 he tetf. 



The credi- 

 bility of 

 the subse- 

 quent testi- 

 moaiei to 

 the gospel 

 hiitury. 



The impli- 

 ed testi- 

 mony of 

 tin- MM 

 convert* 



