.374 



CHRISTIANITY. 



opt know in bow far an attachment to existing opi- 

 nions will prevail over an argument which is frit to be 

 true ; but we are sure, that this attachment will never 

 give war to an argument which is perceived to be false ; 

 and particularly when danger, and hatred, and perse, 

 cution, are the consequence! of embracing it. The ar- 

 gument for Christianity, from the conduct of the first 

 proselytes, rests upon the firm ground of experience. 

 The objection against it, from the conduct of the 

 unbelieving Jews, hat no experience whatever to rest 

 upon. 



95. The conduct of the Jews may be considered as a 

 solitary fact in the history of the world, not from its be- 

 ing an rxception to the general principles of human na- 

 ture, but from its being an exhibition of human nature 

 in singular circumstances. We have no experience to 

 guide us in our opinion as to the probability of this 

 conduct; and nothing, therefore, that can impeach a 

 testimony which all experience in human affairs leads ui 

 to repose in as unquestionable. But after this testi- 

 mony is admitted, we may submit to be enlightened by 

 it; and in the history which it gives us of the unbe- 

 lieving Jews, it furnishes a curious fact as to the power 

 of prejudice upon the human mind, and a valuable ac- 

 cession to what we before knew of the principles of our 

 nature. It lays before us an exhibition of the human 

 mind in a situation altogether unexampled, and fur- 

 nishes us with the result of a singular experiment, if we 

 may so call it, in the history of the species. We of- 

 fer it as an interesting fact to the moral and intel- 

 lectual philosopher, that a previous attachment may 

 i way the mind even against the impretsjon of a miracle ; 

 and those who believe not in the historical evidence 

 which established the authority of Christ and of the 

 apostles, would not believe, even though one rose from 

 the dead. 



96. We are inclined to think, that the argument has 

 come down to us in the best possible form, and that it 

 would have been enfeebled by that very circumstance, 

 which the infidel demands as essential to its validity. 

 Suppose for a moment, that we could give him what 



.nts, that all the priests and people of Judea were 

 so borne down by the resistless evidence of miracles, as 

 by one universal consent to become the disciples of the 

 uew religion. What interpretation might have been 

 given to this unanimous movement in favour of Chri-- 

 tianity ? A very unfavourable one, we apprehend, to the 

 authenticity of its evidences. Will the infidel say, that 

 he has a higher respect for the credibility of those mi- 

 raclet which ushered in the dispensation of Moses, be- 

 cause they were exhibited in the face of a whole people, 

 and gained their unexccpted submission to the laws and 

 the ritual of Jaddism ? This new revolution would 

 have received the same explanation. We would have 

 beard of its being sanctioned by their prophecies, of 

 its bring agreeable to their prejudices, of its being sup- 

 ported by the countenance and encouragement of their 

 priesthood, and that the jugglery of us miraclrs im- 

 posed upon all, because all were willing to be deceived 

 by them. The actual form in which the history has 

 come down, presents us with an argument free of all 

 these exceptions. We, in the first instance, behold a 

 number of proselytes, whose testimony to the facts of 

 Christianity is approved of by what they lost and suf- 



in the maintenance of their faith ; and we, in the 

 second instance, behold a number of enemies, eager, vi- 

 gilant, and exasperated at the progress of the new re- 

 i have not questioned the authenticity of our 

 'lutoriei, ud whox iflcnce, as to the public and widely 



talked of miracles of Christ and his apostles, we have a ChrUtuni. 

 right to interpret into the most triumphant of all tea- _'* 

 iiies, ""V* 



97. The same process of reasoning is applicable to the The tnfide- 

 cases of the Gfntiles. Many adopted the new religion, '" 



and many rejected it. We may not be sure, if we can "^,\ U j Cro 

 give an adequate explanation or the conduct of the IMS- ccntiln 

 ter, on the supposition that the evidences are true ; but c. 

 we arc perfectly urc, that we can give no adequate ex- 

 planation of the conduct of the former, on the supposi- 

 tion that the evidences are false. For any thing we 

 know, it is possible that the one party may have ad- 

 hi-nd to their former prejudices, in opposition to all 

 the force and urgency of argument, whicli even an au- 

 thentic miracle carries along with it. But we know 

 that it is not possible that the other party should re- 

 nounce these prejudices, and that too in -the face of 

 danger and persecution, unless the miracles had been 

 authentic. So great is the difference betwixt the 

 strength of the argument and the strength of the ob- 

 jection, that we count it fortunate for the merits of the 

 cause, that the conversions to Christiarity were par- 

 tial. We, in this way, secure all the support which is 

 derived from the inexplicable fact of the silence of its 

 enemies, inexplicable on every supposition, but the un- 

 <!en:able evidence and certainty of the miracles. Had 

 the Roman empire made a unanimous movement to the 

 new religion, and all the authorities of the state lent 

 their concurrence to it, there would have been a suspi- 

 cion annexed to the whole history of the gospel, which 

 cannot at present apply to it ; and from the collision of 

 the opposite parties, the truth has come down to us in a 

 far more unquestionable form than if no such collision 

 had been excited. 



98. The silence of Heathen and Jewish writers of that 

 period, about the miracles of Christianity, has been much 

 insisted upon by the enemies of our religion ; and has 

 even excited something like a painful suspicion in the 

 breasts of those who arc attached to its cause. Certain 

 it is, that no ancient facts have come down to us, sup- 

 ported by a greater quantity of historical evidences, and 

 better accompanied with all the circumstances which can 

 confer credibility on that evidence. When we demand 

 the testimony of Tacitus to the Christian miracles, we 

 forget all the while that we can allege a multitude of 

 much more decisive testimonies ; no less than eight co- 

 temporary authors, and a train of succeeding writers, 

 who follow one another with a closeness and a ra- 

 pidity, of which there is no example in any other de- 

 partment of ancient history. We forget that the au- 

 thenticity of these different writers, and their pretensions 

 to credit, are founded on considerations, perfectly the 

 same in kind, though much stronger in degree, thah 

 what have been employed to establish the testimony of 

 the most esteemed historians of former ages. For the 

 history of the gospel, we behold a series cf testimonies,, 

 more continuous, and more firmly sustained, than there 

 is any other example of in the whole compass of erudi- 

 tion. And to refuse this evidence, is a proof, that in 

 this investigation, there is an aptitude in the human 

 mind to abandon all ordinary principles, and to be car- 

 ried away by the delusions which we have already insisted 

 on. 



99. But let us try the effect of that testimony which our 

 antagonists demand. Tacitus has actually attested the 

 existence of Jesu Christ ; the reality of such a person- 

 age ; his public execution under the administration of 

 Pontius Pilate; the temporary check which this {rave to 

 the progrew of his religion ; iti revival a ihort time af- 



