CHRIST I AN I TV. 



,'. B, ... 



Tettaraent, ind ask them to dwpose of it. It it there, 

 that we call them to the ontet ; for there lie* the main 

 strength of the Christian argument. It is true, that in 

 the evidence of prophecy, we lee rising barrier, which, 

 in the pragma of centuries, may receive from time to 

 time new accumulation to the m.i'i-ruls which form it. 

 In thii way, the evidence of prophecy may come in time 

 lo (urpaat the evidence of miracirs. The restora'.ion of 

 the Jewi will be the fulfilment of a clear prophecy, and 

 form a proud and animating period in the hi-tory <>f our 

 religion, M the fall of them the riches of the world, and 

 the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how 

 much more U>r:r fniness ?" 



1 4-3. The late (peculations in gcolopfy form another ex- 

 ample of a distant and unconnected circumstance, being 

 (uncred to cast an unmerited disgrace over the whole of 

 the argument. They give a higher antiquity to the world, 

 than mo of those who read the Bible had any concep- 

 tion of. Admit this antiquity, and in what possible 

 way does it touch upon the historical evidence fur the 

 New Testament ? The credibility of the gospel miracles 

 stands upon its own appropriate foundation, the record- 

 ed testimony of numerous and unexceptionable witnesses. 

 The only way in which we can overthrow that credibi- 

 lity is by attacking the testimony, or disproving the 

 authenticity of ihe record. Every other science is tried 

 upon its own peculiar evidences; and all we contend for is, 

 that the same justice be done to theology. When a ma- 

 thematician oners to apply his reasoning to the pheno- 

 mena of mind, the votaries of moral science resent it 

 as an invasion, and make their appeal to the evidence 

 of consciousness. When an amateur of botany, upon 

 some vague analogies, offers his confident affirmations 

 as to the structure and pans of the human body, 

 there would be an instantaneous appeal to the knife and 

 demonstrations of the anatomist. Should a mineralogist, 

 upon the exhibition 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 ar- 

 bitrary and unphilosophical extension of principles be- 

 yond 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 our- 

 selves to be delighted by the brilliancy, or even convin- 

 ced by the evidence of his speculations, but we would feel 

 that the history of these facts, which form the ground- 

 work of our faith, is as little affected by them, as the his- 

 tory of any storm, or battle, or warrior, which has come 

 down to us in the most genuine and approved records of 

 past ages. 



1*4. But whatever be the external evidence of testimony, 

 or however strong maybe its visible characters of truth and 

 honesty, is not the falsehood or the contradiction which 

 we may detect in the subject of that testimony sufficient 

 to discredit it ? Had we been onginal spectators of our 

 Saviour's miracles, we must have had as strong a con- 

 viction of their reality, as it is in the power of testimo- 

 ny to give u. Had we been the eye-witnesses of his 

 character and history, and caught from actual observa- 

 tion the impresiion of hit worth, the internal proofs, 

 that no jugglery or falsehood could have been intended, 

 would have been certainly as strong as the internal proofs 

 which are now exhibited to us, and whirh consist in the 

 simplicity of the narrative, and that toi.e of perfect ho- 

 nesty which pervades in a manner so distinct and intelli- 

 gible every composition of the apostles. Yet, with all 

 these advantages, if Jesus Chritt had asserted as a truth, 

 what we confidently know to be a falsehood ; had he, for 

 example, upon the strength of hit prophetical endow- 



I 



merits, pronounced upon the secret oFa person's age, and Chriitum- 

 told us that he was thirty, when we knew him to be forty, ._ '^'_-. 

 would not this hare made us stumble at all hia preten- 

 sions, and, in spite of every other argument and appear- 

 ance, would we not have withdrawn our confidence, from 

 him as a teacher from God ? This we allow would have 

 been a most serious dilemma. It would have been that 

 state of neutrality which admits of nothing positive or 

 satisfying on either side of the question j or rather, what 

 is still more distressing, which gave me the most positive 

 and satisfactory appearances on both sides. We could not 

 abandon the truth of the miracles, because we saw thorn. 

 Could we give them up, we should determine on a positive 

 rejection, and our minds would find repose in absolute 

 infidelity. But as the case stands, it is sceptic. am. There 

 is nothing like it in any other department of inquiry. We 

 can appeal to no actual example ; but a student <>t natu- 

 ral science may be made to understand the j>i 

 When he asks him, how he would act, if the ixp.ri- 

 ments, which he conducts under the most perfect smr.c- 

 ness of circumstances, were to land him in i<j'p --iu- re- 

 sults? He would vary ar.d repeat hii experiments. II; 

 would try to detect the inconsistency, and would rejoice, 

 if he at last found, that tlie difficulty lay in the errors 

 of his own observation, and not in the inexplicable na- 

 ture of the subject. All this he would do in anxious and 

 repeated endeavours, before he inferred that nature per- 

 severed in no law, and that that constancy, which is the 

 foundation of all science, was perpetually broke in upon 

 by the most capricious and unlocked for appearances, 

 before he would abandon himself to scepticism, and pro- 

 nounce philosophy to be an impossible attainment. 



145. It is our part to imitate this example. If Jesui 

 Christ has, on the one hand, performed miracles, and sus- 

 tained in the whole tenour of his history the character of a 

 prophet, and, on the other hand, asserted to be true, what 

 we undeniably know to be a falsehood, this is a dilemma 

 which we are called upon to resolve by every principle, 

 that can urge the human mind in the pursuit of liberal 

 inquiry. It is not enough to fay, that the phenomena 

 in question do not fall within the dominion of philoso- 

 phy ; and we therefore leave them as a fair exercise and 

 amusement to commentators. The mathematician may 

 say, and has said the same thing of the moralist ; yet 

 there are moralists in the world, who will prosecute their 

 speculations in spite of him ; and what is more, 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 upoa 

 the difficulties of the theologian ; yet there ever will be 

 theologians who feel a peculiar interest in their subject ; 

 and we trust that there ever will be men, with a higher 

 grasp of mind than either the mere theologian, or the 

 mere naturalist, who are ready to acknowledge the 

 claims of truth in every quarter, who are superior to 

 that narrow contempt, which has made such an unhap- 

 py and malignant separation among the different orders 

 of scientific men, who will examine the evidences of the 

 gospel history, and, if they are found to be sufficient, 

 will view the miracles of our Saviour with the same li- 

 beral and philosophic curiosity with which they would 

 contemplate any grand phenomenon in tlie moral histo- 

 ry of the species. If there really appears, on the face 

 of this investigation, to be such a difficulty as the one 

 in question,' a philosopher of tlie order we are now de- 

 scribing will make many an anxious effort to extricate 

 himself; he will not soon acquiesce in a tcepticism, f 



