Of the following treatise, Dr. Par EY says, in his incomparable work on the Evidences of Christianity, "I should willingly, if the limits and nature of my work admitted of it, transcribe into this chapter the whole of what nas been said upon the morality of the Gospel by the author of 'A View of the Internal Evidence of Christianity;' because it perfectly agrees with my own opinion, and because it is impossible to say the same things so well." The Rev. Dr. Alexander says he "has often heard it as serted, and never contradicted, that the late PATRICK HENRY, the celebrated orator of Virginia and of the American Revolution, had been in early life skeptical, but was fully satis fied of the truth of the Christian religion by the perusal of this little treatise of SOAME JENYNS." In the present edition a few passages, not essential to the argument, have been omitted. INTERNAL EVIDENCE. Most of the writers who have undertaken to prove the Divine origin of the Christian religion, have had recourse to arguments drawn from these three heads: The prophecies still extant in the Old Testament, the miracles recorded in the New, of the internal evidence arising from that excellence, and those clear marks of supernatural interposition which are so conspicuous in the religion itself. The two former have been sufficiently explained and enforced by the ablest pens; but the last, which seems to carry with it the greatest degree of conviction, has never, I think, been considered with that attention which it deserves. I mean not here to depreciate the proofs arising from either prophecies, or miracles; they both have, or ought to have their proper weight. Prophecies are permanent miracles, whose authority is sufficiently confirmed by their completion, and are therefore solid proofs of the supernatural origin of a religion whose truth they were intended to testify. Such are those to be found in various parts of the Scriptures relative to the coming of the Messiah, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the unexampled state in which the Jews have ever since continued: all so circumstan tially descriptive of the events, that they seem rather histories of past, than predictions of future transactions; and whoever will seriously consider the immense distance of time between some of them and the events which they foretell, the uninterrupted chain by which they are connected for many thousand years, how exactly they correspond with those events, and how totally unapplicable they are to all others in the history of mankind: I say, whoever considers these circumstances, he will scarcely be pursuaded to believe that they can be the productions of preceding artifice, or posterior application; or be able to entertain the least doubt of their being derived from supernatural inspiration. The miracles recorded in the New Testament to have been performed by Christ and his apostles, were certainly convincing proofs of their Divine commission to those who saw them; and as they were seen by such numbers, and are as well attested as other historical facts; and, above all, as they were wrought on so great and so wonderful an occasion, they must still be admitted as incontrovertible evidence. To prove the truth of the Christian religion, I prefer, however, to begin by showing the internal marks of Divinity which are stamped upon it; because on this the credibility of the prophecies and miracles in a great measure depends: for if we have once reason to be convinced that this religion is derived from a supernatural origin, prophecies and miracles will become so far from being incredible, that it will be highly probable that a supernatural revelation should be foretold and enforced by supernatural means. |