mony follows as a necessary consequence | founding a new faith; but what glory did of its sincerity. An opinion comes under the latter propose to themselves from being the cognizance of the understanding, ever the dupes of an imposition so ruinous to liable, as we all know, to error and delusion. every earthly interest, and held in such A fact comes under the cognizance of the low and disgraceful estimation by the world senses, which have ever been esteemed as at large? Abandon the teachers of Chrisinfallible, when they give their testimony to tianity to every imputation which infidelity, such plain, and obvious, and palpable appear- on the rack for conjectures to give plausiances, as those which make up the evan- bility to its system, can desire, how shall gelical story. We are still at liberty to we explain the concurrence of its disciples? question the philosophy of Socrates, or the There may be a glory in leading, but we orthodoxy of Cranmer and Servetus; but if see no glory in being led. If Christianity we were told by a Christian teacher in the were false, and Paul had the effrontery to solemnity of his dying hour, and with the appeal to his five hundred living witnesses, dreadful apparatus of martyrdom before whom he alleges to have seen Christ after him, that he saw Jesus after he had risen his resurrection, the submissive acquiesfrom the dead; that he conversed with him cence of his disciples remains a very inexmany days; that he put his hand into the plicable circumstance. The same Paul, in print of his sides; and, in the ardour of his his epistles to the Corinthians, tells them joyful conviction, exclaimed, "My Lord, that some of them had the gift of healing, and my God!" we should feel that there and the power of working miracles; and was no truth in the world, did this language that the signs of an apostle had been and this testimony deceive us. wrought among them in wonders and mighty deeds. A man aspiring to the glory of an accredited teacher, would never have committed himself 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 testimony of their writer to the truth of the Christian miracles, but the testimony of a whole people, who had no interest in being deceived.

If Christianity be not true, then the first Christians 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 doctrine 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 imagination. It was testimony to a multitude, and a succession of palpable facts, which could never have deceived the senses, and which pre- Had Christianity been false, the reputaclude all possibility of mistake, even though tion of its first teachers lay at the mercy of it had been the testimony only of one indi- every individual among the numerous providual. But when, in addition to this, we selytes which they had gained to their sysconsider, that it is the testimony, not of one | tem. It may not be competent for an unbut of many individuals; that it is a story lettered peasant to detect the absurdity of a repeated in a variety of forms, but substan- doctrine; but he can at all times lift his tially the same; that it is the concurring testimony against a fact, said to have haptestimony of different eye-witnesses, or the pened in his presence, and under the obcompanions of eye-witnesses-we may, af-servation of his senses. Now it so happens, ter this, take refuge in the idea of falsehood and collusion; but it is not to be admitted, that these eight different writers of the New Testament, could have all blundered the matter with such method, and such uniformity.

that in a number of the epistles, there are allusions to, or express intimations of, the miracles that had been wrought in the dif ferent churches to which these epistles are addressed. How comes it, if it be all a fabrication, that it was never exposed? We We know, that, in spite of the magnitude know, that some of the disciples were of their sufferings, there are infidels, who, driven, by the terrors of persecuting viodriven from the first part of the alternative, lence, to resign their profession. How have recurred to the second, and have af- should it happen, that none of them ever firmed, that the glory of establishing a new attempted to vindicate their apostacy, by religion, induced the first Christians to as- laying open the artifice and insincerity of sert, and to persist in asserting, what they their Christian teachers? We may be sure knew to be a falsehood. But (though we that such a testimony would have been should be anticipating the last branch of the highly acceptable to the existing authorities argument) they forget, that we have the of that period. The Jews would have concurrence of two parties to the truth of made the most of it; and the vigilant and Christianity, and that it is the conduct only discerning officers of the Roman governof one of the parties, which can be account-ment would not have failed to turn it to aced for by the supposition in question. The count. The mystery would have been extwo parties are the teachers and the taught. posed and laid open, and the curiosity of The former may aspire to the glory of latter ages would have been satisfied as to

the wonderful and unaccountable steps by ated, by martyrdom, the guilt which they which a religion could make such head in felt they had incurred by their dereliction the world, though it rested its whole autho- of the truth. This furnishes a strong exrity on facts, the falsehood of which was ample of the power of conviction, and accessible to all who were at the trouble to when we join with it, that it is conviction inquire about them. But no! We hear of in the integrity of those teachers who apno such testimony from the apostates of pealed to miracles which had been wrought that period. We read of some, who, ago- among them, it appears to us a testimony nized at the reflection of their treachery, in favour of our religion which is altogether returned to their first profession, and expi- irresistible.

CHAPTER V.

On the Testimony of Subsequent Witnesses.

IV. BUT this brings us to the last division were either agents or eye-witnesses of the of the argument, viz. that the leading facts in the history of the Gospel are corroborated by the testimony of others.

count from the original historian, and the the Christian miracles? There is nothing falsehood have come down to us in the like this in common history,-the formashape of an authentic and well-attested his- tion of a society, which can only be extory. Presumptions may be multiplied with-plained by the history of the Gospel, and out end; yet in spite of them, there is a where the conduct of every individual furnatural confidence in the veracity of man, nishes a distinct pledge and evidence of its which disposes us to as firm a belief in truth. And to have a full view of the argumany of the facts of ancient history, as in ment, we must reflect, that it is not one, but the occurrences of the present day. many societies, scattered over the different countries of the world; that the principle upon which each society was formed, was the divine authority of Christ and his apostles, resting upon the recorded miracles of the New Testament; that these miracles were wrought with a publicity, and at a nearness of time, which rendered them accessible to the inquiries of all, for upwards of half a century; that nothing but the power of conviction could have induced the people of that age to embrace a religion so disgraced and so persecuted; that every temptation was held out for its disciples to abandon it; and that though some of them, overpowered by the terrors of pun

The history of the Gospel, however, stands distinguished from all other history by the uninterrupted nature of its testimony, which carries down its evidence, without a chasm, from its earliest promulgation to the present day. We do not speak of the superior weight and splendour of its evidences, at the first publication of that history, as being supported, not merely by the testimony of one, but by the concurrence of several independent witnesses. We do not speak of its subsequent writers, who follow one another in a far closer and more crowded train, than there is any other example of in the history or literature of the world. We speak of the strong though unwritten testi-ishment, were driven to apostacy, yet not mony of its numerous proselytes, who, in the very fact of their proselytism, give the strongest possible confirmation to the Gospel, and fill up every chasm in the recorded evidence of past times.

one of them has left us a testimony which can impeach the miracles of Christianity, or the integrity of its first teachers.

It may be observed, that in pursuing the line of continuity from the days of the apostles, the written testimonies for the truth of the Christian miracles follow one another in closer succession, than we have any other example of in ancient history. But what gives such peculiar and unprecedented evidence to the history of the Gospel is, that in the concurrence of the multitudes who embraced it, and in the existence of those numerous churches and societies of men who espoused the profession of the Christian faith, we cannot but perceive, that every small interval of time between the written testimonies of authors is filled up by materials so strong and so firmly cemented, as to present us with an unbroken chain of evidence, carrying as much authority along with it, as if it had been a diurnal record, commencing from the days of the apostles, and authenticated through its whole progress by the testimony of thousands.

In the written testimonies for the truth of the Christian religion, Barnabas comes next in order to the first promulgators of the evangelical story. He was a contemporary of the apostles, and writes a very few years after the publication of the pieces which make up the New Testament. Clement follows, who was a fellow-labourer of Paul, and writes an epistle in the name of the church of Rome, to the church of Corinth. The written testimonies follow one another with a closeness and a rapidity of which there is no example; but what we insist on at present, is the unwritten and implied testimony of the people who composed these two churches. There can be no fact better established, than that these two churches were planted in the days of the apostles, and that the Epistles which were respectively addressed to them, were held in the utmost authority and veneration. There is no doubt, that the leading facts of Every convert to the Christian faith in the Gospel history were familiar to them; those days, gives one additional testimony that it was in the power of many individu- to the truth of the Gospel history. Is he a als amongst them to verify these facts, Gentile? The sincerity of his testimony is either by their own personal observation, or approved by the persecutions, the sufferby an actual conversation with eye-witness-ings, the danger, and often the certainty of es; and that in particular, it was in the martyrdom, which the profession of Chrispower of almost every individual in the tianity incurred. Is he a Jew? The sinchurch of Corinth, either to verify the mi-cerity of his testimony is approved by all racles which St. Paul alludes to, in his these evidences, and in addition to them by epistle to that church, or to detect and expose the imposition, had there been no foundation for such an allusion. What do we see in all this, but the strongest possible testimony of a whole people to the truth of

this well known fact, that the faith and doctrine of Christianity were in the highest degree repugnant to the wishes and prejudices of that people. It ought never to be forgotten, that in as far as Jews are concerned

Christianity does not owe a single proselyte | renounced the faith of their ancestors, and to its doctrines, but to the power and credit embraced the religion of Jesus, they would of its evidences, and that Judea was the have been equivalent to a thousand adchief theatre on which these evidences were ditional testimonies in favour of Christianiexhibited. It cannot be too often repeated, ty, and testimonies too of the strongest and that these evidences rest not upon argu- most unsuspicious kind, that can well be ments, but upon facts; and that the time, imagined. But this evidence would make no and the place, and the circumstances, ren- impression on the mind of an infidel, and dered these facts accessible to the inquiries the strength of it is disguised, even from of all who chose to be at the trouble of this the eyes of the Christian. These thousand, examination. And there can be no doubt in the moment of their conversion, lose the that this trouble was taken, whether we re-appellation of Jews, and merge into the flect on the nature of the Christian faith, as name and distinction of Christians. The being so offensive to the pride and bigotry of the Jewish people, or whether we refiect on the consequences of embracing it, which were derision, and hatred, and banishment, and death. We may be sure, that a step which involved in it such painful sacrifices, would not be entered into upon light and insufficient grounds. In the sacrifices they made, the Jewish converts gave every evidence of having delivered an honest testimony in favour of the Christian miracles; and when we reflect, that many of them must have been eye-witnesses, and all of them had it in their power to verify these miracles, by conversation and correspondence with by-standers, there can be no doubt, that it was not merely an honest, but a competent testimony. There is no fact better established, than that many thousands among the Jews believed in Jesus and his apostles; and we have therefore to allege their conversion, as a strong additional confirmation to the written testimony of the original historians.

Jews, though diminished in number, retain the national appellation; and the obstinacy with which they persevere in the belief of their ancestors, is still looked upon as the adverse testimony of an entire people. So long as one of that people continues a Jew, his testimony is looked upon as a serious impediment in the way of Christian evidences. But the moment he becomes a Christian, his motives are contemplated with distrust. He is one of the obnoxious and suspected party. The mind carries a reference only to what he is, and not to what he has been. It overlooks the change of sentiment, and forgets, that, in the renunciation of old habits, and old prejudices, in defiance to sufferings and disgrace, in attachment to a religion so repugnant to the pride and bigotry of their nation, and above all, in submission to a system of doctrines which rested its authority on the miracles of their own time, and their own remembrance, every Jewish convert gives the most decisive testimony which man can give for the truth and divinity of our religion.

One of the popular objections against the truth of the Christian miracles, is the gene- But why, then, says the infidel, did they ral infidelity of the Jewish people. We are not all believe? Had the miracles of the convinced, that at the moment of proposing Gospel been true, we do not see how huthis objection, an actual delusion exists in man nature could have held out against an the mind of the infidel. In his conception, evidence so striking and so extraordinary; the Jews and the Christians stand opposed nor can we at all enter into the obstinacy to each other. In the belief of the latter, of that belief which is ascribed to the mahe sees nothing but a party or an interested jority of the Jewish people, and which led testimony, and in the unbelief of the for-them to shut their eyes against a testimony mer, he sees a whole people persevering in that no man of common sense could have their ancient faith, and resisting the new resisted. faith on the ground of its insufficient evi- Many Christian writers have attempted dences. He forgets all the while, that the to resolve this difficulty, and to prove that testimony of a great many of these Chris-the infidelity of the Jews, in spite of the tians, is in fact the testimony of Jews. He miracles which they saw, is perfectly cononly attends to them in their present capacity. He contemplates them in the light of Christians, and annexes to them all that suspicion and incredulity which are generally annexed to the testimony of an interested party. He is aware of what they are at present, Christians and defenders of Christianity; but he has lost sight of their original situation, and is totally unmindful of this circumstance, that in their transition from Judaism to Christianity, they have given him the very evidence he is in quest of. Had another thousand of these Jews

sistent with the known principles of human nature. For this purpose, they have enlarged, with much force and plausibility, on the strength and inveteracy of the Jewish prejudices-on the bewildering influence of religious bigotry upon the understanding of men-on the woeful disappointment which Christianity offered to the pride and interest of the nation-on the selfishness of the priesthood-and on the facility with which they might turn a blind and fanatical multitude, who had been trained, by their carliest habits, to follow and to revere them..

In the Gospel history itself, we have a measure, a voluntary act; and that it is very consistent account at least of the Jew- often in the power of the mind, both to turn ish opposition to the claims of our Saviour. away its attention from what would land We see the deeply wounded pride of a na- it in any painful or humiliating conclusion, tion, that felt itself disgraced by the loss of and to deliver itself up exclusively to those its independence. We see the arrogance arguments which flatter its taste and its of its peculiar and exclusive claims to the prejudices. All this lies within the range favour of the Almighty. We see the antici-of familiar and every-day experience. We pation of a great prince, who was to deliver all know how much it insures the success them from the power and subjection of their enemies. We see their insolent contempt for the people of other countries, and the foulest scorn that they should be admitted to an equality with themselves in the honours and benefits of a revelation from heaven. We may easily conceive, how much the doctrine of Christ and his apostles was calculated to gall, and irritate, and disappoint them; how it must have mortified their national vanity; how it must have alarmed the jealousy of an artful and interested priesthood; and how it must have scandalized the great body of the people, by the liberality with which it addressed itself to all men, and to all nations, and raised to an elevation with themselves, those whom the firmest habits and prejudices of their country had led them to contemplate under all the disgrace and ignominy of outcasts.

of an argument, when it gets a favourable hearing. In by far the greater number of instances, the parties in a litigation are not merely each attached to their own side of the question; but each confident and believing that theirs is the side on which justice lies. In those contests of opinion, which take place every day between man and man, and particularly if passion and interest have any share in the controversy, it is evident to the slightest observation, that though it might have been selfishness, in the first instance, which gave a peculiar direction to the understanding, yet each of the parties often comes, at last, to entertain a sincere conviction in the truth of his own argument. It is not that truth is not one and immutable. The whole difference lies in the observers; each of them viewing the object through the medium of his own prejudices, or cherishing those peculiar habits of attention and understanding, to which taste or inclination had disposed him.

often dispose him to resist its influence, and, in the bitterness of his malignant feelings, to carry a hostility against it, and that too in proportion to the weight of the argument which may be brought forward in its favour.

Accordingly, we know, in fact, that bitterness, and resentment, and wounded pride, lay at the bottom of a great deal of the op- In addition to all this, we know, that position, which Christianity experienced though the evidence for a particular truth from the Jewish people. In the New Tes- be so glaring, that it forces itself upon the tament history itself, we see repeated ex- understanding, and all the sophistry of pasamples of their outrageous violence; and sion and interest cannot withstand it; yet this is confirmed by the testimony of many if this truth be of a very painful and huother writers. In the history of the mar-miliating kind, the obstinacy of man will tyrdom of Polycarp, it is stated, that the Gentiles and Jews inhabiting Smyrna, in a furious rage, and with a loud voice, cried out, "This is the teacher of Asia, the father of the Christians, the destroyer of our gods, who teaches all men not to sacrifice, nor to worship them!" They collected wood, and Now, if we take into account the inveteracy the dried branches of trees for his pile; and of the Jewish prejudices, and reflect how unit is added, "the Jews also, according to palatable and how mortifying to their pride custom, assisting with the greatest forward- must have been the doctrine of a crucified ness." It is needless to multiply testimo- Saviour; we believe that their conduct, in nies to a point so generally understood; as, reference to Christianity and its miraculous that it was not conviction alone, which lay evidences, presents us with nothing anomaat the bottom of their opposition to the lous or inexplicable, and that it will appear Christians; that a great deal of passion en- a possible and a likely thing to every untered into it; and that their numerous acts derstanding, that has been much cultivated of hostility against the worshippers of Jesus, in the experience of human affairs, in the carry in them all the marks of fury and re-nature of mind, and in the science of its character and phenomena.

sentment.

Now we know that the power of passion There is a difficulty, however, in the way will often carry it very far over the power of this investigation. From the nature of of conviction. We know that the strength of conviction is not in proportion to the quantity of evidence presented, but to the quantity of evidence attended to, and perceived, in consequence of that attention. We also know, that attention is, in a great

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the case, it bears no resemblance to any thing else, that has either been recorded in history, or has come within the range of our own personal observation. There is no other example of a people called upon to renounce the darling faith and principles