Pass n i i \oo 

Book ^u~L_ 

/ %50 



A VIEW 

OP 

THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE 

OF 

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 

BY SOAME JENTNS, ESQ. 

Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Acts 26 : 28. 

PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMEEICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

NEW YORK, 150 NASSAU-STREET . 



/tdO 



By Hxcfcang^ 
Army And Navy Olutk 
13* 192* 



Of the following treatise Dr. Paley says, in 
his incomparable work on the evidences of 
Christianity, " I should willingly, if the limits 
and nature of my work admitted of it, tran- 
scribe into this chapter the whole of what has 
been said upon the morality of the gospel by 
the author of 'A View of the Internal Evi- 
dence 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 asserted, and never contradicted, that 
the late Patrick Henry, the celebrated orator 
of Virginia and of the American Revolution, 
had been in early life sceptical, but was fully 
satisfied 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 



OF 

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



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 ; 



6 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



they both hare, 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 Scrip- 
tures relative to the coming of the Messiah, the 
destruction of Jerusalem, and the unexampled 
state in which the Jews have ever since con- 
tinued : all so circumstantially 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 inapplicable 
they are to all others in the history of mankind : 
I say, whoever considers these circumstances, 
he will scarcely be persuaded to believe that 
they can be the productions of preceding arti- 
fice, or posterior application ; or be able to 
entertain the least doubt of their being derived 
from supernatural inspiration. The miracles 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIOION. 7 



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. 

What pure Christianity is, divested of all its 
ornaments, appendages, and corruption, I pre- 
tend not now to say ; but what it is not, I will 
venture to affirm, which is, that it is not the 
offspring of fraud or fiction. Such, on a super- 



8 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



ficial view, I know it may appear to . a man of 
good sense, whose sense has been altogether 
employed on other subjects ; but if any one 
will give himself the trouble to examine it with 
accuracy and candor, he will plainly see, that 
however fraud and fiction may have grown up 
with it, yet it never could have been grafted on 
the same stock nor planted by the same hand. 

To ascertain the true system and genuine 
doctrines of this religion, after the controver- 
sies of above seventeen centuries, and to remove 
all the rubbish which artifice and ignorance 
have been heaping upon it during all that time, 
would indeed be an arduous task, which I shall 
by no means undertake; but to show that it 
cannot possibly be derived from human wisdom, 
or human imposture, is a work, I think, attend- 
ed with no great difficulty, and requiring no 
extraordinary abilities; and therefore I shall 
attempt that, and that alone, by stating and 
then explaining the following plain and unde- 
niable propositions. 

First, that there is now extant a book entitled 
the New Testament. 

Secondly, that from this book may be extracted 
a system of religion entirely new, both with 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 9 



regard to the object and the doctrines, not only 
infinitely superior to, but unlike every thing 
which had ever before entered into the mind 
of man. 

Thirdly, that from this book may likewise 
be collected a system of ethics, in which every 
moral precept founded on reason is carried to 
a higher degree of purity and perfection than 
in any other of the wisest philosophers of pre- 
ceding ages ; every moral precept founded on 
false principles is totally omitted, and many 
new precepts added, peculiarly corresponding 
with the new object of this religion. 

Lastly, that such a system of religion and 
morality could not possibly have been the work 
of any man, or set of men ; much less of those 
obscure, ignorant, and illiterate persons who 
actually did discover and publish it to the 
world ; and that therefore it must undoubtedly 
have been effected by the interposition of 
divine power ; that is, that it must derive its 
origin from God. 

PROPOSITION I. 

Very little need be said to establish my first 
proposition, which is singly this : that there 



10 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



is now extant a book entitled the JVew Testament; 
that is, there i3 a collection of writings dis- 
tinguished by that denomination, containing 
four historical accounts of the birth, life, actions, 
discourses, and death of an extraordinary per- 
son named Jesus Christ, who was born in the 
reign of Augustus Caesar preached a new 
religion throughout the country 01 Judea, and 
was put to a cruel and ignominious death in 
the reign of Tiberius. Also one other historical 
account of the travels, transactions, and ora- 
tions of some plain and illiterate men known 
by the title of his apostles, whom he commis- 
sioned to propagate his religion after his death; 
which he foretold them he must suffer in con- 
firmation of its truth. To these are added 
several epistolary writings, addressed by these 
persons to their fellow-laborers in this work, or 
to the several churches or societies of Chris- 
tians which they had established in the several 
cities through which they had passed. 

It would not be difficult to prove that these 
books were written soon after those extraor- 
dinary events which are the subjects of them, 
as we find them quoted and referred to by an 
uninterrupted succession of writers from those 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 11 



to the present time : nor would it be less easy 
to show that the truth of all those events, 
miracles only excepted, can no more be reason- 
ably questioned than the truth of any other 
facts recorded in any history whatever ; and 
there can be no more reason to doubt that there 
existed such a person as Jesus Christ, speaking, 
acting, and suffering in such a manner as is 
there described, than that there were such 
men as Tiberius, Herod, or Pontius Pilate, his 
contemporaries ; or to suspect that Peter, Paul, 
and James were not the authors of those 
epistles to which their names are affixed, than 
that Cicero and Pliny did not write those 
which are ascribed to them. It might also be 
made to appear that these books, having been 
written by various persons at different times, 
and in distant places, could not possibly have 
been the work of a single impostor, nor of a 
fraudulent combination, being all stamped with 
the same marks of a uniform originality in 
their very frame and composition. 

But all these circumstances I shall pass over 
unobserved, as they do not fall in with the 
course of my argument, nor are necessary for 
the support of it. Whether these books were 



12 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



written by the authors whose names are pre- 
fixed to them ; whether they have been en- 
larged, diminished, or any way corrupted by 
the artifice or ignorance of translators or tran- 
scribers ; whether in the historical parts the 
writers were instructed by a perpetual, a par- 
tial, or by any inspiration at all ; whether in 
the religious and moral parts they received 
their doctrines from a divine influence, or from 
the instructions and conversation of their Mas- 
ter ; whether in their facts or sentiments there 
is always the most exact agreement, or whether 
in both they sometimes differ from each other ; 
whether they are in any case mistaken, or 
always infallible, or ever pretended to be so, I 
shall not here dispute : let the deist avail him- 
self of all these doubts and difficulties, and 
decide them in conformity to his own opinions. 
I shall not now contend, because they affect 
not my argument : all that I assert is a plain 
fact which cannot be denied, that such writings 
do now exist. 

PROPOSITION II. 

My second proposition is not quite so simple, 
but, I think, not less undeniable than the for- 
mer, and i& this : that from this book may be 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 13 



extracted a system of religim entirely new, both 
with regard to the object and the doctrines ; not 
only infinitely superior to, but totally unlike 
every thing which had ever before entered into 
the mind of man. I say extracted, because all 
the doctrines of this religion having been de- 
livered at various times, and on various occa- 
sions, and here only historically recorded, no 
regular system of theology is here to be found ; 
and better perhaps it had been, if less labor 
had been employed by the learned to bend and 
twist these divine materials into the polished 
forms of human systems. Why their great 
Author chose not to leave any such behind him 
we know not, but it might possibly be because 
he knew that the imperfection of man was 
incapable of receiving such a system, and that 
we are more properly and more safely conduct- 
ed by the distant and scattered rays, than by 
the too powerful sunshine of divine illumina- 
tion. " If I have told you earthly things/ 7 says 
he, " and ye believe not, how shall ye believe 
if I tell you of heavenly things ?" John 3 : 12. 
That is, if my instructions concerning your be- 
havior in the present, as relative to a future 
life, are so difficult to be understood that you 



14 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



can scarcely believe me, how shall you be- 
lieve me if I endeavor to explain to you the 
nature of celestial beings, the designs of Prov- 
idence, and the mysteries of his dispensation ? 
subjects which you have neither ideas to com- 
prehend, nor language to express. 

First, then, the object of this religion is entirely 
?ien\ and is this : to prepare us by a state of 
probation for the kingdom of heaven. This is 
everywhere professed by Christ and his apos- 
tles to be the chief end of the Christian's life ; 
the crown for which he is to contend, the goal 
to which he is to run, the harvest which is to 
repay all his labors. Yet, previous to their 
preaching, no such prize was ever hung out to 
mankind, nor any means prescribed for the 
attainment of it. 

It is indeed true, that some of the philoso- 
phers of antiquity entertained notions of a 
future state, but mixed with much doubt and 
uncertainty. Their legislators also endeavored 
to infuse into the minds of the people a belief 
of rewards and punishments after death ; but 
by this they only intended to give a sanction 
to their laws, and to enforce the practice of 
virtue for the benefit of mankind in the present 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



15 



life. This alone seems to have been their end, 
and a meritorious end it was ; but Christianity 
not only operates more effectually to this end, 
but has a nobler design in view, which is by a 
proper education here to render us fit members 
of a celestial society hereafter. 

In all former religions, the good of the pres- 
ent life was the first object ; in the Christian, 
it is but the second : in those, men were incited 
to promote that good by the hopes of a future 
reward ; in this, the practice of virtue is en- 
joined in order to qualify them for that reward. 
There is great difference, I apprehend, in these 
two plans : that is, in adhering to virtue from 
its present utility in expectation of future hap- 
piness, and living in such a manner as to qualify 
us for the acceptance and enjoyment of that 
happiness ; and the conduct and dispositions 
of those who act on these different principles 
must be no less different. On the first, the con- 
stant practice of justice, temperance, and so- 
briety, will be sufficient ; but on the latter, we 
must add to these an habitual piety, faith, 
resignation, and contempt of the world. The 
first may make us very good citizens, but will 
never produce a tolerable Christian. Hence 



16 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 

it is, that Christianity insists more strongly 
than any preceding* institution, religious or 
moral, on purity of heart, and a benevolent dis- 
position, because these are absolutely necessary 
to its great end ; but in those whose recom- 
mendations of virtue regard the present life 
only, and whose promised rewards in another 
were low and sensual, no preparatory qualifi- 
cations were requisite to enable men to practise 
the one, or to enjoy the other ; and therefore 
we see this object is peculiar to this religion, 
and with it was entirely new. 

But although this object and the principle 
on which it is founded were new, and perhaps 
undiscoverable by reason, yet when discovered, 
they are so consonant to it that we cannot but 
readily assent to them. For the truth of this 
principle, that the present life is a state of pro- 
bation and education to prepare us for another, 
is confirmed by every thing which we see 
around us : it is the only key which can open 
to us the designs of Providence in thejeconomy 
of human affairs, the only clue which can guide 
us through that pathless wilderness, and the 
only plan on which this world could possibly 
have been formed, or on which the history of 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 17 

it can be comprehended or explained. It could 
never have been formed on a plan of happiness, 
because it is everywhere overspread with innu- 
merable miseries ; nor of misery, because it is 
interspersed with many enjoyments. It could 
not have been constituted for a scene of wis- 
dom and virtue, because the history of man- 
kind is little more than a detail of their follies 
and wickedness ; nor of vice, because that is 
no plan at all, being destructive of all existence, 
and consequently of its own. But on this sys- 
tem, all that we here meet with may be easily 
accounted for ; for this mixture of happiness 
and misery, of virtue and vice, necessarily re- 
sults from a state of probation and education ; 
as probation implies trials, sufferings, and a 
capacity of offending, and education a propriety 
of chastisement for those offences. 

In the next place, the doctrines of this religion 
are equally new with the object, and contain 
ideas of God and of man, of the present and 
of a future life, and of the relations which all 
these bear to each other, totally unheard of, and 
quite dissimilar from any which had ever been 
thought on previous to its publication. No 
other ever drew so just a portrait of the worth- 
ing Evi. 2 



IS 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



lessness of this world and all its pursuits, nor 
exhibited such distinct, lively, and exquisite 
pictures of the joys of another; of the resur- 
rection of the dead, the last judgment, and the 
triumphs of the righteous in that tremendous 
day " when this corruptible shall put on incor- 
ruption, and this mortal shall put on immor- 
tality." 1 Cor. 15 : 53. No other has ever rep- 
resented the Supreme Being in the character 
of three persons united in one God. No other 
has attempted to reconcile those seeming con- 
tradictory, but both true propositions, the con- 
tingency of future events, and the foreknow- 
ledge of God, or the freewill of the creature 
with the overruling grace of the Creator. No 
other has so fully declared the necessity of 
wickedness and punishment, yet so effectually 
instructed individuals to resist the one, and to 
escape the other ; no other has ever pretended 
to give any account of the depravity of man, 
or to point out any remedy for it ; no other has 
ventured to declare the unpardonable nature 
of sin without the influence of a mediatorial 
interposition, and a vicarious atonement from 
the sufferings of a superior Being.* "Whether 

* That Christ suffered and died as an atonement for the 
sins of mankind, is a doctrine so constantly and so strongly 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 19 



these wonderful doctrines are worthy of our 
belief, must depend on the opinion which we 
entertain of the authority of those who publish 
them to the world ; but certain it is, that they 
are all so far removed from every track of 
the human imagination, that it seems equally 
impossible that they should ever have been 
derived from the knowledge, or the artifice of 
man. 

Some indeed there are who, by perverting 
the established signification of words — which 
they call explaining— have ventured to expunge 
all these doctrines out of the Scriptures, for no 
other reason than that they are not able to 
comprehend them ; and argue thus : The Scrip- 
tures are the word of God ; in his word no 
propositions contradictory to reason can have 
a place ; these propositions are contradictory 
to reason, and therefore they are not there. 
But if these bold asserters would claim any 

enforced through every part of the New Testament, that 
whoever will seriously peruse those writings, and deny 
that it is there, may. with as much reason and truth, after 
reading the works of Thucydides and Livy, assert, that in 
them no mention is made of any facts relative to the his- 
tories of Greece and Rome. 



20 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



regard, they should reverse their argument and 
say, These doctrines make a part, and a mate- 
rial part of the Scriptures ; they are contradic- 
tory to reason ; no propositions contrary to 
reason can be a part of the word of God ; and 
therefore neither the Scriptures, nor the pre- 
tended revelation contained in them, can be 
derived from him. This would be an argument 
worthy of rational and candid deists, and de- 
mand a respectful attention ; but when men 
pretend to disprove facts by reasoning, they 
have no right to expect an answer. 

And here I cannot omit observing, that the 
personal character of the author of this religion 
is no less new and extraordinary than the relig- 
ion itself : " Who spake as never man spake, 77 
John 7 : 49, and lived as never man lived. In 
proof of this, I do not mean to allege that he 
was born of a virgin, that he fasted forty days, 
that he performed a variety of miracles, and 
that after being buried three days he rose from 
the dead, because these accounts will have but 
little effect on the minds of unbelievers, who, 
if they believe not the religion, will give no 
credit to the relation of these facts ; but I will 
prove it from facts which cannot be disputed* 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGrlON. 21 

For instance, he is the only founder of a relig- 
ion, in the history of mankind, which is totally 
unconnected with all human policy and govern- 
ment, and therefore totally unconducive to any 
worldly purpose whatever. All others, Mahomet, 
Xuma, and even Moses himself, blended their 
religious institutions with their civil, and by 
them obtained dominion over their respective 
people ; but Christ neither aimed at, nor would 
accept of any such power : he rejected every 
object which all other men pursue, and made 
choice of all those which others fly from, and 
are afraid of : he refused power, riches, honors, 
and pleasures, and courted poverty, ignominy, 
tortures, and death. Many have been the en- 
thusiasts and impostors who have endeavored 
to impose on the world pretended revelation ; 
and some of them, from pride, obstinacy, or 
principle, have gone so far as to lay down their 
lives rather than retract ; but I defy history to 
show one who ever made his own sufferings 
and death, a necessary part of his original plan, 
and essential to his mission. This Christ 
actually did ; he foresaw, foretold, declared 
their necessity, and voluntarily endured them. 
If we seriously contemplate the divine lessons, 



22 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



the perfect precepts, the beautiful discourses, 
and the consistent conduct of this wonderful 
person, we cannot possibly imagine that he 
could have been either an idiot or a madman ; 
and yet, if he was not what he pretended to be, 
he can be considered in no other light ; and 
even under this character he would deserve 
some attention, because of so sublime and 
rational an insanity there is no other instance 
in the history of mankind. 

If any one can doubt of the superior excel- 
lence of this religion above all which preceded 
it, let him but peruse with attention those 
unparalleled writings in which it is transmitted 
to the present times, and compare them with 
the most celebrated productions of the pagan 
world ; and if he is not sensible of their supe- 
rior beauty, simplicity, and originality, I will 
venture to pronounce, that he is as deficient in 
taste as in faith, and that he is as bad a critic 
as a Christian. In what school of ancient 
philosophy can he find a lesson of morality so 
perfect as Christ's sermon on the mount ? From 
which of them can he collect an address to the 
Deity so concise, and yet so comprehensive, so 
expressive of all that we want, and all that 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIG-ION. 



23 



we could deprecate, as that short prayer which 
he formed for, and recommended to his disci- 
ples ? From the works of what sage of an- 
tiquity can he produce so pathetic a recom- 
mendation of benevolence to the distressed, 
and enforced by such assurances of a reward, 
as in those words of Christ, " Come, ye blessed 
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the world : for 
I was a hungered, and ye gave me meat ; I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stran- 
ger, and ye took me in ; I was naked, and ye 
clothed me ; I was sick, and ye visited me ; I 
was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then 
shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, 
when saw we thee a hungered, and fed thee, or 
thirsty, and gave thee drink? when saw we 
thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and 
clothed thee? or when saw we thee sick, or 
in prison, and came unto thee ? Then shall he 
answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto 
you, inasmuch as ye have done it to the least 
of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
Matt. 25 : 34-40. Where is there so just, and 
so elegant a reproof of eagerness and anxiety 
in worldly pursuits, closed with so forcible an 



24 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



exhortation to confidence in the goodness of 
our Creator, as in these words: ''Behold the 
fowls of the air ; for they sow not, neither do 
they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your 
heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not 
much better than they? Consider the lilies 
of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, 
neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto you, 
that "even Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God 
so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day 
is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall 
he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little 
faith?" Matt. 6:26-28. By which of their 
most celebrated poets are the joys reserved for 
the righteous in a future state so sublimely 
described, as by this short declaration that 
they are superior to all description : "Eye hath 
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered 
into the heart of man, the things which God 
hath prepared for them that love him." 1 
Cor. 2 : 9. "Where, amidst the dark clouds of 
pagan philosophy, can he show us such a clear 
prospect of a future state, the immortality of 
the soul, the resurrection of the dead, and the 
general judgment, as in St. Paul's first epistle 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 25 



to the Corinthians ? Or from whence can he 
produce such cogent exhortations to the prac- 
tice of every virtue, such ardent incitements to 
piety and devotion, and such assistances to 
attain them, as those which are to be met with 
throughout every page of these inimitable 
writings ? To quote all the passages in them 
relative to these subjects, would be almost to 
transcribe the whole. It is sufficient to observe, 
that they are everywhere stamped with such 
apparent marks of supernatural assistance, as 
render them indisputably superior to, and 
totally unlike all human compositions what- 
ever ; and this superiority and dissimilarity is 
still more strongly marked by one remarkable 
circumstance peculiar to themselves, which is, 
that while the moral parts, being of the most 
general use, are intelligible to the meanest ca- 
pacities, the learned and inquisitive, through- 
out all ages, perpetually find in them inex- 
haustible discoveries concerning the nature, 
attributes, and dispensations of Providence. 

To say the truth, before the appearance of 
Christianity there existed nothing like religion 
on the face of the earth, the Jewish only ex- 
cepted : all other nations were immersed in the 



26 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



grossest idolatry, which had little or no con- 
nection with morality, except to corrupt it by 
the infamous examples of their own imaginary 
deities. They all worshipped a multiplicity of 
gods and demons, whose favor they courted by 
impious, obscene, and ridiculous ceremonies, 
and whose anger they endeavored to appease 
by the most abominable cruelties. In the po- 
litest ages of the politest nations in the world, 
at a time when Greece and Rome had carried 
the arts of oratory, poetry, history, architect 
ture, and sculpture to the highest perfection, 
and made no inconsiderable advances in those 
of mathematics, natural, and even moral phi- 
losophy, in religious knowledge they had 
made none at all — a strong presumption, that 
the noblest efforts of the mind of man, unas- 
sisted by revelation, were unequal to the task. 
Some few, indeed, of their philosophers were 
wise enough to reject these general absurdities, 
and dared to attempt a loftier flight. Plato 
introduced many sublime ideas of nature and 
its first cause, and of the immortality of the 
soul, which being above his own and all human 
discovery, he probably acquired from the books 
of Moses, or the conversation of some Jewish 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



27 



rabbins, which he might have met with in Egypt, 
where he resided, and studied for several years. 
From him, Aristotle, and from both, Cicero and 
some few others drew most amazing stores 
of philosophical science, and carried their re- 
searches into divine truths as far as human 
genius alone could penetrate. But these were 
bright constellations, which appeared singly in 
several centuries, and even these, with all this 
knowledge, were very deficient in true theology. 
From the visible works of the creation they 
traced the being and principal attributes of the 
Creator ; but the relation which his being 
and attributes bear to man, they little under- 
stood : of piety and devotion they had scarce 
any sense, nor could they form any mode of 
worship worthy of the purity and perfection of 
the divine nature. They occasionally flung out 
many elegant encomiums on the native beauty 
and excellence of virtue ; but they founded it 
not on the commands of God, nor connected it 
with a holy life, nor hung out the happiness of 
heaven as its reward, or its object. They some- 
times talk of virtue carrying men to heaven 
and placing them among the gods; but by 
this virtue they meant only the invention of 



28 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



arts, or feats of arms ; for with theni heaven was 
open only to legislators and conquerors, the 
civilizers or destroyers of mankind. This was, 
then, the summit of religion in the most pol- 
ished nations in the world ; and even this was 
confined to a few philosophers, prodigies of 
genius and literature, who were little attended 
to, and less understood by the generality of 
mankind in their own countries ; while all the 
rest were involved in one common cloud of 
ignorance and superstition. 

At this time Christianity broke forth from 
the East like a rising sun, and dispelled this 
universal darkness which obscured every part 
of the globe, and even at this day prevails in 
all those remote regions to which its salutary 
influence has not as yet extended. From all 
those which it has reached, it has, notwith- 
standing its corruptions, banished all those 
enormities, and introduced a more rational de- 
votion, and pure morals : it has taught men the 
unity and attributes of the Supreme Being, the 
remission of sins, the resurrection of the dead, 
life everlasting, and the kingdom of heaven ; 
doctrines as inconceivable to the wisest of 
mankind antecedent to its appearance, as the 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 29 



Newtonian system is at this day to the most 
ignorant tribes of savages in the wilds of 
America : doctrines which human reason never 
could have discovered ; but which, when dis- 
covered, coincide with, and are confirmed by 
it ; and which, though beyond the reach of all 
the learning and penetration of Plato, 'Aris- 
totle, and Cicero, are now clearly laid open to 
the eye of every peasant and mechanic with 
the Bible in his hand. These are all plain 
facts, too glaring to be contradicted ; and 
therefore, whatever we may think of the au- 
thority of these books, the relations which they 
contain, or the inspiration of their authors, 
of these facts, no man who has eyes to read, 
or ears to hear, can entertain a doubt, because 
there are the books, and in them is this 
religion. 

PROPOSITION III. 

My third proposition is this : that from this 
book, called the New Testament, may be col- 
lected a system of ethics, in which every moral 
precept founded on reason is carried to a higher 
degree of purity and perfection than in any other 
of the ancient philosophers of preceding ages ; 
every moral precept founded on false principles is 



30 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



entirely omitted ; and many new precepts added, 
peculiarly corresponding with the new object 
of this religion. 

By a moral precept founded on reason, I 
mean all those which enforce the practice of 
such duties as reason informs us must improve 
our nature, and conduce to the happiness of 
mankind : such are piety to God. benevolence 
to man, justice, charity, temperance, and so- 
briety, with all those which prohibit the com- 
mission of the contrary vices, all which debase 
our natures, and by mutual injuries introduce 
universal disorder, and consequently universal 
misery. By precepts founded on false princi- 
ples, I mean those which recommend fictitious 
virtues, productive of none of these salutary 
effects, and therefore, however celebrated and 
admired, are in fact no virtues at all : such 
are valor, patriotism, and friendship. 

That virtues of the first kind are carried 
to a higher degree of purity and perfection by 
the Christian religion than by any other, it is 
here unnecessary to prove, because this is a 
truth which has been frequently demonstrated 
by her friends, and never once denied by the 
most determined of her adversaries ; but it will 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



31 



be proper to show that those of the latter sort 
are most judiciously omitted, because they 
have really no intrinsic merit in them, and are 
totally incompatible with the genius and spirit 
of this institution. 

Valor, for instance, or active courage, is for the 
most part constitutional, and therefore can have 
no more claim to moral merit than wit, beauty, 
health, strength, or any other endowment of 
the mind or body ; and so far is it from pro- 
ducing any salutary effects by introducing 
peace, order, or happiness in society, that it is 
the usual perpetrator of all the violences which, 
from retaliated injuries, distract the world with 
bloodshed and devastation. It is the engine 
by which the strong are enabled to plunder 
the weak, the proud to trample upon the hum- 
ble, and the guilty to oppress the innocent ; it 
is the chief instrument which ambition employs 
in her unjust pursuits of wealth and power, 
and is therefore so much extolled by her vo- 
taries : it was indeed congenial with the relig- 
ion of pagans, whose gods were, for the most 
part, made out of deceased heroes, exalted to 
heaven as a reward for the mischiefs which 
they had perpetrated upon earth ; and there- 



3% INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 

fore, with them this was the first of virtues, and 
had even engrossed that denomination to itself. 
But whatever merit it may have assumed among 
pagans, with Christians it can pretend to none, 
and few or none are the occasions in whicb- 
they are permitted to exert it. They are so 
far from being allowed to inflict evil, that they 
are forbid even to resist it; they are so far 
from being encouraged to revenge injuries, 
that one of their first duties is to forgive them ; 
so far from being incited to destroy their 
enemies, that they are commanded to love 
them, and serve them to the utmost of their 
power. If Christian nations therefore were 
nations of Christians, all war would be impos- 
sible and unknown among them, and valor 
could be neither of use or estimation, and 
therefore could never have a place in the cata- 
logue of Christian virtues, being irreconcilable 
with all its precepts. I object not to the 
praise and honors bestowed on the valiant: 
they are the least tribute which can be paid 
them by those who enjoy safety and affluence 
by the intervention of their dangers and suf- 
ferings : I assert only, that active courage can 
never be a Christian virtu because a Chris- 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIG-ION, 



33 



tian can have nothing to do with it. Passive 
courage is indeed frequently and properly in- 
culcated by this meek and suffering religion, 
under the titles of patience and resignation: 
a real and substantial virtue this, and a direct 
contrast to the former ; for passive courage 
arises from the noblest dispositions of the hu- 
man mind, from a contempt of misfortunes, 
pain, and death, and a confidence in the pro- 
tection of the Almighty ; active, from the mean- 
est — from passion, vanity, and self-dependence. 
Passive courage is derived from a zeal for truth, 
and a perseverance in duty ; active, is the off- 
spring of pride and revenge, and the parent of 
cruelty and injustice : in short, passive courage 
is the resolution of a philosopher ; active, the 
ferocity of a savage. Nor is this more incom- 
patible with the precepts, than with the object 
of this religion, which is the attainment of the 
kingdom of heaven ; for valor is not that sort 
of violence by which that kingdom is to be 
taken ; nor are the turbulent spirits of heroes 
and conquerors admissible into those regions 
of peace, subordination, and tranquillity. 

Patriotism, also, that celebrated virtue so 
much practised in ancient, and so much pro- 

1st. Evi 3 



34 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



fessed in modern times — that virtue which so 
long preserved the liberties of Greece, and 
exalted Rome to the empire of the world — 
this celebrated virtue, I say, must also be ex- 
cluded, because it not only falls short of, but 
directly counteracts the extensive benevolence 
of this religion. A Christian is of no country, 
he is a citizen of the world ; and his neighbors 
and countrymen are the inhabitants of the 
remotest regions, whenever their distresses de- 
mand his friendly assistance. Christianity com- 
mands us to love all mankind ; patriotism, to 
oppress all other countries to advance the im- 
aginary prosperity of our own. Christianity 
enjoins us to imitate the universal benevolence 
of our Creator, who pours forth his blessings 
on every nation upon earth ; patriotism, to copy 
the mean partiality of an English parish offi- 
cer, who thinks injustice and cruelty merito- 
rious whenever they promote the interests of 
his own inconsiderable village. This has ever 
been a favorite virtue with mankind, because 
it conceals self-interest under the mask of pub- 
lic spirit, not only from others, but even from 
themselves, and gives a license to inflict wrongs 
and injuries, not only with impunity, but with 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



35 



applause ; but it is so diametrically opposite to 
the great characteristic of this institution, that 
it never could have been admitted into the list 
of Christian virtues. 

Friendship, likewise, although more congenial 
to the principles of Christianity, arising from 
more tender and amiable dispositions, could 
never gain admittance among her benevolent 
precepts for the same reason, because it is too 
narrow and confined, and appropriates that 
benevolence to a single object which is here 
commanded to be extended over all. Where 
friendships arise from similarity of sentiments 
and disinterested affections, they are advanta- 
geous, agreeable, and innocent, but have little 
pretensions to merit ; for it is justly observed, 
" If ye love them which love you, what thank 
have ye? for sinners also love those that love 
them." Luke 6:32. But if they are formed 
from alliances in parties, factions, and interests, 
or from a participation of vices, the usual par- 
ents of what are called friendships among man- 
kind, they are then both mischievous and crim- 
inal, and consequently forbidden ; but in their 
utmost purity they deserve no recommendation 
from this religion. 



36 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



To the judicious omission of these false vir- 
tues, we may add that remarkable silence which 
the Christian Legislator everywhere preserves 
on subjects esteemed by all others of the 
highest importance, civil government, national 
policy, and the rights of war and peace. Of 
these he has not taken the least notice, prob- 
ably for this plain reason, because it would 
have been impossible to have formed any ex- 
plicit regulations concerning them, which must 
not have been inconsistent with the purity of 
his religion, or with the practical observance 
of such imperfect creatures as men, ruling over 
and contending with each other. For instance, 
had he absolutely forbid all resistance to the 
reigning powers, he had constituted a plan of 
despotism, and made men slaves ; had he allow- 
ed it, he must have authorized disobedience, and 
made them rebels : had he, in direct terms, 
prohibited all war, he must have left his fol- 
lowers for ever an easy prey to every infidel 
invader ; had he permitted it, he must have 
licensed all that rapine and murder with which 
it is unavoidably attended. 

Let us now examine what are those new 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



37 



precepts in this religion peculiarly corre- 
sponding with the new object of it ; that is, 
preparing us for the kingdom of heaven. Of 
these, the chief are poorness of spirit, forgive- 
ness of injuries, and charity to all men ; to 
these we may add repentance, faith, self-abase- 
ment, and a detachment from the world, all mor- 
al duties peculiar to this religion, and absolutely 
necessary to the attainment of its end. 

" Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is 
the kingdom of heaven. 77 Matthew 5 : 3. By 
which poorness of spirit is to be understood a 
disposition of mind meek, humble, submissive 
to power, void of ambition, patient of injuries, 
and free from all resentment. This was so 
new, and so opposite to the ideas of all pagan 
moralists, that they thought this temper of 
mind a criminal and contemptible meanness, 
which must induce men to sacrifice the glory 
of their country and their honor to a shameful 
pusillanimity ; and such it appears to almost 
all who are called Christians, even at this day, 
who not only reject it in practice, but disavow 
it in principle, notwithstanding this explicit 
declaration of their Master. We see them re- 
venging the smallest affronts by premeditated 



38 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



murder, as individuals, on principles of honor ; 
and, in their national capacities, destroying 
each other with fire and sword for the low con- 
siderations of commercial interests, the balance 
of rival powers, or the ambition of princes. 
We see them with their last breath animating 
each other to a savage revenge, and, in the 
agonies of death, plunging with feeble arms 
their daggers into the hearts of their oppo- 
nents; and what is still worse, we hear all 
these barbarisms celebrated by historians, flat- 
tered by poets, applauded in theatres, approved 
in senates, and even sanctified in pulpits. But 
universal practice cannot alter the nature of 
things, nor universal error change the nature of 
truth. Pride was not made for men, but humil- 
ity, meekness, and resignation ; that is, poor- 
ness of spirit was made for man, and properly 
belongs to his dependent and precarious situa- 
tion, and is the only disposition of mind which 
can enable him to enjoy ease and quiet here 
and happiness hereafter. Yet was this impor- 
tant precept entirely unknown until it was 
promulgated by Him who said, " Suffer little 
children to come unto me, and forbid them not, 
for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Verily 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



39 



I say unto you. whosoever shall not receive the 
kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not 
enter therein." Mark 10 : 14, 15. 

Another precept equally new, and no less 
excellent, is forgiveness of injuries. " Ye have 
heard," says Christ, " thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor, and hate thine enemy ; but I say unto you, 
love your enemies, bless them that curse you, 
do good to them that hate you, and pray for 
them which despitefully use you and persecute 
you.*' Matthew 5 : 43. This was a lesson so 
new, and so utterly unknown till taught by his 
doctrines, and enforced by his example, that 
the wisest moralists of the wisest nations and 
ages represented the desire of revenge as a 
mark of a noble mind, and the accomplishment 
of it as one of the chief felicities attendant on 
a fortunate man. But how much more mag;- 
nanimous, how much more beneficial to man- 
kind is forgiveness ! It is more magnanimous, 
because every generous and exalted disposition 
of the human mind is requisite to the practice 
of it, for these alone can enable us to bear the 
wrongs and insults of wickedness and folly 
with patience, and to look down on the perpe- 
trators of them with pity, rather than indig- 



40 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



nation : these alone can teach us that such are 
but a part of those sufferings allotted to us in 
this state of probation ; and to know, that to 
overcome evil with good, is the most glorious 
of all victories. It is the most beneficial, be- 
cause this amiable conduct alone can put an 
end to an eternal succession of injuries and 
retaliations ; for every retaliation becomes a 
new injury, and requires another act of revenge 
for satisfaction. But would we observe this 
salutary precept, to love our enemies, and do 
good to those who despitefully use us, this ob- 
stinate benevolence would at last conquer the 
most inveterate hearts, and we should have no 
enemies to forgive. How much more exalted 
a character therefore is a Christian martyr 
suffering with resignation, and praying for the 
guilty, than that of a pagan hero breathing 
revenge, and destroying the innocent? Yet 
noble and useful as this virtue is, before the 
appearance of this religion it was not only 
unpractised, but decried in principle, as mean 
and ignominious, though so obvious a remedy 
for most of the miseries of this life, and so 
necessary a qualification for the happiness of 
another. 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 41 



A third precept, first noticed and first en- 
joined by this institution, is charity to all men. 
"What this is, we may best learn from the ad- 
mirable description painted in the following 
words : " Charity suffereth long, and is kind ; 
charity envieth not ; charity vaunteth not 
itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself 
unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily 
provoked, thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in 
iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all 
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
endureth all things." 1 Cor. 13 :4. Here we 
have an accurate delineation of this bright 
constellation of all virtues, which consists not, 
as many imagine, in the building of monaster- 
ies, endowment of hospitals, or the distribution 
of alms, but in such an amiable disposition of 
mind as exercises itself every hour in acts of 
kindness, patience, complacency, and benevo- 
lence to all around us, and which alone is able 
to promote happiness in the present life, or 
render us capable of receiving it in another : 
and yet this is totally new, and so it is de- 
clared to be by the author of it : " A new com- 
mandment I give unto you, that ye love one 
another ; as I have loved you, that ye also 



42 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



love one another. By this shall all men know 
that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to 
another." John 13:34. This benevolent dis- 
position is made the great characteristic of a 
Christian, the test of his obedience, and the 
mark by which he is to be distinguished. This 
love for each other is that charity just now 
described, and contains all those qualities 
which are there attributed to it : humility, 
patience, meekness, and beneficence ; without 
which we must live in perpetual discord, and 
consequently cannot pay obedience to his com- 
mandment by loving one another : a command- 
ment so sublime, so rational, and so beneficial, 
so wisely calculated to correct the depravity, 
diminish the wickedness, and abate the miseries 
of human nature, that, did we universally com- 
ply with it, we should soon be relieved from 
all the inquietudes arising from our own unruly 
passions, anger, envy, revenge, malice, and am- 
bition, as well as from all those injuries to 
which we are perpetually exposed from the 
indulgence of the same passions in others. It 
would also preserve our minds in such a state 
of tranquillity, and so prepare them for the 
kingdom of heaven, that we should slide out 



THE CHRISTIAN EELIG-ION. 



43 



of a life of peace, love, and benevolence, into 
that celestial society, by an almost impercep- 
tible transition. Yet was this commandment 
entirely new when given by Him who so enti- 
tles it, and has made it the capital duty of his 
religion, because the most indispensably neces- 
sary to the attainment of its great object, the 
kingdom of heaven ; into which, if proud, tur- 
bulent, and vindictive spirits were permitted 
to enter, they must unavoidably destroy the 
happiness of that state by the operations of 
the same passions and vices by which they dis- 
turb the present ; and therefore all such must 
be eternally excluded, not only as a punish- 
ment, but also from incapacity. 

Repentance by this, we plainly see, is another 
new moral duty strenuously insisted on by this 
religion, and by no other, because absolutely 
necessary to the accomplishment of its end ; for 
this alone can purge us from those transgres- 
sions from which we cannot be totally exempt- 
ed in this state of trial and temptation, and pu- 
rify us from that depravity in our nature which 
renders us incapable of attaining this end. 
Hence, also, we may learn that no repentance 
can remove this incapacity, but such as entirely 



44 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



changes the nature and disposition of the of- 
fender, which, in the language of Scripture, is 
called 11 being born again." Mere contrition 
for past crimes, and even the pardon of them, 
cannot effect this, unless it operates to this en- 
tire conversion or new birth, as it is properly 
and emphatically named ; for sorrow can no 
more purify a mind corrupted by a long con- 
tinuance in vicious habits, than it can restore 
health to a body distempered by a long course 
of vice and intemperance. Hence, also, every 
one who is in the least acquainted with him- 
self, may judge of the reasonableness of the 
hope that is in him, and of his situation in a 
future state, by that of his present. If he feels 
in himself a temper proud, turbulent, vindic- 
tive, and malevolent, and a violent attachment 
to the pleasures or business of the world, he 
may be assured that he must be excluded from 
the kingdom of heaven ; not only because his 
conduct can have no such reward, but because, 
if admitted, he would find there no objects sat- 
isfactory to his passions, inclinations, and pur- 
suits ; and therefore could only disturb the 
happiness of others, without enjoying any share 
of it himself. 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 45 

Faith is another moral duty enjoined by this 
institution, of a species so new, that the philos- 
ophers of antiquity had no word expressive of 
this idea, nor any such idea to be expressed ; 
for the word mane, or jides, which we translate 
faith, was never used by any pagan writer in a 
sense the least similar to that to which it is ap- 
plied in the New Testament, where in general 
it signifies an humble, teachable, and candid 
disposition, a trust in God, and confidence in 
his promises. When applied particularly to 
Christianity, it means no more than a belief of 
this single proposition, that Christ was the Son 
of God ; that is, in the language of those writ- 
ings, the Messiah, who was foretold by the 
prophets, and expected by the Jews ; who was 
sent by God into the world to preach right- 
eousness, judgment, and everlasting life, and to 
die as an atonement for the sins of mankind. 
This was all that Christ required to be be- 
lieved by those who were willing to become 
his disciples : he who does not believe this, is 
not a Christian ; and he who does, believes the 
whole that is essential to his profession, and all 
that is properly comprehended under the name 
of faith. This unfortunate word has indeed 



46 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



been so tortured and so misapplied to mean ev- 
ery absurdity which artifice could impose upon 
ignorance, that it has lost all pretensions to the 
title of virtue ; but if brought back to the sim- 
plicity of its original signification, it well de- 
serves that name, because it usually arises from 
the most amiable dispositions, and is always a 
direct contrast to pride, obstinacy, and self- 
conceit. If taken in the extensive sense of an 
assent to the evidence of things not seen, it 
comprehends the existence of a God, and a fu- 
ture state, and is therefore not only itself a 
moral virtue, but the source from whence all 
others must proceed ; for on the belief of these 
all religion and morality must entirely depend. 
It cannot be altogether void of moral excellence, 
as some represent it, because it is in a degree 
voluntary ; for daily experience shows us that 
men not only pretend to, but actually do be- 
lieve and disbelieve almost 'any propositions 
which best suit their interests or inclinations, 
and unfeignedly change their sincere opinions 
with their situations and circumstances. For 
we have power over the mind's eye, as well as 
over the body's, to shut it against the strongest 
rays of truth and religion, whenever they be- 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 47 



come painful to us ; and to open it again to the 
faint glimmerings of scepticism and infidelity, 
when we " love darkness rather than light, be- 
cause our deeds are evil." John 3 : 19. And 
this, I think, sufficiently refutes all objections 
to the moral nature of faith, drawn from the 
supposition of its being quite involuntary, and 
necessarily dependent on the degree of evi- 
dence which is offered to our understandings. 

Self-abasement is another moral duty incul- 
cated by this religion only ; which requires us. 
to impute even our own virtues to the grace 
and favor of our Creator, and to acknowledge 
that we can do nothing good by our own pow- 
ers, unless assisted by his overruling influence. 
This doctrine seems at first sight to infringe on 
our free will, and to deprive us of all merit ; 
but, on a closer examination, the truth of it 
may be demonstrated both by reason and expe- 
rience, and that in fact it does not impair the 
one or depreciate the other ; and that it is pro- 
ductive of so much humility, resignation, and 
dependence on God, that it justly claims a place 
among the most illustrious moral virtues. Yet 
was this duty utterly repugnant to the proud 
and self-sufficient principles of the ancient phi- 



48 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



losophers, as well as modern deists ; and there- 
fore, before the publication of the gospel, to- 
tally unknown and uncomprehended. 

Detachment from the wwid is another moral 
virtue constituted by this religion alone ; so 
new, that even at this day few of its professors 
can be persuaded that it is required, or that it 
is any virtue at all. By this detachment from 
the world, is not to be understood a seclusion 
from society, abstraction from all business, or 
retirement to a gloomy cloister. Industry and 
labor, cheerfulness and hospitality, are fre- 
quently recommended; nor is the acquisition 
of wealth and honors prohibited, if they can be 
obtained by honest means and a moderate de- 
gree of attention and care ; but such an unre- 
mitted anxiety and perpetual application as en- 
gross our whole time and thoughts, are forbid, 
because they are incompatible with the spirit 
of this religion, and must utterly disqualify us 
for the attainment of its great end. We toil 
on in the vain pursuits and frivolous occupa- 
tions of the world, die in our harness, and then 
expect, if no gigantic crime stands in the way, 
to step immediately into the kingdom of heav- 
en : but this is impossible ; for without a pre- 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 49 



vious detachment from the business of this 
world, we cannot be prepared for the happi- 
ness of another. Yet this could make no part 
of the morality of pagans, because their virtues 
were altogether connected with this business, 
and consisted chiefly in conducting it with hon- 
or to themselves and benefit to the public. But 
Christianity has a nobler object in view, which, 
if not attended to, must be lost for ever. This 
object is that celestial mansion of which we 
should never lose sight, and to which we should 
be ever advancing during our journey through 
life ; but this by no means precludes us from 
performing the business, or enjoying the amuse- 
ments of travellers, provided they detain us not 
too long, nor lead us too far out of our way. 

It cannot be denied, that the great Author 
of the Christian institution first and singly 
ventured to oppose all the chief principles of 
pagan virtue, and to introduce a religion di- 
rectly opposite to those erroneous, though long- 
established opinions, both in its duties and in 
its object. The most celebrated virtues of the 
ancients were high spirit, intrepid courage, and 
implacable resentment. 

Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer — turbu- 

Int. Evi, 4 

i 



50 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



lent, irascible, implacable, virulent — was the 
portrait of the most illustrious hero, drawn by 
one of the first poets of antiquity. To all these 
admired qualities, those of a true Christian are 
an exact contrast ; for this religion constantly 
enjoins poorness of spirit, meekness, patience, 
and forgiveness of injuries. "But I say unto 
you, that ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall 
smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the 
other also." Matt. 5 : 39. The favorite char- 
acters among the pagans were, the turbulent, 
ambitious, and intrepid, who, through toils and 
dangers, acquired wealth, and spent it in lux- 
ury, magnificence, and corruption ; but both 
these are equally adverse to the Christian sys- 
tem, which forbids all extraordinary efforts to 
obtain wealth, care to secure, or thought con- 
cerning the enjoyment of it. " Lay not up for 
yourselves treasures on earth/ 7 etc. " Take no 
thought, saying, "What shall we eat, or what 
shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be 
clothed ? for after all these things do the Gen- 
tiles seek." Matt. 6:31. The chief object of 
the pagans was immortal fame ; for this their 
poets sung, their heroes fought, and their pa- 
triots died; and this was hung out by their 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 51 



philosophers and legislators as the great in- 
citement to all noble and virtuous deeds. But 
what says the Christian Legislator to his disci- 
ples on this subject? "Blessed are ye when 
men shall revile you, and shall say all manner 
of evil against you falsely for my sake ; rejoice, 
and be exceeding glad, for great is your re- 
ward in heaven. 77 Matt. 5 : 11. So widely 
different is the genius of the pagan and Chris- 
tian morality, that I will venture to affirm, that 
the most celebrated virtues of the former are 
not less opposite to the spirit, or inconsistent 
with the end of the latter, than even their most 
infamous vices; and that a Brutus, wrenching 
vengeance out of His hands to whom alone it 
belongs, by murdering the oppressor of his 
country ; or a Cato, murdering himself from an 
impatience of control, leaves the world as un- 
qualified for, and inadmissible into the king- 
dom of heaven, as even a Messalina, or a Heli- 
ogabalus, with all their profligacy about them. 

Nothing, I believe, has so much contributed 
to corrupt the true spirit of the Christian in- 
stitution, as that partiality which we contract 
from our earliest education for the manners of 
pagan antiquity : from whence we learn to 



52 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



adopt every moral idea which is repugnant to 
it; to applaud false virtues, which that disa- 
vows ; to be guided by laws of honor, which 
that abhors ; to imitate characters which that 
detests ; and to behold heroes, patriots, con- 
querors, and suicides with admiration, whose 
conduct that utterly condemns. From a coa- 
lition of these opposite principles, was gener- 
ated that monstrous system of cruelty and be- 
nevolence, of barbarism and civility, of rapine 
and justice, of fighting and devotion, of revenge 
and generosity, which harassed the world for 
several centuries with crusades, holy wars, 
knight-errantry, and single combats ; and even 
still retains influence enough, under the name 
of honor, to defeat the most beneficent ends of 
this holy institution. I mean not by this to 
pass any censure on the principles of valor, pa- 
triotism, or honor : they may be useful, and per- 
haps necessary, in the commerce and business 
of the present turbulent and imperfect state ; 
and those who are actuated by them may be 
virtuous, honest, and even religious men : all 
that I assert is, that they cannot be Christians. 
A Christian may be overpowered by passions 
and temptations, and his actions may contra- 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 53 



diet his principles; but a man whose ruling 
principle is honor, however virtuous he may 
be, cannot be a Christian, because he erects a 
standard of duty, and deliberately adheres to 
it, diametrically opposite to the whole tenor of 
that religion. 

The contrast between the Christian and all 
other institutions, religious or moral, previous 
to its appearance, is sufficiently evident ; and 
surely the superiority of the former is as little 
to be disputed, unless any one shall undertake 
to prove that humility, patience, forgiveness, 
and benevolence are less amiable, and less ben- 
eficial qualities than pride, turbulence, revenge, 
and malignity ; that the contempt of riches is 
less noble than their acquisition by fraud and 
villany, or the distribution of them to the poor 
less commendable than avarice or profusion ; 
or that a real immortality in the kingdom of 
heaven is an object less exalted, less rational, 
and less worthy of pursuit, than an imaginary 
immortality in the applause of men : that worth- 
less tribute, which the folly of one part of man- 
kind pays to the wickedness of the other — a 
tribute which a wise man ought always to 
despise, because a good man can scarce ever 
obtain. 



54 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



CONCLUSION. 

If I mistake not, I have now fully established 
the truth of my three propositions : 

First, that there is now extant a book enti- 
tled the New Testament. 

Secondly, that from this book may be ex- 
tracted a system of religion entirely new, both 
in its object and its doctrines ; not only supe- 
rior to, but totally unlike every thing which 
had ever before entered into the mind of man. 

Thirdly, that from this book may likewise 
be collected a system of ethics, in which every 
moral precept founded on reason is carried to 
a higher degree of purity and perfection than 
in any other of the wisest philosophers of pre- 
ceding ages; every moral precept founded on 
false principles totally omitted; and many 
new precepts added, peculiarly corresponding 
with the new object of this religion. 

Every one of these propositions, I am per- 
suaded, is incontrovertibly true ; and if true, 
this short but certain conclusion must inevita- 
bly follow, that such a system of religion and 
morality could not possibly have been the work of 
any man, or set of men, much less of those 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 55 



obscure, ignorant, and illiterate persons who 
actually did discover and publish it to the 
world; and that therefore it must have been 
effected by the supernatural interposition of divine 
power and wisdom, that is, that it must derive 
its origin from God. 

This argument seems to me little short of 
demonstration, and is indeed founded on the 
very same reasoning by which the material 
world is proved to be the work of his invisible 
hand. We view with admiration the heavens 
and the earth, and all therein contained ; we 
contemplate with amazement the minute bodies 
of animals too small for perception, and the 
immense planetary orbs too vast for imagina- 
tion. We are certain that these cannot be the 
works of man, and therefore we conclude with 
reason, that they must be the productions of 
an omnipotent Creator. In the same manner 
we see here a scheme of religion and morality 
unlike and superior to all ideas of the human 
mind, equally impossible to have been discov- 
ered by the knowledge, or invented by the 
artifice of man ; and therefore by the very 
same mode of reasoning, and with the same 
justice, we conclude that it must derive its 



56 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



origin from the sarac omnipotent and omnis- 
cient Being. 

Nor was the propagation of this religion less 
extraordinary than the religion itself, or less 
above the reach of all human power, than the 
discovery of it was above that of all human 
understanding. It is well known, that in the 
course of a very few years it was spread over 
all the principal parts of Asia and of Europe, 
and this by the ministry only of an inconsidera- 
ble number of the most inconsiderable persons ; 
that at this time paganism was in the highest 
repute, believed universally by the vulgar, and 
patronized by the great ; that the wisest men 
of the wisest nations assisted at its sacrifices, 
and consulted its oracles on the most impor- 
tant occasions. Whether these were the tricks 
of the priests or of the devil, is of no conse- 
quence, as they were both equally unlikely to 
be converted or overcome : the fact is certain, 
that on the preaching of a few fishermen, their 
altars were deserted and their deities were 
dumb. This miracle they undoubtedly per- 
formed, whatever we may think of the rest; 
and this is surely sufficient to prove the author- 
ity of their commission, and to convince us 



THE CHRISTIAN RELXG-XON, 



57 



that neither their undertaking nor the execu- 
tion of it could possibly be their own. 

How much this divine institution has been 
corrupted, or how soon these corruptions be- 
gan ; how far it has been discolored by the 
false notions of illiterate ages, or blended with 
fictions by pious frauds ; or how early these 
notions and fictions were introduced, it may be 
difficult now precisely to ascertain ; but surely 
no man who seriously considers the excellence 
and novelty of its doctrines, the manner in 
which it was at first propagated through the 
world, the persons who achieved that wonder- 
ful work, and the originality of those writings 
in which it is still recorded, can possibly 
believe that it could ever have been the pro- 
duction of imposture or chance ; or that from 
an imposture the most wicked and blasphe- 
mous — for if an imposture, such it is — all the 
religion and virtue now existing on earth can 
derive their source. 

But notwithstanding what has been here 
urged, if any man can believe that, at a time 
when the literature of Greece and Rome, then 
in their meridian lustre, were insufficient for 
the task, the son of a carpenter, with twelve 



58 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 

of the humblest and most illiterate men his as- 
sociates, unassisted by any supernatural power, 
should be able to discover or invent a system 
of theology the most sublime, and of ethics the 
most perfect, which had escaped the penetra- 
tion and learning of Plato, Aristotle, and 
Cicero ; and that from this system, by their 
own sagacity, they had excluded every false 
virtue, though universally admired, and admit- 
ted every true virtue, though despised and ridi- 
culed by all the rest of the world — if any one 
can believe that these men could become im- 
postors for no other purpose than the propa- 
gation of truth, villains for no end but to teach 
honesty, and martyrs without the least pros- 
pect of honor or advantage ; or that if all this 
should have been possible, these few inconsid- 
erable persons should have been able, in the 
course of a few years, to have spread this their 
religion over most parts of the then known 
world, in opposition to the interests, pleasures, 
ambition, prejudices, and even reason of man- 
kind ; to have triumphed over the power of 
princes, the intrigues of states, the force of 
custom, the blindness of zeal, the influence of 
priests, the arguments of orators, and the 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIG-ION. 59 



philosophy of the world, without any super- 
natural assistance — if any one can believe all 
these miraculous events, contradictory to the 
experience of the powers and dispositions of 
human nature, he must be possessed of much 
more faith than is necessary to make him a 
Christian, and remain an unbeliever from mere 
credulity. 

But should these credulous infidels after all 
be in the right, and this pretended revelation 
be all a fable, from believing it what harm 
could ensue? Would it render princes more 
tyrannical, or subjects more ungovernable ; 
the rich more insolent, or the poor more disor- 
derly? Would it make worse parents or chil- 
dren, husbands or wives, masters or servants, 
friends or neighbors? Or would it not make 
men more virtuous, and consequently more hap- 
py in every situation ? It could not be criminal, 
it could not be detrimental. It could not be 
criminal, because it cannot be a crime to assent 
to such an evidence as has been able to con- 
vince the best and wisest of mankind ; by 
which, if false, Providence must have permitted 
men to deceive each other for the most bene- 
ficial ends, and which, therefore, it would be 



60 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



surely more meritorious to believe from a dis- 
position of faith and charity which believeth 
all things, than to reject with scorn from obsti- 
nacy and self-conceit. It cannot be detrimental, 
because if Christianity is a fable, it is a fable 
the belief of which is the only principle which 
can retain men in a steady and uniform course 
of virtue, piety, and devotion ; or can support 
them in the hour of distress, of sickness, and 
of death. Whatever might be the operations 
of true deism on the minds of pagan philoso- 
phers, that can now avail us nothing ; for 
that light which once lightened them, is now 
absorbed in the brighter illumination of the 
gospel : we can now form no rational system 
of deism but what must be borrowed from that 
source ; and as far as it reaches towards perfec- 
tion, must be exactly the same ; and therefore, if 
we will not accept of Christianity, we have no 
religion at all. Accordingly we see that those 
who fly from this, scarce ever stop at deism, but 
hasten on with alacrity to a total rejection of 
all religious and moral principles whatever. 

If I have here demonstrated the divine origin 
of the Christian religion by an argument which 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 61 

cannot be confuted, no others, however plausi- 
ble or numerous, founded on probabilities, 
doubts, and conjectures, can ever disprove it ; 
because if it is once shown to be true, it cannot 
be false. But as many arguments of this kind 
have bewildered some candid and ingenuous 
minds, I shall here bestow a few lines on those 
which have the most weight, in order to wipe 
out, or at least to diminish their perplexing in- 
fluence. 

But here I must previously observe, that the 
most insurmountable as well as the most usual 
obstacle to our belief, arises from our passions, 
appetites, and interests ; for faith being an act 
of the will as much as of the understanding, 
we oftener disbelieve for want of inclination 
than want of evidence. The first step towards 
thinking this revelation true, is our hope that it 
is so ; for whenever we much wish any proposi- 
tion to be true, we are not far from believing it. 
It is certainly for the interest of all good men 
that its authority should be well founded, and 
still more beneficial to the bad, if ever they 
intend to be better, because it is the only sys- 
tem, either of reason or religion, which can 
give them any assurance of pardon. The pun- 



62 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



ishment of vice is a debt due to justice, which 
cannot be remitted without compensation. Ee- 
pentance can be no compensation ; it may 
change a wicked man's disposition, and pre- 
vent his offending for the future, but can lay 
no claim to pardon for what is past. If any 
one, by profligacy and extravagance, contracts 
a debt, repentance may make him wiser and 
hinder him from running into farther distresses, 
but can never pay off his old bonds, for which 
he must be ever accountable, unless they are 
discharged by himself or some other in his 
stead. This very discharge Christianity alone 
holds forth on our repentance, and if true, will 
certainly perform ; the truth of it, therefore, 
must ardently be wished for by all except the 
wicked, who are determined neither to repent 
nor reform. It is well worth every man's while 
who either is or intends to be virtuous, to be- 
lieve Christianity if he can, because he will 
find it the surest preservative against all 
vicious habits and their attendant evils ; the 
best resource under distresses and disappoint- 
ments, ill-health and ill-fortune, and the firmest 
basis on which contemplation can rest; and 
without some, the human mind is never per- 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 63 



fectly at ease. But if any one is attached to a 
favorite pleasure, or eagerly engaged in world- 
ly pursuits incompatible with the precepts of 
this religion, and he believes it, he must either 
relinquish those pursuits with uneasiness, or 
persist in them with remorse and dissatisfac- 
tion, and therefore must commence unbeliever 
in his own defence. "With such I shall not dis- 
pute, nor pretend to persuade men by argu- 
ments to make themselves miserable ; but to 
those who, not afraid that this religion may be 
true, are really affected by such objections, I 
will offer the following answers, which, though 
short, will, I doubt not, be sufficient to show 
their weakness and futility. 

In the first place, then, some have been so 
bold as to strike at the root of all revelation 
from God, by asserting that it is incredible be- 
cause unnecessary, and unnecessary because the 
reason which he has bestowed on mankind is 
sufficiently able to discover all the religious and 
moral duties which he requires of them, if they 
would but attend to her precepts, and be guid- 
ed by her friendly admonitions. Mankind 
have undoubtedly, at various times, from the 
remotest ages, received so much knowledge 



64 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



by divine communications, and have ever been 
so much inclined to impute it all to their own 
sufficiency, that it is now difficult to determine 
what human reason, unassisted, can effect. But 
to form a true judgment on this subject, let us 
turn our eyes to those remote regions of the 
globe to which this supernatural assistance has 
never yet extended, and we shall there see men 
endued with sense and reason not inferior to 
our own, so far from being capable of forming 
systems of religion and morality, that they are 
at this day totally unable to make a nail or a 
hatchet ; from whence we may surely be con- 
vinced that reason alone is so far from being 
sufficient to offer to mankind a perfect religion, 
that it has never yet been able to lead them to 
any degree of culture or civilization whatever. 
These have uniformly flowed from that great 
fountain of divine communication opened in 
the East in the earliest ages, and thence been 
gradually diffused in salubrious streams through- 
out the various regions of the earth. Their 
rise and progress, by surveying the history of 
the world, may easily be traced backwards to 
their source ; and wherever these have not as 
yet been able to penetrate, we there find the 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



65 



human species not only void of all true relig- 
ious and moral sentiments, but not the least 
emerged from their original ignorance and 
barbarity; which seems a demonstration, that 
although human reason is capable of progres- 
sion in science, yet the first foundations must 
be laid by supernatural instructions ; for surely 
no other probable cause can be assigned why 
any one part of mankind should have made 
such an amazing progress in religious, moral, 
metaphysical, and philosophical inquiries — such 
wonderful improvements in policy, legislation, 
commerce, and manufactures ; while the other 
part, formed with the same natural capacities, 
and divided only by seas and mountains, should 
remain, during the same number of ages, in a 
state little superior to brutes, without govern- 
ment, without laws or letters, and even without 
clothes and habitations ; murdering each other 
to satiate their revenge, and devouring each oth- 
er to appease their hunger. I say, no cause can 
be assigned for this amazing difference, except 
that the first have received information from 
those divine communications recorded in the 
Scriptures, and the latter have never yet been 
favored with such assistance. This remarkable 

Int Ev. 5 



66 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 

contrast seems an unanswerable, though, per- 
haps a new proof of the necessity of revela- 
tion, and a solid refutation of all arguments 
against it, drawn from the sufficiency of human 
reason. And as reason in her natural state is 
thus incapable of making any progress in know- 
ledge, so when furnished with materials by 
supernatural aid, if left to the guidance of her 
own wild imaginations, she falls into more 
numerous and more gross errors than her own 
native ignorance could ever have suggested. 
There is then no absurdity so extravagant 
which she is not ready to adopt : she has per- 
suaded some that there is no God ; others, that 
there can be no future state : she has taught 
some that there is no difference between vice 
and virtue, and that to cut a man's throat, and 
to relieve his necessities, are actions equally 
meritorious : she has convinced many that they 
have no free will, in opposition to their own 
experience ; some, that there can be no such 
thing as soul or spirit, contrary to their own 
perceptions ; and others, no such thing as mat- 
ter or body, in contradiction to their senses. 
By analyzing all things, she can show that 
there is nothing in any thing ; by perpetual 



THE CHRISTIAN EELIOION. 67 



sifting, she can reduce all existence to the in- 
visible dust of scepticism ; and by recurring to 
first principles, prove to the satisfaction of her 
followers that there are no principles at all. 
How far such a guide is to be depended on in 
the important concerns of religion and morals, 
I leave to the judgment of every considerate 
man to determine. This is certain, that human 
reason, in its highest state of cultivation 
among the philosophers of Greece and Rome, 
was never able to form a religion comparable 
to Christianity ; nor have all those sources of 
moral virtue, such as truth, beauty, and the fit- 
ness of things, which modern philosophers have 
endeavored to substitute in its stead, ever been 
effectual to produce good men ; and have them- 
selves often been the productions of some of 
the worst. 

Others there are, who allow that a revela- 
tion from God may be both necessary and cred- 
ible, but allege that the Scriptures, that is, 
the books of the Old and New Testament, can- 
not be that revelation ; because in them are to 
be found errors and inconsistencies, fabulous sto- 
ries, false facts, and false philosophy, which can 
never be derived from the fountain of all wis- 



68 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



dom and truth. To this I reply, that the Scrip- 
tures are the history of a revelation from God : 
the revelation itself is derived from God ; the 
history of it is the production of men, and there- 
fore the truth of it is not in the least affected 
by their fallibility, but depends on the internal 
evidence of its own supernatural excellence. 
If, in these books, such a religion as has been 
here described actually exists, no seeming, or 
even real defects found in them can disprove 
the divine origin of this religion, or invalidate 
my argument. Let us, for instance, grant that 
the Mosaic history of the creation was founded 
on the erroneous but popular principles of those 
early ages, who imagined the earth to be a vast 
plain, and the celestial bodies no more than lu- 
minaries hung up in the concave firmament to 
enlighten it; will it from thence follow, that 
Moses could not be a proper instrument, in the 
hands of Providence, to impart to the Jews a 
divine law, because he was not inspired with a 
foreknowledge of the Copernican and Newto- 
nian systems? or that Christ must be an im- 
postor, because Moses was not an astronomer? 
Let us also suppose that the accounts of Christ's 
temptation in the wilderness, the devil's taking 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



69 



refuge in the herd of swine, with several other 
narrations in the New Testament, frequently 
ridiculed by unbelievers, were all but stories 
accommodated to the ignorance and supersti- 
tions of the times and countries in which they 
were written, would this impeach the excel- 
lence of the Christian religion, or the authority 
of its founder ? The sacred writers were un- 
doubtedly directed by supernatural influence 
in all things necessary to the great work which 
they were appointed to perform. At particu- 
lar times, and on particular occasions, they were 
enabled to utter prophecies, to speak languages, 
and to work miracles ; but in the science of his- 
tory, geography, astronomy, and philosophy, 
they appear to have been no better instructed 
than others. They related facts like honest 
men ; they recorded the divine lessons of their 
Master with the utmost fidelity ; and apparent 
discrepancies prove only that they did not act 
or write in a combination to deceive, but do not 
in the least impeach the truth of the revelation 
which they published ; which depends not on 
any external evidence whatever. For I will 
venture to affirm, that if any one could prove, 
what is impossible to be proved, because it is 



70 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



not true, that there are errors in geography, 
chronology, and philosophy, in every page of 
the Bible ; that the prophecies therein deliv- 
ered are all but fortunate guesses, or artful ap- 
plications, and the miracles there recorded no 
better than legendary tales ; if one could show 
that these books* were never written by their 
pretended authors, but were posterior imposi- 
tions on illiterate and credulous ages ; all these 
wonderful discoveries would prove no more 
than this, that God, for reasons to us unknown, 
had thought proper to permit a revelation, by 
him communicated to mankind, to be mixed 
with their ignorance, and corrupted by their 
frauds from its earliest infancy, in the same 
manner in which he has visibly permitted it to 
be mixed and corrupted from that period to the 
present hour. If, in these books, a religion su- 
perior to all human imagination actually exists, 
it is of no consequence to the proof of its divine 
origin, by what means it was there introduced, 
or with what human errors and imperfections 
it is blended. A diamond, though found in a 
bed of mud, is still a diamond ; nor can the dirt 
which surrounds it depreciate its value or de- 
stroy its lustre. 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIG-I02T. 



71 



To some speculative and refined observers, it 
has appeared incredible that a wise and benev- 
olent Creator should have constituted a world 
upon one plan, and a religion for it on another; 
that is, that he should have revealed a religion 
to mankind which not only contradicts the 
principal passions and inclinations which he 
has implanted in their natures, but is incom- 
patible with the whole economy of that world 
which he has created, and in which he has 
thought proper to place them, "This/' say 
they, " with regard to Christianity, is apparent- 
ly the case : the love of power, riches, honor, 
and fame, are the great incitements to gener- 
ous and magnanimous actions; yet by this in- 
stitution are all these depreciated and discour- 
aged. Government is essential to the nature 
of man, and cannot be managed without cer- 
tain degrees of violence, corruption, and impo- 
sition ; yet are all these strictly forbid. Na- 
tions cannot subsist without wars, nor war be 
carried on without rapine, desolation, and mur- 
der; yet are these prohibited under the sever- 
est threats. The non-resistance of evil must 
subject individuals to continual oppression, and 
leave nations a defenceless prey to their ene- 



72 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



inies ; yet is this recommended. Perpetual pa- 
tience under insults and injuries must every 
day provoke new insults and new injuries ; yet 
is this enjoined. A neglect of all we eat and 
drink and wear, must put an end to all com- 
merce, manufactures, and industry; yet is this 
required. In short, were these precepts uni- 
versally obeyed, the disposition of all human 
affairs must be entirely changed, and the busi- 
ness of the world, constituted as it now is, 
could not go on." To all this I answer, that 
such indeed is the Christian revelation, though 
some of its advocates may perhaps be unwilling 
to own it, and such it is constantly declared to 
be by Him who gave it, as well as by those who 
published it under his immediate direction : to 
these he says, "If ye were of the world, the 
world would love his own ; but because ye are 
not of the world, but I have chosen you out 
of the world, therefore the world hateth you." 
John 15:19. To the Jews he declares, "Ye 
are of this world, I am not of this world." 
John 8 : 23. St. Paul writes to the Eomans, 
" Be not conformed to this world," Rom. 12:2; 
and to the Corinthians, " We speak not the wis- 
dom of this world." Cor. 2:6. St. James 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



73 



says, "Know ye not that the friendship of the 
■world is enmity with God? whosoever there- 
fore will be a friend of the world is the enemy 
of God." James 4 : 4. This irreconcilable 
disagreement between Christianity and the 
world is announced in numberless other places 
in the New Testament, and indeed by the whole 
tenor of those writings. These are plain dec- 
larations, which in spite of all the evasions of 
those good managers, who choose to take a lit- 
tle of this world in their way to heaven, stand 
fixed and immovable against all their argu- 
ments drawn from public benefit and pretended 
necessity, and must ever forbid any reconcilia- 
tion between the pursuits of this world and the 
Christian institution : but they who reject it on 
this account, enter not into the sublime spirit 
of this religion, which is not a code of precise 
laws designed for the well ordering of society, 
adapted to the ends of worldly convenience, 
and amenable to the tribunal of human pru- 
dence ; but a divine lesson of purity and per- 
fection, so far superior to the low considera- 
tions of conquest, government, and commerce, 
that it takes no more notice of them than of 
the battles of game-cocks, the policy of bees, or 



74 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



the industry of ants. They recollect not what 
is the first and principal object of this institu- 
tion ; that it is not, as has been often repeated, 
to make us happy, or even virtuous in the pres- 
ent life, for the sake of augmenting our happi- 
ness here, but to conduct us through a state of 
dangers and sufferings, of sin and temptation, 
in such a manner as to qualify us for the enjoy- 
ment of happiness hereafter. All other insti- 
tutions of religion and morals were made for 
the world, but the characteristic of this is to 
be against it ; and therefore the merits of 
Christian doctrines are not to be weighed in 
the scales of public utility, likb those of moral 
precepts, because worldly utility is not their 
end. If Christ and his apostles had pretended 
that the religion which they preached would 
advance the power, wealth, and prosperity of 
nations, or of men, they would have deserved 
but little credit; but they constantly profess 
the contrary, and everywhere declare, that 
their religion is adverse to the world and all 
its pursuits. Christ says, speaking of his dis- 
ciples, " They are not of the world, even as I 
am not of the world." John 17: 16. It can 
therefore be no imputation on this religion, or 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 75 

on any of its precepts, that they tend not to an 
end which their author professedly disclaims : 
nor can it surely be deemed a defect, that it is 
adverse to the vain pursuits of this world ; for 
so are reason, wisdom, and experience ; they 
all teach us the same lesson, they all demon- 
strate to us every day, that these are begun on 
false hopes, carried on with disquietude, and 
end in disappointment. This professed incom- 
patibility with the little, wretched, and iniqui- 
tous business of the world, is therefore so far 
from being a defect in this religion, that, was 
there no other proof of its divine origin, this 
alone, I think, would be abundantly sufficient. 
The great plan and benevolent design of this 
dispensation is plainly this : to enlighten the 
minds, purify the religion, and amend the mor- 
als of mankind in general, and to select those 
of them who believe in its divine Author and 
obey his commands, to be successively trans- 
planted into the kingdom of heaven ; which 
gracious offer is impartially tendered to all 
who, by faith in him, perseverance in meekness, 
patience, piety, charity, and a detachment from 
the world, are willing to qualify themselves for 
this holy and happy society. Was this uni- 



76 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



versally accepted, and did every man observe 
strictly every precept of the gospel, the face 
of human affairs and the economy of the world 
would indeed be greatly changed ; but surely 
they would be changed for the better, and we 
should enjoy much more happiness, even here, 
than at present ; for we must not forget, that 
evils are by it forbid, as well as resistance ; in- 
juries, as well as revenge ; all unwillingness to 
diffuse the enjoyments of life, as well as solici- 
tude to acquire them ; all obstacles to ambi- 
tion, as well as ambition itself ; and therefore 
all contentions for power and interest would 
be at an end, and the world would go on much 
more happily than it now does. But this uni- 
versal acceptance of such an offer was not ex- 
pected from so depraved and imperfect a crea- 
ture as man : it was foreknown and foretold by 
Him who made it, that few, very few, would ac- 
cept it on these terms. He says, " Strait is the 
gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto 
life, and few there be that find it." Matt. 7 : 14. 
Accordingly, we see that very few are prevailed 
on by the hope of future happiness to relinquish 
the pursuit of present pleasures or interests ; 
and therefore these pursuits are little inter- 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



77 



rupted by the secession of so inconsiderable a 
number. As the natural world subsists by the 
struggles of the same elements, so does the 
moral by the contentions of the same passions, 
as from the beginning. The generality of man- 
kind are actuated by the same motives ; fight, 
scuffle, and scramble for power, riches, and 
pleasures, with the same eagerness ; all occu- 
pations and professions are exercised with the 
same alacrity ; and there are soldiers, lawyers, 
statesmen, patriots, and politicians, just as if 
Christianity had never existed. Thus, we see 
this wonderful dispensation has answered all 
the purposes for which it was intended : it has 
enlightened the minds, purified the religion, and 
amended the morals of mankind ; and without 
subverting the constitution, policy, or business 
of the world, opened a gate, though a strait 
one, through which all who are wise enough to 
choose it, and are fitted for it, may find an en- 
trance into the kingdom of heaven. 

Others have said, that if this revelation had 
really been from God, his infinite power and 
goodness could never have suffered it to have 
been so soon perverted from its original purity, to 
have continued in a state of corruption through 



78 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



the course of so many ages, and at last to have 
proved so ineffectual to the reformation of man- 
kind. To these I answer, that all this, on ex- 
amination, must be expected to result from the 
nature of all revelations communicated to so 
imperfect a creature as man, and from circum- 
stances peculiar to the rise and progress of the 
Christian in particular ; for when this was first 
preached to the gentile nations, though they 
were not able to withstand the force of its ev- 
idence, and therefore received it, yet they could 
not be prevailed on to relinquish their old su- 
perstitions and former opinions, but chose rath- 
er to incorporate them with it ; by which means 
it was necessarily mixed with their ignorance 
and their learning, by both which it was equally 
injured. The people defaced its worship by 
blending it with their idolatrous ceremonies, 
and the philosophers corrupted its doctrines by 
weaving them up with the notions of the Gnos- 
tics, Mystics, and Manichseans, the prevailing 
systems of those times. By degrees its irre- 
sistible excellence gained over princes, poten- 
tates, and conquerors to its interests, and it 
was supported by their patronage, but that 
patronage soon engaged it in their policies 



THE CHRISTIAN "RELIGION. 



79 



and contests, and destroyed that excellence by 
which it had been acquired. At length the 
meek and humble professors of the gospel en- 
slaved these princes and conquered these con- 
querors, their patrons, and erected for them- 
selves [in the Papal church] such a stupendous 
fabric of wealth and power as the world had 
never seen. They then propagated their re- 
ligion by the same methods by which it had 
been persecuted ; nations were converted by 
fire and sword, and the vanquished were bap- 
tized with daggers at their throats. All these 
events we see proceed from a chain of causes 
and consequences, which could not have been 
broken without changing the established course 
of things by a constant series of miracles, or a 
total alteration of human nature. While that 
continues as it is, the purest religion must be 
corrupted by a conjunction with power and 
riches ; and it will also then appear to be much 
more corrupted than it really is, because many 
are inclined to think that every deviation from 
its primitive state is a corruption! Christian- 
ity was at first preached by the poor and mean, 
in holes and caverns, under the iron rod of per- 
secution ; and therefore many absurdly conclude 



80 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



that any degree of wealth or power in its minis- 
ters, or of magnificence in its worship, are cor- 
ruptions inconsistent with the genuine simplic- 
ity of its original state : they are offended that 
modern bishops should possess titles, palaces, 
revenues, and coaches, when it is notorious that 
their predecessors, the apostles, were despised 
wanderers, without houses or money, and walk- 
ed on foot. The apostles indeed lived in a 
state of poverty aud persecution attendant on 
their particular situation, and the work which 
they had undertaken ; but this was no part of 
their religion, and it can be no more incumbent 
on their successors to imitate their poverty and 
meanness, than to be whipped, imprisoned, and 
put to death, in compliance with their example. 
These are all but the suggestions of envy and 
malevolence, but no objections to these favor- 
able alterations in Christianity and its profes- 
sors, which, if not abused to the purposes of 
tyranny and superstition, are in fact no more 
than the necessary and proper effects of its 
more prosperous situation. When a poor man 
grows rich, or a servant becomes a master, they 
should take care that their exaltation prompts 
them not to be unjust or insolent ; but surely 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 81 

it is not requisite or right that their behavior 
and mode of living should be exactly the same 
when their situation is altered. How far this 
institution has been effectual to the reformation 
of mankind, it is not easy now to ascertain, be- 
cause the enormities which prevailed before the 
appearance of it are by time so far removed 
from our sight that they are scarcely visible ; 
but those of the most gigantic size still remain 
in the records of history as monuments of the 
rest. Wars in those ages were carried on with 
a ferocity and cruelty unknown to the present : 
whole cities and nations were extirpated by fire 
and sword, and thousands of the vanquished 
were crucified and impaled for having endeav- 
ored only to defend themselves and their coun- 
try. The lives of new-born infants were then 
entirely at the disposal of their parents, who 
were at liberty to bring them up, or expose 
them to perish by cold and hunger, or to" be 
devoured by birds and beasts ; and this was 
frequently practised without punishment, and 
even without censure. Gladiators were em- 
ployed by hundreds to cut one another to pieces 
in public theatres for the diversion of the most 
polite assemblies ; and though these combatants 

Int. Km. 6 



82 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



at first consisted of criminals only, by degrees 
men of the highest rank, and even ladies of the 
most illustrious families, enrolled themselves in 
this honorable list. On many occasions human 
sacrifices were ordained ; and at the funerals 
of rich and eminent persons great numbers of 
the slaves were murdered as victims pleasing 
to their departed spirits. The most infamous 
obscenities were made part of their religious 
worship, and the most unnatural lusts publicly 
avowed and celebrated by their most admired 
poets. At the approach of Christianity all 
these horrid abominations vanished ; and among 
those who first embraced it, scarce a single 
vice was to be found. To such an amazing de- 
gree of piety, charity, temperance, patience, and 
resignation were the primitive converts exalt- 
ed, that they seem literally to have been regen- 
erated, and purified from all the imperfections 
of human nature ; and to have pursued such a 
constant and uniform course of devotion, inno- 
cence, and virtue, as in the present times it is 
almost as difficult for us to conceive as to imi- 
tate. If it is asked, why should not the belief 
of the same religion now produce the same ef- 
fects ? the answer is short, because to so great 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIG-IOU. 



63 



an extent it is not believed. The most sove- 
reign medicine can perform no -cure, if the pa- 
tient will not be persuaded to take it. Yet, 
notwithstanding all impediments, it has cer- 
tainly done a great deal towards diminishing 
the vices and correcting the dispositions of 
mankind ; and was it universally adopted in 
belief and practice, would totally eradicate 
both sin and punishment. 

Objections have likewise been raised to the 
divine authority of this religion from the in- 
credibility of some of its doctrines, particularly of 
those concerning the Trinity, and atonement 
for sin by the sufferings and death of Christ ; 
the one contradicting all the principles of hu- 
man reason, and the other all our ideas of di- 
vine justice. To these objections I shall only 
say, that no arguments, founded on principles 
which we cannot comprehend, can possibly dis- 
prove a proposition already proved on princi- 
ples which we do understand ; and therefore, 
that on this subject they ought not to be at- 
tended to. That three beings should be one 
being, is a proposition which apparently con- 
tradicts reason, that is, our reason ; but it does 
not from thence follow that it cannot be true, 



84 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



for there are. many propositions which are 
above our reason, and yet are demonstrably 
true. One is the very first principle of all re- 
ligion, the being of a God ; for that any thing- 
should exist without a cause, or that any thing 
should be the cause of its own existence, are 
propositions equally contradictory to our rea- 
son ; yet one of them must be true, or nothing 
could ever have existed. In like manner the 
overruling grace of the Creator, and the free- 
will of his creatures, his certain foreknowledge 
of future events, and the uncertain contingency 
of those events, are to our apprehensions abso- 
lute contradictions to each other ; and yet the 
truth of every one of these is demonstrable 
from Scripture, reason, and experience. All 
these difficulties arise from our imagining that 
the mode of existence of all beings must be 
similar to our own ; that is, that they must all 
exist in time and space ; and hence proceeds 
our embarrassment on this subject. We know 
that no two beings, with whose mode of exist- 
ence we are acquainted, can exist in the same 
point of time, in the same point of space, and 
that therefore they cannot be one ; but how far 
beings whose mode of existence bears no rela- 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



85 



tion to time or space, may be united, we cannot 
comprehend ; and therefore the possibility of 
such a union we cannot positively deny. In 
like manner, our reason informs us that the pun- 
ishment of the innocent, instead of the guilty, 
is diametrically opposite to justice, rectitude, 
and all pretensions to utility ; but we should 
also remember, that the short line of our rea- 
son cannot reach to the bottom of this ques- 
tion : it cannot inform us by what means either 
guilt or punishment ever gained a place in the 
works of a Creator infinitely good and power- 
ful, whose goodness must have induced him, 
and whose power must have enabled him to 
exclude them. It cannot assure us, that some 
sufferings of individuals are not necessary to 
the happiness and well-being of the whole. It 
cannot convince us, that they do not actually 
arise from this necessity, or that for this cause 
they may not be required of us, or that they 
may not be borne by one being for another ; 
and therefore, if voluntarily offered, be justly 
accepted from the innocent instead of the guil- 
ty. Of all these circumstances we are totally 
ignorant ; nor can our reason afford us any in- 
formation, and therefore we are not able to as- 



86 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



sert that this measure is contrary to justice or 
void of utility. For unless we could first re- 
solve that great question, whence came evil ? we 
can decide nothing on the dispensations of 
Providence, because they must necessarily be 
connected with that undiscoverable principle ; 
and as we know not the root of the disease, 
we cannot judge of what is, or is not, a proper 
and effectual remedy. It is remarkable, that 
notwithstanding all the seeming absurdities of 
this doctrine, there is one circumstance much 
in its favor ; which is, that it has been univer- 
sally adopted in all ages, as far as history can 
carry us back in our inquiries to the earliest 
times ; in which we find all nations, civilized 
and barbarous, however differing in all other 
religious opinions, agreeing alone in the expe- 
diency of appeasing their offended deities by 
sacrifices, that is, by the vicarious sufferings of 
men or other animals. These notions could 
never have been derived from reason, because 
it directly contradicts it ; nor from ignorance, 
because ignorance could never have contrived 
so unaccountable an expedient, nor have been 
uniform in all ages and countries in any opin- 
ion whatsoever ; nor from the artifice of kings 



THE CHRISTIAN R*ELIG-ION. 87 

or priests, in order to acquire dominion over 
the people, because it seems not adapted to this 
end ; and we find it implanted in the minds of 
the most remote savages at this day discovered, 
who have neither kings nor priests, artifice nor 
dominion among them. It must therefore be 
derived from natural instinct or supernatural 
revelation, both which are equally the opera- 
tions of divine power. 

It may be further urged, that however true 
these doctrines may be, yet it must be incon- 
sistent with the justice and goodness of the 
Creator to require from his creatures the be- 
lief of propositions which contradict, or are 
above the reach of that reason which he has 
thought proper to bestow upon them. To this 
I answer, that genuine Christianity requires 
no such belief. It has discovered to us many 
important truths, with which we were before 
entirely unacquainted ; and among them are 
these, that three beings are some way united 
in the divine essence, and that God will accept 
of the sufferings of Christ as an atonement for 
the sins of mankind. These, considered as dec- 
larations of facts only, neither contradict, nor 
are above the reach of human reason. The 



88 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



first is a proposition as plain as that three equi- 
lateral lines compose one triangle ; the other is 
as intelligible as that one man should discharge 
the debts of another. In what manner this 
union is formed, or why God accepts these vi- 
carious sufferings, or to what purposes they may 
be subservient, it informs us not, because no in- 
formation could enable us to comprehend these 
mysteries ; and therefore it does not require 
that we should know or receive them. The 
truth of these doctrines must rest entirely on 
the authority of those who taught them ; but 
then we should reflect, that those were the same 
persons who taught us a system of religion 
more sublime, and of ethics more perfect, than 
any which our faculties were ever able to dis- 
cover, but which, when discovered, are exactly 
consonant to our reason ; and that therefore 
we should not hastily reject those informations 
which they have vouchsafed to give us, of 
which our reasofl. is not a competent judge. If 
an able mathematician proves to us the truth of 
several propositions, by demonstrations which 
we understand, we hesitate not on his authority 
to assent to others, the process of whose proofs 
we are not able to follow ; why therefore should 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



89 



we refuse that credit to Christ and his apostles 
which we think reasonable to give to one an- 
other? 

Many have objected to the whole scheme of 
this revelation as partial, fluctuating, indeter- 
minate, unjust, and unworthy an omniscient and 
omnipotent author, who cannot be supposed to 
have favored particular persons, countries, and 
times with this divine communication, while 
others, no less meritorious, have been altogeth- 
er excluded from its benefits ; nor to have 
changed and counteracted his own designs j 
that is, to have formed mankind able and dis- 
posed to render themselves miserable by their 
own wickedness, and then to have contrived so 
strange an expedient to restore them to that 
happiness which they need never have been 
permitted to forfeit, and this to be brought 
about by the unnecessary interposition of a 
mediator. To all this I shall only say, that 
however unaccountable this may appear to us, 
who see but as small a part of the Christian 
as of the universal plan of creation, they are 
both, in regard to all these circumstances, ex- 
actly analogous to each other. In all the dis- 
pensations of Providence with which we are 



90 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



acquainted, benefits are distributed in a simi- 
lar manner ; health and strength, sense and 
science, wealth and power, are all bestowed on 
individuals and communities in different de- 
grees and at different times. The whole econ- 
omy of this world consists of evils and reme- 
dies ; and these, for the most part, administered 
by the instrumentality of intermediate agents. 
God has permitted us to plunge ourselves into 
poverty, distress, and misery, by our own vices, 
and has afforded us the advice, instructions, 
and examples of others, to deter or extricate 
us from these calamities. He has formed us 
subject to innumerable diseases, and he has be- 
stowed on us a variety of remedies. He has 
made us liable to hunger, thirst, and naked- 
ness, and he supplies us with food, drink, and 
clothing, usually by the administration of oth- 
ers. He has created poisons, and he has pro- 
vided antidotes. He has ordained the winter's 
cold to cure the pestilential heats of the sum- 
mer, and the summer's sunshine to dry up the 
inundations of the winter. Why the constitu- 
tion of nature is so formed, why all the visible 
dispensations of Providence are such, and why 
such is the Christian dispensation also, we 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 91 

know not, nor have faculties to comprehend. 
God might certainly have made the material 
world a system of perfect beauty and regulari- 
ty, without evils and without remedies ; and 
the Christian dispensation a scheme only of 
moral virtue, productive of happiness, without 
the intervention of any atonement or media- 
tion. He might have exempted our bodies 
from all diseases, and our minds from all de- 
pravity ; and we should then have stood in no 
need of medicines to restore us to health, or 
expedients to reconcile us to his favor. It 
seems, indeed, to our ignorance, that this would 
have been more consistent with justice and rea- 
son ; but his infinite wisdom has decided in an- 
other manner, and formed the systems, both of 
nature and Christianity, on other principles, 
and these so exactly similar, that we have cause 
to conclude that they both must proceed from 
the same source of divine power and wisdom, 
however inconsistent with our reason they may 
appear. Eeason is undoubtedly our surest 
guide in all matters which lie within the nar- 
row circle of her intelligence. On the subject 
of revelation, her province is ofily to examine 
into its authority ; and when that is once 



92 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



proved, she has no more to do but to acquiesce 
in its doctrines ; and therefore is never so ill 
employed as when she pretends to accommo- 
date them to her own ideas of rectitude and 
truth. " God," says this self-sufficient teacher. 
" is perfectly wise, just, and good and what 
is the inference? "That all his dispensations 
must be conformable to our notions of perfect 
wisdom, justice, and goodness." But it should 
first be proved that man is as perfect and as 
wise as his Creator, or this consequence will 
by no means follow, but rather the reverse ; 
that is, that the dispensations of a perfect and 
all-wise Being must probably appear unreason- 
able, and perhaps unjust, to a being imperfect 
and ignorant ; and, therefore, their seeming im- 
possibility may be a mark of their truth, and 
in some measure justify that pious rant of a 
mad enthusiast, " Credo, quia impossibile" — I 
believe it, because it is impossible. Nor is it 
the least surprising that we are not able to un- 
derstand the spiritual dispensations of the Al- 
mighty, when his material works are to us no 
less incomprehensible. Our reason can afford 
us no insight into those great properties of mat- 
ter, gravitation, attraction, elasticity, and elec- 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 93 

tricity, nor even into the essence of matter it- 
self. Can reason teach us how the sun's lumin- 
ous orb can fill a circle, whose diameter con- 
tains many millions of miles, with a constant 
inundation of successive rays during thousands 
of years, without any perceivable diminution of 
that body from whence they are continually 
poured, or any augmentation of those bodies 
on which they fall, and by which they are con- 
stantly absorbed? Can reason tell us how 
those rays, darted with a velocity greater than 
that of a cannon ball, can strike the tenderest 
organs of the human frame without inflicting 
any degree of pain, or by what means this per- 
cussion only can convey the forms of distant 
objects to an immaterial mind? or how any 
union can be formed between material and im- 
material essences? or how the wounds of the 
body can give pain to the soul ; or the anxiety 
of the soul can emaciate and destroy the body ? 
That all these things are so, we have visible 
and indisputable demonstration ; but how they 
can be so is to us as incomprehensible as the 
most abstruse mysteries of revelation can pos- 
sibly be. In short, we see so small a part of 
the great whole ; we know so little of the re- 



94 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



lation which the present life bears to preexist- 
ent and future states ; we conceive so little of 
the nature of God and his attributes, or mode 
of existence; we can comprehend so little of 
the material, and so much less of the moral 
plan on which the universe is constituted, or 
on what principle it proceeds, that if a revela- 
tion from such a being, on such subjects, was 
in every part familiar to our understandings, 
and consonant to our reason, we should have 
great cause to suspect its divine authority ; and 
therefore, had this revelation been less incom- 
prehensible, it would certainly have been more 
incredible. 

But I shall not enter farther into the con- 
sideration of these abstruse and difficult spec- 
ulations, because the discussion of them would 
render this short essay too tedious and labori- 
ous a task for the perusal of them for whom it 
was principally intended ; which are all those 
busy or idle persons whose time and thoughts 
are wholly engrossed by the pursuits of busi- 
ness or pleasure, ambition or luxury ; who know 
nothing of this religion except what they have 
accidentally picked up by desultory conversa- 
tion or superficial reading, and have thence 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 95 

determined with themselves that a pretended 
revelation, founded on so strange and improb- 
able a story, so contradictory to reason, so ad- 
verse to the world and all its occupations, so 
incredible in its doctrines, and in its precepts 
so impracticable, can be nothing more than the 
imposition of priestcraft upon ignorant and illit- 
erate ages, and artfully continued as an engine 
well adapted to awe and govern the supersti- 
tious vulgar. To talk to such about the Chris- 
tian religion, is to converse with the deaf con- 
cerning music, or with the blind on the beauties 
of painting. They want all ideas relative to 
the subject, and therefore can never be made 
to comprehend it. To enable them to do this, 
their minds must be formed for these concep- 
tions by contemplation, retirement, and ab- 
straction from business and dissipation ; by ill 
health, disappointments, and distresses, and 
possibly by divine interposition, or by enthu- 
siasm, which is usually mistaken for it. With- 
out some of these preparatory aids, together 
with a competent degree of learning and ap- 
plication, it is impossible that they can think 
or know, understand or believe any thing about 
it. If they profess to believe, they deceive oth- 



96 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 



ers ; if they fancy that they believe, they deceive 
themselves. I am ready to acknowledge that 
these gentlemen, though endued with good un- 
derstandings, which have been entirely devot- 
ed to the business or amusements of the world, 
must be expected to pass no other judgment, 
and to revolt from the history and doctrines of 
this religion. "The preaching. Christ crucified 
was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the 
Greeks foolishness," 1 Cor. 1 : 23 ; and so it 
must appear to all who, like them, judge from 
established prejudices, false learning, and super- 
ficial knowledge ; for those who fail to follow 
the chain of its prophecy, to see the beauty and 
justness of its moral precepts, and to enter into 
the wonders of its dispensations, will probably 
form no other idea of this revelation but that 
of a confused rhapsody of fictions and absurd- 
ities. 

If it is asked, was Christianity then intended 
only for learned divines and profound philoso- 
phers ? I answer, no. It was at first preached 
by the illiterate, and received by the ignorant ; 
and to such are the practical, which are the 
most necessary parts of it, sufficiently intelli- 
gible ; but many proofs of its authority are 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, 97 



drawn from other parts, of a speculative na- 
ture, opening to our inquiries inexhaustible 
discoveries concerning the nature, attributes, 
and dispensations of God, which cannot be 
understood without some learning, and much 
attention. From these the generality of man- 
kind must necessarily be excluded ; and must 
therefore, in respect to them, trust to others for 
the grounds of their belief. And hence, per- 
haps, it is, that faith, or easiness of belief, is so 
frequently and so strongly recommended in the 
gospel ; because, if men require proofs of which 
they themselves are incapable, and those who 
have no knowledge cn this important subject 
will not place some confidence in those who 
have, the illiterate and inattentive must ever 
continue in a state of unbelief. But then all 
such should remember, that in all sciences, 
even in the mathematics themselves, there are 
many propositions which, on a cursory view, 
appear to the most acute understandings, unin- 
structed in that science, to be impossible to be 
true, which yet, on a closer examination, are 
found to be truths capable of the strictest dem- 
onstration ; and that, therefore, in disquisitions 
on which we cannot determine without much 

Int. Ev. t 



98 INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF 

learned investigation, reason, uninformed, is by 
no means to be depended on ; and from hence 
they ought surely to conclude that it may be 
at least as possible for them to be mistaken in 
disbelieving this revelation, who know nothing 
of the matter, as for those great masters of 
reason and erudition, Grotius, Bacon, Newton, 
Boyle, Locke, Addison, and Lyttelton, to be 
deceived in their belief — a belief to which they 
firmly adhered after the most diligent and 
learned researches into the authenticity of its 
records, the completion of the prophecies, the 
sublimity of its doctrines, the purity of its pre- 
cepts, and the arguments of its adversaries — a 
belief which they have testified to the world 
by their writings, without any other motive 
than their regard for truth, and the benefit of 
mankind. Should the few foregoing pages add 
but one mite to the treasures with which these 
learned writers have enriched the world; if 
they should be so fortunate as to persuade any 
of these minute philosophers to place some 
confidence in these great opinions, and to dis- 
trust their own; if they should convince them, 
that notwithstanding all unfavorable appear- 
ances, Christianity may not be altogether arti- 



THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 99 

fice and error ; if they should prevail on them 
to examine it with some attention, or if that 
is too much trouble, not to reject it without 
any examination at all, the purpose of this lit- 
tle work will be sufficiently answered. Had 
the arguments herein used, and the new hints 
here flung out, been more largely discussed, it 
might easily have been extended to a more con- 
siderable bulk ; but then the busy would not 
have had leisure, nor the idle inclination to 
have read it. Should it ever have the honor 
to be admitted into such good company, they 
will immediately, I know, determine that it 
must be the work of some enthusiast or fanatic, 
some beggar or some madman. I shall, there- 
fore, beg leave to assure them, that the author 
is very far removed from all these characters. 
That he once, perhaps, believed as little as them- 
selves, but having some leisure and more curi- 
osity, he employed them both in resolving a 
question which seemed to him of some impor- 
tance — whether Christianity was really an im- 
posture, founded on an absurd, incredible, and 
obsolete fable, as many suppose it ; or whether 
it is what it pretends to be, a revelation com- 
municated to mankind by the interposition of 



100 INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 



supernatural power. On a candid inquiry, lie 
soon found that the first was an absolute im- 
possibility, and that its pretensions to the lat- 
ter were founded on the most solid grounds. 
In the further pursuit of his examination, he 
perceived, at every step, new lights arising, and 
some of the brightest from parts of it the most 
obscure, but productive of the clearest proofs, 
because equally beyond the power of human 
artifice to invent, and human reason to dis- 
cover. These arguments, which have convinced 
him of the divine origin of this religion, he has 
here put together in as clear and concise a man- 
ner as he was able, thinking they might have 
the same effect upon others ; and being of opin- 
ion, that if there were a few more true Chris- 
tians in the world, it would be beneficial to 
themselves, and by no means detrimental to 
ihe public. 



THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 

^ilLLLjJz tlze faLLxiLiLUZQ, cuizanq. atfzef 
Lfioj^kl CLcLajilecL ta J?/icfLLU~ei~<j_ foJ- t/ie. 

fWcLLJr Of <£ife. 

BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. 
DODDRIDGE'S RISE AXD PROGRESS OF RELIGION 
IX THE SOUL. 

PIKE'S PERSUASIVES TO EARLY PIETY, GUIDE 
FOR YOUNG DISCIPLES, AXD RELIGION AXD 
ETERXAL LIFE. 

BAXTER'S SAINTS' REST, AXD CALL TO THE 
UNCONVERTED. 

ALLEIXE'S ALARM. 

JAMES' ANXIOUS INQUIRER, AXD CHRISTIAN 
PROGRESS. 

PRACTICAL PIETY, by Hannah More. 

WILBERFORCE'S PRACTICAL VIEW OF CHRIS- 
TIANITY. 

FOSTER'S APPEAL TO THE YOUXG. 
JAY'S CHRISTIAN CONTEMPLATED. 

SHERMAN'S GUIDE TO AX ACQUAINTANCE 
WITH GOD. 
THE SPRING-TIME OF LIFE, by Dr. Magie. 
WHY DO I LIVE? by Rev. Thomas Smyth, D. D. 
COME TO JESUS; CALL TO PRAYER; YOUR 
SOUL — IS IT SAFE? 



FOR SALE AT THE SOCIETY'S DEPOSITORIES, AND 
IN MANY CITIES AND TOWNS. 



flfcLLiLCible. jILcuillclL fa/*- tke. ^Packet 
and (fflaAet. 



BOGATZKY'S GOLDEN TREASURY ; CLARKE'S 
SCRIPTURE PROMISES; DAILY SCRIPTURE EX- 
POSITOR; SUMMARY OF SCRIPTURE TRUTH; 
MASON'S SELECT REMAINS. 

ADVICE TO A MARRIED COUPLE ; GIFT FOR 
MOURNERS; PORTEUS' EVIDENCES; BOOK OF 
PROVERBS; PASTOR'S COUNSEL; THE FAITHFUL 
PROMISER ; CECIL'S MORNING PORTION. 

DIARY, (daily texts interleaved;) McCHEYNE'S 
GEMS; GEMS OF SACRED POETRY; THREEFOLD 
CORD ; PROVISION FOR PASSING OVER JORDAN, 
by Dr. Scudder; DAILY FOOD FOR CHRISTIANS; 
MASON'S CRUMBS; CHAPLET OF FLOWERS; 
HEAVENLY MANNA. 

DAILY TEXTS ; MILK FOR BABES ; THE LORD'S 
SUPPER ; DEW-DROPS. 



PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY 

THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, KEW YORK • 

AT 929 CHESTNUT-STREET, PHILADELPHIA, AND 
IN OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: August 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-21 1 1 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




0 012 059 308 0 # 



