had made a memorable confession of his Master’s being _the Christ, the
son of the living God_, i. e. the redeemer, the prince of Israel, the
Messiah foretold, our blessed Lord, to give weight and emphasis to this
confession, confers a new name upon him. For he _answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona; for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven_: That is, no
man hath revealed this great truth to thee, nor has any interest of man,
any thing, indeed, but the spirit of God, influencing thy impartial and
well-disposed mind, prompted thee to entertain and avow it thus heartily
and publicly (the proofs of it not being, at present, so strong, as they
hereafter shall be): Therefore, to express my approbation of this great
testimony to a truth, which is the fundamental article of my religion,
and, at the same time, to signify to thee the honour, with which I mean
to reward thee for it, _I further say unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon
this rock will I build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it_.
The name, _Peter_, signifying a _rock_ in the Greek language, implies,
we see, the immoveable truth of the confession, here made, on which the
Christian religion was to be built; and the immoveable firmness, too,
of the Confessor, who should have a share, with the other Apostles, in
supporting the whole fabric, and be himself, in point of time, the first
stone, on which the glorious superstructure was to be made.
It follows—_and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it_—that is,
_Death_, or _Destruction_ (for that, only, the oriental phrase—_the gates
of hell_—here signifies[289]) shall never prevail against this church,
being founded on thee, and the testimony, made by thee, as on a rock of
ages, which shall never give way, or be removed.
We see, then, the full meaning of this famous text, which contains, in
effect, TWO prophecies: ONE, respecting the foundation of the Christian
church, and (so far as the Apostle Peter was personally concerned in
the prediction) then verified, when Peter laid the first stone of this
august building in the converts made by him both among the Jews[290] and
Gentiles[291]: the OTHER prophecy, respecting the perpetuity of this
church; which the divine Providence would, in no future age of the world,
permit to be destroyed.
So that, not the supremacy of Peter over the rest of the Apostles (as the
church of Rome vainly pretends), but the priority of his claim, in point
of time, to signal services in the conversion of mankind, is expressed
in this memorable promise made to Peter—_on this rock will I build my
church_: and, for the second assurance, here given, and which, to so
zealous a master-builder, as our Apostle, must have been singularly
welcome—_that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it_—we may,
now, by the experience of more than seventeen hundred years, understand,
how far it has been, and how likely it is, in the full extent of the
words, to be fulfilled.
But, to see little more distinctly what this experience is, and what
presumption arises out of it for the truth of our holy religion, let us
call to mind, if you please, the more remarkable of those attacks, which
have been made, at different times, on the church of Christ, and yet how
constantly and successfully they have been repelled.
I. No sooner had the foundations of the church been laid on the _rock_
of this testimony—that _Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God_—than the
storms of persecution arose, and beat violently upon it. Nor was it,
indeed, strange, that this new doctrine, published every where, with
great boldness, by men who had been eye-witnesses of what they affirmed,
and calculated to overturn all the favourite maxims and usages of the
world, should meet with the fiercest opposition. And how easy did it seem
for that world to crush the infant society, now struggling for life in
the hands of twelve poor, illiterate, and friendless men, if the decree
of Heaven had not gone forth—_that the gates of hell should not prevail
against it_!
I know, indeed, that this violence of persecution was, in the end, of
advantage to the Christian cause; and, from the nature of the human mind,
when once persuaded of any thing, true or false, might be expected to be
so. For cruelty, in such cases, only excites an unconquerable firmness
and perseverance. But what was persuasion in succeeding converts to the
gospel of Christ, was knowledge, or rather the infallible evidence of
sense, in the first publishers of it. The Apostles witnessed a matter of
fact, when they made known the resurrection of Christ, on which their
whole doctrine rested. And it is not in nature for any single man, much
less for twelve men, to suffer, and to die, for a false fact, not taken
upon trust from others, but asserted on their own proper and personal
experience. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, they neither saw, nor
felt, nor conversed with him after his resurrection, that is, they had
no persuasion for force to harden into obstinacy, but a consciousness of
falshood in their attestation, which could not have held out against the
rage of their persecutors[292].
If it be said, that criminals are often supposed, and not without reason,
to die with a falshood in their mouths, I answer, it is very possible:
but, besides that the Apostles gave no signs, in the rest of their
conduct, of a want of principle, by declaring the truth, in this case,
they might have saved their lives, whereas a criminal, for the most part,
is but the more likely to lose his, by a true confession.
Or, if, lastly (for suspicion, I am aware, is not easily satisfied,
if) the perseverance of the martyred apostles be accounted for from a
false point of honour, I admit, that this strange principle sometimes
overpowers conviction; but rarely, in any number of men confederated in
the same cause, and, least of all, in a number of men of so plain and
artless characters, as the Apostles.
On the whole, we have reason to conclude, that, if Christianity had not
been true, it must have perished with its first preachers: at least,
it cannot be denied, that in outliving the violence, with which it was
assaulted, both by Jew and Gentile, on its appearance in the world, this
religion has thus far verified the remarkable prediction of its author.
II. The external peace of the church was scarce settled under
Constantine, when internal commotions shook its frame, and with a
violence, which was likely to bring on, and that in no long time, its
entire dissolution. By these commotions, I mean the heresies, that
sprung up in abundance, and distracted the Christian world for several
centuries. The zeal, or rather fury, with which these disputes were
carried on, was unappeasable; and, if it be true, that _a house divided
against itself cannot stand_, there was reason to expect that the
houshold of Christ would exemplify this maxim: While, at the same time,
the Christian name was so dishonoured by these contentions, and the
lives, as well as the faith, of Christians, so polluted by them, that
believers themselves were almost tempted to renounce a profession, which
laboured under so much infamy; and the rest of the world could scarce
fail to contract an incurable aversion to it.
This, indeed, was so much the case, and the advantage, given to the
enemies of our faith, by these scandalous abuses of it, so great, that
one is not surprised to find
III. A _third_, and still more alarming danger of the Christian church,
in the sudden rise and propagation of the Mahometan religion.
For it was the corruption of Christianity, that gave occasion, or
success, at least, to this daring imposture. And now it might seem, that
_the gates of hell_ were set wide open, and destruction ready to rush
upon, and seize, its defenceless prey, the Christian church, disheartened
and disabled by its own vices. The uncontroulable spirit of this ruthless
sect was, indeed, alarming to the last degree; when a secret providence,
first, softened its ferocity, and, then, put a stop to its successes.
I ascribe these effects to the _good providence of God_, watching
over the preservation of our holy faith; for what else could make the
disciples of Mahomet tolerant in spite of their ignorance and bigotry;
and pacific, when their law breathed nothing but war and universal
dominion?
Still the church had other trials to undergo; and _hell_ had yet in
reserve some further engines of its wrath to employ against her. For
IV. While the African and Asiatic Christians were in danger of a total
suppression by the rage of their Ottoman masters, the European had almost
as much to apprehend from exhaustless swarms of Northern barbarians.
And, what darkened the prospect still more, all knowledge and learning
had disappeared, during these turbulent ages. Hence, to the destructive
fanaticism of the East, was added the grossest _superstition_ of the
West; which, growing up in a long night of ignorance, and yet directed by
policy towards the establishment of a vast and gloomy empire, involved
all Christendom in its pestilential shade, and threatened the very
extinction of all true religion.
Yet it pleased God, in this distressful state of his church, to provide
for its continuance, and even integrity, in due time, by making the
cloystered ignorance of the Monks serve to the preservation of the sacred
canon; and the enslaving projects of a tyrannical hierarchy, to the
restoration of religious and civil liberty.
And thus, though the powers of _hell_ had been successively let loose
against the church of Christ in the terrible shapes, first, of Jewish
and Gentile persecution; then, of heresy, in the church itself; next,
of Mahometan enthusiasm; and, lastly, of Antichristian superstition;
yet have they not prevailed against this sacred structure, founded on a
_rock_, guarded, as we believe, by heaven itself, and therefore destined
to be eternal.
I have touched these several particulars slightly and rapidly, just to
put you in mind of what the Christian religion has endured, since its
appearance in the world; and to let you see how unlikely it is that this
religion should have kept its ground against these various and multiplied
attacks, if it had not been divinely protected.
But of all the trials, to which it has been exposed, the greatest by far,
if this religion had been an imposture, is ONE, which I have not yet
mentioned; and that is, _the examination of severe, enlightened Reason_.
And this trial, to complete its honour, our divine faith hath TWICE
undergone: _once_, in the very season of its birth; and now, _again_,
for two or three centuries, since the revival of letters, in our Western
world: periods, both of them, distinguished, in the annals of mankind,
by a more than common degree of light and knowledge; which must, in the
nature of things, have been fatal to any scheme of religion, pretending
only to a divine original, and not really so descended.
But this part of the argument is too large, as well as too important, for
me to enter upon at present. Let me therefore conclude with a short and
interesting reflexion on so much of it, as we have been considering.
It was natural, no doubt, for the author of a new religion, full of his
scheme, and impressed with the importance of it, to promise to himself
the perpetuity of his work. But a wise man might easily conjecture that
a religion, like the Christian, would meet with the fiercest opposition:
and, though this be not a proper time to shew it, it might be shewn, that
_the spirit of Christ_[293] distinctly foresaw the several species of
opposition, which his religion had to encounter[294].
Yet, in the face of all these perils, our Lord predicts, in the most
direct and positive terms, that his church should brave them all, and
subsist for ever. It has subsisted to this day, after encountering such
storms of persecution and distress, as must, in all likelihood, have
overturned any human fabrick. Is not the true solution of the fact, this,
that it was founded on _the word of God, which endureth for ever_[295]?
The rest, then, follows of course. The wise master-builder (to use his
own words on another occasion, near akin to this) _had built his house
upon a_ ROCK: _and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew and beat upon that house: and it_ FELL NOT, _for it was founded upon
a_ ROCK[296].
SERMON LIII.
PREACHED FEBRUARY 5, 1775.
St. MATTH. xvi. 18.
_And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it._
The religion of Jesus hath descended to us, through TWO, the most
enlightened ages of the world. It was, first, published in the reign of
Tiberius: It was re-published, as we may say, at the Reformation: and is
it likely, that an imposture should have made its way in the _former_
of these periods? Or, is it possible, it should still keep its ground
against the influence of all that light and knowledge, by which the
_latter_ has been distinguished?
To see what force there is in these questions, permit me to lay before
you a slight sketch of the trials, to which Christianity has been exposed
from the improved reason of ancient and modern times, and of the effect,
which those trials appear to have had on the credit and reception of that
Religion.
I. Jesus preached the Gospel in the reign of Tiberius: that is, in a time
of profound peace, when arts and letters were generally diffused through
the Roman empire; and in Judea, at that time a Roman province. So far was
this thing from being _done in a corner_[297]!
This religion, on its first appearance in the world, had therefore to
encounter two sorts of men, well qualified, and not less disposed, to
give it a severe examination; I mean, the learned JEWS, on the one hand,
and the reasoning GENTILES, on the other. Yet it prevailed against all
the efforts of both.
It was, first, proposed to the JEWS, and its pretensions were to be tried
by the correspondence of its principles and history to the doctrine and
predictions of their sacred books. That vastly the greater part of the
Jewish nation resisted the evidence of that appeal, is well known: but
that great numbers did not, and, of these, that some, at least, were
of principal note for their rank, and knowledge in the scriptures, is
equally certain and allowed; with this further concession, that the
evidence, whatever it was, prevailed over the most inveterate prejudices,
that ever possessed any people, and the most alarming difficulties and
discouragements, to which human nature can be exposed. Let the fact,
then, be considered, with all its circumstances, on both sides. And as to
the merit of the argument, we are well able to judge of it. The sacred
writings of the Jews, to which the appeal lay, are in all hands: and with
what triumphant superiority the followers of Jesus reasoned from them, we
see, in their numerous works, still extant, and especially in those of
the great Apostle, St. Paul. So that, if all the scriptural learning, and
all the bigotry of Judaism, could not stop the progress of Christianity,
as we know it did not, it may fairly be presumed, that the way of inquiry
was not unfavourable to the new religion, and that truth and reason were
on that side. But
2. From the Jews, let us turn to the GENTILES, at that time flourishing
in arts and letters. To them was the Gospel preached by the Apostles,
and especially by their Apostle, St. Paul, through the whole extent
of the Roman empire; and not without success in the head quarters of
Gentilism, in the chief towns of Asia, in Greece, at Athens, and even at
Rome itself.
The pride of Gentile wisdom, indeed, kept its professors, for some time,
from taking more than a superficial notice of the new religion. But
its rapid progress among the people, joined to its declared purpose of
prescribing to the general faith of mankind, broke through this real or
affected indifference, rouzed, at length, the attention of the great
and wise, and provoked the zeal of both to shew itself in every mode of
opposition. The great persecuted, and the wise reasoned: and this latter
species of hostility (the more alarming of the two, if Christianity had
been an imposture) was carried on with vigour, and without intermission
(whatever intervals there might be of the _former_) through several
successive ages. The four Gospels, and the other authentic documents of
our religion, were now in all hands, when this lettered war commenced
against Christianity, and continued, till Paganism was utterly overthrown
and subdued. Many adversaries of the Christian name engaged in this
unequal contest: but the most distinguished are, CELSUS, in the second
century; PORPHYRY, in the third; and JULIAN, in the fourth: all of them,
eminent philosophers; and the last of this great triumvirate, an imperial
one. The two first wrote with all freedom, because against a persecuted,
and on the side of the predominant, religion; and the third had the whole
power of the state in his own hands.
The works of these great chieftains of infidelity, it must be owned, are
not extant in their proper form. But Celsus is almost entire in Origen; a
great part of Julian may be seen in Cyril; and considerable fragments of
Porphyry’s work have been preserved in Jerom and other old writers.
Ye do not expect me to produce, on this occasion, the substance of what
these three philosophers have said against the Christian cause. Any that
will, may see it in the original authors, just mentioned, or in many
modern collections, that have been made out of them. It may be enough to
say, that those, who give themselves this trouble, will find much abuse
and misrepresentation, and some argument: but the last so weak, and
inconclusive, that one cannot wonder much at what Chrysostom tells us,
“That the early books, written against Christianity, soon fell into a
general contempt; that they perished almost as fast as they appeared; and
that, if they still subsisted any where, it was, because they had been
preserved by the Christians themselves[298].”
But, setting aside, for the present, the merits of the question,
the fact[299], we know, is, that all the efforts of Greek and Roman
philosophy were not successful: that the church was soon filled with
its professors, even before the empire became Christian: and that this
great event itself happened within little more than three centuries from
the birth of Christ. _So mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed_,
notwithstanding the severity, with which its pretensions were tried.
It will be said, however, “that the argument, drawn from the success of
Christianity, is not altogether so convincing, as we pretend: that, for
a time, the learned heathens paid but little attention to the new sect;
that, when it had taken such root among the people as to become the
general subject of inquiry, learning was now very much on the decline;
that barbarism had prevailed to a great degree before the days of
Constantine, and then increased so fast, especially after the irruption
of the Northern nations, as to leave no traces, almost, of light and
knowledge; and that to this sottish state of ignorance, and, its usual
attendant, credulity, which continued through many ages, the widely
extended and permanent establishments of Christianity are, therefore,
most probably to be ascribed.”
Now, though I cannot assent to what is here alledged, or insinuated, that
the adversaries of Christianity wanted either time, or light, or zeal
enough to discredit its pretensions, if the way of reason and disputation
could have done it, before that long night of ignorance came on which
is supposed to be so favourable to religious imposture; yet I will not
deny that taste and literature were degenerating in the Roman empire,
from the time that learned pagans began to interest themselves in the
controversy with the Christians; and that, therefore, had the last only
prevailed through this period of declining letters, something would have
been wanting to the force and integrity of that argument, which infers
the truth of their cause, from its success. But the fact is, that the
event has been the same, in opposite circumstances; as I shall now shew,
II. Under the SECOND head of this discourse; in which I proposed to point
out to you, very briefly, the influence of REVIVING, AND REVIVED letters
on the credit and reception of the Christian faith.
From the middle of the 14th century, and even earlier, there were some
efforts made to break through that gloom of ignorance and superstition,
which had so long overspread the Christian world; and, before the end
of it, it was visible enough that these efforts would, in no long time,
be attended with success. Accordingly, a zeal for true and ancient
literature made its way through most parts of Europe, and with so rapid
a progress, that multitudes of able men arose within the compass of the
next century, and were enough instructed to assist in the reformation
of religion, which followed in the commencement of the 16th. From that
time to the present, arts and letters have been studied with unceasing
application; and all the powers of reason put forth in the cultivation
of knowledge, in the discovery of error, and the search of truth. It is
pretended, that we are now enlightened beyond the example of all former
ages: it is credible, that, in some places, where liberty has attended
the pursuits of learning, the utmost ability of the human mind, on the
most important objects of science, has been exerted and displayed.
Now, amidst this blaze of light, gradually ascending from the dawn
of science to its meridian lustre, what has been the fortune of the
divine religion, we profess? It has been the first, and last object of
attention. It has been examined with the most suspicious and sceptical
curiosity. It has stood the attacks of wit, of learning, of philosophy;
and, sometimes, of all these acting in concert, without any restraint or
reserve whatsoever. Yet it keeps its ground; or rather the belief of it
is entertained, not only by the multitude, but, more firmly than ever, by
the ablest and wisest men.
For the truth of this assertion, I can only refer you to your own fair
and candid observation; the proof of it being much too long to be given,
at this time. For it would require me to set before you the several
topics of argument, which have been employed against Christianity, and
the futility of them. It would, further, oblige me to make appear, that
the number of those, who still embrace Christianity, is not only vastly
greater, but their names, too, beyond comparison, more respectable, than
of those who reject it: all which it would be tedious, indeed, but not
difficult to shew.
However, till some such proof be produced, ye will be apt, I know, to
remind me of many eminent persons, who have been the declared enemies of
our religion: ye will object to me the complaints, which even divines
make, of an overflowing infidelity in the present times.
In abatement of this prejudice, I could say with much truth, that the
character of those eminent persons has been raised too high; and that
these complaints, though not without foundation, have been carried too
far. But I have other, and more momentous considerations to suggest to
you, on this subject.
At the revival of letters, when the manifold corruptions of Christianity
had been discovered, it was too natural for the disabused mind to
entertain some suspicions of the revelation itself; and when reason, now
emancipated from authority, had tried its strength, and found itself able
to detect innumerable errors in religion and science, it too hastily
concluded that there was no subject too vast for its comprehension,
and that its power and right to decide on all questions whatsoever was
evident and beyond dispute. From that suspicious, and this delirious
state of the human mind, infidelity sprung up, and on either stock it
still grows. “We have been deceived in many things, with regard to this
religion; therefore in every thing.” “We know much; therefore we are
capable of knowing all things.”—These, as extravagant as they appear, are
the two sophisms, into which all modern free-thinking is to be resolved.