also the INTERNAL EVIDENCE of the truth of Christianity, which arises
from the excellence and beneficial tendency of its doctrines. Of its
just and sublime conceptions and exhibitions of the divine character; of
the truth of that view of the moral state of man upon which its
disciplinary treatment is founded; of the correspondence that there is
between its views of man’s mixed relation to God as a sinful creature,
and yet pitied and cared for, and that actual mixture of good and evil,
penalty and forbearance, which the condition of the world presents; of
the connection of its doctrine of atonement with hope; of the adaptation
of its doctrine of divine influence to the moral condition of mankind
when rightly understood, and the affecting benevolence and condescension
which it implies; and of its noble and sanctifying revelations of the
blessedness of a future life, much might be said:--they are subjects
indeed on which volumes have been written, and they can never be
exhausted. But we confine ourselves to the MORAL TENDENCY, and the
consequent BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE, of Christianity. No where except in the
Scriptures have we a perfect system of morals; and the deficiencies of
Pagan morality only exalt the purity, the comprehensiveness, the
practicability of ours. The character of the Being acknowledged as
supreme must always impress itself upon moral feeling and practice; the
obligation of which rests upon his will. The God of the Bible is “holy,”
without spot; “just,” without partiality; “good,” boundlessly benevolent
and beneficent; and his law is the image of himself, “holy, just, and
good.” These great moral qualities are not made known to us merely in
the abstract, so as to be comparatively feeble in their influence: but
in the person of Christ, our God, incarnate, they are seen exemplified
in action, displaying themselves amidst human relations, and the actual
circumstances of human life. With Pagans the authority of moral rules
was either the opinion of the wise, or the tradition of the ancient,
confirmed, it is true, in some degree, by observation and experience;
but to us, they are given as commands immediately issuing from the
supreme Governor, and ratified as his by the most solemn and explicit
attestations. With them many great moral principles, being indistinctly
apprehended, were matters of doubt and debate; to us, the explicit
manner in which they are given excludes both: for it cannot be
questioned, whether we are commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves;
to do to others as we would that they should do to us, a precept which
comprehends almost all relative morality in one plain principle; to
forgive our enemies; to love all mankind; to live righteously and
soberly, as well as godly; that magistrates must be a terror only to
evil doers, and a praise to them that do well; that subjects are to
render honour to whom honour, and tribute to whom tribute, is due; that
masters are to be just and merciful, and servants faithful and obedient.
These, and many other familiar precepts, are too explicit to be
mistaken, and too authoritative to be disputed; two of the most powerful
means of rendering law effectual. Those who never enjoyed the benefit of
revelation, never conceived justly and comprehensively of that moral
state of the heart from which right and beneficent conduct alone can
flow; and therefore when they speak of the same virtues as those
enjoined by Christianity, they are to be understood as attaching to them
a lower idea. In this the infinite superiority of Christianity displays
itself. The principle of obedience is not only a sense of duty to God,
and the fear of his displeasure; but a tender love, excited by his
infinite compassions to us in the gift of his Son, which shrinks from
offending. To this influential motive as a _reason_ of obedience, is
added another, drawn from its _end_: one not less influential, but which
Heathen moralists never knew,--the testimony that we please God,
manifested in the acceptance of our prayers, and in spiritual and
felicitous communion with him. By Christianity, impurity of thought and
desire is restrained in an equal degree as are their overt acts in the
lips and conduct. Humanity, meekness, gentleness, placability,
disinterestedness, and charity are all as clearly and solemnly enjoined
as the grosser vices are prohibited; and on the unruly tongue itself is
impressed “the law of kindness.” Nor are the injunctions feeble; they
are strictly LAW, and not mere advice and recommendations: “Without
holiness no man shall see the Lord;” and thus our entrance into heaven,
and our escape from perdition, are made to depend upon this preparation
of mind. To all this is added possibility, nay certainty, of attainment,
if we use the appointed means. A Pagan could draw, though not with lines
so perfect, a _beau ideal_ of virtue, which he never thought attainable;
but the “full assurance of hope” is given by the religion of Christ to
all who are seeking the moral renovation of their nature; because “it is
God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
6. When such is the moral nature of Christianity, how obvious is it that
its tendency both as to individuals and to society must be in the
highest sense beneficial! From every passion which wastes, and burns,
and frets, and enfeebles the spirit, the individual is set free, and his
inward peace renders his obedience cheerful and voluntary: and we might
appeal to infidels themselves, whether, if the moral principles of the
Gospel were wrought into the hearts, and embodied in the conduct, of all
men, the world would not be happy; whether if governments ruled, and
subjects obeyed, by the laws of Christ; whether if the rules of strict
justice which are enjoined upon us regulated all the transactions of
men, and all that mercy to the distressed which we are taught to feel
and to practise came into operation; and whether, if the precepts which
delineate and enforce the duties of husbands, wives, masters, servants,
parents, children, did, in fact, fully and generally govern all these
relations,--whether a better age than that called _golden_ by the poets,
would not then be realized, and Virgil’s
_Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna_,
[Now Astraea returns, and the Saturnian reign,]
be far too weak to express the mighty change? [It was in the reign of
Saturn that the Heathen poets fixed the golden age. At that period,
according to them, Astraea, (the goddess of justice,) and many other
deities lived on earth; but being offended with the wickedness of men,
they successively fled to heaven. Astraea staid longest, but at last
retired to her native seat, and was translated into the sign Virgo, next
to Libra, who holds her balance. Such is the tendency of Christianity.
On immense numbers of individuals it has superinduced these moral
changes; all nations, where it has been fully and faithfully exhibited,
bear, amidst their remaining vices, the impress of its hallowing and
benevolent influence: it is now in active exertion in many of the
darkest and worst parts of the earth, to convey the same blessings; and
he who would arrest its progress, were he able, would quench the only
hope which remains to our world, and prove himself an enemy, not only to
himself, but to all mankind. What then, we ask, does all this prove, but
that the Scriptures are worthy of God, and propose the very ends which
rendered a revelation necessary? Of the whole system of practical
religion which it contains we may say, as of that which is embodied in
our Lord’s sermon on the mount, in the words of one, who, in a course of
sermons on that divine composition, has entered most deeply into its
spirit, and presented a most instructive delineation of the character
which it was intended to form: “Behold Christianity in its native form,
as delivered by its great Author. See a picture of God, as far as he is
imitable by man, drawn by God’s own hand. What beauty appears in the
whole! How just a symmetry! What exact proportion in every part! How
desirable is the happiness here described! How venerable, how lovely is
the holiness!” “If,” says Bishop Taylor, “wisdom, and mercy, and
justice, and simplicity, and holiness, and purity, and meekness, and
contentedness, and charity, be images of God, and rays of divinity, then
that doctrine, in which all these shine so gloriously, and in which
nothing else is ingredient, must needs be from God. If the holy Jesus
had come into the world with less splendour of power and mighty
demonstrations, yet the excellency of what he taught makes him alone fit
to be the Master of the world;” and agreeable to all this, has been its
actual influence upon mankind. Although, says Bishop Porteus,
Christianity has not always been so well understood, or so honestly
practised, as it ought to have been; although its spirit has been often
mistaken, and its precepts misapplied, yet, under all these
disadvantages, it has gradually produced a visible change in those
points which most materially concern the peace and quiet of the world.
Its beneficent spirit has spread itself through all the different
relations and modifications of life, and communicated its kindly
influence to almost every public and private concern of mankind. It has
insensibly worked itself into the inmost frame and constitution of civil
states. It has given a tinge to the complexion of their governments, to
the temper and administration of their laws. It has restrained the
spirit of the prince, and the madness of the people. It has softened the
rigours of despotism, and tamed the insolence of conquest. It has, in
some degree, taken away the edge of the sword, and thrown even over the
horrors of war a veil of mercy. It has descended into families; has
diminished the pressure of private tyranny; improved every domestic
endearment; given tenderness to the parent, humanity to the master,
respect to superiors, to inferiors ease; so that mankind are, upon the
whole, even in a temporal view, under infinite obligations to the mild
and pacific temper of the Gospel, and have reaped from it more
substantial worldly benefits than from any other institution upon earth.
As one proof of this, among many others, consider only the shocking
carnage made in the human species by the exposure of infants, the
gladiatorial shows, which sometimes cost Rome twenty or thirty lives in
a month; and the exceedingly cruel usage of slaves allowed and practised
by the ancient Pagans. These were not the accidental and temporary
excesses of a sudden fury, but were legal and established, and constant
methods of murdering and tormenting mankind. Had Christianity done
nothing more than brought into disuse, as it confessedly has done, the
two former of these inhuman customs entirely, and the latter to a very
great degree, it has justly merited the title of the benevolent
religion. But this is far from being all. Throughout the more
enlightened parts of Christendom there prevails a gentleness of manners
widely different from the ferocity of the most civilized nations of
antiquity; and that liberality with which every species of distress is
relieved, is a virtue peculiar to the Christian name. But we may ask
farther, What success has it had on the mind of man, as it respects his
eternal welfare? How many thousands have felt its power, rejoiced in its
benign influence, and under its dictates been constrained to devote
themselves to the glory and praise of God! Burdened with guilt,
incapable of finding relief from human resources, the mind has here
found peace unspeakable in beholding that sacrifice which alone could
atone for transgression. Here the hard and impenitent heart has been
softened, the impetuous passions restrained, the ferocious temper
subdued, powerful prejudices conquered, ignorance dispelled, and the
obstacles to real happiness removed. Here the Christian, looking round
on the glories and blandishments of this world, has been enabled, with a
noble contempt, to despise all. Here death itself, the king of terrors,
has lost his sting; and the soul, with a holy magnanimity, has borne up
in the agonies of a dying hour, and sweetly sung itself away to
everlasting bliss. In respect to its future spread, we have reason to
believe that all nations shall feel its happy effects. The prophecies
are pregnant with matter as to this belief. It seems that not only a
nation, or a country, but the whole habitable globe, shall become the
kingdom of our God, and of his Christ. And who is there that has ever
known the excellency of this system; who is there that has ever
experienced its happy efficacy; who is there that has ever been
convinced of its divine origin, its delightful nature and peaceful
tendency, but must join the benevolent and royal poet in saying, “Let
the whole earth be filled with its glory? Amen and amen!”
7. Among the collateral proofs of the truth and divine origin of
Christianity, its rapid and wonderful success justly holds an important
place. Of its early triumphs, the history of the Acts of the Apostles is
a splendid record; and in process of time it made a wonderful progress
through Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the third century there were
Christians in the camp, in the senate, and in the palace; in short,
every where, as we are informed, except in the temples and the theatres:
they filled the towns, the country, and the islands. Men and women of
all ages and ranks, and even those of the first dignity, embraced the
Christian faith; insomuch that the Pagans complained that the revenues
of their temples were ruined. They were in such great numbers in the
empire, that, as Tertullian expresses it, if they had retired into
another country, they would have left the Romans only a frightful
solitude. (See the next article.) For the illustration of this argument,
we may observe, that the Christian religion was introduced every where
in opposition to the sword of the magistrate, the craft and interest of
the priests, the pride of the philosophers, the passions and prejudices
of the people, all closely combined in support of the national worship,
and to crush the Christian faith, which aimed at the subversion of
Heathenism and idolatry. Moreover, this religion was not propagated in
the dark, by persons who tacitly endeavoured to deceive the credulous;
nor delivered out by little and little, so that one doctrine might
prepare the way for the reception of another; but it was fully and
without disguise laid before men all at once, that they might judge of
the whole under one view. Consequently mankind were not deluded into the
belief of it, but received it upon proper examination and conviction.
Beside, the Gospel was first preached and first believed by multitudes
in Judea, where Jesus exercised his ministry, and where every individual
had the means of knowing whether the things that were told him were
matters of fact; and in this country, the scene of the principal
transactions on which its credibility depended, the history of Christ
could never have been received, unless it had been true, and known to
all as truth. Again: the doctrine and history of Jesus were preached and
believed in the most noted countries and cities of the world, in the
very age when he is said to have lived. On the fiftieth day after our
Lord’s crucifixion, three thousand persons were converted in Jerusalem
by a single sermon of the Apostles; and a few weeks after this, five
thousand who believed were present at another sermon preached also in
Jerusalem, Acts ii, 41; iv, 4; vi, 7; viii, 1; ix, 1, 20. About eight or
ten years after our Lord’s death, the disciples were become so numerous
at Jerusalem and in the adjacent country, that they were objects of
jealousy and alarm to Herod himself, Acts xii, 1. In the twenty-second
year after the crucifixion, the disciples in Judea are said to have been
many myriads, Acts xxi, 20. The age in which Christianity was introduced
and received, was famous for men whose faculties were improved by the
most perfect state of social life, but who were good judges of the
evidence offered in support of the facts recorded in the Gospel history.
For it should be recollected, that the success of the Gospel was not
restricted to Judea; but it was preached in all the different provinces
of the Roman empire. The first triumphs of Christianity were in the
heart of Greece itself, the nursery of learning and the polite arts; for
churches were planted at a very early period at Corinth, Ephesus, Beræa,
Thessalonica, and Philippi. Even Rome herself, the seat of wealth and
empire, was not able to resist the force of truth at a time when the
facts related were recent, and when they might, if they had been false,
have easily been disproved. From Greece and Rome, at a period of
cultivation and refinement, of general peace, and extensive intercourse,
when one great empire united different nations and distant people, the
confutation of these facts would very soon have passed from one country
to another, to the utter confusion of the persons who endeavoured to
propagate the belief of them. Nor ought it to be forgotten that the
religion to which such numbers were proselyted, was an exclusive one. It
denied, without reserve, the truth of every article of Heathen
mythology, and the existence of every object of their worship. It
accepted no compromise; it admitted of no comprehension. If it prevailed
at all, it must prevail by the overthrow of every statue, altar, and
temple in the world. It pronounced all other gods to be false, and all
other worship vain. These are considerations which must have
strengthened the opposition to it; augmented the hostility which it must
encounter; and enhanced the difficulty of gaining proselytes: and more
especially when we recollect, that among the converts to Christianity in
the earliest age, a number of persons remarkable for their station,
office, genius, education, and fortune, and who were personally
interested by their emoluments and honours in either Judaism or
Heathenism, appeared among the Christian proselytes. Its evidences
approved themselves, not only to the multitude, but to men of the most
refined sense and most distinguished abilities; and it dissolved the
attachments which all powerful interest and authority created and
upheld. Among the proselytes to Christianity we find Nicodemus, and
Joseph of Arimathea, members of the senate of Israel; Jairus, a ruler of
the synagogue; Zaccheus, the chief of the publicans at Jericho; Apollos,
distinguished for eloquence; Paul, learned in the Jewish law; Sergius
Paulus, governor of the island of Cyprus; Cornelius, a Roman captain;
Dionysius, a judge and senator of the Athenian areopagus; Erastus,
treasurer of Corinth; Tyrannus, a teacher of grammar and rhetoric at
Corinth; Publius, governor of Malta; Philemon, a person of considerable
rank at Colosse; Simon, a noted sophist in Samaria; Zenas, a lawyer; and
even the domestics of the emperor himself. These are noticed in the
sacred writings; and the Heathen historians also mention some persons of
great note who were converted at an early period. To all the preceding
circumstances we may add a consideration of peculiar moment, which is,
that the profession of Christianity led all, without exception, to
renounce the pleasures and honours of the world, and to expose
themselves to the most ignominious sufferings. And now, without adding
any more to this argument, we may ask, How could the Christian religion
have thus prevailed had it not been introduced by the power of God and
of truth? And it has been supported in the world by the same power
through a course of many ages, amidst the treachery of its friends, the
opposition of its enemies, the dangers of prosperous periods, and the
persecutions and violence of adverse circumstances; all which must have
destroyed it, if it had not been founded in truth, and guarded by the
protection of an almighty Providence.
CHRISTIANITY: _Sketch of its History_. The Christian religion was
published by its great Author in Judea, a short time before the death of
Herod the Great, and toward the conclusion of the long reign of
Augustus. While other religions had been accommodated to the peculiar
countries in which they had taken their origin, and had indeed generally
grown out of incidents connected with the history of those to whom they
were addressed, Christianity was so framed as to be adapted to the whole
human race; and although, for the wisest reasons, it was first announced
to the Jews, who had peculiar advantages for forming an accurate
judgment with regard to it, it was early declared that, in conformity to
predictions which had long been known, and long interpreted, as
referring to a new communication of the divine will, it was to be a
light to lighten the Gentiles, and was to carry salvation to the ends of
the earth. Although Christianity originated in Judea, it was not long
confined within the narrow limits of the Holy Land. The open manner in
which it was announced, the length of time during which its Author
publicly addressed his countrymen, the innumerable miracles which he
performed, and, above all, the report of the resurrection under
circumstances which must have been communicated to the imperial
government at Rome, excited the deep attention of the numerous Jews and
proselytes who, from surrounding nations, regularly went up to
Jerusalem, and of whom vast numbers were actually in that city when the
resurrection must have been the subject of universal discussion. They
very naturally carried to the different countries in which they usually
resided, the astonishing intelligence with which they had been
furnished; and provision was soon made for fulfilling the prediction
which Jesus had uttered, that his Gospel would, before the destruction
of Jerusalem, be circulated and embraced by many through the wide extent
of the Roman empire. The Apostle Peter, in consequence of what he knew
to be a solemn injunction from Heaven, communicated to a Gentile the
truths of Christianity. St. Paul, who had distinguished himself by his
enmity to the Christians, and by the cruelty with which he had
persecuted them, having been converted, devoted himself to lay the
foundations of the Gospel through a large portion of the most
enlightened part of the world; and the miraculous gift of tongues, by
which humble and illiterate men found themselves at once able to speak
the languages of different nations, left no doubt that they were bound
to preach their faith as extensively as had been marked out to them by
the last instructions which they had received from their Master. They
had to struggle with the most formidable difficulties in prosecuting
this undertaking; for which, had they trusted merely to their own
strength, and their own natural endowments, they were wholly
unqualified.