Remarks on the four Gospels

Preface

I have endeavoured in this examination of the Christian Scriptures to realise in a degree the state of mind, with which they would be read by one who should open them for the first time. It is perhaps impossible completely to project the mind beyond the atmosphere, which it has breathed from the cradle ; or it can only be done at the imminent hazard of transcending the true point of view. To weigh with equal independence and candour the claims of the religion of one's age and country requires an almost incredible effort, especially from those whose office it is to uphold, in one form or another, the established faith. I can only say that I am not ignorant of the biases to which an inquirer, born and brought up in a Christian community, is exposed. I have tried to guard against them ; to look into the Christian Records, as if they had just been placed before me, at least with no disposition in their favour but that produced by the undisputed excellence of their morality; and to ascertain the precise truth as nearly as possible, unswayed by that veneration for authority which leads us to take too much for granted on the one hand, or by that love of novelty, so fruitful of doubt and denial on the other.

There are numbers who give no credit to the accounts of the Life of Jesus Christ. They barely admit his existence. There are many more whose faith rests only on tradition. I do not doubt, therefore, that works, like the present,

Vlll PREFACE.

whose aim it is to disclose grounds for personal conviction, are needed and may be useful. Still a direct knowledge of the wants of others has not been the primary cause of this publication. The views contained in this volume have interested my own mind deeply. For this reason I have wished to publish them. I believe and therefore do I speak. Were I utterly unacquainted with the wants of others, I should deem it a safe presumption that the experience of one individual, no matter how humble, in regard to a subject of universal interest, is the experience, if not of all, yet of many. Every man is the best representative to himself of other men. And he may justly be charged with arrogance, who fancies himself so peculiarly constituted, so different from all others, that what has satisfied his mind will not have a like influence in numerous other cases.

It is extremely difficult to suggest any new mode of regarding admitted truths, without incurring the suspicion of unfriendliness to the truths themselves ; so generally is opinion identified with truth. I may be charged with a design to explain away the Christian Miracles, when, in reality, I am at a loss to express my sense of the value of the extraordinary facts of the life of Jesus. In every point of view, moral, religious, and philosophical — whether as lessons to every man's soul, or as attestations to the Divine authority of him, by whom they were wrought, they possess a value of which w T e do not yet dream. They have been compared to the foundations of a grand edifice, into which the multitude enter and dwell, rejoicing in its beauty, but " caring not about its foundation any further than to know that it has one." This is a just comparison so far as it expresses the fundamental character of the miracles. But it betrays the defect of the

PREFACE. IX

common representation of these remarkable facts. Whyshould the occupants of the building care to know anymore of that part of it which is hidden, buried in the earth, than its bare existence 1 At the point of view, at which I have considered the miracles, and which, it seems to me, every just principle of thought indicates, while they are no less essential than the above illustration represents, they become the key-stones of the great arches and domes of the edifice, arresting every eye, visibly imparting strength and perfection to the whole, blazing with celestial characters, and hewn as out of that sapphire which, in the vision of the prophet, was the throne of God.

I am aware that the exposition I have attempted of the true mode of regarding the Christian miracles (Chapters VIIL, IX.) is very imperfect. Still it is best it should be published. If erroneous, its fallacy may be shown. If true, it will attract the attention and engage the services of abler minds. In the meanwhile I avow myself a sincere believer in the reality of these wonderful facts. I believe that the blind received sight, the lame walked, the dead rose, and the winds and waves were hushed at the word of Jesus of Nazareth. I do not deny that these events attest his divine authority. But I know not how they can have any force as evidences of the divinity of his mission, until they are felt to have been wrought for a diviner end than merely to convince the understanding, even for a certain intrinsic worth which must be discerned, whether it be definable or not. God's means are always ends, and hence their efficiency as means. A good act, performed for example's sake, is not a good act, and consequently cannot have the influence of goodness. It must be done for its own sake, and then it will be powerful as an example. So I conceive it to be with the miracles of Jesus. They were wrought principally for their own sakes. They are demonstrations of the power of a single and pure purpose ; and therefore are they powerful to convince. Thus do they testify that he was moved by the inspiration of God.

" Since I was of understanding" — to use the words of Sir Thomas Browne, — " to know we knew nothing," I have felt that there could hardly be a greater objection to a theory or mode of thought, than the pretension to explain everything. I am impressed with nothing more deeply, than with the vanity of supposing that the mind of man can so penetrate and compass any work of God as to be able to relieve it of all difficulty. I do not believe there are any questions, connected with the great subject of these pages, which are unanswerable; but there are many, I freely confess, that I cannot answer. There are many passages in the Gospels which I have not attempted to explain. I have not sought to remove difficulties, but to unveil the beaming features of Truth ; to point out some of those characteristics of these narratives which produce an impression of reality that no difficulties are strong enough to obliterate.

I have not wished to allude to the opinions of others, however erroneous, except as it became necessary to the unfolding of what seems to me to be intrinsically true. I fear, however, I may have occasionally expressed myself, when there was no absolute need of it, in a manner that may wound the feelings of the serious and honest of other denominations. I regret every such expression and wish that it were erased.

CONTEXTS

Chat. I. Introduction , . . . . 13

II. The Historical Character of the Four Gospels 24

III. The Marks of Honesty apparent in the Gospels 34

IV. The same Subject continued . . .51 V. The same Subject continued 69

VI. The Consistency of the Characters alluded to in the Gospels .....

VII. The same Subject continued. — The Character of

VIII. Miracles . . . . . .145

IX. The Miracles of Christ, illustrations of his

Character . . . . .187

X. Jesus as a prophet . . . . 210

XI. The Magnanimity of Jesus .... 235

XII. The Death and Resurrection of Jesus . 268

XIII. Conclusion . . . . .314

ERRATA.

Page 136, 3d line from the bottom, for cogitat read cogitavit. Page 203, 15th line from the top, for himself read itself.

Introduction

41 The first condition of success is, that in striving honestly ourselves, we honestly acknowledge the striving of our neighbour ; that with a Will unwearied in seeking Truth, we have a Sense open for it, wheresoever and howsoever it may arise." — Edinburgh Review.

It is an imperfect statement of a fundamental principle to say that truth carries with it its own evidence. Evidence relates to the understanding. Whereas, under certain plain and natural conditions, moral and religious truths possess the power not only of convincing the understanding, but of impressing deeply the noblest affections of the human bosom.

When the mind is swayed by any inveterate bias, by a pride of opinion or of party, by an excessive veneration for what is already established, or a passion for novelty, by a conceit of intellect or the indulgence of vicious habits, then the most important principles of religion and morality may fail entirely not only of awakening any sensibility in the heart, but of gaining the faintest assent of the understanding. It is not for minds in this unhappy state that these pages are designed. If they are likely to

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

fall only into the hands of those in whom exists no candid and generous love of truth, to which I may speak, I may well lay down my pen in despair. I cannot forget that the greatest of teachers, speaking as never man spake, and performing works of unprecedented power, entertained no hope of acting directly upon those whose affections were in captivity to earthborn prejudices and selfish passions. But to the true-hearted— to whatever of truth and candour dwelt in the hearts of those around him, he appealed with the greatest confidence. " He who doeth the will of my Father, shall know of my teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." " Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." Wherever any conformity to the Divine Will had been attained, there he looked for a commanding influence.

If our various faculties and affections have been cultivated according to their opportunities and the intent of their nature — if the will of the Creator, signified in their very constitution and by his providence, has been complied with, in the degree to which this is the case, they are in a sound and healthy state; and there is a strong affinity between them and all truth. This is the condition, with reference to which I observe, that it is not doing justice to truth to say, that if truly presented it wi\] prove itself. It will do infinitely more. It will send forth a light which will not only paralyse, if it do not destroy, all speculative difficulties, but enter and fill all the chambers of the soul. If it be truth relating to the Divine Nature, it will kindle our sentiments of awe, veneration and love. If it con-

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 15

cern human things, human endeavours, sufferings and obligations, it will call out our active human sympathies. Its influence will not stop, content with gaining the assent of the reason ; it goes farther, — it reaches and sets in motion all the primary and most powerful springs of our being.

Such I conceive to be the power of truth, when presented in a true form. The modes of presenting truth are various. There are the essay, the argument, the poem, the history or narration, and so on. And there is a truth that pertains to these various forms, as well as to the subjects they are employed to exhibit. That is, there is a true way of expressing truth, a way distinguished by certain marks or signs which belong only to truth, and which, when perceived, carry with them all that power, the power of deciding the understanding, but more especially of touching the heart, which, as I have just said, is the essential and active property of truth. Every story, in its peculiar characteristics, affords us materials for determining its truth, and in great abundance when it is eminently historical, containing a variety of details ; when numerous circumstances, places, and persons, are specified or alluded to. A true story of this description has a certain air — its different parts have a keeping or consistency one with another, which every intelligent and ingenuous mind feels deeply, even when it is wholly unable to analyse and define it.

I do not undertake to give a complete account of the traits by which the truth of any statement or history may be ascertained. It would be no easy task, not be-

16 OBJECT OF THE WORK.

cause they are either slight, incidental, or ambiguous, but because they pertain to the very essence of truth, and to the profoundest philosophy of thought and expression. Very often the indications of truth are so delicate, that, although they may be instantly and fully felt, they cannot readily be described, nor, without the finest powers of discrimination, referred to general principles. And, besides, it is not necessary to my purpose. It will suffice for the present, if I am able to point out as many of these internal signatures of truth in the case of the historical books of the New Testament, as will cause their substantial truth to be felt in something of its intrinsic vividness. This, now, is my object in the following pages. Taking up the first four books of the New Testament as human compositions, forgetting as far as possible all that has been said of their authority and inspiration, cherishing only that respect for them which the most imperfect acquaintance with their contents never fails to inspire, and that candour which it becomes us always to cherish, I propose to point out those characteristics of these writings which have produced in my mind a new and lively conviction of their truth, — a new sense of their wonderful beauty and power. I do not presume to furnish anything like a complete analysis of their style and contents. I am deeply impressed with the idea that all which I can offer is gathered but from the borders of an immense field in which untold treasures of moral truth and evidence lie buried. I wish only to state what I have seen with my own eyes, and felt with my own

CONCESSIONS. 17

heart; — to give some of the results, such as they are, of my own humble reading and study. My fondest hope, so far as others are concerned, will be fulfilled, if these pages serve to create in minds better qualified to pursue the work, a belief in the exceeding riches of a region, as yet so imperfectly explored.

There are many and powerful arguments for the truth of the great facts recorded in the New Testament, extrinsic of the records themselves. They have been ably stated in numberless forms. I do not question their weight. But to be duly appreciated they require a degree of intellectual cultivation and an amount of learning entirely out of the reach of the great body of readers. The considerations which I would now suggest, besides being, as I apprehend, of a most affecting nature, are within the reach of all ; requiring principally, in order to their just appreciation, an honest and ingenuous temper, a healthy moral taste, and only so much time as the avocations of the busiest allow.

The train of thought upon which I now propose to enter, admits of certain concessions which I wish to make distinctly in the outset.

1 . I am willing to concede, that upon a first and cursory examination of these four histories, things of a strange and improbable nature present themselves. Extraordinary facts are stated, which we feel demand extraordinary proof; and the suspicion is not unnatural, that delusion may have had some share in the production of these writings. Admitting that these impressions may be made by some 2*

18 CONCESSIONS.

parts of the New Testament history, I nevertheless hope to point out features of truth, numerous and significant enough to create a lively sense of reality; and to induce an impartial mind to draw no conclusions from any portions of these books, however obscure and difficult, which do not go to establish powerfully their substantial credit. 2. In the exposition of that beautiful argument for the truth of the Scripture History of St. Paul, stated with so much felicity by Dr. Paley in his Horae Paulinae, he has this language : " The reader is at liberty to suppose these writings (the Epistles of Paul and the Book of Acts,) to have been lately discovered in the library of the Escurial, and to come to our hands, destitute of any extrinsic or collateral evidence whatever; and the argument I am about to offer is calculated to show that a comparison of the different writings would, even under these circumstances, afford good reason to believe the persons and transactions to have been real, the letters authentic, and the narration in the main to be true." I am ready to make a similar concession — to suppose that the four Gospels, as they are called, have just been discovered under some ancient ruins — that the names even by which they are designated, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have been obliterated — that they are anonymous. Even if the reader incline to the idea that the four gospels are only different versions of one story — one original gospel, it will not materially affect the present argument. Still I trust it will appear that these books are the productions of truth and honesty — that the accounts they contain were drawn

ANTIQUITY OF THE GOSPELS ASSUMED. 19

from persons present on the spot — in fine, that they are not legends, fictions, romances, but true histories of real persons and real events.

There is one thing, however, respecting these writings. which, it is obvious, I intend to assume, their antiquity ; not, however, because even this point may not be very satisfactorily made out from their internal structure. If they were now suddenly placed before us for the first time, from what quarter we knew not, there would be incontestable evidence that they were not the productions of any recent period. There is no work so general and abstract that it is not in innumerable particulars indelibly impressed by the age in which it appears. A biographical or historical work, abounding in notices of places, persons, manners, customs, and sentiments, in certain modes of thought and expression, furnishes on its very face, the means of fixing its date with some approach to correctness. This is the case with the writings which we are now to consider. They are antique in their whole costume. They could not have been written in this age, nor at any time very far removed from that at which they are generally believed to have been composed, because they bear none of the impressions of any such time. I do not insist that their date can be fixed with precision merely from internal marks, but that they show beyond all doubt that they were written very near the time to which they are usually referred. It is not the direct notices of time, found here and there in these writings, which constitute indubitable signs of antiquity, because such notices might

20 THE ANTIQUITY OF THE GOSPELS.

easily have been forged and interwoven with these narrations, even had they been produced at a much later period. It is their numerous and familiar references to the customs and opinions of a certain age, their peculiar forms of expression and thought, connected with the absence of all allusions to modes of thinking and speaking prevalent in all subsequent ages, that help us so effectually to determine the period to which they should be assigned. But it is unnecessary to undertake an enumeration of the evidences of antiquity abounding on every page of the New Testament, because there are hardly any so ignorant or so captious as to question the age of these writings. And if there are, there is one consideration at hand which seems to me must be decisive. You need not go back to the past to inquire about the existence of these books ; consider a fact that presents itself before your eyes — the wide, and I may say superstitious veneration with which these books are now regarded. They lie at the bottom of the faith of many nations, and a complicated structure of forms and institutions rests upon their professed authority. How does their influence pervade the whole fabric of society — our public establishments, our systems of education, our modes of thought and language ! The feelings of awe and sacredness which have gathered round these books cannot have been the growth of any brief period. The religious prejudices and associations of the human mind are not the offspring of a day, but the slow formation of centuries. The extensive circulation of the New Testament — the present fact that

THE ANTIQUITY OF THE GOSPELS. 21

it is every where a familiar, household book, proves, I say, not its truth, but its age. The gospels must be hundreds of years old at all events.

But decisive as is the inference in favour of their antiquity from the position which they now occupy, it is not all. Their existence can be traced back some fourteen hundred years, to go no further, by a chain of historical evidence as strong and uninterrupted as the most sceptical can demand. And the earliest notices we have of them are not as of books then first published, just appearing, but of works even then extensively received and copiously quoted. A great portion of the literature that existed ages ago, bears incidental evidence not only to the existence, but to the influence of these writings. So abundant are the quotations from them in the works of early Christian writers, that it has been said that if they had been lost in their present forms, they might have been restored from the writings of the Fathers. At the commencement of the fourth century, Christianity was the religion of the Roman Emperor. The gospels must have had an existence antecedent to this event, the conversion of Constantine. Now, if we know that so long ago these books were extensively read, quoted, and venerated, the conclusion is inevitable that they were in existence years and years before. To have won their way into so wide a circulation — to have become possessed of so large a space and so weighty an authority, when no art of printing was known, and the means of intercourse and communication were so imperfect, must have been a

22 METHOD OF THE WORK.

work of time. So that the Christian records must have been old, even when we find the first notices of them in early writings.

Assuming the antiquity of these writings, without further remark, I proceed to the proposed examination of their style and contents, upon the principle, that from every written composition, we may infer, more or less confidently, the character and credibility of its author. Every narrative, by the manner in which it is put together, enables us to form some conception of the intelligence, the amount of information, the spirit and the particular motives and prepossessions of the individual from whom it has proceeded. So that every history is unconsciously and unavoidably a history of its author. It is a virtual account of his mind and character, a representation of his moral and intellectual lineaments, of his qualifications for the work he has produced, of his claims to be believed, — in fine, of the source whence the history has emanated; whether it be the offspring of Truth, of Imposture, or of Delusion. It is true the motives which a- writer professes, the sentiments he expresses, may not be his real motives and sentiments. Still Affectation is one species of Falsehood, and, as such, though it may not be as readily, yet is it as truly distinguishable from Truth as any other form of error. To different writings these remarks apply with different degrees of force. A work may be so brief, so general and so obscure, as to afford us but a very dim idea of the spirit of the writer. I hope, however, to make it appear that the books now to be examined are, to a re-

METHOD OF THE WORK. 23

markable extent, precisely of the kind which furnish the most copious and satisfactory manifestations of the spirit and aim of their authors. Indeed, I venture to assert, that if we had authentic and minute biographies of the writers of the four Gospels, we should still have the most decisive illustrations of their characters, in the style and structure of the Gospels themselves. We should still see in these their works, the strongest evidence that they were eye and ear-witnesses of the things they record — men of good sense and sound hearts, possessing excellent powers and opportunities of observation, and inspired, to an uncommon degree, by that single-mindedness upon which we always delight to repose our most cordial confidence.

Chapter II. The Historical Character Of The Four Gospels

" The Scripture is no one summary of doctrines regularly digested, in which a man could not mistake his way ; it is a most venerable, but most multifarious collection of the records of the divine economy, a collection of an infinite variety of Cosmogony, Theology, History, Prophecy, Psalmody, Morality, Apologue, Allegory, Legislation, Ethics, carried through different books, by different authors, at different ages, for different ends and purposes.

" It is necessary to sort out what is intended for example, what only as narrative. * * * * "

Burke — Speech on the Acts of Uniformity.

In looking over the four Gospels, the first and most obvious feature that strikes us is their Historical character.

They have been so long and so widely treated, as if they were creeds or formulas of faith, made up of formal propositions, each by itself affirming an independent and unqualified article of belief, that we are apt to overlook altogether this remarkable trait, their historical nature. They are not argumentative, nor didactic. They belong to the department of History, Biography, Memoirs. They may be complete or imperfect, true or the grossest fabrications, still they are not philosophical treatises, elaborate statements of principles more or less important. They are evidently histories, narratives. They are crowded with incidents. They abound in notices, direct and indirect, of persons, places, and events. They scarcely contain what with any propriety can be called an abstract discourse. The circumstances mentioned, too, are for the most part remarkable for their publicity, and even those portions that approach nearest to the character of sermons are not general in their style of thought, but are expressed in a popular phraseology, and are filled with local and personal allusions. The scene is not laid in a dark, retired corner, but the course of events is represented as going on over a vast extent of country, in the presence of particular individuals and large multitudes. Cities and villages with their respective localities are incidentally designated, wherein the facts narrated took place. To speak still more dramatically, the curtain rises, and the first glance shows us Jerusalem and its magnificent temple, Judea, the River Jordan, the Sea of Galilee, and the region round about ; and we stand in the open air, and under the noonday sun, to observe the progress of the events related. Multitudes are collected before us. Different individuals and whole classes of men pass over the stage, Pharisees and Sadducees, teachers of the Jewish Law, Roman soldiers, tax-gatherers, centurions, and magistrates, and all has the air of the greatest publicity.

.\ow what is the natural inference from this obvious 3 feature of these writings'! If a book of a similar character were published at the present day, a book not occupied with speculative discussions, not stating principles or opinions, but relating facts, purporting to have occurred in some well known country and within the last fifty or sixty years, filled with circumstantial details, abounding in allusions, local, personal, civil, introducing the names of public functionaries and offices — of parties, religious and political, how would such a publication be regarded 1 It would either be understood at once and by all as a mere work of imagination, so considered by the author himself, and published as a fiction, not to be credited as true, but to exercise and illustrate his own genius, and to procure for him the fame of genius ; or, if we supposed that he intended and expected to be believed, then it must be because of its substantial truth, or else he must be among the most absurd of men. Every man who has intelligence enough to fabricate a story with a view to impose upon the world, takes especial care how he meddles with facts, circumstances, names ; " All things animate and inanimate are combined against falsehood." In the great system of Nature and Providence, nothing exists alone and insulated. Every circumstance and every object, however trifling apparently, are inextricably related in innumerable ways to innumerable other circumstances and objects, so that every fact virtually appeals to an incalculable mass of testimony. He who lays the scene of his story in a certain country, in the presence of multitudes, in the midst of public affairs and institutions, summons he knows not how many witnesses to testify to the truth of what he affirms. Every circumstance that he introduces swells the cloud of witnesses beyond all enumeration. If he relates what has no foundation in reality, he exposes himself to detection at unnumbered points, and it is impossible that he should not be instantaneously overwhelmed with the shame and ridicule which he so urgently invites. He is only spreading snares for his own feet, weaving a web in which he is sure to be caught and entangled.