Is Christianity from God? ...

Front matter

| LIBRARY OF (MGRESS.I

J UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, f

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Introduction

The unpretending title of the following volume sufficiently indicates its character. It is a Manual of Christian evidence, combining, by very skillful and happy arrangement, brevity, variety, and force of argument for the truth of Christianity. It should be, indeed, a handbook for every man that feels it important to think of his origin and his destiny — of what he is, and what he must shortly be.

The Christian religion presents a question at the threshold, first to be settled. Ami here by chance, and for no purpose but to eat, and live, and die ? Or am I a rational creature, of immortal faculties, and of high responsibilities? Have I that within me, which I feel cannot die, of noble and lofty aspirations, that points to its deathless destiny ? And if so— are the issues of life all a conjecture, or have I a light to guide me to the truth ? I know that in myself I am blind ; and there are no sure

IV INTRODUCTION.

landmarks around me. May I find them in the Bible? Has God indeed, as might be hoped from his benignity, made a revelation to men ? And does this Bible contain it ? This is a practical inquiry that should be made and answered. And this Manual gives the answer by evidence varied, clear, convincing, and conclusive ; — evidence more full and satisfactory than ever sustained a fact in history or proposition in science.

Such proof was to be expected from the counsels of divine wisdom and goodness. God did not reveal his will to man, for his guidance and hope, and then leave him in darkness or doubt about the evidence. It was a fair deduction of sound reason, that when God graciously vouchsafed, by his own word, to guide the children of men in the way of duty and life, that he would not only speak plainly, even to the wayfaring man, but also leave no place for doubt that he had spoken.

And such is the realization with every candid and sincere inquirer after the truth. The authenticity and divine inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures is shown by light beaming from every quarter whence truth can derive support and illustration. The Heavens above

INTRODUCTION. V

us — -the laws of the mind within us — the whole economy of the universe of men and angels — our sympathies — our desires and our very frailties and sins — all bear one connected, consistent, and satisfying demonstration that the Bible came from God. And this compendious summary of proofs deserves to be read and studied. It does not open any new fields — but it has with uncommon ability explored the good old ways ; and brought out treasures, rich in instruction, and weighty in influence, upon the great questions of life and salvation. It will amply reward the attention that may be given to its pages.

The Christian reader will find in it further cause of thankfulness to God, that his truth has such deep and strong foundations : and that the assaults of infidelity and the cavils of the gainsay er have only the more firmly established its claims, and brought to stronger light its blessed and eternal principles.

Chapter I. Is The Soul Immaterial And Immortal 7

Page Immortality of the Soul. Materiality and Immateriality of the Soul. Sympathy between Mind and Body. Mind not infantile. Intimacy not Identity. Soul invisible. Clear Evidence of Mind. la the Mind in the Brain ? Change of the Body. Infinite Divisibility. Does the Mind rest ? Production of Thought. Race perpetual. Yearning after Immortality. Desires of the Soul. Thought. Progression. 17

Chapter II. Does Creation Prove The Existence Of God 1

Atheist and Anti-theist. Atheism inexcusable. Existence of God possible. On Eternity of the Earth ; evidence of History. Progress of Population ; of Science. Exchange of Localities. Old and New Races. On Design ; evidence of it from Mechanism of Human Body and Senses— from Chance— Eye— Bones of Man- Bird — Mole— Fish — Atmosphere in its Composition— Bee ; its Comb. Human Intellect — Intellectual Powers. Conscience. Deficiencies of Argument from Nature ; from Reason. . . 39

Chapter III. Is A Revelation From God To Man Probable And

NECESSARY ]

This Discussion not meant for the fully Convinced; designed to confirm the Wavering and convict the Infidel. Pure Religion

Vlll CONTENTS.

Page

here meant. What Christianity is. A Divine Revelation not inconsistent with Analogy and Experience. Need of a Revelation. This shown from Ancient Heathenism— from Modern Heathenism —from Infidels themselves. Jnfldel Morality— Lord Byron— Paul- Voltaire — Mirabeau — and other Infidels. Martyr Stephen. Comparative State of Greeks and Jews. 64

Chapter IV. Is The Bible Genuine And Authentic*?

The Bible is Genuine, and not a Forgery— shown by the conduct of the Jews— the testimony of the Apostolic Fathers— the Earliest rejectors of Christianity — early Translations — Multiplicity of the MSS. The Bible Authentic, as seen from the institution of the Sabbath— the Sacraments— concurrent testimony of other separate Facts. 89

Chapter V

Character of those claiming to be the Inspired Authors of the Bible. Morality of the Bible, Doctrines of the Bible, Harmony of the Scriptures. Evidence of Inspiration from Miracles. If the Bible be not from God, whence is it ? 105

Chapter VI

Evidence from Prophecy. Prophecies concerning the Messiah. Noah's Sons. Babylon. The Jews. Church of Rome. Seven Churches of Asia. Fulfilment of Messiac Prophecies. Christ's Predictions of the Destruction of Jerusalem. Character of Objectors to Christianity. Character and Teachings of Christ. Progress of Christianity. Preservation of the Bible. Experimental Evidence. The two Creeds. 115

Chapter VII. General Characteristics Of The Bible

Effects of the Bible. The Bible is a Revelation from God ; it is inspired ; it is written ; it is translated ; it is in varied Forms of

CONTENTS. IX

Page Speech ; it is intelligible ; it is intended for the People ; it is a perfect Standard ; it is inlaid with Christ. The Bible to be read for the Discovery of Truth, and not to establish a Theory. Sir William Jones's Testimony—Bishop Home's— Rousseau's. . . 147

Chapter VIII. Is The Bible Contradictory Or Inconsistent 1

Apocrypha. Inaccurate Translation. Curse of the Serpent. Human Passions ascribed to God — Pharaoh's Case. Visiting Sins of the Parent upon the Children. Extirpation of Canaanites. Sacrifice of Isaac. Indelicate Passages. Polygamy. Morality of New Testament too strict. Jephtha's Daughter. David and the City of Rabbah. Elisha and the forty-two Youths. The Curses of the Bible. Everlasting Punishment 157

Chapter IX. Is The Bible Contradictory Or Inconsistent 1

The Fall in Paradise. The Test applied to Adam and Eve. The Mosaic Account the best Explanation of the Existence of Evil. Bible History Evidence of its Antiquity and Truth. The Languages of the World an Evidence. Chinese Tables Forgeries. Demonstration by La Place. The Creation of Light. The Human Race. Peopling of America. Supremacy of Man. Antediluvian Longevity. The Flood. The Ark. The Rainbow. Tower of Babel. Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot's Wife. Egyptian Magicians. Genealogies of Christ. Why the Delay of the Gospel. Why the whole World is not under its Influence. Varieties of Opinion about the Bible. Ministers of the Gospel inconsistent. Is the Gospel the Cause of Evils charged to it ? The Mysteries of the Bible. Right Way of understanding the Bible. The two Ways of reading the Bible 188

Chapter X. Doctrinal Difficulties

The Bible not peculiar in having Difficulties. The Trinity. The Nature of God's Existence incomprehensible. Predestination. The Incarnation of Christ. A Vicarious Atonement. The Mediatorial System. God's Interest in this World more than others of i CONTENT^.

Page his Universe. Confirmation of Revelation by Astronomy. The Resurrection. Independent Existence of the Soul. Divine Influence. Is there disproportion between Sin and its Punishment ? Are the Wise and Learned not Professors of Christianity ? Does Justification by Faith lead to Immorality. Is Christianity a System of Priestcraft, Gain, &c. ? The Cause of most Men's Infidelity. The Bible not all Mystery 219

CHAPTER XL

TEXTS CAVILLED AT.

Repentance of God. Scripture Imprecations. Total Depravity of the Heart. God does not exert his Power to bring Sinners to himself. Severe Morality. Opposition to the pure Truth of the Bible an Evidence of its Heavenly Origin. Men saved by Justification. 253

Conclusion

Everything fleeting but God's Word. Universal Depravity and Guilt. Christ's Propitiation. Regeneration. Freeness and Universality of the Gospel Offer. Final Triumphs of the Gospel. . 265

Preface

The following pages are not meant for learned theologians, who already know all they contain, and a great deal more, but for Scripture-readers, for City missionaries, Sunday-school teachers, and others, who ought to know something of the outlines of Christian evidence.

Deeper solutions can be given of many of the difficulties that are quoted in this work, but such solutions would be inconvenient alike to teachers and learners, in the circumstances to which I have referred. Simple and short explanations are, therefore, far preferable : these are more easily remembered and most thoroughly understood. In the present age, a ready reply, like ready money, is most valuable. Such readers as desire more extended acquaintance with the reasons and facts by which the Christian faith is proved to be divine, are referred to Paley, Lardner, Bishop Newton, Dr. Campbell, Butler, Fuller, an admirable little treatise by Soame Jenyns, and another scarce but truly valuable work, by Dr. Mearns, of King's College, Aberdeen ; Barnes, in bis commentary on Isaiah, adduces very conclusive proofs of the fulfilment of prophecy ; Leslie's Short and Easy Method with the Deists is very effective ; an admirable summary of Christian Evidence .s contained in Home's Introduction, vol. i. ; Dr. Hill's Lectures are also well worth perusal ; Leland's View of the Deistical Writers is very important; Watson's Apology is well known ; Gregory's Letters are justly popular. There are also some excellent observations on Christian evidence prefixed to Bagster's Comprehensive Bible. The author trusts his readers will not suppose he has said all that can be said on every point. He has given the simplest, shortest, and most intelligible outlines of the Christian evidence, rather than the most powerful and conclusive.

Should it enable the teacher of others to solve any perplexities with ease, which he has heretofore failed to explain with satisfaction to himself or conviction to the pupil ; or should it furnish any one with an additional reason for the faith that is in him, or in any degree commend and vindicate the Word of God ; the author will be amply rewarded.

This the writer is truly convinced of, that the^ that read the Bible oftenest, and most attentively, will be most deeply persuaded of its Divine origin. A self-evidencing virtue goes forth from it ; and they that thus read it feel within them living proofs of it* divinity, and would rather part with all near and dear things than surrender their belief in the inspiration of a book which peoples heaven with their departed relatives — opens to them springs of real consolation upon earth — and lifts the veil that conceals from their eyes yet brighter and more glorious prospects in eternity. The Saviour said, "Thy word is truth ;" and innumerable hearts from their inmost depths answer, " It is."

There are many thousands who have never examined, and therefore are not convinced by the evidences of Christianity. Perfect masters in law, or in medicine, or in literature, or in science, they are utterly uninformed on that " one thing needful," in comparison of which all these things are as straws floating on the surface of the current of life.

The most irrational persons upon earth are surely those who will not investigate the claims of a religion which, right or wrong, declares itself to be the only communication of the mind of God. Either the Bible is dime, and justly demands supremacy in all religious discussions, or it is a gross imposture : anything between it cannot be. The most inexcusable and unjustifiable course that any can pursue, is that of indifference or ignorant contempt.

Scripture proclaims such to be fools, and those only who read and understand to be wise. The prodigal was not "come to himself," or, as we say, was beside himself till he was restored to his home. The insanity of our asylums is that of the intellect. The insanitv of thoughtless millions is that of the heart. There is a parallelism between the two states. Let us look at it. A very common mark of insanity is insensibility to conclusive evidence. No weight of reasoning will sway the insane. But is not the unbeliever dead to the claims of truth, that are bright with the signature of God, and resplendent with the glories of heaven? Does not all creation, from the lowly violet in the sequestered vale, to the vast orb in the firmament, proclaim as one great choir, " the hand that made us is Divine ;" and is not insensibility to this insanity ? It is thus, then, that the unbelieving spectator of creation, as well as the undevout astronomer, is mad. Does not Revelation give still more cogent proofs of its authorship ? axe not His foot-prints in its every page ? Is it not the record of His ways ? Is it not written in deeds of power, and acts of beneficence and mercy ? Has it not survived all opposition, defied all proscription ? Do not martyrs from their flame-shrouds, and saints from their beds of glory, declare, " Thy word is Truth ?" Is not all confusion without it? Yet the sceptic rejects all, and would extinguish all. Surely his is the insanity of the seaman who would cast away his •chart and compass in the storm, or the raving, as it is the impotence, of him who would blot out the sun and moon, and stars, from the dome of earth.

Indifference to momentous interests, visibly in peril, is strong evidence of insanity. Were we to see a man perfectly indifferent in the midst of the blazing rafters of his house, we could not help coneluding that the man was deranged. Does he manifest greater sanity who hears of a nearing hell and a departing heaven, and yet remains in absolute apathy ? Is it other than a maniac's folly to be vexed about toys, and to be careless of everlasting realities? Shakspeare describes King Lear as gathering straws with the hand which had wielded a mighty sceptre ; and a greater than Shakspeare describes the king of Babylon as herding with the beasts of the field, in order that they may thus give vivid pictures of humanity in its ruins. Have not these discrowned kings a thousand living antitypes ? What Divine faculties do we see burrowing in the earth ! What mighty energies expending their strength in follies, indifferent to eternal realities ! What attention devoted to fables, and denied to awful facts ! How many losing a soul for eternity, in settling a date in time !

A man standing by the crater of the groaning and heaving volcano — a woman holding her babe and laughing with maniac revelry amid the converging flames of her furniture, and spurning away the fireescape — the seaman catching fish, while his vessel sinks inch by inch in the abyss of waters — are but faint representations of the insanity of him who, unconcerned about his soul, engages in all pursuits and indulges in all pleasures, with an eternity of responsibility rolling onward on the spot on which he stands, like a vast Atlantic sea. And since insanity ends in suicide, what else is deliberate rejection of life ? The unbelieving perish by their own hand*.

Theirs, too, is insanity without its irresponsibility. They show the folly of the maniac, while they incur the guilt of the criminal.

Reader, review your state : consider your ways : ponder the paths of your feet. Fully, and fairly, and patiently weigh the facts, and reasonings, and illustrations contained in the following pages, and God himself direct you to a just, a true and unchangeable conviction.

IS CHRISTIANITY FROM GOD?

Chapter I. Is The Soul Immaterial And Immortal?

This is a useful though not an essential preliminary investigation. We therefore attempt to throw a little light on it. Christianity is the religion of inquiry, as well as the subject of triumphant proof. It does not demand our assent to propositions without any previous examination of their character and their claims. Its language is — Search, examine, judge ye whether these things be so or not.

Our first is simply a preliminary inquiry — it is the immortality, or after-existence, of the soul of man. If there be no hereafter — no reckoning at the judgment morn — no destiny in the future dependent upon character created in the present — then the claims of the Gospel to be a revelation from God are of comparatively trivial moment. If, when we die, and the green turf is laid upon us, our eyes are destined to open on no hereafter, nor our hearts to throb again, then the truth or the falsity of Chris-! 2* tianity, except so far as it touches this, is an insignificant inquiry.

The materiality or immateriality of the soul does not vitally affect the question of its hereafter existence. I am convinced, and I think I shall be able to convince the reader, that the soul is immaterial; but if it were shown satisfactorily by physiologists that the soul of man is a material substance, that would not prove that the soul is not immortal. God might be pleased to endue matter with the attributes of immortality ; He might be pleased to impress upon a material soul the capacity for a never-ending or eternal hereafter. His fiat would be its inheritance of a never-ending existence. But I think I shall be able to prove, by a few plain and simple propositions, that the soul is not only immortal but that it is also immaterial — that is, that it is not the same in substance as the body.

The favorite position of materialists, that is, those who deny its immateriality, is, an analogy. They say that the mind grows and dies with the bodythat the mind is infantile with the infant body, — full grown in the adult, — wasted by disease, debilitated by age ; and therefore, say they, it must be, as the natural sequence, annihilated by death. They maintain, that the analogy that subsists between the body and the soul, or the intimacy between the one and the other, is so entire, that we find at each step the mind" and body going hand in hand in a common equi-progressive destiny, so that (I repeat the words,)

the mind is infantile with the infant body, full grown in the adult, wasted by disease, debilitated by age ; and therefore, they say, the presumption is, that it dies when the body dies.

Now, if they could substantiate the first four propositions, that the mind is always infantile in the infant, and always full grown in the adult, and ahvays wasted by disease, and always debilitated by age, then the presumption would be that most probably it was always destroyed by death. But we can prove from facts, that the analogy does not hold good at every step ; and one such proof is fatal to the whole. We find that the soul is not always wasted by disease ; I have myself seen the soul possessed of masculine vigor, when the whole earthly tenement was on the verge of crumbling into ruins. It is not true, also, that the soul is always debilitated by age ; I have seen grey hairs and gathering infirmities of body incasing and yet unfolding a soul vigorous as in the meridian of life. Now if the analogy fail in one step, then the consequence deduced must fail also; for if it be true that the soul is only sometimes weakened by disease, and sometimes debilitated by age, then the only logical result they can reach by their argument is, that it is sometimes mortal and sometimes immortal, and therefore that there are two sorts of men, one class mortal and another immortal ; which is what has been called by logicians, a reductio ad absurdum. We therefore maintain, that this analogy, which some materialists glory in as a demonstration that the soul perishes with the body, does not hold good when we come fairly and impartially to investigate it.

Mind and body do not always sympathize together ; that is, the one may be a sufferer, and the other not.

It has been found that paralysis has unnerved and unstrung the whole system, and yet the mind of man has remained unscathed. I will quote a case ; that of the celebrated, the witty, and the clever diplomatist, Talleyrand. His body was in the most wretched, miserable, diseased and distressed condition one can conceive ; and yet the subtlety, and the wisdom, and the skill, and the talent, and the penetration of that diplomatist are allowed to have remained to his last moments unequalled. I may also refer to the celebrated Dean Swift. It was said, that before he died his body was a moving tomb ; and yet his mind was as vigorous as in his earlier years. It is stated, in the forty third number of the Quarterly Revietv, that Morgagni and Haller, distinguished continental anatomists, have ascertained that in one instance or another every part of the brain has been found destroyed or disorganized, and yet the individuals have none of them been deprived of mind, or affected in what has been thought the corresponding intellectual powers ; I say not, that in any one case the whole of the brain has been found disorganized or destroyed, but in one instance or another they have found it so with each part successively, and yet none of those individuals had lost any of their moral, intellectual, or mental powers. And if it can thus be shown, that this very organ, the brain, in which some craniologists are pleased to lodge the mental faculties of man, has been more or less destroyed without any of his affections or intellectual energies being injured, it is proof positive that something more than the mere brain is that which constitutes his claim to be a mental and moral being. But when anatomists and chemists have analyzed the brain, what have they found ? Let us hear. Some have said, that they trace all mental phenomena to a portion called the pineal gland. ISTow anatomists have analyzed it ; and what do you think is it made of? Phosphate of lime. And will phosphate of lime originate the splendid dramas of Shakspeare, or the epic poems of Milton, or the Iliad of Homer, or the poems of Virgil ? Monstrous absurdity ! It is quite plain, that there must be some agent prior and extraneous to the brain, which acts upon the brain, and thereby upon the physical system of man.

I stated, at the outset of my remarks, that the physiologist asserts that the mind is infantile with the body in the child, vigorous in the adult, weakened by disease, debilitated by age, and therefore destroyed by death. Now I would just invert this. ^ I would say that the body is infantile, not the mind in the child. Have you not observed (what is a most remarkable practical lesson) that the child has thoughts and fears and feelings which it is not able to express by its bodily organs ? Hence the remark made by parents, that the child, knows much more than yon suppose ; and when we look at the attention, the listening looks, and the riveted notice that a child gives to what is going on, we are convinced that he knows a great deal more than he generally gets credit for. Hence it may be seen that children grow up, with impressions upon their minds that we cannot account for : the fact is, that at the time their infant bodies gave no intimation of what was going on in the inner sanctuary of the soul, their maturer minds were drinking in the habits and principles of those around tb em. I maintain, therefore, that in the child the mind is greater than the body — not that the body is equal to or greater than the mind. And I would therefore reverse the position materialists glory in, and say that the body of the child is infantile, while its mind is possessed of attributes far greater than is usually thought.

We admit a close intimacy between mind and matter, between the soul and the body, but we deny identity. And I think I can prove this.

We shall find, for instance, that if we take so much of opium or so much of alcohol into the body, the mind, from its intimacy with the body, will be affected by it ; that is, by sympathy. We shall find also, that if we take into the mind so much anger, so much jealousy, so much hatred, so much love, so much passion, the body will, from its intimacy with the mind, be affected by it ; and this proves intimacy. But if the material stimuli of opium or alcohol require a material medium through which to act, surely the moral stimuli of jealousy and love and passion must, by parity of reasoning, require a moral medium, the soul, through which they can act upon the body. I do think that this position is positively irrefragable — viz., that the fact that physical stimuli require a physical agent through which to act upon the mind, warrants us in concluding that moral stimuli require a moral agent through which to act upon the body, and therefore that there must be a part that is immaterial, moral, and intellectual.

We do not deny, that if the brain become greatly diseased, mania or madness has frequently ensued ; but this does not prove that the brain is the soul. Suppose I single out the first musician that ever touched an instrument, and take him to a piano, or an organ, or a violin, or any other instrument of music, out of tune, and bid him play. He tries to produce the notes he knows, but neither melody nor harmony is poured forth. Why ? Not because the musician's mind has lost its power, or the musician's finders have lost their skill : but because the instrument on which he acts is out of tune. Now it is just so with the brain. When a man is seized with mania or madness, it is not because the soul has become disorganized or destroyed, but because the instrument is out of tune and disarranged. In fact, the soul is the master musician ; and the brain is but the

24 IS CHRISTIANITY FROM GOD i

instrument, through which that master musician acts — in tones, in looks, in sympathies, and by the senses — upon the world that is around.

In the next place it is said by physiologists — If there be a soul, we ought to be able to detect and show it to all who choose to look on it.

!Now this seems to me a most extraordinary conclusion. The very definition that we give of the soul (that it is immaterial) would be sufficient reason why we should not be able to detect it. The physiologist is so accustomed to material anatomy, that he always imagines that a thing does not exist, unless he can show it on the point of his lancet. But if this be his only criterion of existence, he must be very sceptical in many things. Can he show an idea upon the point of his lancet ? Can he show a thought on the point of his scalpel ? It can therefore be no good reason for denying the existence of the soul, that he cannot mechanically detect it.

But we allege that we have clearer evidence of the existence of mind, than we have of the existence of matter. This may seem strange ; but it is true. Berkeley, the bishop of Cloyne, a distinguished and excellent man, maintained that there was no such thing as matter — that there are merely certain sensations or impressions made by God upon the brain, ■which give us the notion of matter — and that we live in a world, not of matter, but of universal idealism. Absurd as it may appear, one must be surprised at the ingenious arguments with which he contends for the non-existence of matter. But though he could reason away matter, he could not thus reason himself out of the existence of mind. For the very fact that a man doubts and reasons, is a proof that there is a doubting and reasoning faculty. The very doubt establishes our position, that there is a mind, or a soul, or an immaterial faculty, capable of doubting.

Physiologists or materialists (not all physiologists, but those of them who are materialists) say that the brain is the mind — that it alone is the soul — and that in fact they can trace everything to the brain as the ultimatum of sensation and thought, but no further.

Now I admit the fact, that we can trace sensation and thought to the brain ; but I will show you that we can go a step farther and trace it beyond it. For instance; we are in the habit of saying that the eye sees ; but the eye cannot see ; it is the mere instrument of vision, it is no more to man than a telescope or a microscope beautifully constructed, and if the eye is diseased, then sight is destroyed. I take a step further ; I allege that if the optic nerveis diseased, then though the eye may be as perfect as God ever created it, yet I cannot see. I go still a step further ; it has been found, that if the brain be diseased or pressed upon in a certain part, then though the optic nerve and the eye remain sound, there is no sight. But now I will go a step further. A letter or newspaper is brought by the postman to an individual ; he reads it, and the result of reading it has been that the man has dropped down dead. Why this ? No physical weapon touched him. It was a purely mental idea, that acted upon the brain, and the brain acted upon the nervous system, and the man died because the letter contained some fearful or disastrous tidings. Or again, one friend calls upon another, and says that some great catastrophe has happened to his nearest and dearest relative, and we find that instances have occurred of the man instantly losing his sight, or his hearing, or being paralyzed. Here it was a moral fact, that struck the man with physical effects. The mind or mental power acted on the brain ; that acted on the nerves ; and they acted on the senses. And thus while the materialist traces all to the brain, we show that we can go a step further — and prove the existence of a being above the brain, an agent that acts upon the brain, and, in short, that the brain is the mere agent of that being that dwells in the immaterial sanctuary, inviolate within.