Lectures on the evidences of Christianity...

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INTRODUCTION— APOLOGETICS . . 7

By Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D., LL.D.

Introduction

APOLOGETICS.

rpHE history of Auguste Coinpte is instructive. It is J_ now more than a quarter of a century since he appeared in France as the Reformer and Legislator of the Science of the World. His boldness was great, and yet it was hardly greater than his genius. Though long neglected by the savans of his own country, and hardly known abroad, he has gradually won a proud position among the thinkers of our time, and in some respects he has vindicated his claim to a place above them all.

But he was far from happy in choosing the first principles of his Philosophy. They belonged to the narrowest and coldest of the systems which have been erected on the basis of Locke. He assumed the entire incompetency of the human mind to penetrate beyond the relative and phenomenal, and excluded Metaphysics and Theology from the sphere of human science, in a tone so peremptory and contemptuous, that nothing but the transcendent ability with which he wrote could have saved him from instant banishment from the pale of philosophy. On this contracted basis he

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has toiled, with titanic strength and patience, to rear a complete system of Science, now commonly known as Positivism. The Cours de PJiilosophie Positive commenced the series of his publications more than twenty years ago; the Cours de Politique Positive, not yet completed, forms the last of his contributions to Philosophy that we have seen. In France, M. Letre has been the popular expounder of his doctrines. In England, that office has been assumed by Miss Harriet Martineau, and by Mr. Lewes.

In comparing his last with his first work, it becomes manifest that an essential change has come over the spirit of his speculations. He has had experiences, which demonstrate how impotent a mere theory may become when it stands face to face with the great moral facts and sentiments of our existence. M. Compte, as he more than once tells us, was inspired with a passionate attachment for Madame Clotilde de Vaux, who died in 1846. That attachment taught him that " sentiment'' as well as intellect was entitled to a place in the domain of reasoning, and her death, with other personal causes, and with despair of regenerating society through mere science alone, seems to have induced at last the conviction that Eeligion of some kind was the indispensable condition of attaining to a truly normal state. Hence, after rejecting that Religion, at the outset of his career, as a mere dream of humanity in its childhood, we find him towards its close re-constituting it (in a shape indeed most absurd and fantastic), as one of the great ideas of the soul and as one of the necessary constituents of the highest condition of society.

A fact like this needs no comment. It teaches, more impressively than volumes, what man needs in the moral crises of his being, and it demonstrates that a merely speculative philosophy is not the safest foundation for a science

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1!

which would comprehend all the facts and necessities of humanity.

The same truth is taught most significantly by the speculations of Kant, who ranks second to no modern as a profound philosophical thinker, and who proposed, in his Critic of the Reason, to ascertain the entire resources of the human mind. He came to the conclusion that we possess no faculty capable of reaching outward reality,* and at the end of his critical examination of the Pare Reason, found directly before him " the yawning abyss of an absolute subjectivity."*)" From this his vigorous and earnest soul recoiled. Hence, in his Critique of the Practical Reason, the result of maturer contemplations, he builds his theory on those same necessary convictions of mankind which he had previously rejected. He insists on the moral exigencies of humanity, and finds in them a guarantee for the objective validity of those grand ideas, — God, Immortality, Eecompense, — which the speculative reason, according to him, does, indeed, project, but cannot legitimate. In this reaction from speculative idealism towards a quasi mysticism, Kant exhibits in his own career one of the leading characteristics of speculative philosoph}', — the history of which is little more than a history of vibrations

* We ought, perhaps, to except the existence of the external world ; but Sir Wm. Hamilton well observes, " The proof of its reality which Kaut attempted (independently of the necessary belief of mankind), is now admitted by one and all of his disciples to be so inconsequent, that it may be reasonably doubted whether he ever intended it for more than an exoteric disclaimer of the esoteric idealism of his doctrine. But the philosopher who deemed it a scandal to philosophy and human reason to found the proof of a material world — in itself to us a matter of supreme indifference on belief ;— on belief, on feeling, afterwards established the proof of all the highest objects of our interest— God, Free Will, and Immortality."— Notes on Eeid, p. 792, 2d ed. 1849.

f Jacobi.

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between the extremes of sensualism or idealism on one side, and those of scepticism or mysticism on the other.

These remarks will prepare us for a distinction which we conceive to be all-important in discussing the subject of Apologetics, or the Evidences of Religion. There are two points of view from which the whole subject of Evidence must be considered, if we would understand properly the entire scope of its principles and relations. The one is practical, the other is purely speculative, or theoretical. The latter belongs to science ; the former to life.

We shall accordingly offer some remarks upon what, for the sake of convenience, we may designate as the Practical and Speculative Problems pertaining to the whole matter of belief and scepticism, and we shall then suggest a few considerations bearing more immediately upon Religious Scepticism, and especially upon the religious scepticism of our own day.

1. The Practical Problem.

When we come to act, we all necessarily proceed upon the supposition that there is such a thing as truth, and that this truth can be so ascertained, as to justify and imperatively require, on our part, a corresponding conduct. The evidence on which we proceed rarely amounts to demonstration in the proper sense of that term. It amounts only to a probability, which varies in different degrees from the highest moral certainty to the lowest presumption.

On such probabilities, all men, whether peasants or philosophers, are accustomed to act with spontaneous and unhesitating alacrity. " Nature," says Pascal, " confounds the Pyrrhonist." In other words, the absolute sceptic, who on speculative grounds holds that there is no certainty, is a sceptic only in theory. Neither Hume, Bayle, iEnesede-

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mus, nor Pyrrho, ever pretended to incorporate their specu - lative doubts into their daily life. If wronged, they went like other men to the law for redress, nor did they ever question that the principles of Evidence, which were applied in ascertaining the reality and extent of their wrongs, were founded in truth and reason.

The Practical Problem presented by Apologetics is this : can the Christians faith be vindicated on those principles of Evidence, which in respect to this life men accept and act upon without distrust or hesitation ? It is the province of Apologetics, as a branch of Practical Philosophy, to maintain the affirmation of this question.

The weight which is to be attached to testimony, oral or circumstantial, is a question with which we constantly deal ; and the criteria which ought to determine our judgment have been developed, especially in connexion with Practical Jurisprudence — with a fulness and precision which leaves us little to ask. In respect to the signs that foreshadow coming events, and those that point to the operation of certain causes and powers, we have also rules of judging on which we act without hesitation. Thus we are supplied with principles of evidence or tests of truth, the use and application of which form no small part of our moral education. They are evidently intended to regulate not only our opinions, but yet more our practice. In enabling us to pronounce on the probability of any statement that pertains to the present, the past, or the future, they make it our duty to recognise the influence which that statement ought to exercise now and hereafter upon our actions.

This holds in respect to every subject that can by possibility involve our duty or welfare. If the historical statements, for example, which we find in the Bible will bear the various tests of credibility laid down by such writers as Starkie and Phillips on the Law of Evidence, then they be-

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come at once entitled to our acceptance. If the Gospel of John has every mark of veracity which can be found in the Annals of Tacitus and more besides, then he who receives the latter has already concluded himself against rejecting the other. He convicts himself of flagrant inconsistency if he adopt, and then at pleasure repudiate the same criteria of judging; if at one moment he rest on these criteria as unquestionable and important, and at the next moment — because a subject presents itself which he happens not to relish — treat them with neglect or disdain.

So in regard to the testimony yielded by our own souls to the moral contents of Scripture, and the attestations supplied by these souls, and by the world without, to the existence of God, to Immortality, and Retribution. Did such attestations have respect only to an impending and eventful trial in this life, which is fast approaching, no sane man would deny that they ought to command our instant and profound consideration. In respect to interests that press upon our senses, that are urged upon our notice by the counsel and example of all men, we spontaneously yield, not merely our judgment, but our conduct to the influence of these laws of evidence. But it is part of our trial as candidates for a higher life, that we are able to overlook and disregard objects in proportion as they recede from our grosser perceptions or belong to a remoter future. And does it not convict us of being under some sore delusion, in respect to " heavenly things," that where they are concerned we can coolly reject, or accepting, can calmly and habitually disregard, the very same principles which in respect to " earthly things" we constantly and heartily act upon ?

Apologetics deal mainly with those who profess to disbelieve ; the pulpit and the religious press, in their practical lessons, deal with those who, believing in name, still live

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for the most part as if they believed not. The evidences of Religion, as usually taught, rest their appeals mainly on the arg amentum ad hominem, They do not enter into metaphysical speculations respecting the validity of all knowledge, and respecting the nature of the religious principle in man. They simply labour to bring the great Christian verities into the same general category with beliefs on which we are all content and glad to rest every day. The difficulties in the way of the Christian faith are shown to be of the same kind with those that attach to many of the convictions and presumptions that we are compelled to proceed upon in " the life that now is/'* The positive proofs in the shape of historic evidence, — the attestations given by our own hearts to the truths of Natural Religion, the inward witness of the soul to the words of Christ as words of soberness and Divine truth, — the monumental confirmations that speak to us from mouldering ruins, from hoary traditions, from institutions and ordinances and commemorative observances, coeval with the very infancy of our faith, — these together form a majestic and solid mass of evidence before which, in respect to " things seen," the hardiest scepticism would shrink back. The grounds on which Strauss would invalidate the Gospel History must, if properly extended, prove fatal ultimately to all historical documents whatever.

Thus then stands the case, when considered in the only light which is really important — the light of interest and duty. Men, even those least prone to credulity, or most inclined to scepticism, constantly treat as incontestable, evidence which is vastly less clear and cogent than that which

* These difficulties tare also met by showing that they are vastly less formidable than those which must be encountered if we resort to unbelief. — See Faber on the Difficulties of Infidelity.

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authenticates the Christian Revelation, As a matter which comes home to " men's business and bosoms" it is, as Butler has saicl, " fully sufficient for all the purposes of probation," "purposes which it answers (he adds) in several respects, which it would not do, if it were as overbearing as is desired."* To make it more overbearing might not be consistent with a proper degree of freedom in man's will ; it clearly would not be consistent with a proper culture through the intellect of his heart and his conscience. Faith, to be a true and ennobling power, must be compounded of acts, which are moral as well as intellectual; it must be grown to some extent as the fruit of conflict between opposing probabilities and between the lower and higher principles of our nature. Religious faith, above all needs, the development which comes only through discipline and trial. And hence the wisdom of the following admirable hints from the same source. Though we have not faculties to distinguish different degrees of evidence with perfect exactness, "yet," Butler urges, "in proportion as they are discerned they ought to influence our practice. For it is as real an imperfection in the moral character not to he influenced in practice hy a lower degree of evidence when discerned, as it is in the understanding not to discern it. And as in all subjects which men consider, they discern the lower as well as higher degrees of it proportionably to their fairness and honesty, and as in proportion to defects in the understanding men are unapt to see lower degrees of evidence, are in danger of overlooking evidence when it is not glaring, and are easily imposed upon in such cases — so in proportion to the corruption of the heart they seem capable of satisfying themselves with having no regard in practice to evidence acknowledged real, if it be not overbearing. From these things it must follow that doubting concerning religion

* Analog}-, part II., ch. 7.

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implies such a degree of evidence for it, as, joined with the consideration of its importance, unquestionably lays men under the obligations before mentioned, to have a dutiful regard for it in all their behaviour.*

" Persons who speak of the Evidence of Religion as doubtful (Butler says again, in another place), and of this supposed doubtfulness, as a positive argument against it, should be put upon considering what that evidence indeed is which they act upon with regard to their temporal interests. For it is not only extremely difficult, but in many cases absolutely impossible, to balance pleasure and pain, satisfaction and uneasiness, so as to be able to sav on which side the overplus is. There are the like difficulties and impossibilities in making the due allowances for a change of temper and taste, for satiety, disgusts, ill health — any of which render men incapable of enjoying, after they have obtained what they most eagerly desired. Numberless, too, are the accidents, besides that one of untimely death, which may even probably disappoint the best concerted schemes, and strong objections are often seen to lie against them not to be removed or answered, but which seem overbalanced by reasons on the other side, so as that the certain difficulties and dangers of the pursuit are by every one thought justly disregarded, upon account of the appearing greater advantages in case of success, though there be but little probability of it. Lastly, every one observes our liableness, if we be not upon our guard, to be deceived by the falsehood of men, and the false appearance of things ; and this danger must be greatly increased if there be a strong bias within, suppose from indulged passion, to favour the deceit. Hence arises that great uncertainty and doubtfulness of proof, wherein our temporal interest really consists, what are the most probable means of attaining it, and whether

* Butler's Analogy, p. 270.

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those means will be eventually successful. And numberless instances there are in the daily course of life in wlikli all men think it reasonable to engage in pursuits, tlwugh the probability is greatly against succeeding, and to make such provision for themselves as it is supposable they may have occasion for, though the plain acknowledged probability is that they never shall."*

To these passages, so well calculated to provoke thought, let us add one more from a contemporary and correspondent of Butler (Dr. Samuel Clarke) : " Were there hardly any other evidence at all than barely the excellency and reasonableness of the great truths of religion, together with the consideration of the vast importance of them, yet even in that case it would be infinitely wisest and most agreeable to reason for men to live according to the rules of the Gospel. And though their faith extended no further than only to a belief of the possibility of the truth of the Christian revelation ; yet even this alone ought in all reason to have weight enough to determine reasonable creatures to live soberly, righteously, and godly. For is it not plainly most reasonable, as an ancient writerf expresses it, 6 if each of the opposite opinions were equally doubtful and uncertain, yet by all means to embrace that which brings some hope along with it, rather than that which brings none. For on one side of the question there is no danger at all of incurring any calamity, if that which we believe and expect should at last prove false ; but on the other side, there is the greatest hazard in the world of the loss of eternal life, if the opinion which unbelievers rely upon should at last prove an error. And again, what say ye, 0 ye ignorant men ! ye men of miserable and most deplorable folly ! can ye forbear fearing within your hearts, that at least these things may possibly prove true which ye now

* Analogy, part II., ch. 6. f Arnobius.

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despise and mock at ? Have ye not at least some misgivings of mind, lest possibly that which ye now perversely and obstinately refuse to believe, ye should at last be convinced, by sad experience, when it will be too late to repent?' Nor is this the judgment of Christian writers only, but also of the wisest and most considerate heathens. c We ought to spare no pains,' saith Plato, 6 to obtain the habits of virtue and wisdom in this present life. For the prize is noble, and the hope is very great.' And Cicero — 6 They have gained a great prize, indeed, who have persuaded themselves to believe that when death comes, they shall perish utterly. What comfort is there ; what is there to be boasted of in that opinion ?' And again : ' If after death,' saith he, ' as some little and contemptible philosophers think, I shall be nothing, yet there is no danger that when we are all dead, those philosophers shall laugh at me for my error.' "*

In tracing the history of Apologetics, we find that it has been generally discussed as a practical question. Objections have been made, doubts insinuated; and the friends of Christianity have come forward to repel them, and to show that the difficulties which embarrass Faith are insignificant when compared with those which encompass Infidelity. In its early infancy, the doctrine of Christ and Him crucified was foolishness to one party, and a stumbling-block to another. Yet it was preached, and that preaching vindicated itself by arguments addressed to the understanding as well as by miraculous demonstrations from Heaven. He who spake with a Divine authority and power, spake also with a logic so close and pungent that it often sent away his adversaries covered with shame. So he who in his preaching renounced all dependence on " enticing words of man's wisdom" va-

* Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, p. 454. Lond. 1738.

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liantly faced every objector on his own ground, and instead of simply dogmatizing, confounded both Jews and Greeks, proving that Jesus was the very Christ. In his steps trod Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Arnobius, and the other early Apologists of the Church. They met Judaism and Paganism face to nice, confiding in the power of truth properly presented to vanquish, under God, the stoutest unbelief. Their arguments were not such as we learn by rote in schools of Theology, or from bodies of Divinity : arguments which we reproduce with little reference to the special wants of those around us. They were such as can be evolved only by deep reflection on the pressure of sore emergencies, from the depths of souls rich in Divine and human love, and burning with an intense zeal for God and his truth. And these trials of our faith, these onsets of a captious and unrelenting criticism — coupled often with a bloody persecution, have been rich in blessing to our faith. They have put to flight a dead and arrogant dogmatism. They have compelled polemics to hunt up their best weapons, long perhaps disused, and to lay aside all that are of doubtful temper. They have stimulated research in every branch of knowledge that can by any possibility cast new light on the claims of the Gospel, and they thus add from age to age new materials to the stupendous mass of evidence which testifies in favour of Jesus of Nazareth. In this way the enemies of Religion often do it a service more essential than can be rendered to it by its friends.

Christianity is a Religion which courts inquiry. It insists, as was never done before, on an " honest and sincere heart," as the condition precedent of all proper appreciation of its nature and all effectual reception of its spirit and power. But at the same time it also insists upon its right to consideration and obedience, on the single ground of its objective proofs — proofs which are fitted to convince even

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the most unspiritual, if they only give them heed. It has arguments adapted to every variety of capacity, temperament, and culture. And there is the crowning argument of all, which is supplied by the lives of its disciples, and which grows stronger just in proportion as we most need it. " By their fruits shall ye know them," is the test of tests for a principle or a system of doctrine, and never has our faith emerged so triumphantly from the application of this test as in her times of fiercest trial. Her power to conquer foes and extend her sway over ignorance and sin, her ability to convince gainsayers and win over scoffing scepticism, have never shone out so brightly as when, to human eye, all things seemed to be against her. Then it is that her people, purged of earthly passion, and inspired with a divine enthusiasm, mount up as on eagles' wings, to a more than earthly virtue. And then, if ever, our faith might renounce all dependence on dialectics, while it demonstrates on the open arena of toil and travail, the celestial spirit it breathes, and the superhuman energy with which it is endowed. Yet even at such seasons, Christianity is still ready to give reasons for the hope that is in her. Even then her sons argue, while they suffer, and at no periods in the history of the Church have they done it more acutely or profoundly than when they had in full view the fagot and the stake.

The days on which we have fallen are not days of persecution. They are days of ease; and therefore days of languid faith. Even among those who profess Christ, religious service, whether in the sanctuary, or in the duties and charities of daily life, is sadly marred by a spirit of epicurean self-indulgence. The robust and lofty zeal which loves to encounter foes, and is prodigal of self-sacrifice, is now replaced too often, by a sordid spirit, which shuns hardship, and cares only to escape perdition at last. On

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the other hand, among those who decline submission to the word of Christ, many of the amenities and graces of the Christian character are affected. Many too, who as Deists or avowed Sceptics, would have poured coarse ridicule and invective on the doctrines of the Cross in a former age, now profess and call themselves Christians. They cannot away with its distinguishing doctrines, bat they honour the morality of the New Testament—they are willing to uphold the religion of their country, and they condescendingly admit, that when properly retrenched and amended by the aid of their spiritual insight, the Gospels afford the best Republication of Natural Theology, the nearest approach to the one absolute religion that the world has seen. This spurious Christianity naturally amalgamates with the cultivation of letters and the progress of science. Suavity and delicacy of thought are recommended. Profligacy is represented as losing all its deformity when it loses half its grossness. The individual conscience is put forward as supreme arbiter of all our conduct, and the instinctive impulses of the soul as carrying with them a sufficient pledge of their own lawfulness. Measuring all things by itself, the mind is given over to self-laudation and self-idolatry. Every declaration of God is to be examined by the finite measure of our understanding. Rationalism is substituted for faith, and just so much of religious sentiment retained, as the mind of man can comprehend and the natural heart approve.

What is to be expected of such a Christianity ? " While the gentle gale breathes sweetly, and the bright sun shines, none of the monsters of the deep will rise to view. So long as these shadows of Christian virtue continue the world's favourites, this substitute for our faith will retain its character of decorum and amiability, but no longer. Let sensuality command profit or applause, the gifted poet be-

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comes the willing pander to the lowest appetites of human nature. Is the established order of civil subjection condemned by the opinion of the world ? The philosopher will serenely assist in delivering up to slaughter those who refuse to join the ranks of anarchy. Is the Church or the cloister stigmatized by the multitude as the stronghold of superstition? Those who frequent them will be surrendered to violence even by the advocates of a high civilization with as little remorse as the Inquisition once immolated the heretic. No form of faith branded as hostile to human progress by these ' friends of light' will escape the utmost extremity of hatred and persecution if it shall dare to be loyal to its convictions."*

It becomes the guardians of truth then, to be on the alert. They will be cajoled if possible — into a surrender of the only part of Keligionf which is worth contending for. They will be urged and entreated to accept the sophistries of earthly wisdom, as an adequate compromise ; to seek toleration for Christianity as a favour from enlightened unbelief ; to purchase a truce, at any price, from those who despise the law of the Lord. Let none of those things move them. Their province in these days is to stand fast by the old land-marks. Are the noblest bulwarks of our Faith assailed ? even belief

* Sir Francis Palgrave, altered.

f Lessing, the poet and philosopher, though a religious sceptic, thus speaks of Neologists :

" A botch-work of smatterings and half-philosophy is that system of religion which people now want to set up in the place of the old one; and with far more invasion upon reason and philosophy than the old one ever pretended. If Christ is not the True God, the Mahommedan religion is indisputably far better than the Christian, and Mahommed himself was incomparably a greater and more honourable man than Jesus Christ; for he was more truth-telling, more circumspect in what he said, and more zealous for the honour of the one and only God, than Christ was, who, if he did not exactly give himself out for God, yet at least said a hundred two-meaning things to lead simple people to think so ; while Mahommed could never be charged with a single instance of doubledealing in this way."

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in the Divine Personality, in a Sovereign and all perfect "Will — in the Supernatural, as the great element in Miracle, Prophecy, and Providence — in the Gospel, as a medicine for diseased and all but dead humanity — in the mission of the Comforter, and in the regeneration which he, through Christ's truth, works in our poor souls and bodies — are these the great fundamentals of our Faith assailed ? Let those who have been set for the defence of the Gospel see to it that they are not wanting. These grand verities must be intensified with a new life in our own souls. They must be evolved with new clearness and force on the consciousness of others. That we may feel and comprehend more adequately the glory that there is in Christ's Cross, we must study it more profoundly, look to it more earnestly and confidingly as our souls' only hope, and pray without ceasing that through it the world may be crucified unto us and we unto the world.