Lectures on Christianity...

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Contents

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Preface, ----- 5

Lecture I. — Necessity of Christianity shown from the doctrines, state of morals, and worship of heathen nations, ----- 17

Preface

While infidelity, under its different modifications, still exists, and exerts a demoralizing influence upon the hearts and lives of men, it becomes the duty of one and all, in every reasonable and possible way, to counteract its influence. And to remain indifferent or inactive, especially when infidelity is renewing its ardor and work of death, is highly culpable, and no excuse can clear us from the charge of guilt.

Infidelity is constantly changing its position, though its nature and effects remain the same ; and notwithstanding much has been said, and much written, to detect it in its windings, and "turn the tide of souls another way," yet, the period has arrived in the history of the church, and of the world, when every lover of his country, and of "pure and undefiled religion," should stand firm in their defence, against the cavils and sophistry of this heaven-daring and soul-destroying ystem. This object has been kept in view, in preparing and presenting to the public the following Lectures. How far it has been accomplished, we leave the candid reader to judge.

PREFACE.

These Lectures were first delivered in the village of Ravenna, Ohio, and afterwards in Painesville, and the city of Cleveland, at the request of several intelli- | gent gentlemen in each place — for the purpose of informing the public in general, especially the youth, on what foundation the great superstructure of Christianity is built — and by the solicitude of numerous friends, both among ministers and laymen, and a desire to promote that religion which can impart substantial happiness to the human mind, we have consented to let them appear before the public in the present form.

We are far from thinking this work to contain all that might profitably be said on the subject herein discussed, or that no additions and improvements might be made for the better; still, we are of the opinion, I that a work of this kind has long been needed, espe*, J cially by young ministers, and those who have not I time or means for extensive reading. And we trust 1 that this volume will, in some measure, meet their wants, and fill a vacancy in their theological library.

All believers in Christianity, certainly, ought to acquaint themselves with the evidence by which it is authenticated ; and all unbelievers ought to be informed that we do not give credence to the doctrines and precepts of the Bible, without sufficient testimony; and that we are both willing and solicitous, that the foun-

PREFACE. IX

elation of our faith should be examined, and that too by the strictest rules of criticism. And as we have taken much pains, in preparing this summary of christian evidence, to collect testimony from history, philosophy, and experience, we trust that all into whose I hands it may chance to fall, will find something that will be both interesting and beneficial.

In the preparation of these Lectures, a great number of intelligent authors, both ancient and modern, have | been consulted ; and in many instances their arguments, and even words, are given verbatim. The arrangement, however, and many of the arguments and illustrations are original, some of which have been added since the Lectures were first delivered.

The unbeliever is affectionately invited, should this small volume come under his notice, candidly to read, and carefully weigh every argument contained therein, before he abandons all hope in the Saviour of mankind, and consents to cling, with an iron grasp, to that system of religion that excludes a moral Governor from the universe ; and that represents man, rational man, as living without law, dying without hope, and | destined to eternal oblivion !

The believer in Jesus Christ is also invited to notice, again, the cloud of witnesses with which he is compassed, and thereby strengthen his faith in the truths " of the gospel, and be prepared, with the weapons that

PREFACE.

.are mighty through God, to pull down the strong holds of infidelity.

And should one soul be rescued from the devouring jaws of the demon of infidelity — one soul be prevented from inhaling its fetid breath — or one soul confirmed in the belief of revealed truth — we shall, in a moral point of view, be fully compensated for the mental and physical labor it has cost, to place in their hands this compendium of the evidences of Christianity.

H. GILLMORE.

Cleveland, Ohio, May, 1837.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Both the friends and enemies of Christianity agree in placing man high in the scale of being, and none are more ready to acknowledge the strength and expansibility of his reasoning powers, than those who receive the Christian system as their guide. Man, by his Maker, is constituted a proper subject of law. He has power to perceive the nature of law ; power to understand its claims ; power to remember its promises and threatenings ; power to choose or discard its promised blessings or threatened curse. And all admit that this power was given him by his Maker. But to say that man possesses power to be governed by law, and no law is given him, is a palpable absurdity, and deeds only to be mentioned to refute it. Yet, while the infidel eulogizes human nature, and places man on a lofty eminence among the works of God, he represents him as a lawless unaccountable creature.

Science, in its researches, has ascertained that nature, whether organic or inorganic, is governed by fixed laws^ (only when God by his mighty power sees proper to counteract them ;) that beasts, birds, and fishes are governed by fixed laws adapted to their various natures^ B and we ask, why should man, who stands on an eminence far above all these, be overlooked ? Why should he be left without a rule of action ? Infidelity declares nature and reason to be his guide, it is true ; but we hope to be able, subsequently, to show that these are not sufficiently authoritative in their nature, or adapted to man's moral powers, desires or circumstances. Man being a moral agent, a moral law is necessary for his government. None but his Maker can give and enforce upon him a moral law, and such a law cannot be given and enforced without a revelation. The adaptation of a moral law to the nature of man; its being made known by express revelation, and enforced upon him by penal sanctions, do not curtail his intellectual powers, nor depose reason from her throne ; but have a tendency to strengthen these active powers of man, and give to reason a more extended field of action. Neither the utility or dignity of human reason can be lessened by confining the exercise of it within those natural boundaries which the Creator himself hath assigned it. Reason is fully competent to judge of the credibility of any thing which is proposed to it as a divine revelation. But we deny that it. has a right to dispute (because we maintain that it has not the ability to disprove) the wisdom or the truth of those things which revelation proposes to its acceptance. Reason is to judge whether those things be indeed revealed ; and this judgment it is to form from the evidence to that effect. In this respect it is " the foundation of all certitude," because it enables us to ascertain the fact, that God hath spoken to us. But this fact once established, the credibility, nay, the certainty of the things revealed, follows as of necessary consenu* -icc no deduction of reason can be more indubitable than this, that whatever God reveals must be true. Here, then, the authority of reason ceases. Its judgment is finally determined by the fact of the revelation itself ; and it has thenceforth nothing to do but to believe and obey.

Revelation is supposed to treat of subjects with which man's natural reason is not conversant. It is therefore to be expected that it should communicate some truths not to be fully comprehended by human understandings. But these we may safely receive, upon the authority which declares them without violating truth. Real and evident contradictions, no man can, indeed, believe, whose intellects are sound and clear. But such contradictions are no more proposed for our belief, than impossibilities are enjoined for our practice ; though things difficult to understand, as well as things hard to perform may perhaps be required of us, for the trial of our faith and resolution. Seeming contradictions may also occur; but these may seem to be such because they are slightly or superficially considered, or because they are judged of by principles inapplicable to the subject, and without so clear a knowledge of the nature of the things revealed, as may lead us to form an adequate conception of them. These, however, afford no solid argument against the truth of what is proposed to our belief: since, unless we had really such an insight into the mysterious parts of revelation as might enable us to prove them to be contradictory and false, we have no good ground for rejecting them ; and we only betray our own ignorance and perverseness, in refusing to take God's word for the truth of things which pass our limited understanding.

The simple question, indeed, to be considered is, whether it be reasonable to believe, upon competent authority, things which we can neither discover ourselves, nor when discovered, fully and clearly comprehend ? Now every person of common observation must be aware, that unless he be content to receive, solely upon the testimony of others, a great variety of information, much of which he may be wholly unable to account for or explain, he could scarcely obtain a competency of knowledge to carry him safely through the common concerns of life. And with respect to scientific truths, the greatest masters in philosophy know full well, that many are reasonably to be believed ; nay, must be believed, on sure and certain grounds of conviction, though they are absolutely incomprehensible by our understandings, and even so difficult to be reconciled with other truths of equal certainty, as to carry the appearance of being contradictory and impossible. This will serve to show, that it is not contrary to reason to believe, on sufficient authority, some things which cannot be comprehended, and some things, which, from the narrow and circumscribed views we are able to take of them, appear to be repugnant to our notions of truth. The ground on which we believe such things, is the strength and certainty of the evidence with which they are accompanied. And this is precisely the ground on which we are required to believe the truths of revealed religion.

The evidence that they come from God is, to Reason itself, as incontrovertible a proof that they are true, as in matters of human science would be the evidence of the senses, or of mathematical demonstration. And that they came from God, it is the design of the following Lectures to show; while we appeal to the reason and experience of all who may hear them, as to the reasonableness and force of the evidence we present on their Necessity, Authenticity, and Utility.

Praying that God may guide our minds into all truth, and help us by his grace to improve it to our present, future, and everlasting benefit.

"Wrong not the Christian — think not reason yours; 'Tis reason our great Master holds so dear; 'Tis reason's injured rights his wrath resents; ""ris reason's voice obeyed, his glories crown. On argument alone our faith is built/'

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Part First. Necessity Of Christianity

LECTURE I.

Necessity of Christianity shown from the doctrines, STATE OF MORALS, AND WORSHIP OF HEATHEN NATIONS.

"Earth, turning from the sun, brings night to man: Man, turning from his God, brings endless night — Where thou canst read no morals, find no friend, Amend no manners, and expect no peace.' '

While we endeavor to point out the moral condition of heathen nations, from which we argue the necessity of the Christian Religion, w T e shall notice their doctrines, morals, and worship.

I. Their doctrines.

With all the attainments and philosophy that ancient pagans were in possession of, and with the book of nature spread out before them, many of them excluded a Supreme Intelligence from the universe. Mr. Cudworth enumerates four forms assumed by this species of unbelief. The same principles which distinguish several of the Greek philosophic sects, may be traced in several of those of the Hindoos, and above all, the atheistical system of Budhoo branched off from the vain philosophy of the Brahminical school, and has extended farther than Hindooism itself.

Some of the learned among the heathen, it is true, acknowledge the existence of a God, and occasionally speak nobly concerning his attributes ; but at the same time they were led by their own imaginations and reasonings, to conclusions which neutralize the effect of their sublimer conceptions, and often contradict them. Hence, they believed that matter was eternal, and thought it absolutely impossible that any thing should be produced from nothing, thus destroying the notion of a creation, in its proper sense, and of a Supreme Creator. And it is worthy of remark, that when heathen writers speak in a becoming manner of the attributes of God, they do not include in their notions the same ideas that we draw from them, when learned from his own words. For instance, some of them taught that God saw and knew all things, yet those who lived after the Christian era, complained that the Christians had introduced a very troublesome and busy God, who did "diligently inquire into the manners, actions, words, and secret thoughts of all men." Cicero, too, denied the foreknowledge of God. Seneca agreed with others, that some part of matter was so stubborn, that God, the Artificer, could not change it ; that many things were made ill, and that in consequence of this, evil things happen to good men. From this notion it follows, that there is no calamity to which we are not liable, and that God himself is unable to protect us from it.

The knowledge they had of God was, therefore, by such speculations, rendered perfectly useless. Some taught that the obliquity and perverseness of matter was not only the source of natural, but also of moral evil : by which they either made sin necessary and irresistible,

NECESSITY OF QHRISTIAXITY. 19

or found in this opinion much to palliate it. Others refer moral evil to a natural principle of evil, or evil god, u emulous of the good God. ?? But whether natural and moral evil be traced to an eternal, uncontrollable matter, or to an eternal and independent anti-god, it is clear that the notion of a Supreme Deity, as contained in the Scriptures, and as conceived of by modern Theists, who have borrowed their light from them, could have no existence in such systems. Though some acknowledged the providence of God, others, particularly the Epicurean sect, denied it. According to the doctrine of Aristotle, God resides in the celestial sphere, and observes nothing and cares for nothing beyond himself, and neither immensity nor omnipresence belong to him.

The Stoics contended for a providence, but in their creed it was contradicted, by the doctrine of an absolute necessity, or fate, to which God and matter, or the universe, (which consists, as they think, of both,) was immutably subject ; and where they allow it they confine the care of the gods to great affairs.

Polytheism, also, was quite prevalent among the Platonists, and the followers of Pythagoras. And wherever Polytheism is admitted, it is as destructive of the doctrine of Providence, which they admitted, as is the doctrine of Fate — though by a different process. The Fatalist makes all things fixed and certain, and thus excludes all government. The Polytheist gives up the government of the world to innumerable opposing, contrary wills, and thus makes every thing uncertain — for if the favor of one deity be propitiated, the wrath of another, equally, or more powerful, may be provoked; or the gods may quarrel among themselves. Under the influence of such a system, timidity and gloom must tenant every bosom, and, in many instances, render life a burden. The Wesleyan missionaries thus speak of the state of the Cingalese: "We feel ourselves incapable of giving you a full view of the deplorable state of a people, who believe that all things are governed by chance; who find malignant gods, or devils, in every planet, whose influence over mankind they consider to be extremely great, and the agents who inflict all the evils that men suffer in the world. A people so circumstanced, need no addition to their miseries; but are objects towards which christian pity will extend itself, as far as the voice of their case can reach. They are literally, through fear of death, or malignant demons, all their life-time subject to bondage."

Among the Egyptian and Grecian philosophers we find a notion that " God is the soul of the world;" from which all human spirits come, and to which they will return — some immediately, and others through long courses of transmigration. The Hindoos are also taught to believe that at the end of every Calpa, (creation or formation,) all things are absorbed in the diety.

The views of the Heathen philosophers, concerning a future state, and immortality of the soul, have been mixed with uncertainty and doubt, and were filled with gross absurdities, and numerous contradictions.

The doctrine of Aristotle and the Peripatetics, gives no countenance to the opinion of the soul's immortality, or even of its existence after death. Democritus, and his followers taught that the soul is material and mortal. Heraclkus, that when the soul is purified from moist vapors, it returns into the soul of the universe; if not, perishes. Epicurus, and his followers, that "when death is, we are not/' Cicero alternated between unbelief and doubt; but never between doubt and certainty, with regard to the soul's immortality. Pliny declares that "the soul and body have no more sense after death, than before we were born." Csesar, "that beyond death there is neither place for care or joy." Though Seneca speaks of a divine part within us, which joins us to the gods, and that the day which he fears as his last, is the birth-day of eternity — yet, on other occasions he speaks out plainly, and says, " that death makes us incapable of good or evil."

The poets, it is true, spoke of a state of future rewards and punishments. They had the joys of Elysium, and the tortures of Tartarus; but both poets and philosophers regarded them as vulgar fables. Virgil g not hide this, and numerous quotations of the same import might be given both from him and other of their poets.

a Happy the man, whose vigorous soul can pierce Through the formation of this universe; Who nobly dares despise, with soul sedate, The din of Acheron and vulgar fate/'

Nor was the skepticism and unbelief of the wise and great, long kept from the vulgar, among whom they wished to maintain the old superstitions, as instruments by which they might be controlled. Cicero complains that the common people in his day mostly followed the doctrine of Epicurus.

Since then these erroneous and mischievous views concerning God, providence and a future state, or the total denial of them all, are found to have resulted from the rejection or loss of the primitive traditions; and further, as it is clear that such errors are totally subversive of the fundamental principles of morals and religion, and afford inducement to the commission of every species of crime, without remorse or fear of punishment; the necessity of a republication of these great doctrines, in an explicit and authentic manner, and of institutions for teaching and enforcing them upon all ranks of men, is evident ; and whatever proof may be adduced for the authentication of the christian revelation, it can never be pretended that a revelation to restore these great principles was not called for by the actual condition of man. And in proportion to the necessity of the case, is the strength of the presumption that one has been mercifully afforded.

II. State of morals among heathen nations.

The argument drawn from the state of morals among the heathen, is simple and obvious.

If the nature, extent, and obligation of morals rules had become involved in great misapprehension and obscurity; if what they knew of right and wrong wanted an enforcement, and an authority which it could not receive from their respective systems; and if, for want of efficient counteracting religious principles, the general practice had become irretrievably vicious — a direct interposition of the Divine Being was required for the republication of moral rules, and for their stronger enforcement.

The notions of all civilized heathens, on moral subjects, like their knowledge of the first principles of religion, mingled as they were with their superstitions.

prove that both were derived from a common source. There was a substantial agreement among them in many questions of right and wrong; but the boundaries which they themselves acknowledged, were not kept up, and the rule was gradually lowered to the practice, though not in all cases so as entirely to efface the original communications.

This is an important consideration, inasmuch as it indicates the transmission of both religion and morals from the patriarchal system, and both the primitive doctrines and their corresponding morals received early sanctions, the force of which was felt through succeeding ages. It shows, too, that even the heathen have always been under a moral government. The laws of God have never been quite obliterated, though their practice has ever been before their knowledge, and though the law itself was greatly and wilfully corrupted through the influence of their vicious inclinations.

Though many, if not all of the heathen nations, have been sensible of the obligation of some of the precepts of the second Table, which embodied the morals of the patriarchal ages, under a new sanction, yet, in all, the rule was perverted in theory, and violated in practice. Murder has, in all ages, and among all civilized, and most savage heathen nations also, been regarded as an atrocious crime; and the rule was so far accommodated to the violent and ferocious habits of men, as to fill every heathen land with blood-guiltiness. The slight regard paid to the life of man in all heathen countries, cannot have escaped the notice of reflective minds. C

They knew the rule; but the act,' under its grosser and more deliberate forms only, was thought to violate it.

Among the Romans, men were murdered in their very pastimes, by being made to fight with wild beasts and with each other; and though this was sometimes condemned, yet the passion for blood increased, and no war ever caused so great a slaughter as did the gladiatorial combats. They were at first confined to the funerals of great persons. The first show of this kind, exhibited in Rome by the Bruti, on the death of their father, consisted of three couples; but afterwards the number greatly increased. Julius Caesar presented three hundred pairs of gladiators ; and the Emperor Trajan, ten thousand of them for the entertainment of people. At one time, these horrid exhibitions deprived Europe of twenty thousand lives in one month. And though Cicero, Seneca, and others condemned these barbarities, it was in so incidental and indifferent a manner as to produce no effect. They were not abolished until after the establishment of Christianity.

The lives of slaves, among the heathens, were regarded no more than the lives of beasts. They knew and acknowledged the evil of murder, and had laws for its punishment. But to this despised class of human beings, they did not extend the rule; so that killing slaves, among them, was not accounted murder. The master had absolute power of life, or death, or torture; and their lives were therefore sacrificed in the most barbarous and wanton manner. The youth of Sparta made it their pastime frequently to lie in ambush by night for slaves, and sally out with daggers, and murder them in cool blood. The destruction of children, also, under some circumstances, was not regarded as a crime. Consequently, it was common for them to strangle, drown, or expose infants, especially if sickly or deformed. This expedient was approbated and enjoined by the most celebrated sages and legislators, in order to rid the state of useless or troublesome members. The same practice continues to this day, to a most affecting extent, not only among uncivilized pagans, but among the Hindoos and Chinese.

The practice of suicide was allowed, or rather recommended by them. And meekness, by Aristotle, is considered a defect, because the meek man will not avenge himself — and revenge is a more manly thing.

They had laws against adultery; and the higher the antiquity of the times, the more respect we see paid to chastity, and the better was the practice. Nor was the act only considered by some of their moralists as sinful; but the thought and desire — as may be observed in passages both in Greek and Roman writers. But as to this vice, too, as well as others, the practice lowered the rule ; and the authority of one lawgiver and moralist being neutralized by another, license was given to unbounded offence.

Lawgivers, statesmen, philosophers, and moralists, gave the sanction of their opinions and their practice to the vice of licentiousness; which foul blot of ancient heathenism continues to this day to mark the morals of pagan countries.

Usury, extortion, and fraud, were rather regarded as laudable acts, than as injurious to character; and so they continue to be esteemed wherever Christianity has not issued her authoritative laws against injustice in ail its degrees. Throughout India, there is said to be scarcely such a thing as common honesty.

It was well known " that no lie was to be used in contracts;" but they more frequently departed from this rule than enjoined it The rule of Menander was, " a lie is better than a hurtful truth." Plato says, " he may lie, who knows how to do it in a Jit season;" and Maximus Tyrius, " that there is nothing decorous in truth, but when it is profitable;" and both Plato and the Stoics frame a Jesuitical distinction between lying with the lips and in the mind. Deceit and falsehood have been, therefore, the character of all pagan nations, and continues to be to the present day. This is the character of the Chinese, as given by the best authorities. And of the Hindoos it is stated by the most respectable men, not merely missionaries, but by those who have long held official civil and judicial situations among them, that their disregard for truth is uniform and systematic.

The prevalence of perjury among them, is so universal as to involve the judges in extreme perplexity.

Though we believe, from the testimony within our reach, that heathen nations derived many of their doctrines and morals from the patriarchal system, through the medium of tradition, or otherwise; yet we think that in consequence of the doctrines being by them adapted to their wicked desires; and the rules of morality being lowered by their vicious practices, a direct interposition on the part of God was necessary, in order to restore truth and happiness to the world.

III. Worship of heathen nations.

It appears to be natural for all nations to adopt some mode of worship, and to pay their adorations either to the God that made the heavens and the earth, or to some of his creatures. And it is a well authenticated fact, that those who are the most enlightened, are the most consistent in their mode of worship. And that mode which is the most consistent, must be the best calculated to exalt and glorify the true God, and increase the felicity of man. But every one who is acquainted with the history of the heathens, wifl acknowledge that the different modes of worship and objects of adoration, which they have adopted, are well calculated to dishonor the true God, diminish their own happiness, and render them unuseful members of society.

The horrible practice of offering human sacrifices, prevailed throughout every region of the heathen world to a degree almost incredible, and it still prevails in many populous countries where Christianity has not yet been made known. There are incontestable proofs of its having subsisted among the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Persians, the Phoenicians, and all the various nations of the 'East. It was one of the crying sins of the Canaanites. The contagion spread over every part of Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Greeks and Romans, though less involved in this guilt than many other nations, were not altogether untainted with it. On great and extraordinary occasions, they had recourse to what was esteemed the most efficacious and most meritorious sacrifice that could be offered to the gods, the effusion of human blood. But among more barbarous nations this practice C* took a firmer root. The Scythians and Thracians, the Gauls and the Germans, were strongly addicted to it ; and the British islands, while under the gloomy and ferocious despotism of the Druids, were polluted with the religious murder of their inhabitants. In the semicivilized kingdoms of the western side of Africa, as Dahony, Ashantee, and others, man^ thousands fall every year victims to superstition. In America, Montezuma offered twenty thousand victims yearly to the sun ; and modern navigators have found the practice throughout the whole extent of the vast Pacific ocean. As for India, the' cries of its abominable and cruel superstitions have been repeatedly sounded in our ears ; and we may safely say, that not fewer than ten thousand lives fall a sacrifice to idolatry within its boundaries annually.