A portraiture of modern skepticism...

Contents

PAGE

Preface v

Part I

Chap. I. The views of Sceptics respecting the

moral character of God 13

II. Infidels profess to hold the doctrine of

the Divine Existence, but neglect all religious worship 18

III. A brief survey of the character of that

morality which Infidelity inculcates

and displays 23

IV. The practical effects of Infidelity 29

V. A contrasted view of Infidelity and

Christianity 33

VI. An affectionate appeal to those who have

been entangled in the snares of Infidelity 41

Part II. The Truth And Excellence Of Christianity

Chap. I. The comparative credit due to the conclusions of Sceptics and Christians ... 49 iv

CONTENTS,

PACK

Chap. II. The Evidence of Christianity admits of being brought home individually, with convincing power, to every man's heart 60

— III. A brief survey of those branches of evi-

dence which it is proper to urge upon the attention of those who have not as yet yielded up their minds to the divine authority of the gospel 69

section first. The Internal Evidence of Christianity 70

1 . The moral character of its great Founder 7 1

2. The sublimity of its diction 79

3. The high standard of its morality 85

4. The coincidence of Christianity with

the character of God and the actual condition of man 100

section second. The External Evidence of Christianity 113

1. Miracles 114

2. The Resurrection of Christ 145

3. Prophecy 158

4. The early success of Christianity 178

5. The moral and social benefits conferred

on mankind by Christianity 197

Chap. IV. On the uncorrupted transmission of the

Sacred Books 210

— V. On the Inspiration of the Holy Scrip-

tures 225

— VI. Popular objections to the full Inspira-

tion of the Holy Scriptures 253

Conclusion j 261

Preface

As the forms of infidelity are constantly changing, it becomes the duty of all good men to watch its versatile movements, and to endeavour, according to their several abilities, to counteract its subtle and pernicious influence. Standing, as we now do, in the full blaze of secular knowledge, there is the utmost danger, through the depravity of our fallen nature, of our preferring the wisdom of man to the wisdom of God ; and if the advocates of revealed truth do not rush into the field of conflict with the enemies of human happiness, there is reason to fear that scepticism will obtain a partial and momentary triumph : — I say partial and momentary, for the vi

PREFACE.

truth of Heaven must ultimately prevail, and every power that would silence the voice of " the living oracles" must at last be crushed by the omnipotent energy of the Son of God. I am not afraid for the ark of the Lord ; but I regard it as a solemn duty to contribute my aid, however humble, to the defence of revealed truth ; and particularly to make my appeal to that portion of my fellow men who, either from mental tendency, or association in life, are peculiarly exposed to the desolating and pernicious onset of sceptical opinions.

I am aware there is nothing novel or peculiar in the treatise which I now place on the altar of the public ; but I am fully satisfied that the position I have taken is sure, and that the sternest or the most insidious infidelity has no honest argument to oppose to the conclusions I have ventured, with unhesitating confidence, to draw. I have written with the decision which becomes him who feels he has truth, and the truth of

PREFACE.

vii

Heaven, on his side ; and I beseech no man, who deigns to examine what I have said, to indulge a sneer, while conscience tells him that he should offer up a prayer to " the Father of lights" for wisdom to guide his devious course, and, above all, to rectify his wayward and erring heart.

If there be any thing requiring distinct specification in the plan of the following work, it is the order pursued in laying down the series of evidence in support of the claims of Revelation. Whether right or wrong, I have wrought my way from the interior to the outworks ; and have made my first attack on the citadel of the heart, by endeavouring to point out the adaptations of Christianity to the known and admitted condition of human nature. In doing so, I flatter myself that 1 have pursued a simpler and more natural course than those writers upon the same important subject who have placed an almost exclusive dependence upon external evidence. At the same time, I have not dared to overlook any viii

PREFACE, part of that proof which shews the Bible to be the word of God.

In the views I have ventured to express, in reference to the momentous subject of Inspiration, I am fully aware that I have exposed myself to the criticisms of some of my friends, eminent for their piety and biblical erudition. But this I cannot help. I have gone where truth led me ; and I verily believe, in the fullest sense, that the Scriptures are — The word of God. Should any respectable individual, giving his name, do me the honour to controvert my views of verbal inspiration, I shall, if spared, endeavour to reply to his animadversions. But I will not allow myself to be dragged into the field of controversy by any one who treats this awful subject with irreverence. May all my readers be taught of God !

Part First. A Portraiture Of Modern Scepticism

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

" There is no fear of God before their eyes:"* — Such is the concluding sentence of a description which strips fallen humanity of all its boasted excellence ; which shews, by a most convincing train of reasoning, that Jews and Gentiles are alike guilty before God ; and which pictures, in vivid colours, the awful depravity into which men sink without the intervention and the vital reception of the Gospel of peace. As the whole race are involved in one common apostacy, there is only one remedy that meets their case, and that remedy is Christianity. Wherever this divine catholicon is embraced, it ultimately

* Romans, iii. 18.

B

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

effects the cure of man's moral distempers; it purifies his conscience from guilt, by an application of " the blood of sprinkling it purifies his heart by the operation of a living faith ; and it purines his life by the all-subduing influence of motives which animate him with the love of God, and with the quenchless desire of being conformed to his moral image. Wherever Christianity is rejected, man remains the victim of apostacy, the child of wrath, the sport of evil passions, and, in the truest sense, " without God, and without hope in the world."* Whether we survey a state of pure heathenism, f or contemplate a condition of society in which Christianity is rejected as a fable, we behold, in either case, a soil fertile in every species of wickedness that can insult the divine Majesty, or that can degrade and brutalize the human race. Could we conceive of a community wholly made up of men denying Revelation, and wholly imbued

* Eph. ii. 12. f It may be fairly questioned, from the practices of all pagan countries, whether there be any people in a state of pure heathenism. Tradition seems every where to have spread some faint glimmerings of celestial light.

with the principles and feelings of modern deism, we should have presented before our minds a scene of moral turpitude and guilt, too fearful to admit of minute examination. In such a community, we should see every social tie dissolved, every virtuous obligation trampled upon, and all the savage passions of the human heart brought into resistless and destructive play. In the creed of an infidel there is nothing whatever to deter him from the basest actions, provided he can screen himself from the eye of public justice, and from the scorn and derision of his fellow men. He is a man altogether without principle, who denies the legitimate distinction between virtue and vice, who resolves all human motive into a principle of self-love, and who is an equal foe to the laws of Heaven, and to the wise and benevolent institutions of men. A powerful writer, and an acute observer of mankind, has said, that " modern unbelievers are Deists in theory, Pagans in inclination, and Atheists in practice."* They profess, indeed, to believe in one supreme and uncreated Intelli-

* Rev. Andrew Fuller. See his Works, vol. i. page 17.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

gence, infinitely benevolent, and infinitely holy ; but they neither cultivate his benevolence, nor imitate his purity; and as it respects prayer, and praise, and the homage of devout worship, they are as scornfully neglectful of them as if there were no God, and are practically in that state of total irreligion, which shews that verily "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Though they talk loudly of one God, and profess to pay him homage in the temple of nature, it is most clear that in escaping from the folly and absurdity of the "gods many and lords many''* of the heathen, they have plunged themselves into a state of reckless scepticism and doubt, which leaves every perfection of the Deity undefined, which utterly extinguishes his moral government, and which renders even the belief of his very existence a powerless and uninfluential admission.

By the aid of Revelation, indeed, they have wrought their way out of the Pantheon; but, standing in the full blaze of celestial discovery, they have set themselves to blaspheme " the

* 1 Cor. viii. 5.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

only living and true God."* Ungrateful return for that light which the God of mercy has shed upon their path, and which was never surely intended to heighten their guilt, or to accelerate their condemnation !

What, then, are we to understand by modem infidelity ? Xot surely that infidelity is a new thing ; for since man lost the image of his God, he has, in all the periods of his eventful history, evinced a tendency to discredit his Maker, and even " when he knew him, not to glorify him as God."f To provide, in some degree, against this tendency, and to preserve the successive revelations of Heaven from being utterly lost, the Most High selected one family as the depositaries of his truth, and as the ministers of his mercy to the rest of mankind.

It would be easy to shew, by an induction of facts, that it was infidelity, in days of old, which paved the way for the abominations of polytheism. Men first discredited and opposed the true oracles of Heaven, and then they set

B 2

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

themselves to serve God in their own way, and to prescribe a religion and a worship for themselves ; and because " they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient ; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, back-biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents ; without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."* It was such infidelity as this, my esteemed reader, which prepared the minds of mankind for all the grossness and all the absurdity of heathenism ; it was such infidelity as this which obtained in Philistia, and Egypt, and Canaan ; it was such infidelity as this which called forth

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

the stupendous energy of Omnipotence, in confounding and terrifying those evil powers who contemned the name of Israel's God, and oppressed the chosen tribes ; yea, it was such infidelity as this which prompted all the idolatries of the ancient church, who no sooner forgot the Lord their God, than they set themselves to worship the gods of the nations among whom they sojourned.

Infidelity is no new thing. It is a plant indigenous to the sinful heart of man ; it has sprung up in every age ; it has more or less prevailed in every nation under the whole face of heaven; it is the palpable exhibition of that secret and deep-rooted unbelief which is unwilling to accredit any communication as divine that does not picture the Most High as a being altogether answering to the sinful imaginings of a depraved and apostate heart.

By modern infidelity, then, we are simply to understand those new forms, and that new energy which scepticism has put on, in modem times, and more particularly since the era of the French revolution ; by which it has mightily diffused itself among all ranks of society, and has produced a class of writers capable of making their appeal to each separate branch of the community. It is modern y because those who are yet in middle life can remember the baneful period when it began to exert its giant strength, and when, with a fiend-like daring, it aimed a deadly blow at the thrones of monarchs and at the altars of religion. We can remember all this, and we can trace in the bloody and impure and ruthless steps of infidelity, the hateful character which belongs to it. It is modem, for it has decked itself forth in a thousand novel aspects, — at one time assuming the air of reason and philosophy; at another, appealing to the most vulgar prejudices of the human mind ; — now weaving itself into the texture of history, and then clothing itself in the maxims of political wisdom; — in some instances, concealing itself beneath the witchery of a well-imagined tale: and, in others, polluting even the very streams of salvation, by infusing a portion of its deadly virulence into the theology of the age.*

* In proof of this, see Professor Milman's History of the Jews, and many other productions savouring of the Neological school.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

It is modern, for where, at any former period in the history of the world, did a thing so worthless and abominable put on such an imposing air, and give itself forth as an angel of mercy to the afflicted race? Though it has taught men, that " adultery must be practised if we would obtain the advantages of life ; that female infidelity, when known, is a small thing; and, when unknown, nothing;"* — that "there is no merit or crime in intention ;' f — that "the civil law is the sole foundation of right and wrong, and that religion has no obligation but as enjoined by the magistrate;'^ — that "all the morality of our actions lies in the judgment we ourselves form of them ;"§ — " that lewdness/' in certain cases only, " resembles thirst in a dropsy, and inactivity in a lethargy ;" || — that virtue is " only the love of ourselves;"^! — though these are the scandalous lessons which it has unblushingly taught mankind, yet is it loudly proclaimed as the only system calculated to model and perfect humanity ;

* Hume. f Volney's Law of Nature.

X Hobbes. § Rousseau.

|| Lord Herbert, the father of English Deists. Lord Bolingbroke.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

as the last and only refuge for the sorrowing, suffering, and unhappy children of men ! This it is which is to rescue them from all unworthy prejudices, which is to dissipate the mists of ages, which is to bring back the golden period of wisdom and reason, which is to convert the whole earth into a paradise, and which is to make men happy as angels under its mild and benignant sway! ! There is no cant so disgusting as that of infidelity. Though most of its advocates have been libertines, though its footsteps may be traced in the blood which it has spilt, though it has trampled on all the laws of personal property and of individual right, though it pollutes and degrades wherever it touches, yet are its advocates ever and anon boasting of its sublime virtues, and its blessed achievements. One thing we may be quite sure of, that no one will listen to their vain and empty declamations till he has lost a certain portion of self-esteem, and till he wants to find an excuse for his conduct in the laxness and uncertainty of his belief*

* " The natural bias of the heart is to sin, and consequently to infidelity, the excuse and covering for sin." — See the Rev. Charles Bridge's Life of Miss M. J. Graham, p. 22.

Looking at both the literary and vulgar part of modern infidels, we are constrained to say of them, in the words of the great apostle, " There is no fear of God before their eyes/'

Chapter I

THE VIEWS WHICH INFIDELS HAVE ENTERTAINED RESPECTING THE MORAL CHARACTER OF GOD.

God cannot be duly feared, as the proper object of religious homage, where his moral attributes and perfections are lost sight of. If we disconnect his wisdom and power from his holiness and goodness and j ustice, it is impossible to conceive of him with reverence, or to think of him with complacency. In the Christian Scriptures, God's natural attributes are invariably represented as the ministers of his benevolence, integrity, and faithfulness. They declare him to be " a God of truth, and without iniquity ; just and right"* in all his ways. They proclaim him to be " the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and in truth ; keeping mercy for thousands, for-

* Deut. xxxii, 4,

C giving iniquity, transgression, and sin. and yet by no means clearing the guilty. "* They describe him as " of purer eyes than to behold evil/" and tell us that "he cannot look upon iniquity." f They exhibit him as " righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works/' J Thev teach us, that he is "not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with him."§ Such is the God of Revelation ; — a Being infinitely -wise and powerful indeed, but one, at the same time, " glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, and ever doing wonders ;"|| a Being before whom the highest orders of created intelligences prostrate themselves and exclaim, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts ; the whole earth is full of his glory.

How unlike are these descriptions of the eternal and immutable God, to the vague, contradictory, and even wicked representations of infidelity. "We cannot," says Lord Bolingbroke, " ascribe goodness and justice to God, according to our ideas of them, nor argue with any cer-

* Psalm v. 4. || Exod. xv. 11. f Isa. vi. 3.

tainty about them;" and again, " it is absurd to deduce moral obligations from the moral attributes of God, or to pretend to imitate him in those attributes.' ' The language held by Bolingbroke is common to the infidel school. The entire moral character of God is overlooked by them, unless when they talk of his mercy, winch they always do in a manner totally inconsistent with the existence of an}' such thing as a moral government. Mercy displayed at the awful risk of prostrating the claims of immutable holiness, can only be another name for injustice ; and can therefore have no affinity to that infinitely benevolent Being who, in all the distributions both of his goodness and mercy, acts in a manner worthy of himself, the source and pattern of all the rectitude and purity which exist throughout the universe.

"The object," 5 says a distinguished author, u of the Christian adoration is Jehovah, the God of Israel ; whose character for holiness, justice, and goodness, is displayed in the doctrines and precepts of the gospel, in a more affecting light than by any of the preceding dispensations. But who or what is the god of deists? It is true they have been shamed out of the polytheism of the heathens. They have reduced their thirty thousand deities into one, but what is his character ? What attributes do they ascribe to him? For any thing that appears in their writings, he is as far from the holy, the just, and the good, as those of their heathen predecessors. They enjoy a pleasure, it is allowed, in contemplating the productions of wisdom and power ; but as to holiness, it is foreign from their inquiries : a holy God does not appear to be suited to their wishes."* After tracing the conflicting views of modern infidels, in reference to the proper standard of morality, the same powerful writer adds, — "It is worthy of notice that, amidst all the discordance of these writers, they agree in excluding the Divine Being from their theory of morals. They think after their manner ; but 6 God is not in all their thoughts/ In comparing the Christian doctrine of morality, the sum of which is love, with their atheistical jargon, one seems to hear

* Fuller's Works, vol. i. p. 11.

MODERN SCEPTICISM.

the voice of the Almighty, saying, 6 Who is this that darken eth counsel with words without knowledge? Fear God, and keep his commandments ; for this is the whole of man/ "*

* Fuller's Works, vol. i. p. 27,

Chapter II

THOUGH INFIDELS PROFESS TO HOLD THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE EXISTENCE, YET THEY REFUSE OR NEGLECT ALL RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.

In this feature of their character, they are more inconsistent, and more irreligious too, than even pagan idolators themselves, who evince great zeal and make many sacrifices in the service of their dumb idols. One would imagine, that if there be one great first cause, the Creator and upholder of all things, the benignant source of all the happiness which creatures in any part of the universe enjoy — one would imagine, I say, that if such a Being exist, he is entitled to the devout and spiritual worship of all his intelligent creatures. Such is the dictate even of unassisted reason, as has been demonstrated by a reference to the rudest and most brutalized portions of the human race. How astounding then is the fact, that only in Christian countries can men be found denying the validity of stated worship to the Deity ; as if the only use to be made of Revelation were to employ it for the horrid purpose of obliterating all our natural feelings of reverence for his awful perfections ! In the inspired volume we learn that " God is a spirit, and that they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."* This supposes the duty of worship, and prescribes the qualities by which it is to be distinguished. The language of those who know the divine character, and who possess a right spirit, will ever be, " O come, let us sing unto the Lord ; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God, and we are the people * of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand."f Men may boast as they

B John iv. 24.

t Psalm xcv.

please of their belief in one God, but if they do him no actual homage, if they have no stated seasons and places of devotion, they are in a far worse condition than were those benighted Athenians, whom Paul beheld prostrate at an altar dedicated to "the unknown God.'* It is the temper, the disposition of infidelity, no less than its preposterous creed, which distances it from the spirit of true worship. Devotion cannot grow in a soil on which the inexpressible levity of scepticism has cast its withering blight. Religious awe cannot be felt in a mind that has no sensible hold of God's moral perfections. Love to God, drawing the soul forth in repeated and habitual acts of grateful adoration, cannot dwell in a heart where worldly lusts and enmity against the moral government of the Most High are struggling for the mastery.

The very same thing which led men of old to forsake the worship of the only living and true God, and to betake themselves to the abominations of idolatry, is that which banishes

- Acts xvii. 23.

MODERN SCEPTICISM.

from every circle of infidels every thing like the semblance of religious homage to the Deity. Is it demanded what this said thing is? I reply, in the language of the Apostle, " they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.'"* They lost all delight in his holy character, and hence they sought relief for their guilt}' feelings in the exercises of a religion which corresponded with the dictates of their own impure hearts.

Deists are placed somewhat peculiarly. As they are found only where Revelation has either completely banished the grossness of idolatry, or where, at least, it has shed its benignant rays, they cannot for shame revel in the impurities of heathenism ; but as they take no delight whatever in the character of that one God whom they profess to adore, they live in the habitual and avowed neglect of Ins worship. The ancestors of paganism forsook his worship, " because they did not like to retain him in then thoughts and for the same reason precisely infidelity has no temple, no altar, no sacrifice, no avowed, habitual, and well-defined worship to that glorious Being, from the near contemplation of whose character it shrinks with instinctive dislike and dread.

Could we see infidelity cultivating the spirit of prayer, laying aside its extreme and disgusting levity, and evincing an anxiety to arrive at the true knowledge of God, we should begin to hope on behalf of its unhappy victims ; but reckless as its advocates are of all devotion, and leaning as they do to their own understanding, and evincing an utter contempt for every thing sacred, we are compelled to look on them as in a condition peculiarly hopeless, and must say respecting them " There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Chapter III

A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE CHARACTER OF THAT MORALITY WHICH INFIDELITY INCULCATES AND DISPLAYS.

All who read the Bible attentively, whatever they may think of its divine origin, must be struck with the perfection of its moral precepts, and especially with the sublime and cogent reasons which it assigns for the performance of every duty which we owe both to God and man.* That monster of wickedness, Thomas Paine, whom no man that ever knew could trust, has said respecting the Bible — " I feel for the honour of my Creator in having such a book called after his name."' He must surely have meant, that he felt for himself, when he discovered in the Bible, if he ever read it, such an array of holy and benevolent precepts upon which it had been his

* See the second part of this Treatise, chap. i. sect. 3.

habitual practice, during a long life, to trample with proud disdain !

The morality of the Bible is not the morality of mere decorum, the garnishing of the outward man, the " making clean the outside of the cup and platter ;" it is the morality of principle, — it is the morality of right dispositions, — it is the morality of love to God and love to man. Infidelity says, " there is no merit or crime in intention ;" but Christianity says, that hatred is murder,* that secret lust is adultery,f and that we must " love the Lord our God with all our heart, and strength, and mind, and our neighbour as ourselves.'^ It prohibits the resentment of injuries, and urges the forgiveness of enemies. § It tells us "to weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice." || It enforces every relative duty by an appeal to motives equally tender and sublime,^ and it demands a personal sanctity of manners, which admits of no reserve, and leaves room for the

* 1 John, iii. 14, 15. t Matt. xxii. 37—39. j| Horn. xii. 15.

t Matt, xxvii. 28.

indulgence of no single habit of transgression.*

If infidelity were from above, it would bear the marks of its celestial origin. God must be holy ; and a religion suited to his intelligent creatures ought to cany with it some resemblance to his moral nature. Infidelity has no such resemblance in either theory or practice. In theory it is an apology for almost every crime that disgraces human nature; and in the different codes of its advocates, every species of transgression is either defended or palliated. And what it is in theory, it is yet more abundantly in practice. Its leading characters have been worthless beyond expression. What were Herbert, and Hobbes, and Shaftesbury, and Woolston, and Tindal, and Bolingbroke, but so many notorious hypocrites, who, for a piece of paltry* self-interest, professed to love and reverence Christianity, while they were all the while insidiously endeavouring to lower its credit in the world? In the long and gloomy catalogue of

* Heb. xii 14.

D human delinquents, where shall we find two miscreants such as Rochester and Wharton r They were indeed a reproach to our common nature. Morgan's dishonest quotation of Scriptoe to serve a purpose, and his miserable cant in professing himself to be a Christian, notwithstanding his amazing zeal to subvert all the peculiarities of revealed religion, speak volumes as to his notions of morality. Hume, the most dishonest and prejudiced of all historians,* died as a fool dieth, cracking vulgar jokes with some of Iris unhappy companions. t Voltaire so little regarded truth, that, in speaking in his " Ignorant