A present from a pastor to his young parishioners...

Contents

DISCOURSE I.

PAGE.

A BRIEF STATEMENT OF SOME OF THE EVI- DENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. - 1

Preface

The discourses contained in this little volume were written without a thought of printing them. With the exception of the first and the last, they were composed and delivered, as occasions called them forth in the ordinary routine of the writer's ministrations from the pulpit. The substance of the first was delivered in Harvard University chapel, as the Dudleian Lecture, and the last upon an occasion of which the discourse itself speaks. There is some repetition of topics in the intermediate discourses. The nature and effects of early habits are several times adverted to ; and the writer thought of leaving out portions of some of the discourses to avoid these repetitions. But finding that the remakrs and illustrations relating to the same topics were for the most part different in expression or bearing, and perceiving that leaving out these portions would make unseemly chasms, it was thought best to let them remain as originally written.

The author would not have it understood, that he has selected these discourses from the mass of his manuscripts, as affording the best specimens of his pulpit addresses either in respect to the subject matter or literary execution. He has chosen them because he thought he might do more good by thus addressing the young, than by any thing he could say to the mature. They have nothing to do with the disputes or speculations of the day ; no reference to dogmas or creeds ; and have nothing in them exclusive or sectarian. They are altogether practical, and are founded upon principles and considerations that appeal to our common humanity and upon the universally admitted truths of our common Christianity.

If they were written without a thought of printing, it may be asked, why are they printed? It has been long the writer's intention to comply with a request made him, by some of the young persons of the society with which he was connected during the earliest years of his ministry, that he would furnish them with some printed memorials of that ministry. He now fulfills that intention. He makes this his present to the young, who are children of the once young, to whom some of these discourses were addressed. He has placed at the end the character of Timothy Pickering, as a model for the young citizens of our country to imitate, and that while they survey his character they may learn, what, it is to be feared, they can not learn from any living examples, that there may be such a thing as undeviating political integrity and perfectly disinterested patriotism through a long series of years and in a great variety of the most responsible public offices, amidst the most violent conflicts and momentous revolutions of parties. Jan. 1844.

PRESENT FROM A PASTOR.

DISCOURSE I.

Part I . Brief Statement Of Some Of The Evidences Of Christianity

Amidst the wild speculations that tend to unsettle every thing and settle nothing, there is no object more worthy to engage the attention of the young, when of an age to think and inquire for themselves, than a sober and dispassionate examination of the evidences of the divine origin and authority of the religion, the institutions of which they are called upon to support, and, from Sabbath to Sabbath, are 1

Z A PRESENT

exhorted to make its precepts the guide of their lives, and its promises the foundation of their hopes for eternity. I can conceive of no attainment more desirable and important for the young, than an early and settled belief in the truth of the Christian revelation, founded upon rational and enlightened conviction. To state some of the principal facts and reasons, which have produced this convic T tion in the minds of the wisest and best of men, in every successive generation in all Christian countries since the first promulgation of this religion, is the object of the following discourse.

John, xx : 29. — Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. [The sense of the original in the last clause, may be more correctly expressed thus, — happy they, who having never seen, shall nevertheless believe.']

It was the peculiar fortune of a small number of our fellow men, including the disciple whom our Lord addressed, as in the text, to be eye and ear witnesses of the acts and discourses during his ministry, and of the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, who claimed to be a teacher, specially endowed and commissioned by God, the long predicted and earnestly expected Messiah of the remarkable people, to whom, when the fullness of time had come, he was sent. Upon the recorded testimony of these eye and ear witnesses to what they had heard, and to what they had seen with their eyes, what they had looked upon, and their hands had handled of the word of life, we and all who have professed themselves Christians since their time, rest our faith in the religion, which we gratefully receive as a revelation from God, a supernatural communication of his will and gracious purposes respecting the present duties and future destination of his human offspring.

That it is possible that the evidences of the truth of the evangelical history, addressed to our reason, can be as convincing and satisfactory to us, as the evidences addressed to the senses of the original witnesses were to them, no one, I presume, will take upon him seriously to affirm. And the feeling is natural, which all, who have reflected upon the subject, have sometimes experienced, and many have expressed, that those who have to rely upon the testimony of the original witnesses, are less favored than these witnesses in a matter of the deepest interest and of the highest moment to their virtue and happiness.

But if we view the matter rightly, it will appear that this circumstance puts a talent into our hands, from which we may derive a moral advantage over the original witnesses. Their faith had no virtue in itself, as they were situated ; it was an involuntary act of the mind. The evidence was irresistible. There was therefore no more merit in believing, than there is in seeing, when the light of day is poured upon the organ of vision. In all cases of sensible evidence, as of mathematical, or demonstrative proof, assent or faith, is an involuntary act of the mind, to which is attached no other merit than that of being affected according to an unalterable law of our nature. But when our assent is required to a proposition, which, if once admitted to be true, lays us under acknowledged obligation to suppress every evil or corrupt affection or disposition, to correct vicious habits if we have them, to elevate the character, to conform the temper and conduct to an exalted standard of piety and morals, assent or faith in such case, indicates a better disposition, conveys the idea of superior 1* b A PRESENT

candor and fairness, of more approvable qualities of mind, when it is yielded to a reasonable degree of evidence, which may yet admit of dispute and plausible objection, than when it is surrendered to overwhelming proof, to absolute demonstration, or as in the case of the original witnesses, to the evidence of the senses.

The apostles and primitive disciples, could not do otherwise than they did, viz : believe and act accordingly after the proofs they had seen and heard and felt of the Messiahship of Jesus, of the supernatural authority, with which he spoke and acted, and of the divine power by which he was proved to be the Son of God, in his resurrection from the dead and in the subsequent effusion of the Spirit upon them, according to his promise.

The evidences which challenge our faith in Christ or Christianity are addressed to our reason. They do not carry irresistible conviction to the mind; they do not, like the evidences exhibited to the senses, as well as the reason of the apostles, preclude the possibility of doubt or incredulity. They require to be examined and weighed. They are not forced upon our attention ; we must turn our attention to them. They demand exemption from prejudice and passion, and corrupt propensities, — in a word, — seriousness and fairness of mind, in order to produce their proper effect, and to secure assent to the facts and doctrines of Christianity, and thus to establish faith upon the sure basis of enlightened and rational conviction. There is, consequently, scope and opportunity for the exercise of moral qualities in the affair of faith, in yielding or withholding assent. If " men easily believe what they wish may be true," the converse of the aphorism is as often exemplified in their believing with difficulty, or refusing to believe at all, what they wish may not be true. If then a man believes the divine origin and authority of Christianity, which belief necessarily involves the concession that he is bound to make its moral precepts the rule of his life, to be ever aiming and striving to live the Heavenly and Divine life of Jesus, and to be pure, as the author and finisher of his faith is pure, — if he thus believes upon the strength of a reasonable degree of evidence in favor of this religion, upon evidence not amounting to certainty, but having a preponderance of probabilities on its side, — this man shows that he is disposed to virtue and to piety, — that he is not afraid, or averse to find the Christian revelation true, — that his prevailing sentiments and dispositions, are on the side of religion and goodness. There is manifested in this man's faith something indicative of a better mind, of better moral qualities

FROM A PASTOR. d

than we should recognize in the belief of another, who yielded his assent to the truth of this same religion not till he was in a manner compelled to it by an overwhelming degree of evidence, such as that which Thomas insisted on, the evidence of the senses, or that which alone can equal it, mathematical demonstration. In the latter case, there is strong indication of some sinister interest or inclination, some faulty temper or habit, or a perversity of will, that must be sacrificed or corrected, if he admits Christianity to be true, and which, swaying the mind toward the part of unbelief and irreligion, gives a strong bias to its decisions upon all subjects of a moral nature, and especially that of a religion, which, in the name of a righteous God, inculcates righteousness and piety, and proclaims a future retribution, that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

This may account for the unbelief of most men, by whom Christianity has been rejected, who were capable of examining and judging of the evidences it exhibits of a miraculous origin. Mistaking also for Christianity what in no sense belongs to it, the corruptions, and absurd dogmas which have borne the name of Christianity, has, no doubt, made many intelligent and virtuous men unbelievers. There may be other causes of unbelief, which imply no moral obliquity or blame. But for the most part the incredulous have arrayed themselves against Christianity, as a divine revelation, because they have felt that its purity and opposition to all evil is against them, and because it requires the sacrifice of what they are not willing to part with, or the performance of what they are not willing to do.

These observations may serve to illustrate the sentiment of the text, blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed; as if our Lord had said, "happy they who shall have received the gospel I have proclaimed as true, and shall have obeyed the truth in the love of it, upon the strength of that kind, and degree of evidence, which shall be hereafter afforded to men, who can not have that of their senses, as thou, Thomas, hast had." If the evidences of divine revelation were greater and more obvious than they are, they would so far preclude the voluntary exercise of our powers, as to leave no room for good or bad dispositions to manifest themselves in believing or not believing. There could be no ground for ascribing to faith, as the Scriptures uniformly do, any moral worth whatever, or to unbelief any moral blame or demerit. There could indeed be no unbelief, if the evidence were such as supposed, i. e. not liable to objection, or to be called in question.

The reason is hence apparent why, as beings in a state of trial and moral discipline, endowed with practical free-will and powers to be exercised, in order to their improvement and perfection, God has given to men only such kind and degrees of evidence, as we find, of his own existence and moral government, and of his extraordinary interpositions, particularly of that last and greatest by his supernaturally endowed Son and Messenger Jesus Christ, for the recovery of mankind from the ignorance, depravity and misery, in which they were early involved, and for their elevation and advancement towards his own moral likeness in knowledge and righteousness and true holiness.

Although for the above-mentioned reasons, the evidences of the truth of the evangelical history or of Christianity, are such as may be gainsayed and resisted by men of intelligence, that have their motives for wishing it may not be true, they are sufficient, when duly examined and weighed, to satisfy every unprejudiced inquirer, who is competent to judge of their validity.

Tn support of this position, I now proceed to offer a few of the almost numberless considerations which might be adduced as proofs, and which may be found amply detailed and argued with great strength of reasoning, in the learned and voluminous treatises, that have been written in defence of our religion, and in reply to the arguments and objections of unbelievers.

The credibility of the evangelical history, or of Christianity, rests upon the existence of undoubted and undeniable facts, for the existence of which no adequate cause can be assigned in the known principles of the human mind and constitution, or in the ordinary powers and operations of nature, and can therefore 2 be satisfactorily accounted for only by ascribing them to a supernatural cause, to the miraculous interposition of the Author of Nature, who alone is able to control, to suspend, or vary its operations and laws at pleasure. The controversy then, between the believer and the impugner of revelation, when brought to a point, is virtually a conflict of opposite miracles. They are at issue as to which have the best title to be believed from all the history and phenomena of the universe and of man. For the Christian miracles, the advocate of revelation can assign an adequate cause and reason ; for the facts that must be miracles, if the Christian miracles are not true, his opponent can assign no satisfactory cause or reason whatever. Thus the principal evidences of Divine revelation may be reduced to a succession of dilemmas, presenting a choice of alternatives, to one or the other of which, every mind must assent, or remain in utter skepticism in respect to every thing that does not fall under the immediate cognizance of the senses. A host of able defenders of Christianity, have abundantly shown that the probabilities in favor of the reality of the Christian miracles, exceedingly overbalance all that has been advanced by infidel writers to disprove their reality.

For illustration of the principle here stated, I will now offer to the consideration of the reader, several dilemmas, or alternatives, to which, as I have said, the principal evidences of the Christian revelation may be reduced.

I. It is a fact, attested, and put beyond all dispute by undoubted documents, Pagan as well as Christian, that great numbers not only of Christians, but Jews and Heathen, " gave unquestionable testimony, some expressly, and others by indirect circumstances, as history informs us, to the miracles said to be performed by Christ and his apostles, upon the human body ; " such as giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, making whole, withered or maimed limbs, healing instantly diseases of long continuance, restoring reason to the insane, and raising the dead to life. Now we have the best possible evidence that we can have for any historical fact, that great numbers believed as fully as they believed in their own existence, that they saw with their own eyes these miracles performed. In consequence of these miracles, because the common people were led by them to receive Jesus as the expected Messiah, the rulers and chief men of the Jews, who opposed the pretensions of Jesus, took counsel how they might destroy him. Others adhered the more firmly to him. The multitude on account of his miracles, would have taken him by force, and made him their king. The miracles were of such notoriety, and so noised abroad, that the diseased were brought to him whenever he entered a village that he might heal them.

After his death and resurrection, the apostles everywhere testified that they saw these miracles crowned by that most momentous one of all, the resurrection of Jesus himself, who showed himself alive to his disciples, by many infallible proofs, for the space of forty days, during which interval he repeatedly met and conversed and partook of food with his disciples, and finally leading them from the city, to a neighboring village, ascended up on high out of their sight. The apostles afterwards were endowed, as he had promised them, with power to work miracles in his name. They are reported to have wrought many miracles. And multitudes in consequence, believed their testimony respecting Jesus. They make these miracles a ground of appeal to the churches which they had gathered 2* in proof of their apostleship, which churches must have believed that they saw these miracles, or no such appeal would have been made.

I might multiply almost without limit, the circumstances which go to prove, that not only the apostles, but multitudes, alike the friends and enemies of Jesus, believed that they saw him perform the miracles ascribed to him, — that the apostles afterwards were conscious of a power accompanying them of working miracles, — that their converts believed they saw these miracles, — that others in great numbers, as well as the apostles, were actuated in all their proceedings in respect to Christianity, by a uniform conviction of the reality of these miracles.

We are to recollect that those who were not convinced of the Divine mission of Jesus, never denied the reality of the miracles. They ascribed them to the agency of demons. Their testimony is therefore more decisive if possible than that of the disciples of Jesus, as to the reality of the miracles. Their reality was never called in question by the opposers of Christianity, till a better philosophy taught them that they could not have been effected but by the immediate interposition of the Author of nature. When the idea of magic or demoniacal agency was exploded, it became the last resort of unbelief, to deny that any miracles were performed.

No historical fact, then, is better authenticated, than that great numbers believed that they saw the miracles ascribed to Jesus and his apostles, really performed before their eyes. The objection to these miracles is, that they are a deviation from the uniform tenor or laws of nature, and are therefore to be rejected. Here then is presented the dilemma, or choice of conflicting miracles. It is equally a deviation from the well-known and uniform tenor of the intelligent nature of man, or from all that is known of the laws and operations of the human mind, — is as great a miracle as any said to have been wrought upon the human body, that such numbers alike of the enemies and friends of Jesus and his apostles, should in their different ways, have borne unequivocal testimony to these miracles, unless they had been really performed. If the recorded miracles of the New Testament are a violation of physical order or analogy, the belief and report of these miracles, maintained under circumstances, which proved beyond the possibility of doubt, the conviction of the witnesses, as to the truth of what they reported, — maintained, as they were, by the apostles, at the sacrifice of every earthly good, and of life itself; — this their belief and testimony, if no such miracles were wrought, would be a violation of moral order, of mental analogy, as great and palpable, as the recorded miracles are of physical analogy.

Between these conflicting miracles the believer thinks that he decides rationally in favor of the miracles recorded by the Evangelists. They are in perfect consistency with all his best ideas of the character, providence and moral government of God, — of his paternal interest and concern for the instruction and improvement of his children. They were wrought to authenticate the Divine mission of Jesus, — to prove that he was a messenger sent by God, and thus to sanction the lessons of Divine wisdom, the truths and informations of such a moral teacher, exemplar and revealer of immortality, as the world needed. They were fitted to accomplish the ends for which they were wrought, viz. to awaken attention to Christ's instructions, and to prove that he taught with authority from God ; — and, in whatever possible light they are viewed, they appear worthy of the wisdom and goodness of the Being whose extraordinary interposition they attested. The unbeliever by adopting the opposite alternative has to acquiesce, if he can, in the monstrous supposition that " God confounded the understandings, affections and whole train of associations of many human beings, so that while they appear to have been influenced and actuated in all other things in a manner like all other men, in respect to the history of Jesus, and its consequences, acted in a manner repugnant to all our ideas and experiences. "*

II. Again ; if an absurdity so extravagant may bear to be named, admit that no such men, events or transactions, as those we read of in the Scriptures, ever had a being, the existence of the Scriptures themselves would be a miracle as great as any recorded in them. They can be proved to have been written by

*See Dr. Hartley's work on man. Of the tmth of the Christian Religion.

many different individuals existing under very different circumstances, and removed some of them by the distance of many centuries from each other. The most cursory reader of these Scriptures cannot help perceiving a uniformity of design, manifesting itself from the first to the last. What is written in one age is interpreted and confirmed in another and distant age, by the occurrence of events, of which the writer could not possibly have had any knowledge from human foresight, that they were to be, or that what he was writing could have any reference to, or receive illustration from their occurrence. All this can be proved as clearly as any other historical facts, and in the same way.

Now that all these writers, called prophets, evangelists and apostles, who lived, several of them, some thousand years apart, were all impostors, agreed without knowing it in imposing the most glorious and delightful cheat of so divine a religion upon mankind, as is contained in these Scriptures, would imply a much more stupendous and incredible miracle, than that these writers recorded truly and simply what w T as dictated and accomplished by the supernatural influence and interposition of an Almighty and Allruling Spirit, who worketh all in all after the counsels of his own will, and who alone can see and declare the end from the beginning. The unbeliever by denying the authenticity of the Scriptures, and affirming them to be a series of fictitious narratives, and of human precepts and speculations, is pressed equally in this alternative by his grand difficulty, the supernatural that so manifestly pervades them, all uniformly agreeing in one aim and tendency, viz. the gradual introduction and ultimate establishment of a perfect religion in the world. He is still compelled to admit the existence of facts or effects evidently surpassing all that the natural powers and ordinary operations of the human mind have been known to achieve, and, therefore, in the proper sense, miraculous, or supernatural. From this admission there appears to be no escape but in the denial of all testimony and historical evidence, however transmitted, — i. e. in utter skepticism.