Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

height of his passion, when the sweat dropped from

him like great drops of blood, he prayed more fervently, forgive them, for they know

and said:

"Father!

not what they do!"

So thoroughly did the "Saviour" anticipate the lamentable, disgraceful, and overwhelming torments

that were to terminate his mission ·

-to which he

was betrayed by one of his own disciples with a Kiss

that he said to the twelve:

[ocr errors]

"My soul is ex

ceedingly sorrowful, even unto death-tarry ye here and watch with me " and he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying:

"Oh, my

Father! let this cup pass from me, if it be possibleAbba, Father, all things are possible unto thee.— Nevertheless

"NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE, BE DONE!" Amen!

THE AUTHOR.

1, Park Road,

Regent's Park,

March 29, 1834.

INTRODUCTION.

A WORK proving, as the present is intended to do, the sublimity and divinity of the Christian Dispensation, from its own internal evidence, will be hailed by all good men as a consummation devoutly to be wished. All former efforts to prove the divinity and truth of this heavenly doctrine, from the "Book" itself, have uniformly been considered weak and inefficacious, because they merely quoted texts out of the work to support its own merits. But a very little reflection will convince the most sceptical mind of the complete success of the present mode of proof. A very superficial perusal of the "Sacred Volume" will satisfy the most careless reader that this inestimable book contains matter of two very opposite natures; in order to do justice to both portions of the work, it will be obvious that each is susceptible of a very different kind of

treatment.

It is unparalleled the mischief which arises from treating a subject in an improper manner; for instance, to expect the same conviction to flow from matters of History that the mind is forced to give to the precepts of Morality. Hence the endless disputes as to the validity of a "Book," which, when resolved into its distinct elementary parts, cannot admit of two opinions. Whenever a principle is apprehended by the Reason of man, all rational creatures must of necessity assent to it; for Reason cannot err: it is the last, it is the only standard of truth-Man should love virtue and shun vice. The only science that in any way can compare with Morality, in point of the purity and universality of its principles, is pure Mathematics. In both these sciences, Reason decides in a universal and necessary never to be reversed. Thus, that a circle is so it always was, so

manner

round receives immediate assent

it ever will be-if it ever was esteemed rational to be good, and irrational to be wicked, so it always was, so it ever will be.

How very differently is History circumstanced! A fact of history can have existed only at one point of time, and under no circumstances can it ever recur for the time in which the fact took place has evanesced,

and will never more return for instance, the birth of Christ. Now this important event is placed by historians in the first year of the present era; but for the truth or falsehood of this assertion we are constrained to rely on the testimony of some individual who records the fact, either from his own observation, or from its having been related to him by some one else, on whom he is obliged to depend. Even at the present moment, chronologists are at variance as to the truth of this truly momentous fact of history; some insisting that it was prior to the year one. Thus much is certain, that this glorious event must have happened either before, or after, or at, the point of time recorded in history, for no other case is possible. Now what universality is there when parties disagree!

The miracles even come under the consideration of History, as being events that have addressed the senses of some individual, and been by him either recorded or communicated to some one else, by whom they are recorded. Nor is it in the power of any person to prove that such circumstances have not occurred. Take for instance our Saviour's transfiguration. Here we have the testimony of three men, Peter, James, and John, who all declare that Christ's face shone like

the sun, and that his raiment appeared as white as snow; then a cloud overshadowed them, and they were all very much frightened. These facts are recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and they all agree in the main circumstances. Surely this is authority enough to rank these events as historical facts. But what is still more in their favour is, that it is totally impossible for any human being to gainsay that these men did actually receive impressions on their senses, which produced such belief in their minds.

Nor do these events or the Miracles generally imply contradictions to the laws of nature. On the contrary, they absolutely confirm and establish these immutable laws of God, that so uniformly regulate his mundane system. Every Miracle, or sensible appearance, is stated to fill up a part of SPACE, and to have occurred at a certain point of TIME. So far from the Miracles either requiring the abrogation or even the suspension of the unalterable laws of nature, they on the contrary actually confirm and fix these laws for ever-nay, even the most ancient History that we know of also confirms these laws. The "Bible," in describing the very generation of our earth, states that every part filled up SPACE, and took place in TIME. So fixed and

« ElőzőTovább »