than ought to be admitted in an argumentative essay. Some indulgence however is hoped for in this respect, when it is considered, that these pages were originally composed as popular discourses, addressed to an audience of young men, and that they are now published principally for their use. They have been thrown into their present form, as it appears best adapted to exhibit distinctly the subdivisions of the subject, and the progress of the argument. But the original style was retained, as it seemed best calculated to keep up the attention of that class of readers, for whom it was chiefly designed. But it were well if in this respect only the author stood in need of indulgence. He is thoroughly conscious of other defects of a far weightier kind. Still however, he hopes this work may serve the cause of true religion. But aware as he is of its defects, he ought not to publish it without earnestly entreating his reader, if any objection he had expected to be removed appears to be answered inadequately, or not answered at all, to impute this to its true source, the insufficiency of the advocate, not the weakness of the cause. Assuredly the cause of the Gospel is the cause of truth and heaven, however it may be obscured or disgraced by human folly and human error. Let me then conclude this Preface, by conjuring my young readers, for whose use this work is particularly designed, not to suffer themselves to be induced by sophistry or by ridicule, to confound the sound doctrines of genuine Christianity with the extravagant absurdities or the fraudulent corruptions, which in different periods and countries have been substituted in its room. You, my young friends, are yet to form your religious opinions, and fix your religious principles. It infinitely imports you therefore to judge aright, and steadily to adhere to that judgment. And never can you judge surely and safely of the character of the Gospel without you devoutly and humbly study the Gospel itself. If you view it as represented by the enemies of our holy faith, you will assuredly find it (as you may well suppose) industriously and grossly misrepresented. You will find ridicule frequently employed to supply the place of argument, rational piety burlesqued as madness or hypocrisy, and Christian purity and virtue derided as fanatic austerity. Is any passage or doctrine of the Bible obscure or difficult? Some writers will state it as wholly unintelligible and absurd. Has folly mistaken, or fraud corrupted its real tenets? Every error and every corruption, is by its enemies blended and incorporated with the pure original; till reason turns disgusted from the foul and loathsome mass. And if it is utterly unreasonable to rely upon the representations of enemies, it may perhaps sometimes not be entirely safe to derive your conceptions of Christianity even from the statement of its friends. In writers, whose delight is in metaphysical discussion, and whose talent is subtility, your attention will be diverted from the most important doctrines of the Gospel, merely because they are plain, and from its most decisive proofs, because they admit of no dispute. In abstract reasoners you will miss that practical instruction which every page of the New Testament conveys; and in the works of the over-bearing dogmatist, and the angry disputant, you will seek in vain for the spirit of humility, and kindness, and tenderness, and piety, which the apostles and evangelists, uniformly display. In the compositions of some zealous and well-intentioned, but over-warm, indiscreet, or illinformed Christians, you may sometimes meet with doctrines strained to excess, and precepts stated without those limitations and exceptions, which the sobriety of truth requires. speaking thus, I do not mean that you should reject all aid from the researches of the pious and the good; far otherwise. I only wish to impress upon you, that you are not to rely on any secondary information, without recurring frequently and humbly to the divine original. In truth, there is much of the evidence and the instruction of the sacred volume, which can only be felt by studying that volume itself. The artlessness, In the honesty, the zeal, the purity, the piety, the love of truth which shine in every page of the New Testament, cannot be transfused into any comment or argument, which human ingenuity can frame. These are the marks of sound doctrine, which will always make the deepest impression on the most virtuous hearts. Study then the Scriptures. Thus will you learn to value Christianity (as you ought,) as the source of rational piety and joy in every situation of life; as the certain guide to truth and happiness. Are you to become its teachers? Thus only can you imbibe the genuine spirit, and the uncorrupted tenets o that holy religion you profess to teach; thus only can you be enabled to deliver its doctrines free from error, and exemplify its utility by the holiness of your lives; thus only can you save yourselves, and those that hear you, and give a good account at the great and fearful day of final retribution. ESSAY ON THE CHARACTER OF THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS. CHAPTER I. THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS WERE NOT ENTHUSIASTS, BECAUSE THEY DID SECTION I. The general Statement and Division of the Subject. In reasoning on the evidence of Christianity, it has been frequently remarked, that almost all direct arguments for the certainty of the Gospel history, may be reduced to two heads; first, that the founders of the Christian scheme did not mean to deceive; secondly, that they were not themselves deceived in those facts to which they appealed in proof of a divine interposition. On the first head the utmost ingenuity of infidelity has scarcely been able to discover any plausible objection. The proofs of sincerity in the lives and writings of the first teachers of the Gospel are obvious; I had almost said irresistible. Men who voluntarily abandoned every worldly interest, who deliberately encountered and steadily sustained reproach, persecution and death, in support of the cause which they espoused, must have been sincere. This point therefore, the advocates for infidelity have generally found it necessary to admit, and to take refuge under the pretext, that however sincere and wellmeaning the apostles and evangelists may have been, they were yet deluded by the violence of religious enthusiasm, which is so frequently found to disturb reason, and to give to mere VOL. I. B visions of a heated brain the semblance of reality. This pretext was the more plausible, because in some leading features enthusiasm must bear a strong similarity to genuine inspiration. As the latter pre-supposes sincerity and piety, the former may form zeal sincere but ill-directed, form devotion heart-felt but overstrained; both assert their claim to attention as derived from God; both are ready to sacrifice every worldly object in the execution of their purpose; and therefore by mere worldly minds, both will too often be pronounced equally irrational and extravagant. But the sincere and ingenuous inquirer after religious truth will not adopt an opinion, as inconsistent with true philosophy, as it is subversive of Christianity. He will not confound the frenzy of fanaticism with the calm and sacred voice of the Spirit of God, but with me will endeavour to trace the plain marks, which distinguish Christianity from enthusiasm, and evince that the apostles and evangelists spoke the words of truth and soberness. * What then is enthusiasm in its true and proper sense? Briefly, a strong but groundless persuasion of being actuated by divine inspiration, including two essential characters; the first that this opinion has been adopted, by him who believes himself inspired, without sufficient evidence ;† the second, that if he requires others should also admit the reality of his inspiration, he insists on their doing so, without demanding any proof, or at least on grounds as vain and delusive as those which have satisfied himself. Thus blind credulity and dictatorial positiveness form the two leading and essential marks of an enthusiastic mind. The same delusion of understanding in which these originate, will also most generally display itself in a variety of subordinate effects, and more or less influence the whole conduct of life. It will not less evidently display itself in the writings § of the enthusiast, by a peculiar turn of thought and style, as well as in the morality he inculcates, and the speculative doctrines he propounds. Let us consider the subject in this natural order; and in the * This character is shown in this chapter not to belong to the apostles and evangelists. + Chap. ii. $ Chap. iv. and v. + Chap. iii. Chap. vi. |