:

tically showing the harmony of them with other parts of divine truth. But this can afford no ground of objection to their fidelity quite the reverse. They wrote not by concert, nor did they bestow any pains to avoid the appearance of inconsistency; yet the exact coincidence which is perceived among them by the diligent student, is most astonishing, and cannot be accounted for on any rational principles, without admitting that they wrote under the invariable dictates of truth, and, in many respects, as "they were moved by the Holy Spirit."

5. But to advert more particularly to the New Testament. No person can attentively peruse the four gospels without perceiving that they were designed by their respective authors to promote some particular purpose, suggested by the character or circumstances of the people to whom they were more immediately addressed; which purpose was somewhat diverse or different.+ Still, however, the most perfect agreement will be found to subsist among the whole, except in a very few minute particulars, which is quite consistent with their general truth and accuracy.

6. But between the epistles of Paul and his history in the Acts of the Apostles there exist many notes of undesigned coincidence or correspondency; while the simple perusal of the writings is sufficient to prove that neither the history 'was taken from the letters, nor the letters from the history. And the undesignedness of the agreements (which undesignedness is gathered from their latency, their minuteness, their obliquity, and the suitableness of the circumstances in which they consist to the places in which those circumstances occur, and the circuitous references by which they are traced out) demonstrates that they have not been produced by meditation, or by any fraudulent contrivance. But coincidences from which these causes are excluded, and which are too close and numerous to be accounted for by accidental occurrences or fiction, must necessarily have truth for their foundation.

7. This argument appeared to the mind of Paley to be of so much value (especially for its assuming nothing beyond the bare existence of the books) that he has pursued it through the thirteen epistles of Paul, in his able and original work entitled "Horæ Paulina," which should be read with close attention by every person who desires to see the authenticity of this important section of the Scriptures completely demonstrated.

See Scott's Essays, Essay I., § 2.

The reader who desires to enter into this subject may find

The argument depending upon a large induction of particulars, renders it impossible to give such an abstract of it as shall convey an adequate idea of its force and conclusiveness; but the following summary of the author's recapitulation and conclusion will not be without its use.

"When we take into our hands the letters [of Paul], which the consent and suffrage of antiquity have thus transmitted to us, the first thing that strikes our attention is the air of reality and business, as well as of seriousness and conviction, which pervades the whole. Let the sceptic read them. If he be not sensible of these qualities, the argument can have no weight with him. If he be-if he perceive in almost every page the language of a mind actuated by real occasions, and operating upon real circumstances, I would wish it to be observed that the proof which arises from this perception is not to be deemed occult or imaginary, because it is incapable of being drawn out in words, or of being conveyed to the apprehension of the reader in any other way, than by sending him to the books themselves." After having shown that the genuineness and originality of the epistles, ascertained by the series of inductions which had been instituted, lead to the conclusion that there was such a person as Paul; that he went about preaching the religion of which Jesus Christ was the founder; and that the letters which we now read were actually written by him on the subject, and in the course of that ministry; Dr. Paley proceeds to remark, that— beside the proof they afford of the general reality of Paul's history, of the knowledge which the author of the Acts of the Apostles had obtained of that history, and the consequent probability that he was what he professes himself to have been, a companion of the apostles-they meet specifically some of the principal objections upon which the adversaries of Christianity have thought proper to rely. In particular they show, (1) That Christianity had fixed and established itself before the destruction of Jerusalem, and that confusion which attended and immediately preceded it, and by which inquiry was rendered impracticable. (2) That the epistles themselves could not have been compiled from reports and stories current at the time; for a man could not write the history of his own life from reports; nor, which is the same thing, could he be led by reports to refer to passages and transactions in which he states himself to have been immediately present and active. (3) That the converts to Christianity were not composed of a barbarous, mean, or ignorant set of men to such persons the epistles would have

it ably discussed and illustrated in Townson's Discourses on the been altogether unintelligible. (4) These writings Gospels. also the truth of the Christian history gene

prove

originals, and even numbering the words and letters.* That the Jews neither mutilated nor corrupted their sacred books, is evident from the silence of the prophets, as well as of Christ and his apostles, who, though they bring many heavy charges against them, never once accuse them of this sin; as also from the agreement, in every essential point, of all the Versions and MSS. (amounting to upwards of 1,100) now extant.+ In fact, the constant reading of the sacred books (which constituted at once the rule of faith and the code of national law), in public and private; the numerous copies of the original, as well as of the Septuagint Version, which was widely spread over the world; the various sects and parties into which the Jews were divided after their canon of Scripture was closed, as well as their dispersion into every part of the globe, concurred to render any attempt at fabrication improbable and impossible before the time of our Saviour; and after that period, the same books being in the hands of the Christians, they would instantly have detected the fraud of the Jews, had they attempted such a thing; while the silence of the Jews (who would not have failed to notice the attempt, had it been made) is a clear proof that they were not corrupted by the Christians.

3. The evidence for the integrity of the New Testament is equally satisfactory. The multiplication of copies, both of the original and of translations into other languages, which were read, not only in private, but publicly in the religious assemblies of the Christians; ‡ the reverence of the whole body of the faithful for these writings; the variety of sects and heresies which arose at an early period in the Christian church, each party appealing to the Scriptures in support of its doctrines and rites;—all these things rendered any material alteration in the sacred books utterly impossible; while the silence of their acutest enemies, who would most assuredly have charged them with the attempt if it had been made, and the agreement of all the MSS. and Versions extant, are positive proofs of the integrity and incorruptness of the New Testament, which are further attested

* There is a very remarkable passage in Josephus against Appion, b. 1, 8, where he asserts that such was the veneration among the Jews for the sacred books, that in the very long series of ages, no one, down to his time, had ever dared to add to or take away any thing from them, or even to make in them the least alteration.

See Part I, chap. 2, sect. 5.

It is notorious, too, that no book was permitted to be read in the primitive church but what was deemed canonical; a proof, not only of the divine authority of the sacred writings, but of their integrity also. They were ever before the eye, and sounding in the ear.

by the agreement with it of all the quotations which occur in the writings of the Christians, from the earliest age to the present time. In fact, so far from there having been any gross adulteration in the sacred volumes, the best and most able writers have proved that, even in lesser matters, the Holy Scriptures have suffered less from the injury of time and the errors of transcribers, than any other writings whatever; and that the very worst MS. extant would not misrepresent one article of faith, or destroy one moral precept.§

SECTION VII.

THE DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLICAL BOOKS.

HAVING now ascertained that the books com

posing the Old and New Testaments are in every particular true, as we now possess them, it follows that they comprise the subject-matter of a divine revelation. They assert this, and claim it as their distinguishing character. obligation to receive their testimony upon this They rest the ground: "For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?” Heb. ii. 2-4. This passage of the apostolic writings indicates not only the divine character of the substance of the biblical books, but also the specific proofs by which that divine character is attested and sustained. At these proofs it is now our business to glance. They are, miracles and prophecy-the qualities of the doctrines pro-. pounded-and their miraculous propagation through the world. A few words upon each of these topics shall close this chapter.

I. We have already said, when treating of the accumulated evidence of divine revelation, that MIRACLES-public,, unequivocal miracles—exhibited, bring home to the very senses of men the intervention of a divine power; and that, competently witnessed and recorded, they transmit the conviction from age to age. Now such miracles—that is, unequivocal and publicly exhibited miraclesare the very credentials which are exhibited of the divine mission and authoritative teaching of the prophets, the Messiah, the apostles, and the

Pareau has some lucid remarks on the integrity of the books of the Old Testament, in his "Principles of Interpretation," P. 1, s. 1, chap. v., § 3.

evangelists, whose combined sayings and dis- | appear in close relationship to that prescience courses form the subject-matter of the divine which announced what Omnipotence was afterrevelation. The plagues of Egypt, as they are wards to perform. This is more emphatically true usually denominated, consisted of a series of pub- of the miracles of our Lord and Saviour, although icly exhibited and unequivocal miracles, wrought the argument is not exclusively applicable to them. to attest the divine mission of Moses, and admitted 3. The miracles of our Lord are, then, not only even by the interested opponents of the Hebrew magnificent in their structure, but they correspond prophet and legislator, to have been performed by to predictions laid down hundreds of years before "the finger of God,” Exod. viii. 19. Throughout he had manifested forth his glory, in turning the the prophetic writings we meet with numerous water into wine at Cana in Galilee. An impostor similar occurrences, all performed with equal had here a double difficulty; he was required, not publicity, accompanied by the same unequivocal merely to perform miraculous actions, but to preevidence, and extorting from the enemies of God's serve certain striking points of agreement between people similar self-condemnatory confessions. The these and specific predictions, which were not life of our Saviour was a series of such mira- only universally circulated among the people he culous works; and upon this ground he appealed desired to convince, but were also jealously guarded to the Jewish people to admit his Messiahship. by them as their peculiar inheritance, the last of and embrace his doctrines: "If I had not done all their glories. And when the nature of the among them the works which none other man miracles which he required officially to perform is did, they had not had sin; but now have they taken into account, the difficulty becomes so inboth seen and hated both me and my Father," surmountable, that the most egregious impostor John xv. 24. "And many of the people believed would have shrunk from encountering it. It was on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do predicted of the Messiah, that he should declare more miracles than these which this man hath the acceptable year of the Lord; and that decladone?" chap. vii. 31. See also chap. x. 37, 38; | ration, in its proper sense, could only have been xiv. 11. To the miracles of the apostles and made by the true Messiah: such would have been evangelists, including all the primitive preachers a profitless, nay, a dangerous, annunciation to an of the gospel, the same writings also bear the impostor. But it may be said that it admitted of most unequivocal testimony, showing that in a forced interpretation; that he who could not preaching the word "God bare them witness, both legally use the prophecy, might illegally have with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, accommodated it to his own sinister views; that and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own the Antichrist might have declared the time of his will," Heb. ii. 4. The inference is irresistible. own imposture to have been the season predicted; A miracle, being an event or occurrence out of the that he might have announced himself as the ordinary course of nature, is placed beyond the person sent from heaven to realize those oracles reach of any human agency, and therefore, when which ascribed to the Messiah the redemption of brought to pass according to previous notice, it Israel. But suppose such an individual to be cannot but be regarded as the testimony of God, besieged by the lame, the blind, and the paralytic, borne to the character and mission of the person asking his official assistance, and imploring the or persons by whom it is performed. This con- exertions of his curative powers; could he have clusion necessarily results from the perfect veracity acted as the Saviour of the world did in the case of the Supreme Being, who never can give his of the disciples of John, who were sent to intertestimony to any thing but truth. rogate him regarding his Messiahship, when in the same hour he fulfilled what ancient prophets had predicted of the Messiah, and sent his examiners to John to bear witness to the validity of his pretensions? Such an individual, like Mahomet, would have craftily evaded the exhibition of miraculous powers. He would, in accordance with the spirit of the times, have merged the worker of miracles in the turbulent demagogue-the teacher of righteousness in the fierce leader of banditti, and the prime agent of sedition.*

2. The various proofs that we have shown to exist in favour of the authenticity of the sacred writings, are, of course, conclusive on behalf of the miracles which those writings describe to have been wrought in attestation of their truth. But we have not exhausted the indications of their divinity when we have shown the publicity with which they were performed, the scrutiny they underwent, the God-like end to which they stood in the relation of means, as also their unspeakable greatness as actions or events. These miracles were not isolated events; they are legitimately taken in combination with other data. Visible interventions on the part of the Eternal, they

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4. Taking all the circumstances into considera- | prophecies, belonging to this class, of so circumtion, then, and giving to each of them its due stantial and minute a description, that they cannot weight in the argument, it may be safely averred, fail to impress an ingenuous mind with a conviction that the miracles by which the divine revelation of their having proceeded from God. comprised in the Holy Scriptures is authenticated, stand upon more irrefragable ground than do any other historical facts.

II. Amongst the evidences of divine revelation THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY takes a foremost place. This is a standing miracle, exhibited to the senses of men, in every age of the world, and, in different degrees, commanding their attention and regard. If, long antecedent to its occurrence, a specific event, not resulting from the operation of ordinary causes, and altogether independent of human control, be clearly and circumstantially foretold, there is ground for a strong presumption that the source of that foreknowledge in which the prediction took its rise, is referable to omniscience. If the number of such predictions become multiplied, and the particularity of their character increased, the presumption of a divine interposition is, of course, proportionably augmented. To anticipate a general effect from the operation of known causes, is all that the power of man can attain to; and even in this, his calculations are not unfrequently marked by error. Even in relation to the commonest events, there is often a material discrepancy between the anticipation and the actual occurrence. There is no recorded instance in which unaided human reason was able to scan the future with certainty. In all human calculations, too, the conclusion results from some known data; but even with this advantage, nothing more than a general effect is attempted to be foretold; the precise mode of occurrence-excepting where the whole event depends upon well-known and immutable laws-is rarely foreseen. The Bible. on the contrary, as we have seen in a former section, contains innumerable predictions relating to very distant events, in no wise under the control of man, and resulting from no conceivable or known law of nature To pass by those general predictions of the coming of the Messiah that are to be found scattered throughout the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi, there are numerous other

which are such striking phenomena in the history of our religion. The notion of an imposture-a conspiracy for a thousand yearsis too wild for even madness itself. But were we for a moment to give countenance to a supposition so unnatural-to try by probability what outrages common sense, experience, and analogy—we would ask, if it be likely that those who preferred the predictions regarding the Messiah would have shaped out for the coming impostor of their system a task in which he was sure to have been covered over with the disgrace of complete and merited failure?-Steele's Philosophy of the Evidences of Christianity, chap. iii., seq.

1. Thus, it was foretold that the Messiah should be born of a virgin (Isai. vii. 14), in the city of Bethlehem (Mic. v. 2), of the seed of Jesse (Isai. xi. 1–10); that he should lead a life of poverty and suffering (Ps. xxii.), inflicted upon him, not for himself (Dan. ix. 26), but for the sins of others (Isai. liii.); that after a short confinement in the grave he should rise again (Ps. xvi. 10); that he should sit upon the throne of David for ever, and be called the "Mighty God” (Isai. ix. 6, 7)—“ the Lord our Righteousness” (Jer. xxxiii. 16)—“ Immanuel" (Isai. vii. 14; Matt. i. 23)—and, by David himself, whose son he was, "Lord” (Ps. cx. 1; Matt. xxii. 44; Acts ii. 34). The time of his advent was to be before the sceptre should depart from Judah (Gen. xlix. 10), during the continuance of the second temple (Hag. iii. 7-9), and within seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, from its erection (Dan. ix. 24). From these and many other prophecies, the coming of the Messiah was at all times the general expectation of the Jews; and that this expectation had ripened into full maturity at the time of his advent, may be inferred from the number of false Messiahs who about that period made their appearance. That he was also the expectation of the Gentiles (see Gen. xxix. 10; Hag. ii. 7), is evinced by the coming of the wise men from the East to pay their adoration to him (Matt. ii.). All over the East, indeed, there was a general tradition, that about that time a king would appear in Judea, who should govern the whole world. This expectation was so strongly excited at Rome, a few months before the birth of Augustus, that the senate made a decree to expose all the children who should be born during that year. Its execution, however, was eluded by a trick of some of the senators, who were induced to hope that they might become the fathers of the promised prince. The currency of the tradition is recorded with a remarkable identity of phrase, by Suetonius* and Tacitust, two Roman historians of great eminence. Now, that in this there was no collusion between the Chaldeans, Romans, and Jews, is sufficiently proved by the desperate methods suggested, or carried into effect, for its discomfiture. Nor, in fact, is it practicable