LECTURE IX.

THE

EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. — GENERAL GROUNDS ON WHICH THIS IS TO BE PUT. — ARGUMENT ELEVENTH: AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE WRITINGS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

WHEN We came into life, we found Christianity existing. It was our business, as independent thinkers, to examine it in its relations to the human constitution and to human well-being. This we have done in the preceding lectures; and if the system be such as it has been represented to be, then we may well feel a deep interest in every thing relating to its origin and history in what have been called its external evidences. Το those evidences, then, we now turn.

Object of inquiry, facts. In this department of the evidences, the object of our inquiry is, not adaptations, or doctrines, or opinions, or inferences, but simply historical facts.

To be judged of by their own evidence. Was there such a person as Jesus Christ? Was he crucified? Did he rise from the dead? These are questions which we are to settle precisely as we would settle the questions whether there was such a man as Augustus Cæsar, and whether he became the sole ruler of the Roman empire. These are no abstract questions, and we are not to let any of the uncertainty which must often belong to the discussion of such questions connect itself with these.

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE ESSENTIAL.

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There is a science of evidence; there are laws of evidence; and all we ask is, that those laws may be applied to the facts of Christianity precisely as they are to any other facts. We insist upon it that the evidence ought to be judged of by itself, simply as evidence; that no man has a right first to examine the facts, and make up an antecedent judgment that they are improbable, and then transfer this feeling of improbability over to the evidence. We hold to the principle of Butler, that, to a being like man, objections against Christianity, as distinguished from objections against its evidence, unless, indeed, it can be shown to contain something either immoral or absurd, really amount to nothing.

Facts essential. It is, indeed, a striking.peculiarity of the Christian religion, that the truth of its doctrines, and the power of its motives, are inseparably connected with the reality of certain facts which might originally be judged of by the senses, and which are now to be determined by the same historical evidence as we employ in judging of any other facts. As fully as I have entered upon the internal evidence, as satisfactory as I regard the proof it furnishes, as heartily as I should deprecate a merely historical religion, necessarily destitute of any life-giving power, I would yet say, distinctly, that I believe in no religion that is not supported by historical proof. Unless Jesus Christ lived, and wrought miracles, and was crucified, and rose from the dead, Christianity is an imposture-beautiful, indeed, and utterly unaccountable, but still an imposture.

Christianity peculiar in this. - Perhaps it is not enough considered how much Christianity is contradistinguished, in this respect, not only from other systems of religion, but from all systems and questions of philosophy. Christ said, "Though ye believe not me, believe the works." So said not Mohammed. The facts on which his system, as a religion, rests, depend

solely on the testimony of one man. So says not any system of philosophy. It is a totally different thing for the philosopher to present certain doctrines for our reception on the ground of his reasoning, and for the witness to testify, "That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, declare we unto you." Christianity is, indeed, a spiritual religion; but it is a spirituality manifesting itself through facts, clothed in substantial forms. It says to the unbelieving, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side." In saying this, it offers itself to be tried by a new test such a one as no other religion can stand. But the Christian religion shrinks from no test. We wish it to be fully tried. We know that, like the pure gold, the more it is tried, the more clearly it will be seen to be genuine. That a religion intended for the race would need the kind of evidence of which I am now to speak, is plain; but the difficulty is immeasurably increased when it is attempted to sustain an imposture by evidence of this kind, freely thrown open to all.

Ground of belief in similar facts. - As, then, our object is to ascertain the reality of certain alleged facts, it may be well to look at the grounds on which we believe other and similar facts. It has generally been said, that the sole ground on which we believe facts that we have not ourselves witnessed, is that of testimony. In some cases this is so, but in many others I should think it an inadequate account of the grounds of our belief. When a man finds an ancient mound at the west, and in it human bones and the implements of civilization, is it on the ground of testimony that he believes that this continent was once inhabited by a race now extinct? Or, again, if I were required to prove that such a man as General Washington ever

DIFFERENT CLASSES OF FACTS.

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existed, and performed the acts generally ascribed to him, should I rest on the ground of testimony alone? Perhaps the evidence of testimony is involved in the fact that his birthday is celebrated; but that fact is something more than mere testimony. So, when I go. to the house where it is said he lived, and the tomb where it is said he is buried, when I see the sword presented to Congress which it is said he wore, I find, in the existence of the house, the tomb, the sword, an evidence distinct from that of naked testimony. So, again, when I look at the independence of this country, and at its republican institutions, and find them ascribed by universal testimony to what Washington did, and when I find existing no other account of the manner in which our independence was achieved, and our institutions established, then I find, in the fact of the independence of this country and the existence of its free institutions, an evidence distinct from that of mere testimony. Every lawyer knows the difference between naked testimony and testimony thus corroborated by circumstantial evidence.

Facts differently substantiated. Here, then, we find the ground of a wide distinction between the different classes of facts for which we have evidence. They may be divided into those which rest on the evidence of testimony alone, and those which we receive, not merely' on the direct evidence of testimony, but which produced permanent effects in the world that are now manifest, and which can be reasonably traced to no other causes than those assigned by the testimony. And of this latter kind, especially, some are so substantiated, that no miracle could be more strange, or more difficult to be believed, or more a violation of the uniform course of our experience, than that such evidence should deceive us. The existence and history of Washington, for example, are so much involved in the present state

of things, the evidence for them comes from so many sources, it touches so many points, that to deny them I would be a practical absurdity. We should think it no breach of charity to say to him who questioned such evidence, that he was insincere.

It

Those of Christianity in the strongest way. — Now, it is on this general ground that the evidence for Christianity rests; and we say that no man can pluck away the pillars on which it rests, without bringing down the whole fabric of historical evidence in ruins over his head. We say that this evidence can not be invalidated without introducing universal and absolute historical skepticism. Christianity, with all its institutions, exists. Christendom exists, and it is important to our argument that the greatness of this fact should not be overlooked. is the great fact in the history of the world. Here is a religion, received by a large portion of the human race; by that portion, too, which takes the lead in civilization and the arts. It confessedly supplanted other religions; it produced a revolution in the opinions and habits of men, unparalleled in the history of the world. It has not merely accomplished religious and moral revolutions, but, incidentally, social and civil changes, so as completely to transform the face of society. It came to its ascendency through great opposition and persecutions, such as no other religion ever did or could withstand; and now it does not live by flattering the natural passions of men, or by letting them alone and requiring of them no sacrifices. It has not, like other religions, depended for its existence and power upon its connection with the state; for, though it has often been connected with the state, and, in some particular form, upheld by it, yet it flourishes best when left to find its own way, and to control the hearts of men by its own proper force.

The religion to be accounted for.-Now, the existence