with the Scriptures! Is it possible that a book, at once so simple and sublime, should be merely the work of man? Is it possible that the sacred personage, whose history it contains, should be himself a mere man? Do we find tha the assumed the tone of an enthusiast or ambitious sectary? What sweetness; what purity in his manner! What an affecting gracefulness in his delivery! What sublimity in his maxims! What profound wisdom in his discourses! What presence of mind, what subtlety, what truth in his replies! How great the command over his passions! Where is the man, where the philosopher, who could so live, and so die, without weakness and without ostentation? When Plato describes his imaginary good man, loaded with all the punishments of guilt, yet meriting the highest rewards of virtue, he describes exactly the character of Jesus Christ; the resemblance was so striking, that all the fathers perceived it. What prepossession, what blindness must it be, to compare the son of Sophroniscus - that is, Socrates -"to the Son of Mary! What an infinite disproportion there is between them! Socrates, dying without pain or ignominy, easily supported his character to the last; and if his death, however easy, had not crowned his life, it might have been doubted whether Socrates, with all his wisdom, was any thing more than a mere sophist. He invented, it is said, the theory of morals. Others, however, had before put them in practice; he had only to say, therefore, what they had done, and to reduce their examples to precepts. Aristides had been just, before Socrates defined justice; Leonidas had given up his life for his country, before Socrates declared patriotism to be a duty; the Spartans were a sober people before Socrates recommended sobriety; before he had even defined virtue, Greece abounded in virtuous men. But where could Jesus learn among his contemporaries, that pure and sublime morality, of which he only hath given us both precept and example? The greatest wisdom was made known amongst the most bigoted fanaticism, and the simplicity of the most heroic virtues did honor to the vilest people on earth. The death of Socrates, peaceably philosophizing with his friends, appears the most agreeable that could be wished for; that of Jesus, expiring in the midst of agonizing pains, abused, insulted, and accused by a whole nation, is the most horrible that could be feared. Socrates, in receiving the cup of poison, blessed indeed the weeping executioner who administered it; but Jesus, in the midst of excruciating tortures, prayed for his merciless tormentors. Yes, if the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God. Shall we suppose the evangelical history a mere fiction? Indeed, my friend, it bears not the marks of fiction: on the contrary, the history of Socrates, which nobody presumes to doubt, is not so well, attested as that of Jesus Christ. Such a supposition, in fact, only shifts the difficulty without obviating it it is more inconceivable that a number of persons should agree to write such a history, than that one should furnish the subject of it. The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and strangers to the morality, contained in the gospel; the marks of whose truth are so striking and inimitable, that the inventor would be a more astonishing character than the hero." Who do you think, dear reader, wrote this beautiful, this true portrait? The wretched Rousseau, who lived an infidel, and died an infidel, blaspheming God. And yet, here is one who gazes upon the picture, not upon the original; and his genius is provoked to give this eloquent testimony. We want nothing more just; we want nothing to be put before Hume, and Paine, and Voltaire, and every infidel, beside the Bible, but the picture that Rousseau the sceptic drew. 66 Refer to the lessons that Jesus taught; what illustrations of beauty, charity, and love, did he give! Read the parable of the prodigal son; read the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel at your leisure. Read the following touching account in the Gospel according to St. John. They bring unto him a woman caught in sin. Now, Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned; but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they bright have to accuse him, But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last; and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more." Now, where have any read a lesson like this? It would take many days justly to unfold and expound it; such purity, yet such beneficence; such tender, and yet such faithful rebuke. No conniving at human éclat. How could corrupt sin, no courting popularity, no desire after All this and more, is in this book. man teach such lessons of purity? How, we ask, could impure man inculcate such lessons of holiness? Good men would not have written the Bible unless they had sketched from an original, and were inspired to do it; and bad men would not have written a book that condemns the very sins in which they themselves indulged. We ask now, in conclusion, who is the man that is credu lous? Who is unworthy of respect? The man that can afford to despise such a book, or treat such a book with contempt. It requires prodigious credulity to be an infidel; it requires prodigious baseness of heart to say so. It requires but common sense, honest and impartial inquiry, to believe that this book is true; it requires the Holy Spirit to apply it to the heart, and to make it the savor of life to all that read it. CHAPTER VI. PROVE ALL THINGS. "Seize upon truth where'er 't is found, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.". 1 THESS. V. 21. I NEED not reiterate the proof of the connection existing between the different prescriptions in this beautiful passage. First, "Rejoice evermore." A Christian's air and life is joy. In order to do so, "Pray without ceasing." And in order to pray without ceasing, "In every thing give thanks;" thanking God for the mercies that he gives in answer to prayer, and thus encouraged to pray again and seek what God again will give. And for this purpose, grieve not, quench not that Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of prayer, and inspires true gratitude to God. And, in order not to grieve the Spirit, despise not the word that he has inspired. In this chapter I will adduce some of the proofs or rather specimens only of the proofs on the strength of which we come to the conclusion that the book called the Bible is from God. In our next, I will show the doctrines contained in this book, as proved from it alone, and as contradistin10* (113) |