ing men's souls, which no sect of philosophy had ever yet found out.* These confessions of the great sages of antiquity infinitely outweigh the assertions of our modern infidels, "that human reason is fully sufficient to teach man his duty, and enable him to perform it; and that, therefore, a divine revelation was perfectly needless.” It is true, that in the present times, a Deist may have tolerably just notions of the nature and attributes of the supreme Being, of the worship due to him, of the ground and extent of moral obligation, and even of a future state of retribution. But from whence does he derive these notions? Not from the dictates of his own unassisted reason, but (as the philosophist Rousseau himself confesses t) from those very Scriptures which he despises and reviles, from the early impressions of education, from living and conversing in a Christian country, where those doctrines are publicly taught, and where, in spite of himself, he imbibes some portion of that religious knowledge which the sacred writings have every where diffused and communicated to * AUGUSTIN. de Civitate Dei, lib. x., c. 32. the enemies as well as the friends of the Gospel. But they who were destitute of these advantages, they who had nothing but reason to direct them, and therefore knew what reason is capable of doing, when left to itself, much better than any modern infidel, who never was, and never can be, precisely in the same predicament; these men uniformly declare, that the mere light of nature was not competent to conduct them into the road of happiness and virtue; and that the only sure and certain guide to carry men well through this life, was a divine discovery of the truth.* These considerations may serve to show, that, instead of entertaining any unreasonable prejudices beforehand against the possibility or probability of any divine revelation whatever, we ought, on the contrary, to be previously prepossessed in favour of it, and to be prepared and open to receive it with candour and fairness, whenever it should come supported with sufficient evidence; because, from considering the wants of man and the mercy of God, it appears highly probable that such a revelation would some time or other be vouchsafed to mankind. PLATO in Fhadone. PROPOSITION II. AT THE VERY TIME WHEN THERE WAS A GENERAL EXPECTATION IN THE WORLD OF SOME EXTRAORDINARY PERSONAGE MAKING HIS APPEARANCE IN IT, A PERSON CALLED JESUS CHRIST DID ACTUALLY APPEAR UPON EARTH, ASSERTING THAT HE WAS THE SON OF GOD, AND THAT HE CAME FROM HEAVEN TO TEACH MANKIND TRUE RELIGION; AND HE DID ACCORDINGLY FOUND A RELIGION, WHICH FROM HIM WAS CALLED THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, AND WHICH HAS BEEN PROFESSED BY GREAT NUMBERS OF PEOPLE FROM THAT TIME TO THE PRESENT. It was necessary just to state this proposition as the foundation of all the reasoning that is to follow; but the truth of it is so universally acknowledged, that it requires but very few words to be said in support of it. That there was, about the time of our Saviour's birth, a general expectation spread over the eastern part of the world, that some very extraordinary person would appear in Judæa, is evident both from the sacred history and from pagan writers. St. Matthew informs us, that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa, there came wise men (probably men of considerable rank and learning in their own country) from the east, saying, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him." In confirmation of this, two Roman historians, Suetonius and Tacitus, assert, that there prevailed at that time, over the whole east, an ancient and fixed opinion, that there should arise out of Judæa a person who should obtain dominion over the world. That at this time, when Augustus Cæsar was Emperor of Rome, a person called Jesus Christ was actually born in Judæa; that he professed to come from heaven to teach mankind true religion; and that he had a multitude of followers; the sacred historians unanimously affirm, and several heathen authors also bear testimony to the same facts. They mention the very name of Christ; and acknowledge that he had a great number of disciples, who from him were called Christians. The Jews, though professed enemies to our religion, acknowledge these things to be true; and none even of the earliest Pagans who wrote against Christianity ever pretended to question their reality. These things, therefore, are as certain and undeniable as ancient history, both sacred and profane, and the concurrent testimony both of friends and enemies, can possibly make them. PROPOSITION III. THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WERE WRITTEN BY THOSE PERSONS TO WHOM THEY ARE ASCRIBED, AND THE books which contain the history of Christ and of the Christian religion are the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. That the Gospels were written by the persons whose names they bear, namely, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there is no more reason to doubt, than that the histories which we have under the names of Xenophon, Livy, or Tacitus, were written by those authors. A great many passages are alluded to or quoted from the Evangelists, exactly as we read them now, by a regular succession of Christian writers, from the time of the Apostles down to this hour; and at a very early period their names are mentioned as the authors of their respective Gospels; which is more than can be said for any other ancient historian whatever.* • LARDNER'S Credibility, b. i.; and PALEY'S Evidences vol. i. |